Running with the girls

Mommy is out of town at a weekend retreat tonight and tomorrow night and the girls had a late nap, so... we all went for a run together!  I thought the girls could just ride in the bike trailer / stroller, we'd run down to see the Clydesdales, and then run back while listening to some Disney read-along stories.  Well, the first 3/4 mile went that way, but then Ada REALLY wanted to get out and run, too. 

She did great!!!  She probably ended up running more than 1 full mile (on and off) of the 4.8 it takes to run down to the horses and back.  Ellie got out ran a little bit along the way, too.  They both got some great praise from a pair of mommies running past, and got to put some dogs, and throw rocks over the bridge into the creek.  It was great!


But not very fast:
Time:    0:86:40
Distance:    4.85
Average Speed:    3.36
Average Pace:    17:52

Wednesday Weigh In

Today's weigh-in: 213
Pounds left until I'm out of the "overweight" range on the Wii Fit: 7.5
Distance: 4 miles
Time: 40 minutes + 15 cool down

Challenges:
I gained 6 pounds while Nana and Grandpa were in town.  In response, I went back on South Beach Phase 1 for the next couple of weeks.  That was very effective at helping me take some weight off right after the Nov/Dec holiday binge.  It seems to have been very effective again!  As I said, I gained around 6 pounds with grandparents in town and have already taken that back off.  That's awfully fast to lose that weight, but I'm not eating unhealthily.

Running Revelations:
First, I'm really enjoying Born to Run. It's helped me realize how lucky I am that my natural running stride is probably also a very healthy one; and really motivated me to keep running.  It's an excellent read!

Second, I want to run faster.  I'm getting good exercise at my 11 minute/mile pace, but it does limit where I can run to in an acceptable amount of time.  I'd love to get to a consistent 9 minute mile for 10+ miles.  So, I stretched out in my last 1/2 mile today and pushed to see what a faster pace would look like.  I stretched out to an 8 minute mile.  That felt a bit fast, but I kept it up.  So, I've got something to work on and strive for other than distance now, too.

I like this running stuff -- I also like that I'm in better shape than I probably ever have been.  I had a friend from college tell me that I look like I'm in better shape than when we first met, Freshman year.

Running with purpose

I don't think that I'll ever be a full time running commuter, but I do like running with a purpose.  Last week, I ran the 9 miles home from work even though my fully functional car was sitting in the parking garage.  Today, I ran 6 miles round trip to the grocery store for a few things that we needed.  (No 8.6 pounds of milk, but I did have 4 pounds of sugar and 2 pounds of butter.  We were making cheese fudge to auction off at church.  And, yes, I did probably indulge myself of enough fudge to cancel out the calories burned in the 6 mile run.)

Today's run: 6 miles, 70 min

Late morning run

Late morning update today:

Distance: 2.9 miles ("around the block")
Time: 35 min + 12 cool down

Weather: sunny and mid 50s... perfect!

Wednesday Weigh-In

Today's weigh-in: 213.4
Pounds left until I'm out of the "overweight" range on the Wii Fit: 7.5

Challenges:
Nana and Grandpa are in town. Which means we like to go out to eat and there's deliciously tempting treats around constantly.

Powerful Reminders:
That it's my choice, what I put in my mouth.

Helpful:
Did 30 Minute Shred on Monday.
Ran 9 miles from work to home on Tuesday.
Maybe I'll run tomorrow and Friday morning, too.

Wednesday Weigh-In / Running Log

No-frills today (actually Thursday, but I'm going to pre-date my post.)

Today's weigh-in: 214.2
Pounds left until I'm out of the "overweight" range on the Wii Fit: 9.2

Today's run: 3.1 miles / 33 minutes

Don't Panic!

Yesterday morning, my wife noticed a strange smell -- a "first day of winter furnace" smell.  Hmm.  Maybe we need a new filter, I figured.  I don't change those nearly as often as I should.  "I'll stop and pick one up after work.  Oh, and the other four things I've been meaning to pick up at the hardware store, too."

No problem finding everything on my list:

• Furnace filter
• New kitchen faucet nozzle
• New stopper for running toilet
• New ceiling fan light bulbs

When I got home, I went straight to work on those repairs without even taking my work clothes off.  Dunking my hands and shirt sleeves in cold toilet tank water; replacing the kitchen faucet nozzle over the disposal; up and down the stairs to replace the furnace filter; cleaned the bathroom sink drain with draino; etc.  Ada needed to go potty.  Helped out with that...



Something is wrong.

ACK!  My wedding ring!!  Where is it!??!

I should mention at this point that I've lost more than 55 pounds over the past year.  In the cold, my wedding ring can almost slip off.  I thought it was almost.  Yesterday it really slipped off.

I practiced my parenting patience tool:
Stop
Take a breath
And
Relax

OK.  Where have I been.  (Go back and read the list.  Toilet.  Sink.  Disposal.  Basement.)  Ugh.  The worst places you can imagine to have potentially lost a wedding ring.

Long story of searching and near state of panic later -- my ring was in an outside open pocket of my work bag.  As I'd slipped by bag off of my shoulder, it must have caught my ring just enough to pull it off.  I was so focused on getting chores done that I didn't notice right away.

Oh... and it turns out that in the midst of all that.  I discovered the furnace is broken.  No pilot light.  No power to the ignition module (which was just replaced last January).  So, we had a fire and spent the night with the gas oven on trying to keep the house warm.  I'll be calling the furnace guy in 40 minutes.

Skating

It took us until this year and the very end of this year's skating season, but we finally took the girls out ice skating at Steinberg Rink.





I was impressed that both of the girls got around walking in their skates just fine. In fact, it got my hopes up that they'd take the ice more quickly that I had imaged. But, they didn't. Both girls had an absolute blast out on the ice with Daddy supporting most of their weight.

Today's back pain has been totally worth the joy I got from having them argue over who got to go next, and finding out that Ada threw a fit when I took Ellie around for two laps IN A ROW without taking her in between.



By my fifth lap around, I thought I had a good position for crouching to keep my balance and not kill my back. I felt really low to the ice, like Anton Ohno!  By the end of the eighth lap, though, my hamstrings were starting to ache a little bit. (Still I ran 10.5 miles later that afternoon!)  Luckily, the girls were ready for lunch, so I got a reprieve.

Needless to day, next season, I think we'll get out a few more times.  I'll need some practice to get my back in shape for it.