Decaf Please - multisport mama

New is good

2009-07-05T16:02:00.002-05:00

Today's run: 9K, 1:14

Two of the greatest barriers to running through my last pregnancy were a) my crummy attitude towards my changing shape and fitness and b) having well fitting clothes to do it in.

To get this pregnancy off on the right foot, I decided the first thing to do was to invest in some new gear. A survey of all of my local running shops proved that none of them carry maternity running gear. So I had to improvise. I picked up a pair of Moving Comfort Bermuda Trail Shorts. I heart them. A looser fit, a low waist band and they're full of stretchy goodness. Because face it, skin tight lycra is not flattering and these shorts do the trick.

New socks. Feetures, recommended by my local run shop, DO not do the trick. I prefer my SmartWools.

New shoes. Picked up months ago on sale. My standby Saucony Grid Omnis.

New shirt. Super cool on sale sample rack three stripe brand that I don't usually wear but cheap and new is good.

New route. Despite my address in beige suburbia, across the highway are dirt roads and fields that make me feel like I'm back home. Unfortunately it's unsheltered and heat doesn't agree with me these days.

That said, I had a wonderful, however slow, 9K run. I went back to 10 and 1s and contemplated doing the 1/2 on the 25th (I haven't call the race director yet). It was my slowest run in a very long time, but the face that I was out there was a win for me.

Next slow run will be with Ms. Wumpus (as long as I can vett her attire before we hit the road).

Time to bring in the professional

2009-07-04T09:13:00.004-05:00

Even my cat this posting pictures of my wart is silly (don't ask what my husband thinks).

Over the counter wasn't cutting it, so a friend referred my to a podiatry clinic close to my office, which means I had to wear sensible shoes to work that day (can hardly show up to a podiatrist's office in cute tall high wedges). While debriding and blasting my wart with super ouchy freezing stuff and coating it in silver nitrate, she told me that I've got the start of bunions and that my big toes aren't very flexible.

Bunions? How old am I again?

A schedule of monthly foot torture for the wart and stretches for the inflexible big toes are on the calendar.

Like I said, how old am I again?

My Elusive 10th Half Mary

2009-07-03T10:24:00.003-05:00

For reasons relating to lack of training and abominable fatigue and pickle and saltine cravings (read between the lines!) I'm going to drop my 1/2 half marathon on the 25th to a 10K. That means for the first time in 5 years I won't have completed at least 1 half in a year. And while part of me wants to slog my way through a 2+ hour run just to get my 10th finisher's medal I know that I'd have a miserable time. And that's not why I run. And knowing what lies ahead in the next few months, that'll just make that 10th 1/2 even better (a bigger cheering section!)

On the bright side, I have no plans right now to ditch the trail series. Not only because they're super fun and not 13 miles long, but because they're all followed by a pancake breakfast. And i will do just about anything for free pancakes.

Except for run 13 miles.

"In Very Poor Shape"

2009-06-24T14:15:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I dropped off my bike at the shop after my botched "I think I'm a mechanic" repair job. I finally just picked it up again (and indeed, it fits nicely in the back on the Elantra). Today I finally got to cleaning out my purse and found the repair claim. Looks like I'm not the only one that isn't in perfect condition.

I started laughing so hard. Instead of throwing out the receipt because I was embarassed that my "good" bike is only a paint job up from a beater, I waved it in front of my husband to prove that I am justified in needing a new bike.

The boys are out of the house shopping for my birthday present. Here's hoping it starts with Cerv and ends with elo. Or at least that it's pink.

New addition

2009-06-17T08:33:00.004-05:00

Meet Mark, short for Mark 2. He is newest addition to the collection of Newt toting gear in our garage. We picked him up in nearly near condition for only a hundred bucks (more than half off what he was new). There's plenty of room for Newt, his trucks, sticks, rocks, snacks, balls and any of the other treasures that he has picked up.
Our first adventure was a 14K roundtrip to my favourite park battling some brutal headwinds (made even worse because Mark is hooked up to my beater commuter). But Newt had a blast and I was riding so it made it all worthwhile.
But Mark definately needs to be hooked up to my road bike. Not only because it will be easier to ride, but I will get to look like a total bad ass nerd. And it will give me an excuse to buy a cute cycling skirt.

Putting my money where my butt should be

2009-06-12T08:43:00.003-05:00

On Saturday morning I spent $190 in 3 minutes and 2 mouse clicks.

My 10th 1/2 marathon (and first for 2009) will be the Beaches Half Marathon on July 25. The warm up race to the Beaches Half will be the 6K Trail Run, 1st of 5 race in the Trail Run Series. Somewhere in there will be at least 1 sprint tri and a return to bike commuting.

The half is 39 days away --- time to do something a little longer than track workouts.

Now I have something to aim for.

Resistance

2009-05-19T21:53:00.004-05:00

I've had resistant grays for about 10 years (considering my grandfather had a full head of white at 21, I'm OK with being only salt and pepper at 31). I recently discovered resistant grays in my brows, too many to pluck out. And despite all of the warnings on the box, my brows are now also Shade #4.

Too many tools, not enough knowledge

2009-05-05T22:02:00.005-05:00

If you look closely, you can see what I think are some very important cables hanging loosely off the frame. The squares on the garage floor on the right is from an impromptu game of hopscotch with Newt.

Tomorrow I had planned my first outdoor ride of the year. It would include my commute and a training ride with the triathlon team. Tonight I changed my tires and put in new tubes, put the aero bars back on and adjusted my seat. The bike was shifting kind of rough so I thought that I would try and adjust the deraileur to see if I could make it shift better.

The only thing I was successful in doing was converting my 18 speed into a single speed, comfirming that I am not a bike mechanic. I have no idea what I did to it.

So since I broke my bike and didn't have to worry about trying to figure out how to fit it in the Touring at 9pm, I had time to take pictures of my feet.

There's the wart that isn't going away, covered in horticultural sand.

And here's the same foot. When I got home after work all of a sudden my foot went numb and I couldn't move my middle, ring, and pinky toes and it hurt like crazy to walk on them. When the feeling came back a few minutes later, this huge bruise showed up.

Instead of riding tomorrow night I am going to venture out on to a new running route. Or sit on my deck and drink red wine. Tough choices.....

Dirty, dirty, dirty

2009-04-28T19:04:00.003-05:00

Maybe it's me

2009-04-28T14:26:00.002-05:00

2000 - I joined the sales and marketing team of a market research company whose flagship product was a global study on web usage. Internet bubble bursts. I get laid off.
2001 - I joined a financial services company shortly before 9/11. Markets suffer due to the attacks.
2002 - Switch to the ag industry. Mad cow ensues (though thankfully doesn't affect my employer).
2009 - Join the travel industry. Swine flu and earthquakes and bankrupt tour operators oh my! And that's only in the last 2 weeks and only Mexico.

Maybe fulfilling my dream of operating my own business isn't such a good idea.

On city life

2009-04-27T08:56:00.002-05:00

I grew up on a farm, a fact that I proudly tell everyone I meet. So many life lessons and huge part of my work ethic come from being farm raised. And as my son grows up there's a huge part of me that wishes that I could raise him on a farm. Don't get me wrong, I love the conveniences of city life, but there are things about being a city slicker that drive me nuts.

Case in point:
One of my favourite memories growing up with the sandpile we had in the backyard at my dad's farmhouse. He worked for a gravel pit and it was literally an enormous pile of sand that he brought home from the pit and dropped in our backyard. Entire summers were spent out there. We'd eat watermelons and spit the seeds out and a week later we'd have little watermelon plants all over the place. I think we once even found a tire and part of a stove during one of our really big digs when we tried to dig all the way to the other side of the planet.

We bought a sandbox for Newt this weekend and I sadly had to buy bags of sand. There were 2 kinds to choose from: "play" sand and "horticultural" sand. Play sand was $9 for a 1kg bag. It was labelled as being triple screened and hygenic and great for outdoor play and imported from China. Then there was the horticultural sand, $4 for a 2kg bag. It was from Mississauga and good for winter traction.

3 bags of horicultural sand came home with me. I told another mom that I had bought the unhygenic sand and she was horrified. What if he puts it in his mouth? What if there's rocks in it?

It's sand. It's supposed to be dirty. It's actually made of rocks. And I hope he eats it. And if our son needs to be city raised then I consider it my duty to make sure he is outside as much as possible. And when we're at the farm three weeks from now I hope he makes as many memories in those 7 days as possible. All of them involving sticks, rocks, and of course, sand.

New Addition

2009-04-22T22:11:00.003-05:00

Don't get too excited, it's the 4 wheel variety.

Tonight we picked up our 2009 Elantra Touring. While we're a little sad to say goodbye to our Rav, we're even sadder to recognize we've entered the wagon stage of our lives, where we're more worried about the space in the back seat to store babies, not make them.

Yo-yo

2009-04-17T19:16:00.003-05:00

I am a yo yo dieter. Wagon faller off-er, climber back on-er again-er, lather-er, rinse-er and repeat-er.

Today at work when I considered undoing the top button of my pants, it hit me. I work to lose that 5 then find lots of excuses to put it back on again. I'm at the highest I've been in about 6 months. But the lack of sun, properly fitting underpants and exercise avoidance has me back at the point to needing to climb back on the healthy food (less junk at least) wagon.

Anyone want to climb back aboard with me?

Hangover

2009-04-12T21:02:00.002-05:00

I really outdid myself this Easter. To the point where I'm in my U.S. JC Penny size 6s (bless you vanity sizing). Not booze mind you (post-Newt I can barely make it through a glass of wine) but delicious food shared with family and friends.

The worst part is that Easter Creme Eggs will now be 50-60% off, and I'll continue to buy them even though our house is fully of Newt's candy.

The best part is that I'm back to bike commuting and outdoor track workouts start up again!

Investing

2009-04-09T21:25:00.002-05:00

In February I missed out on the Hypohalf because it sold out before I thought of registering.

I also missed the early bird deadline for the Eco Adventure, a 42K adventure race that I truly have a blast doing.

For the Winnipeg Police Service 1/2, I put off registering because I had planned on doing the Ottawa Full, then the Ottawa half. The WPS race is now sold out. And I'm not sure if I'll do Ottawa.

And while I've missed 2 chances to run my 10th 1/2 and am on the fence for the 3rd chance, I've also saved well over $200 in race fees. And as I add up race fees for what I had originally planned to do this summer I think I'm going to scale back and just do the races than mean something to me (plus saving nearly a thousand bucks in accommodations and transportation costs). While some of the cash will probably go to less sexy things like debt repayment and Newt's RESP, some of it will go to flights so Newt can spend time on my mom's farm or to road trips to Muhgina to visit the Wumpus family. Either way, it will be money well spent.

Inventory

2009-04-08T21:44:00.002-05:00

For the last few weeks I've been stressing out about missed workouts, being a full time working mama and all of the guilt associated with that, not really knowing what I want to do when I grow up, freaking out about money and the economy and generally a real drag to be around.

All it took was a 30 second check of my Facebook account to read the status update of a high school friend whose young daughter has been diagnosed with leukemia. It immediately snapped me out of my funk and made me realize I am fortunate to have more things to be happy about than I could have ever dreamed - the health of myself and my friends and family being at the top of that list.

My husband and I have stable jobs that we are good at and enjoy, a beautiful home, a healthy happy son in a home daycare that he is thriving in and I'm missing workouts because I choose to spend time doing the things that I love.

No joke

2009-04-01T21:45:00.003-05:00

I live in a stupid city with a stupid climate.

One of this afternoon's snowmen, thanks to yet more snow. It's supposed to stay cold so our new lawn ornaments might stay for a while.

I'm so annoyed with winter and snow that I'm going to replace all of my CFL bulbs with old skool incandescent bulbs to see if I can speed up global warming. Heck, I might just go find some old tires to burn and stop using toilet paper that contains 90% post-consumer recycled paper.

Catching snowflakes

On the plus side, this is the first time in far too long that I've been able to build a snowman. (Winnipeg snow is too fluffy because of the cold -- perfect for quinzees, terrible for forts and snowmen). And even better, I got to build it with my boys.

I need to sweat

2009-03-25T21:58:00.003-05:00

Newt was officially diagnosed with a severe allergic reaction to his antibiotics. He's on his third day of roids and antihistamines and instead of being red and swollen on 90% of his body, it's only on 30%.

Since 2:30pm on Sunday I've been running on Mama Bear autopilot and getting about as much sleep as I did when we was a new born. I've been thankfully propped up by not only near lethal amounts of coffee but also my mom and lots of other mamas who either gave advice or just made me realize it's not as bad as it could have been. And even though I felt guilty and tacky bringing a hivey sleeping Newt into my office earlier this week so I could get a few projects off my plate, Ms. Wumpus plainly pointed out that I'm lucky my son will sleep anywhere (even in a squishy office chair covered by the shawls and blankets of my coworkers who thought I was insane for trying to work).

Now on the downside of this and Day 11 without Mr. P, I realize I need to sweat. A killer kick ass workout is in order. So Gramma is going to hang out with Newt tomorrow night while I go get punished by my triathlon bike workout. It will be so good to sweat.

Not so one-derful

2009-03-22T21:24:00.004-05:00

Two things I'm not good at:
1. Being alone
2. Not doing something

With Mr. P away I've been a hyper not able to sit still coffee fuelled freak. In the nicest way of course. I don't do well by myself. When Newt's awake it's a breeze because we're playing or doing something. To help keep myself sane, in the last 48 hours I've:
1. Painted a hallway and 2 bathrooms
2. Hosted a boys only playdate where we made 2 dozen cupcakes and generally demolished my tidy house and it was so much fun
3. Went on a boys only playdate only to discover that the play structure at the Y is made for people with longer more wiggly torsos than mine
4. Shopped, cleaned, washed windows, laundried and haven't sat still at all

To top it off my only son is covered head to toe in hives probably due to a reaction to antibiotics for last weeks ear infection. Poor nugget is itchy and fussy and looks like a marshmallow because he's all puffed out (nevermind the cute little Dumbo ears because he's so swollen). I've called Mrs. Wumpus, my mom, a neighbour mom and a public health nurse for advice. He's had a dose of antihistamines and we need to go the the doctor tomorrow morning.

Good news is he's finally resting. Bad news is I'm a basketcase and Mr. P feels sick that he can't be with us. I'm overtired, lonely and wishing airfare wasn't so expensive that that I could go hide away with my puffy son and my family and friends. I've run out of rooms to paint, laundry to do, windows to wash and Raisin Bran to eat. 6 more sleeps 'til Mr. P gets home.

I (heart) Raisin Bran

2009-03-17T22:00:00.006-05:00

Raisin Bran is my new addiction. I think I eat more now knowing that the reason the raisins taste to good is because not only are they rolled in sugar, but rolled in hydrogenated vegetable oil and then rolled in sugar. I'm on my 3rd bowl of the day, giving me 3000% of the RDI of fibre. I think I'll need to work from home tomorrow. Even Newt digs it (he makes little sandwiches out of the flakes and raisins).

Another reason I love Raisin Bran is because where else on the Interweb can you take a leap, grab a teat and pull.

Props to Kellogg for using a dairy breed. Unlike some other companies or movies

Technically when the udder is red the opposite has usually happened. Read the fine print. It's hilarious. And messed up.

And that's not even the udder. Ugh, city folk

I am much better at milking in real life.

And to the folks at Kellogg's you can thank me for spreading your viral love by sending my family lots and lots of Raisin Bran. But 3 scoops in our boxes please.

Sugar free baby

2009-03-16T13:03:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we went to Bulk Barn to pick up raisins, one of Newt's favourite snacks (favourite is his new favourite word, so everything is his favourite these days).

If you've never taken a toddler to a bulk food store, don't. Everything is at eye level, just about out of reach and they can't read the signs that say "No Snacking Please" or "Don't Lick the Buttercream Spoon" or "Please no putting white bread machine flour in the gluten free muffin mix". This time of year is especially bad because all of the Easter candy is out and like mother like son, he is a sugar fiend.

Except yesterday he surprised me. He made a beeline not for the mini eggs or cream eggs or peeps but the diabetic candy aisle instead and picked out three sugar free peppermints.

That means more mini eggs for me.

Work Widow

2009-03-15T06:27:00.002-05:00

It's 6:28am. My husband has been gone for 45 minutes. I already miss him.

Welcome to the next installment of the Decaf Please blog, Work Widow 2.0 weeks.

I'm lucky that I have a supportive network of family, friends and even co-workers to help me out in the next few weeks (like my boss last Friday making me leave the office to take Newt to the clinic to get his ear infection officially diagnosed and on meds to get him back to his silly huggable self. Yes, the ear infection was the evil culprit.)

It also makes me think of my mom, a single mom, who didn't have the same support but manage to raise 3 of us kids, run a farm and care for her own parents (she was part of the sandwich generation). I never understood why she would get up at the butt crack of dawn to do chores.

But as I sit here working even earlier than the butt crack of dawn thanks to daylight savings time, I get it. I'm doing my own version of farm chores so that when Newt wakes up I can spend my day nurturing and teaching and playing and parenting instead of working.

Thank you mom for teaching me these lessons.

Flexibility

2009-03-10T21:07:00.004-05:00

"I had a very bad day. I want to go home."

Those were the only words of Newt's that I could make out between his gasping wails and tears when we picked him up from daycare. Days that start by dragging him out of bed like we had to this morning always end this way. He spends the rest of the day out of sorts, not eating, napping poorly and living up to the phrase Terrible Twos.

The next words were:
"No running tonight. Stay and play with me."

Tuesday is non-negotiable track night. I've not mixed a track workout in weeks.

Instead, we all had pancakes and waffles for supper and played trains and cars and balls and tag and read books about dump trucks and monster trucks until he konked out curled up with Mater and Lightening McQueen and me and Mr. P, in his big boy bed, his hands on my cheek.

I know soon that he will be happy when I leave the house to go running or he won't want us to tuck him in and read him to sleep. I'm not ready for that yet and will take all the cuddles (and yes tears) and hold them as close to me as our Newt snuggled to us tonight.

Working mama mornings

2009-03-10T14:16:00.005-05:00

When I re-entered the workforce as a mama I made 2 simple rules for my family:
No one leaves the house with an empty tummy
Everyone leaves the house fully clothed with teeth brushed (and PJs don't count).

A little over a year later those rules haven't been broken. Stretched, yes.

Here was my morning (and mornings like this morning make me thankful that I have an easygoing husband and a home daycare and caregiver that is forgiving of my scatterbrained and disorganized personality).

5:50am - Shower (only because I needed to shave my legs for track tonight and my hair is full of paint from decorating Newt's room)
6:45am - Try and wake up Newt.
6:50am - Still trying to wake up Newt.
7:00am - Newt only wants juice and purple Fruity Cheerios for breakfast, picking them out and collecting them. This is actually a breakthrough because up until a few weeks ago, everything was the colour bruun.
7:05am - He doesn't want to wear jeans, get his diaper changed, put on socks or take off his jammies. I compromise -- he wears sweats, a clean diaper, a mismatched shirt and no socks.
7:15am - he finds the Crayola duck safety scissors that I thought I hid and is playing with them. They quack everytime they are closed. Is playing with scissors still wrong even if they are safety scissors.
7:25am - Battle ensues over wearing socks under boots and letting go of the scissors. Newt wins.
7:30am - We're listening to Raffi's Yellow Submarine and Newt's making the scissors quack in time with the song. It's hiliarious. Wrong, but hilarious.
7:35am - Dropping a sockless scissor toting toddler off at daycare would probably get dirty looks from more caregivers. Especially one whose sippy cup has leaked all over his diapers, spare clothes in his tote bag. OK, maybe I did get a dirty look.
7:36am - Back in the car on the way to work, frazzled and embarassed and missing Newt already.

Being a working mama is definitely one of the hardest jobs ever. Hats off working mamas, hats off.

Too tired to type my workout twice

2009-03-07T13:51:00.002-06:00

Holy eff. This morning was hard:
3600m swim (90 minutes)
52K bike (90 minutes)
5.5K run (25 minutes)
Core (I couldn't even lift my legs)

At the end of workout I just curled up in the fetal position in a sweaty stinky heap. Then tried to do a headstand because everyone else on my team was. And I just fell down because my legs were full of lactic acid. And mini eggs.

Check it out on my training log to the right for the full details.

According to the coach, next week will be more fun.