Wiped Out

Today was my first 4 mile run, and it looks like I'll really be feeling it tomorrow, if I have right now as any indicator. After my 3 mile I felt pretty good. It's 7:30 and I'm ready for bed.

I figured that if I was bored on my 3 mile run last week, I would die of boredom before I finished today's run if I did it on the treadmill. After Perry got back from his run, I took the car and ran for the first time on the Alpharetta Greenway. It was really beautiful, and I learned that when I'm thirsty, grabbing a blackberry off the trail isn't the best thing to do (my salivary glands HURT with that anticipation of tartness). Even though it was later in the morning (11), the greenway was pretty well shaded and not too hot. It wasn't too crowded and I didn't feel like a complete beginner way out of my comfort zone. I learned that The Mighty Mighty Bosstones will last 2 miles and Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat will last me longer.

I was a little disappointed in my run, in that there was more walking involved than I would have liked in the first 3 miles. My fourth mile I kind of expected a bit of walking, but not so much in the first 3 miles (okay, maybe the amount I walked in the 3rd mile was kind of expected, but I couldn't even go half a mile without walking in the first 2 miles).

That being said, timewise I rocked. I felt like I was going way slower than what I do on the treadmill, so I was really worried at every mile. I was very pleasantly surprised:

Last Week This Week
Mile 1 13:22 11:14
Mile 2 13:22 12:42
Mile 3 13:22 13:04
Mile 4 --- 13:40
Total 40:06 50:40
Avg Pace 13:22 12:40

The pace I ran at today felt more like the 4.0 (15:00 mile) pace on the treadmill, so hopefully I'm gaining cardio and stamina faster than I'm sacrificing my times to an inaccurate treadmill.

I'm more than a little scared for next week's 5 mile run- I'm going to have to do it on Friday, since we're leaving for Myrtle Beach on Saturday, which means the treadmill : ( and the length worries me, too.

Gaining Confidence

Well, Perry interrupted me with a phone call just as I finished my warmup and was about to kick up the speed on the treadmill to tell me that I am officially registered in my first race. I don't know if the motivation I needed or changing it up to run by music by a few favourite artists instead of watching it on TV, but I made it through my second 3 miler intact. I ran for 2 miles nonstop, stopped for some water and to change the album on the MP3 player, then ran for another 1/2 mile, water, and finished the last 1/2 mile, all on a 4.5. Saturday's 3 miler was a mile at 4.0, then up to 4.2 for about a half mile, then fluctuating between 4.2 and 4.5 till the end. Still looking at Saturday's 4 mile run warily, though.

Kidisms

I was in my room last week and Joshua comes up to me to tattle on his siblings. I guess Caleb and Mischa were fighting over something and Josh got in the middle of it to protect his sister, when Caleb kicked him in the "peanuts".

Last night before dinner, Perry asked Liesie to do something. It was very minor- I can't even remember what it was. She sits at the table and announces that her "heart is broken" because Perry and I are mad at her- I hadn't even talked to her during the request, and Perry politely asked her, so I have no idea where the mad part came in, but her pout when she told us was priceless.

A Little Better

I did my 2 miler for the week, and I've been having a goal of going just a little further everytime without stopping. On Thursday, it was 1.25 miles, and Saturday I went 1.35 miles. Today I went 1.5 miles, and I only stopped to grab some water because my mouth was turning into cotton.
I've also noticed that my first .25 mile is my hardest. It seems like my body fights the running really hard. Today it lasted almost a half mile, but at the 1 mile mark I was feeling a lot better than I ever had. When I stopped for water at 1.5 miles, I was still feeling great energy-wise. I kept a 13:16/mile pace. Now watch the 3 miler on Wednesday see me going only half a mile before dying, lol.

What Did I Sign Up For Again?

Yesterday was the first "big" change in my training schedule for my race- I ran 3 miles instead of my usual 2. I was nowhere near as impressive as Perry's 14 miler (I'm bopping along with Aunt Flo and Grandma Bessie, remember). I looked at my schedule for this week- Monday, 2 miles; Wednesday, 3 miles-whoa what happened to the 2 I've been running the past two weeks?; Saturday, 4 miles- WHOA! I scan the weeks ahead 2,3,5; 2,3,6; now they're throwing in extra days where I'm running faster! I guess I've just learned my lesson on reading the fine print, lol.

Прогресс

I've been suffering lately with what I call Russian syndrome with my running. When I was in college, I needed a foreign language to graduate. I had had four years of French in high school and was bored with that, the Spanish labs took hours to get into for your oral tests so that was out of the question, so I decided to go more exotic. My first choice was Greek, since I had a Greek friend in high school and Greek food and I are having a torrid love affair, lol, but I was looking to start in the Spring and first semester Greek was only taught in the Fall. So I decided to go more family heritage and take German. No classes when I could take them. So I decided on Russian. I registered for the class, went to the bookstore to get my books, which were a sealed 3 pack. I was so excited when I got to my dorm that the package was open as soon as I walked into the door. I opened the first book. No English. At all. Hmmm. I opened the the second book. No English. Oh. Crud. I opened the third book. Look- English! But it was describing the rules of grammer, which are extensive in Russian, so it might as well have been in Russian, lol. My eyes filled with tears- I was going to fail this class and fail hard. I couldn't even read the alphabet to sound out the words. After a while, the sobs subsided enough that I could hear a little whisper of common sense- no one taking this class was going to know more than me at that first class. I decided to give it a try, and lo and behold, my little whispering voice knew what it was talking about! I ended up acing the four semesters I took, and would probably have taken further semesters if I had the time.

My running has been like this. I've been reading Perry's Runners magazine, which has been a mistake. I was reading an article about taking a beginner to a half marathon in 10 weeks. For her beginning, easy, runs, they had her running at a pace of 12:00-12:30 miles. I was instantly transported to that dorm room 15 years ago. I've been running a few weeks now three times a week, and I was pushing it to get to go 13:31/mile today, which is the best I've done. Perry says our treadmill is miscalibrated, but not a minute off to be close to comparing. I lost it. I've lost one pound since starting the running in June. I was dying and hopelessly slow. I'm going to be running in the back of the pack at my race with Aunt Bertha and Grandma Bessie, picking up knitting tips.

Then, while I was running, I started thinking (which I normally don't do, because I'm pretty boring inside my head). For fun, I decided to see if I could speed walk at 4.5 (14:30/mile). And I could! I didn't want to keep it up for a sustained period of time, but it made me think back to when I started walking. I warmed up at a 3.0 and booked it at a 3.5. I could get up to a 3.7, but a 4.0 was always at a jog. Now I'm warming up at 3.5, sometimes at 4.0 (at a walk), and a 4.5 is a jog. So while I'm not 100% convinced I'm not going to come out of this race with some new best friends and a new hobby, my voice is telling me there is a little glimmer of English in my pack of books, and even if I don't understand a thing it means, it's still English in a sea of Russian.

Day Camp Wonders

The little nest of birds on the light right above our site

A box turtle laying her eggs

A little cute tree frog

A cool tree trunk seen on our hike

Our Fourth of July

The Fourth of July has historically been fairly memorable for our family. Usually it's because it rains like crazy on us, although the year Mischa got sick minutes before the fireworks started gave us a little variety one year. Roswell has a really great show a few miles down the road from our house. We park some chairs on the grass by the road and watch the show. Anneliese was really excited about fireworks this year. She gave several standing ovations.

Everyone gave it two thumbs up:

Or fingers

Six Flags

While Mom was here, we all headed down to Six Flags. I hadn't been to an amusement park since our honeymoon almost 14 years ago and Perry has only been able to go on the rides the kids have been able to go on for the past two years. We all had a great time. Mom went on the Georgia Scorcher and Mindbender, Caleb was able to go on the Ninja and Cyclone, and Josh loved the Wile E. Coyote Canyon Blaster, but he wasn't too thrilled with the Mindbender. Liesie loved the boat swings and the train. The Hanson Cars were a HUGE hit with the kids. We were there all day and the crowds were really mild. I think there was a longer ride for the Canyon Blaster than for Thunder River. For the Cyclone, Caleb and I had to wait for two cars, but that was only because he wanted to sit in the very front. He and Perry went on the Ninja twice in a row while Mom and I did a couple of kiddie rides with the other three.

Grandma never turns down a hug from a man in tights

Couldn't leave Six Flags without this one (Tweety is my nickname)

Thomas Town was a mixed bag- Liesie liked the playground better than the ride on Thomas, who really couldn't compare with the real train

Caleb (in center of picture) realizes he's going straight for the waterfall

Truckers-in-training

Dad gets in on the action, too

All Aboard! Mom, Mischa, and I were in the car behind

Caleb and Liesie flying

The beloved boat swings

First sighting of the Ninja

We could not get Mischa out of this sprinkler

I Guess It Could Be Worse

I'm sitting here at the computer, kind of zoning out while it boots up, when a sting from my toes jolts me back into reality. Ouch! There it is again! I look down to find Anneliese trying to pull the little hairs off of my toes. I ask her what she's doing, to which she replies, "There's hairs on yours toes". Yeah, and they're blonde and only a few and can you please leave them alone! No is the answer I get. After she tries to get a few more, she pull my other foot out from under me to inspect it. That foot passed inspection, so I guess I should be thankful that I'm not an old man with hairy ears, lol.

September 13

Perry thinks I'll be ready, so I'm going to go ahead and register for my first 5K at Suwanee Day 2008 tonight.

Happy Birthday to Me

My birthday this year started out pretty low key. The kids and I had our last day of Girl Scout day camp. I was helping with the preschoolers, so I had Josh and Liesie with me, while the older kids had their own groups. We went straight from day camp to Mischa's piano lesson. I was thinking we might have time to take Caleb to karate, but Perry said that he would be coming home early so that we could go out to dinner at a decent hour (especially important since my birthday was on a Friday this year).
I came home and jumped through the shower really quick to rinse off since day camp was 100% outside and we had our hike and hay ride that day. I asked Perry what I should wear, and he suggested something a little nicer (nice capris and nice shirt) instead of my normal jean capris and t-shirt since it was my birthday.
We loaded the kids in the car, and I did think it a little strange that Perry didn't ask me where I wanted to go, but I figured after almost 14 years together, he's realized I will never have an answer to that question, lol. He turned left out of our subdivision, which was another weird thing, since most of the restaurants we go to are to the right. After he passed the main road to the mall, I realized there was really nothing up the road we were on except eventually my friend's house. The thought flashed through my mind that perhaps he had set something up with her, but I dismissed it because I knew that her father-in-law was in town. When we turned down her street, I got really confused. We pulled in front of her house, and by now I was intrigued. Perry had never done anything like this before. We ended up dropping the kids off with her (her husband and father-in-law were having a boys' night out) and we headed off to a movie. We saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (it was an okay movie-it was too heavy on computer effects for an Indiana Jones movie and the ending was too hokey). We then went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I had received some gift cards as a thank you from my Brownie troop this year and Perry snuck them out of my pile and had them ready to go. Oh. My. Goodness. I had only eaten at the Cheesecake Factory once before for a Girls' Night Out and had gotten a Caesar salad and chocolate cake (both of which were good), but I was excited to try a more substantial meal. We chose the potstickers to start with. I had never had potstickers before our Cub Scout Blue and Gold in March. They were so good I decided to try them again. I think if it wasn't my birthday, Perry and I would've been in a fight to the death over the last one, lol. They were sooooo good. We dipped our bread in the sauce to get every last drop. I couldn't decide between steak or shrimp so I got both the steak Diane and shrimp scampi. The portions were huge! The scampi was favourite. The sauce wasn't the butter sauce I was used to, but more of a cream sauce. It was very good with the mashed potatoes served with the steak. The steak was very good, too, and I loved the mushrooms in it. I couldn't decide between the lemon torte cake or the chocolate cake, but ended up choosing the chocolate cake. Very yummy.
I hadn't had a call all day from my dad, and by the time dinner was over, I decided to give him a little memory nudge, lol. Before we went into the restaurant, I had noticed the back cover of my phone wasn't on straight, so Perry fixed it for me. Unfortunately, we hadn't noticed that the phone had turned off when we did this. We walked out of the restaurant and I flipped my phone open. I saw that I had a voice mail and was surprised to hear that I had two messages. When my dad turned out to be the first message, I couldn't figure out who the second message could be from, since everyone I expected to hear from that had my cell number had already called me. When I heard my friend's voice, there was a loud crying in the background. All she said was that she had a little boy on her lap with a bleeding head wound. He had been jumping on the bed and hit the dresser and he was crying and all 7 of the other kids were crying and freaking out because of the blood. She had called her husband, who was at the store down the street, to come help, but she thought it might need stitches. We were about the same distance away as her husband and she ended up calling only five minutes before we left the restaurant, so she didn't have too long without help. Her husband had just opened the popsicle box to give one to Josh (I had figured it was him since he's my big bed jumper). Poor Caleb was having the hardest time- he blamed himself for not being there to help protect Josh. The gash wasn't as bad as I had expected, but it was definately calling for a trip to the ER. Perry took off with him and I put the kids to bed. He left for the ER around 10:00 (the pediatric urgent care less than a mile from our house closed at 9-grr). I spent my time reading my birthday present- a book on doing genealogy research on the internet. Perry called every so often to update, but around 2:00 a.m. I gave up and went to bed. They pulled in at 4:00. Josh ended up with 4 stitches. Both he and Perry didn't wake up until almost noon.
I'm just about to swear off on holidays and birthdays. Between my accident on Perry's birthday, a truck backing up on Perry's car a few days before Mother's Day, then this, I was afraid to see what Father's Day had to hold. Caleb reminded me that I should've expected something, since my birthday was on Friday the 13th.
Here is Josh's present to me, a few days after the accident: