Motherhood IS a workout!

Yesterday was a marathon. There was a little bit of running involved, but that was the easy part. Here is a synopsis of my not-so-typical day.

5:30 a.m.—meet Stacey for two mile warm up and three 800 meter repeats at the track.* We ran about six miles total.

7:00 a.m.—wake up kids, get them breakfast, get clothes (didn’t lay them out the night before –fail), bag up 60 bags of edamame for kindergarten “E” snack for both classes.

7:45 a.m.—leash up dog, make sure kindergarten share item is in backpack, put lunches in backpacks, help put shoes on.

7:48 a.m.—leave for school. It is a beautiful day and instead of enjoying the walk, we rushed to the school.

8:15 a.m.—walk home after touching base with some of the moms regarding PTA business.

8:30 a.m.—prepare for Body Back. Bring equipment, including spray bottle filled with water and a few drops of peppermint oil as well as a cooler full of washcloths in ice water and lavender oil for end of class.

8:55 a.m.—teach plyometric workout to my Body Back clients in 80+ degree heat.

10:15 a.m.—back home to do laundry, help pack for husband’s work trip, empty the dishwasher, put away clothes/jammies that are scattered all over the kids’ room etc.etc.

1:25 p.m.—head to the school to pick up kindergartner.

1:35 p.m.—pick up kindergartner. Let her play on the grass by the school while we wait for big brother.

2:15 p.m.—big brother gets out of school. He earned “super star” status so he gets to play on the grass with his friends and then go to a friend’s house for a play date.

3:15 p.m.—take daughter to dance class. Drop her off there so I can run a couple errands before end of class and having to pick up son at friend’s house.

3:55 p.m.—get into car after running errand for husband for his trip and it DOES. NOT. START.

4:00 p.m.—sit in HOT** car making phone calls trying to make sure daughter is not stranded at dance class. I call for a ride, call the mechanic, call the dealership…

4:20 p.m.—picked up by friend, Kelly, and drive to dance class to pick up daughter.

4:40 p.m.—pick up Kelly’s car*** from the shop so I can borrow it until I get my car fixed.

5:10 p.m.—pick up son at friend’s house.

5:15 p.m.—get kids in Kelly’s car and turn key to find out that IT. WON’T. START.  Wth? Am I CURSED??

5:20 p.m.—call Kelly and tell her about her car. She calls her family to help pick up her kids (she has four of them, so every day is a marathon for her). She calls me back and tells me she is on her way to me to call AAA and deal with her car.  As she is talking to me (on speaker phone) I hear a crunch as she says, “OMG…a woman just ran into me!! I’ll call you back!!” Ack!!

5:25 p.m.—Kelly calls me back. No damage from fender bender.  Crazy lady backed into her at a stop light.  Wth??

5:35 p.m.—Kelly comes to friend’s house, we all push the car out of friend’s driveway so he can get out and take his kids to soccer. Her car sat in the middle of the cul de sac, waiting for the tow truck.

6:10 p.m.—Auto Club shows up. He tries to start car and then hooks it up to the truck to tow it.

7:00 p.m.—Tow truck drops Kelly’s car at mechanic (which is closed). He is not allowed to go get my car. I call Auto Club to get a tow truck for my car. We drive back to where my car is parked.

7:30 p.m.—second tow truck comes to my car. He hooks it up and we go back to mechanic. By this time, Kelly and I were laughing about it all. We were calling it our adventure. The kids were troupers. Seriously, the whining was really kept to a minimum. There was a McDonald’s next to the store where my car was parked so they got a very rare Happy Meal, which made them very happy.****

8:05 p.m.—second tow truck leaves garage. Kelly and I are starving. We fed the kids, but not us. I had actually not had lunch, just a snack after Body Back.

8:15 p.m.—as a fortunate twist of fate, we had noticed that there were six or seven food trucks in a parking lot near the spot where my car had broken down. Kelly and I grabbed some yummy food. These are the actual food trucks from the Food Network show The Great Food Truck Race. I found out after the fact that the winner was there. Apparently, they go to this parking lot every Thursday night so I might go try them next week!

8:55 p.m--. Kelly drops me off at home.  FINALLY. I get kids in jammies and tuck them into bed.

9:15 p.m.—help husband finish up packing for his trip. He is camping in Moab, Utah as a company retreat (did I mention that I am jealous?)

10:00 p.m.—I can’t stay awake any longer and I fall into bed. I am so exhausted that I actually fell asleep in my clothes.

I had planned on running early this morning, but like any marathon, I needed some recovery time. I slept in until 6:45 only to start another marathon all over again today. I have four days of being a single mom. So right now, instead of getting chores done or running errands, I am sitting on the computer, catching up with DVR episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and Project Runway.

I hope you are doing well with your marathons of your lives.  Have a fantastic weekend!!

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*Stacey did GREAT. This was her first speed work in her training for a sub-two half marathon. She did her 800 repeats in 3:43, 3:49 and 3:52.  We originally planned on doing four, but cut it short to run home in time to start our busy days.
**It was in the 90’s yesterday! I didn’t want to make phone calls in the air conditioned store, but maybe I should have since I had a headache for the rest of the afternoon.
***Kelly was driving her sister’s car since her car had been in the shop to fix her radiator. She was called that afternoon telling her that her car was ready.
****Did you know that McDonald’s now provides french fries and apples with Happy Meals? Now kids don’t have to choose one or the other.  The fries are a tiny portion…just enough.  SO much better.

Building Blocks

The theme for this week has been two-a-days.  And I have to admit… I’m tired.

After the half marathon, I took a couple of days off.  That race beat me up a bit more than the ones prior.  I’m not sure if it was the four 13+ mile races in 30 days, the heat or the downhills, but my legs were trashed on Sunday and Monday last week.  When I ran on Tuesday, I was still sore.

I started feeling a bit better on Wednesday.  I had a sluggish seven mile early morning run, but felt OK.  A few hours later, I took my daughter to dance class and my friend Heidi wanted to go for a run while our kids were in class.  Who am I to let down a running buddy?  We ran a little less than four miles at a nice, easy pace and I was feeling strong.

The next day, I ran five in the morning with my friends and then later on that evening went out for the Peter’s Canyon Trail Race (mini-race report to come).  It was a five mile race with some steep hills.  That was over twenty miles in two days.  I could feel my legs getting stronger.

That brings me to Saturday.  I actually did a three-a-day, but it wasn’t all running.  I woke up bright and early to meet Kelly and my new running friend, Marci for a 5:30 run.  We ran at the creek, one of our favorite runs.  It was a perfect place to take a new running partner.  We ran 8.6 miles and had a really nice time.  I had to get home pretty early to get ready for my sister-in-law, Kristi, to pick me up and drive up to Santa Monica* for the OK Magazine Body and Soul event.

We wandered around the expo, got some free samples and enjoyed free chair massages. Then we headed out to the beach for a workout.  We were taking a boot camp class from Jackie Warner of Workout.  Her class kicked my butt—literally.  I am feeling it today!  Holy squats!  Kristi and I were sweaty and sandy and very happy that we had signed up for the yoga class afterward.  We would need it!
 
We then enjoyed Yoga from Ursula Vari.  This woman has the best energy around.  She instantly made us all feel comfortable.  Her style is very non-intimidating even to the novice student, yet she is encouraging just enough to help us push ourselves just past our limits.  It was just enough of a workout to make me feel strong while gently stretching my overworked muscles.  I probably wouldn’t be walking today if it weren’t for that yoga session.

Finally, I met Marci again this morning (I am a glutton for punishment, I think).  It was very, very humid and I was working pretty hard to keep up with my speedier running buddy.  I was very glad she called me to run.  I never would have run today without the motivation of meeting my friend.

My schedule called for sixteen miles on Saturday and fifteen today.  Unfortunately, because of prior commitments and family obligations, I didn’t have time to get in my long runs.  I have a 50K coming up in August and I need to start getting in more miles.  Even so, I was able to get in 41 miles this week.  It is all about creative scheduling.

I am trying to make the best of balancing parenthood, marriage etc. by finding blocks of time to do my runs.  They are building blocks to my strength.  I feel like doing the multiple workouts is helping me train my legs to work well while tired.  I am recovering faster (I hope) and will be able to endure the tough trail race.

I hope you all had a good weekend.  Happy running…

*I have lived in Southern California for nine years and have only seen the Santa Monica pier on television.  I felt like a tourist enjoying the sights!