Why is it so hard to go hard?

An addendum to my last post.

And I will not even dignify that question with an answer. Duh.

Raced ING Georgia Half Marathon today....that hilly m-effer. :) Did not PR. Ran a 1:41 and gutted it out for that.

I struggled out there. Starting at mile 4...just wasn't feeling it. Was already working...at MILE FOUR. Way too long to hang on to a PR dream (and my secret goal time of somewhere in the 1:36 range.) Adjusted my goals after losing over a minute to a very, very necessary portapotty stop at mile 9 to finish under 1:40.

Um, not feeling that one either, I guess.

Then, just to finish.

MIssion accomplished. :)

Glad to be done. Happy to have tried hard out there. A bit disappointed in my time....I think I can do better. And hopefully will.

Some shots of the day.

Race number, gels, and my (not achieved) pace chart.


The awesome shirt that I got at the expo.


Me and my girls post race. Mike rocked with his timing. Was right there as soon as I was done with a warm car and some smiling faces.


My "winner", according to E.

Why is it so hard to go easy?

My schedule had me doing a 3 miler today. Taper week...easy peasy. 8:30 pace. No sweat, right?

Think again.

I was struggling to get this done. Not physically, but mentally. Thinking...ugh, what is the point?
I am so bad at tapering. I fee like if I am only running (or biking or swimming) a little bit or at an easy pace, then I don't want to do it.

Not one bit.

I would trade an easy 3 miler for a hard 8 mile interval run that I sweat through my shirt (when the sweat from the bottom meets the sweat from the top....THAT is my measure of a good workout.)

Nuts.

Filling time

With fewer workouts during this taper week, I have found some interesting ways to fill my time.

1. Negotiating a barter between the financial planner (Mike) and the in house chef (me).
Deal is I will buy the ingredients and cook his crazy P90x food and meals for the next three months without complaints and in return, I can get a coach. Yippee! I am so excited.

2. Orchestrating a "hat" photo session with Alice (who has another ear infection. Seriously. Poor baby.)


3. 2 words. Monkey Joe's.
Tomorrow AM. E's psyched.

4. Perfecting the ultimate playlist for the race on Sunday. A few key songs below....
Freedom -- George Michael
Gives you Hell -- The All American Rejects
Weather With You -- Crowded House
Welcome to Atlanta -- Jermaine Dupri (An obvious choice.)

Taper Time

Tapering this week for the ING Atlanta Half on Sunday.

Feels good (well so far) since my legs have been feeling like cement lately. Fingers crossed that feeling is long gone by Sunday.

The absence of 7 miles of speed work, 3 bikes, and a long run that I always do too fast (I am always of the mindset "Let's hurry up and knock this out and go hang out with the family") should work.

Although I am feeling a weird soreness in my ankle after swimming. Does anyone know if this is from pushing off the wall funny or too hard?

Seriously, I hurt my leg swimming?? Swimming?

I am excited to race...I have done the work and am ready to go out and see where I am. Hoping for a PR (under 1:40) but would be happy just to feel strong, enjoy the day and make my way down there solo without incident.

Running 13.1 miles sounds is far preferable to me than figuring out the logistics of nursing, driving/MARTA-ing (Atlanta's notoriously unreliable public transportation) to the start, then figuring out how and where to meet Mike and the girls around crazy/busy downtown with road closings, etc. so I can nurse Alice before she loses it and/or my boobs explode.

The decision to run with my iphone might make this all a bit easier.

6:38 on a Tuesday night

Daddy, Alice and the nebulizer.

Crazy lady and the purple balloon.

Sprung.

Spring was right on time today.

Sunny, breezy and high 60's in the ATL. Perfect, perfect weather.

Perfect weather for what?

Well, not for working out for one. My 6 mile speed workout yesterday (5 miles at 7:12 pace) shelled me, well, that and the fact that Mike is gone (the call of the 1st/2nd round of NCAA Bball tourney in Greensboro, NC got 'em.) so no AM or PM workouts.

Fine by me.

The first day of spring was much better suited to....

Dressing like a dog in the 2 year old Halloween costume (that you refused to wear then) and riling up the "real" dog. Yep, Annabelle is actually biting her there....and she loves it.


Pretending to be afraid of the slide that you actually love with your buddy, Jason Poon. Not, Jason. JASONPOON. One word.


Shadow watching.....


And sister watching.


Relishing your role as official "do not let Alice fall asleep in the car since she WILL NOT nap if she even closes her eyes in here" screamer/singer/name caller.


Looking forward to the weekend....Mike's home tomorrow night. (I am SO not a loner. I can't believe that I used to live alone. Can't sleep well AT ALL when he's gone now.)

Excited for my long run Sunday -- another great spring day. My last long run before ING 1/2 marathon next weekend. Hoping all moving parts stay healthy until then...

Wearing o' the green

Check out the awesome picture of the girls sporting their St. Patty's Day green.

Nice.

A couple better ones.

I dare you.

Try to find a cohesive thought in this post. Go ahead.

My Monday randomness is as follows...

My friend Justin is looking to sell a sweet prize he won in a contest, or as E would call it, his "winner". In other words, shoot him an email if you're interested in a "brand new in box 55 cervelo p2 carbon frame" $1800. (justinbaum34@gmail.com)

I almost threw up in the pool today, more than once. 5x200 at threshold will do that to you, apparently. Looking forward to your slower, longer sets workout on Wednesday, Michelle. This speed work in the pool is ridiculous. (And it'd better make me ridiculously fast at John Tanner in April, too.) :)

While I almost threw up, Ella actually did. She's not sick (please, please, please don't be sick!) just was jumping around with a mouth full of food, then leaned over and heaved it all up on the kitchen floor. Cried. Then wouldn't let me hug her since she "didn't want to get me sick with her germs". Poor E.

Okay, the Pandora app for iphone is just about the coolest thing ever. Type in a song or an artist that you like and then listen to FREE tunes all day long based on that artist (i.e. if you put in John Mayer, you might have a playlist with some Jason Mraz, Dave Matthews, etc. on it and you might make Mike pull his ears off, too. He's not a Mayer fan). You can "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" each song, so the songs become more and more what you want to hear. Genius.

Surprisingly, "Dueling Bangos" is a great song to listen to on a run. Who knew?

Kenny Powers is making Mike and I pee our pants laughing lately. The show is "Eastbound and Down". Check it out on HBO on Sundays. So stinking funny.

5 years ago...

....today I was most likely on my 4th glass of champagne, traded in my high heels for flip flops, belly full of red velvet cake, sweating from dancing to the sweet tunes that DJBigbad@aol.com was playing (Mike had to convince me not to change DJ's after seeing his email address), smelling the yummy ocean air of Daufuskie Island, and admiring the new ring I was wearing in addition to my engagement ring.

Such a fun, fun day.

Yep. It is our anniversary.

Zoom forward 5 years. Add in 2 kids. Subtract millions of hours of sleep. And "us" time.

No doubt the best decision I ever made.

Love you, Mike. Love our family. Happy Anniversary to us.

Thanks for my rocking gift (a new "real" camera...Canon Power Shot, so excited to mess around with this.) Hope you enjoy P90X and the new TV that I mounted on the wall (myself!) in the exercise room (well, that is kind of a gift for us both.)


Testing out my gift.

How we spend our days...

Well, at least how it has seemed this winter.

In a doctor's office.

Alice being entertained by Ella...who won't/can't sit still.

Ella bored and not wanting to be there and only the bribe of a tootsie pop keeping her from losing it completely.

Me taking pictures of it all with my monkey camera.

At long last, 7.5 month old Alice is healthy enough to get her 6 month shots. Barely any tears out of my little toughie.

No complaints.

Today was a good day.

A great day, actually.

Started out with running the Chattahoochee Road Runners 10k this morning down in Sandy Springs. As usual, I regretted my decision to race (who wants to get up early on a Saturday? I am not ready to do this again. I think I am coming down with something...these crazy thoughts running through my head on repeat Friday.)
But, of course, sitting here Saturday night, feeling the 6.2 miles in my legs (ow.), I am so happy that I made the effort to test myself today.

Racing is always fun...after the fact.

The course was a new course from previous years and it was supposed to be "very fast" and include "tons of downhills". Um, yeah, right. It was very fast -- on the downhills --- that you earned by running your butt up some steep hills. Lots of rollers with an great, fast downhill finish. I PR'd with a 43:10. 4th in my Age Group. So happy with that. More than a minute off my PR from a few weeks ago.

And did I mention --- I DID NOT THROW UP!

That totally makes for a great day. Might be even better than the PR.

The rest of the good day included a facial, 70+ degree temps, playing with neighbors outside for a few hours, dinner at my favorite restaurant with only Mike as company (always good...thanks for sitting, Mom!) and 2 sleeping girls at 10pm. Ahh...love it.

Alice and I hanging out in the cul-de-sac.


Mike crashing after his 10 miler on Riverside.


My favorite 3 year old in the world.

I don't know how to juggle.

This fact disappoints Ella to no end.

She is dying to meet someone who really knows how to juggle...not lie about it like her Pop pop does. ;)

She pretends to juggle....just throwing things up in the air and letting them (mostly) fall to the ground.

Kind of like me with trying to fit everything in with training. I don't know how to do it well. And it mostly falls to the ground.

Especially this week with a doctor's appointment for Alice's 6 month check up (a month late -- she was too sick to get her shots before and is still....red throat is the culprit this time. We're going back next week to try again. This is getting ridiculous though.), a dentist appointment for Ella, a trip to DC for Mike (meaning no AM or PM workouts for me), all this coupled with me messing with my iphone alarm (changing the tune from the weird "robot" to the much more soothing at 5am "strum") causing me to miss an AM swim with Michelle, doing my 10 miler on Tuesday so I can race a 10k on Saturday and it leaves me on Friday ready to toss it all.

By "toss it all" of course I mean do the best I can, when I can with the time that I have. (Well, sometimes that is what I mean.)

It is a good thing I love training as much as I do...'cause it can be a real pain in the ass sometimes. Not to actually run, bike or swim but to find the time to do it.

I am obsolete.

E feeding Alice applesauce. Such a big help.

Snow Day.

Talk about rare. Snow in Atlanta. In March no less.

We certainly enjoyed the heck out of it today.

Making snowballs with my mom and sister.


Ella and her best bud, Madison, making Annabelle a "snow dog" which really just meant packing wet snow on Belly's back.


The snow dog had the most fun out there.


Me cruising down our hill in jeans, sneakers and a cookie sheet....how Southern of me. We had no sled, snow pants or boots.