29 days and counting...

until the Chicago Half-marathon I have been training for all summer. I haven't been very good about running the miles I should every week, but yesterday I ran 10 miles, which is only 3.1 miles less than the half-marathon distance. It wasn't easy, but I did it, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I like running in my neighborhood because there are several roads that all connect back to the street I live on so I can make lots of loops and change things up a bit to get however many miles I need for the day. Also when the going gets tough and I just don't want to run anymore, I usually pass by a field of workers in the hot sun picking tomatoes and think to myself that as much as I don't want to be running, it beats doing what they're doing. Ha, they probably say the same thing when they see me running.

Yesterday I was running with my friend Amber from work and my sister Rachael who are both running the race as well. We were just running along, chatting as we ran when all of a sudden Rachael yelled out "snake!" Sure enough there was a big black snake curled up on the road just a few feet in front of our path. Good thing someone was paying attention because Amber was headed straight for it with the stroller.

Since I knew we would be running for so long, estimated 1 hour 40 minutes, I decided to go during Tony's nap time so that he could sleep in the stroller. He had other plans, he wanted to look around and take in the scenery, surprisingly he stayed awake the whole time and didn't make a peep, other than the occasional happy squeals here and there. He is such a good running partner, he never complains, and all 99 miles I've logged so far he's been right there with me in the stroller. Since he had stayed awake the whole time, shortly after we got home he was ready for a nap, and so was I, so he went to bed, I took a shower and went to bed too and 2 1/2 hours later I woke up very stiff and sore. I am happy to report that today I am feeling much better. Next time I will remember to stretch a bit after a long run.

So now if I can just keep up my training for the next few weeks, it will all be over soon and I can go back to being a slacker. Seriously I don't know what I was thinking when I agreed to do this.

I worked night shift last night at the small ER I work at as agency once in a while, a full moon of all things and guess how many patients I saw in the whole shift? Just one. Yep, that's it. The rest of the night I caught up on all my blogs and surfed the web trying to stay awake. I swear, I don't know which is harder, staying up all night and working, or staying up all night and working but not really working because there aren't any patients. I tell you it makes for a very long night when you just sit and watch the clock and yawn. This is the second weekend in a row I worked a shift like that, with little or no patients, they are starting to call me a good luck charm there. Unfortunately that good luck doesn't follow me to my regular ER job.

Baby/Work/Run/Sleep/Play (and blog if I can)

Wow, I work 2 days in a row and I am so far behind on everything. I don't know how people work 5 days a week, 3 days a week is rough enough. So between Anthony, working, running, enjoying my summer and trying to keep up on housework, my blogging has been bumped to the bottom of my to do list. But here is a quick one to update you all on my oh so exciting life.

Well as far as the running a half marathon thing goes, I am crazy, cause I've decided to do it, but at least I'm not the only one. So far I have managed to convince 6 family and friends to run the Chicago Half Marathon with me. Rachael, Francie, Kim, Amy, Amber, and Rachael's blogger friend CM. I say if you got to be crazy at least don't be crazy by yourself. The 12 week training program we've decided to use officially starts next week. So this week we are training for the training. The first week you run 13-15 miles total, and since none of us (except CM who is already able to easily run 6 miles, and my friend Amber who is training for the Chicago full marathon in October so this will be a breeze for her) are currently anywhere remotely close to that, we are testing the waters this week to see what were in for in the coming weeks. So far two 3 mile runs done and other than a slower pace than I'd like, I'm quite happy that I have the stamina to run the whole 3 miles. The temperature is really hot and humid, so mid day runs are out, which leaves early morning or late evening runs. This is going to be a bit challenging though because I work at 7 am, so in order to run before work I would have to get up at 5am when it's still dark outside. I don't really want to run in the dark, so that leaves me with evening runs. Last night Kim, Amy and I went at 9pm, and we all agreed that other than the fact that there are a lot of gnats out at dusk and you either have to run with a mask and goggles or accept that you will eat a few bugs along the way, it's the perfect time to run. Still light outside, and not too hot. One other teansy little problem is that Tony goes to bed at 9pm and Todd is still working, so I'm still working on figuring that one out.

And speaking of Tony, here are some pictures of him that are so cute, I just have to share them. He has started rolling, and he rolls all over the place now. Here he rolled underneath the coffee table.
He also thinks his foot is good enough to eat (I have to agree, sometimes I want to just eat him up too) It's hard to keep it out of his mouth. I guess it's a good thing he has clean feet.




Now for the 3% of Tony that isn't perfect: He is now 6 months old and still not sleeping through the night. AND most nights he wakes up twice, usually at 1ish and again at 4ish. I know several people who have babies that are younger than Anthony and ARE sleeping through the night. So I don't know what to do, but something has got to change, because even if he's not, I am ready to start sleeping through the night again. I am off for the next 2 nights, so I am debating resisting the urge to just feed him when he wakes up so he'll go back to sleep, or try to get him to break the habit of eating at night. I'm so tired when he wakes me up, that feeding him is the fast easy option, but I really think if I can handle a few hard nights of getting him back to sleep without feeding him it will be so much better in the long run for both of us. If anyone has any suggestions other than to wean him to formula or just let him cry it out, I'd be happy to hear them.

I might be crazy!

But I think I want to do THIS.

Anyone else interested in joining in let me know. The deadline to sign up is July 31st.

The date is Sunday, September 14, which gives us about 13 weeks to train.

Sun, Snow, Treadmills, and Pad Thai

SUN(SET)

The sunset on our last night in Naples

SNOWOur house the day we left for Florida, I suspect it will look the same when we get home.

TREADMILL

The hotel we are at has the coolest treadmills ever, I promise if I had one of these at home I would use it everyday.* It has a built in TV on the monitor and you can plug your headphones into it to listen to the TV or you can connect your ipod to it. It also has three buttons below the TV screen that say walk/jog/run and you can set them to whatever speed you like then during your workout you can switch back and forth between speeds with the touch of a button. Perfect for the c25k interval training. It has some other very cool features, but those are the two that make me want to buy one. So yes, this means I got all 3 runs in for the week.

*I am safe making this promise because I know I will never convince Todd to buy me one. The home version cost $7,999.

PAD THAI

We are having Thai food for the 3rd time on this trip, I think it is my favorite food. There isn't a Thai restaraunt anywhere near where we live, so I am getting as much of it on this trip as I can talk Todd into. Plus it makes good take out which we seem to be doing a lot of on this trip.

Updates: Anthony & C25K

Anthony's 2 month update:

Today Anthony had his 2 month check up. This morning as Todd and I were packing up to head out the door, my sister Rachael called, I told her I couldn't talk because we were heading out the door with Anthony to the doctors office, she found it rather humorous that both Todd and I were taking him. I hadn't even thought about it until she said something, but then couldn't help but be a bit embarrassed when both of us walked into the doctors office. I decided to tell the doctor what my sister had said and ask if it was really that unusual for both of us to be there. She assured me that with first time parents it is very common for both to come to the appointments, with the second child it is usually only one parent, and by the third child, the parents just drop them at the door and say they'll be back in an hour. (Okay, good.)

Anthony gained 2 pounds in the past month, and now weighs 12lbs 2oz. They say he only grew 1/4 of an inch in length, but they didn't measure him right, I'm sure he grew more than that. He also got his first set of immunizations (3 shots), poor baby, I wanted to give him Tylenol before we went, but I didn't have any (bad, unprepared mom) but I figured they could just give him some at the doctors office. Surprisingly they don't have any there. I can't imagine why a pediatrician's office wouldn't have Tylenol, what if they see a sick kid with a high fever and a bad mom who didn't give any Tylenol at home? That just seems weird to me, any one else's pediatrician not carry Tylenol in the office?

Last night at work some coworkers were asking me how Anthony is sleeping through the night. I told them that he usually sleeps from 10pm till around 3 or 4am (on a good night 5am), then up again at 7 and then again at 9. They assured me that my baby is starving and needs cereal added to his milk, if I would do that he would for sure sleep through the night. Not wanting to cause conflict I just sort of let it go, even though I knew they were wrong. Then at the doctor today, when we were discussing his sleeping/eating habits, I told her his night routine and she said that he doesn't need to eat anymore at night and I should just comfort him and try to get him to go back to sleep when he wakes up without feeding him. I'm not really sure she is right either, I think I will just keep doing what I'm doing for now. If he is still waking up in the night in another month then maybe I will reconsider what she said, but he is only 2 months old, 10 hours is a long time to go without eating.

A few 2 month pictures:

He is definitely getting bigger.

If I put the rattle in his hand, he can hold on to it, and even shake it.

Getting closer to being able to roll over, look how his leg is pushing off the floor.

My C25K progress report:

I have successfully completed week one! Yeah for me. 8 more weeks and I'll be ready to run a 5k. I'd be even more proud of myself if I hadn't rewarded/negated all my hard work with chocolate. These are my daily temptations.

Sometimes I can go weeks without eating any of this, and some days (like today) I eat candy all day, (so far today, 3 mini almond joys). I really should get rid of these, but the cup is a hand painted gift from my sister Natalie, and the red candy dish I bought in Mirano, Italy and I don't want to put them away, and you can't have empty candy dishes laying around. The candy drawer is something Todd insists on having, and if it wasn't a candy drawer it would be a junk drawer, and I hate junk drawers even more than candy drawers. So you see my dilema here? I guess I still made progress, because I exercised 3 times this week, which is 2 times more than last week.

Plan Revised

So I have modified my plan from yesterday just a bit. I thought the couch to 5 K bandwagon that Sasha has got everyone jumping on was going to be too easy, which is why I wanted to start with the Shape plan. But then I realized that since I haven't been exercising much at all lately, I can hardly call any exercise plan too easy. And since the 10K I want to run (GR Reed's Lake) isn't until June or July, I will do both plans back to back starting with the c25k plan and then the shape magazine plan. I'm seriously disappointed that no one wants to start running. Well, except Rachael, who already said she would, and Moneek, but I don't think she lives around here. Come on, seriously, someone has to want to start running just a little bit.

We're getting back together (me and running)

Reading Rachael's blog last night at work and I got inspired. I have been wanting to get back into shape after having a baby, and truthfully before I got pregnant I was wanting to get in better shape. I've been a slacker at exercising ever since I moved to Michigan in 2003. I blame this on the lack of quality gyms in this area. I came from Seattle which has tons of gyms to choose from with really good classes and really good equipment. Here I have 2 gyms to choose from, neither are that impressive, and the monthly fees are about twice as much. I ended up joining the YMCA, but the classes are lame, and the weight room isn't that impressive either. So lets just say the YMCA is getting a really good deal on me. Or should I say, HAS been, because lately, I've actually been going a few times a week.

I used to be a runner, but it was very short lived, maybe 2 years max. It started back in 2002. Rachael called me up and said she found an article in Shape Magazine for a non-runner to train for a 10K in 12 weeks. She was living in Grand Rapids at the time and the twelve week plan she found would be perfect timing for GR's annual Reeds Lake 10K. So we started the plan, me in WA her in MI and I stuck to it faithfully and then flew out to visit her to run the race.

And Oh, by the way, she also just happened to be moving that same weekend (which I thought was rather convenient on her part), but she told me not to worry, she was being moved by a moving company and we wouldn't have to do hardly anything. That turned out to be a big fat lie. Yes she had movers, but the movers had come the week before I got there and packed the house, except the stuff she needed for the weekend and all the stuff she felt she needed to pack herself, which turned out to be a lot of stuff. And then there was the cleaning, and by the way she didn't have AC in her house, and it was a record HOT high 90's June. Remember I lived in Seattle where if it hit 80 degrees it was a scorcher. But I did get to witness my nephew Jack take his first steps, so I guess it was all worth it.

Okay so back to the running thing. We ran the 10K, it was a total rush and we both loved it. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship with running. The relationship grew with every race I ran. The Seattle 1/2 marathon and the Vancouver, Canada 1/2 marathon were two of the biggies, then there was the San Diego Rock N Roll 26.2 mile Marathon in 2003 (the final fate of our relationship). Me and running didn't get along too well during this 4 and 1/2 hour ordeal and we decided to part ways after leaving San Diego and never see each other again. Which was a bit disappointing because the other 3 girls I ran it with, Rachael included, really loved it and couldn't wait to do it again.

Then I moved to Michigan and Rachael convinced me to give running another chance. So about a year after leaving running in San Diego, I decided to give it another chance. Sadly it didn't last long, just long enough for me to run the Chicago Lakeshore 1/2 marathon and then I was done AGAIN. And now here I am AGAIN willing to give it one more try but this time I am going to start over at the beginning and take it nice and slow. I think 10K's are the perfect distance for a run. A 5K seems too short, and a half marathon too long, and a full marathon, well that's just stupid. So maybe if I keep my distance more reasonable I will actually enjoy running more, and hopefully wont give up this time. Although now that I have Anthony it makes things a lot more complicated, but I still think I'm up for the challenge. Rachael found this couch to 5K plan she found from Sasha and wants to try, but I think I am a bit partial to this original Shape Magazine plan I started with back in 2002. (I can't believe Rachael saved it)

Anyone else want to start it too, it would be a lot more motivating to keep it up if I had a few choices in running partners to mix it up a bit. The start date for this plan is Superbowl sunday.