Rainier Training: Hodge Podge

As most of you know, I've had a crazy couple of weeks.  We are back home from traveling for my mother's funeral and trying to settle back into our routines.  I will try to catch up in blogland during Avery's naps today...but I also promised Mark I'd pack up some Christmas decorations.  :)


I never did a week-in-review last week with the news about my mom - so this will sum up both weeks of training.


Quick Look Week of Dec 26-Jan 1:

# of Workouts: 5

# of miles ran: 13

Weight: 196.6 (Down 0.1 lbs from previous week)

Chest: No measurements taken

Hips: No measurements taken

Monday: Rest day
Tuesday: 3.5 mile run with my stepmom, 11:10 min/mile avg
Wednesday: 2 mile - 1 walk, 1 run (9:47 min/mile)
Thursday: 2.5 mile walk carrying Avery in Bjorn
Friday: 5 miles on elliptical
Saturday: Supposed to be travel day - flight canceled
Sunday: Supposed to run 6 miles - travel day

Quick Look Week of Jan 2-Jan 8:

# of Workouts: 4 (in 2 days)

# of miles ran/walked/hiked: 12

Weight: 194.2 (Down 2.2 lbs from previous week)

Chest: 41.5" (Down 0.5" from previous measurement)

Hips: 50"  (Down 2" from previous measurement)

Monday: My mother passed away - rest
Tuesday: Rest day as I packed and purchased what I needed to travel
Wednesday: Drove to NJ, Mother's Viewing
Thursday: Mother's funeral
Friday: Drive back to Ohio
Saturday: 7 blissful running miles!
Sunday: 2.64 mile hike carrying 25 lbs, 2.2 mile walk with Cassie

Honestly, with all the travel, I ate horribly for the past two weeks and for over a week, my exercise was TERRIBLE.  I'm shocked that I still managed to lose some weight...possibly because I overcompensated when I got back to Ohio and wanted to keep my mind off life's troubles.  

Me and My mother

I want to say a big thank to everyone who has brought brownies, sent cards, called, sent text messages and posted on my blog and on Facebook.  I have told many people that I am so thankful for the support structure I have right now.  It makes dealing with such a sudden and unexpected loss, while not easy, easier.  An extra shout-out to Laurie for taking such great care of my dog Cassie while I drove to NJ, and to Sarah for driving to my house and giving my cat his insulin injection for me.  Not having to worry about my furry children made it easier to focus my energy on dealing with the loss.  I cannot thank you both enough.

Some positives from the past week:

Mark and I made some extra strides in the mountain training yesterday, taking advantage of the awesome weather.  We loaded Avery into the Kelty pack for the first time, put on our mountain boots, and hiked in High Banks Metro Park.  Avery only cooperated for one loop of the trail - but it was a great start.  

I'm working hard to emulate all that junk mommy will have to carry on the mountain.

Other than the initial shock of the weight from the fully loaded pack (I also carried the water bottles, etc.), the weight didn't feel too bad and the pack balanced her perfectly on my back - no back pain!

Check out those snazzy boots!

Although I was very sad to miss the First on the First race that I'd trained for with all the NOBO peeps, I am thrilled that so many of them joined MiT and will be training for their first half marathon with me!  YAY!  We had our second first MiT workout on Saturday and the Ohio weather rewarded us with Spring in January.  I wore shorts.  In Ohio. In January.   Awesome.   Despite my bad week, I was even able to get my scheduled 7 in without pain!  Double YAY!

MiT gathered pre-run

MiT seems even bigger this year and I'm excited to be running with a new pace group and fully training with them while NOT pregnant!  To make things even better, my friends from NOBO and I are going to do informal group runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays...meaning I won't have to do many training runs alone.  Fabulous!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful couple of weeks and I look forward to catching up on all your blogs!

I have some other stuff in the works and will be more on top of the blog thing this week - promise!

How do you cope with grief/loss?

Have you ever carried weight while training?  What's the most weight you've carried?

Bad Start

I had every intention of posting a year-end review post and a resolutions post and the latest training post....and the update on Avery's travel for the holidays.


A couple things have derailed my plans and delayed me catching up in blogland.  The least problematic was the fact that our flight on the 31st was canceled....but the best was yet to come.


I woke up on January 1st because my phone buzzed that I had a Facebook message.  The message was from my stepdad and said

Mandy

Call me ##########mom passed away..

When I called him (immediately), he described what happened.  Bottom line is that my mom had a brain aneurysm burst near her brain stem.  She is actually on life support in the ICU, but apparently the hospital is calling him constantly about pulling the plug.  


My mom and I are estranged and haven't spoken much in the last year.  In fact, she hasn't even met Avery.  I cannot describe appropriately the mix of emotions that I am going through at the moment.


Needless to say - I will catch up when I can and am making no immediate promises.


Thank you to all who have given me so much support in the last 24 hours or so.   Thank goodness for Avery who has still managed to make me laugh and smile.


Mandy


Editor's note:  After posting this, I learned that they turned my mother's life support off at 11:12am.  The good news is that she did not suffer.

Days of Firsts

A couple of days ago, Avery had her first flight on a plane (while outside the womb).  She actually did pretty well.  Our flight was delayed about 45 minutes.  She fell asleep a little bit before the flight, and slept for the first 2 hours of the flight.  

I don't know what Mommy was so worried about...I'm easy!

She woke up with about an hour left....ate...hung out with mommy....and didn't fuss until they took too long opening the cabin door and she wanted OUT of the dang carrier.  I picked her up and let Mark be a pack horse until we got to baggage claim so that I could carry her.  This made her happy.

She thoroughly enjoyed having Grandparents to give her added attention that night.  The next day we went to her first Christmas Eve service...So I dressed her up.  She did really well during the service, except for the projectile spit-up all over Mommy, Avery and the floor.  Luckily, I packed 4 spit-up cloths.  Always prepared!

This was taken with Mommy's new iPhone.

Her first Christmas morning started at 5:30am...Avery doesn't believe in switching to central time, or sleeping in.  What she DOES believe in is joyful screaming...which she started doing for the first time on Christmas day - what fun!

Mommy is inventing stories - I'm a perfect angel.

A reindeer hat.  really?

Her other new trick this week?  Rolling over from her back to her tummy!  She gets quite annoyed when her arm gets stuck under her body though.

Does this reindeer make my butt look big?

Sleep is all mommy wanted for Christmas.

I'm the perfect present.

She even decided to ride a Longhorn for Christmas...a present from Grandma and Pops.

Bull-riding is next!

A great first Christmas! We still have the dreaded long car ride to my In-laws for that visit before heading home via plane.

How were your holidays?  Did you travel?

My favorite thing about coming home is we have the same favorite holiday dishes every year...what's your favorite holiday food?

Rainier Training: Week 8

Quick Look:

# of Workouts:6

# of miles ran/walked:13

Weight: 196.7 (Down 0.7 lbs from previous week)*

Chest: --

Hips: --

*Different scale used from previous weeks

Monday:  480m swim, ST with Adam; Tuesday: 4.23 mile run; Wednesday: 1 mile walk; Thursday: 3.01 mile run; Friday: Rest day; Saturday: 4.66 mile run; Sunday: Rest day - Christmas

 

 

 

Despite all the sweets I ate for Christmas....I lost a bit of weight.  Of course, I used a different scale for the weigh-in because I'm not at home and no measurements this week.

Considering the number of peanut butter bars I have consumed since being in Texas...WIN!

I will do another post of Avery's first Christmas soon...promise!  I will also get caught up in blogland.  Dratted family time in Texas, cutting in on all my blog following and posting.  :)

Until then....

Being cute is hard work.

Random Wednesday

This post is for my friends with ADHD as it will be lots of random tidbits with absolutely no connection to each other.  HA!


This blog NEEDS a new name!!!  Suggestions people!  So far, one of my favorite suggestions is "No Standing Still".   Things to consider with name suggestions:  I am a mom with an infant, so she'll come up in many posts.  I am climbing a freakin' mountain with a glaciated peak in July and will have many posts about that training.  I am a runner, slow, but a runner nonetheless.  I am super competitive.  (thus the slow annoys me).

Who wouldn't want to climb this???

Avery is really throwing me for a loop with her sleep schedule lately, especially her new favorite sleep spot that Mark discovered on accident.

No wonder Mommy and Daddy spend so much time on the couch - it's comfortable!

Do you think race directors will look at me funny if I start asking if the medal ribbon will be red before I register?  I think my medal rack is entirely overloaded with red ribboned medals.  Maybe I need to stop sorting them by distance and sort them by color instead...I know, I know...too OCD.

RED, RED, RED!

Why do you never try something new on race day?  I was preparing for a 4 mile run last night, a length that I don't normally use gu or other energy thingee for.  Ben convinced me to try a Clif Shot.  I only had a couple "bites" of it...but that was enough.  I spent most of my run last night nauseous and spitting up.  Since running is a mental sport, this made pushing through it awfully tough.  I also had put Revive Vitamin water in my water bottle randomly.  My husband mentioned as I was leaving that it hadn't settled well with him the night before.  Once I was nauseous, I tried drinking it...and it only made it worse.  So, either the gel or the vitamin water was the culprit.  I will be avoiding both for the foreseeable future.

It actually was a better texture than Gu....

As the day of the flight gets closer, I get more and more nervous about flying with Avery, especially given her recent sleeping habits.  I think I'm just psyching myself out. It will be fine. It's only a 3.5 hour flight time...the car ride to Mark's parents, on the other hand, will be 5 hours.  Easy, right?  :/

You wish Mommy.

Is there anything you absolutely can't have pre-running or working out?  (Other than the obvious)


Is there a medal ribbon color that predominates in your collection?


Any blog name suggestions????? 

Rainier Training: ONEderland

Quick Look:

# of Workouts: 5

# of miles ran/walked: 9

Weight: 197.4 (Down 3.4 lbs from previous week)

Chest: 42.0" 

Hips: 50"  (Down 2" from previous week)

Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: NOBO 3.5 mile run
Wednesday: 1 hour ST with Adam
Thursday: NOBO 2.68 mile run; 0.84 mile walk
Friday: rest day
Saturday: MIT 2.04 mile run
Sunday:  Unplanned rest day

Well, I have achieved one of my Rainier Training goals, Goal #3 - to get in good enough shape to begin hard-core training, i.e. get back below 200 lbs.  I lost 3.4 lbs this week, despite shoddy training, and now I can begin really training.

I also got some new training equipment, a bosu ball (A Christmas present from my dad):

And a swim cap for my swims - I've never worn a swim cap before, this could be entertaining the first time I try to put it on.  LOL!

It's somewhat funny.  Many people would consider 5 workouts in a week to be a good week.  Me?  When I made the image from dailymile for this post, I said - WHAT? I only did 5 workouts this week?  WTH.   I did have an unplanned rest day on Sunday when something I ate in the morning disagreed with me and left me nauseous the rest of the day.

To improve on this past week's training and to finally get started on the hard-core training, this week, I am going to be making an effort to take advantage of paying for the kids room at the gym.  (So that I can get a workout in during the day, despite Miss Avery).  It's been hard to use it lately, because it's not open in the afternoon.  So far, I did go swimming this morning, but it was a short swim, because I neglected to check whether there was a class in the pool before leaving the house.  WINNING!  :)

In January, my weekly schedule will generally be strength training with Adam on Mondays and Wednesdays, as well as stair-climbing sessions in those mornings.  Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays will be run days.   Friday will be a rest day. Sundays will be a swim, hike or stair climb day.  If the weather is ever nice enough for outdoor baby time, I will load Avery up in the Kelty pack, put on my climbing boots and hike over at High Banks Metro Park.  

Is there any exercise equipment that you feel you can't live without?

How did you week go?  What are your plans for this coming week?

My New Role in Life

I've decided my new role in life must be to come up with more ways to torment my daughter.  Besides, when she's in her teens - she'll say that I am so mean anyway - so why not start early, right?  :)


This week, per the pediatrician, we introduced solids in the form of extremely watered down rice cereal.

O.M.G.  What IS that?  And why is it NOT in a bottle?

Avery's digestive system decided that it didn't like cereal - and she didn't sleep well the two days we ate it - because of constipation.  I believe that I am a very bad mommy when I don't sleep at all for two nights in a row - what gave it away?  The yelling "just shut up" at 4am may have been my first hint.  I know - mom of the year - right?   Bottom line - we've decided to put solids aside and try again in another month.

The new high chair was a hit though - honest.  Doesn't she look thrilled?

Today - my mom's group had their "holiday party" - so I used that as an excuse to dress Avery up in an outfit that my grandma sent.  She absolutely refused to smile in any of the photos with the outfit on - I can't imagine why.

You will pay for this mommy.  I am planning another screaming session for 2am.

I have decided NOT to torment her by taking her to see a mall Santa...mostly because that would probably torment ME more than her.


My only regret this week is that I did not videotape the face she makes while trying to poop, it really is pretty awesome.  Just sayin'.


This time next week - we will be flying to Texas.  I've never flown with an infant before and I'm rather dreading the experience.  Although, the car ride from my parents to Mark's parents might inspire even more dread in me.

But I'm so sweet and innocent!

Any tips for traveling with a 4 month old?


Any other pictures I can take of Avery that I can threaten to show her future boyfriends?