EyeRun...

Training up a storm...

2006-06-28T10:41:00.000-04:00

Hi there friends in blogland. I'm very much alive and very well thank you very much for wondering. The last couple of months have been busy but in a very good way.
I'm back to running at least 4-5 miles about 3 times a week BUT... I joined a gym June 1st to help start back to weight training and have been a regular about 4 times a week.

So far I have lost 10 lbs and 9 % body fat !!! Yeah for me. The most remarkable difference is in the inches. No more back fat under the bra, which is great since it is swimsuit season now. I am actually excited and not hesitant about wearing a bikini this summer. My arms are toned now and don't jiggle so much and the post-baby pouch is not noticeable (at least when I am standing up straight-hunched in a lawn chair...yeah well that's another story), and best of all...the love handles are gone now :)

I have also found a group of female runners that want to run the Half in October with me, so there is now more motivation to keep with my end of the training.

My posting will be sparse between working and training after work and then spending time with the kids but I will try my best to post weekly. I scan everyone else's blogs whenever I can but never have time to comment anymore.

Spring Cleaning

2006-05-01T15:36:00.000-04:00

I find myself waking up at 5am every morning since the time change so I decided that I should use that extra time doing something productive. Rather than lying in bed and reading or pulling up the covers to take off the morning chill, my new plan is to get me arse out of bed and run on the treadmill (it's still too cold ~30F) or just do some free weights.

Day 1 was yesterday, Sunday, and it started out very well. While I didn't get to the treadmill in the basement until 7AM, I managed to run an easy 3 miles at 11:30 pace. Then I worked shoulders, biceps and triceps (my new target area).

The forecast was for a nice day (it ended up being 72F!) so we decided to take the kids to the lake and trim some of the brush and dead tree limbs that cover the beachy area. We packed a BBQ lunch of Red Dogs (red hot dogs for those of you who have never been to Maine), chips, drinks and the requisite lake beverage -beer.

The kids really got into helping us trim the branches that touch the cottage roof and helped haul the cut stuff across the road to the wooded area. We trimmed so much that we feel like we have a whole new view of the lake. It is very open and unobscured now.

I was so busy and caught up into tree trimming that I completely forgot to use my camera, even though I always carry it in my purse, so unfortunately there are no before and after pics.

The boys even were brave enough to venture into the freezing cold water with their sneakers on, even though Mom had specificallly told them not to. Sigh. Boys, what can I say?

No running planned today, maybe just some lunges with weights. Treadmill again in the early AM is on the agenda but we'll see what happens :)

Do I still live here?

2006-04-24T16:01:00.000-04:00

It’s been much too long my dear friends since I last posted !

Our new office had it’s official grand opening/open house/ribbon cutting ceremony on April 10th so the stress of building the office is now over. We have had a steady stream of patients booking appointments so it looks like we’re going to be OK. There are some pics above. The judges paneling around the check-in and check-out desks is all clear maple and cherry baseboard and crown.

I have totally not been running since my last post. I desperately need to get back on track (or the road actually) now that I have a set schedule. I thanked my builder for stressing me out the last 2 weeks before we opened (he was putting up shelving an hour before the opening) because it caused me to lose 5 lbs. That made most of my pants a bit looser and gave me all the more reason to go shopping.

I plan on looking up the race schedule here in Maine and see which ones I want to do.
I love Spring! It energizes me and makes me walk a little brisker, hold my head up higher, and think beautiful thoughts of chasing the boys around the yard in the summer. I look forward to spending weekends at the lake kayaking and playing around in the water. Sigh. Weather, hurry up and get warm! We stopped by the lake this past weekend and picked up all the old bedding so it can have a good washing.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2006-02-21T11:34:00.000-05:00

Things have been crazy busy around our house lately. I have been a very good girl and running on the treadmill 2-3 times a week for anywhere from 3-5 miles followed by some light weights. I have also been making a conscious effort to watch everything I eat on a daily basis. This is all in preparation for the summer running season. The is a marathon/ 1/2 marathon in May in my hometown of Fredericton which I would love to run so I'm trying my best to fit the running in as much as I can.
Our truck “Big Red” is all fixed, we picked it up on Valentine’s Day and it looks like brand new (considering it was only 2 years old it looked new before the moose). There are some minor things that need to be fixed like the tiny leak on the corner of the windshield and the cruise control buttons on the steering wheel that don’t work. But otherwise, as good as new. The kids are glad to have it back.
In kid news, my little, sweet, precious baby (yes I know he’s almost 2 ½ now but he’s still my baby) has a very unfortunate accident on Valentine’s weekend. I was running on the treadmill while the boys played with their toys and Playdough. “S” came over to retrieve some candy hearts he had hidden in my cupholder, I jumped on the side rails while I helped him get them out but in the meantime “N” came over to get some candy too. Well, the normally ‘fraidy cat climbed onto the front of the running treadmill and went flying off the back. OK now normally that would be an exciting ride for a kid but he went head first and connected with a dumbbell behind the treadmill. His forehead split open and blood was literally gushing everywhere! I, being in the medical profession, have seen lots of blood but never actually pumping out of a forehead.
I grabbed him, ran upstairs, grabbed a clean towel, pressed it against his head all the while explaining to “S” what is happening, and needs to be done(that’s the medical in me). Ian was out of town for the day and since we didn’t have the truck back yet I had no choice but to call 911. In a matter of minutes, maybe 7 or 8, we had the Police, Ambulance and Fire Rescue at our door. “S” proceeded to greet them at the door with “ Hi my name is S, I’m 3 and this is my brother N and he’s 2. He climbed up on to the running machine while Mama was running on it, flew of the back and smashed his head on one of Mama’s exercise weights(hands gesturing). I don’t know why he did it but he’s hurt now. Are you gonna take us to the hospital? My dad took the car to work and our truck is still broken.”
I swear to you know who that is exactly what he said. The cop looked up at me incredulously and I just kept nodding my head and said “Yup, ditto what he said"
So "S" stayed with my neighbor who came running over with all the commotion while "N" and I headed off in the ambulance (the bleeding had stopped by the time EMS got to the house). He looked all around and fixed his gaze on the defibrillator unit and said "Mama, wanna watch Doda (Dora)". HAHA. I mean the kid is hurt, he must have have a hell of a pounding headache and he wants to watch Dora !
His stitches came out last week and he is doing just fine now but he's milking it for all its worth. He tells S "I got ouchie, gimme that" :)
Our office construction is plugging along nicely. the exterior is almost finished and they start sheetrocking today on the inside. They still expect to be completely finished in a month so we have planned the advertising and opening to be in April. Whew! With all this going on, you can see why it doesn't give me much time to blog.
Here's some pics:

New Year

2006-01-12T10:28:00.000-05:00

Happy new year everyone!

Blogger ate my original post so I have to remember what I wrote.

The kids had a great time over the holidays with their cousins who came to visit for the new years long weekend. They went sledding on a really big hill, swimming in the local pool and made snowmen in the front and back yards.

Our truck will take 3 more weeks until it will be ready. In the meantime we have a rental Dodge Magnum. I'm not crazy about the exterior style nor do I like the limited visibility from the inside,and it handles terrible in snow. Way too many blind spots for my liking. So I called Enterpri$e and told them that it has very little traction and poor visibility...and you know what the kid told me? "Yeah it sucks".

So why rent it to me as a "free upgrade"?! I'd rather have the midsize I originally requested if it means better safety on these slick snow covered Maine roads. Plus the seatbelts suck for carseats. The click-in part ends up behind the padded back digging into a child's back. If you loosen it then the car seat is not really strapped in well and will thrust forward any time you put the brakes on. What a poorly designed car!

So he "upgraded" us again to a small SUV "for only $5 more" OK fine, so now we are driving a Kia Sorrento. It's a pretty nice little vehicle, kinda resembles a Lexus RX300 except that the engine parts seem like they are made with Tinkertoys when you're used to a big Ford truck engine. But, best of all it is designed to handle kids car seats - yeah!

I'm in the market now for a fluid filled bicycle trainer so I can use my new bike. Right now it is in the finished basment looking at all the kids toys and saying "won't someone play with me too?" Soon enough my little friend, soon enough. The trainers I found are around $300 which is a bit much for me right now, so I'm searching for a used (but with no problems) one. I'll give it another month and then I might just get the new one from CycleOps. Does anyone have one? and what do you think about them?

I've been treadmill running whenever I can- 2 miles here and 3 miles there. I just grab whatever I can manage. I have 10 lbs until I reach my "reasonable goal weight" and 15 lbs to my pre-pregnancies weight and 20 lbs to my pre-marriage weight. I do not wish to go back to my ultra lean pre-marriage weight because I was a bit thin then and I was training 5 hours a day year round. Not possible now-unless my husband wins the Megabucks, lets me retire early and train all day again. See, not likely :)

7000 lb Expedition vs 2000 lb Moose, and the winner is...my family of 4 inside.

2005-12-28T11:37:00.000-05:00

We were involved in a horrible head on collision with a very large MOOSE on Christmas day, coming home from visiting the in-laws (see, I knew we shouldn't have gone). It was dark and foggy and those of you who know anything about moose know that they are just stupid, dumb animals. Really, they are. Their brains are about the size of an actual walnut. Their eyes do not reflect like deer, their coat is as dark as night and they are not deterred by headlights or car horns.

Note the moose hair caught on the windshield in the third picture.

Thank GOD were were in the FORD EXPEDITION ( I will advertise for them until I die, which is what most definately would have happened if we driving a vehicle any smaller). The game warden statistics are that only 1% of people who hit a moose actually walk away with no major injuries or death.The game warden, sheriff, and state trooper were amazed that not a single one of us was hurt. They said it was the worst they had seen this year. That highway is notorious for moose and has a high fatality rate but the state refuses to put street lights or push for cell service. The third row window was kicked in my the moose hoofs as he was flipped around. I cry every time I think about how he just missed the middle window right next to where our 3 yo was sitting.

We are very thankful to be alive!!

There are NO cell towers where it happened (this particular highway area being woodland Maine).

I am thankful to all the people that stopped to make sure we were OK, and help us push the truck over to the side of the road, and who then drove to the next town (30min) and called the police.

I am thankful to the 60ish couple from Nova Scotia Canada (GO FELLOW CANADIANS) who actually made room in their small Civic for us 4 and drove us all the way to our house! (~1 hour away). I got their name and address from them and will be sending them a nice thank-you basket.

Thank you Good Samaritans !!!

The next day at the Auto Body place we took some pictures when we went back to get all our belongings and xmas presents which were left behind. It didn't look any better the next day in the daylight.

The kids saw it happen - they heard and felt the loud thud, were rocked forward in their car seats, then saw the moose smash against the windshield. Our 2 yo starting wimpering but we quickly told him everything was OK then he was fine. The 3yo wanted to know what happened:

3 yo: "Mama what happened to the truck?"
Me : " We hit a Moose"
3 yo: "How come we hit a moose?"
Me: "we didn't mean to hit a moose, he just walked right in front of the truck"
3 yo: " how come he walked right in front of the truck?"
Me: ...pause "because he didn't look both ways before crossing the highway, remember how mama and dada always say to look both ways and always hold a grown-up's hand? Well the moose didn't look both ways and he forgot to hold a grown ups hand"
3 yo: "yeah, he forgot to look"

Then they went back to watching the DVD which for some reason was still working even though we lost power for every other part of the truck .

Since I was driving I got the brunt of all the shards of glass and my door wouldn't open so after climbing out and getting the kids out all my 3yo cared about was wanting to see the moose. The 2 yo kept repeating "uh oh, trucka broken" (he's fanatic about cars and trucks)
Yesterday for pre-school they took some of the pictures and a couple of the moose hairs to show their friends.

Have a happy new year everyone!

PS. I got a BIKE! Bianchi Boadwalk, more about that next post...
PPS. Did I already say I LOVE FORD EXPEDITIONS?!!!

Agatha Christie...

2005-12-12T16:26:00.000-05:00

Hubby asked to use the Expedition today to “help” a fellow doc move some filing cabinets. Hmmm, something smells fishy here!
Here’s why -

I asked for a bike for Xmas before we decided not to spend too much. (Since construction of our office is going over budget). I bike would fit nicely in the back of an Expedition.

Xmas is coming and I am naturally suspicious this time of year.

My husband sucks at trying to be inconspicuous. Like maybe he should trade me his Accord a few times prior to now so it won’t look so obvious when he asks to borrow my SUV.

Why would he and another doc ‘move file cabinets’ in their work clothes? They have a handyman ‘helper guy’ for stuff like that. Hmmm. See where I’m headed with this?

Now 3 weeks from now I may have a big foot in my mouth if I end up with something like a book instead of a bike but it’s fun to be imaginative. Xmas is no fun if there’s no drama.

I don’t go looking for presents or receipts but like to pick up on verbal cues instead. This way I don’t spoil a potential surprise but can only speculate.

In one way I’ll be really happy to get the bike but on the other hand I have a hard enough time as is making treadmill time. I will admit there are plenty of times I could be working out at home but you know what, my kids come first.

This is not an excuse but rather simply accepting things as they are. Confusing isn’t it? I figure it this way, if my kids are tired, hungry and grumpy when we get home at 5:30pm it is my job as their mother to make things right. This usually means food, cuddling and lots of hugs. Those of you who have kids know this takes time and that when there are hungry toddlers around even the fastest microwaveable Kraft Dinner (Mac & Cheese) isn’t fast enough.

*violins start playing*
I envy all you kidless folks out there for having the time to work out whenever you want (I was like that too, once). To those of you that have only one child, you too have more time to yourself (you’re only “it” 50% of the time). It is common knowledge that the more children you have, the less time you have for yourself, especially if it is your job to pick up the kids and feed them because your day ends sooner. When you have 2 or more kids you are “it” all the time because at any given time there is at least one child that needs you, guaranteed.

Don’t misinterpret what I’m saying. I would not change my life for anything, I absolutely adore my 2 young boys and would love to have 2 more kids but I don’t know if that will happen since time is limited (I’m 35-ugh-now).

My point is when I’m 50 will I be looking at myself and saying “wow, I’m glad I put the kids needs aside so I could have this rock hard body” or will I say “I’m so happy that my kids are happy and cared for and that I am in pretty darn good shape for my age”.

The best time to be in great shape is before you have kids and after your kids are teenagers (at that point they are somewhat self-sufficient). In the interim, I make do as much as I can and wait for the teenage years to come so I can have that “rock hard body”
Some days I get discouraged by all the activity other runners are doing in the off-season, with their running, swimming, weights etc but I have to remind myself that it really is impossible for me to fit those things into our family schedule right now. When the kids are in grade school and they have practice for one sport or another I can drop them off, go for a run and be back in time for pickup. Yeah.
*violins stop playing*

Still there? I haven’t lost you yet?
Good, a question...is there any logical reason to take 2 toddlers to xmas eve church services if they never pay attention and are always being shushing by their grammie (my MIL) even though they are in the glassed off kids room?

I would prefer to not take them (the last 2 years were tough with them). We don't go to church because we are raising them Hindu but to appease my Mother-in-law we go to church at Xmas and Easter. My kids are very well behaved but they are at the age that to go to something formal and to have to sit still, let alone not talk is very hard for them. Especially when there are other kids in the same room. My MIL gets disturbed that they are ruining the service for her even though we told her and the FIL to sit with the rest of the congregation if they wanted to hear the service.

My husband agreed to Xmas at their house instead of ours thinking that he was doing me a favor so I wouldn't have to cook but I would rather cook than listen to the MIL go on about why we don't take the kids to church. *Note to MIL (she doen't know about this blog) it was your son who chose to raise his kids in my religion not me! We make sure to teach the kids about all different faiths, and cultures but, ack, the MIL is pissing me off. The Hindu religion is very mythological, which makes it fun (remember Greek mythology in high school?). When my 3 year old was telling her the role of some of the indian gods, she replied with "oh great, he knows about the gods now"
Curse the MIL! I'm taking back the cashmere sweater set now!

I’ll keep you posted on the Xmas sleuthing *giggle*

Tagged

2005-12-06T13:12:00.000-05:00

OK, I've been tagged by Cosmogrrl...

Here are the directions: Write 5 random facts about yourself, and then list the names of 5 people whom you in turn infect. Also, leave a post to these people letting them know they have been infected.

Here goes:

I was a Texas State mixed doubles tennis champion for 3 years straight (in the late 90s-under my maiden name-we were newly married).
I was my happiest when we lived in San Antonio. Far away from the clutches, oops, I mean influences of parents and in-laws. I could be myself and got to grow as an individual.
I grew up in a strict, Indian household that did not promote expression of emotion or sexuality/sensuality. Goes with the culture. Although I am an extremely outgoing person, I am still a very reserved person. I do not share my feelings or personal information very easily. Starting this blog was both very hard and therapeutic for me. Because of this I am very open with our kids. We discuss everything. I don't ever want them to feel as though they cannot come to me.
I am a daredevil. The one thing I have not tried yet is skydiving. I missed my chance before the kids were born and now will wait until my kids are in college.
I have never liked the taste of beer, have never tried pot or any other drug. And don't feel like I missed out on anything-I don't understand the attraction.

Now, I tag Cassie, Mia, Sharon, a.maria and...Chandra :)

In other news, I ran another 3 miles on the treadmill on Sunday, did lunges and used my free weights and balance ball to work biceps and triceps.

Treadmillin' it

2005-11-30T11:33:00.000-05:00

I truly have been running on and off in the past 3 weeks, just nothing exciting to blog about. We sucessfully moved the treadmill from the upstairs bedroom down two flights of stairs to the finished basement. Whew! We dented the front door a bit when we had to take a sharp turn but not by much. That sucker is HEAVY! I removed the console and grab bars to reduce the weight and bulkiness but it was still very tricky.

When we got it situated in the basement in exactly the right spot (in line with the TV 25 feet away) my tall husband noticed that his head presses against the ceiling while standing on the platform! HaHa sucks to be tall. So, the solution? Remove the panel in the ceiling above the treadmill! hee hee, it's pretty funny actually because there is a big hole over my head now. When he run he catches part of the drop down ceiling in his line of sight.

We went to Portland over Thanksgiving weekend for Xmas shopping. I am officially DONE!
Now I just have to wrap all the stuff.

Here I am

2005-11-15T13:56:00.000-05:00

OK I took a quiz from the site Flatman did.

What Type of Girl are You?

You scored as Athletic Tomboy.

Athletic Tomboy

100%

Nerdy Girl

69%

Loser

56%

Popular Bitch

56%

Hippy

50%

Preppy Girl

50%

Slut

19%

Goth

13%

What type of girl are you?!!
created with QuizFarm.com

So....what type of girl are you?

Work, work and more Work...

2005-11-07T23:09:00.000-05:00

Phew! I am pooped out ! I have been soooo busy at work in the past couple of weeks that I have not had any time to do anything personal at all. No running, no shopping (horrors), no badly needed haircut, nothing.

My private office is down a staff member, meaning no receptionist. The new girl starts next week after the long weekend but until then it is just me and a part-timer. There are 20 insurance forms that I have to file every day, yes me, I have to fill them out and sign them because the part-timer does not know how to do medical billing. This is on top of the 20 patients that I see each day when I am there 2 days a week adn the referral letters I have to write. AAAARGH!

Add to this the fact that I solely am in charge of reorganizing the billing system at the group practice that I am a part of and it means some very long, tiresome days. I took the billing and fee schedule problem on myself. After hearing complaints from the other 3 docs that I made more money than them seeing half as many patients, I noticed that they were underbilling for their services. Which means that they had to work twice as hard.
A lot of times they were "comping" office visits when a patient had insurance! Ridiculous! That's why they have insurance! DUh!

In school there was a class called Practice Management which taught you all about the business side of medicine. Apparently some people choose not to listen. The first thing the professor told us was that doctors make the worst businessmen because they are happy to stick to the medicine side of things and not worry about the business side. Well, that's fine and dandy if your spouse is the office manager and has a handle on what's going on but most times offices are filled with people who don't really care whether you make $10 more per patient or not. The only time they care is when they wonder why the practice can't afford to give them a raise.

Remember - no one looks after your money as well as...YOU.

So if you want to have a successful, efficient practice filled with patient satisfaction (and be able to spend a good 20 minutes with each patient) you need to re-evaluate your billing every 2 years. In the group practice that I joined when I moved here, no-one has re-evaluated anything in the past 7 years! They were still billing insurances from their 1998 allowables! Which means they were billing at only 60%. I say "they" because each docs fills out their own billling codes and since I keep up to date with monthly newsletters I know how to bill properly. Hence the re-vamping.

I really don't give a crap whether they make more money or not but I cannot stand inefficiency. I absolutely abore it. Maybe because my father has a sharp business mind some of it rubbed off on me while growing up.

Anyway, I've been meaning to take the treadmill out of our 2nd floor bedroom and put it in the finished basement so I can run while the kids play but that SOB is heavy! It is definitely a 2 maybe 3 person job. Maybe 2 weekends from now.

I hope everyone has a good long weekend :)

Uggh!

2005-10-25T17:36:00.000-04:00

It snowed today...need I say more?

Yippee!

2005-10-15T20:55:00.000-04:00

*jumping up and down and dancing in circles*
I did it, I did it !
I figured out how to add the picture to the top and the sides. Yeah for me :)
Real post follows...

New Icon

2005-10-15T20:09:00.000-04:00

Look what I found...

Now I just have to figure out how to add it to my header. I'm gonna work on it tonight and hope I don't mess up the template (since I really don't know what I'm doing) I just cut and paste by trial and error and hope it works. I know that horrifies all computer programmers out there.

In other news, I haven't been running. I'm trying to be a really compliant patient and let the pain in my knees go away completely before I run again. In the meantime, I feel terrible. Your body gets used to a certain amount of physical activity and when that changes, boys oh boys, it doesn't like it. I'm talking about that fat feeling girls get. Everything gets just a wee bit tigher than desired.

So what am I doing about this other than complaining on my blog? ...
I'm getting a bike! YUP, you heard me I'm getting a KHS Eastwood from my parents as an early holiday gift. It looks like this:

My Dad just bought the same one last month and I loved it when I took it out for a test ride. Here's the description on KHS's website:
"Want to get there in comfort and style? Want to get there as quick and effortlessly as possible? If you answered yes to both of these questions then check out the Eastwood, Westwood, Brentwood or even the new RC1620 Recumbent and Urban-X. These models are the perfect balance between comfort, speed and price." That's me!

I'm also getting one of those trainer things that props up the back wheel so I can "bike" in the winter in the basement. I needed a bike that I could use with the kids as well as for fitness, if I get real good then someday I'll get a road bike. Hopefully the cross-training over the winter will prevent the sore knees again.

Computer error

2005-10-11T16:47:00.000-04:00

OK so it's not a computer error but just me and my computer illiterate self. Since I switched to Haloscan for comments a couple of weeks ago I noticed the comments don't go to my e-mail account. In trying to see why I went to Haloscan's website today and to the comments section. There I went to "Manage comments" and deleted the old comments. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
In doing so it deleted the comments from my posts PERMANENTLY. Yikes, I thought it was just like an inbox or something. So I have lost all my wonderful comments especially the 20 from my race report. Sorry everyone, I even deleted Cassie's and Flatman's comments from today without realizing what was happening. Anyone visiting my blog now will think I have no friends *weep*. Oh well, learn as I go I guess. CRAP!

PS. Don't forget to read the post below :)

OUCH !

2005-10-11T10:45:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Shankar,Wil, Dianna, April-Anne, Susan, Michelle, Sarah and anyone else I've forgotten for finishing their half/marathons this weekend ! YOU GUYS ROCK ! ! !

I haven’t posted in a week because I haven’t been running. My knees were very sore after finishing the Half last weekend. I started to feel the soreness right around mile 10 (which, coincidentally, is where I felt my steam running out). To avoid aggravating them any further, I am resting them for a couple of weeks before either hitting the treadmill or running outdoors if it stops raining.

The pain is on the outside of my knees and just down a bit in the little notch where some tendon goes. I tried looking it up in Netter and can't seem to figure out exactly what is wrong. I'm leaning toward IT Band but the symptoms don't match. The rest of my leg is fine. It's not under the kneecap to patellar-femoralitis. Just not sure what it is but I'm guessing that after a good rest it should be fine.

I could tell my form must have been shot in order to cause such pain so I have made a list for myself of things to work on over the winter (not all about running so please bear with me) :

Better form- read lots more articles and books on proper form.
Videotaping a brief run to view the form.

Work on shorter distances but faster.

Built up to longer, faster distances.

Continue to eat right.

Finish losing the last 5-8 lbs to reach (almost) pre-baby weight.

Try and find time to incorporate swimming and weights into winter regimen.

More crunches to strengthen midsection.

Another Half next Spring? If I can keep the training over the winter.

Maybe, just maybe a Full Marathon next Fall (2006) or Spring/Summer 2007.

Seeing if any of my blog friends want to run a race together.

Continue to teach “S” his letters and to spell 2-3 letter words.

Wean “N” off his pacifier for nighttime.

Teach “N” to count from 10-20.

Finish tearing down the rest of the ivy wallpaper in the kitchen.

Paint the kitchen in a faux finish as planned since last year.

Buy artwork (real stuff but not expensive) to put in dining room.

Change brass, old people looking lighting fixtures to more contemporary style ones to match our taste.

Stop procrastinating about interior design home improvement.

Love my kids lots and lots. They grow up way to fast. And lastly…

Spend as much quality time with my wonderful husband : )

RACE REPORT :)

2005-10-04T11:57:00.000-04:00

WE DID IT ! ! ! ! !
Who : Me and Ian (my husband)
What : Maine Marathon/Half Marathon
When : Sunday Oct 2/05
Where : Portland Maine
Why : Just for the challenge :)

My Time : 2:27.24 ! (According to my watch) Official time 2:29.??
Ian’s Time: 1:56.??

The race was so much fun, I think I’m officially hooked ! The weather was absolutely perfect. At the 7:45 am gun it was a nice cool 59(F and at the finish it was almost 70(F. Just beautiful. The course was pretty flat overall with a mile of hills before and after the turnaround.

When we arrived at the registration on Saturday, The conversation went as follows:
Him : “Rather than just standing around for 2 ½ hours waiting for you to get done, maybe I’ll run the race too”.
Me : “ WHAT?! But you haven’t trained at all in the past 2 months”
Him : “I know but I really don’t feel like standing there waiting”
Me : “ What about your sore knees after your last run, which I’ll remind you was only 6 miles”
Him : “I’ll just run slower and keep you company, we can run together”
Me : “Awww”

At the parking garage I noticed none of the other runners had iPods or other music devices. So I asked another runner if they were allowed (since radio headsets were banned), she thought maybe not so I left it in the car. Baaad mistake. *Note to self-if you have always trained with an iPod then use it during the race. I think I could have kept a better pace had I not had to listen to the sound of my feet hitting the pavement let alone 2499 other runners feet too.

Ian ran with me for the first 5 miles which were at ~ 10:15-10:30 pace at which point he decided he really didn’t like running slow :( so he away he went (with my support of course). He musta hauled ass the final 8.1 in order to finish in under 2 hours :)

After the 7 mile turnaround I met a runner named Dave from Atlanta who ran the same pace as me. We ran together while chatting until mile 12 when my shoelace came untied, I stopped to tie it but other than that I RAN THE WHOLE WAY. After the finish I introduced Dave to Ian and we learned that Dave owns a Bentley/Ferrari dealership in Atlanta. Neato.

He and his wife Chris, a cardiologist, runs races every other weekend. She is a triathlete who either runs a marathon or does a triathlon every 2 weeks and just finished Ironman Wisconsin while Dave does Halfs. What a cool life (needless to say they have no kids).

So not wearing an iPod allowed me to meet Dave and his wife so maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

The other thing I learned is that my watch has only an eight lap memory so I lost the first 5 mile split info. Oh well, an excuse to buy a new watch.

On another note my third toe on my left foot got bruised, sore then turned grey-yup I guess I have my first black toe. Am I a real runner now?

Update 1

2005-09-28T15:23:00.000-04:00

Update # 1

Thanks everyone for your concern. Dad is doing fine, recovering nicely. The first thing he asked his doctor when he started coming out of his drug induced sleep was how soon before he could start running again ! That’s my Dad (

The nurses were impressed that he was very agile after the surgery even helping lift himself up onto his recovery bed from the transport gurney. They said it was because of his athleticism that he is recovering faster than the other heart patients.

I am picking up the kids from preschool after work and we will drive to Saint John Regional Hospital to visit him. Mom and my sister and 1 year old nephew have been there with Dad the whole time. I moved all my patients tomorrow onto Friday so we will get to spend much of tomorrow with him. The kids will stay in Saint John until Monday while I come home tomorrow night. This will leave us kidless for the Half on Sunday. Much Easier. Whew. I’m mot sure they could hang around for 2-2 ½ hours waiting for Mom to cross the finish line.

More updates to follow later. Again thanks for the best wishes. I’m so glag to have the RBF (

Heart Surgery

2005-09-27T09:23:00.000-04:00

My dad, the marathoner, is undergoing a heart bypass as we speak. He got a call on Friday to say that his surgery would be today. Because Canadians have a free health care system, all surgeries are on an as needed/urgency basis. Surgeons are capped at how many surgeries they can do so patients end up waiting on a wait list for a very long time. My Dad was told in April he would need his bypass and finally is having it now.

He will be in critical care drugged up for the next 48 hours then he will be transferred to ICU for another 48 hours before going up to a recovery room. Family is NOT allowed to visit him during the first 48 hours. I am skipping my running schedule this week to drive 3 hours up north to visit Dad on Fri/Sat then back down 5 hours to Portland to pick up the race pack for the Half on Sunday.

Those who pay sky-high monthly insurance premiums should be thankful that the for-profit insurance companies allow you to have any surgery you need/want almost immediately. I just wish that there could be a happy medium.

10 Miles - DONE !

2005-09-24T22:00:00.000-04:00

Well I did it, I knocked out 10 miles today ! That's the farthest I have run in my whole life ! Can you tell I'm pretty proud of myself? *giggle* Oh yeah, the time you ask?

A ROCKIN' 1:42:37 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kicked ass on that run :)

This run was in Fredericton so my dad rode his bike next to me while I ran on the walking/jogging trails and maybe him being beside me was enough to keep me on pace or something but man did that feel good. The cyclometer thing on his bike was able to give us the distance and pace and I swear I thought it was wrong until I saw the signs on the trails marking the distance and realized that the fancy gizmo was calibrated right.

Miles 1 and 2 : Came out much too fast -9 min pace, Dad slowed and indicated the 2 mile mark and when I looked at my watch it said 18 min (which is why I thought his calibration was off) but the trail sign also said 2 miles. I realized very quickly that that pace would need to be slowed otherwise I wouldn't make it to mile 10.

Miles 3 and 4: Still running pretty fast-10 min pace, but was honestly feeling pretty darn good so far so decided to try and keep that pace.

Mile 5 : half a GU pack (Expresso) and Gatorade from Fuel Belt. I LOVE the Expresso! I am going to go back to Triathlete Sports on Monday and trade my Triberry for more Expresso. Until now the whole way had a pretty strong headwind.

Miles 1-5 = 49:54 = 9:59 min/mile

Mile 6 : Thank heavens for the tailwind! quarter pack GU and Gatorade.

Mile 7: Seemed to have slowed a little so picked up the pace and pushed harder for ...

Miles 8 and 9: rest of GU pack and little bit more Gatorade.

Mile 10: Uphill but I pushed really hard and ran as fast as I could the last half mile. Paid off handsomely !

Miles 6-10 = 52:43 = 10:32 min/mile
Overall pace = 10:15 min/mile

Started with 4 full bottles in the Fuel Belt and ended with 2 full bottles so for the half will use 2 bottles and then the water/gatorade tables.

My Dad's butt (on the bike) was more sore than I was! I have been grinning to myself all afternoon about my times. I had told my husband last week that after the half next week I was going to spend the winter concentrating on shaving some time off my pace in prep for the spring. I have been fantasizing about someday (maybe even next year) trying a marathon but again finding the time to train is the hard part. So many obligations, so little time. Something has to suffer...I just don't want it to be my kids. On that note...

*Warning : selfish comments follow*
We have been in negotiations lately about having another child. I am more than willing but...after "S" was born I bounced back very quickly. Back to my old self in 6 months. I'm not bragging - the fact that I was so stressed out because he didn't follow any of the rules in the book and nursed every 2 hours at night until he was 11 months old had a huge role in it. That kid defied logic, he would be sound asleep but the minute I would bring a sandwich to my lips he would wake up screaming. Needless to say I didn't get to eat as much as I would have liked.

Baby "N" was a much calmer baby, followed all the preset rules (nursed well and slept like a log at 2 wks of age), and was much more predictable. And no, it was not because it's easier the second time around but because that's just his personality-he's still calm and "S" is still higher strung.
The problem was that when we moved to Maine from San Antonio I had a harder time losing the baby weight due to lack of activity.

I am scared s***less that it will happen again. There I said it for all blogworld to read. I am afraid I will have a hard time losing the baby weight again. I like my nice lean self. When I was heavier I just felt horrible because none of my clothes would fit right. My post-nursing boobs always walked into a room first, my a** always seemed like it was 2 minutes behind, and I was always sucking in to hide the baby roll (which BTW is harder to get rid of the second time). The roll is gone and so are the boobs and a** but hell that was very hard work. The third time I will be past mid thirty and I imagine that much more harder. I know I will have another child but I don't want to have to wait another 2-3 years to get to great shape to train for a marathon.

Would love to hear from anyone (both men/women) that were trying to train for something with very small children.
Hope everyone else had great weekend runs/races :)

Oops!

2005-09-21T12:42:00.000-04:00

Well I have solved the mystery of the mysterious pain under my left rib cage ... digestive cramps from overeating *sheepish grin*. I know what you're thinking, how much food must little Kiran have eaten to cause that kind of cramping. Before you rush to judgement let me tell you that this past weekend we went to my parent's house and I just could not resist my Mom's cooking. I tried very hard to stick to my normally small sized portions but Mom had made some of my favorite Indian dishes. YUM!

That's what led to a wee bit more food on my plate (at every meal for 2 days). My GI system was in overdrive mode trying to process the food which eventually manifested itself as a cramp. The interesting thing was that I didn't feel like I overate-I did not eat until I was stuffed or uncomfortable, I just ate a bit more than usual.

I try to cook at home whenever I can but, hey, I'm a fulltime working mom and sometimes(OK a lot of times) we have prepackaged food for dinner like frozen lasagna etc. So when there is a couple of days that I don't have to cook, or reheat, and get to eat yummy food made by someone else I end up eating a tad bit much *giggle*.

Funny how our bodies are used to a certain way of doing thins and when you change it, it rebels. There have been times in the past when I have truly overeaten until I felt like a stuffed turkey (don't look at me like that-you have done it too) and never had such cramps. *sigh* another thing to chalk up to aging-crap!

The cramp disappeared yesterday along with the sunny weather so I ran for 4.5 miles on the tradmill instead of running in the mist.

Tonight I will attempt to remove the ivy wallpaper in the kitchen I have been complaining about since we moved in last year. The kids are at my parents for the week so this is the best time to start this project. Next month when they go to stay with my in-laws for a couple of days I will paint the walls. Wish me luck.
P.S. I'm trying something new- I'm using Haloscan for comments instead of blogger comments.

Weekend

2005-09-19T19:56:00.000-04:00

Well, the weekend was a wash...the remnants of Ophelia wreaked havoc with the Terry Fox 10K Run this past weekend. It rained from Friday to Monday (the run was Sunday). The kids were not cool with walking and strolling in the pouring rain and we were a little hesitant to subject them to the weather lest they get sick.

So we turned around and came home. My make-up run tonight was not good either, I got a cramp on my left side under my rib cage. I have never had one of these running before and it's been a long time since I had a cramp, period (no pun intended-haven't had one of those in a while either). I almost want to say it was a little like a digestion cramp that I read about online, so my intended 4 miler turned into 1 mile.

Has anyone had one of these before?

Fabulous Baby!

2005-09-13T15:15:00.000-04:00

As the venerable Austin Powers would say. He would also say "She's got her mojo back, Baby" I have had the most fabulous runs lately.

My long run on Sunday was 9 miles and 1:41:18. That is the longest I have ever run in my life. Yeah for me!

This morning's 5.4 miles was a nice and easy 60 min. For both days I took a different route than my regular one, the new route has quite a few rolling hills to prepare me for the Half in 3 weeks.

Mentally, I am out of my slump which has made running much more enjoyable. I think I was getting a bit scared about whether I really could do 13.1 but getting up to 9 has me pumped.

Sunday's long run was very steady, no sucking (or breaking) wind :) Beautiful sunny weather of mid 70s at 10am, Fuel belt 2 bottles of Gatorade full, Gummis in holder and off I went. I never felt stressed, strained or like I was pushing too hard. I just ran. I left a bottle of Gatorade in my neighbor's mailbox Sunday and this AM so after my run I had instant hydration on the 1/2 mile cooldown walk up the hill to my house.

Hope everybody else is out having a blast running!

A crapload of pictures

2005-09-10T20:42:00.000-04:00

I had an absolutely fabulous run yesterday morning. It was 4.5 miles but even though the weather was cool, mentally it felt real good. I came up with a plan to stuff my long sleeve in my neighbour's mailbox at the end of our road after my brisk warm up walk (we have old fashioned roadside boxes with those red flags that lift up). That way I don't have to run with it tied around my waist again and since it is 6am they probably won't be checking their box. After my run, I realized that I should put a bottle of Gatorade there too so I can drink it on my cool-down walk. Someday maybe I'll knock on their door and ask them if it's OK :)

Tomorrow is my long run, since I passed on last week's 8 miler I will try 8.5 this week and not make the full jump to 9.

Next week has a 10K race scheduled and we will be going to Fredericton to run the Terry Fox 10K run. For those of you who remember, in 1980, Terry Fox was a young man from British Columbia who ran 26 miles a day, every day, across Canada starting at the most Eastern point in Newfoundland for his "Marathon of Hope" to raise money for Cancer reasearch. What's so remarkable about this? Terry had lost his leg to bone cancer and ran with a prosthetic leg. Now stop and think about that...it's hard enough to run a marathon, let alone a marathon every day, let alone with a prosthetic leg that makes you hobble when you run. Unfortunately Terry only made it to Thunder Bay Ontario when he starting feeling sick. He was diagnosed with cancer again only this time he wasn't so lucky, he died shortly afterwards. Every Canadian remembers Terry Fox and what he was trying to accomplish. You can read more about him here. I personally will never forget how all the schoolkids, myself incuded, would walk to elementary school imitating his hobbled run not in jest but in praise because he was a hero to many kids.

Here are a bunch of pics from last weekend at our new cottage. Enjoy :)

2005-09-10T20:41:00.000-04:00

Mama and "S" head for some kayaking while...

2005-09-10T20:40:00.001-04:00

"N" waits patiently for his Dada to stop taking pictures.

2005-09-10T20:40:00.000-04:00

"S" and Dada

2005-09-10T20:39:00.001-04:00

Me with a napping "N"

2005-09-10T20:39:00.000-04:00

Faster Dada

2005-09-10T20:38:00.000-04:00

Pooped out :)

2005-09-10T20:27:00.000-04:00

View from deck

2005-09-10T20:26:00.000-04:00

Lake view from the deck without the tiki torch in the way :)

2005-09-10T20:24:00.000-04:00

Cottage from the road

2005-09-10T20:19:00.000-04:00

View of our sandy beach from the west end of it.

Aaaahhhh!

2005-09-06T12:44:00.000-04:00

Hope all the RBFers had a nice relaxing labor day weekend. We had a beautiful weekend out at our new cottage at the lake. It is small and the baseboard heaters and the hearth aren't working yet which made for good snuggling but otherwise we had so much fun. The kids, ages almost 2 and 3 1/2, learned to kayak while sitting in front of us and played around on the 10 ft x 110 ft sandy beach that is ours. I am so glad we decided to buy this property even though it might mean peanut butter sandwiches for a while (which I love but you get my point). I'll post some pictures later.
Meanwhile in running news, I'm sure y'all read about the little slump I was having. Does anyone else ever feel this way? Rather than stress about it, I decided to relax and skip the long run on Sunday and start fresh again this week.
This morning at 6am the thermometer read 42F for my 4 miler = 42 minutes. I picked the pace back up to normal (for me) speed again so it came in at 10:30 min/mile. It was chilly so I wore a long sleeve Dri-fit shirt over my running shirt then after 2 miles I warmed up enough that I could tie it around my waist. I have not run in cold weather yet so I'm wondering how I will make out for the rest of the month until the half-marathon. Speaking of, it starts at 7:45 am so in another month it will be downright penquin weather.
Another question - I bought a 4 bottle Fuel Belt and fill just 2 bottles with Gatorade on my long runs and only really use them at the end during my cooldown. Do I wear it for the Half or just use the water/Aid stations? Any thoughts out there?

Time Out...

2005-08-30T12:34:00.000-04:00

...as my son would say. Yup that's right Mommy needed a time out. I was in a very angry, upset mood towards the end of last week and I needed a time out from running and blogging. I missed my Wed 3 miler as usual (My husband travels out of town on Wed and leaves at 5:30am and gets home at 7:30pm so it leaves me no chance to run that day-but that's perfectly OK). My Thursday day off was filled with business errands and an afternoon meeting with the bank again to finalize some last minute details before construction starts. I woke up extra early Friday AM, 5:00, to do the scheduled 4.5 miles only to discover that my husband was already out running! AAARgh!
I waited and waited hoping he would be returning soon but he didn't end up coming home until 6:45am .This left me fuming mad!! There were some choice words said that morning. It made for a miserable day but I am the type of person that separates personal from business very easily so rest assured my patients did not suffer.
I am calm now, having chilled out a bit, received a lot of hugs and apologies and sworn to that my running will be top priority. Aaah, much better.
Sunday's long run of 7miles = 1:17:20 ! I slowed my pace slightly but still managed to maintain an 11 min mile pace. Good for me. I still consider myself a beginner runner so I am happy that I am increasing mileage and keeping the pace. Someday I will become faster like the rest of y'all, until then I am biding my time.
What has been remarkable is the increasing tone in my legs. I am proud of the change- my Mom even noticed last month!
This post seems random and scatterbrained because it just is. Too many thoughts in my head right now going in several different directions. We officially closed on the lake property yesterday and the contractors are bringing fill to our new office location today. I might not be able to post as regularly as before but will try my best.

The blahs and the iPod

2005-08-23T10:33:00.000-04:00

Sunday 6 mile = 1:04:45 = 10:45 min/mile !!!!!!!
Tuesday 4 miles = 44:52 = 11:21 min/mile

I hit a bit of a blah spell last week, both physically and mentally. My husband had decided, 2 weeks ago, that he wanted to run the Maine Marathon's 1/2 marathon too. That was fine and dandy except that now we have to figure out who is going to run each morning. It used to only be me so if I felt like sleeping in and shifting the training schedule it was no problem, but now it is a problem. One morning last week I had dressed to run and was heading out the door when my little one "N" woke up hollering "where Mama?" By the time I soothed him down I realized there was not enough time to run before the daily commotion of morning wakeup routine would begin. Well, who should stroll into the bedroom dripping wet with sweat? My husband. Having just run 4 miles. Outside. On my running day. Humph.

That's when I realized my freedom of random morning runs were over. I thought how funny it would have been to be out running and discover my husband heading towards me on the other side of the road :) Me panic stricken would be wondering who was with the kids.
Oh well -we'll figure it out.

Last week my last run was Thursday PM, Friday was rest day, on Saturdays I never have a chance to crosstrain so it becomes another rest day. This is too much down time for me - I end up shifting into lazy mode. Next weekend I will do a short run ~2 miles on Sat AM, then the long run Sun. We'll see if that helps.

I would love to have a bike and ride the mornings that I'm not running or even put the kids in one of those bike trailer things and ride in the evenings with them but bikes are expensive, especially since I like to buy middle range and not low end, and the end of the season is coming, then comes snow...brrr.

In other news I bought an iPod shuffle at Sam's Club yesterday! Why? because on my long run Sunday my FM radio gave out on me at the 4 mile mark....aargh! I hate the sound of my shoes on pavement or gravel so the last 2 miles were a killer for me. I tried singing songs in my head but the majority of my song library consists of preschools songs "the wheels on the bus..."

Since the half marathon has a radio headset ban I broke down and bought the iPod. Talk about feeling old school. I went to Circuit City to buy a shuffle armband and asked the kid how the whole MP3 thing worked. Well didn't he just look at me like I had 3 heads. Alright kid, listen here, 8 tracks were just being phased out when I was born in 1971. I own numerous vinyl, tapes and quite a few old CDs but since the kids were born (2002) it has been a preschool life.

I downloaded iTunes and uploaded some of my old CDs, the thought of paying $0.99 a song seems high when you can buy the whole CD for $10.
I am sooooooooooo feeling old right now.

TGIF

2005-08-19T09:46:00.000-04:00

Not much exciting in the world of exercise this week ...

Tuesday - 4 miles on treadmill @ 10:32 pace
Thursday - 4 miles on treadmill @ 10:32 pace

This week I was too lazy wake up in the AM so I did treadmill running in the evening instead. Am I the only one who thinks that an11:00 pace on a treadmill is faster than the 10:45 I run outdoors? It seems like I work a lot harder when running on the treadmill. Maybe those things aren't calibrated right.

Anyway, the lakehouse thing...The other 2 properties we looked at were not appropriate waterfront for someone with 2 preschoolers. It was deep waterfront, meaning they had boats docked next to land so even though the yard was huge the deep water was intimidating to me. The camp was nasty inside- no heat, not insulated, moldy and musty smelling-just awful. It is a complete teardown. But the lot is big so if someone has lots of money they could buy it, tear it down and rebuilt a spectacular home worthy of being called a lakehouse or summer home.
I could just imagine my kids jumping in to the deep water without life jackets when my back was turned. So we decided to continue bidding on the first one with a small sand beach and shallower water.

Just to clarify, when I say lakehouse that is glorifying it-Mainers call these kind of houses "camps" for good reason, they are old fishing and hunting camps located on land that at one time was owned by lumber companies. The current owners have jazzed it up with new vinyl siding, new cupboards, new windows, doors and a new deck but it is still a camp. The walls are insulated but the beautiful rustic beadboard ceiling is not. Remember it is only 20 x 24 in size = 480 sq ft!

This is the link to the one kid appropriate that we want -
http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1049381370?lnksrc=00045

Short post turned long

2005-08-16T23:33:00.000-04:00

Since Friday I have felt like crap- I have an abcessed molar and it hurts to eat. So Sunday morning I woke up in quite a bit of pain and sleep deprived because of the tooth. Lifting my head from my bed at 6am and seeing mist outside, I said "screw it, no long run today, I'm going back to sleep". I woke up 2 hours late much more refreshed but feeling very guilty about missing the long run.

All day long I thought about when would be a good time to do the obligatory 6 miles. Nothing like feeling forced to run. You have to understand that my father-in-law (FIL) came to help us build stairs for our deck. So someone has to watch the kids while my husband helps him. I thought when the kids take their nap I'll run...well I ended up falling asleep too. Two hours later, and feeling even more guilty, I decided rain or shine I was going to run. Off I went.
End result 5.5 miles= 57:30 min. Not bad.

This morning I skipped the 4 mile run because my husband and I were up until 2am discussing the impending purchase of our lakehouse. I know there are worse things to worry about but the truth is we are stretching ourselves pretty thin. The house we bid on and had inspected revealed a flaw where the ground is causing one of the basement walkout walls to be pushed in due to erosion. It will require a backhoe to dug up around the whole cottage foundation (not concrete but post and beam with pressure treated lumber), put in a retaining wall, and back fill. A lot more expense than originally budgeted when we were told of the flaw by the homeowners.

So after I paid $400 last week to have the septic pumped and inspected (because it is in shoreland property) and paid another $400 to the building inspectpr yesterday, we find out another place just literally went up on the market a little bit further down the lake. So everyone, realtor and inspector included, head over to the new listing. It has 50 ft more waterfront (150ft vs 100ft), no sand beach, but a level lot that is twice the size. the cottage needs work to update it but the lot is huge. Unfortunately it was not open so we couldn't see the inside. So what the hell is the dilemma?

For right now the first one is better because it has 100 ft of sand beach 2 feet in width but...for later I can totally see us having more family/friends/kids friends over pitching tents in the summer and having parties. So to buy for now or for later that is the dilemma. Plus I would end up kissing the $800 so far goodbye, something I am pissed about.

Hmmm maybe I can get the realtor to cover the new septic and building inspection considering that property offers the regular 3% commission compared to the 1.5% of the first house. Knowing realtors they will try and push you to buy the higher priced one for more money in their pockets. No offense to any readers who have family that are realtors.

We are going to see the inside of it tonight after work. I'll keep you posted.

Short post

2005-08-12T11:01:00.000-04:00

Thursday (yesterday) AM 4 miles = 43:17 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not only am I running farther but a tad faster than before. I have been experimenting with a bit of GU (1/3 of tube) before each run. Maybe it's helping...maybe its psychological :)

Boston run

2005-08-09T18:37:00.000-04:00

My husband and I went to Boston this past weekend to buy medical equipment for the office we are constructing. Before leaving I told my husband that on Sunday AM I would be running 5miles on the esplanade along the Charles River (separating Boston and Cambridge). He said he would love to join me. Remember he has long legs-it's important later.

On Saturday we stopped by Marathon Sports to get a running map and buy new Asics Gel Kayanos (I always wear the same shoe). Back at the hotel, we found the 5.2 mile route on the map and decided to give it a try the next day. We had dinner in the North End, which is basically Little Italy, at Limoncello's which served Northern Italian dishes. I had Chilean sea bass and it was cooked to perfection!

On Sunday we woke up at 6:20am (rephrase-I woke up, he wanted to know why he couldn't sleep in) and headed down to the Esplanade (home of the Hatch Shell where the July 4th Pops conert is broadcast from on PBS). We started at the Harvard Bridge (across from the MIT dome) and planned to run to the Arsenal Bridge, across it to the Cambridge side and back. A couple of things about Boston- some things just don't have a logical reason for the way they are.

Considering that the whole darn city runs on the Esplanade you would think they would mark the 10 bridges so you know where you are.
The Harvard Bridge does not go to Harvard- it crosses to MIT.
The Arsenal Bridge connects to Harvard and not to the Armory.

Instead of the Arsenal Bridge we ended up turning around at the Anderson Bridge thinking it was the Arsenal. The end result was that we did exactly 5 miles instead of the intended 5.2 miles in 55 minutes (that included 1 minute of jogging on spot waiting for light to change and not get run over by cars).

Overall I was very, very happy with this time.

OK now a note about long legs - ran the whole thing then came back to run with me-aawww...what a sweet husband (see post about 7min miler for 10 miles). At the end he was pumped I tell ya...
Him: Come on let's go farther, that was easy.
Me: Um...no thanks, I'm gonna stick to the schedule.
Him: Maybe we can run again tonight-that felt great.
Me: Maybe you should wait until tonight, you might just change your mind.
Him: OK then let's run tomorrow morning.
Me: uh, no tomorrow is rest day.
Him (2 blocks later): uh, the side of my knee is sore
Him (1 block later): ouch it hurts, stop I need to stretch
Me(giggling): I told you so, still wanna run tonight? Hee hee

This AM 4 miles = 44:28 minutes. It felt great! When I posted that 3.5 miles at 37 minutes being sloooow it was not because of the time, the run just felt bad. It felt like I was trying too hard to keep the pace. But I thank those that commented that it was not so slow.

Slow as Molasses moving backwards in a snowstorm

2005-08-04T22:01:00.000-04:00

Today : 3.5 miles = 37 minutes. Can you say slooooooooooooow.

2005-08-04T17:31:00.000-04:00

Setting up for the petting zoo in my parents backyard with anxious kids waiting patiently. My sons are the ones in the white shirts with orange dino on back.

2005-08-04T17:30:00.001-04:00

Lots of people :)

2005-08-04T17:30:00.000-04:00

Yikes

2005-08-04T17:29:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to me- hey wait, hands off that's my cake

2005-08-04T17:28:00.000-04:00

Clean up time-kids all gone

2005-08-04T17:27:00.000-04:00

Don't my kids look cute in their Indian outfits?

2005-08-04T17:26:00.000-04:00

My son in Dash PJ's and Spidey underwear holding up finished knit socks for niece.

Boo Hoo

2005-08-03T14:58:00.000-04:00

I miss my little monkeys :( They won't be back until next week but the house is horribly empty without them. It seems that they are also my unconscious motivator. Let me explain.

Every morning I wake up and go running around 6:15ish, by the time I return back to the house, the kids are awake, sometimes dressed and having breakfast with Daddy. I stretch, do crunches and shower before my husband leaves for work at 7:45ish. This leaves 45 minutes to finish getting dressed, dress the kids (if not done yet), clean up breakfast mess, ready the kids bags for school, corral them in to the SUV(the environment-yeah,yeah) to drop off at preschool before 9am. This busy schedule must subconsciously get my adrenaline pumping first thing in the AM because this week without the kids I feel like a SLUG.

I woke up as usual to run this morning and when I hit the road I felt like I was forcing myself to run. Not a good feeling. I had flashbacks to tennis training and being forced to run with the coach behind us making sure we didn't slack off. I hate forced anything! So after suffering the worst right side shin splints for a mile I quit and walked back home. Disgusted with myself, I finished by doing some crunches before heading off to work. I had a remember to turn into my office driveway and not drive past it to the preschool like I usually do.

I am thinking of bailing on the training schedule for this week and pick up again for the long run on Sunday. I'll be in Boston (where I went to school) for the weekend and my husband has said he will run with me along the Esplanade, yeah :)

A warning- the following will make you sick with jealousy... my husband's body build is long and lean. 6' 2 1/2' and ~175lbs. He is built like a long distance runner. In May he decided to go for a long run out of the blue. He went for 10 miles at a 7:30 pace! Makes me sick. Extremely athletic he is-lucky!

BTW when I run the half-marathon in October, when am I supposed to eat GU gel and where am I supposed to use the Body Glide? Are there any guidelines for this? I couldn't find anything in this years back issues of Runner's World.

Weekend run

2005-08-02T09:46:00.000-04:00

First things first:
Friday 3.5 miles = 35:22 min
Sunday 5 miles = 53:56 min

This past weekend was very, very busy. It involved another trip 3 hours North to Fredericton. Saturday was my nephew's 1st birthday party-there was a petting zoo in my parents backyard consisting of a giant pink pig, a llama, rabbits, rooster, chinese chicken, ducks and whatever else I have forgotten. The kids invited had a great time with the animals especially when the rabbit escaped. My 3 year old was running around the yard trying to help chase it down and was giddy with the thrill of the chase.

On Sunday my Mom hosted a "Garden Party" at our local Hindu temple for about 75 people for whom she did all the cooking herself! That too was a good time with great food (of course) and a chance to catch up with the kids of my parents friends whom I have not seen in a long time. Typical to the Indian population most of them are in med school or in engineering school.

The kids are with my in-laws :( for this week so hopefully I can get some yard work done around the house.

Run, Run as Fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread man

2005-07-29T09:59:00.000-04:00

Wednesday's 2 mile run was pushed to Thursday and was shortened to a fast 1 miler on the treadmill. It almost never happened because I woke up 10 min late, got dressed, was heading out the door when I head the 3 year old "S" calling because he had a bad dream. Came running up the stairs only to collide at the top with my half-awake husband. Crumpled in a heap on the floor, while my husband hurdled over me to the door only to make enough noise in the process that we woke up the younger one "N".

At that point there was so much chaos and confusion that trying to go out the door was near impossible. After 10 min of coaxing, nobody was going to take me up on my offer of pushing one of them in the jogging stroller. So we made them breakfast, dropped them off at school and went shopping when I got a call from our realtor wanting to show me the lake house I saw online. Hustled home, changed into "real people" clothes (not gymwear) and headed back out to see the house.

It was perfect!!!! The pictures don't even do it justice.It is on the lake, a double lot (for expansion), has a nice 2 bedroom cottage house with a 2 story deck on it. But most importantly, a sand beach for 10 feet in front!! (the other camps have deep water frontage) It also is in a cove inlet with shallow water for 50 feet before it drops. Why does it seem like I am trying to talk myself into it? Because we are in the process of building a very expensive medical clinic and had not really planned on finding a cottage so soon. We had given ourselves 2 years to look and to take our time. Also the price is 25% higher than our max. It is priced fairly for the market, maybe even a bit under priced but it's still higher than our max. You can only push the bank account so far :(

Woke up extra early this morning to get in the 3.5 mile run. I forgot to bring my watch to work with me so I'm fuzzy on the splits but the whole 3.5 miles took me 35:35ish! Yeah for me. I'll post the times tommorrow with a weekly recap.

Wish List

2005-07-26T10:44:00.000-04:00

My kids have been watching the Aladdin movie over and over and over again. If I could have my own personal genie there would be several things I would wish for:

I wish for the days when...

I could go back to the days in college when my diction consisted of multi-syllablic words, eloquent verbage, and could write an essay like any speechwriter for a president.
I could actually watch something on TV other than cartoons. (I am fortunate than my children are far too busy playing outdoors and their TV time is limited to watching only after their nightly baths).
I did not have to worry about a couple of extra mid-section centimeters (who am I kidding -inches) after having 2 children in the past 3 years.
I could sleep in past sunrise when 2 beautiful little children wake up ready to start the day.
I could exercise whenever I felt like it without wondering if I could fit it in.
As a new grad Dr. I used to get really excited at the thought of seeing a retinal detachment coming in to the office.
I can jump out of bed in the morning and run 10 miles without feeling tired.

But in the end I would not trade my life for anyone else's. Why the ramblings? Because today I found out that one of our staff members was being abused physically and mentally by her husband. She apparently fainted in the office( she was fasting to lose weight because her husband said she was overweight at 105 lbs and 5'7"), and when the ambulance took her home, her husband was there to yell at her in front of the EMTs. Scary. Idiot.

OK rant over - back to running news.

Sunday morning I went with the family to the park and then a run. The schedule called for 4 miles so miles 0 to 2 = 19:23 min and miles 2 to 4 = 20:32 min ( it ended going up a steep hill).

This morning I took a detour onto one of the side streets and did what I thought was 3.5 miles. To the turnaround 16:13 min and back 16:15. Well, on the way to work I measured it in the car and it ended up being only 3.1 !!!!!! That means when I thought I was running a bit slow I actually was! Dammit! I should trust my instincts more often.

End result 3.1 miles 32:28 min.

Weekly Roundup

2005-07-22T10:47:00.000-04:00

This week was very productive overall. I am still following Hal's training guide although we shifted it by a day this week.
Woke up early Thursday at 6:00am and knocked out 2 miles as per schedule, scaring 2 little old ladies along the way who ignored my yelling (well in advance) "coming up behind" as I approached them. Maybe they didn't have their hearing aids turned up or something - they were late 70s in age, but walking at a very brisk pace.
Recap:
Sun - 4 miles ~ 39 min
Mon - off
Tues - off
Wed - 3 miles on treadmill at 10:30 pace (noon workout)
Thurs - 2 miles
Fri - 2.5 miles
Tonight's menu:
Pizza!

Humidity

2005-07-20T14:14:00.000-04:00

Humid, humid, humid and 95F! Yuck,yuck,yuck! Can I just say that moving from Texas was supposed to offer us a reprieve from the stifling heat/humidity combo. Yesterday's 3 miler did not happen. When I woke up at 6am the air so muggy and humid that it actually looked like it was misting outside. So I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Today was the same-no AM run. So feeling guilty all morning that I am messing my training schedule- I made myself drive home at lunch, turn on the window AC in my room and chug out 3 miles on the treadmill at a 10:30 pace, shower, then return back to the office only 5 min late for my 1:00pm patient who was humored that I ran on my lunch hour.
Tonight's menu :
Grilled salmon (on the BBQ) marinated in Balsalmic vinegrette
Steamed Broccoli (with melted cheese for the kids)
Yogurt and watermelon for dessert

Early morning run

2005-07-17T08:52:00.000-04:00

Well we are in Fredericton again this weekend. The plan was to go camping with the in-laws at Mactaquac Provincial Park for the weekend. We decided to change that plan slightly and have "S" and Dada stay with the grandparents and "N" and I would return to Ammamma (my mom) and Tatayya's (my dad) house. The kids had a great time swimming in the lake in the afternoon, strolling around the campgrounds, chasing all the squirrels and such that they absolutely refused to take a nap. They say no to sleeping in the tent, no to the RV, but yes to the stroller. This was fine and dandy but try pushing a 3 year old and 21 month old in strollers in the hot afternoon sun for 2 hours. It bites.

Dad and I woke up this morning at 6:30 am for our 4 mile run. It was absolutely beautiful! The temperature was perfect and the view running along the river was amazing. There was a little mist rising off the water that was breathtaking. Again another reason I am sooo glad we moved from Texas and the blistering heat.

There was no actual mile markers along the way but Dad knew where the 2 mile turnaround was.
Miles 0 to 2 19:20 minutes
Miles 2 to 4 19:00 minutes

I am procrastinating as long as possible before going back to camp (20 minutes away) because the thought of sitting around reading or knitting is boring to me on days when the adrenaline is pumping.

Hot days before storms

2005-07-14T22:42:00.000-04:00

Well the morning started off nice and cool as predicted but there was a certain "scent" in the air. This scent was reminiscent of my youthful junior tennis days when we would wake up at tennis tournaments smelling the same smell and knowing that there was going to be a thunderstorm that day. How many matches can we fit in before the rain? How long will the tourney be delayed behind?

These were the same questions that popped in my head as I dropped my kids of at school/childcare. How many errands (on my day off) can I fit in, then get a 3 mile run in before the rain. Errands took me 2 hours (ugh), then lo and behold the sun came out... and the humidity. Still I packed on my new Camelbak, slathered on the sunscreen and hit the road for a 3 miler.
Here are my times
mile 1 10:32
mile 2 9:45
mile 3 10:15
Not bad considering I walked a bit on mile 3. In training for the Portland Maine 1/2 marathon I am following Hal Higdon's half-marathon training guide.
BTW the picture of my husband and me has me standing on a 6 inch platform because me 5'2"
he 6'3".

pic of me and the better half

2005-07-11T15:44:00.000-04:00

Pics

2005-07-11T14:24:00.000-04:00

Here are some pics of my wonderful kids. Yup these are the ones that prevent me from running some days. Some days are just need more hugs from Mama days. To help counter balance the lack of quality time some days we have bought a jogging stroller! The "N" (the younger one) loves the stroller because it fits him perfect this year. By next year he will be a bit tall for it but we'll keep using it until his head pops out the top like his older brother "S".
So last week I ran 3 days.
Monday - 3.5 miles
Wednesday - 3.5 miles
Sunday (yesterday) - 4 miles

I think the marathon thing will have to wait until spring or early summer 2006. Construction of our medical clinic is more important right now and therefore taking much of our time and energy.

2005-07-06T09:27:00.000-04:00

I took a survey today found on one of my knitting friends blogs. It is interesting. Here's the link.

It is by a student at MIT.

Happy 4th !

2005-07-05T11:33:00.000-04:00

Managed to finish the dang playset -- it is huge! I will upload a picture when I can- in the meantime you can see it by clicking the link. We woke up early Sat AM and steadily worked on it until 12:30 pm when we realized we were one step away from finishing. We did a ceremonial jig (aka the leprechaun dance) and hung up the third swing. A quick shower and phone call to the parents to say we were leaving and off we went.

The kids were ecstatic to see us. I love "glad to see you mom" hugs from my 2 adorable little kids. They had a great time hanging out with their 2 girl cousins ages 13 (as of last week) and 9. But with the good comes some bad. S has learned to say "Shut up" instead of "stop talking". AAAAARgh! I hate the deprogramming process that needs to be done afterwards.

As of this morning they still have yet to discover the playset. We didn't want them to know until they finish "school" today. BTW School = Preschool. I am planning on videotaping the reaction on their faces for posterity.

Had a great 5 mile run with my dad yesterday morning. Not sure how to rate the timing because I didn't wear a sports watch (I forgot it in the packing rush and was not going to wear my nice one) besides Dad was wearing one so I should be OK, right? WRONG

We started running on a trail-like run amongst the trees alongside the beautiful Saint John River in Fredericton enjoying the scenery, feeling the wind rush through my hair, good strides, then WHAM! STOP my Dad says. What, what are you OK? Is anything wrong? (He is due to have another angioplasty Aug 22). The answer - NOPE. Just time for our walk break. WTF!? Walk break? We have only been running 10 minutes! Yup, my dad runs his 1/2 and full marathons with 10 minutes of walking then 1 minute of running.

This absolutely drove me nuts! I will often need to take walk breaks but I take them much further on down the line. Needless to say that although I really enjoyed the overall run the run/walk thing messed me up.

Thanks to Cosmogrrl and Thinking runner for the marathon push. I am seriously thinking about doing the 1/2 marathon this year in Portland (Maine not Oregon) in September. Then try a full sometime next year. This all hinges upon being able to fit the training schedule into my kids schedule.

Happy Canada Day!

2005-07-01T15:01:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to Canada! Today is Canada Day and my parents are taking the kids to various Canada Day activities and festivities then fireworks at night if they are still awake by then.

The playset is killing me slowly and softly. We have gotten a lot done on it but there is still more to go. It has been raining on and off so we have not been able to get 2-3 hours straight. That and tomorrow we will be kayaking in Bar Harbour on the ocean for the first time so when will this thing be done? Who knows - hopefully before my kids outgrow it ;)

Oh sorry, I forgot this is a blog about running. Ran on Wednesday for 3 miles and did it at 10:00 pace and felt good about it. I have been sticking to the 3 mile distance and trying to increase speed before I increase the distance. Someday I would like to run a marathon just so I can tell the kids I did and also because I would love to have them cheer me on near the end :)

My mom last weekend noticed that my legs were looking a lot toner and asked if running was responsible for this body change. It kinda shocked me that she noticed because lately I have just run without constantly looking at myself in the mirror afterwards to see if anything changed.

I crack up everytime they show the commercial on TV where the heavy black guy goes to the gym, steps on the scale, sprints around the weights one time, steps back on the scale, and smacks it because it didn't change. Hee hee! Sometimes I feel they made that commercial about me.
Happy July 4th everyone!

GO SPURS GO!

2005-06-28T09:06:00.000-04:00

I love the San Antonio Spurs!! They are a team of good, kind hearted guys that are very community oriented. I used to live in a gated, guarded community where Sean Elliott, Tim Duncan (until he moved), and Rasho Nesterovich lived down the street from me. Talk about a nice bunch of guys. Becuase of our professions we have had occassion to mingle at social events with Dave Robinson (fundraising for his charter school) and Robert Horry. Great, great guys!

Flying back to Maine last year my husband, IJ, sat next to coach Gregg Popovich who owns a summer home in Bar Harbor. What luck since my husband played college B-ball.

*A note about gated, guarded subdivisions- they offer a false sense of security because everyone has yard workers and housekeepers that come and go everyday within the subdivision so thinking that you are keeping potential crime out is a misconception. If someone really wants to get in they will find a way. There were quite a few breakins in a short time period once and it was linked to a landscapers nephew who used the name of one of the clients to gain access inside then broke in.

So... back to running- my dad was training for a marathon this year( He started running 2 years ago at age 60). He ran all winter long in the snow with his training group and was supposed to run the race in May, he was very happy with his progress until April when he started to feel a "flutter" in his breathing. He had this happen 2 years ago while we were living in SA and it ultimately led to an angioplasty. So off he went to see his cadiologist. His tests were on June 13 but his results won't come back for another couple of weeks- that's the free Canadian health care system for you.

In the meantime he was told not to run such long distances for a while, my dad has been a life long athlete in one sport or another so needless to say to he was very disappointed. We planned a clandestine 8 mile run :evil: without my mom knowing so she wouldn't have a fit.

This weekend we went to Fredericton again to leave the kids with my parents for a week while we put their outdoor playset together. We worked on it for 3 hours last night until the mosquitos starting eating us alive and we got to step 2 of 95. At this rate it will take all week long! The problem was that the holes don't match up with the nuts and bolts at each end so we ended up having to drill and widen the holes. I mean, come on, when you pay $1000 for this thing it should come with well drilled holes. Off to Home Depot we will go to buy longer Hex head bolts and endcaps. Ha didn't I sound professional?

Back to work - patients await.

June

2005-06-22T09:23:00.000-04:00

Ran 2 times last week then went to visit family in Fredericton. Ran twice this week for 3 miles both times at roughly a 10:30min/mile pace.
Back to SA for a moment, it was so hot and humid by 6am that it was impossible to run in the AM. I do not like the humidity being in the 80% range- I am an Eastern Canadian, I am used to cool dry temps. I had to stop and ask myself several times how we managed to live in SA for 8 years and play tennis tournaments in that awful summer heat and humidity.
I am glad to be back in Maine permanently and will only consider moving down South after I retire, maybe to Florida like all other Mainers so we can hop on the I-95 and keep on cruising until we hit water.

I hate 100F weather

2005-06-21T11:46:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone- back from San Antonio for a week or two now.
What was that? Did I run while down visiting my old town? Did I even exercise? Did I do anything other than shop, shop and more shop? No, no and yes. I didn't spend my whole time shopping, there was a lot of eating to be done. Boys-I'm a sucker for great Mexican food. Real Mexican not just Tex-Mex stuff but the low fat, very flavorful kind.

Take a look around - most Mexicans are not fat, in fact they are usually very thin, Mexican-Americans on the other hand are often overweight because the Tex-Mex food is laden with lard and cheese as its two main ingredients.

Ate the best sushi at Sushi-Zushi. I love that place more and more everytime I go. So long story short not much exercise other than a lot of walking.

Running on empty

2005-05-26T10:28:00.000-04:00

Last night I decided to treadmill run (it's still raining) as soon as I got home. Did a 3-miler at a 11:00 min pace for the first 2 miles then a 10:06 min pace for the last mile. It felt great! No sucking air or anything.

I did crunches on the mat, showered, and went to put our 19 month old to bed while my husband showered and my 3 year old watched "Jungle Book" . When I returned I noticed a distinct musky (not musty) scent. I asked my husband what that smell was and he said that the 3 year old decided to make a slip and slide out of shaving cream and my yoga mat.

I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself. I mean, how could I be mad at that :) My husband was trying really hard to put on the stern face in fron tof him but would turn his back and chuckle. I love my kids - never a dull moment in our house. You can read about their other mischief in Peekaboo Adventures .

Distance: 3 miles
Time: ~ 32 min
Tempo: steady then fast

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

2005-05-25T17:36:00.000-04:00

It has been raining continuously for the past two weeks which has prevented me from running outdoors again. That and the wicked case of shin splints I had for 2 days after the last outdoor run. From our house to the end of the street is 1/2 mile downhill. I need to learn to slow down or something, I never had shin splints before so I'm not sure how to prevent them other than doing those toes exercises one of my badminton partners had to do.

I ran on the treadmill last Saturday for 3 miles at a 10:45 pace! I was draggin at 11:30 so I upped the pace and felt much better. I am getting faster! Yeah

I will try and treadmill run tonight as soon as I get home and while the kids are eating dinner. That way I don't have to watch cartoons on the TV while I run.

Running in humidity

2005-05-25T15:00:00.000-04:00

We leave for SA on Sunday for a whole week. The good news: I will have lots of time to go to the gym with my old friends since we are not taking the kids along. The bad news: I had hoped to do some flat outdoor running while there but the humidity is already sky high and it gets hot by 10am - that means I will have to wake up early on my vacation to exercise! Bah!

Last Outdoor Run

2005-05-02T17:18:00.000-04:00

My husband and kids gave me the best early Mother's Day present this weekend. They went out of town to Grammie and Grampa's house! Yeah... 3 whole days to myself! I cannot recall the last time I even had more than 10 minutes in the bathroom to myself.

I used my time to try my first outdoor run. I usually run around a 11:30 min for up to 6 miles on the treadmill. Was I ever shocked to discover that on the road my time was 31 min for a 3 miler ! And that included walking the last 1/2 mile uphill to my house. Whoowee I must have been bookin it on the flat part. THe run felt good and not exhausting so I can't waiting to run outdoors again.

Distance: 3 miles
Time: 31:05 min
Emotion: Felt Good

On Your Marks, get set.......Go!

2005-05-01T17:02:00.000-04:00

Well ... in an effort to lose the last 10 lbs after baby number two, I decided to start running again last Xmas. In the past I have run because I had to rather than because I wanted to. This time is no different.

My youth was filled with national level badminton and tennis training sessions with coaches which involved running for cardio development. Maybe because of the hours and hours of training - I came to dislike it. Now older and wiser to the ways of the world, I find myself having opened my horizons to the joys of running.

We moved from San Antonio to Maine last year to return closer to our families after being in SA for 8 wonderful years. My husband and my professions as Optometrists (hence the blog title EYERUN) allowed us to make the move in hopes of setting up our own practice in Maine.
The practice will start construction from the ground up next month so you will read lots of rantings about contractors in this blog for sure.

After being a somewhat regular gym go-er, and playing tennis in SA year-round for 8 years, moving to a rural-like area with only a small "Y" was heart breaking. My husband, sick of hearing me complain about my lack of weight loss due to lack of real exercise, bought me a treadmill for Xmas. Love that man! Since Xmas I have lost 10 lbs and I made a goal for myself to lose the last 10 pound by the end of this summer.

I made a pact with myself to run 3 times a week for 5K on the treadmill with some occassional outdoor running if possible.