Start of a new training schedule

This week begins 13 weeks to the Bluenose Half Marathon or 12 weeks to the Fredericton Half.  I decided I would do a spring Half and maybe consider a summer full.  And Im still striving for a Triathlon this summer; I am starting to wish I had a road bike.  Everyone looks so much faster on those!  lol
I picked out a plan on the Hal Higdon site as I have had much success previously with those. The miles will stay lower for at least the next 5-6 weeks while there is still hockey and soccer going on.  lower but managable. 
Last week and this week have seemed extremely busy. Hockey is ongoing, as is soccer, basketball and hockey for Holly, Annika is just doing hockey and Drama at the church, Taylor is doing TaeKwonDo...she tried out and made the Badminton team at her school so she is doing that a couple of times a week as well as Musical Practice at school and Drama at church.  And there have been more 4H meetings this month; Scott is on a number of committees and going to a lot of meetings at night. Im feeling really exhausted right now.  It can be hard some days just to get the runs in.  I remember having nice long chunks of time when Taylor was swimming that I could get the runs done but most things they are in right now seem to be shorter duration. Maybe once Spring arrives? 28 days or so?

Last Wednesday was a rest day; still kinda floundering with the plans.  And busy! I gave in to the fact that I had a cold coming on...it took 3 days to really set in and a week later it's still hanging about.
Thursday I had a 10 km run; cannot remember where but it took 50:15 to get the run done. No notes on the location.  lol That same day Taylor had a dental appointment and Annika had hockey practice so I got some skating done.  I had a very bad night sleep-wise due to the untimely death of Mr Gimpy - fourth time in the water dish was his last :(
Friday after work I got in an 8 km run from work. I had considered hockey in the evening but ended up napping instead; no sleep the night before and a cold did me in.
Saturday morning hockey was ok, roads in were difficult thanks to some snow overnight but the hockey game was good.  Just enough people for lots and lots of ice time. Annika and Holly both had hockey games away so we were all on the roads with the melting snow (eventually) and games were good. 
Even tho Saturday weather was amazing, I rested my cold and literally spent the rest of the day doing nothing. Holly's friend came to work on Science Fair, and that's about all we got done.
Sunday was not much better; there was no hockey in the morning so I slept in a bit (well I stayed in bed anyway) and then the kids worked on Science Fair and the others went to Drama/church.  I played Goalie for one of the other hockey teams at 1 then had my own game at 3; Annika played at the same rink at 5, so it was after 6 before i left the rink.  I took the kids home and then went to my soccer game.  Coughing and out of breath most of the day :(
Monday finally feeling a little better. It is Spring Break at work so I have spent a lot of time marking quietly in my office. I like Spring Break; a nice break from student demands and I get lots of work done :)

This would be day 1 of week 1 on the training program if I go to Fredericton for the Half in the spring.  Supposed to be a Strengthen and Stretch day but I didnt run all weekend so in the afternoon I took a chance to get a run done; 7.4 km in 45:22.  It was just a nice easy run.  Monday night we were up super late finishing up the Science Fair project. 

Tuesday I took the kids to school and dropped of the project ;) went to work and left an hour later for hockey in Brookfield; it was a little slow with only 5 skaters and a goalie lol we played sideways on the ice and had some fun, worked on passing.  Went out to lunch with Scott and then to look at Science Fair projects.  They looked good; found out after school they did well and were advancing to the Regional Science Fair.  Worked until school pick up time, then took Annika to hockey practice.  She had her last practice with her Bearcats, the local team that helps out :)

After hockey we went hom for supper then Holly and Taylor were back out to basketball and badminton practice.  I stayed in.  Was done.

Now it is Wednesday again and I have had my run (7.7 km, 5-6 intervals of about 400 M each; hard to tell in that weather). It was snowing/raining, and the roads were slippery and SO VERY wet.  My shoes are soaked; I could wring water out of my 3rd layer of shirts. UGH.  But we used increased effort so it's all good.  a little over 45 minutes. Shoes will be drying for days. 

Tonight there is just basketball and TKD. Then I get to go to sleep! And start all over again tomorrow! 

Valentine's Day Catch Up

12 long days of busy work and busy activity separate me from my last post here. It's just way too busy to spend too much time typing when I could be out DOING! Or, at this time, sleeping.  Sleeping a lot :)  Which is still, what I am not getting enough of and would like to do more of.  Fighting it! Not always by choice; life is keeping me awake, even at 5 am, when I cannot sleep at all.  I just want a full night's sleep. 

We have gotten into the snowshoes this week!  We finally had enough snow, and made use of it a few times. the kids have gone out around the yard a few times since. :)

Whew Friday the 3rd I had a run with Toni 7.85 km 49:47 minutes.  We squeezed it in at the end of the day; that can be tiresome after a long work week.  AB labs are killing me! LOL

After work I had a snack and headed to a friend's house for some snowshoeing.  We went into the park in the dark with headlamps and had the best time on the trails and sometimes off the trails.  It can be disorienting lol but so so much fun!  2 hours on the snowshoes was tiring!  Many calories burned.  We put them back tho with some awesome spaghetti late at night :)

Saturday morning was great pick up hockey again, very early in the morning.  We had a busy day of hockey with the kids, before coming home to rest and I took the kids for a quick snowshoe trek before going for a quick run with Toni :) Having someone to run with is working out well for me; sometimes it is so easy to say Aw not today; but when someone is waiting I can get out there :) We did 4 miles in 40 minutes right on.

Sunday brought the usual hockey game (tied) and soccer game (won, I got a goal :)) and kids hockey games.  Sunday's are busy!!!

Monday was a rest day, due to time constraints and exhaustion after such busy weekends.  I will let it be for now :)

Tuesday morning before work I ran the loop for 8.6 km in 55:56.  It was nice out :) I had to wait for some guy to try to catch his dog who kept trying to chase me while I ran (I think he wanted to come too)...it added almost 10 minutes to my run! UGH!  When I got home I found the little chicken doing the backstroke in the water in his incubator; ugh I was so late for work LOL

Tuesday at lunch time I went snowshoeing at work with a friend;  we went around the field at the park and took about 55 minutes.  It was so super warm! LOL

Wednesday was another rest day.

Thursday was a lighter day! Toni and I ran 6.5 km then I ran into my chiropractor's office and had an appointment, before heading back into the cold and running back to the college with a total of 10 km in 61 minutes of running.  After work Annika had hockey practice and we skated a lot :) it was much of fun!

Friday was busy but I grabbed a run after work in the awesome weather. A storm and activities were coming the next day, so I really had to go or miss out!  8 km in 50:15 minutes.  :) I am always so hungry at the end of the work day; a handful of trail mix did not go very far.

Saturday we were up and out the door at the crack of dawn for a hockey tournament in Tatamagouche.  we played 3 games on Saturday, all fast, hard games with some rough play and lots of laughs in other games. :):) We drove back and forth twice during the day, in the pouring rain! :)  It was a much better way to spend the day, compared to sitting at home housecleaning or sleeping ;) We lost every game but luckily we didnt go to win, but rather to enjoy hockey, so we won.   

Saturday night was spent sleeping !  lol So that Sunday I could be back at it; the roads were terrible after a long night of freezing rain blowing against my window.  Freezing cold and snow on top of ice; we stayed home in the morning and only ventured out after lunch for my hockey game, which we won and had so much fun at, trying to get a goal for our little baby hockey player :)  Annika and Holly had hockey over supper time and I had a soccer game.  Our team had no spares so it was a long game but we did well, losing 2-1 to the #1 team.  After our game I stayed around and played with another team; I was tired by then, and didnt do so great (could not kick to save my life)  but I played the entire time twice! :) Hips aching, home for a super hot bath.

Monday; back to rest day And I really could use it after that weekend.  at least until supper time when Annika had hockey practice. Ive never felt so lazy; I did not skate hard with the kids but instead took it easy.

Back to Tuesday and Valentine's Day; off to work early and a nice sunny run at noon; it warmed up some and the ice was finally melting some but that left deep puddles and slush behind; that's fun LOL.  But 6.6 km in 44:40 minutes on those roads was acceptable. At least we are still going! :)

Now I have had cake and ice cream and a chocolate and I enjoyed my flowers and will try on my new running clothes on my way to bed :):):)



Oh Lord now THAT was a long break

and I didnt even THINK to blog. Life must be JUST that hectic; and Im out LIVING it!  Well at least that is how I see it in my head. I have a feeling I see a lot of things differently in my head than they are in reality.

I had the oddest dream last night.  My dd is hatching chickens as part of her Science Fair project.  I am losing sleep over this project; not because it is hard, but because if these eggs do not hatch, the science fair project is a bit of a failure since the actual experiment includes live chickens, and if they do not hatch, there is no experiment.  So I am getting a little more stressed as we approach the due date!  Last night I dreamed that not only were these eggs hatching, what came out looked more like ducks than chicks, one actually hatched a fullgrown DUCK while another hatched a rabbit (which makes perfect sense since rabbits lay eggs right?) but the lady who gave me the eggs promised me both a duck and a rabbit and she delivered!  anyway these eggs were hatching but the "chicks" were falling out of the incubator and the cats were biting and chasing them!  And then there were dogs, it was chaos. Eventually I woke but I could not sleep and lay in bed thinking about the chickens. Which reminds me I need to remember to tell Taylor I solved the problem of increasing the humidity in the incubators and she forgot to put the cheesecloth under the eggs the last time she rolled them. Remind me ok?

Sleeplessness is an ongoing issue that does not appear to be getting better. I skip caffeine after the afternoon; I go to bed tired; I fall asleep almost immediately; but I cannot stay asleep. it is made worse by snoring and kicking 9 year olds, but if I were sleeping well, neither of those things would bother me much. I am very tired.

I also exhibit pretty much every symptom of SAD.  I suspected it was so, but I can't really deny it. Looking into some ways to ease it; but Im already doing a lot of these things! I read an interesting article this morning about eating less carbs and more fat/tryptophan, so maybe I needs more turkey. LOL

Our weather certainly took a turn for the dirty this week, and unlike previous snows, this stayed!

This was my drive to hockey on Sunday; it was not very cold and the grass is still green in my yard!  NICE day for a run, too bad I didnt do any of that on the weekend. the wind made me whine, what a woos!

 It snowed on Monday (I think) and this was my drive to work on Tuesday.  It was so cold that the roads did not clear off; salt doesnt work well under -10 C.  They were not that bad; we kinda live on less than secondary roads anyway.

On Wednesday School was cancelled for the kids and the snow started in the morning; they changed the forecast from 6 inches to 4 and I am not sure when 4 inches becamse a school-cancelling storm, since that is just winter in NS normally, but by the time I went home, roads were not at all plowed and it was pretty slippery. I mean, I am thrilled that I did not have to take my kids to school, I just don't know when we got so scared to drive! 

We are having a good taste of winter now. There is enough snow for snowshoeing!  I might take a short go tonight around a loop by my house :) I meant to go at lunch but got sucked into conversation instead. It doesnt look nice out anyway :)

The rest of January was pretty struggling.  After the 4.8 km walkish on Tuesday of all the rain, I managed 8 km on Wednesday that included some trails in BH, which there was very little ice on.  Tuesday warmed up so much most anything melted away, and it was fun to trail run in January. 51:17 was the time for this leisurely run.  I felt fairly sluggish throughout.

Thursday was an early chilly run with a runner friend.  It was fun, nice to chat with someone over the miles, makes them go a bit faster. We did a loop that gave us 7.2 km in about 43minutes.  It was a very sunny and busy day, with meetings and work, then kid pick up, dental apopintments, hockey practice, and friends over.

The wheels fell off on Friday when we made it to hockey practice at 7 am, but school was cancelled and I was sucked into the black hole that is HOME, and struggled to get back out for work. The expected storm came later than expected, and although Im glad they cancelled school in case of bad roads, the kids would have been home before it snowed/rained.  I did not get out for a run, glad I skated in the morning.

Saturday hockey was at 7 am and it was good exercise.  There were just enough people there, we all got lots of ice time.  OMG I forgot to check the schedule and we were totally late for Annika's hockey game.  It was 25 minutes away and I remembered 15 minutes before ice time!  UGH we missed a little but she played most of it LOL!  It was Scott's birthday so I sort of spent the rest of the day making cake.  and icing said cake. Annika picked out a recipe and she helped make the cake; we made icing and she iced it and used her decorating kit to make it perfect!  And very pink lol.  More cake...good cake week!  A Bearcats hockey game rounded out the evening.

Sunday included hockey for me, then hockey for Holly and Annika, and soccer for me.  the girls had great games; I had fun games but they werent epic.  A good time, its great to get out and see people; wish sports were not so frustrating!

Monday came back around and I had not run since Thursday! There was no running on Monday or any sort of sport, so Tuesday I determined my way out the door after classes and did a quick (but not fast UGH) 5.25 km run.  Legs totally sluggish. Must be all that cake and cake-weight. 

Wednesday was a snow day and as much as I would have loved to run in the snow, work went long and it was tiring (lecturing is super exhausting LOL I know!) and when I went home with great intentions of snowshoeing I ended up just snuggling in with a few chores and knitted the rest of a hat :) Which I am currently wearing; new Fav hat!

Thursday morning was snowy and slushy and not at all cold; out for a run before work. After the kids left and I took care of some laundry of course.  I have so many chores waiting at home for me!  But I got the run in!  8.5 km around the loop!  My hips are pretty achy! It is a lot of work to run in the slippery slush and shifty snow; like running in sand but none of the happiness of running in the sand lol.  Valleydale had the worst amount of snow and I worried about a snowplow coming along as there are long stretches that have no sideroads or driveways and no place to get out of the way. There was a strip on the edge where the snow was scraped to gravel which was the best place to run but I could not see dips and places where it would drop off to 6 inches of slush or snow and I would swimg my arms to stay up; must have looked like I was taking flight. The road home was worst for slush; passing cars have the best aim; they hit that strip of slush in the middle of the lane to create the largest spray and fly past (crazy speeds), totally spraying dirty slush all over. And we wont mention the lumber truck; he did his best to pull out and was considerate but there was nothing he could do about the black mist of mud flying off his truck tires; I felt so Dirty when I got home! LOL

And here I sit, not snowshoeing but getting some work done.  In another hour or so I will trek home to take the middle child to hockey, and then we will be in for the night. I have the most awesome headlamp.  Snowshoes to get dusted off! Unless I finished shovelling the driveway instead....