Food for thought. And kids.

This morning my 13 yo was talking about her home ec/health class that she had today and what they would be making to eat.  It's kind of a standing joke (well, not really a joking matter but we laugh about it anyway) about what they make in class because so far, it has always been a dessert.  Guess what we're making for breakfast today mom!  Ummm, dessert?  Yup!  Whoopie pies! 

So far they have made cheesecake, whoopie pies and some other dessert (I think it was cupcakes).  We laugh about it because it is so ridiculous that they keep teaching them how to make dessert (at breakfast time, no less!), but really it isn't a laughing matter at all given the obesity rate in children these days.  My daughter doesn't have an issue with this, she is a freakin' bean pole, and thankfully, knows what a vegetable is and wants to eat them.  But really, shouldn't we be teaching our kids how to make healthful meals and not just desserts?  What's wrong with fruit salad, banana bread, homemade whole wheat pizza crust and then top with veggies?  Maybe a stir fry with chicken and vegetables?  Any of those would be better alternatives than dessert each time.  Why couldn't they make an omelette or french toast topped with fruit?

I'm trying to decide whether to express my concern to the school or not.  I feel like if the class is a HEALTH/HOME EC class perhaps they should learn some healthy meals or cooking skills that might help them when they live on their own.  On the other side of that, I really hate to be the complaining bitch all the time.

My niece sent along the cutest blog/website for healthful lunches and I think I might share it with the teacher.  Just Bento is the name of the site and it's all about bento boxes.

A bento box is basically, a meal served in a box.  They are usually packed in a 1:1:2 ratio of carb, protein and vegetable.  The size of the box is meant to keep the calorie count under control as well.  What fun it would be to open this box for your lunch every day!  I might start doing this for my kids once in a while. 

Maybe the kids could plan to make a bento lunch one day.  There is some cooking involved--the rice, the protein, cooked vegetable (or raw if you prefer).  But this would be a much healthier thing to learn than how to make dessert.  Certainly, making a dessert for one of the classes would be fine, but not every time.

Should I speak with the teacher about healthier things to make?

Have you ever heard of a bento box?

Pathetic

I am pathetic.  As in pathetically inflexible.  A friend of mine mentioned the other day about how she was pleasantly surprised that she was still able to do a wheel pose. 

Now, mind you, I was never really good at it, not being a gymnast and all, but I could actually do this at one time.  So in my delusional 43-year-old mind, if I could do it when I was 20, then clearly I could still do it now, right? 

Um.  Yah.

So I tried the other day.  And this is the travesty that happened. 

wheel? ha.  more like flat tire

Really.  Stop laughing.  This picture is actually of my second try (I had a photographer today) and is better than last week.  My head is actually off the floor a little bit here. 

It's really hard to practice this pose when you are as inflexible as I am.  I could barely hold that for the half a second it took for her to snap the picture.  I wondered how in the world am I going to get better at this when I can't even lift myself up for a 5 seconds?? 

So I had the brilliant idea of practicing the pose over an exercise ball. 

this picture is even worse than the first one.  thank god you can't see my face.  my friend cheryl could barely contain her laughter while taking this one

I think the more times I do this, my back and such will get more flexible and eventually I should be able to hold the pose, right?

One can only dream.

I'll post my progress if I can get Cheryl to stop laughing long enough to take the picture.  Hopefully, it gets less pathetic.

Flexible or not?

Would you ever post pictures like this of yourself for others to laugh at?

Can YOU do a wheel pose?  Post a pic and prove it!

First Trail Run-- I am hooked!

I missed my mid-week run this week because of school vacation.  I usually run Tuesday afternoon while my daughter has dance class, but there wasn't any class this week so I had my regular work schedule.  Yuk.  Between work meetings and multiple late night playoff basketball games, there has not been much time for running or any other exercise.

I did manage a serious spin session on Wed during lunch where I got back to doing an actual workout, not just the crappy lazy kind of spinning I had been doing.  I also did some weights, working on my shoulders and core.  I guess I probably overdid the weight thing because my shoulders were so sore for two days!  I could barely lift up my arms.  I thought a swim on Friday might work out the soreness, but nope.  I could barely sleep last night from the aches in my shoulders and arms.  I guess swimming was not the best way to rest sore arm muscles.  Who knew?  Idiot.  

So today was going to be a run day.  For sure.  It was the only exercise that would have nothing to do with my arms and shoulders.  Kids and hubby left earlyish to ice fish for a local fishing derby so that left me with the day to myself.  Plans were to run, go to the dump (such fun!), get groceries and laundry.  This life I lead.  I know you are so jealous.  

I had planned on doing 5 since I had some extra time and no kids waiting for me at home.  I headed out on my usual out and back route and along the way I pass a preserve that has a hiking trail on it.  Last minute, I decided that if the trail wasn't too muddy looking, I would go ahead and give it a try today.  Why not?  Trail running is supposed to be easier on your joints and even though you have to go a little slower, you are really working a bit harder to maintain your balance, avoid roots and go up and down the hills.  

The trails just looked a little snowy so off I went.   The trails look a little like this:

But mostly like this:

The snow was a little hard to run in so I was mostly at a slog.  But that was fine.  The trail was just under a mile so it was the perfect amount to try and not get too far in the woods and be hating it.  I knew I would like it anyway, I mean, how can you not like it when you get to look at this:

I know.  It's so ugly where I live.

This is 2 miles down the road from my house.  Poor me.

The Land Trust has 17 different hiking trails all within 10 miles of my house.  They are varying degrees of difficultly and length.  I have hiked almost all of them while geocaching, but have never tried to run any of them until today.

On a side note, if you haven't tried geocaching and you have kids, you may want to look it up and give it a try.  It's a great way to get the kids outside hiking and walking.  Basically, you use a GPS to find a hidden "treasure" in the woods that someone else has placed there.  The box will have things in it that you can take, but you must leave something in it's place and sign the log in the box.  It really is great fun.

So anyway, I ran the 2 miles to the trail, ran the trail, then ran 2 miles back home for a total of 5.

I am so photogenic, n'est ce pas?  Good thing the water's pretty.

I'm pretty excited to find that trail running wasn't all that difficult, even with the snowy trails and I can't wait to try the other ones in the area.  I'll bring the dog and he'll benefit as well.  If you live nearby, shoot me a message and we can run them together.  Here's the link to all the trails available if you are interested.   BRLT

Have you done trail running?

Do you enjoy it as much as road running?

Things That Bring Me Joy

Stasha from Northwest Mommy is doing her Monday listicles thing again today and today's topic is 10 Little Things That Bring Me Joy.  Sounds like a great topic and since I'm all pissy right now, I thought it might make me feel less pissy to remember the things that made me happy this past weekend.  So here goes.

1.  My son's first travel team game.  He's a second grader among 3/4 graders.  And he scored.  Three times. JOY. :)

Number 1.  No bigger than a pint of piss.

2.  Watching a young man who my husband coached in basketball 4 years ago, get his 1000th point in a tournament game last night. 

3.  Walking the dog at night during a full moon. 

4.  Eating my chicken casserole.

5.  Grumpy Cat.  She brings me joy every time I see her.

or my favorite

 

Seriously, how can you not love Grumpy Cat?

6.  Kissing my sweet little boy's cheek.  Or even Princess' cheek.  There is something just so perfect about little kid's cheeks.  They lose a little when they become teenagers, but the little kid cheek is just perfect.  It makes me a little sad to think one day he will have whiskers on that soft cheek. 

7.  Princess showing off what she's learned at dance class.  Unfortunately, the style she shows off most is tap.  Why can't quiet ballet be her favorite style?

8.  Being able to swim, bike AND run all in a day that I thought I wasn't going to be able to exercise at all.  And I swam at the YMCA in my running tights and tank because I forgot my swim suit.  Completely allowed, if you are wondering. (I asked.)  I looked like an orca, but that's a topic for another day.

9.  Hearing big sister tell her little brother how great he did in his basketball game.  And she meant it.  And she did it without prompting. 

10.  Green chile sauce on my enchiladas from Margarita's Mexican Restaurant.


I was then going to add the things that had pissed me off today but I'm feeling so good from the above list that I'm over it and not going to ruin that feeling.

What has brought you joy this week?

 

 

added after post was published:

 

This just brought me joy as well--Princess wearing our favorite babysitter's jersey as a dress.  I hope she's going to wear it to the tournament game tonight.  Love them--my kid and my sitter. 

 



 

Masters Swim Session

Yesterday I headed to the pool for my swim.  I haven't been on Friday's in a while because work hadn't allowed it or the kids had activities.  But yesterday, it all worked out perfectly!  Lap swim was open until 1 and I arrived at 11:30 which left plenty of time to swim my 2000 yds.   As I was getting into a lane the pool director was getting ready to swim and asked if I wanted to join the masters swim.  Masters swim?  Me?

I had been wanting to go to a masters swim session for some time but never knew when it was.  I wasn't even sure if our pool had them or if I was good enough to attend.  I never swam competitively and don't flip turn so I didn't want to be the only one who wasn't flipping like Flipper (the dolphin--dating myself)  but this seemed pretty low key.  Another woman arrived and set up the board for the workout.  It was 3000 yds.  Perfect.

What does this all mean?  Looks like algebra.

I really didn't have any idea what this meant so thankfully, they were kind enough to decipher it for me.    I started out with the warm up--swim 200, I can manage that.  Then I started on the kick 200.  I thought I was keeping up pretty well and then the two were stopped and standing as I hit the wall for my last 50.  I couldn't figure out how they had finished their kick session so much faster than I cause I was kicking like freakin' crazy and was somehow still behind.  I half thought maybe I was counting wrong.

I caught up on the 8 x 50 drill and stayed with them on the next few.  More deciphering was needed for the 8 x 75 drill.  Swim 3 lengths at 65% with the third length being your major stroke.  Major stroke?  I only swim one stroke.  So freestyle it is.  The counting had me all screwed up on the 75's because I had to count 3 lengths then remember which set I was on.  Really a little too complicated for my brain.  I just ended up swimming 24 lengths and called it good.

The next set was another kick set with more counting in 3's.  This is really confusing to me.  Once again the other lanes actually lapped me on the kicking!  Lapped me!  I was feeling really bad about how slow I was kicking and said something to the lifeguard (we were chatting a little while doing the kick set) and I happened to look over at right time and saw freakin' flippers!  wtf!  They were wearing flippers!  No wonder I was so f'n slow.  Stupid rookie killing herself to keep up with people wearing flippers.  Gah.

Another 24 lengths (cause that counting in 3's thing is too complicated) and the warm down and I was done.  Phew.  3000 yds.  Two of the swimmers were the Y's swim coaches and were really nice.  I hope to be able to join them more often.  It was nice to have an actual plan to follow since I know nothing about swimming and planning practices.  One of them asked me if I used to swim competitively as I had a nice stroke.  Ha.  Glad to hear I don't look like a fool.

Master's swim was a success and I really liked it!  I made sure to leave my email so I could know when the next session was and join them again.

Have you ever done a masters swim session?

With or without flippers?

Oh so late January Review

So here it is the middle of February and I'm finally getting around to reviewing January.  Between storm Nemo and work and kid's stuff, I haven't had a lot of extra time.  Somehow I keep thinking that will get better and next week I'll have more time or next month, but life still remains crazy busy. 

Run--49.4 miles.  Geez.  I wish I had totalled this up sooner, seems like I could have squeaked out another .6 miles to make an even 50.  Oh well.  Still a pretty good month for me.

Bike--220 minutes on the spin bike.  Doing well with this still.  I am able to get time on the trainer at home and bring my minutes up for the month. 

Swim--4000 yds.  Not very good this month.  It goes along with how crazy busy I have been feeling.  If I can't get to swim on Friday or Saturday, it likely doesn't happen.  Thank you snow storm Nemo for messing up swim this week.  Totals for Feb aren't looking much better.  Gah.

Weights--65 minutes weight training

Tennis--8 hours of tennis

Races--None in January.

Exciting Stuff in Jan--I don't think I ever mentioned that Sissy's basketball team won their league championship.  They were 16-1 and had a great season.  I am just so proud of how well she played and I love to see the team do well.  I swear I am far more nervous/excited/proud about her playing than I ever was when I was playing.  Why is that?  Why do I care more now about winning than I did when I played? 

Here's some cool pics of Sissy during her game.  #33 white

LINK

LINK2

LINK3

The team with the trophy for league champions and overall champions!  Sissy in front with trophy on right.

The other exciting thing is that my teeth are finally back to normal!  Woo!  After about 2 months of severe pain from having cavities filled, I am finally back to normal.  Turns out I developed TMJ from one of the teeth not lining up properly and once the dentist ground it back down to normal, my pain resolved over a period of 3 weeks.  Finally.  You would think that I would stop drinking Mt. Dew by now, right?  You would be wrong.  Oh, the addiction!

More exciting stuff--our vacation is booked for April!   woo!  Heading to the Lone Star State!  San Antonio and Corpus Christi to be exact.  So if you have any must-do stuff in TX, please share!

Current Annoyance--I just found out some things regarding work that will change things for us.  It's one of those things that I have no control over and can't do anything about.  We are trying to focus on what we can do and hope that things work out for the best. 

Current Book--The Good Earth by Pearl Buck.  I just found out this is a series so now I have to buy the other two books.  Lately I've been on a Chinese culture kick with my reading and this book is no exception. 

Flowers for Algernon was another good book I finished last month. It's about a mentally retarded man who has an operation and becomes genius and the problems he encounters along the way.  A sad story for sure. 

Current Obsession/Indulgence--snack size peppermint patties.  I cannot be trusted with a bag of those.  I also could not stop myself from eating 5 (or 6, but who's counting?) pinwheels.  What?  You don't know what a pinwheel is?  Lucky you.  Don't buy them unless you want to eat the whole damn pack.

 

Danger!  These are more addictive than crack!  Don't say I didn't warn you.

How was your month?

Are you more stressed out about your kid's activities than they are?   I don't want to leave this question just about sports because I know band parents can be crazy too. 

Runner's Photo Challenge Days 3-6

As you can see, I'm probably going to do this photo thing in groups.  I cannot be bothered to take a picture and post it each and every day--that's too much like work.  So every few days I'll put up the photos for the days I've missed. 

Day 3--Favorite Bling (Race Medal)

My favorite medal is the one from Rev3 tri.  It is the medal that I worked the hardest for and it's the coolest medal too.

not sure why my phone put it upside down...

First of all, it's a lobster claw which is awesome all by itself, and then it's also a bottle opener!  Pretty darn cool right? 


Day 4--Wildlife Seen on a Run

If you look really carefully in that oval, you will see an owl, staring right back at me.  My phone camera could only zoom so much and this was a good as it got.  Really so cool to see an owl in the middle of the day. 

Day 5--Funning Running Sign

I don't have a picture of it, but there was one I saw during the Rev3 triathlon that said, "I think you are winning!".  I loved that one.  But here's a pic of the best one ever.  Because it was made just for me.

Day 6--Early Morning Run

I need lessons on doing hair that looks decent while running.  U.G.L.Y.

This is about as early as I get with an early morning run.  About 10 a.m.

Hopefully, I'll be able to do a January month review tomorrow and post Day 7's picture as well.  If not, I'm sure they'll be plenty of time on Friday to write a report....  Here's what we have coming.

Looks like a day off from school and possibly a day off from work.  Both a boo and a yay. 

Do you have snow coming your way?  Like or hate?

When 10 miles is not 6 miles--Mid Winter Classic Race Report

Newsflash!

10 miles is a lot longer than 6 miles.  No joke.

Back to that a little later.


So the Mid-Winter Classic 10 miler was yesterday if you haven't read the million race reports already.  Seems like everyone and their brother was running this race or spectating.  I had no great goals for this race--a good time would be 1:30, but I was expecting something a little better than 1:40.  I hadn't run any distance longer than 6 miles since 2010 and this was 10 miles.  But really, if you can run 6 miles, surely you can run 4 more?  right?  That's what I told myself.

Anyhoo, I was so happy this race had a bit later start so I didn't have to get up at the ass-crack of dawn to get there.  I left the house around 7:30 and ate a piece of peanut butter toast on the way and sipped my mt. dew.  My usual.  I hadn't picked up my bib and shirt yet so I did that first and who did I run into?  Mandy!  I finally got to meet her!!  After a couple of years stalking following her blog, I finally got to meet her in person.

I look like a giant in this photo.

She is pretty awesome in person.  I also ran into a friend from high school, Todd, Danielle (another blog I stalk on a regular basis), Jen, Jen, Carrie and Jill.

Danielle and I--she's my preggo running friend.  So cute!

I hung out with Mandy for a little bit while she was passing out bibs and shirts.  Pretty soon it was time to get to the start so I went to my car and got my stuff and headed out.  Jen and Jen were with me for a little at the start line but I knew they were much faster than I, so I was planning to run alone.  Mandy then found us before the start so she joined us.  Bam!  All of a sudden the gun went off and everyone was running.

Jen took off almost immediately (cause she's a pretty fast cookie), and Mandy and I kept a pretty even pace of about 9:00-9:30 for the first 3-4 miles.  We were chatting and messing around and it was going by pretty quickly. 

camera?  woo!! 

Clearly before my bonk.

Photos courtesy of Maine Running Photos

Around mile 5 ish? I looked up and there was a guy running against all the runners.  Mandy and I made fun of him cause he was probably doing the loop backwards and getting 20 in instead of just the 10.  But no!  It was my friend Todd, he was trying to get in more miles and ran back to see if he could find me to run with for a little bit.  (It was a training run for him, clearly, he is much faster than I! lol)

We three ran together for a while and then around mile 6 or 7, I started to feel like I had lead in my legs.  I had a gummy around mile 5, but I probably should have had two.  Mandy took off because all of sudden she turned channeled her inner Meb or something and I slogged along for the last 3 miles barely putting one foot in front of the other.  Todd kept running (well, really he was almost walking) with me till the end talking about all kinds of things I probably should have listened to.  Really all I heard, was "blah, blah, try to lean forward, blah, blah, lactic acid, blah, blah, intervals will help, blah, blah, push yourself through, blah, blah."

I think my finish photo says it all. 



Photo courtesy of Maine Running Photos

where the fuck is the finish line anyway?

Well, at least I've got a finish photo this time around, right?  Finish time 1:37.  Well, really, just where I thought I'd be.  Strangely, I'm now disappointed with this time.  But really, do I have any reason to be?  I haven't ran anything over 6 in a year and a half.  10 is almost DOUBLE 6 (almost). 

I really need to work on the fueling and training for after mile 7.  Each time (all two of them) that I've run longer than that, I bonk.  My legs die.  I have no gas.  I need to work on this.

Despite my slow pace I am still a sweaty mess after running.  I had 3 shirts and that jacket on and all were wet with my sweat.  Which makes for a really cold gal when you stop running.  Thankfully, I had thought ahead and brough stuff to change into, but of course, it was a half a mile away in my car.  #fail  I didn't want to run to the car, then back to the school to change in the bathroom so I just changed in my car.  I managed not to scare any small children or pets.

you are so glad you cannot smell that

Heat cranked, sweats on, DD hot cocoa and I headed home.  To do nothing the rest of the day.  Cause I could barely walk.  Remind me again why running 10 miles is fun?

Any advice on how to get over the 8-10 mile wall?  Really.  Not kidding.

Runner's Photos and Random Stuff

So I was searching around reading a bunch of stuff on twitter yesterday and I came across this Runner Photo Challenge hosted by One Tough Mother Runner on Instagram.  I'm not instagram but I want to do the challenge anyway.  I'll hashtag on twitter and you can follow that way if you want.  I wanted to do a quick post on 1 and 2 so I don't get too far behind.  I still have to do January review and I even have a race tomorrow!  eek!  Mid-Winter Classic 10 miler.  (instant PR since I've never done a 10 miler.)  Here are the pictures for each day:

Running Shoes

my current favorite pair of running shoes--Mizuno

Favorite Race Shirt

this is my favorite race shirt so far.  The fit is perfect, the colors are flattering and the material is awesome.  Only one small problem...... I didn't actually run the race.  ha.  You can read about that here.

So I should probably choose a shirt from a race that I actually completed.

This is the race shirt that is my favorite in that I'm most proud of finishing this race.  The shirt itself is just ok.  White is terrible for me--our water always turns white grey or yellow, not to mention I always stain it in some way.  And the kicker is, is that the material is cotton.  Yuk.  Not the greatest for a race shirt.  But I love that it says finisher!


The Mid-Winter Classic 10 miler is tomorrow.  I've never run this race but it seems to be the race that all the cool Maine kids run.  Every one I know that runs--bloggers, twitter, and just regular runner folks are all doing this race.  It's going to be pretty cold--probably around 18*, but it has a later start so hopefully, it won't be too frigid.  And I won't have to get up at the ass-crack of dawn to get there!  9:45 a.m. start so I'm hoping to finish around 11:15-11:25.  My longest run since my 1/2 mary in 2010 was 6 miles.  So this should be interesting.

I hope you're having a great weekend!  What's your favorite race shirt?  Do you love it for the race or the shirt?