Learning Something New

So, this morning Special K and I tried to run at the Armory. It's a larger indoor track and is likely to be the training place I do all of my long runs each weekend until the weather is nicer (or at least in the double digits without a wind that could blow a house down), but it was closed for a track meet. -- Damn.

We parted and I went over to the Savoy Rec Center and ran 5 miles. Today, I decided, I am going to run this whole distance without a walk break. I'm going to run a pace that my body feels is natural. 


I ran one lap, realized I had to pee, stopped my iPod, used the bathroom and then started the workout over again. Then I ran... 16 laps around the track is 1 mile. That's 80 laps for 5 miles. And I realized each time I wanted to stop that I wasn't tired -- I was bored. So I came up with little fantasies in my head to keep me going. Imaginary running stories, and before I knew it the woman was announcing I'd gone 3 out of 5 miles. Sweet. The last mile was, of course, the longest. But when I hit the "400 meters left" call, I had a lot of energy. So I ran faster. If it had been on a straight away, I would have looked long and lean and swift (or so I tell myself in my head). But since it was on a gerbil wheel -- it just looked moderately faster. When I was done, I was happy, not exhausted. When I was done I stretched everything out and then laid on the floor to listen to "Give it to Me" by Timbaland (with Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado). 

My body felt right. It felt good.

Last September, I started running. I ran intervals where I walked a song and then ran a song. Now I can run for 5 miles without stopping. It totally makes the 10k I signed up for in 3 weeks look less daunting (well, if the weather comes around).

Now to take a shower, go to the grocery store... tomorrow I'm taking X-man to Chuck E. Cheese. MacTroll is leaving on a Sunday (again!) and is gone through Wednesday, but then he's home for 2 1/2 weeks. The longest amount of time straight since X-man was born. Crazy, huh?

In the Box

So, in my last power play to get to my weight goal, I've signed up for a Blitz with my Weight Management Program. That means I'm back in the box for the next six weeks. If everything works out calorie wise, I should reach goal by my birthday. In the box means that I'm back on dietary restrictions. I'm trying to focus on recordkeeping because as of late, I've been really good M-Thursday a.m. and then I record like crap all weekend. I've lost 12 lbs while in maintenance since Sept. 26th, so I'm doing well. I just want to see the goal number by my 1-year anniversary with the program (Feb. 19). And then back into maintenance I go with the goal being to try and maintain that weight, rather than lose more.

I've been training like mad this week, minus the snow day where my physical activity consisted of shoveling. But I've done two brick workouts this week. One with biking and swimming and one with running and biking. I'm also doing a 5-mile run tomorrow with Special K at the armory at 8:30 a.m.

Sunday will be my rest day, and then Monday I'm back at school and in workout central. I'm trying to get enough courage to run outside in the weather. Mostly because I have a 10k to do on Feb. 6.

So, if we're eating together between this coming Monday and six weeks from then. Cut me some slack. I really just want to see that goal number, you know?

I can't believe we're XM subscribers.

Mmm, the husband and I have come to a strange crossroads. We're iPod people through and through, but this XM in the new car thing required us to "explore other options."

"We're not paying $30 a month for this," MacTroll said. I agreed. Even though I'm kind of partial to the "80s on 8" and "90s on 9" and the fact that I can get Quebec news en Français (so what that it's the same 5 stories every 2 minutes).

And then the renewal information came.

"$14 a month, and they have this station that I think you'll like," I said before programming the "Classic Wave" into the set.

One week later, MacTroll's response. "I dig this channel. It's like the Morrissey channel. Maybe for $14 a month, it might be worth it." (Yes, he actually used the word "dig.") I wouldn't have spent $14 for any of the stations I might like or his Morrissey station...

What finally sold me was Kids Place Live. X-man loves it. They play new and different kids music, mostly stuff that doesn't make us want to pull our hair out. And X-man got to hear his name on the radio and they played not one, but two requests, I put on their Facebook page for us on the way back from Rockford to Savoy. And they're on all the time. It's more fun than the limited supply of kids music we've been playing for X-man since he was born.

So, now we've got XM for a year. Here's to hoping I understand more than 20 percent of each of the French Canadian newscasts by this time next year, because what I understand now is mostly hockey and stories about H1N1 and flu vaccinations.

The Cuteness of Almost 4

X-man is having a string of friends at school turn 4 this month. I know that his 4th birthday is approaching, but I'm also noticing how much "3" behavior is finally waning. He can play with his friends without bossing them around ALL the time. He can interact. He can go it alone. He's being more polite to most other people (who aren't his mother or father). He's using his words to describe how he feels. His most frequent feeling is frustration, however. But hey, I don't care how frustrated he is -- he still can't stay in the car by himself while I go into the store, he still has to wear a coat and hat when it's -3 in the a.m. and 8:30 p.m. is still bedtime.

He's completely obsessed with reading books, which is awesome. They've been talking about the author and illustrator at school, which we started covering at home in November. But now we've moved on to wanting to know about the publishing company and how a table of contents works. It's kind of fun to see his brain process.

We got some credit at Barnes and Noble and spent it on 5 books of X-man's choice. Shocker that 2 of them were DC Comics books. One of them was the Superfriends and it didn't have Wonder Woman in it. X-man got very upset. He did not think it was fair that Wonder Woman was left out and Aquaman was inserted -- when he wasn't one of the original six who started the Justice League. (Can you tell we're a geek family?) So I took him next door to Toys R Us. And after tons of searching we finally, finally,  found a set of Justice League Unlimited figures with Wonder Woman in it.

So now Wonder Woman can fight the criminals, too. He's my little feminist kid, and I love him for it.

Insanity

So, I started planning my athletic schedule for the summer. I had hopes of doing a series of races, but other things have come up on weekends, so I'm taking registration a bit slower than norm. Because, really, if I have to pick between the mental sweat of competition and sitting at a bar with my buddies in some distant land (Michigan, Toronto, possibly Seattle, St. Croix, D.C., etc.) the friends are gonna win every time. And I can still sweat -- I just don't have to compete on those trips. :-) But open water swimming with Robin in the Caribbean would be a personal dream.

To be fair, Seattle in June may very well be a meet up with a friend from D.C. around an athletic event, but we'll see if she does that Rock N' Roll Marathon or if she does the San Diego one.

Right now I'm registered to participate in:
Feb. 6 (Charleston, IL) Mid-winter Classic 10k
Feb. 20 (Danville, IL) 8th Annual Fat Ass (but I'm doing the Baby Ass) 3.29 miles
March 13 (Champaign, IL) Earth Wind and Fire 5k
April 3 (Rockford, IL) Arny Johnson Run for Habitat for Humanity 10-miler (!!!)
May 1 (Champaign/IL) Illinois Marathon Relay (my portion should be around a 10k)
August 14 (Toronto Island, Ontario) Try-a-Tri

My college friend Andie is starting on her improved fitness journey this year. She wants to do a 5k with me, so I'm looking for one in Bloomington or Peoria to do with her.

Special K and I tried running at the armory for the first time last weekend. It's easier than the Rec Center because the track is bigger, but holy moly it's boring. At least it's warm and has a clean place to pee, which is more than I can say for outdoor runs.

I joined the Urbana Aquatic Center. I've been twice, and so far I'm enjoying it. The first 10 minutes of my workout, I feel completely uncomfortable. And then suddenly my body gets into a groove and goes. Although I did my swim workout today after I did a cycling workout. My triathlon training manual calls this a brick workout. I'm sure they mean for it to happen RIGHT after the other workout, but um, I needed a morning snack and to pay some bills. So I was on a bike from 9-9:45 a.m. and then in the pool form 11:50 until 12:30. I'm pretty sure it's called Brick because it's like you're smacking into a wall. I ended up doing a lot of pulley work in the pool today because my legs were a bit jelly from my 12-mile bike ride that morning. But it's good for them. It means that when I get to August, they'll be more used to the workout and I'll (hopefully) have built up their endurance.

In other news, I fell off the eating wagon hard last week. And by hard, I mean, I reached my lowest weight ever and decided to have a good time and then got my period two hours after weigh in. I've always looked at women who complained about gaining 2 lbs as being insane because some months when I get my period the water weight is a lot more than 2 lbs. For example, this week -- I gained 8 lbs in a week. We traveled for 4 days, so there was a bit of a hail mary pass there. And now I know... I can't throw the ball the week before my period and still run down the field, catch it and score a touch down. Go figure -- turns out I'm not a "super."

So, another good side effect of the brick workout -- I burned just about 700 calories today at my "goal" weight multiplier. I expect to reach that number on most days of the week from now on since I'm training for things.

Cute Cousins

MacTroll's oldest brother came to visit the other day with his three children. X-man adores his cousins and hates that he only sees them twice a year. Usually we go out in the spring and they come in August... but this year they came for Christmas. We only got to host them for a few short hours. But it was a good time and left both families yearning for more time together, so we'll be heading out to Baltimore over Memorial Day weekend.

But here are some photos of X-man with his (newly) six-year-old cousin SuperSam at our house. Can you tell they bonded, even though they're polar opposites? (SuperSam is a completely sweet neat freak... and X-man loves chaotic messes and convincing people that the sky is, indeed, green, not blue. But clearly they've worked out some kind of Odd Couple routine because that arm around the shoulder thing in the second photo -- completely SuperSam's natural instinct.)

It's a whole new year, thank goodness.

MacTroll and I spent Dec. 30-Jan. 2 alone in Chicago at the W in City Center. It was our first time staying there and I do prefer it to the W on Lakeshore. The building has much more character and the staff is much more service oriented. The two Chicago Ws still pale in comparison to the Montreal W... but you know -- they're Canadian and uber friendliness is part of their culture.

Our only goal during our 3 1/2-day stay was to do thing we couldn't normally do with X-man around. For example, we got to finish whole sentences when we talked. We didn't have to carry around extra clothes in case someone demanded new pants because he spilled two drops of juice on the ones he was currently wearing, we had enough room in our bed and no fear of anyone kicking the living crap out of us while we were unconscious AND we only had to get up when our bodies told us they wanted to. As it was, we took naps 2 out of the 3 days. I was in bed by 10:30 p.m. two of the nights (the exception being New Year's). I also ran on the lakefront before the temps dropped to single digits. Afterwards, I used the hotel gym (it had Nike+ equipment!), which was fine for an hour, but holy cow I'd get bored doing the typical gym cardio equipment all the time. We also went to the movies -- twice. We saw Up in the Air and Sherlock Holmes. Both were funny and entertaining. We even got excited about the preview for Death at a Funeral. There's just something hilarious about Danny Glover and toilets.

New Year's was a little sketchy. We don't celebrate it. We don't believe in resolutions. Why make up something new for a calendar year? Why can't you just make a resolution because it's the third Tuesday of whatever month... It's symbolic, I know. We went out to dinner at a fine, but nothing extraordinary restaurant (Catch 35: a seafood place near the river). Then we worked out at the gym. On our way up the stairs from the 3rd floor to the 14th floor (Elevators were FULL of girls in stilettos and their dates.), we ran into some football player-sized dude in a nice suit covered in blood. Someone had popped him in the nose. He was so trashed he wasn't feeling anything. When we got in our room and finished showering we heard a commotion in the hall. Big, bloody dude was accusing the 20 people or so -- waiting at the elevator -- of hitting him. Shouting ensued. Then quieted. Then returned. $330/night hotel... MacTroll was entertained and hiding behind his peephole.

Things quieted down when everyone hustled down to the party room for the new year's countdown. I fell asleep by 12:30 a.m. MacTroll said that by 1 a.m., everyone was back upstairs, drunk and screaming. Someone else got punched twice and then the guy who punched him highjacked his room. Hotel security called 911. Fire department came to look at the guy who got punched. Then a squad of 4 policemen took the room that had been highjacked. Lots of screaming and such.

When we left for brunch at 9:30 a.m. -- the lobby looked like no party had ever happened. Our hallway outside our room was covered in mushed pretzels. But downstairs was quiet, like it had been the day before. By the time we returned to the hotel room at 9 p.m. that night, everything was spotless and the whole joint was silent. It was awesome.

As for our few days, we spent most of them hunting for a jacket for MacTroll, but they were sold out of his size, and although lots of places had post Christmas sales going on, a fair amount were putting out spring things -- seriously. There were bathing suits everywhere. We also ate at some foodie restaurants. We'd definitely recommend Graham Elliot for special occasions, but I'd recommend that on any dish where there's a "froth" have them remove it. It doesn't add much--and the visual was kind of unappealing to me. But the rest of the food is heavenly, particularly the blood orange dreamsicle dessert. (Seriously, it's worth it just to go for that.) The better "date night" is Eve in the Gold Coast a little north and west of Water Tower. I recommend the chestnut pear soup and the seared Wahoo.