The beginning of the end

Despite my near constant training this winter and spring (T minus 5 days until Half-Ironman!) pushing the double jogging stroller started feeling harder than it should be. For the first time, I was faced with the possibility that the kids might be outgrowing the jogging stroller! Oh no! Like letting my younger walk down the stairs by herself: I'm just not ready for that!

First, I couldn't make it up the hill at the bottom of my street anymore without unloading one or more kids. Then my son reached 45 pounds (the manufacturer's maximum recommended weight is 50 lbs). The fabric on his side of the stroller is starting to tear. I tried to switch him to the other side of the stroller, but I guess I wasn't accustomed to that since that whole side of my body seized up by the end of that run.

I had been forming grand plans to run my son to school next year, but I may need to revisit those plans. Luckily he will be in school five mornings a week so it is not a desperate situation. None of the kids are proficient bike riders and none are even close to being old enough to be left behind at home. We are, perhaps, entering a sort of limbo. I will still be able to run with my daughter in the single stroller while he is at school, but that puts us back in the car a lot more than I would like.

In the meantime, I replaced the bald tires (that set only lasted one year) and made sure they were fully inflated. I lubricated the moving parts. Perhaps most importantly, I am constantly reminding the kids to sit BACK. I've written before about how much it affects the steering when the kids lean forward.

And it's making me stronger...

Odds & Evens

There are some things I can do, there are some things I can't do. Running odds is one of them.

Ask me to go for a 10 mile run - I'll say yes - ask me to run 15 - I might say no. I like to run 10's, 12's, 14's, 16's, 18's and 20's but I really don't enjoy the odds. I'm not sure why it seems better to me to run 6 miles than 7 or 14 rather than 15, but it does.

My only exception to this rule is 11. It's my favorite number, the day I was born. I recently had a laugh when thinking about the phrase *here's the 411*[and yes at age 28 this is the first time I've had this thought] Its fitting to me that I was born 4/11. I am a walking google search engine and know a little bit about the most random things. I'm getting better at keeping my random wealth of knowledge to myself, but don't be surprised if you ask me a question and I happen to not only know the answer but give you way more information than you wanted to know.

This morning I ran 11 G-R-E-A-T miles with 4 wonderful friends. One met me at 6:30, she drove all the way to me even though that meant she was up at 5:30(she has two kids), the other two met us at 7(both have kids and are preggers). It doesn't always work out that we end up being the same pace - today it did. I loved our little running pack, sharing the trials and the miles of life together.

Can you run odds? Have any weird running hang ups?

Free Museum Passes, Zoo Visits, and More for Bank of America Customers

If you're looking for some fun, yet frugal activities this summer, Bank of America has a program called Museums on Us for their customers.

The first weekend of every month, just show your Bank of America credit, debit, or ATM card at over 100 different museums, botanical gardens, zoos, and science centers, and you'll receive free admission.

New locations have been added, and popular locations include the the Met and the Bronx Zoo in New York, the Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, children's museums, science centers, and more. Click here to find participating locations near you.

If you'll be traveling, you might want to check this list before you leave to see if there are any museums on the list at your destination city. Remember though, that the free admission offer is only good during the first weekend of the month.

And, in case you missed it, be sure to check out my previous post on free (and almost free) movies for kids for more inexpensive summer entertainment.

Looking for more deals and freebies? Join the MomsWhoSave.com email list, follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook, and visit the MomsWhoSave.com main deals page here!

Howdy

Howdy Running Moms everywhere. I wish you a happy day of running in pure bliss.....

first place

The Cicada Crunch 5K is on Saturday. I don’t expect you’ve heard of this race. It is a small, local race in the town of Cheverly, MD. In 2008, the last time it was held, maybe 70 people ran. The race starts and finishes less than a quarter mile from my front door. I have to run it (yes, “have to”), though I’ve not run a 5K since the last Cicada Crunch. I’m a distance woman; I like my 10-milers and half-marathons.

But I can’t avoid this race, though I hold little affection for 5Ks. I used to run them all the time. My first race, the Run for the Rainforest in Central Park in 1998, was a 5K. You see, I can’t get comfortable and settle into a pace. I feel a self-imposed pressure to be as fast as I can be. The pressure is more significant this time because I won the Cicada Crunch in 2008. Know that I feel strange admitting this. I am not boasting. I am no elite runner. I am not even local-level fast. I ran it in 23 minutes and some change. While that is not slow, it is not a winning 5K time.  (I will, however, take a moment to boast that I made that time even though at least a mile of the 5K course is uphill – really, it might be more – with at least 4 of the 8 uphill segments long and steep.)

Yet I want to hold on to my first place, even though that race is long over. Even though I feel as if I didn’t quite deserve it. This reminds me of listening to Julie Moss on RadioLab’s show on limits. When she unexpectedly took first place in the 1982 Ironman Triathlon, she felt compelled to hold on to it. (If you haven’t seen the video of her taking first-place and then collapsing before the finish, check it out here.)

She explains, “There I am in the lead, and all of a sudden things started to shift. I’m good at something, and somebody is trying to take it away from me…It felt like she was breathing down my neck and trying to take something that I was becoming very attached to.”

I feel like that. I know I am in little danger of collapsing in a short event like this. But someone else could win. Easily. And, I admit, I really want to win again.

Gardening This Summer? Check Out VeggieTrader.com -- A New Fruit & Veggie Exchange

Depending on where you live, you may be getting ready to plant a vegetable garden. More and more people are growing their own food--either to save money, to avoid pesticides and enjoy fresher produce, or both.

You may also have fruit trees where you live. We were happily surprised to find a pear tree in the backyard of the house we moved into a few years ago. Well, I should say I was. No one else ate pears in our house, and we had a TON of them at the end of the summer!

You might have the same situation with your garden--lots of extra food that you can't eat fast enough. You can freeze or can it, and you can also check out this new website, VeggieTrader.com. It's a free site where people with extra produce can sign up to exchange their fruits and veggies with another gardener who has something they'd like to trade.

This is a new site as I mentioned, so the more people who register, the more successful it will be. The site has lots of information about how it works, how to "make a trade," and a link to help you find out where to donate extra food if you'd rather do that than swap it. You can even find out how to buy and sell your fresh produce.

All of you gardeners may want to bookmark VeggieTrader.com for the end of summer when that big bumper crop comes in!

 

Free --and Almost Free-- Summer Movies for Kids

Soon the kids will be out of school, and it might not take long until you start hearing "I'm bored!" When that happens, or for a rainy summer day, here's a list of theaters offering free (and almost free) kids' movies this summer.

Keep in mind, most, if not all, of these movies have already come out on DVD. Of course, it's much more fun to go to the theater, eat movie popcorn, and sit in the dark to watch a movie, so go enjoy yourself with the kids and cool off on a hot day for not too much money!

By the way, be sure to check locations, since not all theaters serve all areas.

free movies offered at:

Regal Theaters

Cobb Theaters - first find your local theater, then see the free movie details on your local theater's page along the left sidebar

$1 movies offered at:

AMC Theaters information hasn't been released yet for their summer movie program, but keep checking this link.

Classic Cinemas
Join their email list to get a free popcorn!

 $2.75 includes movie, popcorn, and soda
Marcus Theaters  


$3.00 includes movie, popcorn, and soda
Grand Theaters

Looking for more deals? You can visit MomsWhoSave.com's main deals site for coupon codes and great offers every day!

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Send a Mother's Day Card to Help Women

All mothers share the same hopes and dreams.

Whether they are from Sudan or Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina or the United States, they want their children to be safe, have enough to eat, and have a chance for a better tomorrow. Make a difference this Mother's Day with Women for Women International!

Send a Mother's Day Card to a Woman You Love!Make a Mother's Day donation in honor of a woman in your life and we 'll send her a special Mother's Day card or e-card on your behalf.

insomnia and the tutu

I am two people, two runners. 

The first has developed increasingly severe insomnia preceding races. This woman has never had trouble sleeping in her lifetime. The insomnia worsens with every race. She is not worried about covering the distance (she is always well-trained), nor is she concerned that she might not wake up (or maybe she is; she sets all three alarms on her watch in 10-minute intervals). She is confident, but her body is race-ready and full of adrenaline a good 12 hours before the race starts. Her heart races, flutters in her chest. Chamomile tea and warm milk don’t help; yoga chants repeated silently in her mind don’t help (she’s not a big mantra-type person; but this used to help); an audiobook doesn’t help; once, clonazepam took the edge off, but she merely dozed on and off (she was indeed calmer during the somewhat wakeful night and felt somewhat better during the 10-miler). If she does fall asleep, she wakes with a start 20 or 30 minutes later, amazed she fell asleep and then can’t fall asleep again. So she just waits for morning. This has made races much harder; she suffers toward the end in ways she never did when she could sleep.

The other person has decided to do battle with the first and wear a tutu to all races. This way, she hopes to take them less seriously. She knows she can run at a good clip – but is not worried if sometimes she runs a little faster or a little slower. Feeling good and enjoying the race are the goals. If she feels anxious and driven to run sub-eights, she can laugh and say, “Relax, you’re wearing a tutu!” She remembers wanting to get faster every race; she remembers a spectating friend cheering “Sub-eights, yeah!” as she finished a 10K in Central Park, her first time breaking an eight-minute mile for a race; she remembers running a half-marathon, her first,  in 7:30s; she remembers her first age-group award, for the City of Long Beach 10-Miler. She’s not much slower nowadays, and she trains well, but she wants to relax and not care about being faster and faster and faster.

Neither person is winning the war in my psyche. 

Can't Touch This*

As the kids roll along in the big jogging stroller, we see many things (cars, trucks, squirrels, etc.), hear many things (cars, trucks, birds), smell many things (cars, trucks, skunks), taste many tasty stroller snacks, but touch? The kids are mostly told to STOP touching each other! So, to engage this fifth - and so important a - sense, we made a new game.

As we pass street sign or stop sign posts at each intersection, we alternate passing them on the right or left so that the kids can "tag" the post. We slow down, of course, to avoid injury, but don't stop! You'll have to pry their little hands off! It helps the time pass and breaks things up into short intervals. I was surprised by how much with kids liked playing this.

(A disclaimer: this is not for when you are in a hurry. You also need to be careful to avoid wooden posts with splinters, rusty staples, etc.)

This is especially fun when it involves going up and down curbs or struggling through brush. Make it an adventure :)


*Credit due to MC Hammer???

Burn 100 Calories in 10 Minutes

This list comes from Oxygen Magazine. It helps motivate me every time I look at it. Burn, baby, burn! And have fun too!

Only have a few minutes to spare? Burn 100 Calories in 10 minutes!

1. Stationary bike (200 watts)

2. Stp aerobics (using a 10 to 12-inch step)

3. Rock climbing (ascending)

4. Running (9-minute mile)

5. Soccer (competitive game)

6. Plyometrics circuit (jump squats, high knees, burpees, etc.)

7. Racquetball

8. Martial arts (judo, karate or kickboxing)

9. Jumping Rope

10. Simming (butterfly stroke, breaststroke, or freestyle)


(calorie burn based on a 130-pound woman).

A break up note

Dear 6 Mile Run,

I'm over you.  I know we've been together every week for the last few months, but I moved on today...to a 7 mile run: something I haven't done in over a year and a half.  I'll be working my way up to half-marathon distance soon, because I have a group now, and they'll help me get there just like they helped me leave you behind.

I'll see you again, but just for fun, nothing serious.  You can't keep me down forever.

Sincerely,
Crumbs

Rainy Days

I don't dislike them.

Have you ever noticed how life seems to slow just a little on a day where it's wet?

For this reason I've never hated rainy days. In high school I can remember many a time getting excited about an impending thunderstorm. Dumping buckets of warm water on everything. Being so excited that I wanted to act like I was 5 again. Wanting to run outside and splash in large puddles. I did.

Sometimes I feel the same now. At 28 the urge to put on a t-shirt and go run around outside barefoot splashing around has not gone away. It's a tad chilly for it today but I am reminded that I need to teach my children this easy and carefree activity. To learn to love every day for what it brings, not just the sunny ones.

Sure rain can mess with a run. Especially if you have kids and they don't want to be wet and cold for hours. But I appreciate the rain just the same. It nourishes the earth, much like a tall glass of water when I am desperately thirsty. I thirst so why not let the grass, the trees, the flowers be quenched as well.

I'm glad for the slow down today - I needed the rest.

www.mile-posts.blogspot.com

Fartlek

No time to get to a track? Don't live near a track? Hate the track with a passion?

The fartlek is your speed workout answer.

According to wikipedia fartlek is defined as:
"speed play" in Swedish, is a form of conditioning which puts stress mainly on the aerobic energy system due to the continuous nature of the exercise. The difference between this type of training and continuous training is that the intensity or speed of the exercise varies, meaning that aerobic and anaerobic systems can be put under stress. Most fartlek sessions last a minimum of 45 minutes and can vary from aerobic walking to anaerobic sprinting.

My favorite fartlek workout is comprised of a 10 - 20 minute warm up - which is usually anywhere between 1 mile and 3 miles. If you don't have a Garmin then go for time, if you have one then go for distance on the warm up. Then run 2 minutes on - running a hard pace - 2 minutes off - jogging. Immediately after run 1 minute on - again at a hard pace - then one minute off at a very easy pace. Following one minute do 30 seconds on, and then 30 seconds off. NO WALKING ALLOWED. If you have to walk at any point during this workout then you are doing your *on* sections too hard. Adjust so that you are pushing yourself but you are still able to complete the workout without taking breaks. Repeat this at least 4 times working up to 8 times. Finish with a 10 - 15 minute cool down.

The warm up is more important in this work out that the cool down is. In order to be sure that your body is running at a faster than normal pace you want to make sure that your muscles are warmed up and that your heart rate is already up before you begin the *on* segments.So to repeat the workout is 10 - 20 WU 2 min on, 2 min off, 1 min on, 1 min off, :30 seconds on, :30 seconds off X 4 - 8 with a 10 - 15 min CD.

The hardest part of the workout will be the 2 minutes on immediately following only 30 seconds off. After repeating this cycle 4 to 8 times your legs will feel like lead. This means the workout worked!

I love this workout because it can be done anywhere, and on any surface. You don't need a Garmin. You don't need to know how far you went. The workout can be completed all on time and perceived effort.

This was a key workout for me going into Marine Corps 2008 where I took my marathon PR from 3:59 to 3:36 - 6 months after having my 2nd child.

Make sure to stretch after and revel in knowing that you are one work out closer to getting faster!

What doesn't bend, breaks.

They say, your children teach you how to be a parent; that you can try to force them into your preconceived ideas on what your family should be like, but ultimately, what doesn't bend, breaks.

Even as young as 3 1/2, my 5 year-old boy has had an extraordinary ability to focus on building Lego worlds. Left alone in his room with a 500 piece set, he can assemble the entire thing without a lick of help. This awesomely peaceful time recharges all of us. However, despite his love of long, solitary hours of building, he needs to know I'm still keeping an eye on him....otherwise he launches into brutal, piece-by-piece tutorial that painstakingly teaches me how he built his vehicles. When he's caught me ignoring him for too long, he shows no mercy and milks my mommy-guilt like a newborn. Glance away for a millisecond? He starts over.

As a baby/toddler, he could only fall asleep on the move; and the louder the environment, the better. We could (and were motivated) to tote him to parties, to the theater, to restaurants and The Nap Master would sleep....until, of course, we were at home, at night.

This boy has taught me how to be the parent I am. Feel a "class" is about to start? I now know to bathe him in my undivided attention while changing the topic. Won't admit to being tired? There's "a quick errand" in the car we need to run. Doesn't get hurt despite how bad the spill seems? Sure you can climb on the outside of the tube-slide.

How different would life be if my kids had been born in reverse order?

My 5 month old baby refuses to sleep in the car and in a stroller, nor will he doze off if there is any noise or light. Yikes! BUT...he sleeps through the night*. He won't let me nurse him to sleep in front of the TV or con him into a nap by circling the block a few times. Nope. He forces me to take him to my room, and lay him down in dark silence. Then, he'll see me in the morning. Had he been my first child, I would have probably had our family on a strict schedule from the beginning. Then my other one would have been born into an organized household and adapted to it, because that's just how he is. We'd all be well-rested, perky, with bluebirds landing upon our shoulders as our four-part harmonies clear the clouds from the skies.

Then, of course, I never would have learned to love running.

I wouldn't have so desperately strapped him into a stroller and hit the road in attempt to get him to sleep. Had I not already experience the joy that comes after the first 6 sucky weeks of getting back into shape, I wouldn't have gotten my butt out the door a second time because this baby HATES the stroller. My parenting arsenal wouldn't have included "attitude adjustment" runs - the kind that inspired my boy to say (when he was old enough to form his own thoughts):"Mommy, you're nicer after you run." I wouldn't have met my best friend Kelly during marathon training, or seen the sun rise from the Biscayne Bridge, or eaten at Amy's Ice Cream 3 days in a row without guilt. I wouldn't have found that cool stream my boy and I skim rocks in. I wouldn't have traded in wine for my new favorite drug: runner's high. (Okay, maybe "supplemented" would have been more appropriate).

How different would it have been? Well, my first-born inadvertently made me a runner, and being a runner makes me a better mom to my kids. So, I guess all those sleepless nights were worth it. It's not like I could sing well enough to harmonize with the family anyway.

*If you don't count all these sick days recently!

Change my name....

Since I have been doing more of this, I will have to change my

name to the "Cross-training Mommy".

Come on Spring - were are you?

I want to get out and run with the girls!

The Running Mommy Joins the club!

Hello,

I would like to introduce myself. I am Lisa and I am a runner!
(insert - "Hi Lisa")

I have been running for about 20 years, running everything between a 5K to marathons. My marathon PR = 4:19:19...so I am slow!

I am a mother of 2 girls - hence the Running Mommy - who LOVE to go running with me!

I have made it my quest to help other running mommies out in their quest to keep motivated and to keep running.

I am working now with some races in the Metro Detroit area to become more baby jogger friendly!

I will keep posting tips from time to time.

Keep Running

Lisa

March e-News Has TONS of Discounts and Giveaways

Just wanted to let those of you who do NOT receive the seeMOMMYrun e-newsletter, that the March newsletter is posted HERE. There are PLENTY of discounts on cool products, FREE workouts, and giveaways. So check it out!

my purple tutu

I am going to try being one of those runners, one who pulls on a tutu over the running tights. I have bought myself a purple one -- seemed the best color choice. (I'm not such a pink person.) And I am excited about the whole idea. I enjoyed picking out my ensemble for the race more than I usually do.


I am wearing it for the St Patrick's Day 8K tomorrow. The race is a festive dress-up kind of one, though a green tutu might be more appropriate -- but I don't have one of those. And the race is a shorter distance, so I can test run the tutu for next weekend's National Half Marathon. That's the ultimate plan, people!


My time goal? Around 40 minutes. But I have not run a race since November 2009, and I've had an injury, so we'll see what I can pull out, especially in a tutu. But I also don't care so much about being faster and faster anymore. Though I still like being kind of fast. And, in a purple tutu, kinda fast will also be fun.


Look for me if you are in downtown DC on Sunday morning at 9am -- Pennsylvania Avenue and 13th Street!


The next question: How do I wash the tutu?