Yoga loving again!

This morning it was 13' and freezing cold. I met two of my tri-chicas at a local yoga studio for Hot Yoga. It was awesome. The instructor cranks up the heat to 90' and then gave us a kick ass power yoga class. It definitely warmed me up, for sure. I loved it. There were two women there that were probably in their 60s and they were so inspiring. They were strong, flexible and quite stunning. Yoga is so cool.

I have my cholesterol checked every year because it is a little high. In addition so is my cardiac-serum protein. Both of which indicate some cardiac disease. My naturopath always had a suspicion that my cardiac-serum protein was high because I ran so much. She deduced that since I ran so often I was probably inflammed all over. Well I told her this would be a good test to see if her conclusion was right. I haven't ran further than three miles at a time since Oct. I have been working out at the gym, swimming and practicing yoga-all low-impact activities. Well....the verdict is in.....

My cardiac-serum protein was the lowest it has ever been! Actually all my numbers were better this round of blood tests. I think I will have to agree that long distance running really is not that good for us. This same naturopath told me to compare a sprinters body with a long distance runners body and tell her which I think looks healthier. Hands down, the sprinter is a lot healthier looking. Their muscles are toned and they appear to be at a more natural weight as well.

Too bad I am addicted to long distance running! I figure I will work out smart in the winter and go crazy running the other three seasons. Actually I work out smart in the summer too while I train for triathlons. Ok two out of four seasons aint too shabby :)

Winter Blahs. New Goals.

I have sufficiently rested from the Chicago Marathon, I think. I was not at all interested in running after the marathon. I had fun running the Turkey day race but only because I ran it with my sweet lovable almost brother in law. I suffered through a very grulling (sp?) New Year's Day run. I have run a handful of times in between but mostly I have been staying indoors playing around at the gym. It has been a lot of fun. I love lifting weights, my guns are really getting defined, I almost don't have the upside down muscle shake anymore. Almost :)

But....I was sitting next to my fellow nutty runner, my stepdad while we watched our UCONN Huskies stomp all over Texas on Sat and during half time we got to talking about....running. He is on the way to completing the 50 states marathon challenge and he plans to run a marathon in Nebraska on May 2.

And there's a half-marathon....Maybe just maybe! Any bloggers wanna meet up in Lincoln, Nebraska?

I love yoga

I set out this snowy cold morning to try my first "hot" yoga class but my new, good-gas-mileage car sucks in the snow. Oh well can't have everything, right? So I headed to my gym which is about ten miles closer. Lo and behold there was a 9am yoga class at my gym this am! I set up next to a little old man that had to be about 85 years old. He was the cutest thing I have ever saw do yoga. I just hope I make it to see his age and man I hope I am still doing yoga :)

2010 Goals

Well, we started 2010 we lots of snow and some running! Here I am with my sweet friend, Fran enjoying champagne after our 6 miler on New Year's Day.

I have had years where I want to run a race per month and years where I did not set any goals. It definitely helps me to wake up and get moving if I have a goal. My main goal this year is to stretch my psoas everyday and get my hip better as well as prepare for the olympic distance tri in August. I will have to research some other races earlier in the year to gear up for or else!

I have been working out at the gym about 5 days per week while running about 2 days as well. I feel good. I am not loving running lately and welcome the break from the daily grind of hitting the pavement. I am totally loving my shapely arms from lifting at the gym. Boo-rah!!!

I think I am growing up!

I have had the most wonderful holiday season....and its because of the little things. My holiday season started off with a down-home wreath making party held the Sunday after Thanksgiving. My middle son, Nick, and I went to one of my best friend's (and most avid reader ;) to her relaxed, welcoming, pot luck wreath party. We both were wreath making virgins and neglected to bring a wreath ring, so we borrowed one and Nick made a beautiful wreath that is now hanging on our front door.

Actually back up a second, my holiday season started on Black Friday. My youngest, Travis and I went shopping from 7am to 1pm and pretty much did 90% of my shopping. On top of that, he wrapped most of it when we got home! I have great boys.

Fast forward a little to Christmas eve, I started my morning with a pre-dawn run with my chicas. I have been staying off the roads and running at the gym, so it was great to see my girls. I miss them, but my body needs a break from the pounding on the roads.

After the run, I hung out with my sweetie, Stan and Travis most of the day. We ran around doing the bulk of Stan's shopping ! and the last minute details of mine. Then we went to Friendly's for our Christmas eve dinner! It was easy and stress-free and I loved it. After our dinner, we went our separate ways for a while to wrap and organize for the next day.

I brought my youngest to his dad's house at about 8. It's always hard to share my kid on the holidays but it's is also nice to know how many people love him. My two older boys' dad died ten years ago, so there's no sharing, I get them all to myself. They see his family sometime after Christmas. These two aspects can be hard on the holidays, but this year it was fine.

Since their little brother went to his dad's, my older boys were able to ask for some more grown up type of celebrating. Stan, Nick and I went to my childhood church's midnight mass. It was absolutely beautiful, those Catholics really know how to create a beautiful service. The decorations, music, the lighting were magical. The priest is from Poland and sang a traditional Polish hymn that was just amazing, he was so vulnerable and humble up there in front of a packed house. I was so glad I went. I am not a practicing Catholic anymore, I can't wrap my head around pro-life beliefs or that women aren't allowed roles of leadership. I joined the United Church of Christ about 16 years ago and I love my church, but the Catholic church really has the ritual and symbolizim thing down. I miss the rituals sometime.

After the mass, we came home. I immediately crashed while Stan and Nick stayed up doing whatever people who don't need sleep do! I don't know what they do, I am always asleep. I know there's lots of eating and card-playing going on. I think they made a fire too. Poor Santa :)

We woke up late, around 8. Tommy, the oldest and the one that needs sleep like his mom, got up and cuddled with us for about an hour. I love that my 16 year old, 6 foot son cuddles with me, we gabbed and joke until I feel like being vertical. We woke up Nick at 9 and started the present portion of the day. We were done by about 9:15!!! We even did it civilized too, one present at a time but when there's only two kids opening it just doesn't take that long. We made a big breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon and bagels and fruit. It was awesome. Then I cleaned up and started on the dishes I was bringing to share later on that day.

One of my favorite parts of having a low stress holiday was after I finished my dishes, Tommy and I went for a snowy hike at one of our favorite spots. It was totally great. We hiked and talked about Emerson and Thoreau or rather I received a lecture comparing and contrasting both authors. I learn something everyday from my kiddos.

We headed home for showers after trying to find a Dunkin Donuts open to no avail. I was craving a Peppermint Mocha Latte BAD, but oh well I will have to indulge today. Dunkin Donuts employees were off on Christmas. Good for them, bad for addicts like me.

For dinner, Tom, Nick and I went to Stan's mom's house. We had cornish game hen, potatoes, collard greens, cabbage and a bunch of other stuff and man it was good. His family is very welcoming and fun. After that we went to my mother's for dessert and the all-too-much-fun Yankee Swap and I picked number ONE! Yeah for me! I chose an interesting bag of loot...corndog breath mints, grow your own jesus and be saved toy, and a james dean puzzle. If that was the number one present, you can imagine what the others were. The Yankee Swap always brings some fun to end the holidays.

I think my holidays were awesome because I did things that mattered to me. I loved the midnight mass and the Christmas eve run with my girls and Christmas hike with my son. It helped that Travis and I shopped and wrapped early as well. It opened up time to do the stuff I love with the people I love. Hope your holidays were also as enjoyable. Happy New Year!

Busy but Happy

I am half way through with my literacy specialist certification program and wow it is a lot of work! I enjoy the type of work though. I have to tutor children and I have chosen to tutor a group of nine-year-old English language learners. I love working with that age. I have been working with preschoolers for the past 12 years and it can get a little tedious sometimes. As a preschool teacher, I work so hard and don't often get to see the fruits of my labor. Often times, the kindergarten or first grade teacher reaps the rewards of all the singing, dancing, tracing, problem solving and conflict resolving!!!! I am in an interesting time of my career, well I guess in my life really. I definitely feel like I am in a transition period, carving out my next steps. It is exciting as well as terrifying!

I have been working out at the gym. I run outside about twice per week as well. But every winter I head inside and work on other things. I enjoy weightlifting a lot. Lots of eye candy at the gym as well but that's all it is for me since I am madly in love with my sweetheart. Check him out, mmm, mmm, mmm! I am a lucky woman!

Stationery

I was fooling around on the world wide web and typed in one of my favorite blogs Runner Susan and it said aka Stationery Susan and I truly laughed out loud. That would describe me lately. I have no umph. I feel like Eyeore!

Recovery

I have not been feeling like running much since Chicago. It is always so hard to get your legs back. I took ten days off and that felt great. Since then my longest run has been 3 miles! Feels funny!

I had a lot of fun on Halloween. One son was a lumberjack, one was a brick wall, one just caused mayhem somewhere!

November will be an easy month. We don't work a full week! We have election day off since the town uses the school buildings, Veteran's Day off the week later, Parent Conferences the week after that and then Thanksgiving. WOO WOO, yeah baby. I love being a teacher. Aren't my little kids adorable. I have 16 just like them!

Pics from Chicago!

On www.marathonfoto.com you can see some race pics. My last name is Martin and my bib was 40686. I look tired...

Here are a few pics of our Chicago Fun! One is of Travis and I on the SkyDeck of the Sear's Tower. So cool.

The other is of the boys posing at the Bean, a totally cool sculpture at Millenium Park.

Chicago Marathon Race Report 2009

First off, let's say that Chicago is an awesome city. Go there, sight see, eat and enjoy the night life. It is awesome. Who cares about the marathon? Marathon, smarthon!!!

But really now this is a blog about running, right! So anyway we headed to Bradley International Airport to discover our flight was delayed a few hours. I was travelling with my three boys and my love. We played cards and walked up and down the puny terminal about 218 times and finally it was time to board. We arrived to a totally nutsy Ohare Airport and discovered we had to pay another 120 buck-a-roos to get to and from our hotel. That is one thing about traveling, its expensive for sure. There was so much traffic coming into the city for the marathon it took us about an hour and half to get to our hotel from the airport. Finally we arrived to our room and sandwiches ordered by my family for us at about 9:30pm. We chowed and promptly fell fast asleep.

The next morning my honey, Stan, and my step-dad, Rich, my oldest son, Tommy and I first ate the most banging breakfast at a restaurant named Yolk on Michigan Ave. DELICIOUS!!!! I had the vegetable skillet with scrambled eggs while Tommy had banana nut bread french toast. I can't remember what the others had but wow, it was beyond delicious.


Then Tommy and Stan went exploring along the North Shore of Lake Michigan and had themselves a fun adventure. Meanwhile, Rich and I went to the Expo. We arrived promptly at 9am so we did not have to fight any crowds. Lots of freebies were given out and after trying every type of sport bean or power bar or miracle sports drink, we rolled out of there and walked along the Lakeshore path back to our hotel.

We were traveling with ten people so it was tricky to all catch up with each other. But we finally did just that at Millenium Park in downtown Chicago. Millenium Park is this coolest park with very cool art. There is the extremely fascinating "Bean" which is bean-shaped mirror that is a giant optical illusion. I have some great pics from there. Will try to get those up. There are sculptures all over the park as well. There is this wild sculpture that we call "Spitting Faces", these two huge blocks made of people's faces were on the blocks and every ten minutes are so the faces spit at each other!!!

A little farther away was another beautiful city sight, Buckingham Fountain. Wow that was magnificent.

The last sight seeing thing we did on Sat. was go to the Sky Deck on the Sear's Building. The sky deck is three glass boxes that are built of the edge of the Sear's building. It was incredible. You could see so much of the city.

After that we traveled to a nice Irish pub for dinner. They must not heard about the Chicago Marathon being in town because the only pasta they offered was macaroni and cheese! Too much cheese would not be a good thing for my belly so I opted for baked chicken and mashed potatoes and spinach. YUMMY! We headed to bed and I actually slept pretty well.

Woke up on Sunday at 6am totally pumped! My first mistake was I only ate half my banana and like two bites of my bagel. I was just so anxious to get out there and run! So Stan and I met Rich at 6:30 and we made our way to the start. Second mistake occurred at this point, I usually take two or three ibuprofen before the run and then during the run at like mile 20 and I couldn't find my stash!!!!

Third mistake happened at the start line. I started with my faster father with the 3:40 pace group. That sucked because I was passed the whole freakin race. Bad for morale. On top of that my garmin did not find any satelites in the middle of downtown, so I did not know my splits. oh well. Live and learn.

It was cold at the start about 32'. It looked like the sun might peek out but it never really did and the temp barely moved up much. It was cold the entire race. I found the beginning of the race uncomfortable due to the cold, my legs were stiff and slow. I soldiered on and found that by mile 9 I had warmed up the miles were just floating by. Since I hadn't eaten like I should have, I ate my first gu early at mile 5. That little mistake would take it toll later on.

At mile 8, we must have been running through the gay and lesbian area of Chicago because there were two groups of flamboyant male cheerleading squads performing adorable cheers for us and a stage of drag queens cheering us on as well. They were great.


I saw my little son and Stan at mile two and loved getting their love on the course. It really jazzed me up to keep going strong. I saw Tommy and Stan standing on top of newspaper boxes at mile 13 screaming their bloody heads off for me! I loved that too. So Cool. After the half marathon mark, I relaxed and felt confident about the race. All the while I was keeping a 8:50ish pace, I think! Not sure since my watch wasn't able to turn on until about mile 8 when we were running on the outter parts of Chicago.

I ate my second gu at mile 14 and was still running strong. I saw Stan and Travis again at mile 17 and they were so great for me. I started to get tired around 18 but decided to dig and say mind over matter and I have to get my legs moving! So I did! But at 18 the race volunteers were handing out power gel. I took one since I was hungry. YUCK, I am used to vanilla gu and my stomach did not like the power gel. I was able to push that aside and keep running hard.

UNTIL ...mile 22. Mile 22 was when my legs were starting to cramp up. I don't think I cramped due to dehydration. I think it was due to the cold and very flat course. Flat courses are great, of course! But my calves were screaming at me by mile 22 and it got a little dicey. I think the flatness of the course kept my legs getting the same type of movement. I was afraid my calves were going to just seize up. I did stop to stretch them and I think that helped me to suffer thruough the rest of the marathon. I was not happy, those last four miles hurt A LOT!


I saw my family at mile 25 and that helped to get to mile 26. I cried when I saw that mile 26 marker so happy to be done. I finished at 4:12. I was happy with that time, it reflected my training and how I felt that day.

Chicago was fabulous and all of you should just run right out and sign up for Chicago 2010!!!!!!

Taper-ahhhhh

Well the work is done. I am as ready as I will ever be for Chicago. I feel confident but not overly confident. I am confident I will have fun and enjoy the race, but I am not sure I will finish in my goal time of sub 4 hours. I will start with that pace group and see what happens. I am very good at readjusting my goals mid-race if need be. I am excited to be visiting the windy city. I have only been once and that was for a short visit when I was 12 years old!

Hope everyone is having a nice beginning of Fall!

20 Miles ...Done

Last night after working with three and four year olds all day, I ventured out along a beautiful slightly hilly long run in the drizzling rain.

It was awesome.

I felt great the entire run. It was not real speedy but I am not worried. My sweet sweet friend, Deb, met me at mile ten at the top of this freakin bear of a hill to support me for the last ten miles. It was great and I am so psyched for Chicago. I have another longish run next week and then taper baby!!!

The marathon is less than 30 days away! Woo Hoo!

Speed work and its hot :(

I am procrastinating right now. I have four 1000m repeats I have to get down and its 88 degrees and humid. Yuck.

Don't worry I will go just a little later than I thought.

Chicago training going very well. Going for massage tomorrow. Long run on Friday am. WooHoo!

School starts on Monday. Back to reality. Back to some money, money, money!

Miss reading posts will try to catch up.

Loving Life!

I have been having the time of my life! Maybe life really does begin at 40. Well almost 41!

Since June, I have taken in my first Red Sox game at Fenway (it poured in the fourth inning but it was still a blast anyway).

I saw The Color Purple in the theatre, it was amazing.

I completed my first third of an intensive course to become a literacy specialist in July. I loved my class and can't wait for the second third to start in Sept.

I sold my sexy Jeep for another sexy car that is waaaayyyyyy better on gas, a 2006 Honda Civic. Black with a nice moon roof.

All the while I have tried to train for the Chicago Marathon. I had a fabulous long run on Friday morning at 5am. The moon was bright and we tackled our run with gusto. We had energy the entire run. It is amazing because I had sucked eggs on the previous long run!

I have started speed work, it hurts but will be worth it come race day.

No tris for me this year but I have continued to swim and bike to keep healthy. I am going to hike Mount Washington instead with my girls. Can't wait.

Happy Running!

Shhh, dont tell my teacher...

I am writing to you while I am pretending to take notes in my theory of reading class. This summer I am studying to become a literacy specialist at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT. It is cool being New Haven yet I am imprisoned in the same blah blah classroom for the month of July. Right now I better go listen to my professor talk about morphology. There is a lot to think about when you are teaching reading...

I have hardly been working out. Bad for me. But I have managed to do my long runs since I will be dazzling the city of Chicago this Oct. !!!

Miss everyone!

Hello out there!

Hi everyone,
Been busy with school since July 6th. Been running a little bit and biking too. Need to swim more. Miss reading about everyone!

Hello

Wow I went to power yoga this am after my morning swim. Whoa it was hard! I need a nap!

Beep

Yesterday I met the running Chick with the orange hat for a run, but actually her hat was white. We were joined by another attractive running chick also wearing a hat, can't remember the color of her hat though.
We were running on the wrong side of road for a short spell and received many beeps and thought wow we are doing pretty well this morning! Must be our new shorts!

Then we said farewell to Dianna since she was running 13 and we had to get back to our kids and were cutting the run by half. Sadly enough when we were running without Dianna we received no beeps.
So what can be deduced?...

1. Dianna is totally hot and was reason for all the beeps. Could be. She is smoking.

2. The cars were beeping at us because we were running on the wrong side of the road. Maybe but this is New England nobody really cares for anyone else's safety that much.


3. On our way back to the car, we were really sweaty and our hair was matted to our heads and we just didn't look as good as when we started. Plausible.

Glad these are the extent of my problems.

Ugh Goggles

Do any of you wise worker outters have any suggestions for appropriate goggles? I have raccoon eyes for hours after swimming and if I want to get better I need to figure this out, I am vain you know?!

Urban Adventure - Boston 2009

Oh my goodness What A Blast!!!!

Travis, Jabez and I started our adventure with a 8am departure, stopping first for bagels of course! We made it to Boston in about an hour and half and got to the packet pickup at 11 almost the first ones there. What fun, we perched ourselves close to the entrance and watched all the crazy costumes! There were two teams of bees, a team of ducks, Dr Spock and that other guy from Star Trek oh yeah Captain Kirk, sharks, angels and demons, just plain angels, and on and on.

At noon, the race organizers handed out our 12 clues. We had to wait till everyone got an envelope before we could open them. Holy toledo, the questions/tasks were so hard. Luckily my oldest son was home and googled us the answers to most of the problems but some were tasks we had to do like find people with red socks and a Red Sox jersey on or shake hands with a dog. It was legal to have a phone a friend and to ride the T or public buses. You couldn't ride a bike or hire a taxi.

Some of the tasks were so obscure, I just don't understand them. Like one was to find something that holds 230 gallons, 2 quarts, 1 pint and three gills. It was this random huge teapot at Starbucks and we only got it because we saw other teams there and Travis spotted the words on the kettle.

But some tasks were really fun. At KO Prime, this fancy restaurant they set up a "Who dunnit?" type problem with 15 clues all over the restaurant. It was really funny, all these people running around looking for clues.

The race has a 5 hour limit and I thought oh no problem we will make it in about 3 hours. Well we had to book to the finish line for the last few miles to make it in at 4 hours 55 minutes!!! I was so happy we made it in the 5 hours.

We probably ran about 8 to 10 miles over the 5 hours and we were soooooo pooped! I would recommend the Great Urban Race to anyone looking to see a city and have lots of fun. I would definitely do this again. Maybe we will go to NYC or Philadelphia for the next time we give it a go.

Oh my goodness pics will have to follow I can't find my stupid usb cord AGAIN!