Sunday, May 25, 2008

A break from the mundane

This weekend turned out to be a little unexpected break from my whirlwind days that have been procuring lately. On Saturday night after work I headed over to Hennesey's to meet up with some teammates to watch the best 80's cover band 'Fast Times". This was completely a last minute decision, didn't know that anyone was going out until a fluke phone call on the way to work, and actually made up my mind to go while walking out of work at 11p. As I was waiting in line (an uncharacteristic move seeing as I've worked in the business for entirely too long and know the people to "know" to prevent that) one of the bouncer's standing at the exit door randomly says to me 'you work at Gold's Gym'. Um yeah. 'Trying to go in here?' Um yeah. 'Go in this way' Um sweet! Okay so I thought it to be a bit odd that he knew I worked at the gym seeing as I work in the daycare and unless you're bringing a kid in while you workout, you probably don't know I work there. And I'm 100% positive that he has not brought a child in. Hmmm. Oh well I got in and didn't have to wait so what do I care, still a bit strange. Had a great time blasting lyrics word for word, fist pumping, and dancing mad to music that I did not grow up on despite growing up in the 80's--funny how music works that way. Fun times had by all.

Today was super special. The family that I used to nanny/sit for and that I rent my condo from were in town. They now live in Minnesota, I haven't seen then since they left last June. Boy have the girls grown. We started off the day going to brunch at My Diner. Then since it was a beautiful day I decided that I should get some flowers to finally plant in the front window boxes (which I've procrastinated doing). I thought it would be nice to take Syd (the oldest of the girls) with me to pick out the flowers and help plant. We also decided to bake some mini cupcakes to bring to a BBQ we were going to later on. It was such a sweet afternoon. Syd was well behaved as always and talked my ear off, filling me in on everything's that been going on in her life. This little girl is one of the most intelligent 4 year olds that I've ever met and I can completely say that it had/has been always a delight to watch her. Later at the BBQ I spent some time with the youngest Tess, who doesn't remember me, but that's to be expected since she was only 1 when they left. She's such a little brute and firecracker but it's so adorable. Her favorite thing was to knock me down then sit on my stomach and bounce--Enchanting! A simply superb time , I even missed my run for the day, and it was well worth it.




Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Keep the faith alive

Mini Meet #1 =mission completed. Or something to that effect. I wasn't really sure what I was getting into tonight, all I knew was that I asked for the night off so I could "race" and that was that. I still at 3pm this afternoon didn't know what event I wanted to do. I thought that I had settled on doing the mile and the 200m while circling for 20 min around the parking lot waiting to pounce on a spot. When I paid my fee and signed up that was my intention. I hurried along to a half-bitten warmup (since as usual I was running late). At 6:30ish we lined up for the start of the mile, originally they were going to run guys and gals together but they deemed last min to run us separately. A little bummed for that because I was planning on pulling off some of the guys for pace, since I didn't know any of the girls who were running and was unsure of their paces. I of course pulled out front, settled back into a comfortable rhythm (a little too comfortable in the end) and ran. I stayed front leader for the entirety of the race pulled out my last lap per usual 10 seconds faster than the previous lap, hence the too comfy of a pace. My other indication that I was settled a bit too much was I recovered entirely too fast. My time was the same as I ran back in February which is neither good nor bad but my recovery tells me that I can pull a lot more out of myself. So in that end I resolved to make the meet a workout instead. At the very last minute I added the 400 into my mix of races. And when I say last min I mean, approximately 15 min (or less) after I finished the mile and 2 min before the 400 was going to start, last minute. Again ran ok, sadly I could have finished faster than I did had I opened my stride going down the back stretch--definite mental block on that one, I can pinpoint myself telling myself that I wasn't going to finish in a great time so pretty much I just strided out the last 100m. I really got to work my mental game. As I finished up the 4 I jogged down to the opposite corner for the start of the 200. Physically my body was tight at this point but I proceeded to run anyways, it's only a 1/2 a lap. Another ok time.
I was not disheartened by any of my performances. For one I had very little recovery time in between each event, two, my knee still doesn't have full range of motion without pain, and three, we just haven't gotten to the super speed workouts yet in practice. And hey I did plan on it being a practice day. In the end I'm keeping the belief of working on my head thinking way too much, more speed, and whatever else can be improved, to take my races in the next couple of weeks to the next level.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Just when you thought you were safe

True story this happened to me last Monday. I was just running around the track, minding my own business, when out of the first curve jumps this hurdle. It was only 30in at the approach but as it came closer to me it grew to a whopping 50in. It knocked me down sending me skidding across the track. Thankfully it was a chillier day and I had pants and long sleeves because it could have been a brutal attack. I only suffered a large scrape on my left knee and a few scrapes and bruises on my hands. I had heard stories about these hurdles gone wild but I'd never experienced it myself, so I was skeptical about believing this. But folks it's true so be careful if you see stray hurdles on the side of the track, they may be malicious.

I know what you're thinking but I swear that this has nothing to do with me paying so much attention to where my arms were and how much bend was at my hip while my lead leg went over the hurdle that my trail leg foot clipped the edge sending me flying during hurdle practice. Absolutely nothing to do with that.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Lab Rat

If someone offered to pay you $150 to hook you up to an ultrasound, sonogram, breathing apparatuses and and nerve stimulator while doing breathing exercises then study the data they collected, would you do it? If it required 2 trips, the first a 2 hour preliminary screening, the second a 4-5 hour testing, would you still do it? What if you could not exercise for 48 hours, drink caffeine for 24 hours, and fast for 12 hours before the testing? Would that deter you? Well none of the above faltered me away, I did it, though not without first cringing and flinching at the whole no exercise, caffeine and fasting part. I still can't decide which was the hardest to do.
I figured why not. There were no intrinsic side effects, I wasn't going to miss out an too much work, they were going to pay me, it hopefully will help someone and maybe by some chance later in my life I may benefit from this research.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

A Simple Thank You

Just wanted to wish my Mom, my Grandmother and all the other mothers a day that is as special, caring and compassionate as they are. I want to thank you all for everything that I have learned over the years about children and hope that one day when I decide to become a mother that all that information will be put to good use.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!