A Weekend of Mixed Emotions!

Relaxation: As I sat in the coffee shop updating my blog and just sort of chilling after dropping the kids off at school on Friday. I had from 9-10am to relax before the aquatic center opened!

Disappointment: My mother was ALWAYS late! I used to sit on the sidewalk with the teacher as the LAST kid to be picked up telling myself that I wouldn't be late as an adult! ha ha... maybe it's a gene or something. No matter how hard I try, I am late A LOT! Not really from picking my kids up, but just getting things done in general. I think it's because I try to get TOO MUCH done in one day, but regardless... no excuses for why I got started with my swim later than I should, but I ended up pushing it time wise and having to cut my swim short... NOT happy with myself about that!

Regret: Cut swim short so I could hurry home and do a one hour run in my neighborhood. Supposed to be an AT run. But I ended up running it too hard. I knew I had towards the end. My neighborhood is VERY hilly, and I'm trying to get stronger and faster on them. Well, I let my hr get out of zone once or twice to finish making it up some of the tougher hills, and then it just ended up wanting to stay too high. I averaged out ok, but just had that feeling that I had pushed it too much. So I felt bad about it afterwards.

Relaxing Pain :) Yes, in my eyes there is such a thing. A friend of mine is finishing up her studies to become a certified Massage Therapist. She sent out a special offer, and of course, I jumped at the opportunity. I wanted to get all of my working out in for the day before our appt. together, so I could recover afterwards. So it was an hour of relaxation mixed in with pain that I knew would ultimately make me feel better!! :)

Family Bonding: Coming home from my massage we spent sometime working with Cooper on riding a bike without training wheels and taking a walk. Our training walk was fun and happy!

More Relaxing Pain :) On to the Physical Therapist for some more grinding muscle work!! Though, they make it fun and cool so you'll come back!

Comfort: Finished the long day with a meal from one of my favorite Cuban restaurants, Papis! Good traditional grilled chicken, rice, and plantains!! Yum..!!

Laughter and Love: Spent Friday night doing one of my very favorite things... lying in bed watching Friday night Stand up Comedy on Comedy Central with Adam!!

Excitement: Master's Swim went awesome on Saturday morning! We did a hard, long swim and then had 5 x 100's to do holding at goal pace. Last year, my very first year or swimming, I was doing well coming in on 1:40-1:45. This year, I'm pushing for the 1:30 mark, though we had decided in our lane to make 1:35 our goal. I was nervous as I was leading our lane. Didn't want to hold back the other ladies who were pushing it hard. First one... 1:30!! Awesome! My personal goal pace, and faster than our expectations. #2... 1:30 again!! Whoo, hoo!! Ok.. now getting more nervous. Afraid the last 3 will head down hill. #3... 1:30! #4 1:30 again!! We're excited! I know that's not "Fast", but it was for us! So #5 we're ready to give it all we got. I'm trying to pace myself and keep control, come in 1:29!! Super excited!

Pain and More Disappointment: Right after swim I head over to the river for my long run for the weekend. 1:40 on tap. Basically for me equates to roughly 3.5 loops. Warm-up for the first one, feeling tired. I'm like, "Crap... I knew I pushed it too hard yesterday." Second lap, hook up with a friend and try to start pacing myself without letting the fatigue get to me. Third lap: only word that describes it... PAIN. My feet sometimes just get strangely, painfully, numb. There was a point in time that I thought, "Ok... there must be a rock in my shoe jabbing my foot. There's no way that pain is generating from no where!" Pushed the best I could, but cut it short at 1:35. Decided there was no sense in pushing out a last painful 5 min and risk injury. I never know when to push or back off. I figured 1:35 pretty much accomplished what I was supposed to. It wasn't that I can't handle 1:40, I was just having an off run. ???

Gratefulness: After spending all morning swimming and running, I come home to Adam whom I've promised some "Adam time" to this afternoon. He lets me come home, shower, eat, and then gives me extra time to even lay down and take a nap before taking over with the kids!!

Motherly: I Promised Cooper and Gracie a trip to the playground Sat. afternoon because it was so pretty outside. We spent a long time having fun on the swings, bouncy walkway, etc. I LOVE my times with the kids where we just play! :)

Exhaustion: By the end of Sat. I was BEAT!! This was supposed to be a rest week, but in meeting with Coach Carole on Tuesday, we decided to forego it for another 3 week block. At the time seemed like a fine idea, questioning it by now! :)

Guilt: Sunday was supposed to be another beautiful day in Georgia, and I had a 3 hour ride followed by a 40 min run scheduled. I had planned to ride over at the Bud plant, but I just didn't feel like a big bike excursion. You know... load everything up, drive over there, unload, workout, recover, drive home, etc.... I was like, how can I waste such a great opportunity for a beautiful bike ride in February?? But, Cooper had his first baseball practice, and I wanted to be there, and decided, there'd be more beautiful days to come.

Frustration: As soon as we get to the baseball park, utter chaos sets in! Gracie has to go potty, and all of the ones close to our field are locked. So we make this huge trek as quickly as possible (most 3 year olds don't tend to give much notice) to the next restroom that is occupied FOREVER!! Once that is finally taken care of, we head back to the baseball field to discover that Cooper is kind of freaking and doesn't want to play. No one is having any luck with him, including Adam, so I talk to him. Guess what worked?? A bribe!! If he goes and practices, we'll go into "the red gas station", (QT) and he can get TWO treats!! Nothing else needed to be said. He was ready to play!

Pride: Ok, in the good sense I think. Cooper was so stinking cute out there playing baseball, and he had a blast!! I was VERY proud of him!! GO ORIOLES!!

*itchy!: Ok, so yeah, it's about that time if you know what I mean, and I was pretty grumpy this afternoon! I got more irritated with Adam about letting his golf game run late than I should have. Opps... Sorry! :)

Determination: Ok, so I didn't make it to Cartersville, but that wasn't going to keep me from getting done what I needed to accomplish. So as soon as we got home... I headed upstairs to set up the trainer! I was actually pretty glad that I didn't ride. It was CRAZY windy outside, so it would have been a pain anyways.

Zoned: Pushing zone 2 on the trainer and then z3 sets while tuned into the first season of The O.C. on my laptop. I had a GREAT 2 hour ride!

Excited: Ok... off the bike and scheduled to do a 40 min pace run. Decided to do it in the flattest part of my neighborhood accessible from my house. It's just small hills. Start running, and I'm feeling great and fast!!

Worried: Run... maybe started to fast. Can feel the fatigue setting in and my hr is up there with about 20 min to go!

Doubt: Ok. I'm 25 min in and I'm hurting. I'm running faster than I was supposed to, but I'm still trying to figure out the whole pace thing. I'm doubting if I can hold on esp. with some of the hills for another 15 min.

Pain/ Fear: I don't know if I can make it. My mind is trying to convince me that I started too hard. That I can't do it!

Absolute Amazement: I finished and held the pace the entire time! I honest to god didn't think I had it in me. To finish something that felt so hard... complete amazement!

Happiness: In finishing my run, I cooled down with a walk up the hill to my house. By this time it was completely dark outside, and I was listening to Snow Patrol. It was one of those surreal moments where everything was just calm. I thought about the week, and how hard I'd worked. Thought about my rest day tomorrow and how glad I was for it, and was just overcome with emotion and even teared up, in a good way!

Content: Sitting on my couch, showered, fed, and feeling good about life in general!!

K :)