1. Awesome run yesterday. I was dreading it because I couldn't go in the morning and had to do 75 minutes of hills (like there's any choice about that around here!) being "aggressive" on the uphills. I am not really a fan of running in the evening but that was my only choice. I don't know if it's related, but I've been paying a lot more attention to strength training lately. I even did a 10, 9, 8 workout (squats instead of jumping jacks this time) with Elliott yesterday while Tommy was having his swimming lesson! I know there will be hard days coming - there always are - but I am enjoying this time of feeling strong and happy in my running.
2. Swim lessons begin. Our schedule got kicked up a notch this week because the boys started swimming lessons. (Neither one of them are exactly bold and brave in the water, but they do it, so I'm happy. Hoping one day they will be stronger and more confident swimmers than their mother!) Our weekday mornings are pretty regimented: summer theater drop off, errands or cleaning or laundry or mowing, summer theater pick up, lightning fast lunch, swim lessons, home to collapse (the boys are exhausted at this point), camp for dinner, baths & bed. It's all relative, but it seems like I'm spending an AWFUL lot of time in the car!
3. One cancer patient with good news. Kathleen had great news regarding her cancer treatments last week. Her CT scan shows the tumors have not spread and are getting smaller. Shhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife also has no sign of the blood clots that caused her so much trouble early on. She's got 2 more chemo treatments (had one on Monday) and then they'll see. Appointment with the oncologist on July 16th will talk about when surgery will be. The boys and I will be heading up there this afternoon to spend the night. Her brother, who has moved in from Chicago to help out, has to go home for a funeral. (Cancer. Ugggh).
4. Whole foods. On my trip to Candor and back I listened to "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. It's a few years old, of course, but SO good. I am overwhelmed by the changes we've seen in how we (members of Western society) eat in the last 50 years or so. Most of what people eat can barely be defined as food, I'd say. The book has inspired me to re-focus on what my family and I eat. She advocates eating fresh, locally grown/raised food... but I'll settle for doing that when possible and going with not-out-of-a-box-with-scary-unpronounceable-ingredients! Such competition out there, though, begging us to eat crap. Since coming home I've made a couple of stops at farms for fresh strawberries, tomatoes and lettuce - so good! Now, if only my kids would eat this stuff. Siiigggghhhhh.... In my dreams, I'm a gardener....
5. One more photo from the wedding of the year. This is the mother of the bride, Cindy, (center) and her baby sister, Susan (in the blue) along with me and my sisters. Cindy and Susan have 6 siblings in their family all told. Our families have a LONG history and it was just beyond amazing to be back together with them. The dancing and tomfoolery was what the doctor ordered.... and I think the prescription needs to be renewed far more frequently!
Hey there! thanks for your comment about hydration. (You mentioned that I might want to start running with some form hydration for shorter races).
ReplyDeleteI actually think you're spot on with the placebo effect of having some liquid on your month. I read an article that said that people who mearly swished gatoraide in their mouth and spit (spat?) it out had slight performance gains from people who only did it with water. Interesting to think about how much of this running stuff is mental!
BTW - VERY good news on Kathleen. :)