More Miles in the Books: Day 131 - 137

Another week of running in the books! I am slowly, very slowly, catching up toward the daily average needed to log 600 miles for the year. I remember reading about running streaks when we started this, and even the official streak organization (runeveryday.com) mentions that running streaks can be hard on your body. I didn't really understand why - it's only a mile, right? But after doing this for several months, I can feel twinges in my shins. I'm glad I made the decision to train for a 10K instead of a half marathon for this fall, because my weekly mileage isn't amazing but just pounding every. single. day. can take a toll. 

So what have we been up to? My twins are getting so big! They have dropped to two bottles a day and are eating so much food that we may soon be doing our regular grocery shopping at Costco. Recently I moved them to the table with the big kids, and they love eating together.

We also had our first overnight together since having our oldest 4.5 years ago. Tim's mom and sister were so gracious to fly into town and stay with the kids since we had a wedding to attend. I believe the kids exhausted them, which is probably not surprising...but they had a great time anyway, and we were so happy to see them. (We also enjoyed the wedding, open bar and taking cheesy self portraits like this one.)

So with less than three weeks until my triathlon, how are we doing? 

Swim - killing it. I had to contact the race organizers to join a different swim group because I have cut so much time off from where I started. I swam double the race distance last night with almost a negative split even. 

Bike - totally undertrained. I know I can go and ride 12 miles tomorrow, but sometimes riding makes the back of my knees feel tight (but not always, which is frustrating - harder to fix)...and that really hurts when transitioning to run. But I'm hoping a real bike will go better than a spinning bike, and the weather has just been awful for training outdoors. Can't do much about that.

Run - getting faster all the time, but worried about a) any knee pain following the bike and b) being too "treadmill" trained since the VAST majority of my runs happen in the basement. 

Regardless, I think I will finish and learn a lot and be ready to rock another triathlon later this summer.

Miles since last update: 

1 mile

2 miles

2.25 miles

1 mile

1 mile

3.25 miles (plus evening swim training!)

2.25 miles

For a total of: 12.75 miles

Miles year to date: 203.13 miles

Doing What Feels Good (Day 123 - 130)

Hello again! Long time, no see. Finally I can't blame my lack of posting on sickness or allergy appointments or potty training or any other chaos. I have been MIA because we've been having all sorts of fun in the sun. Spring has arrived - hooray!

That means sunhats and splashing in water for the little girls: 

Prepping our raised bed gardens for planting in the next week or two: 

Water play for the big kids too: 

And of course, many many picnics. Loved by kids, and loved by moms. (No sweeping crumbs in the kitchen!)

I love this time of year. I have energy, the kids love being outdoors and time just seems more relaxed. We had a wonderful mother's day weekend too, where I felt even more loved and appreciated than I do on regular days. So lucky to have this crew of little people and a husband who loves me and helps with the workload so we can both accomplish our goals - running and otherwise. 

So what about the running? Right...future running first:

I have been thinking about which races I want to do this summer. I was trying to get excited about a fall half marathon, but I'm just not motivated for the time needed to do distance training. I decided to start running again and to do this running streak because I want to reach my goal weight by my 30th birthday in January, and to regain my fitness. I'm making progress there! I have the rest of my life to add distance, so why not do what feels good for now? So I'm going to do two sprint triathlons and focus on a late summer 10K. I like that distance - long enough to have done something, but short enough that you can work on speed too. I might even find a trail 10K just to try something new. But regardless, letting go of feeling like I "needed" to be training for something longer has taken a lot of the pressure away. 

So now I'm four weeks away from my triathlon now (gulp) and feeling great about the swim, very undertrained on the bike and good about the run but not sure how the run will go after the bike...but regardless, just finishing will be awesome. 

Miles since my last update: 

2.15 miles

3.2 miles

1.25 miles

1.25 miles

2 miles (speed intervals)

1 mile

2 miles (speed intervals)

2.07 miles (outside - hello sunshine)

Total since last update: 14.92 miles

Total miles this year: 190.38 (will break into the 200s next week - awesome!)

Always Busy (Day 117 - Day 122)

Even more busy times since my last update. That can't be too surprising, right? We're under 5 weeks until my triathlon now (gulp again) but thankfully, training is going well. I have started cutting back on running (still keeping the daily mile streak going) to add for more biking and swimming. So far I'm biking on the spinning bike here at home, since the weather has been pretty terrible. But spring is on the way according to the forecast! I hope to bike outside later this week. Today I actually hit all three: biked and ran this morning, and meeting my swimming buddy for a pool workout tonight.

What else did we do last week? Unfortunately the sore throat/cold I had really took me out and the cough is still hanging around. I had more moments like this than usual. We aren't big TV people, especially for the kids, but they all love their Signing Time DVDs. I was so grateful for a few minutes of quiet:

We did rally with one day of nice weather though. Managed a trip to the playground and library, and came home to play outside. Amazing how the kids can entertain themselves with simple things - these paintbrushes and water were a huge hit.

The girls had mac and cheese for the first time. They were so happy that it counts as a weekly milestone.

Between illness, a long doctor visit for the little guy and less-than-amazing weather, last week didn't make for the best workouts and was sort of exhausting in general. The good news is that this week is already off to a better start, so I'm hoping for smooth sailing for the next few days at least.

I did calculate my miles needed to reach a goal of 600 this year, and I'm slipping ever so slightly. (Need to average 1.74 a day until the end of the year now.) Hoping to add some mileage especially when this first triathlon is over in a few weeks. I don't want to be running twice a day in December to make up those miles...

Miles since my last update:

1 mile
1.5 miles (hills)
2 miles (speed)
brick (bike, 1 mile)
2 miles (speed)
brick (bike, 1 mile)

For a total of: 8.5 miles

Total miles this year: 175.46 miles