Wednesday: No Double Swim

So, I woke up this morning feeling ill, and yes, I did oversleep. My temperature was normal, however, so I schlepped myself and Ivan to swim. I swam a hard 3000 meters with Nick!!!! Nick only comes to morning swim on Wednesdays, and they are my best swims because I have someone to compete a bit with and hold me accountable to my intervals. Workout as follows:

• 300 swim
• 6 x 150 (50 drill/ 100 swim) @ 2:30
• 8 x 25 kick choice @ :40 (we did it without fins and there is no chance I made the interval)
• 5 x 100 pull @ 1:45
• 8 x 25 kick @ :40 (with fins this time, so I made the interval)
• 8 x 75 (25 drill/ 50 swim) @ 1:20
• 5 x 50 swim

It was a great workout and If I had gotten to the pool on time, it would have been greater.

After swim, Ivan got a little nap, and I pulled myself together to head to the mall to get some shoes for Ivan with my mother-in-law. He behaved as per usual for Ivan in a mall setting. He refused to sit in his stroller, he ran around, vaulted out of everyone's arms, and attempted to thieve balloons from many a shop in a violent guerilla style. It is his way.

We headed home. I worked a bit, and decided I was too sick to do double swim. We had pizza from Jet's Pizza, and CONFESSION: I got lost. I got lost in the small town of Franklin where I live. CONFESSION: If I had lived 100 years ago, I would have gotten lost and perished on the way to the barn to milk the cow. I can barely find my way to the end of the driveway. I would have lead Lewis and Clark to their deaths if I had been Sacagawea. I drove around in circles for 15 minutes in a relatively small town looking balefully at the GPS wondering why it was being so cruel. I returned home from a 15 minute trip in 40 minutes. It is most unfortunate.

Tomorrow, I am visiting the orthopedic surgeon. I am feeling pretty good with minimal pain, so I am feeling a little silly going tomorrow, but feel I should go. I can't foul up my Boston trip!!!!

Picture is of me running the Huntsville Marathon last December!!!! I am the one in all black.

Tuesday: My Three Mile Run Felt Great!!!!

So today, I overslept. It is clearly the way I operate in the month of October. I vaulted out of bed and had breakfast with Ivan. Because I overslept, I had to take a shower with Ivan. If I had gotten up at the appropriate time, I could have showered blissfully alone and Ivan could have hung out with his dad. I am not a smart cookie and had to shower with my son.

I call my mode with Ivan right now "suicide watch". There is no leaving him anywhere alone. If he is left alone even briefly, there is a very real chance that he will end his life in an ill thought endeavor to french kiss a wall socket or pull an urn onto his head. Bless him, he just can't help himself.

Anyway, I took a most unfortunate shower with Ivan trying to steal my razor and drink my shampoo. He also took the opportunity to poop in the shower, which started me off on the wrongest of wrong feet. It was hard times.

I did get out the door to Bible study. We covered Romans 3, and it was a great lesson. Ivan came home and took a great nap, and I played travel agent. I planned our trip to Boston. Airfare cost me exactly $124 for two people to Boston!!!! Can you believe it??!! I am now working on hotels which may require me to hand over a kidney. It is going to be a crazy expensive trip.

Anyway, I had a great 3.5 mile run with the jog stroller and felt pretty good. I think I actually feel better than after my 1 mile run yesterday. I switched my work afternoon to tomorrow, so I was able to run to the mall and research my big October purchase. I have been having a love affair with the Coach Fayth Boot (pictured above). When I went into the mall today to check my sizing, (by the way, I had to size down a full size to a 6.5), the boot was on sale for 50% off of the regular price. So, I went ahead and got them and will be purchasing nothing else except for a crazy expensive trip to Boston this year.

I came home had dinner with the baby before bath and bedtime. I hopped on the trainer for a 30 minute ride (still no heart rate monitor) and watched Rachel Zoe. She is having troubles with her health and her assistant. Nothing compared to my shower issues this morning, but troubles all the same. Sitting down to watch The Soup and knit my fabulous sweater.

Monday: A Great Swim and a Tester Run

So today, I overslept, which is how I feel I start out every blog post. I overslept and ran about like a maniac hurling things into the car, stuffing sausage into Ivan's mouth and brewing tea. Throwing my stuff into the car and of course arriving at swim 15 minutes late. I did however, get in a good workout. My epic blisters have healed up, and I was able to use fins. I love fins!!!! Workout as follows:

• 200 swim/ 200 kick/ 200 pull/ 200 swim
• 5 x 50 drill (zipper, 6 kick switch, fist, one-arm, catch-up)
• 5 x 200 (0dds swim/ even IM)
• 12 x 100 swim most of which I kicked, because Jaime was there and we talked books while we kicked

This came out to around 3400 meters, which is a great workout. I then headed home, gave the baby a nap and caught up on my much needed phone errands. The baby and I took a walk and then I headed into work. When I came home I did my long awaited tester run.

Good News, Sports Fans, The tester run went quite well!!! No pain while running or afterwards. I ran for a bit over a mile at fast long-strided clip. I will do some more stretching and exercising before I go to bed. I will have another Aleve tomorrow morning, but I am planning on a slow three mile run tomorrow morning. I hope I am not jumping too quickly to the conclusion that I am not injured.

I do feel most certainly, that this is not a stress fracture. For this reason, I will go ahead and start planning my Boston Marathon Weekend as of tomorrow. I am full of high hopes.

Sunday: A Good Workout

So today, things were looking up. Ivan had a bit of a runny nose and a cough and sneeze and these days there are signs outside of every nursery encouraging you to stay at home if you have a hint of sickness. So we stayed home from church. I rode the trainer while Ivan was napping. Today, I watched Project Runway while I rode, and I just about melted down when Epperson got kicked off. Epperson was my pick to win Project Runway this season. I mean his outfit on this week's episode did indeed look like some kind of pirate/Oktoberfest ensemble, but his western outfit was ART. I also felt like he was a calming force on the whole group. Logan should definitely have gone home with his ridiculous wedding dress pants suit, and now Irina is my pick to win. Irina has been a serious force to be reckoned with and her wedding dress remake was lovely. It should have won. Anyway, I got in a good ride, even though my heart rate monitor petered out completely. I am a little uncertain of how to gauge myself with the heart rate monitor. It seems that there is a good chance that I am just tooling along on the bike in the slacker zone.

I made a trip to Cosco for diapers and such, before getting back home to trade off the baby with my husband so I could get to swim. Swim workout as follows:

• 300 warmup
• 4 x 50 swim
• 6 x 150 kick with fins various ways (butterfly, six-kick-switch, back, ect.)
• 1 x 400 swim
• 1 x 300 swim
• 1 x 200 swim
• 1 x 100 swim
• 4 x 200 IM
• 4 x 10 pull

This all comes out to 3400 meters. Which was a great workout. I got in some yoga and am about to get started on my knitting. Haven't finished I've Loved You So Long, but I'll let you know.

Saturday: I Was Still Recovering From Friday

So today, I honestly just sat around. I worked on my new knitting project and made eggs florentine for breakfast. I finally dragged myself off the couch to go to the Cosmetic Market and stock up on hair products and moisturizers. I watched half of I've Loved You So Long.

I pulled it together to get in the shower at 4:00 PM, so that we could get to a couples baby shower by 6:30 PM. We got home by 10:30, and watched SNL.

Friday: A Black Day in the Annuls of Shopping

So on Friday, I got up early and pulled myself and the baby together to get out the door early for his flu shot. We had to wait for 45 MINUTES to get the flu shot. This meant that I was 45 minutes late to swim class, which means I only got in about 2000 meters. I feel like a slacker if I get in less than 3000. It is just part of my guilt ridden athlete personality. Anyway, the workout is as follows:

• 300 swim/ 200 pull
• 5 x 100 swim @ 1:45
• 5 x 200 swim @ 4:00

I had to get out the pool at the end of class, because I had planned what I thought would be an in and out trip to Opry Mills. I wanted to run in and go the the Strasburg outlet and then go to Forever XXI. Now, Opry Mills is a terrible place and not convenient to anything. Parking is atrocious and the mall is huge, I mean HUGE. It is a behemoth of a shopping experience. Anyway, when we got there I bought Ivan some candy, gummy worms and such, to keep him occupied while he sat in the stroller and I shopped. It was a ridiculous fantasy on my part to think that Ivan would stay contentedly seated just because I plied him with gummy worms. I rue the day I thought that the gummy worms were a good idea. Within moments of arriving at the mall to meet my friend Robin and her two children, Ivan was throwing gummy worms and crying. He also figured out very quickly how to get out of the stroller and was off and running. Our Strasburg trip was a bust, as Ivan was covered in gummy worm residue and making a mad dash for the doors at all times. We also had a miserable experience in the Carter's Kids store and the Heart Strings store. At the Carter's Kids store, Ivan went coat hanger crazy and battled fiercely and determinedly to get his hands on as many hangers as possible. These he held tightly in his king fu grip, looking at me with serious concern as I tried to pry his fingers first off one coat hanger and then the next, until he vaulted out of my arms clutching his remaining coat hangers making a mad dash for the doors; as if coat hangers were the equivalent of a leprechaun's pot of gold.

After this disaster, we felt like it was time for lunch. Now, no restaurants at Opry Mills allow strollers. So, you have to leave your stroller outside. My friend, Robin, had her youngest child sound asleep in the stroller, so there was no way to eat in a restaurant. The advantage of eating in a restaurant was that they had high-chairs where I could lock down Ivan. We had to eat at the food court.

The food court was a horrible experience. In the end, it involved me physically pushing a seemingly innocent woman out of the way as I chased down Ivan. Ivan ate two bites of food and I put some things in my mouth at some point, but I don't remember what it tasted like or what it was, as I shoved it in my mouth, and then ran after Ivan who was sprinting at warp speed towards the old Opryland carousel. Why will Ivan love a carousel?

Finally, I made it to Forever XXI, where I attempted to try on 7 things. After trying on two things, and it is partially my fault for not wearing underwear, Ivan army crawled out of the dressing room (Why does ANY dressing room not have doors and walls that come all the way to the floor?!??!!). I had no choice but to sprint from the dressing room wearing nothing at all to grab Ivan. In one day, I engaged in physical assault on an innocent bystander to get hold of my child and then exposed myself in a public place. I ended with one gummy worm stuck to my collar bone and another gummy worm stuck to the shirt I was trying on. I did buy a mini dress, a tunic and two pairs of leggings. The quality of Forever XXI is surprising, my child's behavior there was devastating. I dragged myself through the mall to the exit with a broken spirit. It was fitting that I had to trudge through a deluge of rain to my car. Ivan sobbed the whole way there and I had a reserve lollipop to placate him as I forced him into the car seat. He rubbed the lollipop all over his face and fell asleep finally with it lodged in his hair. I frantically texted my husband to bring home a stiff drink and vowed that there would be no repeat performances of the Opry Mills fiasco.

Thursday: Knit Wittery

Oh yes, knit wits, I am tackling another project. This time it is Vogue's cropped bolero. I have been salivating over it for several months, though I was determined to finish knitting the baby's sweater first. You all saw how that turned out. It was not a triumph. The bolero is knit on larger needles, but is rather complicated. Enlarge the picture and see how lovely. I could not turn it down as my next project.

I picked up the yarn today, and I am about it get it started. Also, today, I rode the trainer, got a flu shot, and went into work. It was a hectic day, and I finished it off by having a quick meeting at Starbucks with my book club. We decided our next read, which I will reveal at a later date.

Also, my heart rate monitor petered out today. I put it on and the whole screen went blank. I had to ride today with only my stop watch. It significantly diminished my feelings of accomplishment and self-satisfaction.