Blizzard = potty training time

Merry Chrsitmas, a little late. We spent the holiday with Fred's family, at his parents' on Christmas eve and at his grandparents' on Christmas day. I managed a 3.5 mile run on Christmas eve before we left, but nothing for the last 3 days. With the blizzard that kind of trapped us (we were supposed to go into NYC to see my brother, sister in law, niece and mom who is here for 2 weeks...will go Wednesday instead), I decided it was time to POTTY TRAIN and so I haven't left the house. It's going pretty well. I went with the cold turkey method...no diapers (nap and bedtime excepted). Basically she's naked from the waist down (or wearing loose pants when she lets me put them on her...she prefers naked). The first day I sat her down every 20-30 minutes. The morning was rough, after a good start (peed the first time I put her down right after she woke up). She had lots of little pees, most on the carpet. I almost gave up especially when she started protesting. Enter chocolate chips. Went much better in the afternoon, and today, mostly. Although I am exhausted from constantly watching her, trying to catch her if she started to pee off the potty. But, we did go out in the snow a few time, for 30 minutes or so, and she stayed dry. Tomorrow I do plan to take her to daycare for a bit...not sure what they will do (they might want her in diapers, so she doesn't pee on their carpet!) BUT I do think in a week or so we'll be pretty much good in terms of daytime. Not sure I'll ever be able to take her out in public again, but... :)

And again...

Another after school treadmill run. Working on getting the speed back, slowly. Two 9:15 miles, a quick break, and half an 8:00 mile. Then had to go get Andra so we could go swimming. Starting to remember how I used to like treadmill runs, plugged into the iPod, music up loud. It's coming back, I got a second chance. Fingers crossed that was it...I want to do the Mothers' Day 10k in May!

Routine

Just ran 3 miles on the treadmill at school. First time I've been down there ALL YEAR. Now that I can run again, and it feels GOOD to do so, I need my routine back. Frankly I've been so swamped at school with more students than ever and less free time thanks to our new contract, and swamped at home with cleaning and cooking (not that I do either well, which just adds to the stress), that I rarely have time in the week when I feel like I can just RELAX. When Andra's awake, she doesn't let me do my own thing...ever. Which is understandable and all, but even when my husband's home, it's ME she wants to have her attention.

Anyway, I ran, including one 9 minute mile (felt good), half an 8 minute mile, and a quarter of a 7:30 mile. I think I'll start working on my speed more on the treadmill, and try to start doing a longer run (I want my usual 5.5 mile route back!) on the weekends...once it's not in the 20s anymore.

Busy Day

Thank god for friends who aren't wimps. Today was the 3 mile race I wanted to do. Despite the forecast calling for rain (though, a relatively balmy 45 degrees), Jen said she was GOING. So of course I had to, too. We showed up with maybe 50 people and ran. Not too bad, really. I was slow, my watch said 29 minutes (9:40 pace) (update: official time 28:58, 9:39 pace), but since there was so much other stuff to complain about (rain, cold, rain, cold, etc.) my ankle didn't bother me at all! I was cautious going down hills...it looked slippery, and one wrong landing would have hurt a lot. I got passed more going downhill than up. No mile markers, but it didn't matter. Results here. Interestingly, if I had been a man, I would have been 5th in my age group!

Went back to reread my post from March 2008 after I ran my fastest paced race ever, another 3 miler at a 7:34 pace. WOW. I was over 2 min/mile slower today. I can't believe I ever worked that hard! Even then (I'd forgotten this) I was wary about my ankle and knew everything would change one day.

I came to the conclusion that I am naturally a slow runner. I got reasonably fast (for me) through a lot of hard work and being in really good shape. But I lost all that, including the mental toughness, and have to start over. Jen, who also claims to be as out of shape as I am, ran nearly 2 minutes faster than I. She is naturally faster...if she ever really trained, she'd kick my ass. I hope someday we both are in a place to really train for something together.

So, 2010 saw one running race after all. And the rain didn't stop me (though it came close). I am wearing my race t-shirt right now, with three running Santas, and feeling pretty good. A year ago I told myself I was taking December off. Then I had the worst flare ever on New Year's Eve. By February I was noticeably limping and running wasn't even a possibility. Hell, walking wasn't. But...so it goes. My rheumatologist, whom I saw Friday, said I was a "relative success story." I have aggressive RA, but...I've been lucky. I know that.

Today is also Andra's birthday. The cake was made last night after a late-night run to the store to get flour when the cake was halfway made. Gingerbread layer cake with cream cheese frosting. No real party, just one set of grandparents Fred's brother, his wife and their baby. I am just not an entertainer.

I really want to go take a nap. Andra's was short and all I had time to do was ice the cake. Surprisingly she's letting me type this up now