Life is Good

After a little moping I decided it was time to get past missing my race on Sunday, and get on with enjoying the summer as much as I can whether it's with or without races. I don't know what's going to happen with my injuries, and it's not going to do me any good wasting the great weather stressing over something I can't control.

So with that in mind, last night I sat out on my shiny new patio...

Watching this amazing sunset...

And laughing as Kona and Abby (chocolate lab pup on right, visiting for the week) played themselves into exhaustion.

Good times.

I Only Cried a Little

The sprint I couldn't do was today.

I ran two miles yesterday (to remind my body what it's all about after 3 weeks off) with plans to try for 5 today.

Instead of running, I helped my 7 month pregnant best friend move today. Not ideal, but definitely worth losing the workout to keep her from over-exerting herself. (Her husband was busy replacing all the plumbing in the new house.)

I cried about the race on Saturday morning, right about the time I realized I should have been packing the van for the trip. Then I tried really hard not to think about it, and largely succeeded.

Injury status = DNS was the right call.

7 Months

In lieu of anything remotely positive to report about my practically non-existent training, I thought I'd put up some gratuitous cuteness in honor of Baby Bear turning 7 months today!


He may not be the kind of mellow baby that lets me get in workouts while he naps or sightsees from a stroller. But every day with him more or less feels like one looooong training session, complete with cardio and weight training intervals. So I figure he's doing what he can to keep me fit while we make our way through this challenging phase.

Decisions, Decisions

Far too late yesterday, I realized we'd puttered away the day doing things like 6 loads of laundry, installing a ceiling fan in Baby Bear's room (interrupted by 20 minutes of looking for ceiling paint when we realized the previous light fixture is permanently outlined from prior painting laziness), then taking Baby Bear for a float in the pool....

Point is, I didn't get in my run. Which would have been, *ahem*, my first workout in 2 weeks.

Between the BF's wedding, a big client project and just generally hoping some of these injuries would heal, I took a little time off even though I'm frighteningly behind in my training plan.

So, today the big plan was to get in a run (preferably 5 miles, but I'd have taken anything). I had a bit of an upset tummy so decided running outside wasn't the smartest. The back-up plan was to try to get The Incredible Non-Napping Baby to take a nap, and get in what I could on the treadmill.

Problem is, the time it takes to get him to nap (if it's even possible) is often more time than he actually naps. That, and a ridiculous amount of effort (including playing very actively for hours to tire him out).

So, we're nursing and rocking ad nauseum and he fiiiiinally started to hint that he might fall asleep ... unfortunately, I was beating him to it.

Then I had a choice. Do I give in to what was, frankly, overwhelming exhaustion and nap with him? Or do I suck it up and run because he naps about as often as I win the lottery?

I napped.

I know. I suck.

But at least I feel better. (And at least I'll be alert for tonight's business meeting in which I'm supposed to lead a panel discussion.)

Well, This is Fun

It's 1 am. We're huddled in the basement with 3 angry cats in crates, 2 confused dogs and a wide awake, confused baby who's starting to cry. What fun.

At least McHenry's tornado sirens went off BEFORE the tornado this time. (Four years ago they went off several minutes after it had already hit my neighborhood.)

Various weather channels report it just barely to the west of us, heading east/northeast. We're still on the leading edge of the ginormous storm that spawned it. All we've seen so far, aside from the sirens, is a little lightning and some rain (apparently we have hail and 70+mph winds in store).

Just two days ago I printed out one of those "make an emergency kit" checklists and figured I'd make it my summer project, because in the last 2 weeks we've seen more tornadoes in this area than I've seen total in the last 13 years since I moved here.

Some of my friends thought I was being silly and paranoid. Right about now I'm wishing I'd been more paranoid and worked on it sooner, because running around in a barefoot just-woken-up panic clutching a baby in one hand and rummaging for a half-dead flashlight with another is not my idea of a good time.

***UPDATE***

It's 2:30. The tornado missed us and it remains to be seen what happened, but according to weather.com it passed by much too close for comfort. WH finally talked me into going back upstairs to bed, but I couldn't bear to put the baby back alone in his room and I can't fall asleep. Every little rumble of thunder and gust of wind sends my heart rate soaring.