motherhood

Week 6 Half Training & Motherhood

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 44 Comments

Last week was a test of being on vacation (staycation) with my girls, training and testing being a parent. I love my kids but sometimes we all need a break from each other.

I was really worried my training wasn’t even going to happen and I’d have to give up training for this race. This is a first! Not because I didn’t want to run but I was juggling stuff with the girls (beach, mini golfing with friends, failed bike riding and some swimming), my husband was working, house stuff, not to mention both girls had soccer in the evenings. I didn’t think I could find the time to get it all in while on vacation – crazy eh! Let me tell you – I’m happy that soccer will wrap up soon for the girls and we’ll have about 2 weeks of normal evenings again.

What was Planned vs What Really Happened

Monday: Stretch & Strengthen | Rest Day. I just wasn’t feeling like doing anything. Well, we went to the beach for a bit and both girls had soccer that evening in two different locations. Thank goodness for grandparents!

Tuesday: 5k | Missed workout. This was the “testing being a parent” part 1. We had gone mini golfing in the morning and the girls played outside with their friend. I also ran some errands that I was putting off for a long time. One of which was buying some spray for the hydraulics on my treadmill – they are a little squeaky. I was rather frustrated at 9pm when the littlest WOULDN’T GO TO SLEEP. Seriously, way to late for just falling asleep. I was completely done and didn’t want to work out. At least they are cute!

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Wednesday: 7k | 23km Cycling. Testing being a parent part 2. I though it would be nice to take the girls out for a bike ride and I’d run/walk beside them and venture a little further from home (including hills). It was going great until it wasn’t and major meltdowns where had. Let’s just say, it wasn’t only my 4 year old that had the meltdown. By the time we made it home, I had cancelled our afternoon beach trip and decided to just stay home. I was done!

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Thankfully, Saï was home and he told me to go for a ride or run while they ate lunch and hung out. I chose to go for a ride. Off I went on our local trail at noon on an extremely hot day. I managed 23k, the longest ride for me this year; it took an hour and twenty minutes. I’m not super fast but sure enjoy the ride.

Thursday: 5k + Strength Training | 5k. My legs were tired from my long ride yesterday but I got my run in mid morning in the heat but before the real heat would start. The humidity has been rough here – though it sounds like it’s rough everywhere! We also went swimming in my old boss’s pool Thursday afternoon – so maybe that was my strength training – bobbing around a pool after Hilary.

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Friday: Rest Day | Rest Day/Swimming. Nailed it. We swam again and I even managed 11 minutes of random laps in the pool. I’m not a big swimmer, though I kinda wish I was. The girls had a blast. Lilly was working on her diving and did awesome and Hilary realized that she can touch the bottom of the pool AND be on her own (hence the random laps I did).

This is what it’s like to swim with kids and try and do a few laps for yourself.

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Saturday:  10k Race | 10k. With my husband working all weekend, a race wouldn’t be possible so I just ran 10k before my family was up. I ran my usual route (out and back) on the main road where we live and it was pretty good but humid.

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Then we went to beach.

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Sunday: Rest Day | Rest Day. Nailed it again! I though about working out but decided just to relax Sunday evening after a busy day with the girls.

Mileage:  15k running, 23k cycling, leisurely swimming.

And that’s a wrap! My week felt all over the place with running, trying to be a good parent, entertain my kids/not entertain my kids (they play on their own too), keeping the house going. Honestly, I think it’s easier when I’m working…ha ha, just kidding. It’s just a lot more busier. I do like that I can get my laundry and dishes done during the day though – sometimes there is a silver lining, right?

How was your week?

How’s the weather? Are you battling the humidity?

Anyone run/race this weekend?

 

 

July Runfessions

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 22 Comments

I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty sad it’s the end of July already! July is such a big month between school ending, summer vacation and leisurely nights, I’m always sad to see July end. August means we only have 4-5 weeks until school starts back up again and you try to cram everything in!

July Runfessions

Runfession #1: I’m loving my early morning runs! I get up at 5:30am and out the door by 6am to run as the sun rises in the distance and the heat of the day has barley started. I runfess that I can’t get up during a week day for work as easily as a early morning long run or run before work kinda of day. Wonder why?

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Runfession #2: I rather enjoyed my bike commute to work last week way more then I thought I would. I’m not a confident road cyclist by any means however, I do love to ride my bike on the trail. In order for me to ride my bike to work, my husband has to be off work and drop off/pick up the girls AND I have to have a full office day. I travel a lot for work so I can’t just bike whenever my husband is off. All the stars have to align. It took me just under 35 minutes to get to work and I felt so great for the rest of the day.

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Even the bike ride back home in the heat and humidity was pretty decent!

Runfession #3: I’ve been really slacking at blogging the last few months but honestly feel pretty neutral about it all. There are times when I want to blog a lot and other times when I’m just putting together a weekly recap of my workouts and that’s it! Here’s the real runfession – I’m trying to decide if it’s time to end the blog or just blog randomly when I want to.

Runfession #4: Summer’s with little kids is hard work! This isn’t me complaining but just recognizing that being a parents with kids is hard work. You work all day (in or out of home) while kids are at day care or day camps; driving kids to sports (and maybe coach them), mini meals and snacks replace family meals, late bed times equals cranky kids in the morning and constantly planning for the next day. It’s exhausting and hard. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing all these things (driving, coaching, providing opportunities and experiences) but man, it’s hard sometimes. Sometimes I wish parents could get a medal for accomplishing the most simple task. Yup, seriously!

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Runfession #5: I’ve been eating nacho’s almost every night for the last two weeks! No joke! I’m obsessed with these spicy nachos, dusted (loaded) with Havarti cheese (and sometime cheddar), kalamata olives and occasionally veggies or ground beef from taco night. It’s not a large amount each night but boy have I been enjoying them! No photo’s as I eat them so fast I forget to take one.

You can check out my other Runfession posts: June, May, April, March, Feburary and January. I’m linking up with Marcia for today’s Runfessions post. It’s hosted on the last Friday of each month.

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What are you runfessing this month?

What’s your go to food lately?

Early morning run, mid day or evening run?

 

 

The Key is just Being Active

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 16 Comments

The other night I took Lilly to her soccer practice with Hilary in tow. It’s always entertaining when I take both girls somewhere as Hilary doesn’t like to sit still. Okay, it’s more entertaining for other people not me. I’m not sure which one ran around more during that one hour  soccer practice but I do know they both had a blast.

Lilly was with her friends and listening to her coach while Hilary and I walked the track with her friend and parent and another mom. All of our children go to day care together and will be in the same school in September!

We walked the track together and got to know each other a little more. What we did for work, what our husbands did, sleep challenges with our kids etc. Eventually we got talking a little more and I learned that one was a “gym rat” (her words not mine) and the other is starting her first Learn to run 5k in August! They learned that I like to run, a lot 😉

After walking a few laps the little ones wanted to get out of their strollers to play in the sand pit/kick the soccer ball around too. I got thinking about gyms and they are not a place I frequent very often. When I’m visiting my family, I do like to hit up GoodLife Fitness, especially the female only gyms.

We have three local gyms within 10-30 minutes of where I live but I just haven’t brought myself to look into them. I love to run and be outdoors. I love to be active with our girls all year round. I do value what a gym can offer people and I do value the opportunities that it can lead to.

This next statement has always been something that I believed in and use in the work I do daily. The key piece is that “being active” is important no matter what activity you are doing. Being “active” at the gym, outside, inside, with people, without, on a plan, fly by the seat of your pants – it’s all good. It’s all good because you are making yourself healthier and happier.

My run on Thursday sucked (sorry, Mom) but it did. I honestly hated it. I looked at my watch WAY too much. I stopped a few times to catch my breath after a long hill. I even stopped once because I just didn’t want to run – even though I was ½ a km away from being done my run. Once I finished and had a chance to cool down, I was relieved it was over.  Though I wasn’t happy at the time, I sure was happy after I got my activity in.

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Don’t get me wrong, I’m super thankful I can run and that I could do so on my lunch break, rather than 8:30 at night. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t good and it was far from awesome. BUT – I was active. And that’s all that matters!

Does it matter to you what people do to be active?

Do you like going to gyms?

Do you like to workout with others or on your own?

When Runners Can’t Run

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 11 Comments

Sometimes not running can be a good thing {I can’t believe I just wrote that down!}. But seriously, it can be good for your body and even sometimes your mind.

You may have noticed I’ve been doing a little reading around here with Dr. Jordan Metzl’s and Meb for Mortals book reviews. I’ve also been reading “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now” and am really enjoying it. It’s chalk full of running tips, stories, training plans for 5k – full marathons and soundtracks of music!!! Interesting, eh!!!

Well, last night I think this mother runner hit the all time high of what to do when you can’t run. I decided to bake. I had planned to make these amazing cookies: Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies. If you’ve never made them, it’s a must. Anyway….

I figured since I was turning on the oven I’d make some muffins as well. Again, I didn’t just make one kind. In the end I made a batch of carrot cake oatmeal cookies, blueberry muffin’s and banana muffins.

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The banana muffins were supposed to be “chocolate chip banana muffins” as requested by the girls but I kinda forgot about the chocolate chips as they were hiding under the cooling racks, dang! Guess I’ll just have to bake again in a few days 😉 Oh and, none of these are vegan!!!! My poor husband will come home to all this – or half of it – and realise he can’t eat any of it.

Let me just say, I could eat it all right now and may have tested all three last night and for breakfast this morning.

What’s a girl do to?

What do you do when you can’t run (or workout)?

If you bake, do you bake more than one thing at a time?

Ever forget a key ingredient in a recipe before?

PS – I’m hoping to run tonight…..can’t eat all the muffin’s and cookies and not run 😉