parenting

Summer runnin’…soccer and little sleep.

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 7 Comments

Hi!

I’m still here but again…blogging less and less lately. Life is just too busy and blogging is something that I haven’t had any time for. I’ve barely even read any other blogs that I normally follow. Such is life…right!

I’ve been running a bit but felt I lost my interest for a week or so. My husband, Saï and I got out for a 7 km run on a Sunday afternoon – a STUPID hot kind of run but we were kid free…so that’s what we do when we are kid free! Two days later – again – on a STUPID hot day, I went for a 4 k run before picking up my girls at 4 pm – the WORST and HOTEST time of the day to be running – what am I doing to myself?!?!?!

I took about a week off, minus an early morning weekend trail run before the stupid hot started. I was a late night run (after 9 pm) to kinda kick start me again. It was one of those really HOT and humid day’s this week that the temperature is just r-o-u-g-h to manage. I had finished coaching soccer for U6’s (Hilary’s team), then we scooted over to watch Lilly play her game at another field with a quick trip to fill up the car with gas and then back home for bed time. The humidity had let up slightly and the hot temps had decreased slightly.

We’ve had a TONE of late nights with our girls which isn’t always fun for anyone. Less sleep usually means for cranky kids…….and parents too! Anyway, it was 9 pm and I said to Saï, “I think might go for a run”. And of course his response was “good – go get your stuff on and go”.

I wasn’t expecting much out of the run and was only planning on 4 or 5k if I felt like it. Once I got out there and shook off some cob webs I was able to settle into a nice pace and ended up with a progress run! I’ll take that!

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I’ve been cycling a bit too – lots of leisurely riding with my girls and a few solo (late night) evening rides after coaching soccer. You know, when you volunteer to coach one of your child’s soccer team, your other child plays soccer, you play and your husband works shift work – life ends up just being really exhausting! That’s where I’m at – exhausted!

I’m not complaining – don’t read into it that way – I love coaching my kids (and their friends…and kids I don’t know) but I’m tired! I’m not training of a race yet but it’s going to start SOON! Between coaching, playing soccer, going to yoga, a little running and some cycling (and working full time)…I’m not worried about not training for a race.

Anyway, really just a short post to say…I’m still here. Running when I can, cycling when time permits, logging many steps on the soccer fields and just enjoying life….my exhausted life…haha!

How’s your summer going?

Are you training for a race or not?

What’s your number one motivation to run when not training for a race?

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?

 

 

Weekend Challenges & Wins!

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 34 Comments

It’s another “hard to believe it’s Monday” because we had such a great weekend!  Even past the numerous tantrums (5) my four year old had on Sunday, it was still a great weekend.

As a parent that wants to be active with their kids, it sometimes can be pretty stressful pulling it all off. Make it a little harder for ya: planning to take your kids somewhere without your husband because he is working. It’s life and it goes on but sometimes it can be stressful.

It took me about four days to finally decided that I wanted to take my girls skiing Saturday. The packing of gear, the stress of teaching Hilary how to ski while Lilly was off on her own, packing the car, unloading the car, making the lunch, carrying everything from the parking lot in your ski boots with two kids. It doesn’t always sound like fun to me. So, I hesitated in making the decision to go.

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Luckily my Dad lives to ski…yes, lives for it and he joined us at the hill. All the packing, gear finding, stressing over if it was going to fit them this year went pretty smooth. Relief set in for me once I had everything ready to go. Friday was all about packing a lunch and snacks, making sure the car had gas and packing all their gear and mine while they slept. I didn’t tell the girls we were skiing until the morning so they were pretty excited.

The day went way better then I expected. Lilly quickly remember how to ski on her own and Hilary tried to bomb the hill though I’d slow her down and try to control her speed. I managed to take Lilly up the big hill and she did awesome while Hilary got to hang out with Grandad.

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I had planned to leave at lunch but we stayed until 4pm. Time got away from us and then “just one more run, please”...said Hilary…which turned into three more runs. Though it was a lot of work and a little stressful seeing if I could pull it off – it was worth it. I also though they would fall asleep on the way home but they didn’t.

We had a blast. Big win!

Weekly Workouts

So, I guess this is going to be my new thing….weekly wrap up of workouts that I did…or didn’t do 🙂 Here we go!

January 16th – 22nd

Sunday: Soccer game

Monday: Osteopath appointment (then rest for two days)

Tuesday: Nothing. Think about all the running I want to be doing 🙂

Wednesday: Skating at lunch.

Thursday: Physiotherapy appointment. Went well, can run 2 days a week. 🙂

My husband and I went to the Banff Mountain Fill Festival in Wolfville Thursday night. All the films were great, inspiring, exhilarating, some terrifying and some made me laugh out loud.

My favourites were Ace the Desert Dog, Young Guns, and Four Mums In A Boat – oh my gawd, I laughed at those amazing women from England. Loved their film!

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Friday: Nothing. (Packed for skiing, that’s kinda of a workout) 😉

Saturday: Skiing ALL DAY LONG!

I also played soccer yesterday morning at 8 AM – whoever schedules women’s 7 aside (over 30) for 8 AM games is not smart. With all that skiing, soccer and then taking the girls to their gymnastics class – I was spent Sunday afternoon. It took everything in me to get through the afternoon and evening.

You can plan so much, do so much but you also need to remember you need to sleep and rest so much to recover well.

How was your weekend?

Parents: do you find it stressful planning a day trip?

Have to seen any Banff  Mountain Film Festival movies?

I’m joining the Weekly Wrap hosted by HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin.

http://hohoruns.blogspot.com