Dear Running,

The local marathon is this weekend. The events available to enter are the usual 10km...half marathon...full marathon. It has always been an exciting weekend with all sorts of stuff happening and our largest local running race. I have always entered something for about the past decade. But not this year.

I hate running right now.

I am awkward and goofy and I went for a run today and thought maybe my funk was over with but when I checked in with Gary Garmin...my pace was ridiculously slow. And I was trying. Really hard. Then I got frustrated and just walked home. The story every run so far in about a month.

F*ck off Running!!!!!!!!

Justin's advice is to run at least the 10km for a measure of where my fitness is for the beginning of summer. That's a great idea. BUT I know where my running fitness is, its in the fucking toilet!!! And the weather is supposed to be crappy so do I really want to get up early, go out to the start line, hang around in the rain and try to pull a 10km out of my ass??!! I seriously do not want to be disappointed and frustrated (and cold) after Sunday. More of Justin's advice is that this will not be my fastest run ever so don't set it up to be. Just see where you are at.

I KNOW where I am at...slow, awkward, with lead in my legs.

On the positive side of my life....went to a fantastic dinner last night...YWCA's Women of Distinction Award Dinner. How motivating!! You hang out in that room for a bit and you feel like a bit of an underachiever. There is lots and lots of great things happening in this city and in this province, it is a very exciting time.

my first two hour bike ride!

But let's start at the beginning of the weekend...

Friday morning I went to my power class at the new gym. I LOVE my power classes!! I find them fun and challenging and the instructors have been different so different workouts and excercises. I am gonna look hot in a tank top if we ever get summer....

Saturday morning was a nice but super cool morning and if I had my life organized a bit better, I should have been out on my bike. But...no...I was up way early baking cupcakes and putting the treat bags together and getting things ready for Smidge's 4th birthday party. By the time the party was over, which was well into the afternoon as we had the school gym rented and ended up playing floor hockey for a couple of hours afterwards...the weather had gone bad. No bike ride Saturday afternoon.

Sunday came and I went for a swim. Was a decent swim. Not many people there due to the long weekend I imagine. The main set was 10 x 150 meters...100 hard, 50 meters easy. My arms and legs and abs were sore from my weight workout and I felt uncoordinated, but got it done anyway.

Holiday Monday came and was a beautiful day. Got over an hour run in....still felt akward and slow and just goofy when I run. I have not yet made peace with running. I had forgotten our local bike race was going on so stopped to watch and visit at the end of my run on Broadway. Went home after about an hour of hanging out and showered, got my kids together and took them down to the bike race.

They were fascinated.

There was an Olympian in the race (Paul Tichelaar) and my 7 year old is fascinated with everything Olympics. He still thinks he is playing for Team Canada someday....I kid you not. But after watching the cyclists, his new goal is to get to the Olympics in cycling....who's kid is this? Imagine how impressive those bikes and outfis and speed are when you are 7 years old!! And my hubby was even impressed as we were standing at a corner and the trash talk and mouths on those cyclists...oi! Lots of bumps and near crashes and even a near fist fight between a spectator and pedestrian...who knew that cycling was a contact sport!!

Last summer, we had taken the training wheels off of M's bike and forced him to ride without them. There were plenty of tears and harsh words from his father and just an overall bad afternoon. If you are a parent, you know how well forcing your kid to do something works out...it doesn't!! He would have NOTHING to do with his bike all summer. Would not ride it at all, not even with the training wheels...it was really frustrating as he just made his mind up that he would not ride his bike. And we never pushed it after that day, because you just can't make them do something they absolutely will not do.

After the race yesterday, he brings his bike out to the yard and asks me to raise the seat. So we clean it off, fix the seat, check the brakes etc. Find his helmet and off we go! 90 MINUTES we were out biking around the neighborhood!! It was alot of fun and only 2 wipe outs. He picked up riding his bike without the training wheels like he has been doing it for years...we stopped in for some supper and then went out for ANOTHER hour!!!

I am not sure if this counts as my 3 hour ride I missed on Saturday but it was way more fun!!

My baby turned 4 this week

Look who came to the party...

My sponge bob creation...

bleh

I am really blah right now when it comes to any training.

My heart is just not into it.

Did a run last Tuesday and that was the last thing I have done....oops. I missed all sorts of workouts on the schedule last week. I just am not that interested...

Had thought about doing the half marathon at the end of the month but I don't think I could run that and do a good job of it so will be either at the lake if the weather is good OR on the sidelines cheering. We have had so much going on the last few weeks...work is very busy...I am taking a course, in a few months I will be a Financial Divorce Analyst...yes...there is an Academy and courses and you get a "designation" to put behind your name at the end of it!! Not that I care about the letters, but it is very interesting and a critical time in people's lives to be helping them with their finances. The financial decisions they make, usually under emotional distress, are often times not great ones.

Matthew has been invited to the Black Belt Club at TKD. This means one more night per week. yikes...not so sure I am into that...he has really excelled and this is basically a fast track to his black belt but he IS only 7 years old...Luke's birthday party this weekend...I have booked a real Jedi Knight and Darth Vader to come by and hang out with all the 4 year olds...am I the coolest mom EVER??!!!

Our pipes at the cabin froze last fall. Nice. A very expensive and stupid mistake we will NOT make again...as in we will be up there earlier in the fall to get them looked after. So have had to find and organize a plumber to go up there and do all that work.

We pulled all of the shingles off our house this weekend and are about 90% done putting the new ones on. Holy. Hell. That is alot of work. Being out there in the hot sun and heat makes me come to work today and hug my desk. And the air conditioning!! My poor hubby up there sweatin it out but it looks fantastic and he does an immaculate job but those were some long hot days up there!

The hockey wind up was on Saturday night....and I drank like it was 1988!! So no Sunday swim for this hung over gal...omgosh we were so lucky to have such a great group of families in our first year of hockey. My guts hurt from laughing and my head hurt from drinking. Was a very good night.

Today I thought I could possibly go to the gym for my power class....but I slept through the alarm...how lame is that? I can remember about 3 times in my entire life I have slept through an alarm...I ALWAYS wake up before that damn thing goes off!! But I think carrying 1000 garbage cans worth of shingles and other crap to the bin should count for something....

Mini-Marathon

Today at preschool, the teacher organized a mini-marathon. Essentially it was a run around the edge of the school park. Each preschooler had a grade 3 care partner...Luke was so excited!! His "very own marathon"!! He insisted on wearing one of my old race numbers with my race belt.

Here they are all lined up at the start line!!

And look who came into the finish in first place!! OMG he was so happy he ran the entire way and says "Mom...I wanted to stop but I just kept running!!" Sound familiar??

The Warm Down

So proud of you Luke!!!