Eating chocolate on a Monday morning

There is a person at work who has a huge bowl of chocolate. I just cant help myself, I always have to make at least one trip. I think its awesome that he always thanks me for taking his chocolate, as if I am doing him a favor.

Training: 430am!
40 minutes on the trainer
22 minute tempo run (7:17 pace)
20 more minutes on the trainer

Its always humbling to see your pace after a running hiatus.

Twins: The lucky tots were taking out to dinner again last night. We went to Chuys with my Dad. We do this about once a month. The babies always get a bowl of pinto beans. I always get the mesquite fish and they eat most of my fish. David got chicken fajitas and they also had a lot of his chicken.

After we finished eating, they toddled around the resturant for a little bit.

End of Week Jan23-30 Summary

Sunday's Training: 25 mile bike ride (the big hills of Mummy Mountain). Only 16mph pace but it was hilly (and i had to stop at a lot of traffic lights to get there and back). I feel a little guilty that I did not brick this workout but I just didnt feel like running.

Training Summary for the Week:
Biking - 45 miles outside, 2 sessions on the trainer, 1 spin class
Running - 25 miles (2 trail, 1 speed, a long run)
Swimming - 1 lap swim
Weight training - 1 full body

Twins: My mother and her husband took us out last night for dinner to celebrate my husband passing his CFA. We went to this delicious resturant called Seasons 52, where they have a different menu for each season. I love the fact that I can take my toddlers out to a nice resturant like this and they behave perfectly. If you had been sitting next to us, you would have been oblivious to the fact there were two 18-month year old tots sitting by you.
They ate a garlic chicken w/ roasted red pepper flat bread, edamame, some of their dad's scallops, some of my asparagus and carrots and a lot of my mashed potatoes. (I had steak and the meat practically melted in my mouth, mmmmmm!!)

Although it was a wonderful dinner, it has been rough ever since. The kids went promptly to bed when we got home (7pm, their normal bedtime). Brenna woke up at 2am, which was unusual. My husband put her back down but she was up again at 4am. When it doubt, I blame teething so I gave her some medicine. It did nothing. She finally went back to sleep around 5:15am and slept until 7. She then woke up screaming. I changed her diaper, gave her water, and put breakfast on the table. She screamed and screamed. I ran out of options so I just let her scream. Eventually, she stopped and toddled over to the table. She sat down and ate.

She is nappping now, hopefully she wakes up in a good non-screaming mood.

Officially Training

I signed up for the Desert Duathlon on Feb 20th. It wont be a fast race with all the hills but I love hills (running and biking). It feels really good to have a commitment and a goal.

Friday's training: 20 mile bike ride @ 18.5mph. Moderate hills (Peco loop w/ 17th Ave extension). Does anyone else notice the headwind phenomenon while biking? I swear, I feel like I am always riding into a headwind but then I look at the trees and the leaves are not blowing.

The only thing worse than biking into a headwind (especially one that really exists) is roller blading with the jogging stroller into a headwind. I once made the mistake of taking the babies out on a windy day. We were attempting to roller blade up a hill into the wind and a man passed us while walking his chiwawa.

Saturday's training: 30 min on my bike (on trainer) followed by a 9.25 mile run @ 8:50min/mile pace. I ran with my friend Brian which usually makes the time fly by but we quickly ran out of things to talk about. The route was boring, it was dark most of the time, and so cold that I never felt completely warmed up. However, this is my longest run since Oct. and I am elated that I can run such distance without any pain. Next week, I am bringing music.

Twins: They both have headcolds. No fever and they seem to be pretty happy... but there is an abundance of snot and boogers going on in this house. Last night they got tired really early, so the three of us just cuddled on the couch while watching cartoons. The kids are not really into television, nor are they in to cuddling, so this was a nice treat - it was so quiet for a change.

Some running, and some lunch

Since my lovely husband accidentally broke the valve stem off my tire while pumping air in it this morning, I was forced to go to the bike shop for a new tube. I saw an interesting flier for an all-girls bike race (34 miles). That could be fun! I have never done a bike race before.

It is the same weekend as the Desert Duathalon. So I must ask myself - do I want an easy race? Or do I want a hard race? Tough choice!

Wednesday's training: 45 min on my bike (on trainer) / 45 min trail run

Thursday training: Speedwork!! This is a big deal because its the first time that I have attempted to run "fast" since my last race in October. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be:
2:30 "fast" w/ 90 sec recoveries x 2
2 min "fast" w/ 1 min recoveries x 2
90 sec "fast" w/ 45 sec recoveries x 2
1 min "fast" w/ 30 sec recoveries x 2
30 sec "fast" w/ 15 sec recoveries x 2
aaah, I do love speedwork! "Fast" paces ranged from 6:30-6:49. I also swam laps for 30 minutes a few hours later.

Twins: I dropped them off at the gym daycare while I swam my laps. I go to Lifetime Fitness and they have a wonderful daycare center. The kids love it. Lifetime also has a little cafe that serves salads, sandwiches, smoothies, etc. I decided it was time for me to do something that I have never done before: take the kids out to eat all by myself.

I really try to not let the fact that I have double the kids deprive us of normal experiences. Anything that a singleton mother can do, I can do as well. It may just take more work!

As you can see, I have somewhat figured out photos.

If you are wondering, they are eating a vegetable wrap..it was avocado, feta cheese, beans, sundried tomatoes, green vegetables and a corn salsa. It came with a spinach salad and fruit on the side. It is weird - if I served that meal at home they would have thrown it all on the floor. They will eat anything if it is prepared by someone else. I dont think my cooking is that bad!!

I am going to have to make a decision

I am tempted to do this race:
http://www.desertclassicduathlon.com/

It is:
3.5 mile trail run
21 mile hilly bike ride
3 mile trail run

I love trail running so this race would be perfect for me but I worried about being slow. I dont have time to get fast again before the race so I would be doing it for fun, not to compete. But do I have fun racing if not to compete? This is what I am unsure about.

However, the race does sell out so I need to make a decision soon!

Training: Took a spin class (speedwork day) and did a short trail run.

Twins/Family: My husband passed his level 1 CFA exam. We have been anxiously waiting for these results since mid-December. Only 36% of test takers passed. He will now be taking level 2, which is only in four months. This means he will be studying 30 hours a week...so, it looks like I will be spending a lot of time with my twins! Lucky for me, they are as easy as 18-month year old twins could possibly be.

We separated the twins yesterday. I took Brenna to the grocery store because lean ground beef was on sale for $2.17. It was the only thing we needed so I thought it would be fun to let her toddle around the grocery store, holding my hand. We successfully made it to the meat department and I started to ponder how much meat I should buy. The meat was packaged in 4-5 pound increments. Should I buy one of the larger packages, or two of the smaller packages? I let go of Brenna's hand so that I could sort through the few packages that they had left and she toddled off. I quickly just grabbed the largest meat package and followed her. I allowed her to toddle freely through the wine section and into the produce section. I then saw some organic delicata squashes on sale for $1/pound. My favorite! I started to pile delicata squashes on top of my package of meat as Brenna made her way to the chip section and started taking all the bags off the shelf. I quickly rushed to her, dropping a few of my beloved squashes. I grabbed her hand and she obediently followed me to the checkout.

It was fun but we will continue to use the cart for all future outings.

New week

I took a rest day yesterday.

I dont plan rest days, I just take them as my body tells me that they need them. I spent yesterday lounging around, and even took a nap. I have only napped a handful of times since my twins were born. It's not that I have not wanted to nap (it always sounds delightful), but my body is very stubborn about day sleeping.

I think the fatigue was because my husband and I went out until 9pm..and get this - stayed up until 11pm. I cannot even remember the last time I stayed up that late.

Today it was back to the grind though.

Training: I rode my bike on the trainer for 60 minutes and then ran outside for 20 minutes. I did this at 430am. Then after work (noon) I did some quick weights:

deadlifts (just the bar, i have a bad back)
lunges
bench press (#75)
bent over row (#35)
dumb bell shoulder press (#20)

lat pull down (#60)

delt flies (#45)
hyper-extensions

Twins: After that I picked up my kids and we went grocery shopping. We go grocery shopping a lot, today we went to the normal grocery store. I wore Brenna on my bike and pushed Hayden in the cart. At the end, they each got a balloon, which made them very excited.

I have come to the realization that I need to take more pictures. We took so many photos when they were young, and now I slack.

I also need to figure out how to add pictures to the bottom of a post. It's probably simple but I am tired...its time to go watch You're Cuttoff in the bedroom while my husband reads the Economist. Two peas in a pod.

First Post!

About me:

I have 18-month year old boy/girl twins. For the past year, they have been my running partners. We have competed in a few 5k races, the fastest with a finish of 21 minutes, which placed us third in our age group! I have competed in one race without them, a half marathon in which I finished in 1:35:09. It was through the wine valley in Northern California and a beautiful race.

Unfortunately, after the race I accrued an injury on the top of my foot. Injuries are not new to me. So, I did what I always do when injured - I reached for my bike. I also re-discovered roller blading - just because I was injured did not mean the kids didnt want to go out in the stoller! Roller blading has been great fun for us.

My foot is feeling better and now I am in biking shape so it only makes sense to get back into triathalons. I dont have one picked out yet, but I will soon.

Training for today:
35 min on my bike on my trainer followed by a 75 minute run with my friend. I didnt use my Garmin so I am not sure about my pace. We talked the whole time sot it was slow - I would guess 9:15 min/miles. Its pretty nice to know that cycling and rollerblading has kept me in good enough shape to run 75 minutes with ease. Speed is easy to get back - endurance is the tough part.

Twins for today:
Its 8:49am and we have so far had multiple meltdowns and one large poop. Yay!!