I Spy With My Own Eye

It was beautiful on Friday, so the kids and I headed out in the jogger to a park ... an attempt to 'kill two birds with one stone', as they say. When we got home, the Garmin reported 6.5 miles, though my plan called for 8-10, I called it a day. I really wish I knew how many miles I could count for pushing 100+ pounds of resistance.

** 1:07 elapsed time / 10:24 avg pace Note: our route includes about 10-12 minutes of uphill (depending on wind resistance and my energy level)!

The girls (Sweetie's best friend and her younger sister) were next door visiting their grandparents so they came over to play for awhile. I did some yard work while they entertained themselves. When DH came home a couple hours later, the kids climbed into the jogger once again for our evening walk as a family. We try to walk around the neighborhood everyday if DH makes it home before dark and it isn't raining. I would guess that we average at least 3 walks a week in the winter and 5-6 in the summer. It is a nice time together as a family and DH and I get a chance to talk.

Saturday, the kids and I met my girlfriend and her two boys at the park for a play date. The kids spent about 30 minutes on the structures and then we proceeded on a letterboxing quest. We must have walked at least an hour (to and from the letterbox). We had a little difficulty finding the box, fortunately I had done a few previously and the experience (or was it my persistance) paid off. The clues referred to a small pine tree, from which we were to count 15 paces. Problem was, there were 3 small pine trees. Which one to choose?!

Sweetie and I worked in the yard for another couple of hours as Buddy fell asleep on the drive home. We were able to clean up all the debris and plant the sprouts we had started from seeds in the house a few weeks prior. We had attempted to sprout a number of things - most were experimental as the kiddos had been saving the seeds from some of the foods they and eaten (apple, pear, squash, pumpkin) - others included peas, tomatoes, corn, basil and cilantro. I am not sure what happened with our seeds... not everything sprouted. What I know we have are shown in green... we also bought some strawberry starts and planted those as well. It is a learning process for ALL of us as I'm a gardening novice.

We went for another walk as a family after dinner. It is great to get out again... it's funny how the nice weather really brings people out doors. We don't see many of our neighbors in the winter months, but now, nearly every garage door was open and people were milling about washing cars, mowing/aerating lawns, weeding, organizing their garage, etc.

I intended on rising early this morning to get my long run out of the way before the majority of the family awoke... that didn't happen. A late night (catching up on our favorite shows over the week)... kiddos climbing into our bed and proceeding to toss about... 4+ hours of yard work on Friday and Saturday... resulted in one tired body. Yard work definitely counts as cross-training in my books... I worked all sorts of muscles that generally don't get used.

I thereby woke with the family around 7 a.m. and promptly prepared breakfast. DH reminded me that he needed to take the tires in to have the rims swapped, thereafter he was going to change out the winter tires on my Volvo. He thereby wasn't going to be available to watch the kids or accompany me with the kids in tow. I would have to do my long run with the jogger if I was going to do it at all.

As a result, I went into the 20 mile long run with the motto, "Forget Pace, Enjoy Yourself!" I promised the kids that I would stop at a park and allow them time to play and run about when I had completed at least half of the run. I opted to take a less-frequented route to provide us with more entertainment and fewer hills. We saw a church, quail, robins, donkeys, dogs, a woman on a riding lawn mower, and many, many horses - providing opportunities for the kids to ask numerous questions. We started playing "I Spy" when we got back on our regular route. It certainly helped make the time go by, but carrying on a conversation certainly prohibits a steady pace (I occasionally have to lean over the stroller to hear them).

They chose the school across from our neighborhood - they wanted to play on the structures there - and this suited me fine as I was able to run 2 miles around the soccer field and still keep my eyes on them as they played in the wooded area collecting pine needles and exploring. We then continued my run, with just 8 miles to go. I chose our regular easy route around the two neighborhood schools and then home to check on Daddy - I was hoping to leave the kids with him as I finished the last 5 but he was in a foul mood. Apparently, he wasn't feeling well and kept encountering obstacles and nuances that made the relatively simple job of fixing a sprinkler head and swapping the tires quite a chore.

Sweetie wanted to ride her scooter - Buddy wanted to watch Daddy, so I ran back and forth in front of the house for another mile. I thereby finished with 16 miles - just shy of my goal - but I didn't have the heart to insist that the kids ride in the jogger anymore (they had already been sitting there for 2 1/2 hours - with an intermission at the school). So, again, I really hope that pushing the jogger accounts for at least a couple miles. :D

** 2:42:58 elapsed time / 10:11 average pace