Tag Archives: swimming

Back at it…

Posted on January 10, 2017 | 1 comment

I made it back from the snowy wastelands, although for a while, I wasn’t sure if (or at least when) that would happen. Our last day in Breckenridge was good. We went to the Big Beers Festival, sampled SO MANY beers, and then had a very mellow evening in.

 

Our flight out of Denver was delayed by about 4 hours and we were positive we’d miss our connecting flight (through San Francisco). That flight ended up being delayed at well (the combo rainstorm in the Bay Area and the ice storm in Portland made everything extra delayed) and we landed about 3 hours late. The taxi ride home was also exciting – nothing like a Prius on ice at 2 am to ratchet up the travel tension!

Following my four hours of sleep yesterday, I spent most of Monday in a bit of a fog. The Bean spent the day with me and got a lot of quality YouTube video watching in while I set up my office space in the new digs.

who knew minecraft tutorials were so fascinating?

Ready to write and edit!

Ah, the train whistle holiday gift that we conveniently forgot when we headed back to the old digs for the night.

Once we got back to the old house, he requested toys. Rather than repopulate the basement playroom with the already 100% picked up legos and trains, I thought it’d be easier to contain the crazy if I brought the toys upstairs so I could make sure everything got put away again. And that’s when I discovered this.

Why yes that is my Halloween decoration storage container. And yes, I will be starting over from scratch next year because who even knows what happened inside. (The beer guy made sure that wasn’t STILL something inside.)

Don’t even try to convince me a field mouse did that much damage. As I’ve suspected since July, there are rats.

 

I’ve been hearing animal activity in the floorboards and the roof and in the walls for MONTHS, but this is the first evidence I’ve found of it in my actual house. I only need to sleep there six more nights before we’re out for good, but that sounds like six nights too many at this point. I may or may not have left on all the lights and stomped around as noisily as possible. (I also may or may not have waiting for the Beer Guy to get home last night so he could accompany me to the basement to protect me while I put the laundry in the dyer.)

And now, it’s time to resume my regularly scheduled activities. Reading. Writing.  Editing. Running. Yoga. Swimming. (Finding a job, I guess…)

I’m in my new home office. I ate a salad for lunch. I’m just waiting for my headache to disappear so I can head to the gym for some quality treadmill time. (I may want to start running again, but I’ve no desire to run in 35* rain.) Tomorrow, I’m back in the pool.

I should have the final round of edits back this week or next, and then it’s proofreader time!

Almost time!

 

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Posted in Made of Awesomesauce, Not Dead Yet!, Run Away!, The Beer Guy, Where's My Towel, Write Now!

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Sweet Dreams

Posted on December 8, 2015 | Comments Off on Sweet Dreams

I hardly ever dream anymore. I think it’s all the drugs I’m on. When I do dream, they are a combination of bizarrely realistic and realistically bizarre.

sweet dreams

I miss dreaming. I’ve always had the most fantastic dreams.

Fortunately the drugs aren’t fucking with my ability to daydream. Or “storyboard in my head,” which is what I call it when I want to sound productive.

Since finishing up my 50,000 words in November, I’ve been in a bit of a slump. I haven’t written in an entire week (!!!) although I have spent a decent amount of time staring a blank screen. It’s ridiculous, really. I have the rest of the book loosely outlined. I know the milestones that will be reached. I may not know exactly how my characters are going to get there (they are constantly surprising me), but I know they are going to get there.

I also didn’t trail run on Sunday, even though I promised the internet. I am a very bad person in desperate need of punishment.

Can’t quite remember what comes next…heh

Things that have been going well:

  1. I’ve been sticking with my vegan before six plan, and except for a Scandinavian Fair piece of lefse (which, let’s be honest, I totally get a pass on that) and an accidental 4:30 pm cookie (which I probably don’t need a pass on), I’ve been very successful. That’s eight days of pre-dinner veganism. Eight days with homemade chocolate chip cookies in the house (my one sweets weakness) and only one pre-six PM cookie!
    And you know what? I feel fantastic. It’s not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. I even ordered a vegetarian thing without the cheese while lunching in an Irish pub, because I am obviously crazy committed to this thing. I’ve also noticed that while my dinners are definitely not vegan, they are tending more towards vegetarianism or meat as an accompaniment rather than a main dish. (Also, and this might be a fluke, I’ve lost just over 2 lbs.)
  2. I went swimming today. I swam 1500 yards. It was my first swim in over six months when I decided in my heart to abandon triathlon training (I didn’t decide out loud to my coach for a while after that because GUILT!). It was also my fastest non-race swim of the year. I always forget how much I love swimming. I think I forget when swimming involves drills and workouts and shit like that. I just like to go to the pool and do sets of 300 yards until I run out of time. Nothing fancy. No kicking or pulling or stroke counting. Just freestyle.
This still terrifies meI love it so much that I swam until I was 40 weeks pregnant.

This still terrifies meI love it so much that I swam until I was 40 weeks pregnant.

I haven’t read any new books, which means I’m probably not going to get to 150 new books read this year. That’s probably okay. There is likely nothing wrong with reading 127 new books in one year.

The architect & I are trying to determine how to configure our living room so I can set up the bike trainer again. I actually uttered the words, “I miss riding.” Between that and the lack of cheese in my diet, I can only conclude that I have well and completely lost my mind.

If this is wrong, I don’t want to be right

If this is wrong, I don’t want to be right

If only I could get myself out on the trails for a run…any locals want to join me for a Saturday mid-afternoon (say 2?) 3-4 mile trail run?

You know you want to...

You know you want to…

It’ll be a little hard, a wee bit dirty, and a lot of fun.

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Posted in Aggressive Happiness, Blessed are the Cheesemakers, Gin, Cheese & Other Necessities, Made of Awesomesauce, Run Away!, Write Now!

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The Edge of Your Seat

Posted on August 4, 2014 | 3 comments

I know that’s where you’ve been since Friday when I posted my August goals and they included (10) going swimming immediately and (7) not vomiting in front of a room full of doctors.

I know you’re super excited to find out that I did swim on Friday. Not immediately, but fairly soon after posting. So yay! 2,000 yards in the pool on a Friday afternoon is not too shabby.

And this morning? I did not pass out nor did I vomit at the 7 am meeting in which I was to talk (for less than 2 minutes). Because we ran out of time for me to talk. I was both disappointed (my information was important!) and relieved (I could barely sleep last night due to a combination of heat and nerves and when I did sleep, I had nightmares).

But, the Chair, in his infinite wisdom, declared that my information was Too! Important! to not share and said I had to come back and present at a later date. My boss (who is hilarious) said maybe I should have an entire 45 minute meeting all for me. Fortunately, she said that quietly. So that means that at some later date, I have to do this all over again! The nightmares! The nerves! The sleeplessness! (But it really is very important information.) I just need to remind myself that I am a Brave Little Toaster and I should be okay.

Speaking of brave, check out my Bean climbing at the playground on Friday:

It took three tries, but he finally hauled his body up.

It took three tries, but he finally hauled his body up.

The brave one here might be me. I watched and recorded (take picture, mommy, I brave!) and did not intervene.

The brave one here might be me. I watched and recorded (take picture, mommy, I brave!) and did not intervene.

 

 

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Posted in Cubicle Whore, Not Dead Yet!, Oh, Baby!, Run Away!, The Brave Little Toaster

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Feeling like myself?

Posted on October 23, 2012 | 3 comments

I swam last night, and it was good.

Swimming was the one thing I enjoyed while pregnant. I felt like myself, not like a huge, ungainly, aching piece of whale meat. In fact, to date, the fastest paced swim I’ve ever done was the 1 mile swim I did at 39.5 weeks pregnant.

Since giving birth, the times that I’ve been in the pool have been amazing, and last night was no exception. I didn’t do a long swim – my goal was just to show up at the pool and get in the water. I swam 1000 yds in about 27.5 minutes (which isn’t super fast, but it was done). I worked on my flip turns (just learned how to do those a couple of weeks ago!) and then had 15 minutes of hot tub time (2nd time in over a year!).

I hopped in the hot tub while waiting for the Ambitious One to finish her swim.

I stared at a crack in the wall and thought about how much I felt like there was a crack in my walls and in my brain. As I stared at the crack, I also realized that I felt kind of…good. And then I realized that, much like when I was pregnant, being in the water makes me feel like me – not bulky, flabby, and ungainly. I started to think about what makes me happy.

A couple of weeks ago, I made this list of things that make me happy:

  1. Trashy paranormal romances
  2. Early morning coffee
  3. A clean house
  4. Lush garden
  5. Feeding people
  6. Watching the Bean giggle
  7. Trail running
  8. Swimming
  9. Camping
  10. Watching the sun rise

 

I haven’t been finding enough of those things in my day-to-day life. I know what makes me feel good, and I need to try to fit those things in more often. Besides #6, I have been missing a lot of those things. It’s time to take a step back, not go for the big things, and find the simple pleasures.

I feel like the end of the dark tunnel is imminent, and that the light that is starting to be visible isn’t a train. I’ve felt like this a time or two in the past 3 months, but maybe this time it will stick. There is hope and that is reassuring.

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Posted in Aggressive Happiness

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June (ALREADY!) 2012 Goals AND weekly training goals

Posted on June 1, 2012 | 1 comment

I am so goal oriented. This comes as a surprise to…well…no one.

So – recaps of the monthly goals first:

May 2012 Goals

  1. Work – but no more than 36 hours on work stuff  – SUCCESS! I did some work, but did not exceed 36 hours! I did a total of about 10 hours.
  2. Finish up thank you cards – SUCCESS! All thank you cards (with the exception of the one for the gift I got earlier this week) have been done and mailed. If you sent a gift & did not get a card, please, please, please let me know.
  3. Get the baby book up-to-date – SUCCESS! Mostly. The baby book is much more up-to-date than before, although I know it will be a work in progress.
  4. Get the garden in – SUCCESS! The garden is 100% planted! Yay!
  5. Determine book storage solution – between my current books and the books my mom is bringing out in August, I am seriously deficient in storage space, and am currently storing them double-stacked and under my bed. I need to do something different. – FAIL! I’ve no idea what to do with the plethora of books I have and am anticipating having. I have some idea with what to do with the baby’s books (due to inspiration from the great Emily), but not mine. The architect will not let me install floor to ceiling book shelves on every available wall. Not sure why.

May 2012 Training Goals

  1. First swim post baby! – SUCCESS!I swam 3 times in May! (1000 yds, 1200 yds, and 1500 yds – and it was good.)
  2. Return to yoga (again, any time after 5/20) – SUCCESS! Kind of. I went to one yoga class, and did one yoga session at home. I will do better in June.
  3. Start C25K on 5/31 – FAIL! But only a little. I worked yesterday after my appt that gave me the all-clear to run, so I’m starting today instead! Yay! and with super pregnant running buddy Jen! We will look so awesome and hard core.
  4. Make half marathon training plan (11/3 is the trail half marathon I’m planning on) – SUCCESS! The plan is made, and it looks insane. I am not posting it here, but basically the plan is to do the C25K for the next 9 weeks, plus swim a couple of times a week, bike once a week until I go back to work, and then start biking to work one day a week in August (the architect will be in charge of the baby on that day), plus random yoga-ness AND my P90X that I’m starting on Monday. HOWEVER, in the interest of sanity, I give myself per,mission to skip any workouts. Not just permission – but the directive that I will skip any workout that is necessary for my health or sanity.
  5. Continue to be slow and sensible – absolutely do NOT over-extend. (That means that I don’t need to swim a mile in my first post-baby swim, even if I was swimming a mile at almost 40 weeks pregnant…SLOW!) – SUCCESS! I have been going slow, I think. Taking unscheduled rest days when I think my body needs it.

Overall – a super successful May! Go me! (Also I did achieve one of my April Goals last night for a goal-achieving bonus:

 

June 2012 Goals

  1. Get Alvie enrolled in daycare (and feel good about our choice)
  2. Get all shelves hung in the baby’s room
  3. Play piano (now that I can reach the keyboard again) 30 min/day (on average)
  4. Get one landscaping project done (I have 4 big ones: (a) replace the north-side hedge with native trees, shrubs, flowers, and ground-cover – easily the most ambitious project; (b) rain garden; (c) remove south side bamboo and grass and put in berry bushes, native wildflowers, and herb garden; and (d) remove front bamboo, clean up front perennial beds, and put in the river rock paths.). I am thinking that I will take on project C first.
  5. Nom on delicious baby cheeks as much as possible for the next month when I have him to myself all day, every day!

June 2012 Training Goals

  1. Complete weeks 1-4 of C25K
  2. P90X – as much as possible
  3. Get back on the bike!
  4. Workout 20 hours
  5. Continue to be slow and sensible – take rest days when needed (do not push self to injury! that would suck!)

 

 

And now for the weekly training goals:

Training Goals – 5/25/12 – 5/31/12

Friday: Walk 1 mile + – SUCCESS!

Saturday: Swim 1200 yds- SUCCESS!

Sunday: Yoga- FAIL! Instead I gardened for almost 2 hours

Monday: Walk/hike – forest park (2 miles)- FAIL! Rest day due to gardening soreness

Tuesday: Walk 2 miles- FAIL! Laziness! Oops!

Wednesday: Swim 1200 yds- SUCCESS! Plus I added in yesterday’s walk, although I did only go 1.5 miles (there were hills, though!)

Thursday: Rest- SUCCESS!

Total goal mileage: 5 miles – not quite; only 50%  SUCCESS!. 🙁

Total goal other: 2 hours – – SUCCESS! and beyond! I did almost 3 hours of non walking activity!

 

Training Goals – 6/1/12 – 6/7/12

Friday: C25K W1D1

Saturday: Swim 1500 yds

Sunday: C25K W1D2 + Yoga

Monday: P90X Day 1

Tuesday: P90X Day 2 + C25K W1D3

Wednesday:P90X Day 3 + Swim 1800 yds

Thursday: P90X Day 4

 

I know that’s super ambitious, but like I said – I have permission to take any rest days necessary. This is pretty intense, and I am very committed to exercising more, and if that means avoiding an injury that will bench me for a week (or more!) I am going to skip workouts.

 

Happy June!


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Posted in Adventures of a Domestic Goddess, Cubicle Whore, Gin, Cheese & Other Necessities, Made of Awesomesauce, Oh, Baby!, Play us a song..., Run Away!, Woot!

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