Birthdays...

...a time for cake and candles. A wise person once said..."Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional."

As we age, myself included, we don't look forward to having birthdays. Hell, I'm gonna be 40 this year...yikes....breathe...it is not for another 10 more months. Okay...I'm good!

When your a parent though, birthdays have a special meaning. It was the day that you brought a new life into the world and no matter how long ago it was, you remember it like it was yesterday. Tears flowing from your eyes and grin from ear to ear as you gaze upon your newborn.

January is a bitter sweet month for birthdays. Our oldest turned 6 on the 23rd of January and our youngest turned 3 on the 26th of January....today. We celebrated with dinner, cake, ice cream, and candles. Heck we even spent Sunday at Chuckie Cheese's....you know where a kid can be a kid. This holds true for those who choose not to grow up. Yours truly. hee hee

While our family celebrates these birthdays, we think of our angels that are in heaven, Wayne and Whitney. They are in our minds and hearts on the day that they were born, although it is difficult to celebrate for it was the same day that they departed this world, January 25th. We send them love from their Mommy and Daddy!

So...training....is going great! It's Monday and it is my day of rest. Rest is relative, rest from training but not from the real world. Work was good, didn't work too hard today. Currently catching up on downloading pictures of the kids, blogs, face book, emails, etc. So much to do in so little time. It is a good thing that I multi task so well!

Week 4 of training totally rocked! Balance is probably the best way to describe it. When I did my weekly summary of training, I was proud of all that I had done. I know it is only week 4 of 24, but it is a great start. It is one of those weeks I will have to look back on when I'm struggling in week 18 or 19. Good balance of rest, nutrition, work, family, and training.

This week is going to offer some challenges. I'm traveling to Chicago on Friday following a 24 hour OB call on Thursday. So my plan is to exercise really early Thursday before work which is doable considering it should be 60 minutes on the bike. Friday morning I can swim right after work, come home shower and get to the airport. Friday night I can do some weights at the hotel. I have stayed at the hotel before and they have a decent workout room. Saturday is where I have my problem. I need to do my brick workout of 75 minutes on the bike followed by a 15 min run. However I have a full day of classroom work followed by a group dinner. I will be lucky to get in a 45 minute run. Perhaps I will do my brick workout on Sunday when I get home. Challenges....I can manage it though!

On a final note....It's National Nurse Anesthetist Week....so hug a Nurse Anesthetist and if you are a CRNA....celebrate!

Failure is not an Option!

Brick What?

No not the lyrics she's a Brick House. Brick workout...not 36 - 24- 36, but 75 - 15 - 15. It is basically what is on the agenda for Sunday Morning, a Brick Workout. 75 minutes on the bike followed by a 15 minute run then about 15 minutes of stretching. Normally I would do this on Saturday, but I have 24 hour in house OB call tomorrow. Some stairs and lots of lounging are on my agenda. Hopefully some sleep so I will be strong Sunday Morning.

Overall my Base Training is going well. I feel strong running and feel good on the bike. Swimming NOT SO MUCH. Man do I need work, although I knew this already. I met with my swimming coach today who is a Masters Swimmer in her age group, a mother of 2, and a Pediatric Surgeon. She is awesome and was impressed with my progession since we last met, but we need to work on form. I have strong legs, but I need to relax my ankles and bend my knees less. We did some kicking exercises which really helped me isolate the proper kicking motion. I cross over on my stroke just a bit and need to do less of that, in addition I drop my arms, especially on the right...so I need to keep my elbows bent and use my arms more as my paddle. My coach gave me more advanced exercises to do...so I have a clearer plan when I'm in the pool.

My overall training plan is going great. I really like having Monday's off after a Brick workout. It feels weird to do two other sports in addition to running, but it breaks up the week and offers plenty of variety. My butt hurts less on the bike now....I guess more time on the saddle does help.

The down side to working out more, is less time to do the other things I like to do. For instance, less time to blog, less time on FB....which BTW is so addicting... and less time to leisurely read. A few good things are by the end of the day I'm exhausted. When I can I take an afternoon nap, I hit REM sleep in minutes. Not sure if this one is good or bad???? I'm always hungry despite drinking a ton of water and eating 6 small meals during the day. Maybe I should write down what I'm eating to make sure that I am getting in enough calories? We will see about that one??

It's going well and I'm enjoying it! Thats a good thing. I'm outta here, gotta get some sleep for work in the AM. I liked this quote by Lou Holtz so I wanted to include it....

Ability is what you're capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you do.
Attitude determines how well you do it.

Legos are so much fun....

...played legos with my 6 year old...what a blast. I didn't have those as a kid. Maybe it was only a boy toy when I grew up. "Boy toy" hmmm.....

Anyway did hill repeats today. Note to self, don't do hill repeats after a day of weights. I did some stability ball squats with only 8 pound weights and stationary lunges with the same weights. This morning I wasn't so sore, but this afternoon while doing hill repeats, my muscles felt it. It was awesome! I was slow, but it was good to get out in the 30 degree weather and tackle those hills.

Thats all for now, gonna go sit in the jacuzzi with my husband and a large glass of....would love a beer or glass of wine...but my body will feel better with a large glass of water...yummy. I have to keep telling myself that.

outta here!

New Year's Resolutions for 2009

Before writing down my 2009 New Year's Resolutions, I reviewed my 2008 list to make sure that I stuck to the list. In 2008, I ran a marathon, finshed and had fun...check. Hiked Half Dome in Yosemite...check. Maintained overall health and wellness...check. Donated my hair to Locks of Love...check. Yes, I donated 12 inches of my hair in September 2008. I had been growing it out since I went to Officer Basic Course for the ARMY in June of 2003. The picture is me with with my youngest son, Nicholas. He is so cute!

For 2009, I am going to do a triathlon. To help accomplish that goal, I need to eat better and more often. When I'm at work, I forget to eat which I know is terrible. I need to sleep more, yeah that will be a tough one considering I not only have one full time job, but two...CRNA and Mommy of 3. Another resolution for 2009 is to have more fun with my kids. I want to make sure that I can balance my training/work schedule and still have plenty of time and energy for the kids, not to mention my husband. Not sure how I will accomplish that one...but I will figure it out. One of the biggest things I need to do...drum roll...stretch more...I have been injury free...but now I will be using different muscles with each sport, so I want to make sure I stretch not only after activity, but at the beginning. I'm faithful about stretching after I workout, but not so much after I'm warmed up.

January 1st was here and is now gone. I was one of the many people at the gym to workout as part of my "New Year's Resolutions." It felt awesome to go and swim for 24 minutes and then bike for 30 minutes. I even ran a bit on the treadmill...just to work on the transition from biking legs to running legs. Today, I just lifted some weights and did some core work. After having 3 babies in 3 years, my core needs some work! I know where my weaknesses are and I intend on working on them this year and CORE is one of them. My abs are not going to know what hit them.

Another resolution is to drink less...no I'm not an alcoholic, but I do love a nice cold beer. I want to maintain a lean body mass and drinking beer will just make me work that much harder to maintain. My plan is to have an ice cold beer at the finish line in Boise on June 13th! maybe even two or three...hee hee. Basically, if I write it down as a resolution, I have to stick to it, no matter what. It is that Type A, obsessive/compulsive person in me.

So, my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary was awesome. Imagine being married to someone for 50 years? Are people still together for that long of a time? Yes, it still does happen although it is rare. I had a blast with them. In fact the picture above was from that party. The video I put together ended up being 10 minutes long, (90+ pictures with 3 songs) and took several sleepless nights before I had a finished product. The bottom line is that my Mom & Dad loved it and so it was worth the loss of beauty sleep. This is my parents and my older brothers and sisters. Yeah, I'm the youngest of 5.

Well, that is it for now....time to go get some sleep. The problem is I'm not tired. Ugh...

I have one thing to say about my 2009 Resolutions...

FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!