Real Ale Anniversary party, long run, and upcoming mountain trip!

Yesterday was the Real Ale anniversary party in Blanco. Free pints, free barbecue, tunes, a beautiful setting, and 100 degrees (the only bad part). We left about 1030 to get there at the start so we could snag a spot in the shade. Some people may argue heat, music, booze and babies do not mix, but we tried our best to make it work. Despite tickets for 4 delicious pints, I just sipped a Fireman’s 4, and later swapped it for the new IPA, and never even finished 1 pint. We sat in the shade and brought a lot of water. Jasper was a champ and did great. Still we knew after about 2 hours we should probably call it a day. Next year we’ll bring more snacks and a tent, so live and learn. We are still proud of ourselves for even attempting such outings.

Prior to the party, I got up early and did 14 miles. It went fantastic, and I am ready to bump up another notch. It is easy for me to feel a little inferior to my “old” self, who could knock out 4 hours runs on the greenbelt. But when I stop and think about it…I ran 14 hilly miles hard, and I fed Jasper before I went, got home, threw on dry clothes and fed him again. How many runners can say that? 🙂 I am also very thankful Mike was willing to watch him once he was up and his Mama was still out running. Thanks, Mike!

I am also thrilled that we will be spending a long weekend at Rocky Mountain National Park in August. I did not want to fly on a plane with Jasper as an infant, but a 2 hour direct flight at an absolute steal of a price, to a place with pine trees and temps under 70 degrees convinced me. We went 2 summers ago, and RMNP is just an unreal place….so beautiful and the hiking is fantastic. There are a lot of trails under 3 miles that will be easy to do with Jasper in his Ergo carrier. We are also staying a night in Boulder (where I would live if I didn’t live here…and if I could get a job there). I found a half marathon going on while we are there. Gonna try and do it, but the logistics of one rental car may make it tricky, but if we can make it work, what a dream. I would love to race in Colorado!

Alright…time to get ready for baby yoga…

Coming up: I get to see a movie!, Jasper’s aunties and cousins visit, more hill repeats and long runs continue…

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The other Paula…

Most runners, and even perhaps non-runners know who Paula Radcliffe is. Marathon world record holder, fastest running mama in the world, and owner of abs just like mine (ha-ha…not!). But, you may not know Paula Deen. She is a Southern Martha Stewart type, but much sassier and funnier. Her recipes are simple and sinful. Hello, is Southern cooking known for being lowfat? I only make Paula’s stuff when I feel like a really yummy and easy dessert. Since I don’t have to worry about maintaining a world record producing, low body fat, body like Paula Radcliffe does, I can indulge in a Paula Deen dessert.

I’ve been craving buttermilk pie lately. Eastside cafe makes a really good one and tops it with fresh strawberries. It’s a really easy dessert too. So of course Paula D’s recipe was the best looking one I could find. I got off work, got Jasper from daycare, went and bought a week’s worth of food at Central Market with Jasper in the Ergo strapped to my chest, got home inhaled my odd dinner of sushi, chicken salad, quinoa, and soup, and then got to work on a buttermilk pie. Jasper sat in his new high chair and we sang together while I got the pie going. After his bath, and some laundry the pie was ready to eat. I served it with greek yogurt instead of whipped cream (Paula Deen would never do this), and fresh berries and cherries. Freakin’ AWESOME!!! This one will go in the rotation for sure.

Now, should I share the recipe with my friends and family? If I do, and I bring it to a party then you will know just how easy it really is, instead of raving about what a master I am at making delicious pies. But, it’s such a good summer dessert, I suppose I can share….just follow the link:

Buttermilk Pie

Vegan cookies, Jasper is a foodie, day care crud AGAIN, and Mama does hill repeats

A lot of people have asked me for the recipe for my vegan cookies. So here it is…..

1 good sized ripe banana

1/3 c canola oil

2/3 c sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine these all in a mixer, until mushy, then add:

3/4 c flour

2 Tbsp ground flax

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 c. oats

Mix it all, and add 3/4 c of mini chocolate chips (use vegan chocolate if you are a strict vegan. It is sold at Whole Foods and Central Market). The batter is pretty runny. Heap in globs on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cook at 350 for 7-10 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Remove off the cookie sheet right away or they will stick. Enjoy.

Jasper started to sample little bits of food. He decided rice cereal blows, and went right for the sweet potatoes. I think he got my sweet tooth. He also has to have 1 meal of formula a day because he out eats what I am able to make. Slow down, Little Dude! He doesn’t really eat much yet but 1-2 bites a day, but I may get a little relief from feeding him soon.

Speaking of, I have kicked off marathon training, and Wednesday is a workout day. The first half of the program is hill repeats, and then the second half is tempo runs. I ran a mile and a half to the Cherrywood neighborhood, and repeated a street appropriately named Hemlock. I had a nice audience of 3 kitties who were hanging out at 545 in the morning. Then I headed to Cherrywood St to repeat it a couple times. Ever run a hard workout after breastfeeding all night (sorry to my guy friends for having to read this)….well, it means a major bonk. I was STARVING. It made me get home quick. I was shaky by the time I got home. I may have to resort to bringing a GU on weekday runs. That’s a lot of GU… BUT, I did hill repeats, on my own, leaving my house at 530. That was no easy feat.

Well, gotta run. The Owl needs a bath. Oh yeah, we both got another F-ing cold. This one is not near as bad as the last one, but this week off in between illnesses thing is BS. I seriously need to get some immunity.

Training talk…

I have talked about how much I like the Marathon Talk podcast (more on that later). They have a sister podcast called Ironman talk. I listen to it occasionally at work, even though I do not do triathlons. Although, the hosts can be hard to understand (they are kiwis), the show sometimes has some good information that all endurance athletes can use. There was an excellent segment on training and goals with a new baby. Two pieces of advice stood out: 1. Accept that this may not be your year to do an Ironman (or in my case an ultra run). Do other challenges, and running “just” a marathon is nothing at all to poo-poo. A great tip…when your life changes 100% overnight, you might find doing 30 mile training runs just too much. There is no shame in marathon training! 2. Try and do all your workouts at one time of the day. Either all morning or all night, unless you are one of those rare people who can workout at lunch. Wow…seems so simple, but I was not doing this. Every evening I think, “If Jasper falls asleep at a decent hour, I’ll do yoga.” That seems to never happen, or if it does, I need to clean, do laundry, bake, spend the rare 30 minutes with Mike,etc. So, I never get my yoga in. If I just wake up 30 minutes earlier, I can add it after my run and then I am done for the day. The evening is strictly family time. Now, the challenge is getting up even earlier when already am only getting a few hours of sleep. So far I am not doing too good getting my yoga in after my run, so I will be working on it. I hope to make it a habit a couple mornings a week.

Next week’s Marathon Talk has an interview with Scott Jurek…so check it out. I believe new episodes are posted on Wednesdays. I was indifferent to Scott until the Runner’s World article. He really seems like an interesting, talented, but very humble guy. Runner’s World online recently had Mark Bittner (NY Times Food writer) interview him, and it was a good little piece.

I have my marathon training plan taped to the fridge, ready to go. I ended up going with a Runner’s World plan that didn’t stress the midweek long runs so much. I had a hard time working those into my work schedule before Jasper, and now it would mean getting up at 330 am, which is just ridiculous to do then go to work all day. I am super excited to start.

Busy, busy, busy…

Had a crazy busy weekend , and now leading into a crazy week. Jasper is in bed, so I’ll see how long this lasts and we’ll see “if his sleep takes” as Mike says .

Saturday was the Lavender 10K in Blanco. I did this run last year, and it is a great little event. My only complaint is it isn’t longer. This year it started at a different Lavender farm that I liked better than last years. Well, last year the treat was when I got home from it I found out I was pregnant with Jasper, and Stephanie had found out she was pregnant too, but I certainly didn’t want to be pregnant this year…anyhow…. Once again I went with Stephanie and Teresa. Only this year, I got to get up every 2 hours the night before and fall asleep in a chair for about 2 hours of the night. The weather was great…it wasn’t too hot in Blanco, the shirts were cute, the post race food was awesome (homemade mini quiches, salad with homemade vinagrette). In a run like this, most people do it for fun. It really isn’t a race, because just a handful of people are trying to run fast. I just wanted to see how fast I could run a 10K, so I treated like a very pretty time trial. It was my favorite kind of course..paved country roads. You get the beauty of a trail race without worrying about taking a fall on a rock. I took off and felt good so I went with it. I managed about 7 minute miles until the turnaround, and then on the way back I hit a big head wind, so I slowed up. I ended up with a 45 minute finish, so about 7:25 miles. This is encouraging for my Boston qualifying attempt, but 6 miles is a long way off from 26. Another bad thing was I was on a major time crunch because Mike had scheduled an appt to for us to get Little Owl tattoos.

Here is a picture, it, but it remains uncolored….that is another appt. Mike’s is finished and super awesome, but I will have to post a picture later. The whole appt involved some Jasper juggling, and dodging World Cup revelers at a nearby bar. Right after this we went and ate at Mandola’s and got groceries, and Jasper just about blew up…he had enough of outings.

Sunday I ran the Danish run with Mark and Steve, then went to baby yoga, then went to work. I got home and did the laundry list of chores, and pouf!, the weekend was gone. It goes so freakin’ fast.

So up this week: Jasper’s 4 1/2 month Dr appt (shots, and we find out just how giant he really is), Mike’s first father’s day, mama gets to run a long run(well, kinda long at least), shopping trip at Pumpkin Patch to (hopefully) sell old Jasper stuff and get him some cute outfits.

Photo shoot…

Made it!

Low fat mini shortcakes with Greek yogurt, berries, and Rainier cherries. Yummmmm……

A miracle has just happened. It is 8:10pm and Jasper is asleep. If he stays asleep, I will get what I want every evening: a couple of hours to use how I choose. Working on my blog, emailing friends, catching up on DVR shows, trying the new lowfat strawberry shortcake with greek yogurt recipe in Runner’s World, the list goes on and on. I love spending time with Jasper. I get so excited every day when I get to walk over to the daycare to see him at lunch and I cannot wait to pick him up at night, but spending between 8pm and 11pm with him crying because he is overtired is not fun. Once he is finally asleep, I collapse into bed, and there went the whole evening. It would be nice to spend time with Mike again, where we are not switching off the baby who doesn’t sleep. Tonight, I just pray I am not jinxing myself and that he stay asleep! Jasper really is a good natured baby, he never cries, he smiles all the time, and he is easily entertained. Until about 8pm, and then he becomes overtired. I would love for it to stop and to reclaim a little time for me.

I have been missing maternity leave. Yes, it makes me feel bad to take Jasper to daycare everyday, but I also miss maternity leave for selfish reasons. It’s no vacation, but I miss just that little bit of time it gave me. I had lunches with friends, I walked Pancake everyday, my house was spotless, we always had a fresh batch of cookies. Now all that gets squeezed in a couple days on the weekends…if we don’t have other plans. I like my job and I am thankful I have it, but there I times I can’t help thinking how perfect working part time would be, but then childcare issues arise, there is no part time infant daycare, I would get a lot less money, etc,etc. The Buddhist way to look at my life would be to say the only perfect life is the one I have right here, right now. Maybe so…Jasper is curled up in my bed, Pancake is below in her dog bed and the only sound I hear is the water in my fish tank. Very relaxing….and nothing to complain about. When the going gets tough I try and remember that Jasper is only a baby once, and only for a year. The hard times will pass.

On a lighter note….please read my other blogs I have listed. Some are just so good! Sealegsgirl talks about my 2 current favorite topics: motherhood and womens‘ running. Great stuff. Alicia blogs a lot about motherhood and throws out topics to make you think. And, just for fun, the jello blog. Also, I have another new one, MamaSweat (thanks Margie!)..it is awesome.

This week was one of the tough ones. I was completely wrong Jasper and I had escaped day care crud. We both got it 100%. I felt ok for a couple days and then it hit…hard. I got bronchitis and Jasper just completely filled up with snot making it impossible for him to breathe, and then impossible to sleep. This would have been bad on it’s own, but we had to couple with putting on our conference at work. This meant leaving the house at 530 am, having a very long day, and then a dinner that night all with a sick, tired baby and an a very sleepy, sick, mama too. What little of a schedule Jasper had seemed to vanish and he was falling asleep at 1100pm all week and waking every couple of hours. I almost lost it. Yesterday seemed to be a turning point for us both though. He went to bed at 900, and it was uneventful. He seems to breathe better. We had company this weekend, Mike’s brother Andy, and sister Jodi and family were all here, so I really did not want to have a feverish baby for the visit, but we seem to be ok.

So this week’s running was all about just do the best I could manage. I did run, but made most days recovery type runs. I did have one awesome morning that all came together and I ran below 8:30s for my run….but that seems to be an outlier for the week. Most days it was a victory just to make it out the door. Friday I woke at 415, so I could be on the road by 500 at the latest.

This weekend’s long run was going to be tough to squeeze in between all that we had going on. Mike’s brother wanted to do something outside and take part in Pride week, so we thought the Pride 5K would fit the bill. I ran on my own in the morning, and then came home so we could all downtown together to run. I would push Jasper, and at the last minute Pancake decided she really needed to run a gay pride 5K, so she went too. It was all kinds of hot out at 9am. Many participants wore micro speedos and were taking advantage of the slip and slide at the end (the theme of the run was the beach). I decided not to ruin the boys’ weekend by shoving myself into a bikini to run in, and stuck with my “Run like a mother” shirt. Along the course were the fairies to cheer for runners….cute 20 something guys in micro rainbow speedos. I got a “Go sexy mama”, and “You go awesome mama.” shouted at me by the fairies. This is probably the only time a cute, 20- something guy will call me a sexy mama while I am running. I suspect most the time I see a young guy on the trail he probably thinks “I wish this fat old lady would just give it up….I’m just embarrassed for her.” Anyhow, I really need to pack the fairies in my suitcase and take them to my next out of town race for moral support. Jasper slept through most of the run, and I am puzzled that he can sleep through Lady Gaga blaring out of Oilcan Harry’s, and fairies with bullhorns, but I let out the tiniest little cough at night and he wakes up. And despite my fears that Pancake would just be hot and miserable, she seemed to have the time of her life.

So this week the goal is to reclaim some type of schedule. To get back on track for my sleep, my yoga, and some healthy eating (no more conference buffets!). Jasper just passed out…so time to take advantage. Hope everyone has a good week.