Blogging 2015: 34.5 down, 1980.5 to go

I went for a run today.  Outside.  It was about 4 degrees actual air temp with the wind chills -10 or lower.  I know people think that's crazy, but I love these cold, snow covered runs.  The air is different when the temperature drops.  It sweeps down over the Canadian forests and across the northwoods of Wisconsin and blows hard and biting over this town.  It carries the smell of pine trees and water and frozen parts unknown.  The air seems cleaner in the winter, free of the pollen and dust and gnats that plague the summer around here.  I feel better breathing it in...renewed.  Falling snow is my favorite weather.  The soft kind that floats on eddies of air.  It muffles the world and amplifies the little sounds of life.  Breathing...feet on the pavement.  Bitter cold is different.  It brings everything into razor sharp focus, so bright as to be blinding, all cerulean sky and crystalline snow.  To run through bitter cold is to run along a knife's edge.  Every piece of gear thought out, a plan for every eventuality.  You can't be unprepared in the bitter cold.  It does not forgive.  It will find the chinks in your armor.  I love it all the same.  I won't say it isn't frustrating as hell when it's time to gear up 3 little children for the frigid walk to school or when the road freezes solid and even dry asphalt becomes ice, but give me an hour, a quality kit, and miles of trail and I'm happy.  I'm free. 

School started at the usual time today, so our morning routine fell right back into normal.  Breakfast was leftovers pancakes with bacon.

But with raspberries, because I'm fancy.

I had a lovely orange on the way to the box.

MMMMMM.  Vitamin C!

I've eaten three oranges today.  They pretty much all looked like this.  I'll probably have a fourth before bed. That's right.   A fourth orange.  I don't need your approval, Judgy McJudgerson.

After setting a whopping 2# PR on my front squat (I know, that shit's impressive.  I'm really trying to be humble over here.) I got the shit beat out of my shoulders for a while.  I forgot to take an obnoxious CrossFit selfie.  Sorry.  I geared up to run while still at the box and headed over to the Fox River Trail.

I ate an orange.  See previous photo of orange.

Straight Ninja, son.

My feet were never cold, fingers either, and because of the all black and the fact that the wind was at my back on the way out...I was sweating balls by 2 miles.  Realizing that the wind would be in my face all the way back, I turned around at 2.5 and headed back to the car.  My pace was slow as the trail was snow covered, but it was a good solid run with the added bonus of some stability work in the form of snow drifts.  One thing that's really cool about bitter cold?  You don't get wet.  There are zero puddles, no slush, and your feet aren't warm enough to melt the snow.  It's kind of like running through dry sand, only in compression gear so no one can see all your wobbly bits wobble.  Maybe that's just me.

Came home completely fucking starving and pulled out some leftover cottage pie.  I was fantasizing about this shit for the last mile and a half of my run.  After an hour at the box and a little over an hour on the trail I was sohungryohmahgahfeedme that I heated up this huge portion, thinking I wouldn't be able to eat it all.

HAHAHAHA I ate it all.

Husband was thinking of gearing up to go for a walk, and since I was already geared up and my belly was full I went along.  We went tramping around the arboretum for about 5.2 miles worth.  It was actually quite nice in the trees, and we found the little chapel on the bluff that I saw in the summer.

I'm a lot prettier when you can't see my face.

Then I ate another orange.  See previous photo of orange.

I did a little sock knitting and tea drinking.

Then this happened.

ERMAHGERD TERNDERLERN

And I ate it all, because I was really fucking hungry.  I'll probably have another orange in a bit.  See previous photo of orange.

Tomorrow's plan (OH HAAAAAAAY, school is fucking delayed AGAIN tomorrow!) is to hit the box at 5:15 and the yoga studio at 10:30.  I'm not sure where I'll get my mileage tomorrow...depends on the weather and my level of ambition.  Might just be a few on the treadmill.  

Now if you'll excuse me, this sock ain't gonna knit itself.

Blogging 2015: 24.3 down, 1990.7 to go

Two hour delay this morning, so I made blueberry pancakes for the kids.

They were a big hit.

Last night I was surfing around Pinterest for slow cooker quinoa recipes.  Quinoa is a pseudograin so it isn't technically paleo, but I eat it from time to time and thought it might be an interesting higher-protein alternative to oatmeal on these freezing winter days.  I like a bowl of hot cereal when the temperature plummets.  It makes me happy.  This particular bowl has quinoa, applesauce, diced apples, raisins, pecans, almond milk, spices, and maple syrup in it.  It was pretty tasty.  I had it with a little almond milk and maple drizzled on it and it really hit the spot.  Makes a nice big batch, too.  

Bowl of mush.  Check.

Got the girl child off to school at 9:30 (we drove the 400m to school...too cold out for the littles to walk very far) and came home to do some mundane shit before making lunch for the boy children.  I once again proved my inability to appropriately mother children by not realizing it was P's snack day at 4K.  I suck at this stuff.  I can barely remember to go to work, but I'm supposed to keep track of snack days and pajama days and popcorn days and yadda yadda blah blah blah days?  I'm hopeless.  And email calendars and reminders just seem to make me worse.  I was feeling pretty good that I remembered to go to L's girl scout meeting...then got the smackdown when P said "YOU FORGOT MY SNACK!" in the accusatory way only little children can manage.

I did have a midmorning snack.

Maple vanilla pecans are some dangerous shit.

Boys wanted pizza for lunch, so I made a frozen one. There were 4 pieces left over and I didn't eat a single slice.  That's impressive for me.  I had the remaining sloppy sliders and some green beans instead.

Exciting stuff.

After dropping the boys off at school I headed down to DePere for some lunch hour yoga.  I haven't been in a couple of weeks with the holidays and working and it was nice to get some quality stretching in.  My goal is to get to yoga twice a week.  I'm scheduled to go again Wednesday.

Scary post yoga hair.

Then I came home and geared up for a few outside miles.  I promptly fell on my ass.  Our entire street (and many of the others in the neighborhood) are straight up skating rinks.  So I got on the treadmill for a bit before I had to get ready to go to girl scouts.

Only 2 miles. Yaaaaaay.

My boss gave me an Amazon gift card for Christmas, so I used it to invest in a quality over-the-face gaiter with wind panels for winter running.  With tax the total was $0.02 less than the card and I get free shipping with Prime so I'm calling that a win.  It'll be here tomorrow so I can more easily brave the miles outside in this crazy weather.  I might get back on the treader before bed, but probably not.  

I brought my own snack to girl scouts.

I have 13# of these.  Thanks Costco!

After picking up the boys and being reminded of my sub-par mothering skills, I tossed together a dinner for myself and the spawn.  They gobbled it down, so I guess roasted chicken and veg is still a winner.  I had a slab of chicken and a pile of peas.  I forgot to take a picture.  Fail.  It wasn't very interesting anyway.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.  I'd like to get to CrossFit and out for a 6+ mile run.  That should be possible, so barring anything weird that'll be my plan.  

Now it's time to bed down the smalls and follow close behind them.  All this exercise is making me sleepy.

Blogging 2015: 22.3 down, 1992.7 to go

The Arctic Blast is upon us.  I was wondering when it would show up.  School is delayed 2 hours tomorrow which is shades of 2014 as school was cancelled for extreme cold twice the first week back from winter break.  It's times like these I'm glad my boys are in afternoon 4k, because morning 4k is cancelled.  I have yoga at noon tomorrow and 4k starts at 11:35 so I won't have to miss out.  Because I? Am a selfish whore.

I have some new breakfast stuff in the crockpot right now, so the delay means I won't have to be all rushy-rushed in the morning at least.

So.  I was lying in bed fantasizing about paleo toaster waffles this morning, only to come downstairs and realize that husband had eaten the last banana.  I was one sad panda.  So instead I found a recipe online for pancakes that didn't require a banana.  Don't ask me where, because I fucking forgot.

The fruit redeems it a bit.

The news forecast was all ERMAHGEHRD FROZENSNOWMAGEDDON!  HIDE YOUR CHILDREN won't anybody think of the children? So of course I decided to go for a walk, because how bad could it be?  Truthfully it wasn't so bad.  The wind was quite cold, but I was geared up and frankly sweating balls by about a mile in.  I wanted to go into the UWGB arboretum, but my boots (Sorel-utterly waterproof and extremely warm) create a strange hotspot on each of my calves.  I decided to come home vs. getting big bloody sores.  

2 miles.  Lovely morning.

I had some jerky as a post snow trek snack.

Lucy was not amused.

Then it was time to shower up and go on a Costco run.  My lunch was a protein shake, mostly because I'd poured the almond milk and partitioned the powder into this cup about 2 weeks ago so I figured I'd better drink it.

Chocolatey.

I got out of Costco cheap today, with a cartful of frozen veg, fresh fruit, raw nuts, squash, chickens, and freeze dried fruit.  

Less than 2 bills, bitches.

I took the side roads home from Costco mostly because I wanted to bash through some snowdrifts.  I love to drive in shitty, snowy conditions.  I love to hop drifts, slide around corners, and shout WAHOOOOO!!! as I slide down hills.  Now, I don't do this with my kids in the car.  I've put way to much effort into keeping those little bastards alive.  But just me?  Alone in the car? Daylight and snow drifts and ice and wind and big curvy hills? GAME ON. I was having so much fun...until a white Jeep ruined it for me.  Who the bloody fuck crawls up on another car going into a curve on an icy road?  And then stays firmly planted in that car's blind spot for the remainder of the ride?  A big Jeepy asshole, that's who.  

I also got guac, because these peppers were so lonely.

I was going to make it pretty, then I thought "Fuck that"

I originally bought the chickens for dinner tonight, but husband remembered that he'd taken out the ingredients for Cottage Pie and well, I heart me some Cottage Pie.  

I could die happy with this as my last meal.

After dinner we washed the spawn.  They've spent a lot of time outside playing the last few days and they were rank. I sometimes wonder how their fingernails get so long and vile in just a few days' time.  We read a story, doled out hugs and kisses...and I got on the fucking dreadmill to get the remainder of my miles for today.  A little walking, a little running, a shitload of boredom.  

3.4 shitty boring miles.

Still on track.  Yoga tomorrow, probably more shitty treadmill miles.  It's supposed to be hideously cold...I'll probably still try to get some distance outside anyway.  

Or maybe I'll just lay on the floor while I stuff chocolate chips into my face.  It's a toss up.

Blogging 2015: 16.8 down, 1998.2 to go.

Today started off really well.  Kids slept until 7am!  There's snow! Huzzah!

Then I made eggs and bacon for breakfast and it began.  "I'm really not hungry at all, Mommy." "Didn't we just have eggs the other day?" "I don't really like eggs today."  It's never going to end, is it?  Every day of my life (until they're old enough to toast their own waffles or pour their own cereal) I'm going to spend the first 60 minutes I'm awake listening to kids bitch about nothing. Sigh.

It's okay, though, the day salvaged itself.  Like I said, we finally (FINALLY! FINALLY!) have some fucking snow.  So after breakfast I laced up and went out onto unplowed roads for some miles.

Oh, here's breakfast.

Eggs, bacon, applesauce.

The plows barely touched my neighborhood, so I got to tromp through some driven snow.  I did 5 miles mostly running with a little walking where the surface was dicey.  Not too shabby.  It was a perfect morning weather-wise.  Barely any wind, about 30 degrees.  If I hadn't needed the pocket for my phone I wouldn't have needed my jacket at all.  Certainly didn't need gloves.  I started out wearing glasses as it was misting slightly, but they ended up getting frosted up so I put them on my hat instead.  The grumpy penguin looks pretty badass in Smith Optics.

Yes, I see that it looks like there's a pole coming out of my head.

When I stopped to take this snow selfie (#snelfie?) I texted my husband to tell him to send the kids outside and gear up. He was going to run on the treadmill, but fuck that thing.  It was gorgeous out today and I didn't want him to miss it.  The kids spent about an hour outside flapping around in the snow with the dog.  I had a nice snack.

Oranges and jerky.  

Also a few of these tasty bitches.

Crunch and sweet!  With protein! And fat! 

It's the motherfucking Zone!

I probably didn't need lunch, as I wasn't terribly hungry, but I ate it anyway.  Sue me.  Sloppy sliders and peppers because I was too lazy to actually cook vegetables.  I fucking love bell peppers.  Not the green ones so much as they can be a bit bitter, but all the other colors of the pepper rainbow.  They are delicious.  Also pretty, because food should be pretty if at all possible.

Crunchcrunchcrunch

After grabbing a shower, I did a little sock knitting and reading while fantastic husband did a little errand running.  Later in the afternoon this happened.  

I ate bacon while watching "My 600lb Life".  

#my167lblife

The kids went out to flap some more.  C pretty much built a snowman solo, just needed some help assembling it.  P helped me pick out a carrot nose.  Lucy went outside and barked at the snowy intruder.

I started a new pair of socks last night.  I like the yarn, but the spiraling pattern is making me crosseyed.  Also?  Little kids practicing counting while you try to remember a fixed number of repeats?  That is challenging. 

Blue green.  Much better than last month's ugly socks.

Dinner was Moroccan Meatballs and cauli rice from Well Fed.  This remains one of my favorite things ever.  I ate too much, which means there will probably be gaseous emissions later.  I'm all about full exposure.  I need to start keeping parsley around. This would've been prettier with a little sprinkle of green.

I should really have had some veg...oh, wait.

Three days in a row.  Who am I?  I'm hoping this 2015 challenge helps me grind the habit of running (or walking) every day into my subconscious.  I'm a notoriously inconsistent runner, but I get away with it because I'm generally fairly sound.  I'm a little bit fat, but beyond that I'm pretty hardy.  I can not run for weeks, then bang out a half marathon and still be functional the following day.  That's a shit habit, and I'm working on it.  Right now I'm just running to run, no pace goals, walk breaks, yadda yadda.  At the end of February I ramp up for a run at sub-2 in May.  I think I can really do this, and I'm excited about it...not dreading it.  

Holy shit I ate a lot today.

Blogging 2015: 11.8 down 2003.2 to go

Today I was home with the kids while the husband is at work.  They slept until almost 7am which is borderline miraculous.  My tasks for today were pretty domestic...enough laundry to crush a small horse, putting the finishing touches on a knitted cowl, feeding and watering the spawn.  I'm happy to report that I managed all of them pretty handily.  Oh, and I had to find time to get my daily miles in.

Things I learned:
1. Tiny clothes mean the laundry basket never empties.  I fold 251 t-shirts?  Not a dent made in the stuff left to fold.  Folding kid laundry is soul sucking.
2. Children that run ahead of you and have to be called back for their own safety in the summer? Will require a fucking tow rope to keep up in the winter.
3. The sound of little boots scuffing the pavement is akin to fingernails on a chalkboard.
4. Cashmere makes a gorgeous cowl.  Soft as angel's wings.

My fantastic husband made egg bake while I was traipsing around the upper midwest, so I started the day off right.

See?  All nutritiony and shit.

After breakfast and the first round of laundry, I bundled the kids up and took the dog for a walk.  It was actually sunny today for a change.  Cold, but we can't stay inside when the sky is so blue.  So they scuff-scuff-scuffed and I drag-drag-dragged and we got a little air and exercise.

Had a couple of coconut/date bits for a snack.  My mom always sends us a tray of dried fruit at Christmas, and these are just dates and unsweetened coconut mashed up together.  Pretty tasty.  Like candy for boring people.

Nom nom nom

Fantastic husband also made beef jerky the other day.  I love meat cookies.

Just the right amount of chewy.

I'm often at a loss for lunch ideas when we don't have specified left overs.  This was just sort of cobbled together.  Homemade ranch, peppers, and a bacon burger.

Not bad.

While the next round of laundry was in, I sent the kids upstairs to "nap" and hopped on Satan's conveyor belt for a little Doctor Who and mileage.  This is my disastrous basement.  It looks better than usual.

It doesn't get much sexier.  Hide your boyfriends.

When I'd had enough fun on the treader, I headed upstairs and decided to make a batch of maple vanilla almonds.  I wouldn't have had to, but fantastic husband ate the batch I made the other day.  These are super simple.  1/3c pure maple syrup, 1tsp vanilla extract, 2c raw almonds.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the maple sugar crystallizes.  Then dump in a bowl and let cool.  These are paleo, as the sugar is natural, and they are a nice little sweet treat without falling off the wagon.  Only takes about 8 minutes.

Get in mah belly!

After the smalls "woke up" they raided the cupboard for a snack and I bundled them up for another dog walk.  It was warmer, it was still sunny, and I wanted a little extra mileage.  This challenge is good for the whole family.  We walked a bit, then came home to another round of laundry for me and cartoons for the kids.  Dinner was a Wildtree freezer meal "Not so sloppy sliders".  Kids had them on buns, I had them on a sweet potato.  Not bad.

The kids actually ATE them. 

There is clearly a disturbance in the force.

Oh!  I finally finished my Sherlock cowl!  The pattern is the wallpaper from the BBC Sherlock version of 221B Baker St. complete with skull motif at the top.  It's like buttah.  Needs a bit of blocking, though, to make the stitches more even.

New work neckwear for the cold, cold nights.

So with 2 dog walks and some treadmill time, my total mileage for today was 5.6.  Woot.  My goal is to stay on top of the daily mileage so I don't fall behind.  Tomorrow I'll shoot for another 10k distance.  I don't give a shit if it's cold, but it would be fucking fantastic if the sun stayed around.  

A productive day.  I'll take it.

Blogging 2015: 6.2 down 2008.8 to go.

So I signed up to do a 2015 miles in 2015 challenge.  Solo.  Because I am fucking stupid.  I managed to avoid registering for 153 half marathons, then entangled myself in this mess.  It averages out to 5.5 miles per day, and both running and walking count.  In fairness, I need something to keep me moving forward.  I'm basically a sloth, so whatever it takes to keep me from sleeping 20 hours a day and eating my weight in coconuts (do sloths eat coconuts?) I guess.

After work on Wednesday morning, I got in my trusty car and drove to the Twin Cities for the Polar Dash.  NYE afternoon/evening I met the fabulous Ashley from It Starts With Pie at Whitey's in Minneapolis (to quote her text "It's not as racist as it sounds") for a couple of drinks and some non-threatening chit chat.  Neither one of us is a serial killer, so that's a relief.

Afterwards I checked into my hotel and got ready for some serious relaxing.  Since Wedsnesday was my transition day, I'd been awake for about 27 hours when I got to the hotel.  A little TV and knitting and I was ready for my sweats and bed time.  Slight problem?  About 25 English/Irish rugby players and various hangers on shouting at each other the whole night.  Well, except for the 5 hours they left to go to the bar and get even more intoxicated before coming back and resuming the shouting match.

Sigh.  I can sleep through a war, but the eavesdropping was amazing.  If I'd been less tired I would've ordered up some room service popcorn and a bottle of wine and just listened to that shit go down.  It had everything.  Drunks, tears, yelling, phone calls, techno music, fights, and accents.  As it was I listened to most of it while I dozed and dreamed of rugby matches.

In the morning I got up at 7am (the ruggers were STILL shouting at each other) and grabbed a shower.  I got geared up for a cold weather race and had breakfast delivered to my room.

Just right.

Then I went and ran a 10k.  The weather was pretty good.  A few flurries early which made me happy as we don't have any snow at home.  Shitty brown Christmas followed by a shitty brown New Year.  It was nice to run through a winter landscape that didn't cause clinical depression.  The course was pretty, through a swanky neighborhood along the river.  My time was meh but I wasn't looking to PR.  1:08 or somesuch.  I got my miles in and a penguin hat.  It's a very grumpy penguin hat.

PENGUIN SMASH.

I listened to the sub-30 club (from RW-it's a FB group) playlist on Spotify during the race.  That is one interesting conglomeration of tastes.  After the race I hopped a shuttle to my car and made for home.  I overshot the 29 exit (because I was having a philosophical argument with a banana) and ended up 30 miles out of my way.  It's amazing how far afield you can get when you're going 85 and not paying very close attention.  Ah well.

The banana that made me miss my exit.  

I never did get the motherfucker open.

When I finally got home I hit the shower, had a handful of maple vanilla almonds and a few dried apricots and did a little knitting.  I wasn't much in the mood for dinner, so just had a Scotch egg.

A nod to the angry Brits that kept me up all night.

Now I'm having a cup of mint tea and fantasizing about sleeping.  My house will be preternaturally quiet in comparison to the hotel.

So, to sum up.  I made an internet friend an IRL friend (I mean, I hope I did.  That's probably presumptuous.), listened to a bunch of angry people get drunk, slept a bit, ran a 10k, and spent 8 hours in the car.  I got myself into a ridiculous distance challenge that will require me to run at least 5.5 miles every day.  I ate a bunch of random shit.

Guess I'm back for 2015.  I can feel your excitement.

Happy Holidays, Bitches-A Solstice Letter

Dear Family, Friends, and Random Internet Pervs

2014 is drawing to a close, and it's time for Fox News to start bitching and moaning about an imaginary war on the most ubiquitous holiday known to humankind.  That means it's also time for that most sacred of holiday traditions: The Solstice Letter.  Written entirely in the third person as though being reported by a downtrodden, out of work journalist.  Hey, print journalism is a dying art and if you live by the pen you take work where you can get it.  Keep it quiet, Judgy McJudgealot.

This year brought big changes for Amy.  Though she continues to be a pharmacist, she made the daring decision to go back to a job she held for 5 years in the recent past even though this means a longer commute.  The extra 3 miles round trip takes a lot of precious time away from her loving husband and children, but in the end it's worth it as they are mostly sleeping when she's commuting and she doesn't like them much anyway.

Amy continued in her commitment to fitness by running a shitload of unlogged miles, doing a shitload of races, and drinking a tankerfull of post-race beers.  She also half-assed some CrossFit, made a fool of herself at yoga, blogged about 100 days of good food, and then fell off the wagon over and over and over again.  She made several attempts at lifestyle changes, but remains slightly fat and unmotivated, with no change in sight.

Mr. Amy remains a loving, supportive spouse and excellent father.  That is all that will be said as Mr. Amy is a strong individual with a certain skill set and knowledge of places to hide bodies.

The children continue to excel at important skills like whining, bitching, misery making, and handprint related art.  All three continue to eat enormous amounts of food while simultaneously expressing dissatisfaction with everything placed in front of them.  The girl child has refined her devil-may-care fashion sense into a cohesive philosophy that her parents have come to call "homeless clown chic".  To that end, several pairs of truly alarming leggings have been purchased for said girl child and sneaked into her dresser.  Amy anticipates the day girl child locates the donuts-cookies-and-kittens leggings with unbridled glee.

The boy children remain unemployed in spite of reaching the advanced age of 4-and-three-quarters.  They still brazenly expect frequent meals, clean laundry, and assistance with basic hygiene.  Both boys have begun to display a love of music and song, in the form of "Sweet Home Alabama", "Let It Go" and that fucking "It's Friday" song from YouTube. They have also developed their father's knack for breaking into song while in the car whenever Amy's current radio favorite is on.  They have not yet been tested to determine their status as identical or fraternal twins-a fact which continues to create anger and confusion in the general populace.

The Z family is grateful to remain basically healthy and tragedy free for one more revolution of the Earth around the Sun.  May the lengthening days bring light to your mind and warmth to your heart.

Happy Whatever-the-Fuck-Holiday-You-Celebrate

The Zs