Not Awesome Running and Baby Apples

I was going to say that I'm sorry I've been slacking with my posts lately, and tell you all the reasons I haven't gotten around to posting, but mostly I just haven't made the time.

Not being able to run also gave me less to talk about. I'm slowly but surely getting back out on the road, so hopefully I'll be back to my usual random chatter soon.

I have only made it out for a couple of short runs since my second chiropractor visit. We spent the long weekend at the lake house, and I was much too busy relaxing and spending time out on the water.

My running has been slow and not awesome. I don't know how much is lost fitness and how much is the fact that we've been having warm weather lately and I'm not used to it yet.

I'm registered for a half on the 12th, which I was hoping to at least be able to run as a training run even if I couldn't race it, but right now it's looking like it may be a DNS (did not start). Marathon training for Steamtown starts next week and I would rather not do something stupid right at the beginning of a training cycle.

Buddy wiped himself out cleaning out a peanut butter jar yesterday. It's a really rough life.

Our apple trees seem to be happy out in the yard.

We even have baby apples on some of them!

Time to hit the road and see if I can actually make it more than a couple of miles. It's really weird to not just be able to go out and run as much as I want.

Apples!

So, I think my leg is improving. I want it to magically just be better, but I know that isn't likely to happen.

I switched to the one pair of "support" style shoe that I have (and never ever wear because they're really heavy) for my run today, and it did seem to help a bit. I initially got super frustrated and angry and almost turned around in the first quarter mile, but I made myself keep going and ended up running 3 miles.

They weren't my best 3 miles ever, but they were a major improvement on what I've been able to run lately.

I (re)started doing the Lunge Matrix before my runs this week. I'm also trying to get back to doing the Myrtl routine post-run. I was really good about it for a while last year and I figure a little strength/mobility work can't hurt.

We went to a plant sale over the weekend. Apparently all the crazy plant people were there before we were, because it was pretty picked over by the time we got there. We ended up getting a few tomato plants.

We also got a little apple tree (not at the plant sale though)! It's going to have 3 other apple trees to keep it company pretty soon. If you need any apples, we're going to have more than we can ever use once they start producing fruit.

It's going to be fun to have them grow into our own mini orchard!

It's only Wednesday?

While yesterday felt like Thursday, today felt like it would never end. For some reason my kiddos arrived early today and I ended up being out of ratio (too many kids!) by 7:45. On top of that, they all seemed hell-bent on killing each other today. There was a lot of pushing, hair pulling, scratching, and screaming.

It was exhausting.

And then most of them didn't nap.

And then I had to work late.

I was very happy when it was finally time to head home.

A couple of my pear tomatoes were ready to be eaten today!

I had an easy 2 miles on my training plan for today. I have a hard time doing 2 miles at an "easy" pace. I really like doing it a little faster than I'm really supposed to. Oh well. Tomorrow is a tempo run, so I will have plenty of faster paced running to do then.

Tom threw together a tasty tray for a nice, light dinner. So good.

Olives, roasted garlic bread, pepperoncini, salami, sopressata, sharp provolone, some greens and a pile o mustard.

Also: I'm in the assessment part of Anatomy for Runners, and I have "failed" almost every test. It's kind of depressing. Apparently, I need to work on some things.

Critters

Happy Thursday!

Every day closer to the weekend is extra exciting this week because Tom comes home on Saturday!

We found this little guy (Tom informs me that it is a toad) in our play yard this morning. Once they stopped screaming at him, the munchkins were really fascinated by him.

This was on the wall by the back door this afternoon. Tom said he would kill it if it was still there on Saturday, but I managed to take it out with minimal girly squealing noises.

Bugs and I are not friends.

Buddy assumed his usual upside down position while I hit the treadmill for my 4 miles.

Look how big my tomato plant has gotten!

Ignore the sun-scorched leaves at the bottom and focus on the fact that I almost have a couple of tomatoes ready to eat!

Yellow pear tomatoes are the best.

It was a nice night, so I grilled a burger and some zucchini for dinner. Grilling the zucchini was a really good idea.

Knife skills are not high on my list of priorities, so yes, those zucchini slices are all over the place.

Not a bad way to spend an evening.

They're purple, so I win

Happy Friday!

This has been a longer than usual week for some reason. Maybe because I get to go to London next week?

I had a nice (relatively) mellow day at work, we only had 7 kiddos the whole day.

My poppy opened up today!

And then some really impressive storm clouds rolled in.

Buddy was unconcerned by the storm.

He's laying on top of my new shoes. I ordered them last night and they were on the porch this afternoon. Man, Zappos is good!

I swear I'm not addicted to shoes (except maybe running shoes). My super comfy black ones seem to make my weird popping foot issue come back and my old shoes that I love have a hole in them. I needed to get something so when I'm walking around London next week I don't feel like my shoes are falling apart or hurting my feet.

Plus, they're purple, so I win.

The Queen!

I keep forgetting to tell you that two of my princess-obsessed kiddos have started playing a game lately where they get underfoot, look up at me and say "The Queen! The Queen is coming!" And then they run away from where I happen to be standing. Sweet, I'm an evil queen.

One of my poppies that I planted finally has a flower about to open!

I had a really good run today. I did 4 miles, one of which was at 8:42 pace, and overall my pace was around 9:24. Not too shabby for less than a week after a half marathon PR!

I sat down to finish the last bit of the show I was watching and Buddy decided he needed to be right next to me, just in case I suddenly went somewhere.

Speaking of Buddy, it took him a few months, but he finally took a chunk out of his favorite toy.

I need to get him a new one, he also took a chunk out of his Kong this week. That lasted a while too. They both did much better than every other toy we've ever given him. Usually it takes him less than 5 minutes to rip a chunk off of a toy.

Silly dog.

Random Sunday happenings

Buddy and I had a nice Sunday.

I'm not as sore as I expected to be after yesterday's race. That's not to say I'm ready to head out for a run today, but I will probably be up for a little something tomorrow.

We got up to the dog park early to beat the heat. Buddy had fun running around for a while and then abruptly stopped playing and stood by the gate. I guess he was done!

After we got back, I made myself some Greek yogurt pancakes with strawberries and coconut. They turned out really good!

My tomato plant has grown so much already! I guess it likes all the warm weather we've been having.

I watched some Daily Shows that we had on the dvr, and the first two episodes of Crossbones. Has anyone else seen this yet? I can't decide if I like it yet or not. 

I even finally did all the dishes that I've been avoiding. 

For my early (round one) dinner, I fired up the grill for pretty much the first time ever and made myself a burger with green chilies, pepperjack cheese, onions and guacamole. It turned out a little more well done  than I meant for it to be, but it was delicious.

Round two is going to be a big salad when I'm hungry again in an hour. I am pretty much hungry all day long the day after a race.

Back to the munchkins in the morning, the weekend is always too short!

I'll leave you with a couple of shots of Buddy.

Look at this face:

 

Rogue clover population

The weekend always goes too fast.

I woke up early for no reason this morning and had a nice morning of coffee and the Today show.

And a tasty fruit/granola/yogurt breakfast.

I love berries.

I had to pick up some sand for my June sensory bin (how on earth is it June already?), so I headed up to Home Depot. While I was there, I couldn't help myself and picked up a little tomato plant.

It's a yellow pear tomato, because they're pretty much the best.

Buddy is an excellent gardener.

I also took a little while to weed my little planter to give my poppies a fighting chance. There was a rogue clover population threatening to take over the entire container.

They have so much more space now!

And then I got organized.

I haven't had a place for most of these things, so they've just been living on the coffee table. Now they have a home, and the coffee table is a whole lot cleaner! Go figure.

I wasn't sure if I was going to run today - I'm totally off my training plan at this point - so instead I did the 7 minute workout. Once I finished, I really wanted to run, so I did an easy mile and a nice walking cool down while I finished my show.

The Newburgh Half is THIS weekend - how did that happen?

Now I'm off to fold some laundry.

Have you tried the 7 minute workout?

It feels lazy to not run

Happy Friday!

A couple of my kiddos were out of town today, so I only had 6 in my class. It was really nice!

I've been trying to be smart about running since the weird popping in my foot hasn't gone away. It feels really lazy to not run though. I decided that a few missed runs the week before the race isn't going to make a huge difference, and I'd rather be able to run the race next week without hurting myself.

I took a few pictures of the plants on the side of the house the other day.

Things are about to get pretty colorful out there!

Tom is making dinner and we're relaxing/he's packing tonight.

I hope you're having a great Friday!

I failed you

I completely and totally failed you today. I got my new bulletin board up - it's adorable and people already hate me for it (which means it's awesome) and I completely forgot to take a picture of it! I'll try to remember on Monday!

I did take a couple of pictures during nap time inside the classroom though.

These are our bean plants that we started last month. They're doing really well and I don't want them to die, but I don't really have anywhere to transplant them, so I'm still trying to decide what to do with them.

We also "planted" some in ziplocks that we taped to the window. It's really neat because the kids got to watch the seeds sprout and they can see the roots. What's really crazy is we started these the week before the ones in the cups, and they're somehow still doing pretty well. All four of these are actually growing out the top of the ziplock right now. This picture is a couple weeks old.

The lighting of this is messed up because it was nap time, but we made these the other day. They turned out pretty cute.

I was supposed to have a 2 mile easy run today, but I didn't end up getting out of work until a little after 6. Then I had to go put gas in my car (because that pesky light was on again) and stop by the store (because I needed veggies, and snacks...), so by the time I got home and walked Buddy, it was after 7, and I was really tired.

I don't feel bad about missing those miles because I plan on meeting up with the running group tomorrow morning, which will probably be 6-7 miles. On a rest/cross training day. What? Trail running is cross training, right? ;)

I'm actually terrible about cross training, I haven't found something I like to do yet. I know it's important for injury prevention, but I'm still really bad about it.

What's your favorite cross-training activity?

I bought a plant

My training plan started off with a rest day, which is good, because I don't know if I could have made myself do it tonight. I gave myself permission to not even think about the dishes until tomorrow too. Just not feeling it tonight.

We had a pretty good Monday at work, the kids always forget the rules over the weekend, but it didn't take too long to get back in the swing of things.

I bought this plant after work:

I'm not a big gardener, but I do like having a few plants around. This claims to like full sun, so it should be happy on the back deck.

Pretty cute.

Buddy was not a big fan of gardening, not enough jumping around for his taste.

We bought him a brush to help with his shedding (and ridiculous dandruff) this weekend. He loves it! It makes him absolutely crazy and hyper though, which makes brushing him a little more difficult.

Do you have a green thumb or a black thumb?