A Fine Balance

There is nothing in the world I hate more then trying to coordinate Ben’s Early Intervention schedule.  All in all, he has 6-7 (soon to be 7-8) therapies a week…all for 1/2 hour each.  There of course are rules, you can’t have more than 2 therapies a day regularly scheduled, 3 with a makeup. And we need to fit in naps and gym class.  I understand that things come up and more people can’t always keep their appointment times, but in reality, one of our therapists was canceling and rescheduling so much that I had to request a different therapist.  I also didn’t count on that apparently “summer schedules” are big.  Why a full time therapist would need to change house in the summer, I don’t really know.  Maybe the other families change their times?  I’m not quite sure but all I know is it throws everyone off. 

We decided this week to try and transition Ben down to 1 nap a day.  We haven’t yet decided, but if we do put him in preschool in the fall, that occurs in the mornings and he needs to be down to one nap a day.  It also, quite frankly, makes our lives easier to only need to be close to home for one chunk of time a day.  So immediately upon deciding this, one therapist requested her summer times to be directly in the middle of the new nap time.  She was understanding about me not being able to accommodate that, but the 12 discussions that occur to work out the new time are really wearing on me.

I met a friend for drinks Friday night which probably wasn’t the best lead in to Saturday mornings Lesbian and Gay Pride Run.  I only had 3 drinks yet felt like it hit me harder than usual and despite being home and in bed by 11p, I was tired when I woke up for my race.  Ben decided to sleep in for the first time in a month so I was left creeping around the apartment trying to get myself together.  One thing I have noticed about New York Road Runners race starts is they tend to be laid back with you getting there on time, until the totally aren’t laid back and close the corrals 15 minutes early.  Because I was running late, I figured it would be an early corral closing day.  The start was on 69th street on the west side so about 1a a mile and a half from home.  I jogged about half of that and was already drenched in sweat by the time I hit the corrals as the heat and humidity have been brutal for the past few weeks.  This happened to be a super laid back race so I was there in plenty of time but was hoping I hadn’t expended too much energy in my jog down.  Elite runners like to get a mile or two of sprints in prior to races, but I am not an elite runner so I like to do as little exercise as possible prior to the race to make sure I have energy during the race!

The race start was crowded and it too about a mile, or basically to the first real hill, to see it thin out at all.  My goal was to keep my pace below 10:00 and I was happy I was able to do this on mile one despite the congestion.  Mile 2 was also a sub 10 even though it included Cat hill and mile 3 was fairly easy.  I knew mile 4 was going to test me and it did.  It involves 3 rolling hills at just the point of the race where you really don’t have much left. I struggled a lot and although I have yet to upload for the exact split, it was closer to 11:00 in mile 4.  I walked for about 15 seconds at a water station to regroup and then ran the rest of the way to the finish.  I knew I needed to pick up my pace for my sub 50:00 but I really didn’t have much left in me.  I’m not know for my amazing kick at the end and despite having my Dad, Josh and Ben cheering…I just couldn’t pull it out.  My official race time?  50:11.  So, it was definitely a PR, but will taunt me just like my 10K PR which is 1:00:11.  See a theme?

Race #2 of the weekend was the Achilles Hope & Possibility Race and I dragged Josh along for this one.  It benefits runners with disabilities tending towards artificial limbs.  Heather Mills was on hand to start us off (although not running because she was coming back from an injury) and Prince Harry was also there walking with veterans who had lost limbs in Iraq.  Governor Patterson and Cindy McCain rounded our the very political crowd although I didn’t see any of them in person so that was somewhat of a let down.  This race was also extremely hot and humid and right before the start I met up with a running buddy.  She mentioned her goal time was to finish under an hour which I was certain we could do and we ended up running together the whole race.  Some days, right from the start, you just know that you aren’t shooting for a PR and this was one of those days.  Despite how inspiring it is to watch people run with artificial legs and know that you should continue to just keep running, I was just flat from the start and dying for water at every break.  To truly drink water in a race, you need to stop and so we did at every water station.  We clocked in at 54:41 which frankly is shocking to me in that I though we were even slower than that.  I was happy it was over and have resolved to not be hung over for future races (except for my Chicago 5k because I am meeting up with college friends the night before thus it’s almost guaranteed I will be hung over) although I think if this heat and humidity would just go away, I will have a real shot at much better PRs.

We have a busy weekend ahead, and really a busy summer ahead.  I am running two 5 mile races this weekend, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  I managed to convince Josh to run with me on Sunday and both races take place in Central Park, same loop and no Harlem Hills so I figure it won’t be much worse than just doing two training runs.

Ben will be cheering on the sidelines both days and it makes racing so much more interesting to have someone to cheer for you.  My last 5 miler was way back in July ‘05 in what I remember to be horrible heat and I did it in 1:01:14.  It’s hard to gauge what my goal should be for these two races, but I am thinking a sub 50 minute would make me thrilled.  Is it realistic?  Yes, probably.  I have been clocking my everyday training runs in at sub 10 minute mile times so it really shouldn’t be that difficult.  It is always so hard to predict though, because who knows how I will be feeling.  My right hip and knee have been bothering me but I think a lot of that has to do with the hill work I have been doing.  I also think I need to start to look for new running shoes again as my current ones really aren’t wide enough and that may be affecting my stride.  Also, it has been unbearably hot this week and my runs have really been tiring me out.  My running class did speed work on Monday night and I just couldn’t keep up.  I cut the workout short and only clocked 5.4 miles.  Wednesday was a hill workout where we ran 2.2 miles up the west side of the park, were supposed to do two Harlem Hill loops (1.4 miles each) and then run 2.2 back to our bags.  It was about 95 degrees in the shade on Wednesday and after 2.2 miles of a 9 minute warm up pace (yes!  Running group warms up at a 9 minute pace!) I was exhausted.  I managed to squeak out 1 1/2 hills before I turned around and headed back.  I still got 6.3 miles in but I couldn’t manage to run yesterday or today.  Hopefully the two days off will be enough rest to preform decently this weekend.

After the race on Saturday we have the USA soccer game, a birthday party and a dinner before Sunday’s race.  We are hoping to check out a Polo match on Govenor’s Island on Sunday that Prince Harry is rumored to be attending.    So a packed weekend but making the most of our NYC summer!

Sooooo, one minute and 44 seconds away from my PR. Ehhh, I’ll take it.

I managed to guilt myself into running home last night despite not having my watch.  I had missed running class the night before because it was a monsoon, I was a few minutes late and didn’t realize we switch our meeting spot to under a shady bridge in the rain.  So, I missed that fun hill work.  Which meant, even without my purpose for running (aka obsessively recording my heart rate, mileage, elevation, speed) I ran on.  I started out in glorious sunshine but around 50th street that turned into a downpour.  Nothing says DO NOT STOP like freezing rain for you.  It finally relented around 90th street so yes readers, that means I only ran 2 miles in freezing rain.  And I lived to tell the story. 

All this build up because….I’m running a 10k tomorrow morning!  I haven’t run in a race since last October when I ran the Tufts 10k in Boston.  My time was 1:00:11 so I am hoping to beat it but…this race has more hills so not entirely sure I will be able to.

Forgot to bring my GPS watch to work. This totally kills my motivation to run home.

23 months today!  I cannot believe that in one month I will have a two year old.   A two year old whose big boy bed got delivered today.  Don’t worry, we aren’t rushing to put him in it.  Just on our way to completing “Operation decorate Ben’s room for real”

PS  We are actually going to be at a wedding in Chicago for Ben’s birthday.  Ben will be staying home with his grandfather.  We aren’t the most horrible parents in the whole world for not being around on his birthday, right?

Ben apparently has freakishly good hearing.  So much so the audiologist laughed during the procedure.  When I gave her a look (we were present for the whole test) she apologized and just said he may have better hearing than all the kids she saw this year so it was ironic that he is who ends up sedated with a brain stem test.  Just goes to prove that Ben really just thinks the banging monkey is boring. 

We intended to take a trip up to Harlem and walk around a bit on a nice, soon-to-be summer night.  Ben was was in the process of eating dinner when we got home.  Beets (his new favorite) mac and cheese and tuna.  It wouldn’t necessarily have been a combo I would have fed him but hey, I wasn’t feeding him…so not my choice!  After dinner, we bundled him into his stroller and set out to the bus stop. 

Ben was particularly fussy but we assumed that to be because it was approaching 6pm and he gets restless in the approach to bed time.  Josh was sitting on the inside near the window with Ben climbingsitting on his lap.  I was on the outside trying to fold up the stroller when it happened.  First a burp, then a cough and then….vomit.  We were trapped with no way off the bus and Ben was vomiting beets, mac and cheese and tuna into Josh’s hands.  (also onto himself and Josh’s leg but that was besides the point).  And what did super mommy have to clear this all up with…um…well…3 wipes.  Yes, three.  No extra clothes.  At all. Ugh.  I pushed the button to signal a stop and then we had to wait out the light, and two blocks, until we could escape.

I am ashamed to say, we left the baby vomit on the bus because well, what was I going to clean it up with?  I did wipe off the seat at least.  Next, on the sidewalk, we stripped Ben down and wiped him off with his clothes.  As I started to dash across the street to a drug store he started to wail.  Apparently being in just your diaper is totally fun at home, but not so much fun on the corner of 116th st.  I bought paper towels and baby wipes and wiped everyone down as best I could.  (mind you, I managed to avoid all baby vomit on me.  Score one for NOT being the favorite parent whose lap always has to be sat on!)  After the wipe down, I wrapped Ben up in my long sleeve wrap cardigan which was fashioned into a wrap dress for a toddler.  Ben is just so trendy!  We hailed a cab and returned home, minus our neighborhood exploration where everyone was promptly bathed and redressed. 

As a follow up, the next morning we were off to the diner when the familiar burp and cough came.  This time Ben was walking by himself, not ina stroller, so super mommy was able to hold his arms at his side and position his face away from all of us in time to only vomit on the side walk and not hit any of us.  The only casualty was Ben’s hand when I couldn’t wipe his face in time.  Needless to say, we won’t be travelling for some time with out a complete change of clothes and stocked wipes.  Ahhhh, the life of a toddler.  Ugh.