We had a very lovely, low key Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings (except for stuffing, which I did miss) at Georgiana and Tom’s house. We joined Tom, Georgiana, Jess, Greg, Joshua, Grandma, Grandpa and even Lolo (Lola was working) for dinner. It was really great.

After dinner we watched Cars. And then we opened some crackers and then headed home. It was a very nice night.

So I wanted to get the boys to burn off some energy, so we headed over to the middle school track so they could ride bikes while I jogged a couple of miles to loosen up for my long run on Friday.

Turns out a running track is not the ideal surface for bike riding. So… it was a bit of a pain, and the boys ended up biking in the parking lot, while I jogged maybe 3 laps on the track and the rest of the time mostly walked around the parking lot.

I made my cranberry apple relish last night, and I have Tiffany’s Melting Moments dough chilling in the refrigerator…

I’m in the dining room on my laptop, and Doug and the boys are doing stencil drawings on the same table in front of me.

I’ve got my English Toffee dessert tea, and I’m still in my PJs.

I’m thankful that we have food to eat, a place to live and lots of love in our hearts.

I’m thankful for the wonderful women at West Side Moms who have been so open and supportive to me through the years. 

And especially for those who have worked their way into my heart when I thought it wasn’t open.

Hope your Thanksgiving is peaceful and full of love, friends and family!!!   

And fantastic yummy food!

So, my friend Kristi’s husband has been in Iraq. He was on this 3rd deployment in 4 years. Ugh.

She got her 72 hour notice that he was coming home… at first the Welcome Home ceremony was supposed to be yesterday at 2:30 PM. Then Wednesday at 10:30 AM – at which point, I asked grandma to watch the kids so I could go, too, and hug some random soldier whose friends/family couldn’t make it to the Welcome Home ceremony. Then, at the 11th house, it got bumped to 1:30 PM. Which is exactly when I promised the boys we’d be at Chuck E Cheese.

Sigh.

So we went to Chuck E Cheese. Which was very fun. But I still wished I could have gone to the Welcome Home ceremony for Jeff and taken pictures for Kristi

So, this was truly my first speedwork run. Oh, it was painful…

10 minutes warmup (including 5 stride-outs)

Then, 5 sets of
1) Run as fast as you possibly can for 1 minute
2) Recover for 2 minutes (jog/walk)
3) Run as fast as you possibly can for 2 minutes
4) Recover for 2 minutes (jog/walk)

10 minutes cool-down

This workout was much more intense than the tempo run I did last week. I really had to be determined to keep my pace at maximum effort. It was brutal during the workout, but afterwards, I felt like I really accomplished something. Woohoo!

Just like on the tempo workout, it was Chris Carmichael directing the workout, with Lance Armstrong sharing his training stories (some of the same ones as in the tempo workout).

The music was much better on this workout – an alternative rock sound with a driving beat.

I definitely will be doing this workout again!

This time I ran with May. She would come back to meet me and we’d start off each speed interval together. She is so fast! I am just amazed. Even when I ran as fast as I possibly could, she could pass me like I was standing still.

I would have to call out, “STOP!” when the interval was over, and then she’d jog back to meet me until the next interval.

At first, I felt a little discouraged, that I could never be that fast. But then, I thought, I don’t have to be that fast.

I told her that if we lived in Africa, and our village was attacked by a lion, I would for sure be eaten. She is always so gracious and humble. She said that survival is the ultimate motivator. If Zander was in danger, I could probably pick up Zander and run with him past her.

Our first interval together was on a downhill, which made it hard to get my heartrate up to maximum. The next one, we ran uphill – which was REALLY hard to do. The next one was a very technical downhill, which made my heartrate increase because I really had to watch my footing as I ran as hard as I could. After that we got off the trail and ran on the road for the rest of the intervals.

I felt REALLY good when we finished – just under an hour workout.

So, last week, I took the ZBoys for an introductory class at ArtSports. Zander was in the 5-7 class, and Zevan was in the 3-5 class.
Zevan took a while to get adjusted to class, but he finally joined in and enjoyed himself. Zander jumped right in, literally, and had a good time as well. The older kids’ class seemed more drill-oriented, and Zevan’s seemed more fun, so this week I suggested he try Zevan’s class, since he could go either way.

He had a fun time, but this week they didn’t get to use the harnesses (which they did last week), so he was very bummed about that.

Using a coupon for new students for 4 weeks of free tuition, and since we missed the first week of classes, and the intro class was free, I was able to get away with only having to pay the enrollment fee and 2 weeks tuition. Not too shabby. For Christmas, I will be asking the grandparents to chip in for ArtSports tuition so we can continue…

aka, A Day in the Life of the Z-Boys, Part 2

The boys used those red bathtub crayons during their bath tonight and it turned the tub and water red. A little disconcerting, but okay. They were singing together in the bath, and I took a video or two of that.

Then some pictures, of course.

They were in good spirits, I guess because they have the next 5 days off from school…

Zander and Zevan:
Me: then