{"id":319,"date":"2013-06-02T04:53:49","date_gmt":"2013-06-02T04:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/?p=319"},"modified":"2013-07-18T19:32:48","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T19:32:48","slug":"merging-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/?p=319","title":{"rendered":"Merging Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been an interesting week here in the RRG household.\u00a0 It was the first week with the kids off school for summer vacation and we\u2019ve been back and forth from sun to storms enough to make your head spin.\u00a0 We had a grand total of about 2 hours of pool time.\u00a0 And seriously, the other day when I took Ethan out on the lake in the kayak it was a perfect blue sky as we departed the shore, but within 15 minutes we were hauling butt back to the house because that previously perfect sky opened up with a total deluge.\u00a0 By the time we had secured the kayak back in the garage, the sun was out again.\u00a0 I can\u2019t keep up with the storm fronts that keep passing through.\u00a0 All things considered though, I\u2019m feeling blessed again today after more tornadoes blew through last night and the only post storm cleanup I had to tend to was the repositioning of some patio furniture.<\/p>\n

So, needless to say, it\u2019s been challenging to train for a half Ironman with all of that going on.\u00a0 At least I got in a round of kayaking with each of the boys.\u00a0 And some yoga.\u00a0 And boxing.\u00a0 Finally by, Thursday I dragged all the kids out to the Marquette HS track for some FLEET FEET speed work.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve mentioned before that as a single mom, I sometimes feel a little bit bi-polar, going from being Lindsey the athlete, to Mom, to Lindsey the employee, etc.\u00a0 I can\u2019t always keep track of which hat I\u2019m supposed to wear next.\u00a0 A few weeks back, my friend Dan suggested that I try to merge my worlds.\u00a0 I\u2019m still trying to figure out how exactly to do that.\u00a0 Thursday night speed work seemed like a great opportunity to start trying.\u00a0 The Thursday night summer crowd is a lot of the same people that I have the pleasure of hanging out with when I lead the social run during the non-summer months.\u00a0 And since everything is centrally located at the track, I don\u2019t have to worry about where my kids are because they can just hang out on the field, or even run around the track with us.<\/p>\n

So, on Thursday, we introduced this idea.\u00a0 Which was needed.\u00a0 I was desperately in need of a solid workout.\u00a0 Not that 800 repeats are a particular favorite of mine, but it needed to happen.\u00a0 I had mentioned to Silas that he could bring his spray bottle and use it to cool off the runners.\u00a0 And despite the fact that the skies opened up and dumped on us just as we were pulling out of the garage, he brought the spray bottle anyway.\u00a0 Ally wondered why we were going when it was pouring down rain, but in true Midwestern fashion, the skies had cleared and the sun was out by the time we toed the line for our first 800 meters.\u00a0 I don\u2019t envy the job of the meteorologists in the greater St. Louis area these days.<\/p>\n

I got in about a mile warm up with Nick and Diana.\u00a0 We caught up from the weekend, discussed Diana\u2019s vegan oatmeal cookies that she had consumed more than the recommended amount of in the hour before running really fast, laughed about dumb things people do when they\u2019ve had too much to drink and we made a point to locate the nearest bathroom.\u00a0 As runners, this is always necessary to know.\u00a0 Always.\u00a0 Especially when you punch it up a notch with speedwork.<\/p>\n

The workout was 6 x 800 meters.\u00a0 We all had our goal pace.\u00a0 And Cole would reset the clock every 7 minutes.\u00a0 Run faster and you get more time to rest.\u00a0 This workout is not particularly fun, so Diana and I debated our pace.\u00a0 We both agreed on \u201cnon-puking pace\u201d.\u00a0 At the end of the day, I was pretty happy with the fact that I held my pace for each of the 800\u2019s, targeting a 3:30 marathon in the fall.\u00a0 And I didn\u2019t puke. \u00a0Bonus! \u00a0Perhaps I didn\u2019t push quite hard enough, but considering how long it\u2019s been since I\u2019ve done an actual, real, true track workout, it was important to just get back to it.\u00a0 It was fun to see Ethan sitting in the bleachers hanging with the other boys as I caught my breath and rehydrated with my running mates in between sets.\u00a0\u00a0 And I loved seeing Silas spraying everyone and smiling as I came around the track each time.\u00a0 Ally had opted to stay in the car with her phone, to stay dry. \u00a0She is 10, going on 17.<\/p>\n

After the main workout, Nick and Diana and I ran about another mile to cool down. \u00a0Even Silas joined us for a lap or two, in his swimsuit and flip-flops. \u00a0I topped out at about 5 miles for the day, so I was glad I had dragged the kids out of the house.\u00a0 And just when the kids were about to complain about how long we had been there, I asked Ally, \u201cDo you want to go to Dewey\u2019s with everyone?\u201d and a huge grin broke across her face.\u00a0 She is her mother\u2019s daughter, pizza is a favorite.<\/p>\n

As we sat at the table, Serena brought up my blog, wondering what I would have to say about that workout.\u00a0 I said, this blog would read, \u201cTonight we ran 800\u2019s.\u00a0 I was pretty much hating life.\u00a0 The End\u201d<\/p>\n

BUT\u2026since I\u2019m Rambling Runner Girl, we all know I\u2019m a lot more wordy than that.\u00a0 And even though speed work hurts, I was definitely not hating life as I looked around at my kids to my right and my friends to my left.<\/p>\n

It was a different experience having my kiddos at Dewey\u2019s with the speedwork crew.\u00a0 But it was fun.\u00a0 It was good.\u00a0 Lindsey is merging her worlds.\u00a0 Perhaps this bi-polar single mom thing is manageable without meds.\u00a0 Perhaps.\u00a0 As long as I continue to get a steady dose of endorphins.<\/p>\n

\"Look<\/a>

Look closely and you can see Silas spraying the runners as they go by<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been an interesting week here in the RRG household.\u00a0 It was the first week with the kids off school for summer vacation and we\u2019ve been back and forth from sun to storms enough to make your head spin.\u00a0 We had a grand total of about 2 hours of pool time.\u00a0 And seriously, the other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-onbeingasingleparent","category-randomthoughts","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eO4v-59","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=319"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}