Running

In case those of you non-facebookers (does such a thing exist anymore) thought I gave up the running ghost, here's an update to calm your fears. I've been training for a half marathon for the past couple of months and it has been going well. Though my IT band flares up from time to time, I can actually run further every time before it starts to twinge.

There have been challenges, however. I don't know if it's the swirling prairie winds, or the thinner air (though by now I should be used to this), but I have found my runs to be difficult in the lung department. All of the construction that is inevitable in the northern summers probably doesn't help either. So while I've been building mileage, I've also been slowing down. It is so frustrating. And to make matters worse, after my 12 mile run on Sunday, what I believe to be my achilles started blaring pain and hasn't subsided much, especially when I climb stairs. Did I mention it's the right achilles..... just down from the right IT band, which is right beside the right kneecap that aches when I try to straighten my leg. How many freaking chronic running injuries can a person have in one leg?!!! I know I've been lazy in the strengthening-the-inner-knee-muscle-in-order-to-avoid-runner's-knee department, something both the doctor and the physiotherapist warned me my legs were prone to, but come. on. I have done everything right this time. Well, mostly right. I increased mileage at a snail's pace this time and my total weekly miles is shockingly low for someone gearing up for a half. Maybe that's part of the problem. Maybe I'm not running enough short runs.

I looked up (a little late in the game, but better late than never), a proper training program for one's first half and it turns out I was doing the long runs correctly but not doing enough miles/any speed training during the week. So I tried a bit of speed training and a few longer runs. I'm a bit hesitant to totally give'r because of my history with injuries and it's also hard to find the opportunity to do anything longer than 3 or 4 miles. Why? Because that's about my limit with the jogger. And I have to run before 11 AM. Or after 7 PM (these are my only windows of having enough energy) , but evenings are often hot and the hours of 7 to 10 pm are the coveted hours to myself during which time I like to do creepy Brianne things... things that don't include expending energy. So, without childcare during the week I am stuck pushing a 25 pound kid at an 8:30 minute/mile pace (for the tempo runs.)

All that being said, I had a wicked run today. My mom is on holidays so I left N at home and did a 7 mile run averaging 8:34 minute miles. It felt great. I was motivated by the fantastic weather and two songs playing over and over on my iPod. "Glass of Water" by Coldplay, and "Nantes" by Beirut, the latter of which I discovered on one of the mama blogs I read. Whenever I start crowing too loudly about Nadia singing made-up songs in something other than monotone I keep myself in check by thinking of the writer of that blog's 4 year old son who can sing a Carmen aria pitch-perfectly. Other parents who rave about their tots' musical stylings could stand to search for the archived evidence and maybe gain a bit of perspective.

Any..way.... in answer to my question as to whether I can run 10k in under 54 minutes, the answer is yes. I think my next goal will be to get it under 50 minutes, but that may take a while.

So I have a goal in mind for how fast I'd like to do the half. I won't tell you until after it's over, at which point I'll let you know if I've achieved it. It's a conservative goal for how fast I was before the postpartum year was up, but these days, I'll be lucky if I squeeze in under the line. I'm a bit scared of the whole race experience, not knowing how I'll do with the large crowd, if I should start fast or slow, what group I should start with, etc.etc. I hope I don't see anyone I know. While racing against familiar faces can be motivating (when I won that race in January I was partly motivated by wanting to beat my OB, just for cutting me open, but alas, I was only ahead of him for about a 1/2 mile), but it can make me go too fast and feel like puking. I hate that feeling. And it's a hard feeling to maintain for such a long race. We'll see.

Oh, and for all you runners out there looking for the perfect running shorts. Lululemon all the way, baby. Low enough that I don't get tummy aches from the waistband, but tight enough I'm not constantly having to pull them up. Well worth the investment.

Sunshine Girl

I'm sure you can guess which set of grandparents bought her this outfit....

In Her Element

The following expose is primarily for J's interest since he is one of the few, if not the only, reader(s) left.

So here is the Moop. She loves water. Hooray. Finally something she is not afraid of, something I too enjoy, and something I hope we are always near. We just finished 2 weeks of swimming "lessons," I use quotation marks because it's not like most kids under 3 actually learn to swim. But I felt it was important for Nadia specifically to be exposed to water play this young because of her hesitancy to try new things and be bold. I figure this tendency will only get worse with age, especially as we head into the twos terrible. To my delight, she's totally into swimming, bath time, and the awesome spray park that just got built across the street from my parent's. This is one of the reasons to love Canada. Big, open, fields that aren't only for the students that attend the schools, and neighborhood parks with programs and water and coolness. Love it.

We went to see my cousin and his two kids (N's second cousins) today. The younger of the two is a mere 13 days younger than N. Ok, granted he has an older sister that has been chattering at him and teaching him stuff since day one, but meeting him just furthers my belief that Nadia is slightly behind in speech. Maybe not behind, but definitely not on the leading edge. I know this isn't a big deal. I know an extremely bright 11 year old that, at the age of 3, had communication skills maybe only equal to what Nadia has now. So I know this doesn't mean anything. But c'mon, I'm a parent. Don't we all worry about things like this?

Since this is mainly for J I will expand to paint a better picture of our little Nadia. She has a lot of words. But 90 percent of them are some version of the word "aaah," with different consonants and inflexions preceeding. She also has words that mean more than one thing. I'm sure she thinks they sound different, but essentially they are not. I've noticed in other kids her age, and boys at that (boys are generally a bit behind girls at this age), that they have many more 'real' sounding words. Maybe not more words, or rather, designations, total, but more big people sounding words. Like "shooz," instead of, in Moop, "shhz." Her most recent bizaare designatioin is simply, "aaaahhh," for boys her own age. This may be because when I used to tell her about her friend W after our playdate I would say, "remember when he ran around screaming, aaaaahhh?!!!" So, maybe this one is my fault. But she has other equally strange ways of talking about things. Animals, for instance, are referred to by the sounds they make, or the sounds they make moving, like, "apapap" (hop hop hop) for bunnies.

Lately I've been joking about her being a mime, or maybe she's more of a silent actor. She mimes elephants, the word 'yes,' airplanes, steering wheels for cars, the sign for "more," a dog's sniff, a blow dryer. Beyond her asking "baah? mama? and.... rara? and....nana?," Translation: Baths? Do Mama take one? Does Rambo? Does Nana? No, we have showers, sweetie. She has entire conversations through interpretive dance and song. The classic, when asked where something is that isn't readily visibile, she puts her hands in the air and sings "I don't know," by imitating the inflexion and not the actual words.

On a particularly concerned day I was trying to teach her the word for "grape" instead of her just pointing to it and saying dat dat dat!!! (her favourite word), so I made the mistake of saying grape starts with g, just like g.g.(My dad.) Now when she wants a grape? G g g g g!


It is becoming evident that Nadia kind of marches to the beat of a different drummer than most kids. I guess only time will tell if this is a good thing. Example, she relates her day often in song. Not actual melodies, per se, but definite song. One time, when she was much younger, I held a pitch and she matched it. It may have been a fluke since she hasn't done it since. Then again, I haven't really tried.

She has started to show signs of having empathy and with other kids is always willing to give up toys, give hugs, and generally respect their belongings and personal space. I've noticed this isn't the usual toddler fare.

On the flip side, she seems to understand a lot, more than I see in the eyes of her peers. She may not say "no" (this is probably a blessing at this point) or "yes" but she sure knows how to indicate them... even when the question is being asked of a neighbouring, often, unresponsive tot.

Physically she is right on track. Running, climbing, feeding herself with utensils and drawing (looks like she may be a lefty!). So I know I have no need to worry. Who knows why she is comparatively quiet. I really don't think it's a hearing problem. Maybe it's her early exposure to a second language. Maybe it's just her way. (Neither J nor I are the most boisterous people.) It certainly doesn't make me love her any less. I do not for one second take for granted the fact that she goes to bed obediently at 7:30 pm, or that she sleeps through the night, (I don't mind the early morning, short nap, and long day if I can have those few hours of adult time at night), the fact that I don't have to worry about her freaking out in public, the fact that she doesn't put random things into her mouth, the fact that she has yet to meet a fruit or vegetable she didn't like and eats them voraciously, the fact that she is a gentle, kind, and goofy soul. I know that I am the luckiest mother on earth. Really.

No One to Blame But Myself

So it's 6:19 AM and I'm up. I can't believe that less than a year ago this was the norm. My days started even earlier back then. Back then it was N that tore me from my blissful slumber. Now? It's to make up for the miserable run I attempted yesterday in the heat of the afternoon with the jogging stroller. With swimming lessons every morning for the past two weeks my "good" hours to go running have been severely limited. So here I am. Did I mention it's 6 AM?

Maniac

For some reason J's email account keeps rejecting my picture-sending attempts so..... y'all are going to be seeing a lot more of the Moop from now until December.

Here she is wearing mama's headband.

The Two Muriels

Reconnecting with one of my best girls, Muriel.

The Moop and the Geese and the Green Balloon on Canada Day

Happy Canada Day, y'all. Also, happy 13th-friend anniversary to the sons of the owners of these geese. Not that they read this....

Nadia was surprisingly brave when approaching these creatures, probably thinking they were like seagulls and would eventually fly away, but when she threw the balloon at their cage and they went into a goosey rage, she immediately freaked and ran for the nearest set of human legs. Her father is afraid of geese, so I guess it stands to reason that she is as well. But I was all like, don't you remember the geese you must have heard in Romania during your embryonic stage?!?!!!!