Morning

I left the house at 5:40 this morning to get in a walk before the family woke up. A run would have been better, but I'm torn between the good exercise and a loving 12-year-old three-legged best friend who would have his feelings crushed if I left him at home. As it was, he was huffing and puffing. There were a couple of immediate realizations - the first was that it is ridiculously loud in my neighborhood at 5:40. I know it's spring, but every bird in Northern Virginia must live on my street or at least eat breakfast here. The second thing that came to me was the total irritation that other people were awake (gasp!) and not only were they awake, but some actually had the audacity to be fully dressed for work and standing at the bus stop. This hugely minimized my accomplishment of getting myself out of bed.

My husband initially told me that my idea for morning exercise was stupid. Or rather, I must not know myself well enough to fully picture the cranky disaster that he was sure would fight the alarm clock (all the while subjecting him to the snooze repetition) and never actually get up. I listened to him until last night, when at 5:45 pm I decided that I was ready for a break from my family, a cold beer, and a good cry simultaneously. It is fairly impossible for me to have the strength and energy to leave the house and exercise once both kids are asleep. Not totally impossible, but very close. So we have entered what he has now proclaimed, "Phase One." Apparently P1 involves me taking a brief 20 minute walk each morning this week with the dog and then proving to him and to myself that regular morning activity is possible. If I pass, then he'll support "Phase Two." I'm not even sure what P2 involves according to him, but he assures me that it will help me get ready for the sprint tri in July. I'm not sure it will help as much as the trinewbies.com 10 week plan, but it should do something. I took the dog out again tonight for a bit longer of a walk after dinner. Poor thing. He couldn't come up the steps when we got home. What to do... Leaving him at home will no doubt cause a pathetic episode of crying and pacing that will completely defeat the point of sneaking out when the everyone else is still asleep.

Excitement

Aside from the awakening process that I've been feeling physically, I've been really excited mentally all week, which has had it's own share of side effects. Most notably, I went ahead and registered for two more events - the 5K mentioned to me by my husband and a mini-triathlon in July. I registered our daughter for the 5K as well. She is marginally interested, but I am hopeful that in time her enthusiasm will grow. Since she's working towards her own 5K - a practice one the first week of May and an official race on May 15th, I'm not sure that the allure of a dinky neighborhood race with her mother is too strong at this point. Running together will be a first for us, and I'm excited for that. She and I used to do all sorts of activities together, but adding another little person to the house has impacted those opportunities, and I am trying to get back on track (or as close to it as realistically possible as I can). The idea of the swim-bike-run is just something that I've always wanted to try, so after registering I have started putting out an all call to see if any other friends want to give it a go as well. Pretty much anything that can involve other people I know, and the chance to go eat afterwards, ups my commitment level.

The other consequence of my excitement involved my afternoon bike ride today. I haven't ridden much - still working out the pedals and car transport - but today was glorious and I had a window of opportunity between work and daycare pickup so I quickly changed my clothes, grabbed the bike and headed out. It took me a while to get going and actually manage to get both feet into the pedals. They aren't the clip-in kind: they have teeth and straps and flip upside down, and I was quite happy with myself once I was able to get moving. A few blocks into my ride I was going through a mental checklist - how to work the gears and brakes, the need to be aware of cars so I didn't get squashed, etc., and it occurred to me that in my excitement to get out the door, I completely forgot my helmet. The equipment business of all of this is going to kill me. I'm still really happy and excited to have the bike, but I really miss the days when all that was necessary was a pony tail, a pair of jeans, and some type of close toed shoes - unless it was summer, in which case sandals were usually just fine. Argh. But it was a good ride anyway.

Dialogue

So I'm pretty sure that I overheard a conversation like this this morning:

Body: "What have you done to me?"
Brain: "Uh... I think that's lactic acid."
Body: "But, WHY did you do this?"
Brain: "Uh... it was supposed to be a good idea."
Body: "But, clearly, ouch, ooch, eech, it was NOT a good idea."
Brain: "Um. But, it will get better every time."
Body: "You mean you plan do to this to me again?!"
Brain: "You... c'mon body, you're supposed to enjoy this. I'm focusing on YOU for a change."
Body: "Yeah well, go back to reading and leave me the heck alone. I can't move today."

That little 5K on Sunday apparently asked just a wee bit more of my muscles and bones than they were quite ready to give. Now I can add that in addition to my slow pace, my tight and crampy muscles are giving me plenty of baseline evidence. Ugh!

5K

This morning was the George Washington Parkway Classic 10mile/5K, and I'm happy to report that it went about as well as I could have hoped. I enjoyed the time with my friend Rebecca and the opportunity to get to know her husband a friends. She and I were the only two of the group who opted to run the 5K, and everyone else we knew participating ran the full 10 miles. This gave Rebecca and I plenty of chat time. We were slow. Maybe more like S. L. O. W., but we finished with a pace of 11:46/mile, so now there is a benchmark for improvement next time. My husband has already handed me an advertisement for another 5K in June - that one is actually a 15/5K. He could run the 15, and I could run the 5 with our daughter. Good times.

Heart Healthy.... sort of

So twenty years ago I was misdiagnosed as having mitral valve prolapse. I remember being terrified when the doctors explained to me that I just needed to be careful when I exercised, because they didn't want me to be one of those freak cases where the teenager dies during sports practice. Supposedly my heart had to pump faster because it was really inefficient and blood pumped two ways. At the same time, one doctor in particular stressed to me that I had to exercise because it was more important than ever that my heart be a strong muscle. As a rower in high school, my heart rate would necessarily go up, and every once in a while I'd panic. I had to pre-medicate with antibiotics before dental appointments and took a massive dose before delivering my daughter.

Yesterday after my echo-cardiogram, the cardiologist pronounced my mitral valve normal. WT??? He explained that MVP was a hot diagnosis for a while in the 80s and 90s but that it was WAY over diagnosed and now the criteria is much more stringent. Based on the new criteria, I'm fine. This wasn't exactly like reading the news article saying I was no longer a Scorpio, but it certainly gave me something to think about. So my heart is healthier than I though, which is great news. Then I tried running after school with the girls, and my heart was pounding! So, it's healthier to a degree, but maybe only marginally.

Quarter Cow

Truth time. I haven't exercised in almost 2 weeks. Not real exercise anyway. Doctor's orders honest. But now I have the green light again, which is great, because I'm starting to panic about the race on Sunday. Yes... the 5K that I signed up for that was months away is now only five days. My only escape route is a government shut-down, which is definitely possible, but the back-up date doesn't work for the friend who asked me to run with her, so then I'd be solo. Soooo... even if it bought me a few more weeks, I'm really hoping we get a move on this Sunday. No time like the present to give me a good, clear picture of how far I need to go. I'm up a couple of pounds... well, really only one or two depending on the day, but combining that with the lack of exercise and the ridiculous food binge that I've been on, my "heart healthy" objective has been floundering. I'm back to the cardiologist tomorrow though - hopefully will get another green light from him too - and can continue to check, check, check my way through the medical community.

But all of that is neither here nor there compared to the cow. Healthy habits, healthy exercise, healthy diet, etc., etc., etc. After doing our research (talking to two couples we know and enjoying dinner at one of their homes before checking out a few news articles), we've made a down payment on a cow, or really just a quarter of one. I'm simultaneously sickened by the thought that there is a life I'm that directly responsible for now and encouraged to know that it's one and not 5000 or whatever the typical number of cow pieces the average American eats in a year. So our cow is currently grazing on real grass and has lived hormone and antibiotic free and hopefully will be none the wiser to his intended path until his final day. While I am wrestling with this and telling my husband that it is really the path towards vegetarianism, my husband is convinced that soon I'll be eating pork again (I stopped four years ago), which really means as far as he is concerned is that pig bacon will be brought back to our breakfast table, because we'll want to buy a cow AND a pig next year. Yeah, I'm thinking not so much. Right now I just want to be happy with the friendlier red meat for the family.