Swim Swam Swum

Since about mid August, Tuesdays and Thursdays have been our swim lesson days. Camille takes them at our gym and it's really convenient for all of us. Today, with Barry being gone since the early morning, I needed to get in my run. So first, Camille, Miss Daphne and I headed to the gym after Daphne woke up from her nap. The two of them went into the play place and I did my run. Two miles on the treadmill (while watching Jeopardy! Totally makes the time pass) and then two miles on the track. I *so* run faster on the track. This is a good thing since it's more real than the damn treadmill. I can barely manage 8:15s on the thing, and on the track, an everyday run is sub 8s. Nice.

Then I rushed 10 minutes of core work. It was so not enough. I need more this week. I'm feeling sluggish and mushy in the mid-section. But it was almost time for swim lessons and I had to get the girls from the child care.

Camille started her class jumping in with "pencil jumps." Today it was a parent watch day since it was the last day of the session. She did amazing! I so wish I had the video camera to film her do her free-style and rotary breathing. She's awesome! Her technique is great; clean, straight, and thoughtful. She's not all that fast but jeeze louise she's 5! And her back stroke is the best in the pool. She's got my shoulder strength. 

I want to video tape her so that when she's in the Olympics (ha!) they can play the video as part of one of those character building films before the BIG event. 


She advanced to Platypus level today. That's the class with mostly 7-8 year olds. That's my girl. 

back in the saddle

Or so to speak. I guess it would be more accurate to say back on the mill. The treadmill that is. Since giving birth to sweet Daphne on October 2, I've had foot surgery to remove the neuroma in my left foot. It took a good 6 weeks of recovery to start running again after surgery. It was a slow start; combining running and ellipticalling for the first few weeks until I could finally build up to about 4-5 days of running a week. Currently I'm running about 25-30 miles a week and feeling pretty good. Still some aches in the feet but nothing like I had to deal with before surgery.

Today's run was glorious. I started doing structured speedwork a few weeks ago and since I'm still running on the treadmill most of the time, these days are my favorite. Today's run was 8x800 meter intervals at about a 10K pace. It's funny, since I have no idea what my 10K pace is, to even say that. I'm just guessing from perceived exertion level and also from about where I was 5 months post-labor with my first daughter.

Barry and I ran the Pints to Pasta 10K when Camille was exactly 5 months old and I ran a 46:xx. That comes out to be about 7:30 min/miles. So that's where I started. but today, I pushed the envelope a bit and did the 5 intervals somewhere between 7:19 and 6:53 min/miles. It felt great to lay it out like that. Especially the last 3 where I started quicker and held on to the sub 7s for longer. 7.2 miles total.

Currently I'm enjoying this quiet while Sweet Daphne sleeps. She's been down for an hour already and I know my time is coming to an end here.