Humidity, What Ya Gonna Do When It Comes For You?

Tuesday's humidity was oppressive, and today looks like it will be just as bad. Stepping out the door just prior to nine o'clock to let out Peter has me thankful for air conditioning. I cannot imagine living in a house without it. First world problems, I know. Unlike yesterday, I have not yet gotten my run in. I stayed up a bit later last night taking care of Nora while Meghan had a "Girls' Night Out" with her sisters and mom; she needs more of these, I think. She came home in good spirits and wanted to try sleeping upstairs again instead of the recliner.

I didn't set an alarm, and woke to help Nora sleep once around midnight. I Meghan this morning on the reclining couch again, with Nora in the bassinet. She had come down at two because her hips were bugging her again from SPD, Symphesis Pubis Disorder, something women often have in the last part of their pregnancy as the hormones in their bodies prepare them for birth. Their ligaments and tendons loosen up to allow baby to pass more easily through the birth canal. For Meghan, this problem started much sooner than normal, so she's been sleeping in a recliner for the last six or so months.  You think that might be nice, but it's not really all that comfortable compared to a bed.

It's now almost 13:00, and I've yet to run my mile to keep the "secret" #runstreak going. Honestly, I would like to keep my training schedule on track with a half-hour run, but mid-day on one of the hottest days of the year does not appeal to me at all. I'll do some stretching and maybe fit in a run around Lake Josephine later this evening, maybe after the temps come down a bit. Tomorrow's run will be early morning again, with a short run for Friday and the Afton 25k Trail race on Saturday morning. I'm a little nervous about the race, though I probably shouldn't be. I want to treat it as a training run for Moose Mountain and run the pace I expect there, sub-six hours for 26.2 miles or 14 to 15 minute miles. Given that I train at 9 minute miles as an Easy pace, I'm going to count on the hill climbs to slow me down to a walk.

The diet is still on track, for the most part. I need to pick up some olive-oil Helman's for my tuna and salmon lunches to avoid the vegetable oils. Yesterday's meals looked like this:

Breakfast: 4-egg Omelette with broccoli and cauliflower. Coffee. Coffee...
Lunch: 2 cans pink salmon, Helman's mayo (2 tbsp - has gluten/pressed oil - couldn't avoid it), green onion and celery. Cantaloupe. Water.
Dinner: Polish sausage and sauerkraut, peaches, 1/2 cup rice.

Today, breakfast was also a bit of lunch:

Breakfast: 3 fried eggs, bacon, cantaloupe, coffee.

No idea what lunch or dinner will have in store for us, but I'll be sure to bring some proteins along to the Stokes' house. It's Anna's birthday celebration today, as well as Independence Day, so there will be much partying and swimming.  Enjoy your day off!

Back to Work

First day at work, and it is a cooker out! I chickened out of the morning commute run due to projected record high temperatures reaching or exceeding 99F. Add in the humidity, and that spells disaster in the late afternoon sun. Instead, I opted to run a neighborhood three mile loop. Although toasty, I completed it in my requisite 30 minutes.  Day one of week two done.

Work has been more about catching up on emails and conversing about the difficulties over the last two weeks. With the outage due to an electrical fire at Visi Internet Services, our company is working hard to add in more redundant features to our platform. Things are pretty exciting right now at GovDelivery.

I'm still on the bandwagon with the Paleo/Archevore diet, though I didn't eat anything until I arrived at work around 08:00 this morning.

Breakfast: left-over eggs in a nest (x3), cup of plain vanilla yogurt and a grapefruit, coffee.

Lunch: curried red potatoes, left-over 50/50 bacon burgers, left-over broccoli and cauliflower, cantelope (1cup), orange, water.

Dinner: Rats on a Stick (hamburger, seasoned with Thai red curry, cumin and salt), pineapple, and a romaine lettuce salad with 1,000 Island dressing (a little cheat here -- it had soybean oil in it).

Off to bed!

The Eve of Work

We had a special moment today in the Walstrom and Stokes families: Nora's Baptism! I'll hoist a picture up here once we've uploaded them, so you'll have to trust me when I say Nora was adorable! The last few days, we've been spending time at our in-laws to take advantage of the lake and spend time with out-of-town family. It has made me miss living on a lake, but has renewed my hatred for raking out lake weeds!

It's a few minutes past 22:00, and I'm trying to wrap my head around how this week is going to work out. Baby Nora is not really on a schedule per-se, but she's getting up every three of four hours to eat. Meghan is taking the night shift, and I'm hoping to help out with the morning bottle. She's worried I won't get enough sleep, and I'm worried about her in the same way. We'll work it out, but it might take a bit of trial and error before we get it right.

At least for tomorrow, I plan on getting up at 05:30 to 06:00 to start getting ready for my run to work. It's a five mile jaunt with a few hills (though mostly downhill) down to the Skyway YMCA, whereby checking in on a daily basis, I'll earn my monthly $20 discount with the health insurance company on the membership fees. Worth it, I say. Besides, a consistent daily five miler will work beautifully for training. A run home makes it a double-day for ten miles, but I don't plan on working that part in for a while. In the mean time, a $2.25 bus ride will work out nicely -- slightly more costly than gas and free parking. I'll have to talk to my co-workers about the compensation plan at work for bus travel.

My weekly time goal for running is five hours at an Easy pace, as I'm starting over with Daniels' Running Formula approach again. I did well for two weeks, and then got "busy" again. I've put in some faster runs this week, so I'm not sure what my VDOT (38) based workout points will be. I'll figure it out tomorrow and post here as a follow-up. Technically, I'm on a 7 day #runstreak, which I may as well keep going.

I've done relatively well with the Paleo/Archevore diet over the last couple of days, but without documenting the journey, I'll probably forget what works and what doesn't. I do have to say I've enjoyed my almond-milk, honey, iced coffees -- it was toasty out! I included red potato hash-browns for breakfast, since yesterday's run was so horribly sluggish. Subsequently, by noon I was feeling strong enough for a run, which I would have otherwise skipped. I wasn't terribly hungry, unlike yesterday. I find that I feel more satiated if I sit down and eat a full meal rather than snacking.

Breakfast: Mini-pizza egg patties, hash-browns (not strictly Paleo - but I need the carbs for my running), plain vanilla yogurt (not paleo - but I really, really love it) with grapefruit. Coffee (x2) . Water. Almond milk-honey-iced coffee (x2).

Lunch: (At the Stokes house) Smoked beef roast with bernaise (not sure about Paleo on this, but it should be OK), lunch meats, blueberries and blackberries, tomatoes (fresh) in balsamic vinegar, and a really tasty spinach, candied walnut, and cranberries salad. One glass of white wine (not prohibited, but not part of the 30 day "detox" program). If there was any gluten in the diet, it would have been negligible. I did avoid dairy (though I DO love cheese).

Dinner: (At the Stokes house, again) Basically, the same as above. We ate left-overs from lunch. No wine this time, just coffee.

With that, it's time to turn in. 6 o'clock comes early , and it's almost 23:00 now!

Trying Hard Not to Stay Up

Nora Vivian Walstrom

Newborn and New Schedule

I'm trying hard not to stay up late at night, and here's the reason why... Our little princess has her own schedule, and we bend to her will. Who else can instantly change a family than a newborn child? Nora is no exception, and we couldn't be happier for it. I was told by numerous folks that she would have me wrapped around her little finger on Day One. I don't think I resisted beyond the first minute.

With Nora's arrival came a priority shift and schedule re-organization for me, namely the time slot in which I can run! There is no remaining doubt, I must use the early morning hours to do it. Meghan is taking the two night-time feedings, and I'm picking up the morning feeding. I need to do my run when Meghan is still on "bottle-duty". That way, I don't risk forcing her to wake and attend Nora while out on a run. Two weeks of Personal Time Off (PTO) at work has made this transition much easier.

I suppose it was time for me to officially flip from a night owl to a "morning person", especially if I'm going to take this whole "ultramarathon" thing seriously.

Paleo!

The other big change in my life is committing a diet change, choosing a Paleo diet over the high-carbohydrate, cereal grain focused, American diet. I've been waffling on this for some time, partly because of the general inconvenience of it all. Cereal grains are in everything. I don't know how my celiac friends manage!

Make no mistake, it is a commitment, eating healthy and free of gluten, but I'm hoping that I am making a positive change in my life and setting a good example for my family. The change is all my responsibility, since I do the majority of cooking in the house. Meghan does not woff, ant to have to cook every meal, every day, though I might be able to convince her to pick up one or two.

A huge challenge is deciding what to do with all of the pasta, beans, flour, and other cereal grain derived foods in the house. Perhaps a little outreach on social networks will result in a good home for the food, though perhaps I wouldn't be doing them any favors on principle alone.

Eat Like a Dinosaur!

One thing I wanted to accomplish with this change in diet was to benefit my family's health along the way. I may not be able to convince my children and wife to give up glutens entirely, but if I can get Connor and Ryan excited to cook food, the transition might be easier. I found an excellent cook book, targeted to children and families, that addresses this very thing.  It's called "Eat Like a Dinosaur" and it's written by The Paleo Parents. We bought the Kindle edition, and the plan worked! Connor has been very excited to make his own food and help me out in the kitchen.

With that, I should close the browser and head to bed! Off to run tomorrow morning for two hours! (It's too late already!)