Thursday, September 17, 2009

This and That

Weeding your dad's yard totally counts as cross-training - right? Well that's what I told myself yesterday ;) I had plans for an actual workout but they went out the window as it tends to happen especially when I'm at home. Instead I thought I would be the nice daughter and clean up the front yard the best I could since dad can't play in the dirt during chemo thanks to the whole compromised immune system. The yard is not done yet (I had to go watch my teenage step sister cheer as I didn't believe she could smile for an entire football game!) but I plan to finish before the end of my time here.

While watching miss s do her cheer thing I realized I am so glad my days of jr. high and high school have passed. I also told my dad I don't know how he sat through all my sporting events. I played 3 sports for most of my grade school/teenage life and more poor parents had to sit through hours of girl sports! Fred finally confessed my softball games were the worst; even worse than my 5th grade cheering days for pee-wee football :) Did any of you play a sport or were part of club in your younger days you can't believe you did?

So today I had to travel 2 hours to/from Toledo, Ohio for work. A lot of toll road driving for a short visit = long day. On the way home I decided to go a little out of my way to hit of the Towpath for my GA 11 miles. I like a nice out and back when I get into mid to high mileage and I can't seem to get that around Medina. Technical difficulties of all kinds ensued. First, I forgot my visor and headband so my hair (which hasn't been cut since March) was crazy style all in my face. Second, my garmin was dead even though I had just charged the dang thing. I decided to go off my best time estimate by my cell phone on the mileage. Luckily there were some sporadic mile markers along the path to help me guess a little better. So I have no idea what my pace was or if I hit 11 or went short/long. It was a nice, albeit a little rushed, run. I really need to take a camera my next time there (this weekend for my last 20!) so you can enjoy in the little piece of running sanctuary. Finally the run turned into a bit of a tempo run towards the middle miles. All I will say is thank goodness for real bathrooms along trails!

9 comments:

MCM Mama said...

I'm so impressed with how well you are keeping up with your training runs, despite how crazy busy your life is!

Mark said...

Ditto to what MCM Mama says, plus you are a good daughter! I always count yard work as cross trsining!

Kathleen said...

Haha, yeah, parents DO put up a lot with their kids crazy athletic schdules...I played soccer myself, and would rather pick flowers on the field, than run around on it (aka I sucked!).
Weeding totally counts as exercise, btw. I'm pretty sure you sweat out like a bajillion calories while doing it.

Tara said...

You are such a good person to help your dad out like that. I hope he is doing well. Sending you good thoughts!

I am definitely having trouble keeping up with my daughters hectic schedule; I can't wait till that girl can drive!

kristen said...

Yard work is cross training for sure! That was very thoughtfull of you to help out like that. My poor parents had to suffer for a lot of years (4 kids worth) of sports. We all played year roudn and they made sure at least one of them was at our game. They still insist they enjoyed it....

Good luck on the 20 this weekend. I hope to see some pics.

Jeri said...

Oh ya, my parents went to EVERY. SINGLE. bball game, vball game, track meet, softball game, and most football and boys basketball games that I cheered at. I'm sure it was not so fun when I was in grade school, but I think they actually enjoyed them in jr. high and high school. I'll have to ask. ;)

Jess said...

I was on swim team in high school and I can't believe I made my mom sit through those meets. I wasn't the fast kid and swimming is only exciting in the Olympics.

Marlene said...

Yep, that definitely counts as cross-training.

Good work on the "11" - if My Garmin was dead for a run like that, i'd have a hard time getting going. And nothing to tame the hair? Forget about it!

runner26 said...

how sweet to do the yard work for you dad ;) and yes, it counts as x-training!

nice job on the GA 11 and good luck with this weekend's 20!