Adventures in Potty Training

And so a new chapter has begun...potty training. My son is 20 months today. Judging by developmental signs, I thought it would be okay to get a head start on potty training before we both head back to school in a few more weeks. So after asking for advice from family and friends, I thought I'd give it a try.

The method I used was to keep him bottomless, set the timer for 15 minutes and have him sit until he pees. He peed in the potty 5 times and had 3 accidents on the floor. I think that's pretty good, right? Here's the text I sent to the hubs after the first time my son went pee pee, lol. (Oh and sorry if using "peed" or "pee" is un-lady like or offends you :-))

Meanwhile, for some reason I didn't have much of an appetite as the day went on and that probably contributed to my evening headache. Despite that and considering my race is NEXT WEEK, I made myself get up and go to the gym.

My training schedule called for cross-training. I spent 30 minutes on the elliptical at level 5 and 20 minutes on the stair climber, running intervals up to level 17. I was a sweaty nasty mess. Sorry no pic ;-)

I know, bad form. Shame on me.

I still didn't feel like the gym workout was enough so when I got home I chose a 15 minute Nike+ Training Club workout to do. It was a full body strength workout designed for runners. I was about to say I love Nike+, but right now I'm kind of upset because yet AGAIN, another GPS watch is broken. The screen stopped displaying. Just in time for my race next week right? I won't have time to call customer service for a replacement, so I'll have to deal. I have my eyes set on a Garmin for my birthday in September. So no calorie count tonight.

I have a 3 mile run scheduled for tomorrow. I'll have to run it pushing the jogger stroller again since the hubs works too late. I've made significant "gains" running solo in the past few weeks. Was feeling like my old self actually. I hope that running with the stroller this week and a little of last won't negatively impact my performance. Reality is, running with a 30 lb boy plus however much the stroller weighs, add on the hills on ALL GA routes, I repeat ALL GA routes (well except Silver Comet Trail, maybe) causes me to walk/run. My average pace while running with the boy has been between 13-14 minutes per mile. Good news is I'll have a chance to test my theory on Saturday morning because I'll have a sitter and won't have to run with him. Crossing my fingers I haven't regressed.

Well anyhow, I'm glad I worked out today. It makes me feel content about ending my day.

What's the "secret" to running faster with a jogger stroller? Any potty training tips? Do share.

Where oh, where have I been?

I'll keep this brief. Well let's see. I have honestly been too busy with life that blogging took a backseat. No, not a backseat, but it got locked in the trunk and never thought of until ... now. Lately, I've been feeling like writing so I decided to pick back up where I left off.

Running/Weight Update

Yep...still running. My last post was my last race recap, the Hot Chocolate 15k. For the last 9-10 weeks I've been training for the AJC Peachtree Road Race 10k coming up on the 4th of July. The physical part of training has been going well, but the nutrition part, not so much. I actually gained the 10 lbs I lost while training for the last race plus 1 lb WHILE training for this race. :-) So yep, I keep losing and regaining the same 10 lbs. Story of my life....

Summer Break Is In Effect!

I'm on summer break (I'm a teacher), so I thought I'd periodically share some of the activities my toddler and I have been getting into while we're on vacay. I want to also break up the monotony of the running post, IF I'm going to return to regular blogging for a while. We'll see. Well at least while I'm on summer break anyways.

Atlantic Station has something called Tot Spot for kids 5 and under. It's free activities for the little ones. 

I posted this on my IG... "Blow child, blow". He was so determined  to make a bubble.

There's plenty of adventures ahead to post about. I have about 3 more weeks I think until race day. I'm kind of nervous because my average paces haven't been consistent. Some days I've been slow (due to leg pain/fatigue), some days I'm fast, and then some days I'm in between.So who knows. I practed a portion of the route on my last long run Saturday and it was bomb.... so I guess we shall see. Until then... Thanks for reading. :-)

Race Recap: Hot Chocolate 15k Atlanta

Hello, readers!

Well, I guess I'll BRIEFLY explain my absence on my blog (again). I'd started training for what was supposed to be my "comeback" half marathon in September, but with my work schedule, my son being sick from daycare (ugh), and life, training just got away from me. I was up to 8-miles with the jogger, but skipping a long run is not a good idea for me because it was hard to get back into the groove of things, including blogging. I continued working out and going to my classes, while eating not so great. I actually gained about 10 lbs (I've loss 6 of those so far). That 10 lbs was motivation to actually put money on another race, so I decided to sign up for the Hot Chocolate...I was chasing a new medal, and this was perfect since now the Hot Chocolate race series gives medals AND jackets for 15k participants. Was that brief? :-)

I enlisted an old running buddy to help motivate me to run OUTDOORS after work while I had childcare and we ran long on Saturday mornings. FYI, the 15k is 9.3 miles. He had me become comfortable with 9.5-10 miles to be sure I'd be comfortable...well, so I thought (not his fault).

On to race day... I ran the 5k last year (first race 3 months postpartum/no recap) so I knew what to expect. This race is very organized with start corrals according to pace. You know not everyone followed the rules, though. I did. :-)

I'd had the flu (along with my son) a few days for the race. By mile 3, I had coughed up ALL of my mucus and could finally breathe! I actually had to stop a few times I was coughing so much. That's never happened to me during cold weather running and certainly not during a race.

Miles 3-6 were easy, I ran a steady pace, trying to make sure I was conserving energy up the hills. Oh, but when I got to the gi-NORMOUS hill at mile 7, I mentally gave up. This basically set the tone for the remainder of the race for me. And when you're NOT running with your buddy on race day, I had no one to push me. So I walked/ran the rest of the race. 

I was so disappointed that I had only 2 miles or so to complete and I gave up. I'm sure I could of finished faster, but no. 

I don't know if I'd do that race again next year because of the course. But then again, that's how most Atlanta races are. Atlanta is very hilly. I just felt like they put even more hills in the race to be funny. Seriously. 

After finally reaching the finish line, which I did run the last 1/2 mile, I think. We were greeted with our medals, plenty of water and sports drink, banana, hot chocolate, fudge, and other little treats. Oh and my jacket I had picked up at the race expo is of decent quality.

I was happy to be back in my car because it was coooooold!