Intentional Grounding

..and it's Sunday.  A very wet, rainy Sunday, at that. After a very wet, rainy weekend where I had the kids all to myself because my husband sucks Greg went to NYC to visit some buddies from college (no, I'm not bitter.  For the record, I encouraged this trip and fully support it).  

What does one do with two kids under 6 on a crappy weekend?  Well, I'll tell you.  We picked pumpkins.  Did trunk or treat at the local church. (No, they didn't convert me).  Got up at 5am and jumped on the trampoline (kids) while mommy did her 8 mile run (that was fun). Did a reeeallly wet village walk in Webster and scored more candy and decorated pumpkins during the Webster Halloween.  Hit up a playdate with our faves and drank lots of wine (that would be the adults, I think....though apparently Rob won himself a wife during a game of rock, paper scissors....dear god help me).  Went to the Y for some mom swim and kiddo play time.  Visited Tops for MORE cider, donuts and candy.  And here we are.  I'm beat.  For some reason I decided this was the weekend to do all the things, which is odd, since during a standard weekend, Greg and I buy into every introvert tendency we have and only go do the social things when we decide we are bad parents.  So why I thought I would do them on my own is beyond me, though I will say that the kids were GREAT and had a blast, so at the end of the day, its all worth it.

My "other job".

Speaking of the end of the day....I have to admit...I missed the hell out of Greg but it was awfully nice to do the girl things after I put the kids to bed.  Paint my nails.  Do a face mask (I don't care how old he is, even at 40, my husband still calls me Queen Amidala every time I put on my clay face mask.  (Is it 1999 again??)   Sit in front of the fire rereading Dan Brown's Origin with snax I don't have to share and the beautiful sound of silence.  Ahhhh.   While I'm ready for some adult interaction, it's been nice to have some time to just be, and to think about the past few months and where I want to be in the next 6 months or year.

Relax.  I'm not pregnant.  (I feel the need to tell everyone this every time I talk about the future).  Greg and I are solid.  And there are no 140.6's in my future, though I sure do think after my swim this morning, I should probably consider it. 

For the record, this is a lie.  But I would like it to be known that I DID do 3500 in an hour, including warm up, cool down, and 400 of drills including 3x100 with hand paddles, which may be torture devices, but are certainly effective at making my stroke cleaner and deeper (took me until now to make a That's what she said joke.  I'm losing my touch.) 

Ahem.  Thinking.  So, in honor of Sunday afternoon, when most of the world is immersed in NFL and....I have "Coco" on in the background for the kids, I find it totally reasonable to liken my current life situation with reference to a sport I know embarrassingly little about.

For the five of you that don't know, in football, intentional grounding is a violation of the rules where  the quarterback throws a forward pass without a realistic chance of it being caught.  It usually happens when the QB knows he is gonna be sacked if he doesn't pitch the ball, so he throws it....to no one.  

All I know beyond this is that Greg gets super pissed when this happens during a Carolina game, and I'm starting to get why.  I'm done with football analogies (thank god, I sound like an idiot), but when I think about the way I've been feeling about things lately, I'm pretty sure I call a penalty on myself for throwing the ball at big fat no one. 

I'm super pleased with the end of my 2018 season as a runner, but as I've said approximately 450 times (who's counting), clearly I wasn't impressed with my tri's.  I've been waffling there, even though I signed up for Barrelman in 2019, I did it because I had a coupon and I'm pretty prone to dumb choices the powers of persuasion.  

I had a great last race in Vermont but have also been feeling a bit at a loss lately for working out - for the last 8 months my workouts have had a purpose and now I'm just....exercising.  This does not bode well for someone that likes having a goal race to shoot for, even if logic dictates that an off season is a pretty smart idea (see above for that).

Oddly enough I got the inspo I needed this weekend from a buddy of mine at work, who also runs marathons.  She randomly texted me Friday night to ask if I wanted to race the Coffee Milk marathon with her in April - she is trying to BQ it, which for her, is a 3:55.  This is laughable, as she ran a 3:14 at Mohawk Valley last year, so in her amazingness, has offered to try to pace me to a 3:35 marathon and BQ.  In a new state (Rhode Island).  OMG. 

Of course, you know I did 3 things right away.  I googled the marathon.  I counted back 16 weeks for the Hansen plan.  I looked up rooms.  I requested PTO (nah, I'm kidding there.  I have to wait till January to do that).  Of course, I'm in like Flynn and super amped about it, even if it is a moonshot goal.  To add more fuel to the fire, by cousin invited me to come hang with her in Missouri for a marathon next fall - Mo Cowbell (Best name ever), so within 48 hours I basically planned out my major race season and have a viable plan for some serious kick assage (yes I made that up.  I don't care). 

I'll round it out with a few shorter running races and a few more tris (debating Musselman, Silver Serpent or another close one), and I think I have myself a season with a few scary yet doable goals.  SWEET.With that being said, my marathon training commences December 23rd, which is perfect for me, as I love my treadmill.  And Christmas cookies. 

I think this is gonna work out well.

So basically, I have 8 weeks to throw the ball at no one.   To take a break - with intent. To take a kickboxing class.  Meander on my mountain bike.  Pretend to swim.  Go for some social runs.  Take a day off (oh who are we kidding here).  Hopefully I don't get  flag on this one - I meant to do it.

But then again, who knows.