Mother Nature Is Screwing Up My Routine!

To say that I'm a creature of habit and routine is quite the understatement. I hate having disorganization and anything throwing off my routine. I quite flexible due to an ever changing schedule for my husband and also the simple fact of having a 3 and a half year old, but I do like some order in my life! Last night Jackson and I got home at 5:40 and had to be at a park down town around 6 pm to participate in the "National Night Out" walk to support local law enfocement and crimestoppers. Since my husband Steve is a police officer, we are always excited to do anything to support him and the local law enfocement in any way we can! I'm embarassed to say I gave Jackson a cheese stick for dinner! Usually they have hot dogs and popcorn available, so I figured we'd grab one of those and he'd be fine. Well, all they had was popcorn and water, so that had to hold him over. Not one of my finest parenting moments of organization & good nutrition. Oh well, he survived. Since Steve works 2nd shift, we hardly have any family time. We took advantage of a little time together while he was working. He got to sport his SWAT gear and walk 2 miles in the afternoon heat & humidity! (Poor guy!) After a fun filled walk and seeing lots of cops & firefighters as well as my favorite women. . . . the cops wives, Jackson started getting "naughty" so I knew that was my queue to get him the heck out of there and home!

Supporting our Local Law Enforcement!  (ps. Jackson looks HUGE here. . . . he's actually pretty small for his age!)

When he said Batman, I thought he'd get a little logo on his cheek. . . . . BATH NIGHT!

Since he just HAD to have a batman mask painted on his face, we had to fit in a shower, dinner & bedtime routine asap! Luckily the lack of a decent dinner made him hungry and he ate some chicken pot pie that I made. He ate everything. . . . . and he was super excited that he was eating the veggies without me even asking! Score! As if last night's routine wasn't thrown off enough, Jackson came to our room around 3 am because it was thundering and lightning. He normally sleeps through that stuff and this was the first time ever he came to our room scared. I couldn't turn him down! I thought we'd snuggle for a little while, but he's a wiggly sleeper, so the rest of my night/morning was not very sleep-filled, which makes me cranky. I also couldn't get up at 4 am for my morning run because it was still pouring out and with the lighting, it just wouldn't be safe. Some mornings I wish for rain so that I can sleep in and enjoy a few extra winks. . . . . but not today! I don't really have time to miss my run! Missing it isn't an option, so I'll squeeze it in over my lunch break (and make my time up later --I'm lucky to have that option!).
I didn’t sleep at all once my alarm was supposed to go off for my run, so it really didn’t benefit me at all to have a storm pass through during my running time. What a disappointment! I got up, got ready, enjoyed my coffee and then my “lack of a run” mood hit me. . . . . I had to get Jackson up to go to daycare for the day because I usually take him for a full day one day a week so Steve can sleep in once and then get some stuff done around the house. Well, Jackson wasn’t having it! McCRABBY pants to the next level! After a late night and some time up through the storm, he was NOT ready to get up and was pretty vocal about his desire to “take a nap” rather than get up. Let’s just say when I don’t get a run in, I’m not exactly the most reasonable person in dealing with being rushed when I don’t get enough sleep, not to mention not getting my run in. I was McCRABBY Mamma trying to get Jackson up, dressed and out the door. We survived the morning and I got to work! Amazingly, I ended up having a great run, even though it was out of my routine. I took a long lunch and got a nice hot 5 miles in. My average pace was 8:44 which is totally speedy for me. I was hot, thirsty and tired but I figured the faster I ran and kept going, the sooner I’d be back at my desk, working through e-mails and getting things done. The first 2 miles I stressed about being away from my desk, but when I hit those miles at a great pace and kept with it, I started to focus on my run versus my work and it felt great. Although it was just 5 miles which is so minimal compared to our weekend runs, it’s still 5 miles and an important part of training for the marathon, so having a great 5 miles out of routine gives me hope for an ever improving pace and setting goals for my marathon. I’m not quite sure what my marathon goal is yet. I need to be realistic, but still push myself. I’ll wait until a little closer to finalize my goal!


Obviously at the end I just NEEDED to be done . . . . . . This was a hard run and I really pushed myself.

 Angie and I are running in a ½ Marathon this weekend. The race is right here in Sheboygan WI! It’s rare we actually get to run more than a 5k or 10k race close to where we live, so a half marathon is thrilling. The Full Moon Half Marathon is a 6pm start, which is totally outside the box for us, so I’m not sure what to anticipate. Having a great run at a time I’m normally not running gives me hope for a good race! Now we just have to plan for hydration and light in case it’s darker when we finish. The trail we’re running on has no lighting, so towards the end it could be pretty dark! 

I asked Angie if I should wear this for our night race . . . . . . she said she would borrow me a little flash light  --does that mean I look like a total DORK?  Yup!