Summer Vacation

This past weekend was up and down. The kids finished up school for the year on Friday. It was a beautiful day. I rode to and from school with them as I have been doing for a lot of the last couple of weeks. It is so great to have the kids wanting to ride their bikes.

Saturday I decided to run. I was going to wait until Tuesday but I kept seeing people running and my legs were feeling good so I decided I had to go on Saturday. We ran three miles. Keep in mind this is a little less than a week post marathon. I kind of wanted to go further but I decided to do the three and not push it. When I got home I was lamenting the fact that I didn't have any speed and with a sprint triathlon coming up in two weeks I was concerned about the "sprint" aspect. I decided that if I got up early enough I would run again on Sunday. 

Running on Sunday was pretty much a sure thing. My kids don't know the meaning of sleeping in unless it's a school day and there is test. My dog is on a 5 AM schedule, too. For some reason he thinks it's playtime at that hour. Needless to say, I did not sleep late. I did piss around for awhile, let A sleep in and I watched cartoons with the kids. Finally, about 7:45 or so I decided I needed to get out and run so I woke A up (she was awake, just lying there) and headed out. My plan was to run four miles - mile one was to be a warm up, two miles quick and a mile warm down. I didn't have real high expectations for this as I had run the day before and had run a marathon a week before that. My warm up was about 7:48, the next two miles were around 6:53 and the warm down was 8:16. Way faster than I expected and it felt way better. My HR did this crazy thing. You can see the chart below. It was higher at the beginning and dropped down during the highest effort. I love that! I feel like my speedy legs are still there. Now, for some biking and swimming.

Today is the first Monday of summer vacation for the kids and it couldn't be more of a disaster. OK, I am probably overreacting, exaggerating, overstating, unduly pessimistic. The day (and most of the past weekend) has been gray, rainy and cold. This morning it was thunderstorms and 49 degrees and now it's gray and about 51. Being cooped up in the house with my monsters damn near drove me bat-shit crazy. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my kids, but they are fricking LOUD! They actually have been playing well together for long stretches at a time. (Right now E is repeating, "Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy..." Hold on while I stuff a sock in her mouth.) 

Around 1:30 I needed to get some coffee and the kids needed to get out of the house so we walked up to Caribou Coffee. I told them to grab their Nintendo DSs so they wouldn't be completely bored. All I wanted was a change of scenery for about a half hour. E wanted a decaf mocha and two chocolate covered espresso beans - the girl is only 9 - but I gave her what she wanted because she ordered it herself. F just wanted water and he got all shy and wouldn't order but he did eventually upgrade to a Triple Berry smoothie, which he inhaled. 

I am not sure why they look so surprised.

E is reading a book by a local author who sets the plot in real locations around Minneapolis. One of the places that a lot of action takes place is Quang Vietnamese Restaurant. There was a lot of talk about Strawberry Bubble Tea. It's funny because not too long ago I was reading a blog post about bubble tea (I can't find the post - tell me if you wrote it) and was able to explain that the bubbles were tapioca - by the way, that is some good stuff! I basically had three dinners because E and especially F didn't eat all their soup, so I had to help out. I love Vietnamese food, but I don't have the most adventurous family so I never request it - maybe this will change their minds some. 

E and strawberry bubble tea.

So that is the poop on me lately, kind of random and only mildly interesting or entertaining. I hope this isn't an omen for the rest of summer vacation or I will surely lose my mind in the first month.