6 am: I'm back. I was never gone, but training volume has been almost non-existent... My husband was traveling for work Mon-Fri for about 5-6 weeks, which is not bad in itself, but we were planning Lukas' 3rd bday party, and after drinking too much coffee (or too much running endorphins?) I decided i needed to repaint two rooms and a hallway... so being a single mom for those weeks, school activities, swimming lessons, plus tearing out the trim, tearing off wallpaper, mudding, sanding, painting, new trim, etc etc.. that's before planning a party for 60+ ppl with one of my gigantic cakes. oy. I had been going on 4-5 hrs of sleep for over a month, and I do NOT function well on that little sleep. It was not pretty, but I got it done. To top it off, we originally planned the party on Lukas' actual bday-May 5. Well, the boys went to the ILs the weekened before and he managed to take a nasty fall on a playground, so when I got him back Mon am, he had a very swollen bruise the size of HALF his forehead. He didn't show any classical symptoms of a concussion other than headaches, but being that he wasn't even 3 and being told that the entire playground bridge shook when he fell, I was worried, so I took him to Immediate Care for Xrays just to be sure. he was fine, just needed to take it easy and heal up. However, with the party that weekend, I had a gazillion things to do that week and couldn't properly watch him and let me tell you, this child gets.into.everything all.the.time. And I was also really worried that with 50+ ppl at the house during the party, it would be too easy for him to fall again and reinjure himself, and that could be really bad. So, I made a decision to reschedule the party to May 19, and just took it easy with him to make sure he wasn't being overly crazy, as per normal. But, that also meant another week of no gym, because Child Center with the climbing and jumping was a no no.. The party was last weekend, and we survived lol It was awesome and everybody enjoyed the cake and the cookies. We catered food from a local pizza joint called Masi's and everybody thought it was very good! Because of all this, I missed SO much training, I had to do some soul searching about my HIM in Racine on July 15. I haven't registered, but invested myself into the REDO emotionally, so it was hard to decide to not do it... but, with only 8 weeks left, and at $275 a pop, I decided it was unwise to proceed.. Didn't think i'd find another HIM at this point and was getting used to the idea of just training for fun and to build my base, without the intestine-shaking pressure of the race of that caliber. Plus, I do have two marathons in the fall and this would allow me to really focus on running. And then I saw that Steelhead (Benton Arbor, MI) is on Aug 19, so I still have 13 weeks to train (plus the 4-5 weeks I did put in in the beginning)! ... and as nice as the thought of riding and swimming and running for fun is, I'm itching to do a HIM. So, I'm 95% sure I'm in. Let the madness begin. Again. ----- Pictures! Here is a baked version of about 30 hours of training: Birthday boy! Pinata fun: opening presents: look at his cute little toes! 3:21 pm: My bike is ready!!! I know that most normal people have had their bikes tuned up for months now and been riding them outside, but with my life being a little crazy lately, this was the best I could do :) Getting a bike ride this weekend! yeah!