parks | Nicole M. VandeBoom

I have started and failed to finish several posts this week. It has been difficult for me to get into a good writing flow. They were all very long posts but they just didn’t seem right to me. They all were incomplete as well. I have had a lot on my mind but the words just won’t form correctly. Today, though, I am going to try a bit harder.

Yesterday evening I was thinking to myself that I would really enjoy it if I had a rainy day tomorrow. A day to just slow me down a little bit. A reason to stay inside, cuddled up with my sweetheart. A day where I could use the bad weather as an excuse to not run errands, go somewhere fun, walk to the park, or whatever ever else came up.

For over a week I haven’t slept through the night. Last night was no exception. As I lay in bed I considered a walk to the park with Jackson today. No workout, take a rest day because I haven’t taken a rest day in over a week either. But a nice 1.5 mile walk and maybe some swimming. My brain was active as I lay in bed considering all the things I could do today. I finally decided to get myself up for the day, having stayed in bed a bit later knowing I didn’t plan on fitting in a workout. Alexander started slowing moving around, then kicking. It was time to start my day.

Imagine my surprise as I waddled into my kitchen, not greeted by the usual beaming sunlight that radiates through the massive set of windows we have. I was greeted by grey sky, rain, clouds, and utter wetness outside. My heart skipped a beat. My rainy day! I hadn’t even checked the weather forecast yesterday. I had no idea rain was coming. I just wished it would, to force me to slow down a touch. As I sit here and write I am accompanied by the sounds of rain falling on my skylights. Heavy raindrops writing their own song. Jackson is still asleep. He likes to sleep late on rainy mornings. There is no sun radiating around the small space around his blackout blinds.

I am not sure what we will do today. My dishes could be washed. I was too tired last night to wash the ones from dinner. Legos are already spread across my kitchen table. Except for the small area I am afforded for my meals and well my laptop I am typing on now. We have a ton of books we could read. I have a new big Ninja Turtles coloring/activity book we could make our marks on. Maybe we will do all of them. If he keeps sleeping much longer, there won’t be a nap today. Especially on a day where we don’t wear ourselves out playing outside or going on an adventure.

As I sipped my coffee earlier, watching the rainy day, I couldn’t help but thank my Gma (that is what I called her a lot). I can’t help but feel like she may have had a hand in providing me with exactly what I needed this week. Forcing me to slow down a little, her girl who is always on the go. Thanks Gma, you did me a solid.

View from my kitchen

Yesterday I had my Burn at the Barre class. This is always a favorite day of mine during the week. Two days post Shuffle. I could definitely still feel how fatigued my muscles were. I was never sore from the run, not Sunday night or at all on Monday. But when I had to use all of those leg and tushy muscles last night I could feel how they were not performing up to par.

I kept mentally telling myself two things:

You destroyed your estimated time this weekend, you can do this.
You gave birth with only 1/2 of your epidural working. You felt everything on the right side of your body. It hurt way worse than this does!

I only burned just over 400 calories. Usually I burn over 500. So you can see how I wasn’t working as hard as normal. I wanted to but my legs begged to differ. I did try though. I am hoping that partly it was because she changes the routines each week and we did some things slightly different. Right? A combination of the two I am sure!

Monday I did work out but I did a Long and Lean Bosu work out. It has a lot of stretching and I thought I could use that. It was a a very mild workout and not too long either.

This morning I have swim lessons with my little sweet face. I am looking forward to getting into the water. I am debating a run later but I think I may workout during nap time inside instead. I have a hair appointment at 6. Sometimes Jack naps until 3 and then takes 30 minutes to eat lunch. That is just cutting it close and not really giving him any playtime. Tomorrow we are free and I think we will go for a run after he wakes up and eats. I want to do 6 miles. Last Thursday when I ran with him he started to get antsy after just over 3 miles. I mean you cannot blame the kid. He likes to move and play and sitting there for 30 minutes can be boring. I give him toys but he isn’t overly interested in them when I am running. So we will see how he is doing after the first lap around the lake.

Training with the stroller is really awesome. I am pushing well over 50 lbs between baby, stroller weight, all toys in the stroller, and any of my things (water, keys, wallet, phone, etc). I equate it to taking practice swings with weights on the bat just before you actually bat. You remove that and suddenly you are able to conquer anything!

I have a few photos from the race. From their official photographers. They are still matching photos to runners. The last I checked they were 63% done. I am going to purchase all of my images once they are entirely done. I will post them. The 4 that I have already are really actually great. They are all from the end of the race, two after I crossed the finish line and two from just before. Surprisingly I don’t look totally awful!

It is supposed to be beautiful out. So maybe we will walk to the park after nap time, the far park so I get over a mile walk there and over a mile walk back, plus any workout I do.

Rainy Day Remedy

Fight the fatigue

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