Tag Archives: rowing

A Half Marathon In My Garage On Mother’s Day

Our original plan to start Mother’s Day off with a half marathon and 5k race followed by coffee and brunch and Brewed never happened. Guess that’s what I get for writing and scheduling a post ahead of time.

Due to inclement weather with tornadoes, heavy rain, and lots of lightning, the even organizers figured running in the stuff may not be the best idea. If only they would’ve called it off before I was half-way there, hydroplaning on the highway, that would’ve been nice.

With the torrential rain and lightning already rearing its ugly head at 5am, we had already nixed the plan of having G-Ma and Avery come watch Going Mom and I run. My wife was sure the race would be canceled, but since I didn’t see anything posted, I said I’d just go alone and come back to celebrate Mother’s Day after the wet run.

As I was driving through nasty weather thinking how much it sucks inside a car and how much more it will suck when running 13.1 miles, Kelley called to tell me they finally called it off. Actually, it’s now going to be next weekend on Sunday, the 17th. So, I turned around and picked up Grande black coffees at Starbucks for the 3 of us. And then I stopped again and made use of my free refills with the Gold Card to make a total of 6 coffees.

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This is the only way I can justify paying for coffee since it brings the cost down to only $1 per Grande. Not bad, eh?

When I arrived back home, I found my mom and Kelley asleep on the couch in the living room. We never woke Avery up, thankfully, and I’ve learned to never wake a sleeping lady……especially when they’re pregnant!

Since they went back to sleep, it would only make sense to join them (I only slept 5 hours) and get a little more rest, right? Wrong! When I have a certain thing to do in my head, I have trouble letting it go. Since the rain and lightning wasn’t letting up, I decided to make use of my indoor rower and row the half marathon distance in my garage.

13.1 miles / 21.08 km is a half marathon, and I ended up rowing 90 minutes with a distance of 22.2 km, or 13.8 miles. Talk about a sore butt! I listened to a great Ben Greenfield podcast to help the time pass while staring out at the rain which ended up not being that bad. I know being fueled by NuttZo (as the shirt says) helped keep me going since I had nothing to eat or drink before or during the stint.

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All three lovely girls woke up and greeted me just before I was finished, and Going Mom took a few finishing action shots for me. Right after, I stood in the rain to cool off as we all sipped guzzled our coffees. I made Mother’s Day NuttZo Oatmeal for the girls by request which was better than what we would’ve had at Brewed anyway.

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The secret, besides the obvious delicious and healthy addition of NuttZo is, add a crap-load of blueberries!

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This was the smaller bowl for my mom, but Kelley would send it back for more “bluebs” if I seemingly skimped on tiny tart fruit. Hers looks more like this….

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With bellies full of coffee and oatmeal (perfect combo for a rainy day), I gave my Mother’s Day gifts to my wife and mom.

Accompanying the personal letters I typed to each of them, I gave an old photo to my mom of her and me after my high school graduation. She had dyed blonde hair, I had earrings, and we both had 13 years back.

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We have more to give my spectacular Mom, but need it to come in the mail first. Although she liked her gifts, she deserves so much more than I could ever give. Raising me alone was not an easy feat, but she did it, and she did it well. I’ll just forget about those times we had fast food. 🙂

For Going Mom, I gave her a new pair of sandals from Soft Star Shoes which was received with great delight. Score one for me!

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I got the size right and a color she loves. Not an easy task a style-impaired guy such as myself. They looked great on their website, but even better in person, and absolutely wonderful being worn by my wife.

Besides the pair of sandals, I also pulled a few strings to get her a pair of these water mugs…

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Yep, they’re from the Baylor Health hospital Avery was born in. Kelley has been drinking religiously from the same one ever since Avery was born on 11/15/13, and we aren’t even religious!

After e-mailing and talking to a nurse on the phone, she said she’d give me two new ones for my wife. Avery and I made the trip up there one day as I took a trip down Memory Lane and voila!, we have two new mugs! Good, because the original is cracked and had water collecting inside.

After visiting and playing with Avery a while longer, G-Ma had to leave while there was a break in the storms. We said our farewells and she was on her way.

Avery ran around the house and threw things at our feet until it was nap time. Going Mom nursed her to sleep where, at one point, she was in a flying bird position.

Sleeping Bird Avery

How that’s comfortable, I haven’t a clue, but that’s how she slept for a while. Kelley and I relaxed together to enjoy each other’s company over one of my home brews.

Homebrew Cheers with Kelley

I love her, obviously, and am so happy to share this life with her. Sharing beer with her is just icing on the cake good because, beer and love.

The rest of the day had storms come and go, but we were able to fit in a walk with Avery with only a little be of rain. Now I just need to make it through another week and prepare to run 13.1 miles next Sunday. Hopefully the weather will hold out this time!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Are you stubborn/determined when it comes to having your mind set on something like finishing a race?

Do you like cards or handwritten letters when giving gifts?

How was the weather for you on Mother’s Day?

Indoor Rowing With a Toddler & Cold Brew Coffee

Is there something you’ve wanted for years but haven’t been able to get it for some reason? Okay, fine, there’s probably more than just something and more like a lot of things. But for me, one of them was an ergometer so I could enjoy indoor rowing at home.

After many many years of blah-blahing to Going Mom about how I want one, I finally earned enough points on my Amazon card to pull the trigger; or should it be rigger? 🙂 Just a little rowing joke for you, you’re welcome. And of course I had to share my purchase on Facebook, but only because Amazon asked me to after I hit “submit payment”.

Rower Purchase Shared on FB

It finally came this past Tuesday and I quickly worked on putting it together. With my favorite little helper, of course.

Helping Daddy Put Together Rower

Think something’s too easy for you? Throw in a toddler or two and that should solve your issue; instant increase in difficulty! But we love them! Avery was super interested in everything I had out and thought everything was up for grabs.

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What if I push this button?

 

Thankfully Kelley was able to keep Avery at bay long enough for me to have it assembled and ready to test before it was too late. I skipped the usual walk (it was freakin’ cold outside anyway), and opted to do a 5k row which took just under 20 minutes. Ahhh, I love it!

But there is one thing that’s an issue…..Avery. She’ll walk right into my arms as they’re pulling back which results in me knocking her over. Poor girl, she just laughs and thinks I’m playing with her. It’s sad, really.

Again, thanks to my wife holding Avery back as best as she could, the first row went mostly okay. But the next day, when Kelley was at work, I wanted to try for another 5k. After Avery finished….umm, whatever she was doing with it…..

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I’m gonna have to work with her on how to properly use equipment.

Anyway, I finally got to it with Avery circling me like a shark and I was a surfer with an open wound. Then she went in for the kill and put her hand on the railing as I was pushing back, and oops! Avery’s shark fin hand got hit by the rolling seat.

The good thing is that I slowed down just before since she moved behind me, but the bad this is that I hurt her precious little hand and she was screaming to let me know. I held her, for a while, but the screaming ensued. I was finally able to set her down and finish my workout (the hand incident happened only 2 minutes into it) and she kept her distance the remainder of the time.

I’d like to think she now knows better, but something tells me she’s still too intrigued by the machine to keep away. You could call it a hunch, but she makes it apparent as well. Especially when I said “raise your hand if you still want to get close to the rower” and she responded with….

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Yeah, so there’s that.

My foot is still not healed from when I fractured it this summer since I started running on it before it was fully recovered. Call me stubborn, call me dumb, call me whatever, but I’m hoping this rower will keep me from running while still giving me that tired, sweaty workout I seem to crave. Time will tell, and then I’ll tell you here.

In the meantime, I have this beautiful French Press full of black gold (not oil, coffee!!!) in our fridge right now in an attempt at my first homemade cold brew coffee.

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I’m letting it steep for 24 hours and then I’ll press and strain the highly concentrated coffee into another glass. I’m sure I’ll try some before diluting. You know, just to “test” it at full strength. Then I’ll dilute in a 2:1 coffee to water ratio.

Maybe some Pyure Sweet Stevia or SweetLeaf English Toffee Liquid Stevia for something extra fancy and tasty, but otherwise, I’ll enjoy it cold and black. I’ll let you know how it goes soon. Maybe it’ll fuel another 5k row, or even 10k if Avery keeps her little hands off the rail!

Have you ever used an indoor rower (i.e. ergometer)?

Ever make your own cold brew or try some already made before?