Catching Up

Lot's of little things to catch up on here...

On 5/2 Maya turned a month old. On 5/3 we had a baby naming at our house, both celebrating her birth, her identity and our 5 year anniversary! Happy anniversary, Schmu!

On 5/5 we celebrated Cinco de Mayo. Not. It was, however, Java's 12th birthday which we celebrated — a day late, mind you — with our twice annual "dogs eating ice cream at Bruster's" day. Ice cream was enjoyed by all, except Maya who got her's second hand.

We had Moms on Call come out this week to help us with some of the baby care basics that nobody ever teaches you. Most importantly, however, is that they teach you how to help your baby sleep longer in the night so we can get more sleep. They promise you'll be able to get your baby to sleep from 9:30 PM until 2:30 AM (or later), have a feeding and then sleep until 6:30 (or later) using their techniques. I thought it might be BS, but indeed, it works! Maya is being a total angel and letting mom get some much needed sleep.

Living in Atlanta, we not only have the book to refer to, we also had one of the authors come to teach us her methods along with 6 months follow up support via email. The hands on time was fabulous, we both learned a lot and felt our time and money was very, very well spent. However, I did have one minor issue:

When we were speaking about nighttime rituals, Jennifer asked us about our faith. I politely told her we don't subscribe to one. I figured that would be the end of it. However, she pressed on, wanting to know in what faith were we brought up. We responded that we were brought up Jewish. She then went on to tell us how we should talk to Maya as we get her ready for bed, telling her how someday she'll go to temple, recite prayers, etc. I can appreciate that her nighttime rituals include reading bible stories to her kids (Steph tells me this is mention in their book). However, I am an atheist, I don't believe in god, the bible or any other religious texts. Why can't we talk about the dogs, our family, things that are important to us?

As I am always reminded when consulting, there are three topics never to be broached with clients: religion, politics and money. Again, this is a minor quibble (less than 2 minutes out of 2.5 hours we spent together) and I'd hire her again in an instant, perhaps after explaining to her that my beliefs are as strong and important to me as hers are to her. Reading their website now, I see that they are both quite religious. Perhaps if I had known this before our meeting I would have been more direct with her regarding how we desire to raise Maya with respect to religion when the question was raised.

I ran 4.5 miles yesterday in about 45 minutes. My longest solid run yet, albeit pretty slow. I was using my heart rate monitor, trying to maintain a relatively steady heart rate in the 75 - 85% range. I'm going for a run again tomorrow, today was on off day, and I'll try to break 5 miles. Working toward the magical 6.2 for the Peachtree in less than 2 months time.

Finally, today Maya went on her first hike to Kennesaw Mountain. She didn't do much hiking, just a lot of sleeping as Steph, Lucy and I did all the hard work. I'm looking forward to her being older and able to sit up on her own. By that point I should have a baby backpack to put her in for longer adventures...

Hike for Discovery 2008

The new season has kicked off, but I won't be joining this year for obvious reasons. I am, however, remaining active with the team. So I went to Kennesaw on Saturday for the first hike of a season. We time everyone as they climb to the top of Kennesaw mountain (1.2 miles, ~650' elevation gain). I offered to lead the fast group to the top. Stupid me.

Two guys, one part of HFD, another who was considering joining, and a mother/son team kicked my ass hiking up the mountain. Just under 20 minutes to get to the top! I was huffing and puffing and having an asthma attack just trying to keep up with them. And my legs, damn were they burning! So much for leading the charge up the mountain! Previously my quickest time to the top was ~25 minutes, so this was quite a bit faster than I have ever attempted this previously and it really showed me that I need to work on my aerobic conditioning more.

In order to get in more cardio and work on my aerobic conditioning, I have joined Operation Bootcamp. Starting March 3 I'll be doing bootcamp workouts for the month of March at 6 AM daily. I must be a masochist to put myself through this. My only hope is the beer-hating Rabbi will be joining me in my month of pain prior to the baby arriving...

Kennesaw. Yet Again.

*yawn* I am tired of looking at Kennesaw Mountain and the surrounding trails. We did the trail to Burnt Hickory and continued until it meets the east trail as you head out to Kolb Farm. ~7 miles of moderately paced hiking on the warmest day of the year.

Kennesaw Mountain Again...

Yes, back at Kennesaw this week. We did the same hike as I did last Sunday, so nothing exciting to report other than my knees which are killing me this week. Time to go see the chiropractor!

Drink for Discovery II is officially ON! The date is set for June 9, 2007, 3:00 PM at 5 Seasons Brewing in Sandy Springs. Thank you so much to my friends at the 5 who are helping support LLS and my Hike for Discovery. Time to start working on the brewers to collect kegs for the big day!

Kennesaw Mountain Hike

Yesterday was the LLS All Sport training session and pig-out fest at Piedmont Park. I didn't get in a good workout, nor did I work out as much as I should have this week, so I went to Kennesaw this morning for the hike to Burnt Hickory (in-and-out, just over 5 miles). Mike, a HFD mentor, and Traci came along for the hike. Although cold this morning, it was a nice hike under clear blue skies with a good view of Atlanta as the day progressed.

Last year I used Gatorade, Clif Bars & shots and Lara Bars when I was training for energy and electrolytes, but I was aware that I was consuming a lot of refined sugar which was giving me a sugar high followed by a distinct low. Coming back up Little Kennesaw from Burnt Hickory is where I noticed this most, I was usually dragging ass half-way up the hill. On a friend's recommendation, I bought some products from Hammer Nutrition for training since they don't contain refined sugars that will give me a sugar high. I ordered some HEED (energy/electrolyte drink) along with a mix-pack of their energy gels to try and find a flavor I like.

Customer service at Hammer Nutrition was amazing, they called me the day following my order to see if I had any questions on their products, how to use them and other products they offer. My shipment had just been packed and they added in some extra samples for me to try, including the Hammer Bar. I received everything on Saturday and read all of the literature that was sent along with my order.

Today I tried the products out on the hike. I used the HEED in a Nalgene bottle to supplement my hydration bladder filled with water and ate the Hammer Bar and a Espresso flavored Hammer Gel. I have to make sure that I can stomach them — some of these things taste like ass! — and that they don't give me any trouble with digestion. So far, so good!

No energy spikes or lows, everything tasted OK and I felt like I had more consistent energy through the entire hike. [Edit: I had not done this hike this season, I may just be in better shape...] I'll definitely have to use their products more over the next few weeks to see how they fare, but the Gatorade is definitely off my training schedule and I'll probably stop bringing Clif Bars or Lara Bars on hikes in the future.

Hike For Discovery - Second Group Hike

This morning was our second group hike of the season at Kennesaw Mountain , one of the best places to train on hills near Atlanta. This is also one of the coldest days this winter, the thermometer in my car was hovering around 24 degrees F with strong winds, making the wind chill feel like 10 - 15 degrees F! I thought I was prepared with my layers of clothes, gloves, hat and wicking long underwear, but it was absolutely bone chilling out there until we started up the mountain.

I was asked to be toward the front of the pack to make sure people knew how far to go on the hike before turning around. We decided to head across to Little Kennesaw Mountain, about 3.5 miles round trip. Once we got on the trail I warmed up quickly, even becoming warm enough to unzip my jacket and take off my gloves at one point. Today was my quickest ascent of Kennesaw ever! I was ecstatic a few weeks ago to get up the mile trail from the visitor's center to the top of the mountain in 24 minutes, last year I was hiking it in 30+ minutes. This morning I got to the top in 21 minutes! I was quite surprised since I had Lucy slow me down to make a deposit on the side of the trail!

Once I got to the top and started downhill again I was getting cold quickly. By the time the group reached the top of Little Kennesaw, I was quite cold again. It was then that we began to notice water vapor from our breath or sweat coming through my hat was forming ice! The mouthpiece on my hydration bladder also had ice forming on it. Clearly its time to get back on the trail and head home. What does frostbite feel like, anyway? ;-)

I'm not sure what possessed me to go hike in the cold twice this weekend — I did Kennesaw in the cold yesterday, too — but it was fun to get out to Kennesaw when there were so few other people on the trail. I'm sure we'll be back to Kennesaw again many times over the next few months, but I sure hope the weather turns warmer sometime soon!