It’s been super rainy for the last several days, but we didn’t let it put too much of a damper on our long Labor Day weekend. The biggest event, of course, was Charlotte’s birthday on Sunday. This was the first year she started to kinda/sorta understand that it was a special day for her, and we all did our best to make it fun.
We went out for donuts for breakfast, and then came home to play with her presents for a while. The biggest hit by far was this ice cream counter playset that Jose had picked out — both girls spent an hour or more scooping various flavor and topping combinations for Jose and me, and for each other.
Around lunchtime, we headed to Main Event for mini golf, bowling, and games. It’s the first time Charlotte has ever gone bowling, and she loved pushing the ball down the kid ramp. (Also, little kids in bowling shoes are super cute.)
We finished the day by baking a cake — funfetti cake with strawberry icing — and enjoying it after a dinner of hot dogs and macaroni. Both were by request of the birthday girl, of course!
It was a great day.
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Yesterday we were able to enjoy the day off work and school despite more rain. We put on swimsuits and joined our neighbors for some puddle jumping in front of the house in the morning, and then went over to another neighbor’s house for a potluck in the afternoon. By then it had finally stopped raining so even though it was overcast and the water was on the cool side, the kids jumped in their pool for a bit and had a grand old time.
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I also successfully wrapped up Week 2 of my Heart Rate 101 training program and am well into Week 3. I’m pretty proud of making the 5-days-a-week thing happen for 2 weeks in a row — to be totally honest, that’s a bigger accomplishment than anything else. It has meant running at night after the girls are in bed, or during quiet time on the weekend when I’d rather be quilting.
It’s too early to expect any real change yet, I think, but I have noticed tiny improvements. Last night I was able to run more than a mile before my heart rate hit 140 and I had to walk. It was an 18-minute mile, but two weeks ago I had to walk within a couple tenths of a mile. Maybe it’s a fluke, or maybe it’s a sign of improvement. Either way, my weird curiosity about this style of training remains, so onward I go!
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The one thing I had on our weekend agenda that we didn’t get to do was swim at the neighborhood pool one last time, since Labor Day is always the last pool weekend of the summer. The girls and I went over on Saturday afternoon and got in, but a mere 5 minutes later we heard a rumble of thunder and had to get out. Sad face. The storm was quite a ways off, but the rumbling continued. With all the rain on Sunday and Monday, those 5 minutes turned out to be our neighborhood pool farewell for the season.
I’m so sad that pool season is over already — it went so fast! We managed to get over there every weekend but one, I think, and it was a favorite activity for all of us. Emma is a great swimmer now, and can be given a reasonable amount of independence in the water, and Charlotte is happy as a clam with her floaties.
I can tell that summer pool time is just going to get better and better, and next May seems like a long way off.
I’d be curious to see your running/HR data, if you feel like posting it to Strava. (You should be able to set it to auto-upload.)
My easy runs put my HR at 145 or so, but with lots of variation up and down hills, and my very easy runs (when I drive to the flats) put my HR at under 140 the whole time. Usually I just do those the day before races. During my last 10K, my HR averaged 168. During my last half, my HR averaged 159. Considering that’s a max effort, 140 doesn’t seem all that low by comparison.
I’ve been using MapMyRun instead of Strava, because I couldn’t figure out how to get Strava to give me real-time HR info! I’ll have to see if I can link the 2 accounts somehow.
It is really tough to keep my HR under 140. I am going so slow I feel like I’m practically running in place — it’s been 18+ minutes per mile, and I still have to walk because sometimes it goes over 140. The weather here vs. where you are certainly has an impact though, and I imagine I’d be able to go a bit faster at 140 if I wasn’t running through the pea soup of humidity here. I’m very curious to see how things change once we get a bit of fall weather.
In a race, my average HR is easily 175.
Yesterday I had a “free run”, meaning I didn’t have to pay attention to HR. I keep things pretty darn easy and didn’t feel like I was pushing, but still averaged 160 bpm. (And I was overheated and had a headache for the rest of the day.)
I’m so excited that Charlotte liked the ice cream thing! That’s what I brought to Russia to give Elodie for her birthday! Yay! I’m so impressed by your diligent HR training. I’m following along to see how it goes.
Oh cool! I hope she loves it! (And also so glad you guys finally got over there. Hope the adjustment is going well!)