Seahawks 5K, Bikey-bikey and Boys

Yesterday, my 14yo daughter Alli and I did the Seahawks 5K. We had a great time! I am very proud of Alli, who is really working hard at her fitness and health. Besides that, she's as cute as a button. :)

With Partybot.

It was very cold yesterday morning, and it rained some during the race. As usual, we weren't breaking any land speed records, but Alli was giving her all and I was impressed. We run slow, but she ran nearly all of the race!

I had left Greg at home, and really we were only gone a couple hours. But look what I came back to:

Aw. All my favorite flowers.

He pulled old scrubby plants and weeded the whole thing then planted the three pink hydrangea plants and Gerber daisies I had bought (and subsequently let sit around, unplanted). He scrambled to get it all done before I got home, and he just finished as I pulled into the driveway. BEYOND AWESOME! I was so happy.

Here's the thing with Greg: that man knows how to make a *home*. He is (probably too) clean and organized, he cooks, he gardens, he builds...um, these are all areas where I am decidedly weak. Well, I can cook. But I'm the messiest cook you've ever met, haha. Plus he's got that real Grizzly Adams thing going for him...do you ever listen to Dave Ramsey? I love him. I don't heed nearly any of his advice, haha, but I love him. (But I have to stop listening to him during election seasons - our politics do not agree, haha, and he is pretty religious, too, but not usually uncomfortably so...just sometimes.)

Well, Dave Ramsey has an expression, "Get up, leave the cave, kill something, and drag it home." Ah, no wonder Republicans are so rich ;) on the face of it they just make darn good sense. Anyway, Greg is the guy you want to be with so you don't go hungry - that man can do anything! Fish, hunt...he buys whole whatever sides of beef or whatever and cuts it into steaks and grinds it into hamburger...he grows his own veggies, cans fruits and veggies...crazy, man. So exciting! I feel my quality of life ratcheting up several notches.

Anyway. I'm happy. Very happy. Plus I'm extra-super-happy today because I rode my bike into work again! I am going to try my darndest to start bike commuting, because it gives me a solid two hour workout a day. I'm really pressed to squeeze these workouts in, and it's not going to get any easier. I just signed my youngest up for soccer that meets weekly on, you guessed, it Wednesday afternoons. The night of my weekly ride! I will, of course, pick the youngest over the weekly ride. But fortunately, X has agreed to take responsibility for most of that, since it meets pretty darn early in the afternoon.

Biking makes me feel like a little kid. :) And it makes me strong and fit. Lookit, I was playing with my Strava app today and I pulled this comparison table of one particular segment of a typical ride for me. It's westbound across the I-90 bridge. See how my time has improved since last fall? That's progress, baby!

Rank	Date	Speed	Time
1	22-Apr-13	16.7mi/h	5:49
2	17-Apr-13	16.4mi/h	5:57
3	3-Nov-12	16.1mi/h	6:03
4	9-Mar-13	13.8mi/h	7:03
5	29-Sep-12	11.9mi/h	8:10
6	4-Oct-12	10.4mi/h	9:20

I like the bump between lines three and four, where I was stronger on 11/3, right before my tummy tuck. That tells me that after months of working hard, I was at my peak. Then I had the surgery and recovery, now my strength and speed is ramping back up again!