Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunshine and Toilets
What a gorgeous weekend. The best weather all year and it comes in the middle of September! Is the weather hoping we'll go into winter with good memories of the British summer because of a good send-off? Maybe we'll forget August's deluges after all.
I even wore a skirt on Saturday. This is unheard-of for me. I'm usually a strictly jeans and t-shirts type of gal. But there's something about skirt/boot season that appeals.
I've finally caught my first full-blown bug of the season. Inevitable after the kids have been at school a couple of weeks, and this one has been lurking in Miles for quite some time. Nasty throat and snottiness. So far I'm sticking with the training plan; I'm still doing such easy work that it doesn't feel like I'm stressing my body out too much by carrying on. I'm awaiting a decision from my coach but no reply yet. Hope he's not peeved with last week's issue, which for me has completely resolved. Time is a great healer and I know that the issues only stemmed from misinterpretation of questions. We've all been there though haven't we? - It's pretty easy to come to the wrong conclusion when you can't hear tone of voice. Perhaps I should pick up the phone more after all (although I'd have to ask for his number).
I've now got my gym set up in the loft! So far it just consists of a turbo trainer for my Thursday sessions, and a big (but quiet) fan to create airflow. I might get some weights too but for now I'm willing to fork out for a once-weekly session at the gym as it's a bit depressing to think of holing myself up in the loft too often. I enjoyed Thursday's bike time-trial though. And am encouraged by my results too. I wonder how accurate a turbo computer can be. Hmm.
We took our training to Richmond Park yesterday, as we've done a few times before. I cycled over in the morning and completed my workout with some loops and 16 ascents of the hill (it's not a big hill!) I then took over the kids on their bikes while Roj ran a loop, before we all basked in the sun with some paninis from the café at Roehampton Gate. Miles has graduated to Jody's old Islabike with pedals. He's been riding it pedal-less like a Like-a-bike for a month or so, and now he's accustomed to the feel of it, he's been happy to attempt the pedals. He got the technique straight away, and although he still wanted the reassurance of a hand on his shoulder at times, he was mostly perfectly happy to potter along the bike path in the park. Progress indeed. Meanwhile Jody is gaining in confidence on her bike, to the extent that we need to ask her to slow down sometimes. It was a bit fraught on Sunday since she hasn't gripped the rules of the road completely so at one point we had a near-collision with someone coming the other way who clearly had no kids of her own and was therefore very aggressive as Jody strayed into her path. I wonder if either of her dogs had done the same thing, whether she'd have been as apologetic as she obviously expected 5-year-old Jody to be.
After lunch we lingered around Ham and Richmond with the express purpose of exploring the area a little, and getting a feel for where we might like to continue our housing search. Ham was residential and sleepy; Richmond Hill was glamorous and stunning. On looking at house prices in the latter though, you're looking at 2 or 3 million for a house of 4 or 5 bedrooms so something tells me we might have to settle for something somewhat further afield! The exercise was useful though, and has helped formulate our ideas for what to look for. It's quite exciting to think that we might be moving again in another couple of years and this time to somewhere more permanent. I love where we live but it is a compromise, and one that we're not really willing to accept for more than a year or so.
As well as Miles on pedals, we've had other breakthroughs with the kids this weekend. We've stopped taking Jody to the loo when we go to bed and for the last 3 nights she's kept the bed dry. Lifting her out of the top bunk has been a bit of a trial but the only way we can guarantee she'd have a wee when she needed one. Now we're handing the responsibility over to her, so here's hoping it works out. In a similar vein we have finally worked out a way to get Miles to do his poos in the toilet too. Excuse me for being too visceral with the kids' bodily functions, but for as long as he's been able to wee on the toilet, he's still done all his poos in his nappy while asleep. We tried every method of coercion from bribery to persuasion, all unsuccessful. But for a while now I've had a pretty elaborate Playmobil rescue vehicle kit comprising a helicopter and speedboat. It's been hiding in a box in the loft and on Friday I got it down and showed it to Miles as a last ditch attempt to get him to use the toilet. "If you can do 3 poos in the toilet," I said, "You can have this toy." Well he spent the whole of dinner time with eyes popping out of his head at the prospect of such an amazing toy, and straight afterwards went to the toilet and did his stuff. And since then he's managed to repeat the experience almost without fail and become excited (rather than intimidated) by the prospect. I may be a little premature on both counts but for now, I'm very excited indeed that the kids are making such progress.
Not much planned for this week; more training of course, and hopefully recovery from this bug. A short cyclo-sportive planned for Saturday (to do as a training session rather than a race), but nothing else of note. Except the mending of my dishwasher, hopefully. I even had to buy rubber gloves at the weekend, so that my skin would stop cracking!
I even wore a skirt on Saturday. This is unheard-of for me. I'm usually a strictly jeans and t-shirts type of gal. But there's something about skirt/boot season that appeals.
I've finally caught my first full-blown bug of the season. Inevitable after the kids have been at school a couple of weeks, and this one has been lurking in Miles for quite some time. Nasty throat and snottiness. So far I'm sticking with the training plan; I'm still doing such easy work that it doesn't feel like I'm stressing my body out too much by carrying on. I'm awaiting a decision from my coach but no reply yet. Hope he's not peeved with last week's issue, which for me has completely resolved. Time is a great healer and I know that the issues only stemmed from misinterpretation of questions. We've all been there though haven't we? - It's pretty easy to come to the wrong conclusion when you can't hear tone of voice. Perhaps I should pick up the phone more after all (although I'd have to ask for his number).
I've now got my gym set up in the loft! So far it just consists of a turbo trainer for my Thursday sessions, and a big (but quiet) fan to create airflow. I might get some weights too but for now I'm willing to fork out for a once-weekly session at the gym as it's a bit depressing to think of holing myself up in the loft too often. I enjoyed Thursday's bike time-trial though. And am encouraged by my results too. I wonder how accurate a turbo computer can be. Hmm.
We took our training to Richmond Park yesterday, as we've done a few times before. I cycled over in the morning and completed my workout with some loops and 16 ascents of the hill (it's not a big hill!) I then took over the kids on their bikes while Roj ran a loop, before we all basked in the sun with some paninis from the café at Roehampton Gate. Miles has graduated to Jody's old Islabike with pedals. He's been riding it pedal-less like a Like-a-bike for a month or so, and now he's accustomed to the feel of it, he's been happy to attempt the pedals. He got the technique straight away, and although he still wanted the reassurance of a hand on his shoulder at times, he was mostly perfectly happy to potter along the bike path in the park. Progress indeed. Meanwhile Jody is gaining in confidence on her bike, to the extent that we need to ask her to slow down sometimes. It was a bit fraught on Sunday since she hasn't gripped the rules of the road completely so at one point we had a near-collision with someone coming the other way who clearly had no kids of her own and was therefore very aggressive as Jody strayed into her path. I wonder if either of her dogs had done the same thing, whether she'd have been as apologetic as she obviously expected 5-year-old Jody to be.
After lunch we lingered around Ham and Richmond with the express purpose of exploring the area a little, and getting a feel for where we might like to continue our housing search. Ham was residential and sleepy; Richmond Hill was glamorous and stunning. On looking at house prices in the latter though, you're looking at 2 or 3 million for a house of 4 or 5 bedrooms so something tells me we might have to settle for something somewhat further afield! The exercise was useful though, and has helped formulate our ideas for what to look for. It's quite exciting to think that we might be moving again in another couple of years and this time to somewhere more permanent. I love where we live but it is a compromise, and one that we're not really willing to accept for more than a year or so.
As well as Miles on pedals, we've had other breakthroughs with the kids this weekend. We've stopped taking Jody to the loo when we go to bed and for the last 3 nights she's kept the bed dry. Lifting her out of the top bunk has been a bit of a trial but the only way we can guarantee she'd have a wee when she needed one. Now we're handing the responsibility over to her, so here's hoping it works out. In a similar vein we have finally worked out a way to get Miles to do his poos in the toilet too. Excuse me for being too visceral with the kids' bodily functions, but for as long as he's been able to wee on the toilet, he's still done all his poos in his nappy while asleep. We tried every method of coercion from bribery to persuasion, all unsuccessful. But for a while now I've had a pretty elaborate Playmobil rescue vehicle kit comprising a helicopter and speedboat. It's been hiding in a box in the loft and on Friday I got it down and showed it to Miles as a last ditch attempt to get him to use the toilet. "If you can do 3 poos in the toilet," I said, "You can have this toy." Well he spent the whole of dinner time with eyes popping out of his head at the prospect of such an amazing toy, and straight afterwards went to the toilet and did his stuff. And since then he's managed to repeat the experience almost without fail and become excited (rather than intimidated) by the prospect. I may be a little premature on both counts but for now, I'm very excited indeed that the kids are making such progress.
Not much planned for this week; more training of course, and hopefully recovery from this bug. A short cyclo-sportive planned for Saturday (to do as a training session rather than a race), but nothing else of note. Except the mending of my dishwasher, hopefully. I even had to buy rubber gloves at the weekend, so that my skin would stop cracking!
lara : 09:44
0 Comments:
[top]
