Christchurch...here we come...

My garmin strap is still in the land of the lost...my polar strap does not work with the garmin. I am going to keep looking, maybe 'spring' clean the house and it will turn up...NAAAAh!..it's midwinter after all.
I have been 'busy', doing not much really. School holidays go by in a blurr of children. We are taking the ferry over to Picton on Wednesday, and driving to ChristChurch. We are not exactly sure what we are going to do there, we just needed to get away. After spending 2 nights there we are going on to Hamner....(don't ask me why, we don't know...we are just going to arrive and do stuff..)
There's nothing like a road trip with 5 kids. It's so fun! The only thing I stress about is the drive...icy roads and other drivers. I also am worried about how the wee trip is going to impact on my training. (How the hell am I going to do my 27k run on Sunday when we will be driving, then ferrying, and home at 4.30? I can't just leave Deane to unpack and feed the kids....hmmmmm....or can I?!) I don't like packing or unpacking after a holiday , its the 135 steps that ruin the whole 'packing' the car thing.
I still have not sorted a concrete goal, (as per a few posts ago). I have a few sashaying around in my head, and I sort'a aim for them...but I really have to follow my own goal setting instructions...in fact..I will, dear readers, I will! Tomorow is NOT another day...today is the day! I will do it today...this is my goal for today..OMG! I am so excited....

searching.....for my garmin...

Where the hell is my garmin heart rate moniter strap? where could it be?...Im so annoyed!!! I need it today...where did i put it, did a cat eat it, did the kids use it for something weird? I hate it when things disappear off into that other place, ya know, the place where the 'other' socks go, kids undies often go there too, and teaspoons, hairbands, brushes, pens, pencils, and paintbrushes. Watches spend at least some time in the 'otherness'....oh yeah, and sunglasses...(but only really expensive sunglasses go to the other place, grungy ones stay with you forever.)
gotta go and look.
stay calm.

goal setting...I live to run again...tomorow is another day...etc

Well, this pig of a flu thing had me in bed for two days, (in between taking kid to kindy, making dinner, being sports taxi etc). I had a 'relaxing' time (in my bed..). I read a book (sort of). The four year old felt the impulse to wave a bunny in my face, among other antics, to cheer me up. I am only just nearly over it and in fact may be okay to go for a slow small ish run tonight...( http://catherinedrew.wordpress.com ) It is mid winter, it is cold, and it is school holidays. Drew has spent the last two days lying on the couch with a fever, drinking panadol, sleeping and groaning. She smiled for the first time last night so she is on her way up. We can all only improve..(she says through hopeful gritted teeth..)
Bring on Summer! Next week, errrr, (so that's from tomorrow)..I am scheduled to run 65k. How I actually do it will be on my wordpress blog...yeah, I try to keep 'training' and 'family' separate.

Read on my patient smiling avid readers, now I am going to get all helpful and intelligent...ahem...(clears throat).
I am reading Transforming Communication, (leading edge professional and personal skills...by Richard Bolstad). What a freak'n fantastic book...apart from the obvious communication tools with a( NLP neuro linguistic programming) base, it delves into goal setting...which is a big thing for me.
I set goals, for example..having my studio built by err...Febuary this year..(has not happened), and here's another one; draw every day, (does not happen). I also paid my fee to put four paintings in the 'big Auckland art fair', but through disorganisation, did not make it in time.My latest goal of course is to run the Auckland marathon in November, (entered), run the Kepler 60k in December (am waitlisted for it), and run the Motatapu off road marathon in March 2010 (entered). They sound fabulous do they not?! Anyhoo, according to this book, (Read on my avids...make it a goal to finish reading this post..)....to set a successful goal I need to write down my specific goal..(we all know that huh?), but, the goal has to meet this criteria:

• Sensory specific: describe exactly what you plan to see, hear, feel, do or say....specifically.
• Positive:say what you do want, not what you don't want...
• Ecological: ecology is the study of consequences. e.g what consequences will training for my goal(s) have on other parts of my life etc...make sure goal is appropriate
• Choice increasing: opens doors....
• Initiated by you: describe how you,not others, will act...'working out what you can actually do about a problem is a lot more fun than developing theories about what someone else should/might do.'
• First step identified....(ummm...put on running shoes...)
• Your resources identified: these could be, in my case, family helping out with chores, babysitters, energy, my personal trainer, inspiring books/blogs, people that have already done it...

After writing down all this stuff, the next step my friend Richard Bolstad says, is...tadaaaaa!.....planning. Gosh! Thats also a big one for me. I usually write the goal(s) down, (in 2 diarys, on my note board in bedroom, black board in kitchen, and notebooks, bits of serviettes, paper, scraps etc...oh yeah..and if I brain storm a particulary good goal in a random place with no paper, it will be transcribed on my trusty hand), and the planning part sort of gets lost in the flying paper. However, Rick babe says;

1. Write down what prevents you having the things you want....(oookaaay...my head space? family commitments, pure gutlessness???)....You've gotta work out what stops you from achieving your goal..be specific.
2. List the resources you can use to achieve this goal..
3. Brainstorm possible actions.i.e, think up possible action's to use these resources...(ummm, Kids, clean the house, Deane make dinner, I'm going for a 2 hour run..)...anyway, brainstorming means any idea is a good idea-it does not need to be critiqued.
4. Choose which actions you will take. This is the final stage of planning..narorw down your list of possible actions and ask for each one; 'have I got the resources to do this?', does it get me closer to the goal I wrote down?'.
5. When you know which actions to take, list them in the order in which you will act. Find a small part of the goal you can do today. Today is the day to start...(O.M.G!....panic..)

He also says to 'congratulate yourself each time you do one small step on the list/plan. This will add to your confidence.

Dont ya' love it. Writing this down has given me a bit of a kick up the you-know-what. I will keep posting on how my goal doing is going.

Feelin' good....

Love ya...

The Original IPoD....

Did you know my daughter Izzy is the original IPOD? She was born March 2001. We named her Isobella Picasso Octavia Drew...tadaaaa! For the first six months of her life, that was her name...like,"hey! How's my little ipod today..goochy goochy....etc". Anyway, here is a pic of her dressed as one for a technical dress-up day at school. She went as a 60 gig first generation Ipod...which she is..high volume.

Drew turned the big thirteen. We took her out for 7am family breakfast at Maranui. Reuben (her big big brother) and Catherine (his girlfriend) arrived at 7.30am. The kids had raspberry foxton fizz, (gag!! that early..) and toasties. After, we drove the kids to their respective schools and Mr Drew and I bought Drew her birthday present, (which she loves...thank god!)

The following night, four of her girlfriends arrived and I dropped them off at a local dessert restaurant. I don't know what the hell they did, or how noisy they were, but I picked them up an hour later and drove them home. They all stayed the night, it was raucous, they continued eating, and by they time they were ready for the birthday cake, the other kids were in bed. So we whispered through the happy birthday song...

The girls were bloody noisy all night, I had a half marathon to run the next day, so I stomped into their room three times....with a fat 'shut-up'!.

It didn't work.

I did this...instead of doing my 22k run....

On Sunday, instead of going for a 22k run, I took a walk with my family. We were out of the house by 9.30am. We ambled up Mt Victoria, the kids running ahead of us, cutting through forest and whooping, the tweenager and the teenager shared an ipod and trailed behind, trying to put on a good sulk. I kept catching them smiling though. We walked over the top of the mountain and down into town, found a cafe which was pretty empty, (it was only 11am) and we bought them Italian pizza, and a drink each. I had a vegetarian panini...("hold the cheese and butter!"...one of my soap-box peeves...what is so 'vegetarian' about cheese?..answer: NOTHING!..then why does every cafe smother 'vegetarian' products with it????) and a chai, Mr Drew sipped a long black and ate some cheesy stuff. The food was nice but not worth the $94 in total we paid for it. Something about overpriced cafes in Mt Victoria I think. After eating the million dollar food, we walked to fry berg beach where the kids played. I sat around and coughed, (into the crook of my arm) and hoped no-one saw me. These days I feel like a criminal if I have a cold...

We then walked slowly (the four year old has little legs) around the bay and stopped at another beach, where Harry stalked a shag which (surprisingly) got away.

The kids played on the beach, I watched the bluebridge motor past, and the weekend yacht race. I decided, for our next outing, that we will take a thermos and buy croissants and sit on a beach to eat instead of going to a cafe. The kids are quite free range, they seem more fulfilled with stony beaches and wind in their hair than low-voiced, plastic seated places. Why am I surprised we all wonder...

We walked on, the wind picked up, we had to hold the four year old hands, to help her stay grounded. I swear it was about 2degrees wind chill factor. We arrived home a few hours later, pink cheeked and hungry. I made the kids hot Milo which they shot down before going outside. They stayed outside for hours, in the bush surrounding our house. They said they had made a marae but parents were not allowed in. The bush is quite engulfing in some parts so I guess I will never see it.

Overall, I am sort of happy I made the choice not to do my long run. Just walking bought me out in fever, my chest felt tight and I was hacking ..(into arm)..especially after the few hours we spent in the super-cold. Hopefully this means I will be of good health for the half marathon on Sunday..in 5 days.