Kids

We had a romantic weekend. Okay, a romantic 24 hours (I work all day today, Sunday). Indian food Friday night, stayed at a cool hotel in the city and ran long together on Saturday. All possible because of the Girl's mom, who is visiting (and babysitting). Sometimes it's nice to get away from the kids a little, although we ended up calling them three times Friday night.

Sometimes I don't know about kids. I read somewhere that couples without kids were happier than couples with kids. Single people were, on average, the least happy. I don't know if they adjusted for age and other circumstances in the study. I often tell the Girl that it would be wonderful to be able to freeze the kids down so we only had them evey other week. But they had to be frozen; I wouldn't want them leading a life without us on those off weeks.

Everything changes once you have kids. This weekend, I must have thought about the kids a thousand times. The hotel we stayed at is in a big sporting complex. There is an impressive aquatic center and a spa. It was fun to experience this with the Girl; but I kept thinking: "what would Daughter think about this?". I know she would have loved the circular track-like pool. And would she have jumped into the cold water pool before going in the Turkish bath? Sometimes, seeing the world through her eyes is better than seeing them through my own.

Parents become addicted to their kids but not in a drig-addict kind of way. Certainly, there is no opioid rush when I cook dinner for two tired kids at night. Or when the Lorax spills a cup of chocolate milk on the floor - on purpose. Daughter can drain me with her 9-year old angst-filled energy. It's no rush to be with them - but if something happened to one of them, I would feel terrible.

Of course, there is my Son in La Crosse. It's been four months since I last saw him. Am I comfortably numb, you ask? I don't know. The human mind works wonders, and perhaps I have convinced myself that he is, indeed, frozen in time. I don't like to think about him living full days of school and friends and laughter and tears without me. Without even thinking about me; changing into someone I don't know. I'm seeing him in a month; I wonder how the dynamics between us will be.

On the running-front, all is going well. Because of the snow, I haven't been able to do intervals as much as I had planned. I haven't been able to run intervals at all, actually. Instead, I have told myself that working on a strong endurance base makes sense. We are lucky to have a nice, big forest in our backyard and I run long runs on the trails there. Over the last month, I have been doing generally three hard workouts. One is typically a long run (around 20 miles) and the other two are long tempos.

I feel good. The weight is around 65-66 in the morning, which is right where I want it.

In terms of goals, we are doing a 50K (Hell's Hills) in Texas in April. When I say "we", I mean "I". The Girl is running the 50 miler. I have persuaded myself to race from the gun and not go out as slowly as I usually do in ultras. With all the long runs, I should be able to pull it off. I hope.