A Day in the Park

Wow what a day! I would liken today to a full training day, actually much more tiring. We started off by hitting the pool. I went early and swam my workout and then the girlies joined me. I was able to snag a kick board and baby took off on that thing. She is pretty much swimming now and I think she is going to be our little fish.

After a couple of hours playing at the pool we headed over to Parque Central to chase pigeons for awhile. It is right in the center of Heredia and is the place to hang out. Also the pigeons are a blast for the kids to chase.
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Benjie has decided the pigeons can be a little aggressive so he prefers to watch from the sidelines. Now he looks like one of the old pervs at the parque watching the kids.

This man makes the best icees in town! He begins by shaving the ice, then layers it with the milk powder and then tops it with the sweetened condensed milk and sarsa flavoring. They are so good, kind of like a root beer float.

Here you can see the finished product. Looks pretty darn good ha? Well maybe not to all of you that are dealing with snow right now.

Here is the true face of appreciation for a icee well made!

And here is one tired out baby! This dude is just plain tuckered out.

After the park met up with the guys who had been having their pool tournament. They were all ready to head to the Lebanese guy for some Swarma sandwiches. Nothing better than this guys swarma sandwiches, except maybe his falafel sandwiches. A great day, now we will make some brownies and hunker down to watch the Biggest Loser :)

RUNNING ON EMPTY

Do you ever have one of those weeks in your workout routine where you feel like you are just running on empty? That is the perfect description of my workout week. Monday had a really wimpy run, it was hot and I just barely made four miles. Yesterday did not even run, layed around and read the last Twilight book all day. (I do have to say it was the only one I really enjoyed by the way.)
Oh yeah and I got a massage in the afternoon. I guess I should just view it as a recovery day and chalk it all up to training.
Today I did a pretty good run, but just did not feel really strong. I am finding that I do better earlier when it is cooler. We are going into the rainy season so it is very hot and humid in the mornings after 8:00.
Today was a day to check out a new road and see where it led. It ended up leading back to the old road. Kind of boring. I am looking out for some new places to run. I do have some pre-requisites though that are a little hard to meet here.
In Costa Rica the roads are nicely paved, but very narrow. I like to find roads that are a little wider and maybe with a sidewalk. Sidewalks are hard on the legs, but not as hard as getting hit by a car would be on them :)
I also like to find a road with very little traffic. Again a tricky one since the nicer roads are the ones "most traveled".
I would like to do some hill work, but the hills seem to have the most narrow roads of all. I guess they suppose that since people cannot pass, they won't so they don't have to make the roads any wider than two cars. I mean not one inch wider!
There in a nutshell is why I always end up running on the track. I am thankful it is close and a really nice track, but man oh man can it get boring running in circles. I kind of start getting the hamster feeling going on.
Another problem is probably the fact that I have been eating everything in the house. I made banana bread the other day and ate it for two days. The tall son came over last night after work and I told him to eat the remainder of the bread.
That is the problem when you raise seven kids. They move out and you keep cooking like you have a houseful, and you're still nursing or pregnant, and boom, you turn into a middle age balloon.
Well I for one will not go down without a fight by golly! I will keep fighting gravity, age, hormones and everything else life throws at me just to keep moving and feeling good.
To quote Andrew Carnegie : " I am not to be envied. How can my wealth help me? I am sixty years old, and I cannot digest my food. I would give all my millions if I could have youth and health".
It is worth the fight for sure.