So I show up to the gym this morning to get in that stride class again (something I think will become part of my regular routine because I love it so much) when the girl behind the counter says "KELLY!!?" I must admit she looked very familiar but it was not until she said "I am Bryanna" that I realized I had just run into an online friend. Bryanna and I grew up in the same city but went to different schools so we never met. Then one day on Facebook she posted on a mutual friends page that she was moving to the town I live in. So I sent her a message asking where and come to find out she is just a few blocks from me. We became FB friends and even talked on the phone trying to set up a time to go for a walk together but our schedules just never matched up. LOL it was a great way to start my morning and she informed me that she was starting the Couch to 5k so I am super excited about having a running buddy.
So on to the class, as I mentioned in the last post the instructor mentioned some hill work. I do not do well with hills, I try to avoid them and when I just happen to come upon them I usually walk. I gave up on hills long ago when my shins were so bad and I felt like the hill running was only making things worse if not the cause of the pain. The gym was not as busy today so I am thinking that I am not the only person who is afraid of hills. Today we spent more time on our set speed. (the speed in which we feel most comfortable with) We started at a 0 incline and then she had us bump it up to a 2. This is when the oh shit thoughts came into my mind. What the hell happen to 1? About 3 min later... "take it up to 4" then we went back down to 0. Okay I got through that, not to bad. We did some short sprints and when those were done I was feeling good until she mentioned it was time to run some steeper hills. I do not know how long we were doing the hills but it seemed like FOREVER. I did have to drop my speed down a little bit from my set speed but I never stopped running and I got that treadmill up to a 7 incline and held it there until we were instructed to drop it back down to 0. It was at that time when the guy next to me looked over and said your doing awesome! We did some more running at our set speed and some sprints before I had to start my cool down. Sadly I get only a very short amount of time to work out in the morning since I work 10 hr days each day so I have to end my workout about 5 min before the rest of the class. Thats ok though because I still get in 40 min of cardio and still save time for a cool down and streatching. Shortly after I arrived in the locker room a woman came in and said to me "nice work out there today you did great and were even brave enough to be in the front row. you did good!!" It made me feel good and reminded me of how it was at the Y, everyone supporting one another ya know. It is hard being the newbie at anything but makes it easier when the people around you are kind and supportive. So to the nice man and nice woman who gave me props today THANK YOU, I appreciated it!!
I ended up with 3.25 total but the .25 was just my cool down. I ran those 3 miles in 39:50. Still a whole lost slower then I was before my broken toe but the fact that most of this run was done with the treadmill with some sort of incline makes that time feel pretty good. Happy with my accomplishments for the day :)
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Whats with the gym being packed at 5:30am?
About 4 months ago I was a 5:30 regular at my local gym. I loved hitting the gym in the morning right when they opened their doors and knowing that no matter what machine I wanted to get on or what lane I wanted to run on for the track I was hooked because there were never very many people there. There were at least 20 treadmills to choose from and the track always had less then 5 people on it, bikes, got my pick there too and always had a lane to myself if I decided to go for a swim.
Just before I broke my toe I canceled my YMCA membership and chose to join a different gym. My new gym membership was not even active yet when I broke the toe. So I have only been using the place to work out the last month. The gym transfer was a financial motivation and nothing else. My husband indicated that between working and going to school and just being a dad he did not feel that he was getting the most of the membership and said that we should drop him off it to save some money. When I talked to the Y they said it would be the same price whether he was on the membership or not so I decided to inquire about the price of this other place. Turns out I could have a membership myself and leave Ryan off it saving me around 20 bucks a month. This place is the bomb! I feel like I have hit the jack pot with this gym. The kids beg me to go workout because the childcare is so good. They have a cafe, Physical therapy place, salon, sauna, two pools... enough to keep even people who do not want to workout coming back. The place is seriously off the hook, and I am saving money! The only downfall I have found thus far is the bike that I LOVED at the Y is not at this gym and my bike workouts since switching have been less then desirable. Something I will just have to figure out on my own I guess.
Fast forward to today ~until this morning when I have gone to the gym I have tried to plan it for when the kids could come with me because they love it there so much. Great idea in theory but the children have so many extra curricular activities that finding the time was stressing me out this take the kids with me attitude had to change. I started the morning workouts again today! I pulled into the parking lot at 5:25am and the parking lot was full, I am talking like more cars then at 6pm. I was totally thrown off by this (but apparently they open at 5 not 5:30) I went to the locker room to change and by the time I got out I was afraid I was not going to find a treadmill. The music was loud and the energy in the building was awesome. I fortunately found an open treadmill and got on. That's when I heard "okay lets kick it up to a 4.2 to continue the warm up" OH SHIT!! LOL apparently at 5:30am there is a treadmill class. Taking so much time off and only working out here and there I figured there was no way in hell I could keep up with a treadmill class but the open treadmill I found was in the front row. I felt stuck, I did not want to do a walk of shame workout style in front of so many people. 32 to be exact, The wall I was facing was a big ass mirror so I counted all the people on the treadmills. 32 people on just the treadmills at 5:30 in the morning... at the Y there was probably a total of 32 people in the whole building including staff at 5:30 in the morning. I was shocked to see so many people. I tried to take is easy because I did not know what to expect. She laid it out in a way for walkers or runners and when she said "walkers bump it up one and runners bump it up 2" I had a decision to face, I do the whole run/walk thing, does this make me a runner or a walker. I was freaking out a bit but I bumped the treadmill up 2 ~I should not have let this class put doubt or fear into me even if it was just for a split second... I AM a runner! The great part was that there is a pace in which most runners and walkers feel good at each person was told to pick that pace for them and bump up or down from there depending on what she told us to do. So the walkers, the fast ass runners, and then the people who fall between them all could do the same workout. It was awesome! I felt like I kinda held back a little bit today in fear of not knowing what was going to come next. For example at the end she for fun decided to add on sprints, well I did not know how many she planned on us doing (after all I had no idea how long this class would last and we had only been on your treadmills for about 35 min) so I kicked it up a bit but I know I could have run faster. I did not slack off totally though, trust me I got my sweat on.
After class I spoke to the instructor and she said if I wanted to come back that when I walk in to stop at the desk to get a pass to reserve a treadmill, she said as it gets colder the treadmills get completely filled. The class was awesome but I am still shocked that there are so many people there that you have to reserve a treadmill. Just blows my mind! I am looking forward to doing it again on Thur. although I did hear her say something about hills and hills scare me!
Just before I broke my toe I canceled my YMCA membership and chose to join a different gym. My new gym membership was not even active yet when I broke the toe. So I have only been using the place to work out the last month. The gym transfer was a financial motivation and nothing else. My husband indicated that between working and going to school and just being a dad he did not feel that he was getting the most of the membership and said that we should drop him off it to save some money. When I talked to the Y they said it would be the same price whether he was on the membership or not so I decided to inquire about the price of this other place. Turns out I could have a membership myself and leave Ryan off it saving me around 20 bucks a month. This place is the bomb! I feel like I have hit the jack pot with this gym. The kids beg me to go workout because the childcare is so good. They have a cafe, Physical therapy place, salon, sauna, two pools... enough to keep even people who do not want to workout coming back. The place is seriously off the hook, and I am saving money! The only downfall I have found thus far is the bike that I LOVED at the Y is not at this gym and my bike workouts since switching have been less then desirable. Something I will just have to figure out on my own I guess.
Fast forward to today ~until this morning when I have gone to the gym I have tried to plan it for when the kids could come with me because they love it there so much. Great idea in theory but the children have so many extra curricular activities that finding the time was stressing me out this take the kids with me attitude had to change. I started the morning workouts again today! I pulled into the parking lot at 5:25am and the parking lot was full, I am talking like more cars then at 6pm. I was totally thrown off by this (but apparently they open at 5 not 5:30) I went to the locker room to change and by the time I got out I was afraid I was not going to find a treadmill. The music was loud and the energy in the building was awesome. I fortunately found an open treadmill and got on. That's when I heard "okay lets kick it up to a 4.2 to continue the warm up" OH SHIT!! LOL apparently at 5:30am there is a treadmill class. Taking so much time off and only working out here and there I figured there was no way in hell I could keep up with a treadmill class but the open treadmill I found was in the front row. I felt stuck, I did not want to do a walk of shame workout style in front of so many people. 32 to be exact, The wall I was facing was a big ass mirror so I counted all the people on the treadmills. 32 people on just the treadmills at 5:30 in the morning... at the Y there was probably a total of 32 people in the whole building including staff at 5:30 in the morning. I was shocked to see so many people. I tried to take is easy because I did not know what to expect. She laid it out in a way for walkers or runners and when she said "walkers bump it up one and runners bump it up 2" I had a decision to face, I do the whole run/walk thing, does this make me a runner or a walker. I was freaking out a bit but I bumped the treadmill up 2 ~I should not have let this class put doubt or fear into me even if it was just for a split second... I AM a runner! The great part was that there is a pace in which most runners and walkers feel good at each person was told to pick that pace for them and bump up or down from there depending on what she told us to do. So the walkers, the fast ass runners, and then the people who fall between them all could do the same workout. It was awesome! I felt like I kinda held back a little bit today in fear of not knowing what was going to come next. For example at the end she for fun decided to add on sprints, well I did not know how many she planned on us doing (after all I had no idea how long this class would last and we had only been on your treadmills for about 35 min) so I kicked it up a bit but I know I could have run faster. I did not slack off totally though, trust me I got my sweat on.
After class I spoke to the instructor and she said if I wanted to come back that when I walk in to stop at the desk to get a pass to reserve a treadmill, she said as it gets colder the treadmills get completely filled. The class was awesome but I am still shocked that there are so many people there that you have to reserve a treadmill. Just blows my mind! I am looking forward to doing it again on Thur. although I did hear her say something about hills and hills scare me!
Friday, October 28, 2011
My first time crewing
As I just posted in my other blog there is not a day that goes by that I do not think to myself "oh I should add that to the baby book or write it in the blog" but the baby books and blogs are not high on the priority list these days. Back about a month ago I got to do something super cool and I have been wanting to share my experience here ever since. I should be cleaning the boys rooms before they get to bed but I have put this on the back burner for to long already so the room cleaning is going to have to wait.
September 17th and 18th a friend of mine from my running moms group participated in the North Coast 24 hr endurance run in Cleavland Ohio. Tara aka Ultara is one hell of a runner and not only did I get to see her run in a 24 hr endurance race I got to crew for her. It had been a rough week for me trying to get into the swing of things with the children having just gone back to school, playing catch up from not doing much for 6 weeks because of my broken big toe, dealing with the new puppy we had and worst of all my cousin passed away at just 24 years old. I felt overwhelmed and when I heard Denise one of Ultara's crew members was in the hospital leaving Kaci as her only crew member I canceled my plans for the night and drove down with Candice to help. (as it turns out fortunately Denise was released from the hospital and able to help crew a bit after all) The race started at 9am on the 17th but Candice and I did not leave until 6pm to drive down. We were unable to leave MI until 6pm which put us in Cleavland about 9:30pm. We figured this would be a good time because we could then give Kaci a break and Denise could go home and sleep since the girl should have been home resting anyways. lol you could not have kept that running mama away from that race, even with the migraine she had.
The drive there seemed to take forever, probably because we were anxious to get there. We were so excited to meet Denise, Kaci, and Tara. (did I mention that even though we are all friends we had never actually met?) We found Tara's tent and met Denise and Kaci, the excitement of finally meeting them quickly wore off as they explained to us that there was a discrepancy between what Kaci had written down, the race volunteers had and what Tara thought she had lap wise. Candice and I were showing up at the worst possible time of the race and she and I both thought "OH SHIT what did we get ourselves into"? This was both mine and Candice's first time crewing and we had no idea what it was all about. The OH SHIT thoughts only increased when Denise asked us if we knew what to do if Tara got a blister. LOL I am sure I had the same deer in headlights look on my face that Candice had on hers. Denise agreed to giving us a crash course on blister care before her departure. Just an FYI I am very thankful that Ultara does not typically get blisters because quite frankly the thought of draining another persons blister and applying moleskin makes me nervous. Just as Denise finished first aid 101,Tara came around again and I got to get a glimpse of what each lap would be like. Denise said her good byes and left for the night, while Kaci started putting Candice and I on information overload. The ultimate crash course in ultra crewing. There is a serious science to being able to run for 24 hrs. It was our job to make sure Tara's body could keep going. Which meant making sure she had the right amount of calories, fluid, and electrolytes in her system. Thankfully someone was smart enough to make a spread sheet where we could log what she ate, drank and when she took the electrolyte pill. The spread sheet was exactly what I needed. Another smart move was to put snacks into little baggies. Each baggie was 100 calories each so there was no need to guess at how much she ate. We were told that as Tara ran past she would shout to us what she needed/wanted and all we had to do was have it ready for her on her next lap. Sounds easy enough but I was so nervous and glad that Kaci did not want to go to bed for a little while.
Tara's next lap around I went with her. This race called for no pacers but since Tara at this point in time walking due to her broken toe and what was suspected to be a fracture in her foot. (yes I typed this correctly this woman chose to run for 24 hrs on a broken toe and an injured foot which was suspected to be a fracture. Making me seem like the biggest wimp of all time for taking 8 weeks off of running for my toe... sigh) I at this point got to formally introduce my self to Tara. It was so cool to finally meet her in person and I was in aw of what she was accomplishing that day. She filled me in on what the medics at the race recommended for her foot and we chatted about her daughter and my boys. That lap ended and every hr or so I would walk with her again. Knowing what to talk to Tara about was challenging for me. I just talked about stuff trying to keep her mind off of the pain that she was in but I did not know if that was what she needed or what she wanted. I was not sure if I should be pushing her to go faster or talk her into calling it quits on the race so she would not make her possible fracture a solid break. I did get to hear the story of the gun man on the lose at her last race, which made both of us laugh so I hope that my keep her mind off the pain approach helped.
When we were not walking with Tara, marking down what she ate, or getting her what she needed we were all chatting and desperately trying to keep warm. For those of us who were not running it was a very cold night, in fact my face hurt for several days after due to the wind burn that the cold wind gusts gave me. We laughed about how we were dressed with layers upon layers of clothing (I had on a t-shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a fleece sweatshirt, another sweatshirt on top of that a winter hat and gloves and a blanket wrapped around me and I was freezing) and yet there was a man running who we all called naked guy. He had on shorts (kinda flesh colored) socks and shoes, nothing else. Naked guy kicked ass though and although I do not know his name to find out how he did I know he rocked it!!! At one point in time Tara joined us cold asses so she could put ice on her foot. She must have been in some serious pain to not only sit down but to put ice on her foot when it was that cold out. As time went on it became clear to us that the goal Tara set for herself was in reach. She wanted to do 100 miles. Can you even fathom this? 100 miles is like traveling from my home in MI to where the race was in Cleveland. (no joke I drove just over 100 miles to get there) Even after witnessing it I still have trouble wrapping my brain around it. Anyways I think Tara realized how close she was to her goal because she started running again. The look on her face when she passed our tent when she had something like 2 hrs left and under 10 miles to go (exact numbers I have forgotten since I waited a month to write this) was a cross between sheer determination, serious pain. I could not help but wonder what was going though her head in that moment as we all stood and cheered for her. We knew it was going to be close and as her crew member I did not know what to do. I was not sure if we should push her despite the fact that she is in serious pain and the medic told her not to run or just let her do her thing. Tara gave a great push to get to that 100 but the pain in her foot was so intense that she had to slow to a walk once more.
With just minuets to go in the 24 hr race Denise was already back and the 4 of us girls set out to walk Tara around her last lap. Such an amazing feeling to be walking with a woman who just accomplished such an extreme task. In the end Tara ended up with over 97 miles. 97 + miles in one day, one day! She came in 45th place over all out of 185 runners. AMAZING! I had such a mix of feelings running though me at that time. I was so proud of her and amazed by her but I felt guilty that as one of her crew members I did not get her to her goal. That guilt faded away fast because 97+ miles on a broken toe and possible fractured foot is fucking insane. Excuse the language but come on you know I am right! This girl is incredible!
On the drive home both Candice and I were exhausted, the lack of sleep and cold had gotten to us. I was out of it and Candice being the sweetheart that she is was desperately trying to not fall asleep, despite the fact I told her she could. Then we saw a cop in the road, out of his car, flagging me over. LOL I did not even know how fast I was going. According to my ticket 78mph which in MI is acceptable but in Ohio where the speed limit was 60... yeah not so much. The cop was not happy with me and sadly was kinda a dick. That woke me up and gave me the energy to go for another hr or so before having to pull off at a rest stop. I was not hungry but needed something to munch on just to keep me awake. It was at this point in time that I received an ab workout like no other. Candice bought a pop and between the two of us it took us a good 10 min to open it. To tired to open pop? I am seriously laughing out loud as I type this. We were so damn slap happy that we both laughed until we had tears. Looking back I realize that we should have taken a nap before driving home. Will do that next time!
Over all it was an amazing experience and I feel like I learned so much that day. I got to witness some amazing athletes do something I could never fathom myself doing. I got to watch my friend just keep going despite her pain even when people around her were dropping out. I felt good about what I was doing and being where I was and for a short time my mind was taken off the loss of my cousin and all the other crap going on. Best of all though I got to officially meet 3 of the most awesome women, women I am proud to know and call my friends.
September 17th and 18th a friend of mine from my running moms group participated in the North Coast 24 hr endurance run in Cleavland Ohio. Tara aka Ultara is one hell of a runner and not only did I get to see her run in a 24 hr endurance race I got to crew for her. It had been a rough week for me trying to get into the swing of things with the children having just gone back to school, playing catch up from not doing much for 6 weeks because of my broken big toe, dealing with the new puppy we had and worst of all my cousin passed away at just 24 years old. I felt overwhelmed and when I heard Denise one of Ultara's crew members was in the hospital leaving Kaci as her only crew member I canceled my plans for the night and drove down with Candice to help. (as it turns out fortunately Denise was released from the hospital and able to help crew a bit after all) The race started at 9am on the 17th but Candice and I did not leave until 6pm to drive down. We were unable to leave MI until 6pm which put us in Cleavland about 9:30pm. We figured this would be a good time because we could then give Kaci a break and Denise could go home and sleep since the girl should have been home resting anyways. lol you could not have kept that running mama away from that race, even with the migraine she had.
The drive there seemed to take forever, probably because we were anxious to get there. We were so excited to meet Denise, Kaci, and Tara. (did I mention that even though we are all friends we had never actually met?) We found Tara's tent and met Denise and Kaci, the excitement of finally meeting them quickly wore off as they explained to us that there was a discrepancy between what Kaci had written down, the race volunteers had and what Tara thought she had lap wise. Candice and I were showing up at the worst possible time of the race and she and I both thought "OH SHIT what did we get ourselves into"? This was both mine and Candice's first time crewing and we had no idea what it was all about. The OH SHIT thoughts only increased when Denise asked us if we knew what to do if Tara got a blister. LOL I am sure I had the same deer in headlights look on my face that Candice had on hers. Denise agreed to giving us a crash course on blister care before her departure. Just an FYI I am very thankful that Ultara does not typically get blisters because quite frankly the thought of draining another persons blister and applying moleskin makes me nervous. Just as Denise finished first aid 101,Tara came around again and I got to get a glimpse of what each lap would be like. Denise said her good byes and left for the night, while Kaci started putting Candice and I on information overload. The ultimate crash course in ultra crewing. There is a serious science to being able to run for 24 hrs. It was our job to make sure Tara's body could keep going. Which meant making sure she had the right amount of calories, fluid, and electrolytes in her system. Thankfully someone was smart enough to make a spread sheet where we could log what she ate, drank and when she took the electrolyte pill. The spread sheet was exactly what I needed. Another smart move was to put snacks into little baggies. Each baggie was 100 calories each so there was no need to guess at how much she ate. We were told that as Tara ran past she would shout to us what she needed/wanted and all we had to do was have it ready for her on her next lap. Sounds easy enough but I was so nervous and glad that Kaci did not want to go to bed for a little while.
Tara's next lap around I went with her. This race called for no pacers but since Tara at this point in time walking due to her broken toe and what was suspected to be a fracture in her foot. (yes I typed this correctly this woman chose to run for 24 hrs on a broken toe and an injured foot which was suspected to be a fracture. Making me seem like the biggest wimp of all time for taking 8 weeks off of running for my toe... sigh) I at this point got to formally introduce my self to Tara. It was so cool to finally meet her in person and I was in aw of what she was accomplishing that day. She filled me in on what the medics at the race recommended for her foot and we chatted about her daughter and my boys. That lap ended and every hr or so I would walk with her again. Knowing what to talk to Tara about was challenging for me. I just talked about stuff trying to keep her mind off of the pain that she was in but I did not know if that was what she needed or what she wanted. I was not sure if I should be pushing her to go faster or talk her into calling it quits on the race so she would not make her possible fracture a solid break. I did get to hear the story of the gun man on the lose at her last race, which made both of us laugh so I hope that my keep her mind off the pain approach helped.
When we were not walking with Tara, marking down what she ate, or getting her what she needed we were all chatting and desperately trying to keep warm. For those of us who were not running it was a very cold night, in fact my face hurt for several days after due to the wind burn that the cold wind gusts gave me. We laughed about how we were dressed with layers upon layers of clothing (I had on a t-shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a fleece sweatshirt, another sweatshirt on top of that a winter hat and gloves and a blanket wrapped around me and I was freezing) and yet there was a man running who we all called naked guy. He had on shorts (kinda flesh colored) socks and shoes, nothing else. Naked guy kicked ass though and although I do not know his name to find out how he did I know he rocked it!!! At one point in time Tara joined us cold asses so she could put ice on her foot. She must have been in some serious pain to not only sit down but to put ice on her foot when it was that cold out. As time went on it became clear to us that the goal Tara set for herself was in reach. She wanted to do 100 miles. Can you even fathom this? 100 miles is like traveling from my home in MI to where the race was in Cleveland. (no joke I drove just over 100 miles to get there) Even after witnessing it I still have trouble wrapping my brain around it. Anyways I think Tara realized how close she was to her goal because she started running again. The look on her face when she passed our tent when she had something like 2 hrs left and under 10 miles to go (exact numbers I have forgotten since I waited a month to write this) was a cross between sheer determination, serious pain. I could not help but wonder what was going though her head in that moment as we all stood and cheered for her. We knew it was going to be close and as her crew member I did not know what to do. I was not sure if we should push her despite the fact that she is in serious pain and the medic told her not to run or just let her do her thing. Tara gave a great push to get to that 100 but the pain in her foot was so intense that she had to slow to a walk once more.
With just minuets to go in the 24 hr race Denise was already back and the 4 of us girls set out to walk Tara around her last lap. Such an amazing feeling to be walking with a woman who just accomplished such an extreme task. In the end Tara ended up with over 97 miles. 97 + miles in one day, one day! She came in 45th place over all out of 185 runners. AMAZING! I had such a mix of feelings running though me at that time. I was so proud of her and amazed by her but I felt guilty that as one of her crew members I did not get her to her goal. That guilt faded away fast because 97+ miles on a broken toe and possible fractured foot is fucking insane. Excuse the language but come on you know I am right! This girl is incredible!
On the drive home both Candice and I were exhausted, the lack of sleep and cold had gotten to us. I was out of it and Candice being the sweetheart that she is was desperately trying to not fall asleep, despite the fact I told her she could. Then we saw a cop in the road, out of his car, flagging me over. LOL I did not even know how fast I was going. According to my ticket 78mph which in MI is acceptable but in Ohio where the speed limit was 60... yeah not so much. The cop was not happy with me and sadly was kinda a dick. That woke me up and gave me the energy to go for another hr or so before having to pull off at a rest stop. I was not hungry but needed something to munch on just to keep me awake. It was at this point in time that I received an ab workout like no other. Candice bought a pop and between the two of us it took us a good 10 min to open it. To tired to open pop? I am seriously laughing out loud as I type this. We were so damn slap happy that we both laughed until we had tears. Looking back I realize that we should have taken a nap before driving home. Will do that next time!
Over all it was an amazing experience and I feel like I learned so much that day. I got to witness some amazing athletes do something I could never fathom myself doing. I got to watch my friend just keep going despite her pain even when people around her were dropping out. I felt good about what I was doing and being where I was and for a short time my mind was taken off the loss of my cousin and all the other crap going on. Best of all though I got to officially meet 3 of the most awesome women, women I am proud to know and call my friends.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
First run since broken toe
I finally got the ok from the Dr. to go ahead and resume normal activity after my tumble down the stairs in which I broke my big toe 6 weeks ago. Although I have to go ahead to start running again it was advised that I take it slow because the toe is not 100% healed yet. In fact they can still see the fracture on the ex ray. The Dr. said another 3 weeks or so I should be back to normal. This news came almost a week ago and due to the children going back to school, PTO meetings, curriculum nights, baseball etc I have not had an opportunity to really get out there and see what I am made of. Cooper last night spent a night at a friends house and I had to pick him up this morning. His friends house is only 1.35 miles away so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to see how much of a set back I endured taking 6 weeks off. We dropped our car at their house last night so that way I could run to pick him up this morning and drive him home. (although if had not had tickets to the big house today I would have made him run or at least walk home with me.) I walked the first quarter of a mile to warm up but then got going. I knew it was going to be hard but wowza it was really hard. I actually for a split second thought "Kelly you do not need to do this you do not need to be a runner" I do not know what happen to that split second thought but I did not entertain it and just kept running. I had to take three walk breaks which is two more then I normally would have taken two months ago. I apparently have my work cut out for me but I am excited to get back into it.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Toe woes
Went to the Dr. Friday night after I fell down the stairs and sure enough my toe is broken. When I think about a toe being broken I think get some tape, wrap it to another toe, take some Motrin and move on with your life. Apparently when you break your big toe that is not the case. I am not aloud to put any weight on the toe, I have to wear a splint that goes all the way to the calf, take pain killers and anti inflammatory, walk using crutches and take a trip to a specialist who may decide to actually cast me. Who would have thought one broken toe could be such a hassle. I asked the Dr. how long it would take before I could get out and hit the pavement again and I was told that was going to be up to the specialist. hhhmmm
You know last week on Wed. I went in to the Dr. for a physical at which time the Dr. gave me a prescription for PT on my arm/shoulder. So with a bum shoulder and a bum leg how in the world am I supposed to get any exercise in? I know push ups to not hurt my arm and it would not hurt my toe if I did the modified ones and of course sit ups/crunches would not hurt the arm or toe... but what else can I do? I wonder if I could ride a bike? Between my arm, toe, and the fact that this week I had pink eye.... I have more issues then National Geographic :(
You know last week on Wed. I went in to the Dr. for a physical at which time the Dr. gave me a prescription for PT on my arm/shoulder. So with a bum shoulder and a bum leg how in the world am I supposed to get any exercise in? I know push ups to not hurt my arm and it would not hurt my toe if I did the modified ones and of course sit ups/crunches would not hurt the arm or toe... but what else can I do? I wonder if I could ride a bike? Between my arm, toe, and the fact that this week I had pink eye.... I have more issues then National Geographic :(
Friday, July 29, 2011
Warrior Dash
This is the week the week I have been waiting for, for the last 5 months. MI Warrior Dash week is finally here! The excitement is supposed to be brewing and plans for what crazy outfit to wear is supposed to be in place. Only this is not the case for me. This long anticipated race has brought me nothing but doubt and disappointment this week.
A month or so ago my son Cooper asked us if he could apply for a scholarship to go to church camp. I said yes, he did his project, won the scholarship and then we find out that the first day of camp is the same day as the Warrior Dash. Struggling to figure out how on earth we could do both I got lucky when a friend offered to go to the race and watch Cooper there so that way we could just leave from the race to go to camp. Excitement grew as I think to myself that I have this all figured out. Sure Ryan and I would be dropping Coop off looking like mud monkeys but as long as Coop was ok with it then we were too.
I spent the last few months with some nasty shoulder/arm pain. The Dr. said it was a bicep tendon issue, gave me some anti inflammatory and sent me on my way. I laid off of any weight lifting for well over a month and the arm started to feel much better. Feeling positive I started using the arm more and more but I started getting pain back. This past 4th of July is when I think I finally realized something a whole lot more serious was going on. The family was getting ready to go up north on vacation for the holiday and so I decided to wash the floor and the windows. Less then 24 hrs later my arm was in a lot of pain again. This pain was so intense that it lasted days even with Motrin. It was so bad that I had trouble sleeping. As soon as I got home I called the Dr. and made another apt. That apt was this past Wed. Concerned about the shoulder the Dr gave me a prescription for PT and told me there was no way that I should be doing the Warrior Dash on Sunday. Feeling torn I called my physical therapist and asked her what she thought and she made it very clear that it would not be in my best interest to participate in the race. Still torn I asked my running moms group... same response. Do not do it! Stay home, go to PT, get better and then do it next yr.
Sounds like a no brainer right? Not so much. For some reason I am having a very hard time backing out of this race. The thought of just not showing up to a race... "sigh" makes me feel like a failure. Plus I have been dying to get down and dirty for so many months now. Of course there is the 90 bucks I spent for both Ryan and I to register that I would have to eat too and come on I worked it all out so that we could get Coop to camp on time.
Since Wed. I have gone back and forth with my decision to go or to just stay home and hang out with my little buddy before he heads to camp. My mind kept changing from one min. to the next. I even had some trouble sleeping because I could not stop thinking about it. Totally stupid I know. The last 24 hrs I was leaning toward not going but still wanted to hold out on saying it out loud... just in case I changed my mind again. Then this morning as I was about to walk down the stairs my right big toe some how got caught on my pant leg sending me tumbling down the stairs. It has been a couple of hrs since my fall and I think my big toe is broken. I can not put any pressure on it, not even to walk. I am taking this as a sign that going to the Warrior Dash is not supposed to happen for me this yr. So hear I am saying it out loud, I am sadly backing out of the Warrior Dash this yr. I am disappointed sure but a little relieved that Sunday morning when my son wakes up I will have every second, until we leave him at camp, to spend with him.
As far as my stupid toe goes... tonight Ryan and I are supposed to have date night to celebrate 13 yrs of being married... nothing says romance better then the ER!
A month or so ago my son Cooper asked us if he could apply for a scholarship to go to church camp. I said yes, he did his project, won the scholarship and then we find out that the first day of camp is the same day as the Warrior Dash. Struggling to figure out how on earth we could do both I got lucky when a friend offered to go to the race and watch Cooper there so that way we could just leave from the race to go to camp. Excitement grew as I think to myself that I have this all figured out. Sure Ryan and I would be dropping Coop off looking like mud monkeys but as long as Coop was ok with it then we were too.
I spent the last few months with some nasty shoulder/arm pain. The Dr. said it was a bicep tendon issue, gave me some anti inflammatory and sent me on my way. I laid off of any weight lifting for well over a month and the arm started to feel much better. Feeling positive I started using the arm more and more but I started getting pain back. This past 4th of July is when I think I finally realized something a whole lot more serious was going on. The family was getting ready to go up north on vacation for the holiday and so I decided to wash the floor and the windows. Less then 24 hrs later my arm was in a lot of pain again. This pain was so intense that it lasted days even with Motrin. It was so bad that I had trouble sleeping. As soon as I got home I called the Dr. and made another apt. That apt was this past Wed. Concerned about the shoulder the Dr gave me a prescription for PT and told me there was no way that I should be doing the Warrior Dash on Sunday. Feeling torn I called my physical therapist and asked her what she thought and she made it very clear that it would not be in my best interest to participate in the race. Still torn I asked my running moms group... same response. Do not do it! Stay home, go to PT, get better and then do it next yr.
Sounds like a no brainer right? Not so much. For some reason I am having a very hard time backing out of this race. The thought of just not showing up to a race... "sigh" makes me feel like a failure. Plus I have been dying to get down and dirty for so many months now. Of course there is the 90 bucks I spent for both Ryan and I to register that I would have to eat too and come on I worked it all out so that we could get Coop to camp on time.
Since Wed. I have gone back and forth with my decision to go or to just stay home and hang out with my little buddy before he heads to camp. My mind kept changing from one min. to the next. I even had some trouble sleeping because I could not stop thinking about it. Totally stupid I know. The last 24 hrs I was leaning toward not going but still wanted to hold out on saying it out loud... just in case I changed my mind again. Then this morning as I was about to walk down the stairs my right big toe some how got caught on my pant leg sending me tumbling down the stairs. It has been a couple of hrs since my fall and I think my big toe is broken. I can not put any pressure on it, not even to walk. I am taking this as a sign that going to the Warrior Dash is not supposed to happen for me this yr. So hear I am saying it out loud, I am sadly backing out of the Warrior Dash this yr. I am disappointed sure but a little relieved that Sunday morning when my son wakes up I will have every second, until we leave him at camp, to spend with him.
As far as my stupid toe goes... tonight Ryan and I are supposed to have date night to celebrate 13 yrs of being married... nothing says romance better then the ER!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
I'M BAAACK
Wow it has been such a long time since I have gotten a chance to post anything. I never even got to tell you about national running day that happen over a month ago, (it was awesome by the way) or the fact that I have now been running for over a yr which happen just a few weeks ago. So much to write and post about and yet I just could not make it happen. Where have I been you ask?
It all started about two months ago when I got a dreaded message on my computer that the hard drive was about to have imminent failure and that we needed to back up the computer. So back up the computer we did. Not that there was much to back up since the computer was less then 6 months old. We got this hard drive message a few times before the computer just shut its self down and stopped working. The whole process of getting the darn thing fixed took a lot longer then I had wanted or anticipated but here I am about a month later finally blogging. The computer was not the only issue in our house we had a series of unfortunate mishaps going on as well. Things that might have been funny to blog about but at the time, just pissed me off. Like the ceiling leaking, the light fixture coming crashing down in the family room, the air conditioning not working (even though it is not even a yr old) and the guy coming to fix it over and over and over again. (boy I hope it is fixed for good now... it is HOT out there) Then we got hit by the dreaded strep throat, the damn thing took over my house hitting everyone in its path except for Owen my 6 yr old. Fortunately for most of the family a couple days on antibiotics did the trick, but not me, the antibiotics did not work for me and unfortunately I did not realize they were not working until I had waisted 48 hrs on them before getting a new prescription. Days with temps 103. and higher left me doing little of nothing and the last thing on my mind was running, exercising or blogging. Don't get me wrong though there was a vacation up north somewhere in the middle of all this madness and that was fun.
With everything going on I took about 3 weeks off of running. The results of that... not good! I got out the other night with my boys and we did make it 1.8 miles but it was tough, a lot harder then I felt it should have been. My plan is to ease back into it, tonight my goal is anything over 2 miles (which might be tricky in this heat) we will see how it goes but in the mean time... I'M BAAACK!
It all started about two months ago when I got a dreaded message on my computer that the hard drive was about to have imminent failure and that we needed to back up the computer. So back up the computer we did. Not that there was much to back up since the computer was less then 6 months old. We got this hard drive message a few times before the computer just shut its self down and stopped working. The whole process of getting the darn thing fixed took a lot longer then I had wanted or anticipated but here I am about a month later finally blogging. The computer was not the only issue in our house we had a series of unfortunate mishaps going on as well. Things that might have been funny to blog about but at the time, just pissed me off. Like the ceiling leaking, the light fixture coming crashing down in the family room, the air conditioning not working (even though it is not even a yr old) and the guy coming to fix it over and over and over again. (boy I hope it is fixed for good now... it is HOT out there) Then we got hit by the dreaded strep throat, the damn thing took over my house hitting everyone in its path except for Owen my 6 yr old. Fortunately for most of the family a couple days on antibiotics did the trick, but not me, the antibiotics did not work for me and unfortunately I did not realize they were not working until I had waisted 48 hrs on them before getting a new prescription. Days with temps 103. and higher left me doing little of nothing and the last thing on my mind was running, exercising or blogging. Don't get me wrong though there was a vacation up north somewhere in the middle of all this madness and that was fun.
With everything going on I took about 3 weeks off of running. The results of that... not good! I got out the other night with my boys and we did make it 1.8 miles but it was tough, a lot harder then I felt it should have been. My plan is to ease back into it, tonight my goal is anything over 2 miles (which might be tricky in this heat) we will see how it goes but in the mean time... I'M BAAACK!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Military Appreciation 5k
I'm baa-ack!! Vacation with my family has kept me from my computer but I have been chomping at the bit to give the rundown on this 5k.
First of all the reasons I wanted to do this 5k.
1. It was a Military Appreciation race. How could I not want to do a race that supports the US Military?
2. The location of the race was in Myrtle Beach SC. How cool is that?
3. Some of my fellow cyber running mamas whom I had never met but "knew" via Facebook, Dailymile and Cafemom were running in it.
I arrived with my family in SC the day before the race. I was extremely nervous about not being able to find the location of the race so that eve. Ryan, my father in law and myself set out to find the location of packet pickup. It took us a very long time to find it so I was happy we went looking the night before. Race morning Ryan drove me and although we found the place the night before we still got a little turned around but managed to get there in plenty of time. The minute I stepped out of the car I knew I was in trouble. It was already 80 degrees and very humid. If I had been in MI I would have been able to see my breath. Quite a big difference and I knew my body would have a hard time adjusting. Fortunately I had already had it set in my mind that I was just going to run in the race but I was not going to race the race. I know my body and I know if I went out guns blazing to try and get a PR I would end up with some nasty shin splints. (happens every race) I was not going to let shin splints ruin my family vacation so the plan was to just go nice and easy and enjoy the race. The heat made it easy to stick to the plan.
Just after I picked up my race packet I saw Heather (aka Run Faster Mommy http://www.runfastermommy.com/) in the parking lot. I was most excited to finally meet Heather because she has been such a great source of inspiration to me. (a topic I will elaborate on in a post later on this month but for now back to the 5k) Heather was not the only girl I was getting to meet at this race though. Two other girls from our running moms group were going to be there Elizabeth (who by the way does not live in SC. She, like me, was just on vacation with her family. How cool is that?) and Hope (aka team Epton http://www.teamepton.com) I had just said to Heather I am not sure that I am going to recognize the other girls when Elizabeth walked by and believe it or not I recognized her right away. Right after that Hope showed up. Meeting these girls was by far my most fav. moment of the race.
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| Hope, Heather and myself |
As the crowd of runners gathered by the starting line we all chatted until it was time to take our places in the pack. Since I am slow I just moved straight to the back of the pack while the other girls (who are fast by the way) stayed up near the front. The gun went off and away we went. I normally race with music. This race I had none ~by none I mean my mp3 player is lost somewhere in SC. Someone, somewhere, right now is enjoying my booty music. "sigh" I realized during this race that the reason why I like listening to music so much while running is because it drownds out the sound of me breathing. OMG am I one of "those" runners? You know what I am talking about, the ones you can hear from a mile away who's breathing makes you grab for your phone to dial 911 because you are sure they are about to die... yeah that might be me... but right now I am just going to blame it on the fact that the humidity was making it difficult to breath. Not having my headphones on felt strange but gave me an opportunity to better take in my surroundings and even chat with some other people in the race. Before I knew it I completely forgot that I did not have them on. I met a nice girl named Amy who also knew Heather and Hope and we ran together and chatted for a little while. About mile two I was really starting to feel the heat and found myself taking and extra walk break at which time I ended up talking to another woman who was so incredibly nice. We commented on how the course had NO shade and how it would have been nice if mother nature could have sent us a breeze or two our way. She was great fun to talk with but before I knew it my 30 second walk break I was anticipating turned into a few min. I tried to get her to run with me but she said she was done with the running and just wanted to walk now. She wished me good luck and away I went... again. At this point in time I knew we were getting close to the finish line and it was not long before I could see the gathering of people and hear the crowd (an upside to not having the mp3 player) Then I heard my name and realized that my fellow running mamas were cheering me on. hhhmmm wait, I might have to retract my earlier statement because this might have been my favorite part of the race. It was an amazing feeling to cross the finish line being cheered on by the very girls who had been so instrumental in me actually getting to the point of being able to run a 5k. Once I was just about to cross the finish line I saw my husband who actually had the camera in hand and was taking a picture. This is a huge milestone people, the guy NEVER takes pictures. It was a good feeling having Ryan there, this was the first race of mine that he had been too and it meant a lot to me that he was there. Hope handed me a water and Heather pointed me into the direction of my medal. YAY a medal just for finishing I was so excited (no it does not take much)
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| me crossing the finish line |
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| Me, Hope and Heather just after I Just after I crossed the finish line (still out of breath at this point haha) |
We of course waited around for the results and I was excited to see how my fellow mamas did. I knew that they all were getting medals for placing in their age groups so that was exciting. Heather 1st in her age group, Elizabeth 1st in her age group, Hope 2nd in her age group. I was loving cheering for these amazing women and I was still cheering for Hope (we are in the same age group) when I heard them call my name. 3rd place? What? Are you kidding me? I was beyond shocked, never in a million yrs would I ever guess that I would ever get a medal placed around my neck. Sure sure there was only 4 gals in my age group but I do not care because I have a bronze medal hanging up right now. ahahahha My time was 37:18 so not my best by far but enough to secure 3rd place.
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| What?!?! OMG he just called my name! WoooHooo!! |
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| Heather, Hope, Elizabeth and me after getting our medals. |
All in all this was by far was my most favorite race I have done to date. There is no doubt that yrs from now I am going to look back at this race with such fond memories. I am sure I will forget how hot it was, my time, or that I lost the mp3 player. What I will remember will be meeting some amazing girls, the feeling of seeing my husband at the finish line with the camera in his hand, hearing my friends cheering me on, and the announcer saying MY name. It was an amazing race for an amazing cause and I am so very happy to have gotten a chance to participate in it.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Happy Mothers Day!
Yesterday was mothers day and my initial plan was to wake up before church and go for a run. That thought ended almost as soon as it had started when I received a phone call from a friend at church. Tandy and myself are the Sunday School teachers and she had called to inform me that she was not going to be at church in the morning and that she had all the supplies for the Mothers Day craft but there was some cutting out do be done along with searching for a bible verse. That's when I knew I had to get to church early and unless I woke up at the butt crack of dawn, which should NEVER happen on mothers day, I was going to have to forgo the morning run.
After church I came home cleaned the bathroom, kitchen and rewashed the kitchen floor. I was annoyed because I had already washed the kitchen and bathroom less then 48 hrs prior. Ryan decided for Mothers Day he should take the kids to the park and leave me home alone to do whatever. So I sat on the couch and found a movie on tv. There was only an hr left in the movie so once it was done I knew I had plenty of time to do something else before they got home. So I chose to run. I got all ready and then called my husband and told him to not leave the park because I was going to run up there and I would need a ride home.
Running to the park is a route I had never run before and was excited to try it out. I had no interest in going out to be fast or anything of that nature. I just wanted a nice relaxing run. The first part is pavement. The second part of the run is dirt rode. I generally like running on dirt but I found it to be kinda challenging this time. The road had just been graded and it was not only very bumpy it was duuuusty! Whenever a car would pass I would get lost in a huge cloud of dust. It was crazy! The third part of the run was through a grassy field. I hate hate hate running on terrain like this because there are a lot of hidden bumps, holes, and even muddy spots. Fortunately that part did not last long and I walked part of it. There was a family in the field out flying kites too so it was fun to be able to watch them as I made my way through this. Then lastly I was back onto a dirt road until I came to a ball field that had all my men on it! It was awesome!
I have to say that run and then hanging out with my boys at the park was great... just what this mama needed for Mothers Day!
After church I came home cleaned the bathroom, kitchen and rewashed the kitchen floor. I was annoyed because I had already washed the kitchen and bathroom less then 48 hrs prior. Ryan decided for Mothers Day he should take the kids to the park and leave me home alone to do whatever. So I sat on the couch and found a movie on tv. There was only an hr left in the movie so once it was done I knew I had plenty of time to do something else before they got home. So I chose to run. I got all ready and then called my husband and told him to not leave the park because I was going to run up there and I would need a ride home.
Running to the park is a route I had never run before and was excited to try it out. I had no interest in going out to be fast or anything of that nature. I just wanted a nice relaxing run. The first part is pavement. The second part of the run is dirt rode. I generally like running on dirt but I found it to be kinda challenging this time. The road had just been graded and it was not only very bumpy it was duuuusty! Whenever a car would pass I would get lost in a huge cloud of dust. It was crazy! The third part of the run was through a grassy field. I hate hate hate running on terrain like this because there are a lot of hidden bumps, holes, and even muddy spots. Fortunately that part did not last long and I walked part of it. There was a family in the field out flying kites too so it was fun to be able to watch them as I made my way through this. Then lastly I was back onto a dirt road until I came to a ball field that had all my men on it! It was awesome!
I have to say that run and then hanging out with my boys at the park was great... just what this mama needed for Mothers Day!
Monday, May 2, 2011
WILDCAT 5K
Wooo woooo here comes the full report of my first 5k of the season. As I posted in my last blog post I spent the night before getting prepped for the event. Clothing laid out, mp3 player charged, children's clothing laid out, and I even purchased breakfast for the children so I would not have to scramble to cook something in the morning. (doughnuts, which made me the coolest mom ever) I had accounted for everything and was all set to go...
I arrived there with my friend Stacey and quickly went to pick up our race packets. Once that was done we had about 30 min to pin on our bibs, warm up, hit the rest rooms and of course get a pre race pic. of ourselves taken.
I found out about the race through my physical therapist. She too ran it along with a whole slew of other staff members from my physical therapy place. I was also approached by a woman named Laura who recognized me from a mutual friend. I was already super nervous and knowing so many people there made the nervousness 10 times worse. Kinda reminded me of how much I like to sing and how I have no problem singing in front of strangers but if you ask me to sign in front of people I know... I get all freaked out. Standing at the starting line I felt like I was standing in front of family and friends with a microphone in my hand.
The guy who was in charge of starting the race had no gun so he yelled POW and we were off. I started off in the middle of the pack but it did not take long before I was in the back of the pack. I have been following the Jeff Galloway run/walk program so I kept close eye on my watch and planned on walking 1 min. for every 6 min of running. The first walk break came and I was actually in need of it. I was kinda out of breath at this point already which told me I was running faster then I should have been. When I started back up again I tried to slow down a bit but seeing the gap between myself and the people in front of me grow larger and larger made me question my pace and I started to run faster. There was supposed to be someone at what I thought was the 1mile and 2 mile mark telling you what your pace was. I got to the first person and they shouted out 7minuets (I do not remember what the seconds count was). I knew there was no possible way that I could be running at that pace. I have only run a mile in under 8 min once and that was because I was acting overly competitive. I ran it on the treadmill and I had to hold on to the bars for dear life, if I had accidentally let go I would have gone flying off. hahah Trust me when I say there was no possible way for me to do that again without the aid of the treadmill. So once I hear the 7 min call my mind starts to wonder a bit... what? Where am I, was that not the one mile mark? Wait my watch says it has been 10 min. but still I do not run 10 min miles either. Crap how far have I run? Having never run the course before I just had to try to clear my mind and not worry about how far I had run or how far I had to go. I did find comfort though in the fact that although she was quite a distance ahead of me I could still see Stacey and she seemed to be doing well!
The first part of the course took us through a neighborhood and that was kinda fun because there were several people standing outside in their drive ways to watch us. The second part was down a sidewalk which was right between the main rd and a lake. I focused on looking straight ahead but I made sure to take in some of the view of the lake too. I finally came to the second person who was shouting out times and was told I was at 21something. At this point in time I am feeling confident that, that was in fact the 2 mile mark. Which meant that I was trucking! Only at this point in time I could not think about that. I had to focus now on how much I was walking because unfortunately at this point in time I was needing to walk every 4 to 5 min instead of 6. There was a couple that had been running near me the whole race and we were kinda laughing at each other because I would run while they were walking and pass them then when I would walk they would run past me. We leap frogged the whole race.
The last stretch of the race was the drive way to the middle school and onto the middle school's brand new track. Right when I saw that track I knew this was it I was in the home stretch. Only one lap around the track and boom the race would be over. My adrenaline started pumping and I started to push it into gear. I got onto that track and I instantly could smell the rubber or whatever it is made out of. It reminded me of getting a new car and how much you enjoy that new car smell, not so much because of how good the smell is but because of what it represents... the shinny, clean, new car! I enjoyed the smell of the track not because I like to sniff rubber but because it meant I had done it and was just about to cross the finish line. I got half way around that track when the sent was no longer a thought in my mind, all I could think about was I can't breath! I wanted so bad to sprint the whole way around the track but I just was not able to do it. I had to slow down and then eventually walk at which time the couple I had been leap frogging passed me. Feeling a little defeated and upset with myself, a friend from my running moms group on facebook came into my head. Although I have never met Denise nor do I know her that well at all she came into my mind at that moment. I thought about how Denise who started running at 39 years old, she has CLL and was running her first marathon at the same time that I was walking on this track. The words, Denise is running right now, if she can run a marathon I can at least run the rest of this track, popped into my head. (It was not until after I started this blog post that I realized that not only had Denise ran her marathon and completed it she had undergone chemo just 4 days prior to the race... she is amazing and inspirational!) Thinking about Denise was all the motivation I needed I then picked up my feet and ran as fast as I could around the rest of that track. I proudly crossed that finish line in the back of the pack in 88th place with the most amazing time I have ever seen out of myself on a 5k. 32:55 over three and a half min. faster then my previous PR. Even though there were not to many people to cross that finish line behind me I was elated.
I completely out of breath walked up to the equally out of breath couple and gave them a high five and a congrats on a job well done. It was fun having them to go back and forth with the whole race. Then I was off to find Stacey who had crossed the finish line so much farther ahead of me that she already had her breathing regulated and was no longer out of breath. ahahahh She did amazing. While waiting for the results I congratulated some of the staff from Health Quest (my physical therapy place) They all did so well and the majority of them got medals too. This race was amazing and I am already looking forward to doing it again next yr.
I arrived there with my friend Stacey and quickly went to pick up our race packets. Once that was done we had about 30 min to pin on our bibs, warm up, hit the rest rooms and of course get a pre race pic. of ourselves taken.
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| Stacey and myself before the race |
The guy who was in charge of starting the race had no gun so he yelled POW and we were off. I started off in the middle of the pack but it did not take long before I was in the back of the pack. I have been following the Jeff Galloway run/walk program so I kept close eye on my watch and planned on walking 1 min. for every 6 min of running. The first walk break came and I was actually in need of it. I was kinda out of breath at this point already which told me I was running faster then I should have been. When I started back up again I tried to slow down a bit but seeing the gap between myself and the people in front of me grow larger and larger made me question my pace and I started to run faster. There was supposed to be someone at what I thought was the 1mile and 2 mile mark telling you what your pace was. I got to the first person and they shouted out 7minuets (I do not remember what the seconds count was). I knew there was no possible way that I could be running at that pace. I have only run a mile in under 8 min once and that was because I was acting overly competitive. I ran it on the treadmill and I had to hold on to the bars for dear life, if I had accidentally let go I would have gone flying off. hahah Trust me when I say there was no possible way for me to do that again without the aid of the treadmill. So once I hear the 7 min call my mind starts to wonder a bit... what? Where am I, was that not the one mile mark? Wait my watch says it has been 10 min. but still I do not run 10 min miles either. Crap how far have I run? Having never run the course before I just had to try to clear my mind and not worry about how far I had run or how far I had to go. I did find comfort though in the fact that although she was quite a distance ahead of me I could still see Stacey and she seemed to be doing well!
The first part of the course took us through a neighborhood and that was kinda fun because there were several people standing outside in their drive ways to watch us. The second part was down a sidewalk which was right between the main rd and a lake. I focused on looking straight ahead but I made sure to take in some of the view of the lake too. I finally came to the second person who was shouting out times and was told I was at 21something. At this point in time I am feeling confident that, that was in fact the 2 mile mark. Which meant that I was trucking! Only at this point in time I could not think about that. I had to focus now on how much I was walking because unfortunately at this point in time I was needing to walk every 4 to 5 min instead of 6. There was a couple that had been running near me the whole race and we were kinda laughing at each other because I would run while they were walking and pass them then when I would walk they would run past me. We leap frogged the whole race.
The last stretch of the race was the drive way to the middle school and onto the middle school's brand new track. Right when I saw that track I knew this was it I was in the home stretch. Only one lap around the track and boom the race would be over. My adrenaline started pumping and I started to push it into gear. I got onto that track and I instantly could smell the rubber or whatever it is made out of. It reminded me of getting a new car and how much you enjoy that new car smell, not so much because of how good the smell is but because of what it represents... the shinny, clean, new car! I enjoyed the smell of the track not because I like to sniff rubber but because it meant I had done it and was just about to cross the finish line. I got half way around that track when the sent was no longer a thought in my mind, all I could think about was I can't breath! I wanted so bad to sprint the whole way around the track but I just was not able to do it. I had to slow down and then eventually walk at which time the couple I had been leap frogging passed me. Feeling a little defeated and upset with myself, a friend from my running moms group on facebook came into my head. Although I have never met Denise nor do I know her that well at all she came into my mind at that moment. I thought about how Denise who started running at 39 years old, she has CLL and was running her first marathon at the same time that I was walking on this track. The words, Denise is running right now, if she can run a marathon I can at least run the rest of this track, popped into my head. (It was not until after I started this blog post that I realized that not only had Denise ran her marathon and completed it she had undergone chemo just 4 days prior to the race... she is amazing and inspirational!) Thinking about Denise was all the motivation I needed I then picked up my feet and ran as fast as I could around the rest of that track. I proudly crossed that finish line in the back of the pack in 88th place with the most amazing time I have ever seen out of myself on a 5k. 32:55 over three and a half min. faster then my previous PR. Even though there were not to many people to cross that finish line behind me I was elated.
I completely out of breath walked up to the equally out of breath couple and gave them a high five and a congrats on a job well done. It was fun having them to go back and forth with the whole race. Then I was off to find Stacey who had crossed the finish line so much farther ahead of me that she already had her breathing regulated and was no longer out of breath. ahahahh She did amazing. While waiting for the results I congratulated some of the staff from Health Quest (my physical therapy place) They all did so well and the majority of them got medals too. This race was amazing and I am already looking forward to doing it again next yr.
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| Me and Stacey after the Wildcat 5k |
Friday, April 29, 2011
Getting ready for race day
Tomorrow I have my first race of the season... The Wildcat 5k! I am so very excited! The Wildcat 5k will officially be the 4th 5k I have participated in and I will not lie I want to set a PR on this one. My fastest 5k so far has been a virtual 5k that raised money for ST. Jude. I ran it on my treadmill in 36:33. I have always had much faster times on my treadmill. Tomorrow will be different. I will not be able to push a button to force my legs to speed up. I have put in the effort, logged the miles, did my cross training and now I am excited to see it all pay off! I hope to to pull this 5k off in at least 36:30... well to be honest what I really want is a 35:59 but I will be happy with anything under a 36:30.
Physically training for a race might be tough but I tell you what getting ready the day before a race is tough too. There are so many logistics to plan out when you have a family. Ryan has school tomorrow which means not only can he not watch the race, or the kids, he can not help get the kids ready. Two of my three kids are going off with their Papa to a MI State game while the youngest is going to his friends soccer game to cheer on his buddy. I have to make sure I have EVERYTHING all planned out, laid out, and figured out tonight so that tomorrow morning is smooth sailing. With three boys something stupid is bound to come up tomorrow that will put me in a state of panic... but right now I am feeling confident despite the pre race jitters I have. I can not wait to give you a full race report tomorrow! Wish me luck!
Physically training for a race might be tough but I tell you what getting ready the day before a race is tough too. There are so many logistics to plan out when you have a family. Ryan has school tomorrow which means not only can he not watch the race, or the kids, he can not help get the kids ready. Two of my three kids are going off with their Papa to a MI State game while the youngest is going to his friends soccer game to cheer on his buddy. I have to make sure I have EVERYTHING all planned out, laid out, and figured out tonight so that tomorrow morning is smooth sailing. With three boys something stupid is bound to come up tomorrow that will put me in a state of panic... but right now I am feeling confident despite the pre race jitters I have. I can not wait to give you a full race report tomorrow! Wish me luck!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
got gas?
Sitting approximately 12.5 miles away from my house is my local YMCA. I drive to this Y 5 days a week. Now I do know that there are several gyms within a 5 mile radius of my house that I could have joined but none had the vast amenities of the Y. Most importantly the child watch and pool. There is one place with the fancy pool and childcare slightly closer but it was 30 bucks a month more and well I was not willing to dig any deeper into my pockets. The drive has never kept me away from the gym though, in fact I like the 20 min. of wake up time the drive provides me in the early morning. I started hitting the Y routinely after my treadmill died a few months back. Sure sure there were days that I could not go to the Y due to a typical MI winter but for the most part once that treadmill died I was there religiously. That is until now... Today I did not hit that local gym, sadly I did not get to hear all the "good mornings" or see all the smiling faces that I have grown so used to seeing early in the morning, I did not drive in the rain to get my workout on. Instead I set out this morning in the cold and rain to run outside. Sadly I was about 5 steps into my run when a huge gust of cold wind hit me and I was second guessing my decision to not drive to the gym. Why when someone who does not mind the drive, enjoys the people, has the time, etc would they choose to run in the cold, rainy weather? Sticker shock people! I would rather run in the cold rainy weather then to pass out from the sticker shock I would get at the pump. What the hell is going on with these gas prices? My word this price hike is outrageous! The 25 mile round trip visit to my local Y each morning could potentially dry out this stay at home moms pocket book. As a SHAM I already feel bad spending 80 bucks a month on a gym membership let alone spending over 200 a month to get there. I figure if I can cut back on the gym 2 or three days a week (running days) then I should be able to save at least $100.00per month. I know every mom needs to do a little something for herself but I also know that every mom wants nothing more then to be able to give back to her family and that's what I am going to do. There is a disclaimer in this statement though... if by chance it snows again (don't hhhmmph me this is MI people stranger things have happened) or if the temp goes below 50* or of course if it is pouring. Light rain is as far as I go. Other then that I am running outside!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
When the legs feel like brick
Ok so I know my posts have been few and far between lately but that's just because nothing exciting has been going on. Plagued by a shoulder injury, the last few weeks have just kinda been blah. I have been keeping up with all my workouts but to be honest my runs although not bad, have not been great either. I think that every runner has those days when they get up all pumped up to run only to find out that their legs just were not as pumped as their mind was. I had a day like that on Tuesday, before I even had one lap around the track in I was thinking what the hell is wrong with the legs today? I feel like I am running in wet cement. For the next two miles nothing changed and the same frustrating thoughts were going through my head. I was happy as hell when I finally gave myself permission to stop running. For a runner days like these are frustrating as hell and you just pray that they never happen on a race day.
I have my first 5k of the season next Saturday and Tuesdays run had left a bad taste in my mouth. So today when I set out to the gym I had Tuesdays run on my mind and I knew I had to do better then that. I got there and walked a quarter mile to warm up. I was feeling great until... I started running! Legs felt like bricks again! Frustration mixed with a bit of nervousness started to set in as several times I thought my legs were going to give out. I pressed on and finally I had a half mile in. Over the winter I started following the Geff Galloway's run/walk method of running. So typically I would have run another lap or two and then walked a lap but today, since I was having so much trouble, I decided to walk every half mile. Once the walk lap was over I set out to just finish a mile. The second half went NO better then the first and the whole time I was running all I could think about was only 5, 4, 3, 2, and then 1 more lap until I can walk again. At 1 mile I thought oh man this is ridiculous. I have been running for almost a yr now there is no way in hell I will settle for two runs in a row being crap. Determined to do better I pressed on. After my walk break at 1.5 my legs started to feel a little lighter like someone had taken weights off my ankles. The fear that my legs were going to just give out was now gone allowing me a little freedom from all the thinking and negativity going on in my mind. I stopped thinking about running and just started listening to my music. That is until I was one lap from the 2 mile mark when I looked at the time and thought OMG what the hell?!? I have been running for 30 min and I have not quite made 2 miles yet. My mind was like a whirl wind of thoughts again, 30 min that can not be right, uggg I need to run faster, the walkers at the race on Sat are going to beat me, I can not come in last at this race, I am slower then a turtle I am a fricken sloth, I have to step this up, 30 min... seriously that can not be right it just can not be right... is that right?! All these thoughts and a million more took over my mind for the next mile. By the time mile 3 hit I had realized two things. 1. My legs were feeling good now 2. I need to go back to 3rd grade because I can not tell time. LOL what I thought was 30 min was actually only 25 min. I did not stop running when I hit mile 3, I figured I would just continue on until I got in a full 5k. The only thing is my legs were now feeling good I mean real good I hit the 5k point and felt no need to stop so I told myself just make it an even 3 and a quarter. Only once I hit that I still felt good. Ok 3.5 I told myself. I got there no problem. Ok 3.75 then! once I got to 3.75 are you kidding me only 4 more laps until I get in 4 miles. I got this easy! One lap before 4 miles I glance at the clock again. (this time reading it correctly) and realized ok wether or not I can go any farther I have to stop and get home so Ryan can get to work. So I sprinted the last lap. Finishing my last mile and a half with no walk breaks, and the full 4 miles in just 45 min. Which happens to be an amazing pace for me.
I am not sure how a run with such an awful negative start ended up being one of my best runs I have ever had but I am very happy about it. Infact I think that last mile I ran gave me what is known as a runners high. Could it be?!?! What I do know is I feel a whole lot more confident going into next weeks 5k knowing that there is a possibility that I could potentially pull of a pace under a 12 min. mile. ~It still shocks me that less then a yr ago I could not run around the block and now... WOW!
I have my first 5k of the season next Saturday and Tuesdays run had left a bad taste in my mouth. So today when I set out to the gym I had Tuesdays run on my mind and I knew I had to do better then that. I got there and walked a quarter mile to warm up. I was feeling great until... I started running! Legs felt like bricks again! Frustration mixed with a bit of nervousness started to set in as several times I thought my legs were going to give out. I pressed on and finally I had a half mile in. Over the winter I started following the Geff Galloway's run/walk method of running. So typically I would have run another lap or two and then walked a lap but today, since I was having so much trouble, I decided to walk every half mile. Once the walk lap was over I set out to just finish a mile. The second half went NO better then the first and the whole time I was running all I could think about was only 5, 4, 3, 2, and then 1 more lap until I can walk again. At 1 mile I thought oh man this is ridiculous. I have been running for almost a yr now there is no way in hell I will settle for two runs in a row being crap. Determined to do better I pressed on. After my walk break at 1.5 my legs started to feel a little lighter like someone had taken weights off my ankles. The fear that my legs were going to just give out was now gone allowing me a little freedom from all the thinking and negativity going on in my mind. I stopped thinking about running and just started listening to my music. That is until I was one lap from the 2 mile mark when I looked at the time and thought OMG what the hell?!? I have been running for 30 min and I have not quite made 2 miles yet. My mind was like a whirl wind of thoughts again, 30 min that can not be right, uggg I need to run faster, the walkers at the race on Sat are going to beat me, I can not come in last at this race, I am slower then a turtle I am a fricken sloth, I have to step this up, 30 min... seriously that can not be right it just can not be right... is that right?! All these thoughts and a million more took over my mind for the next mile. By the time mile 3 hit I had realized two things. 1. My legs were feeling good now 2. I need to go back to 3rd grade because I can not tell time. LOL what I thought was 30 min was actually only 25 min. I did not stop running when I hit mile 3, I figured I would just continue on until I got in a full 5k. The only thing is my legs were now feeling good I mean real good I hit the 5k point and felt no need to stop so I told myself just make it an even 3 and a quarter. Only once I hit that I still felt good. Ok 3.5 I told myself. I got there no problem. Ok 3.75 then! once I got to 3.75 are you kidding me only 4 more laps until I get in 4 miles. I got this easy! One lap before 4 miles I glance at the clock again. (this time reading it correctly) and realized ok wether or not I can go any farther I have to stop and get home so Ryan can get to work. So I sprinted the last lap. Finishing my last mile and a half with no walk breaks, and the full 4 miles in just 45 min. Which happens to be an amazing pace for me.
I am not sure how a run with such an awful negative start ended up being one of my best runs I have ever had but I am very happy about it. Infact I think that last mile I ran gave me what is known as a runners high. Could it be?!?! What I do know is I feel a whole lot more confident going into next weeks 5k knowing that there is a possibility that I could potentially pull of a pace under a 12 min. mile. ~It still shocks me that less then a yr ago I could not run around the block and now... WOW!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
I am so happy to say... I have missed you!
When I first started running I hated to run outside. The reason I had for hating running outside is actually quite sad. I was so self conscious about how heavy I was that it was keeping me from what I needed to do, lose weight. Every time I ran out of steam and would have to walk the thought of omg if anyone sees me walking right now they are going to think that I am to fat to run. Anytime I saw someone looking at me I would think I bet they are thinking that girl NEEDS to walk. I would run in the neighborhood at night so that way when people looked out their windows they would not know it was me out there trying to get into shape. Plain and simple I was embarrassed of myself. I now see that these fears I had were irrational. That's not to say that I don't still get those thoughts here and there but I now know to not listen to them. In fact what I have learned is that a good majority of people I talk to are impressed with what I can do they say things to me like I am not sure if I could run around the block let alone a 5k ~good job! The running community has helped me out tremendously as well. The support that runners give each other is amazing! My friends in my FB running moms group, CM running group and dailymile are some of the most amazing people I have never met. ahahahhah I know my husband thinks I am crazy for having so many friends that I do not actually know, but without them... I would probably still be running in the dark! I now know that when I am out running most people who drive past me are A. not paying attention and don't even notice me or B. think damn I wish I were out running right now.
Living in MI we have nasty winters and one thing that I can say is although I am no longer embarrassed to run outside I am to chicken shit to run outside when it is cold. I learned this last Nov. when I ran my second ever 5k and it was cold, very cold. I ran my 5k with a time over 42 min. (it took me less time to run 3.5 today) I coughed for hours after the race and I felt like I had just chain smoked a pack of cigs. It was not fun and I did not like the way I felt after so that day said no more outdoor running when it is cold. After 6 months of running inside on the treadmill or the YMCA track (except of course my 5k on New Years Day) I was ready to get my butt outside. Sunday was that day! It was warm in the 70's! I brought my 8 yr old son Cooper with me, he rode his bike. I found myself almost a little sad that I wasted so much time on being embarrassed and self conscious while outdoors. My run was great and not because I had a good pace going in fact quite the opposite. After running on a flat track all the little hills I came across seemed like mountains and I did have to walk a lot more then normal. But feeling the wind on my face, smelling the fresh air, saying hi to all the other people that were out enjoying the finally nice weather... I felt alive, not embarrassed! I just enjoyed myself and being with my son. Apparently I missed running outside, which is a very good thing!
Living in MI we have nasty winters and one thing that I can say is although I am no longer embarrassed to run outside I am to chicken shit to run outside when it is cold. I learned this last Nov. when I ran my second ever 5k and it was cold, very cold. I ran my 5k with a time over 42 min. (it took me less time to run 3.5 today) I coughed for hours after the race and I felt like I had just chain smoked a pack of cigs. It was not fun and I did not like the way I felt after so that day said no more outdoor running when it is cold. After 6 months of running inside on the treadmill or the YMCA track (except of course my 5k on New Years Day) I was ready to get my butt outside. Sunday was that day! It was warm in the 70's! I brought my 8 yr old son Cooper with me, he rode his bike. I found myself almost a little sad that I wasted so much time on being embarrassed and self conscious while outdoors. My run was great and not because I had a good pace going in fact quite the opposite. After running on a flat track all the little hills I came across seemed like mountains and I did have to walk a lot more then normal. But feeling the wind on my face, smelling the fresh air, saying hi to all the other people that were out enjoying the finally nice weather... I felt alive, not embarrassed! I just enjoyed myself and being with my son. Apparently I missed running outside, which is a very good thing!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Yay I signed up for the Warrior Dash 2011
Wow it has been a long time since I have posted anything. Where on earth does the time go?
I am a very happy girl right now. I convinced my husband to do the warrior dash with me. For those of you who do not know what the warrior dash is, this is how they explain it on their website... It is a mud crawling, fire leaping, extreme run from hell. This fierce running series is held on the most challenging and rugged terrain across the globe. Warriors conquer extreme obstacles, push their limits and celebrate with kick ass music, beer and of course warrior helmets. My husband is not and never has been a runner so time to get him (and myself training) I just printed off the couch to 5k program for him and he started last week. We have plenty of time though, the race here in MI is not until the end of July. I would be lying if I said I was not nervous. Running 3.3 miles, I got that no problem but I am not sure how my upper body strength is going to hold up through all the obstacles. I am thinking I should be picking up the little heavier weights in my total body workout classes now ~lol.
On a side note... I have continued to get my butt to the gym 5 days a week and all is going well. I actually look forward to my morning workouts and seeing all the familiar faces at the gym. Every day it is the same people and although I do not know most of their names we all talk. One guy just got back from a week long biking trip in Arizona. Two of the girls I now know are training for a 5k while another is training for a half. I have heard the stories of a recent 5k in Detroit in which everyone running were freezing their butts off. Each day there are 5-10 people in the army who come and work out, always the same 5-10 people dressed in their camo kicking ass working out on the gym floor. The track is upstairs over looking the gym and run after run lap after lap I find them extremely motivating. Looking down at them while they are doing push up after push up knowing that they are working their asses off to not only stay in shape for themselves but for all of us Americans makes me want to run that much harder, that much farther. I have never had a conversation with any of those guys but a week or so ago one of those guys came upstairs gave me a high 5 and said nice job. He probably thought I had run miles upon miles upon miles because I was on that track for such a long time but in all honesty I only ran 4 miles. lol I love the morning crew at the gym and have found waking up at 4:45am is less daunting knowing that when I walk through the doors at 5:30 am I will be greeted by all the same familiar faces. Ryan (my husband) who is not a morning person and never has been went to the gym today before work and when he was done he sent me a text that said. "the place was kinda busy but the people are much more friendly in the morning." I could have told him that :)
I am a very happy girl right now. I convinced my husband to do the warrior dash with me. For those of you who do not know what the warrior dash is, this is how they explain it on their website... It is a mud crawling, fire leaping, extreme run from hell. This fierce running series is held on the most challenging and rugged terrain across the globe. Warriors conquer extreme obstacles, push their limits and celebrate with kick ass music, beer and of course warrior helmets. My husband is not and never has been a runner so time to get him (and myself training) I just printed off the couch to 5k program for him and he started last week. We have plenty of time though, the race here in MI is not until the end of July. I would be lying if I said I was not nervous. Running 3.3 miles, I got that no problem but I am not sure how my upper body strength is going to hold up through all the obstacles. I am thinking I should be picking up the little heavier weights in my total body workout classes now ~lol.
On a side note... I have continued to get my butt to the gym 5 days a week and all is going well. I actually look forward to my morning workouts and seeing all the familiar faces at the gym. Every day it is the same people and although I do not know most of their names we all talk. One guy just got back from a week long biking trip in Arizona. Two of the girls I now know are training for a 5k while another is training for a half. I have heard the stories of a recent 5k in Detroit in which everyone running were freezing their butts off. Each day there are 5-10 people in the army who come and work out, always the same 5-10 people dressed in their camo kicking ass working out on the gym floor. The track is upstairs over looking the gym and run after run lap after lap I find them extremely motivating. Looking down at them while they are doing push up after push up knowing that they are working their asses off to not only stay in shape for themselves but for all of us Americans makes me want to run that much harder, that much farther. I have never had a conversation with any of those guys but a week or so ago one of those guys came upstairs gave me a high 5 and said nice job. He probably thought I had run miles upon miles upon miles because I was on that track for such a long time but in all honesty I only ran 4 miles. lol I love the morning crew at the gym and have found waking up at 4:45am is less daunting knowing that when I walk through the doors at 5:30 am I will be greeted by all the same familiar faces. Ryan (my husband) who is not a morning person and never has been went to the gym today before work and when he was done he sent me a text that said. "the place was kinda busy but the people are much more friendly in the morning." I could have told him that :)
Monday, March 7, 2011
A little angry running and randomness
I feel like my work out life is kinda boring right now which is why I have not written in this blog for over a week. Every day the same boring thing... 5am alarm goes off, I unhappily roll my ass out of bed, start my car (automatic start is a beautiful thing) get ready and out the door by 5:15 am. Mon - Thur it is the same drill over and over again and I am getting board. Spring oh how I long for you, I want to wake up in the morning and say hhhmmm I think I will run the trail or perhaps today I will run the neighborhood. I hate knowing that I am limited to the treadmill at the gym or the track at the gym. I am not desperate enough to run outside in the cold and snow just yet though.
Speaking of the gym... Sat. I took Owen for his swimming lessons. The class is only 45min. long but I went up to the track to run while he took his class. On a normal Sat. I would hit the gym right when they open at 7am and make Sat. my long run day. (some of you are probably thinking anything under 5 miles should not be considered a long run but in my book... anything above 3 miles is a long run lol) With Owen doing swim lessons the "long" runs are not going to be cut short for a little while. Oh well. So this past Sat. was the first time I had ever run on the track when the gym had not just opened. It had already been open for 2.5 hrs at that point and IT WAS A ZOO! At 5:30am on the weekdays it is just me, two ladies who walk together and the cute guy with nice arms... back... ass... (WHAT?!?!... I might be on my 12th year of marriage but I am not dead, give a girl a break. Besides he runs faster then me so I have no choice but to look at his assets lap after lap after lap) hhhmmm where was I? Oh yeah so other then about three other people I have the whole track to myself every morning. Sat. mornings there are a few more people but still nothing like what I experienced this past Sat.
I think an etiquette class needs to be held when it comes to track running. I almost leveled a guy when he decided to cross the track without looking to see if any runners/walkers were coming. Then there are the people who decide to walk together who take up both the fast and the slow lane, annoying but not as irritating as the person who decides to walk in the fast lane. Sorry to burst your bubble but it does not matter how fast you are walking people, you are still not as fast as the runners! Running the track should be viewed like driving, keep in the right lane and pass in the left lane when necessary. Why is this such a hard concept for some people? The thing is it was not just one or two people doing this... there were several. The the lady who stopped in the fast lane to tie her shoe takes the cake though. OMG if your shoe lace comes undone that is ok, just move over and off the track, tie it and get back on. Don't just stop right in front of people who are running, where is the common sense? I think she learned her lesson when the guy who was running at a pretty good clip came right up on her. Although a "crash" was avoided he did end up knocking her over. Ok so this is not showing good sportsmanship but I will be honest I did chuckled to myself and thought serves her right for not using her head. The only way I can describe Saturdays run is by calling it an angry run. lol I was so annoyed with everyone around me. I need this weather to break so I can take a long run outside with little chance of running into someone.
On a happy note I got a special package in the mail the other day!!! Blogger Heather http://www.runfastermommy.com/ was running a contest to win a necklace from http://www.sportygirljewelry.com/ Would you believe I won?!?!!? Oh my gosh I was so happy! It came wrapped so nice ~would make an excellent gift! I got the one that says eat, pray run, repeat! Thank you Heather and Sporty girl Jewelry, I love love love my new necklace!
Speaking of the gym... Sat. I took Owen for his swimming lessons. The class is only 45min. long but I went up to the track to run while he took his class. On a normal Sat. I would hit the gym right when they open at 7am and make Sat. my long run day. (some of you are probably thinking anything under 5 miles should not be considered a long run but in my book... anything above 3 miles is a long run lol) With Owen doing swim lessons the "long" runs are not going to be cut short for a little while. Oh well. So this past Sat. was the first time I had ever run on the track when the gym had not just opened. It had already been open for 2.5 hrs at that point and IT WAS A ZOO! At 5:30am on the weekdays it is just me, two ladies who walk together and the cute guy with nice arms... back... ass... (WHAT?!?!... I might be on my 12th year of marriage but I am not dead, give a girl a break. Besides he runs faster then me so I have no choice but to look at his assets lap after lap after lap) hhhmmm where was I? Oh yeah so other then about three other people I have the whole track to myself every morning. Sat. mornings there are a few more people but still nothing like what I experienced this past Sat.
I think an etiquette class needs to be held when it comes to track running. I almost leveled a guy when he decided to cross the track without looking to see if any runners/walkers were coming. Then there are the people who decide to walk together who take up both the fast and the slow lane, annoying but not as irritating as the person who decides to walk in the fast lane. Sorry to burst your bubble but it does not matter how fast you are walking people, you are still not as fast as the runners! Running the track should be viewed like driving, keep in the right lane and pass in the left lane when necessary. Why is this such a hard concept for some people? The thing is it was not just one or two people doing this... there were several. The the lady who stopped in the fast lane to tie her shoe takes the cake though. OMG if your shoe lace comes undone that is ok, just move over and off the track, tie it and get back on. Don't just stop right in front of people who are running, where is the common sense? I think she learned her lesson when the guy who was running at a pretty good clip came right up on her. Although a "crash" was avoided he did end up knocking her over. Ok so this is not showing good sportsmanship but I will be honest I did chuckled to myself and thought serves her right for not using her head. The only way I can describe Saturdays run is by calling it an angry run. lol I was so annoyed with everyone around me. I need this weather to break so I can take a long run outside with little chance of running into someone.
On a happy note I got a special package in the mail the other day!!! Blogger Heather http://www.runfastermommy.com/ was running a contest to win a necklace from http://www.sportygirljewelry.com/ Would you believe I won?!?!!? Oh my gosh I was so happy! It came wrapped so nice ~would make an excellent gift! I got the one that says eat, pray run, repeat! Thank you Heather and Sporty girl Jewelry, I love love love my new necklace!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Cross Training
Alright alright so we all know it is important to cross train. Blah blah blah. Knowing this information I would do some things other then run. I occasionally would swim, shovel the drive (it is winter here you know), 30 day shred, bike etc. The key word here was occasionally. I kinda told myself that if I did these things periodical along with the running I would be good. Not to long ago a friend in my online running group posted a comment about how she had been doing her cross training every week for the last 5 weeks and she has noticed a difference. She was feeling strong and her running was improving. hhhhmmm
As everyone who would listen to me knows my treadmill is a no go until I can get a new one. Which means I have been hitting the gym. Ok let me be honest it sucks waking up at 5am every single morning, I mean really sucks! That said while I have to drive 20 min to get to my gym I figured I better make the most of it. So I started lifting weights as well. Last Friday I discovered that the gym has a total body workout class on Mon. and Wed. mornings. After reading that post in my running moms group and seeing that there was a class that was on my non running days I thought ok it is time for the cross training thing to begin for real... not just occasionally.
This was my first week and I got my ass kicked on Monday. I knew the workout was tough while I was doing it and I was glad it was hard. I felt like I was accomplishing something. Then night hit and I had some muscle pain. When morning came and I went to get out of bed to go run... omg I was in pain. I could hardly get down my stairs. My ass and legs were feeling it big time! In fact I can say with 100% certainty that, that was the most pain I have ever been in after a workout. I somehow made it to the gym to run. It was not a good run though. I needed to take a walk break at just 3 min. in and unfortunately it did not get much better. Run 3 min walk 1 min, run 3.5 min walk a 1 min. you get the point. The measly two miles felt like 5 miles it was just dragging on. It sucked! That said I was so glad that I went and I felt a sense of accomplishment throughout the whole day.
Last night I was still sore and actually took Motrin to ease the pain. I then was debating on whether or not to go this morning. Maybe I should ease into this cross training thing a little more. Take it slow, one a week was more then I was doing last week and I could always add the Wed. class once the Monday class gets a little easier. I did not sleep well all night still thinking about what I should do... to go or not to go. Then the alarm went off and I was sure I was going to just roll over and sleep some more but after about 5 min of laying in bed I had to pee. Of course once I got out of bed to pee I just got dressed popped some Motrin and off I went. Apparently I am more dedicated to this working out thing then I give myself credit for. The Motrin worked. It was a good workout and of course I am completely happy that I went.
It blows my mind how someone who runs 3/4 times a week can be so out of shape. How can that be? lol Apparently I needed this cross training more then I ever dreamed. This is only week one but I hope that 5 weeks from now I can post a comment similar to the one my friend posted in our running moms group. (thanks for inspiring me Jill)
As everyone who would listen to me knows my treadmill is a no go until I can get a new one. Which means I have been hitting the gym. Ok let me be honest it sucks waking up at 5am every single morning, I mean really sucks! That said while I have to drive 20 min to get to my gym I figured I better make the most of it. So I started lifting weights as well. Last Friday I discovered that the gym has a total body workout class on Mon. and Wed. mornings. After reading that post in my running moms group and seeing that there was a class that was on my non running days I thought ok it is time for the cross training thing to begin for real... not just occasionally.
This was my first week and I got my ass kicked on Monday. I knew the workout was tough while I was doing it and I was glad it was hard. I felt like I was accomplishing something. Then night hit and I had some muscle pain. When morning came and I went to get out of bed to go run... omg I was in pain. I could hardly get down my stairs. My ass and legs were feeling it big time! In fact I can say with 100% certainty that, that was the most pain I have ever been in after a workout. I somehow made it to the gym to run. It was not a good run though. I needed to take a walk break at just 3 min. in and unfortunately it did not get much better. Run 3 min walk 1 min, run 3.5 min walk a 1 min. you get the point. The measly two miles felt like 5 miles it was just dragging on. It sucked! That said I was so glad that I went and I felt a sense of accomplishment throughout the whole day.
Last night I was still sore and actually took Motrin to ease the pain. I then was debating on whether or not to go this morning. Maybe I should ease into this cross training thing a little more. Take it slow, one a week was more then I was doing last week and I could always add the Wed. class once the Monday class gets a little easier. I did not sleep well all night still thinking about what I should do... to go or not to go. Then the alarm went off and I was sure I was going to just roll over and sleep some more but after about 5 min of laying in bed I had to pee. Of course once I got out of bed to pee I just got dressed popped some Motrin and off I went. Apparently I am more dedicated to this working out thing then I give myself credit for. The Motrin worked. It was a good workout and of course I am completely happy that I went.
It blows my mind how someone who runs 3/4 times a week can be so out of shape. How can that be? lol Apparently I needed this cross training more then I ever dreamed. This is only week one but I hope that 5 weeks from now I can post a comment similar to the one my friend posted in our running moms group. (thanks for inspiring me Jill)
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Hard to say goodbye
So here it is middle of winter with weather below 0 and I am faced with three different options...
1. Pout while sitting on my couch and reading about others running while feeling sorry for myself
2. pout and put on my winter running gear and get my butt outside... oh wait I do not own winter running gear. Pout while spending money on new outdoor running gear and then get my butt outside and run.
3. Pout while waking up at 5am so that I can hit the gym before my husband has to leave the house for work.
Seems to me that option one would be a little pathetic so that will not work for me. Option two is no good because as you already know I am chicken shit. I am sorry I know this like option one sounds pathetic but ice and I are not friends and it is covering my streets and sidewalks as we speak so.... no I will not surrender to outdoor running I just will not. (at least until ALL the ice is gone) All that leaves is option three. 5am wake ups with a 20 min drive to the gym. My days of staying up late, sleeping in and running during nap time are over. Wish me luck peeps!
Ok so I will be honest, I am worried. It does not pain me to tell you this, I will gladly admit that I am not some super warrior who is brave enough to endure the element's of winter. I have run outside only once in the last 3 months. This is the first winter I have encountered as a runner and I am not a fan! I discovered on my 5k turkey trot in Nov. that running outside when it is cold is just something I have NO interest in doing. Then add in the snow and well... I give you permission to call me chicken shit! So fortunately for me I own a treadmill! I am so lucky! Wait, sadly what I mean to say is, I was so lucky.
My Treadmill is all but dead! This fine piece of American made machinery is old and although I do not know exactly how old the treadmill is I do know it is from the 1980's. 30 years of use...amazing! This treadmill's belt had an issue with getting lose and moving. An issue that I am sure happens with many of treadmills but I have to tell you it never happened on ours until my husband ran on it once. I always kinda thought he ran funny (or at least looked funny running) and this just proved it. Of course you can tighten it and we often did but lately it seems as though it does not matter how much you tighten it just keeps moving. Well the other day it moved so far over that the belt caught on something and started ripping. My wonderful husband tried as he has in the past to tighten the belt and it just did not work. Truth be told when you are walking and the belt moves it is easy just to walk it back into place but I have not mastered this while running. During yesterdays short 1 mile run I had to slow to a walk several times just to try and walk the belt back into place. I could not imagine having to do this if I were going to run several miles.
This old fella had been given to me by a friend of mines parents who were moving out of state and lets face it a treadmill, as heavy as it is, is not an easy thing to move. So they gave it to me and I can not express how grateful I am that they did that. This old fellow was there under my feet the day I took the plunge into the running world. In fact I was so comfortable on it that I was afraid to run outside even though it was summer. It got me to my first 5k and all the way up to running over 5 miles. It had been there for me on the coldest and wettest of days and it even was there for my little boy when he started running last month. Oh the good times we have had! (sigh) Although my husband said he is going to try once again to bring the old fellow back to life I am trying to not keep my hopes up to high for I know the end is near.
So here it is middle of winter with weather below 0 and I am faced with three different options...
1. Pout while sitting on my couch and reading about others running while feeling sorry for myself
2.
3. Pout while waking up at 5am so that I can hit the gym before my husband has to leave the house for work.
Seems to me that option one would be a little pathetic so that will not work for me. Option two is no good because as you already know I am chicken shit. I am sorry I know this like option one sounds pathetic but ice and I are not friends and it is covering my streets and sidewalks as we speak so.... no I will not surrender to outdoor running I just will not. (at least until ALL the ice is gone) All that leaves is option three. 5am wake ups with a 20 min drive to the gym. My days of staying up late, sleeping in and running during nap time are over. Wish me luck peeps!
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| GOOD BYE OLD FRIEND WE WILL MISS YOU! |
Thursday, January 27, 2011
My child knew he was not getting enough exercise
We all know that exercise is good for us. It keeps our heart healthy, helps maintain our weight, improves our mood, keeps us at low risk for a plethora of medical issues, the list goes on and on. For those of us who exercise on a regular basis we know it and can feel it if we do not get our exercise in. Kids are the same as us adults... they need the exercise. For the little ones at my house who are not in school yet we dance each day, do work out videos (which is hysterical by the way... there is nothing cuter then 2 and 3 yr old trying to do push ups) we play games like duck duck goose and ring around the Rosie. All in the name of using our muscles. The older kids though... that's a different story. Physical activity is not treated as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic anymore. I learned just recently that I need to pay a little more attention to the amount of exercise my children are getting at home because the amount at school is NOT enough... at least not enough for my high energy boys!
Not to long ago my 3rd graders teacher called me at home to tell me that my sons behavior was a little distracting, and that he was not very attentive in class. My son is all boy and loves to act goofy so although I could picture in my head exactly what she was talking about, I was still taken off guard and a little shocked. This was the first phone call ever I had gotten in regards to him not behaving and I did not like it. I assured her that his behavior would be better the next day. Well the next day came and I got a little note saying that he was still distracting and unattentive in class. At this point in time I am fuming, I promised her he would behave and I thought I had made it extremely clear to my child what my expectations for of his behavior were the night before when I handed down his punishment. For the record I just happen to get lucky with the punishment. The teachers phone call just happen to be on a highly awaited cub scout meeting day. My son knew he would be recognized for his hard work and would receive a marshmallow shooter. I took him to the meeting and then took the marshmallow shooter away before he even had a chance to open it. It sits in our dinning room just waiting for some devious child to pick it up and launch marshmallows at some unsuspecting individual. (I do not think it will have to wait much longer...I foresee an all out marshmallow attack happening in the near future) When I saw the note I just looked at him with my disappointed mommy face and asked "why?" He responded with "I don't know mom it is probably because we only got 5 min outside today" It was interesting to hear him say this because I had been concerned with their lack of physical play lately but had not expressed those concerns with him. Now some might have taken this as just an 8 yr old making excuses for his bad behavior to get out of trouble but I found it to be a perfect opportunity to turn it into an experiment. "Ok Coop. I will agree that 5 min is NOT enough time for any young child so guess what tomorrow morning I am going to help you get some exercise in before school". Since he is trying to run 25 miles before April for a children's marathon he is participating in I decided to have him run one mile before school two or three days a week. At least on the days that I know it is going to be to cold for the children to have outdoor recess. I will admit that waking him up a little early to get on the treadmill might seem extreme to some and on some days he does not want to get out of bed but by the time he puts on his shoes he is in the mood and once he gets on the treadmill he is all smiles. The first week we tried this out the days that he ran he got a good report from school. There was a day he did not run but had gym, he did well and got a good report that day too but the day that there was no gym class and no running he got another note home that he was distracting. I found this interesting so I continued with my little experiment this week. This week however we have had a couple days that it was warm enough to spend some time outside so he has gotten more exercise just from playing outside after school. That said though so far every day this week he has come home with a good report.
I think my son was right at just 8 years old the child knew what his body needed. I have read that children need 60 min of physical activity each day. When I thought about it I realized that Cooper was not getting nearly that amount in. Except on the days that he had gym class but that is only two days a week. I could safely say that he was getting in under 15 min of walking to and from school and was getting about 15 min at recess time. That is only 30 min, half of what I read was the recommendation for children. That's assuming the weather is good and the kids get an outdoor recess. We live in MI so we have indoor recess a lot and indoor recess only includes board games, movies, coloring and quite activities. No wonder my kid was not attentive. Up until this week he would come home from school, work on homework, eat dinner, have a little free play, get ready for bed, read and then lights out. This week weather was nice so I added 15-30 min of physical play time before he did his home work. I also added an extra 5-10 min each morning right before we walk to school for the kids to play outside. It could be a coincidence but I don't think so. The kids do not have school tomorrow but I can not wait to see how he does next week. I honestly think this lack of phyical activity has everything to do with his lack of attention at school. Keeping my fingers crossed
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
200th mile
Well I reached a milestone the other day that I never in a million years thought I would achieve. 200 miles! To be honest I never thought that I would ever be in a position in which I would even be logging my miles. That all changed 7 months ago when I decided out of the blue that I was going to run a 5k. Thanks to dailymile, my friends at cafemom, and a well known program called Couch to 5k I got my butt up of the couch and ran. I can not tell you how much of a sense of accomplishment I feel knowing that I have already put in 200 miles. I am extremely proud of myself not just for the 200 miles but for knowing I have hundreds more I want to log. It is so surreal for me to look back at my life less then a yr ago and know that I could not run a block without having to stop and walk. Now running a mile is nothing. I have changed my life for the better and knowing that I am setting a positive example for my three young boys is priceless. The example I am setting for my boys is already paying off... my 8 yr old now runs a mile on the treadmill several times a week. He wants to enter races and earn metals, which is all fine and dandy but this mama is just happy that he is interested in something that will keep his heart strong and healthy. My 6 yr old who has not completely jumped on the fitness bandwagon said he wanted to run a race too. (proud mommy moment) I of course also love the fact that I have lost about 15lbs since I started running. I would love to say good bye to another 15 lbs and I know it will not happen over night but I do know that it will happen due to my new physical lifestyle. My mood has improved and I know that if I am having an off day just 30 min on my treadmill (or a run outside but I have forgotten what that's like due to all the snow) will work wonders. Best therapy ever and it is free. I think it is safe to say I have become an addict!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
on the road again... well treadmill anyways
Well along with ringing in this new year with a 5k I apparently also rang it in with a muscle strain in my right groin area. Dr. says it is a pulled or strained groin physical therapist thinks it is a hip flexor injury possibly. Who knows but already having issues with bulging disks in my back I was feeling a little bit... I don't know gimpy?!?! I knew that I had to take it easy and since I don't have any races or anything coming up I figured this is the best time if any to be on the IR list. Other then one quick 1 mile run just to see how the strained muscle was doing, I had not run in 16 days. YIKES!
Don't think I was sitting back doing nothing for those 16 days though, haha I wish I had been though. My husband got word from his work that he would have to go to Mexico for a week. My family is not used to my husband having to travel. Sure he has gone away for a weekend before but never for a whole week, so the days leading up to his departure the family all hung out which was sooo nice. Then he left... and single parent mode kicked in.
Just a few short hrs after he was gone I realize my Owen is (6) is sick with a fever which lasts two days. Unable to go to school I spent those two days waiting on him hand and foot. This illness of Owens also landed a phone call to poison control when I accidentally gave him two doses of a decongestant instead of one. Thankfully the poison control operator was able to make me feel so much better when he reassured me that the kid had no where near harmful levels in his system. I can not help but wonder if the overdose on decongestant is what caused Owens nose bleed two days later that would not stop bleeding for over 40 min. uuuggg that was fun!
Then there was the huge project Cooper had to do for school. The kid had to make a musical instrument that was able to change pitches. SERIOUSLY?!?! Come on now these kids are 8! Of course the instrument Coop chose required saws, drills, spay paint etc. Yeah like I am going to let my kid lose with power tools... this family project quickly became "a parent project" Ryan before he left took care of building it with him but I was in charge of getting the huge poster together with him. Since I already completed third grade this annoyed me more then I can tell you!
Then there was the dreaded phone call from Coops teacher in the middle of the week saying that he was not behaving in class. His talkativeness and lack of attentiveness had gotten his seat moved to the front of the room. First time ever getting a negative report about this child and it had to happen while dad was gone... oh lord! At least when she called she made a point to tell me how wonderful Coopers project and poster was. ~hahaha
I better not overlook the snow storm that we had too. Back issues and a shovel... lets just say that was not a whole lot of fun. To make it worse I watch kids out of my house and I had 3 children under the age of 3 trying to help me. Their idea of help is definitely NOT my idea of help. Fortunately the neighbor across the street noticed me give up only half way through and brought his snow blower over to finish up the job. (Thank you MR. Will you ROCK!) Had Ryan been home the drive would have been done in just a few short min. because we do have a snow blower, I just have never gone through the formal training on how to use it.
One of the nights he was gone I had to take all the kids to Coopers cub scout meeting. Now normally I would not have taken all the kids to such an event because it lasts way past Jackson's bed time. In a normal situation Ryan or I would take him and the other would stay home with the other two children. I thought about not going at all and just skipping it but Cooper was being recognised this night for his hard work fund raising. So camera in hand I head out the door with the three boys. Of course when I get there I realize the memory card is not in the camera. For the love of God can I not catch a break? As if that is not enough while we are there another parent says to me... "two coworkers of my husbands went to Mexico for work and they got shot just while eating dinner. It is very dangerous" ~uhhh are you kidding me? Some people should make a conscious effort to actually think before they let words fall out of their mouths. Not helping lady, not helping!
My physical therapy was supposed to start two days a week this week. With Ryan being gone and my parents visiting my brother out of state I had to cancel one of the appointments. Thank goodness my in laws were gracious enough to come over and watch the kids one of the nights so I did not have to miss both apts.
Of course I wanted Ryan to come home to a clean house so every night once the kids went to bed I would bust out the cleaning supplies and bust ass getting as much as I could done before I had to get to bed. I did great in this department and came up with 3 garbage bags worth of stuff to throw away. I always feel so much better when the house is clean despite whatever is going on around me.
The day Ryan came home I took the kids to get hair cuts, the kids wanted to get him flowers, (I got him beer) we made a poster and we baked cookies and when we knew he was close we hid under the table and shouted surprise when he walked in.
So as you can see I was not just sitting on my butt eating Bon Bons this whole time I was taking a break from running. Ryan is home now, thank God, and I am getting back into it slowly. I was able to run 1.5 today and unfortunately the strained muscle is killing me now but was not horrible until 3/4 a mile in while I was running today. I hope that with stretching and ice I can get this thing under control. I also got in a mile walk and the 30 day shred. Doing the 30 day shred I realize that my arms must be made of jello or wet noodles, and I do not even own weights so I was using 1lb soup cans. Note to self get butt back in the gym for some weight training. hahaah
Don't think I was sitting back doing nothing for those 16 days though, haha I wish I had been though. My husband got word from his work that he would have to go to Mexico for a week. My family is not used to my husband having to travel. Sure he has gone away for a weekend before but never for a whole week, so the days leading up to his departure the family all hung out which was sooo nice. Then he left... and single parent mode kicked in.
Just a few short hrs after he was gone I realize my Owen is (6) is sick with a fever which lasts two days. Unable to go to school I spent those two days waiting on him hand and foot. This illness of Owens also landed a phone call to poison control when I accidentally gave him two doses of a decongestant instead of one. Thankfully the poison control operator was able to make me feel so much better when he reassured me that the kid had no where near harmful levels in his system. I can not help but wonder if the overdose on decongestant is what caused Owens nose bleed two days later that would not stop bleeding for over 40 min. uuuggg that was fun!
Then there was the huge project Cooper had to do for school. The kid had to make a musical instrument that was able to change pitches. SERIOUSLY?!?! Come on now these kids are 8! Of course the instrument Coop chose required saws, drills, spay paint etc. Yeah like I am going to let my kid lose with power tools... this family project quickly became "a parent project" Ryan before he left took care of building it with him but I was in charge of getting the huge poster together with him. Since I already completed third grade this annoyed me more then I can tell you!
Then there was the dreaded phone call from Coops teacher in the middle of the week saying that he was not behaving in class. His talkativeness and lack of attentiveness had gotten his seat moved to the front of the room. First time ever getting a negative report about this child and it had to happen while dad was gone... oh lord! At least when she called she made a point to tell me how wonderful Coopers project and poster was. ~hahaha
I better not overlook the snow storm that we had too. Back issues and a shovel... lets just say that was not a whole lot of fun. To make it worse I watch kids out of my house and I had 3 children under the age of 3 trying to help me. Their idea of help is definitely NOT my idea of help. Fortunately the neighbor across the street noticed me give up only half way through and brought his snow blower over to finish up the job. (Thank you MR. Will you ROCK!) Had Ryan been home the drive would have been done in just a few short min. because we do have a snow blower, I just have never gone through the formal training on how to use it.
One of the nights he was gone I had to take all the kids to Coopers cub scout meeting. Now normally I would not have taken all the kids to such an event because it lasts way past Jackson's bed time. In a normal situation Ryan or I would take him and the other would stay home with the other two children. I thought about not going at all and just skipping it but Cooper was being recognised this night for his hard work fund raising. So camera in hand I head out the door with the three boys. Of course when I get there I realize the memory card is not in the camera. For the love of God can I not catch a break? As if that is not enough while we are there another parent says to me... "two coworkers of my husbands went to Mexico for work and they got shot just while eating dinner. It is very dangerous" ~uhhh are you kidding me? Some people should make a conscious effort to actually think before they let words fall out of their mouths. Not helping lady, not helping!
My physical therapy was supposed to start two days a week this week. With Ryan being gone and my parents visiting my brother out of state I had to cancel one of the appointments. Thank goodness my in laws were gracious enough to come over and watch the kids one of the nights so I did not have to miss both apts.
Of course I wanted Ryan to come home to a clean house so every night once the kids went to bed I would bust out the cleaning supplies and bust ass getting as much as I could done before I had to get to bed. I did great in this department and came up with 3 garbage bags worth of stuff to throw away. I always feel so much better when the house is clean despite whatever is going on around me.
The day Ryan came home I took the kids to get hair cuts, the kids wanted to get him flowers, (I got him beer) we made a poster and we baked cookies and when we knew he was close we hid under the table and shouted surprise when he walked in.
So as you can see I was not just sitting on my butt eating Bon Bons this whole time I was taking a break from running. Ryan is home now, thank God, and I am getting back into it slowly. I was able to run 1.5 today and unfortunately the strained muscle is killing me now but was not horrible until 3/4 a mile in while I was running today. I hope that with stretching and ice I can get this thing under control. I also got in a mile walk and the 30 day shred. Doing the 30 day shred I realize that my arms must be made of jello or wet noodles, and I do not even own weights so I was using 1lb soup cans. Note to self get butt back in the gym for some weight training. hahaah
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