running

30 Days of New: Day 13

Holy schniekies! I survived!  Not only did I survived the half marathon this morning, but I ran the whole thing!  Don’t get me wrong, it was slow… really slow, but I kept it moving.

this just speaks volumes to me about the power of the human body and mind.  The longest run I have done this year without walking is 5 miles, and that was about a month ago.  I was really happy to have found a do-able pace and a good breathing pattern early on in the race.

It was actually really cool to run through my home town too.  I ended up parking right across the street from the house my mom grew up in:

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And the race started in one of my favorite spots in Dearborn, a park I used to go to all of the time in high school that also is home to the sledding hill from my childhood.  

The race took me past the church where both my grandparents and my parents were married, down streets where I took my driver’s test, by the Dearborn Country Club, which my grandpa helped found, and past the neighborhood where both my aunt and middle school/high school best friend lived.  It was actually pretty cool. 

And, I got this awesome medal (cause let’s face it, one of the major reasons to run is for the medals):

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So, that is my accomplishment for today.  I didn’t think I was going to make it, but I did.  I actually didn’t even think I was going to run when I woke up this morning.  My alarm went off and all I could think was, “why do I do this?!”.  Half way down to Dearborn, falling asleep in the car, I thought to myself, “maybe I will just pick up my bib and t-shirt”.  I then did the math and realized that between registration fees and gas, that would t-shirt would have cost me about $110.  I am very glad I made the decision to do it. 

I hope that you all are having a productive, or at least enjoyable Saturday!

 

30 Days of New: Day 11 and 12

I am cheating again, but I may or may not have made cranberry vodka cocktails last night and fell asleep on the couch at 8 pm. Don’t hate me because it was fabulous 🙂

Yesterday was another fun first with my friends at the radiology department at McLaren Greenlawn.  I got ultra-sounded and probed!  I have never had a run of the mill ultra-sound before, and Paul and I got to see baby cyst, George (disappointingly, he is not much to look at).

Paul, the sweet, amazing man that he is, went with me just in case something catastrophic happened.  So there we were, in a dimly lit room, with a nurse handing me a wand to insert into myself.  I winked at Paul, it just seemed like the right thing to do (I am so inappropriate… and the more foreign the situation, the more inappropriate I get).

Turns out, George is bigger than we had originally thought and is clinging to not only my bladder and uterus, but both ovaries as well.  Now, I am not a small person by any means (I’m 5’9 and not rail thin), but that is a decent chunk of real estate in my lady bits that he is taking up!  I was telling Paul that I have to imagine I will have an instant 5 pound weight loss and probably be a bit smarter when he is gone… there must be a lot of blood flowing down to him that my brain could benefit from.

So, the  next step is for George to be evaluated by a specialist in about a week, and then we will decide on surgery.  

On a serious note, I hope this solves some problems for me.  I have been chronically fatigued for a while now (we are talking over a year).  I could fall asleep at any time of the day and sleep for a good four hours.  I also can’t keep weight off.  What most people do to drop weight, I have to do to struggle to maintain my weight.  Maybe George has thrown off my hormones and just thrown my whole body out of whack.  So I am hoping after his delivery I will be a whole new woman.

Tonight, Paul and I are renting “Lincoln”, so that is my lame new event for today.  I feel like the past 2 days were excitement enough to have a low-key event tonight.  And tomorrow is a pretty big new as well: Half marathon!  I have run half marathons before, but never this one.

Oh, I did wear one of my mom’s scarves that I have never worn before today:

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Yay, vintage!

Happy Friday, everyone!  I will report back after my half marathon tomorrow.  It is not going to be pretty, I will tell you that much.

30 Days of New: Day 8 (and Day 7… My bad)

I have just 3 words for you today: TOFU CONEY DOGS!!!!!!

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Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is a new recipe; the brain child of my beloved (he is great in the kitchen). Yes, even as a vegan you can be a complete fatty 🙂

Yesterday, I pretty much slept all day. BUT, I did start season 2 of Mad Men in between my napping, so that counts for my day 7.

Back to today, I woke up a little cranky this morning. I am not sure exactly why, maybe because it is Monday, or the fact that I couldn’t seem to get out of bed to make it to the gym before work…or perhaps it was just because it was so gloomy out. It is also the 15 year anniversary of my mom’s passing today, but that has always propelled me to have a great day, so what was with the dark cloud today?

I headed off to work where I proceeded to throw myself into my endless to-do list, still not feeling much better. It was kind of cold in my office, it was pouring rain outside, and even though I was wearing my new necklace and really cute shoes, I couldn’t shake the blah feeling. My day didn’t turn around until I focused my energies elsewhere.

My friend, Beth, who I wrote about last week, had to put her dog down over the weekend. Her dog was just as wonderful as Beth is, and they had a bond just like Max and I do. I know how hard the loss is hitting her, so I took my lunch break to go get her some flowers and a treat from old town and left it with a card at her yoga studio where she has class tonight.

Doing something for others never fails to put me in a good mood (not that that is the driving motivation to do it), but just the hope of it putting a smile on her face turned my day right around. I am no longer grieving, and have been blessed with so many great people in the last 15 years, I need to put my energy into helping others get through their grief.

By the time I got out of work, the sun was shining and it was actually a pretty nice spring day. I took myself for a run, and I FINALLY felt like a runner again after weeks of feeling like I had never done this before.

If you live in a location where it is warm the majority of the time, you are lucky. But on the flip side of that, there is nothing like the first real spring day after a long winter. It felt so great to be running in the sunshine against a warm breeze. I couldn’t help but feel so happy and fortunate to be alive, have the life that I have, and to have had my amazing mother for the time that I did.

Thank you for reading my rambling, and I hope there is plenty that you feel thankful for tonight 🙂

30 Days of New: Day 3

Ok, so I hate “selfies” with a passion, but today requires one:

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New glasses!!!  I wasn’t going to just post a picture of the specs themselves.  What good would that do? 

I don’t wear them everyday, and don’t wear contacts, but they are good for night driving, watching movies, and reading the computer screen.  Again, not an earth shattering “new”, but a new none the less 🙂  Always celebrate an update!

Last night, my wonderful friend Beth and I went for a 3 mile run, and it was awful!  I am still just struggling with my asthma!  It feels like I am running underwater or something and just cannot get my breath.  I have been running for nearly 9 years and yet lately I have felt like this is the first time I have laced up sneakers to hit the pavement.  I have a half marathon in 2 weeks that I am just going to work my way through.  Not planning on any PRs this time.

It was great to just have girl time though.  Beth is one of the greatest people I will probably ever meet in my life.  Smart, beautiful, will always tell it to you straight, but so kind and insightful.  She is the kind of person I feel that I could take any problem to and get great advice, comfort, criticism if needed, but still leave feeling loved, supported, and encouraged.

Beth is actually one of my boyfriend’s best friends.  When we first started dating, he talked about his two best friends, Paul and Beth, who are married, all of the time.  I finally was able to meet them about 2 months after we started dating, and I couldn’t have imagined 2 better people.  Down to earth, welcoming, fun, kind, I loved them instantly.  I have always said that you can tell a lot about a person by their friends, and that night I think was when I fell officially in love with Paul (my Paul, not his best friend Paul). With best friends like that, what could be wrong with the guy?

Seeing him interact with these people who are basically his family (and their adorable 3 year-old son), made me see him in a different light and appreciate him on a deeper level, and now, I consider them like my family too.

I am so blessed to have the people around me that I do.  I don’t know what I have done to deserve them, but I hope it always stays that way 🙂

Happy Hump Day!  Hump responsibly…. 

A Weekend in Review

I hate the saying, but I have a case of the Mondays today.  I am not one to generally “boo hoo” for too long, but I don’t see an end to this dark cloud.  I am hoping a good workout/run tonight will snap me out of it.

First off:  My asthma has been terrible lately.  I find myself needing my inhaler more and more and struggling through every run…and I’m talking, can barely make it through a mile and a half.  My training plan has me doing 12 this weekend (not to mention a half marathon in 2 weeks).  That should be awesome considering I can’t keep my breath while walking the dog these past 2 weeks. 

For non-asthma sufferers, it is awful.  You feel like your air intake doesn’t make it any further into your body than your throat.  I can practically feel it stop just at my sternum.  I am doing some holistic remedies research, and may have to make a visit to my doctor, we shall see.

Easter wasn’t fabulous.  Though I did spend the day partaking in one of my favorite past-times; spring cleaning. But not even my lady-wood for a completely re-organized kitchen and bathed dog could pull me out of my funk. 

Again, I am sure it has everything to do with the state of my running right now.  One good run and I will be back to my old self.  But part of me thinks that my current demons go a little deeper than that.  I think it has a lot to do with need for a change of scenery.  I am way over due.

Happy Monday.  I hope the Easter Bunny was good to you all! 

The Beautifully-Flawed Project

I just got back from a great training run with my running partner, and it was one of those runs that was more like therapy than cardio.

My running partner is gorgeous, like straight out of Victoria’s Secret, people gawk at her everywhere we go, tall, thin, and beautiful.  And she is SMART! An encyclopedia of knowledge, direct and well-spoken when she wants to be, and just all around a great person.  To me, looking at her, I think, “what could be wrong?”.

In her eyes, or so she tells me, I have it all together, and what could possibly be wrong with me and my life?  

Yet, there we are, striding through the dark, crisp air, admitting our biggest flaws, things we want to fix, physically, but mostly more than that.  Personality traits, genetic coding and chemical compositions that are beyond our control.  As I was talking her through mine, telling her how abnormal it must seem, she said, “not at all!  It is part of what makes you you, and that is beautiful whether it is normal or not.  You admit it, you aren’t a victim to it, and you can take it as a challenge to deal with it.”

It just made sense, and it just clicked. It is a random flaw and something that I have to deal with, but it is a beautiful flaw that I can use to challenge myself. So we have accepted the challenge together to work with our flaws and not let them hold us back.

It is the beautifully-flawed project (not outwardly named, it just came to me upon reflecting on our run). I feel as though this marathon training is going to be very good for us both.  

Accept your flaws, whatever they may be.  And if it something that challenges you, then graciously meet that challenge head on.  I promise, you will win.

Hope this finds you all well. 

Training Run Complete

A miserable 3 miles have been completed on the treadmill. I try indefatigably to distract myself from the fact that I am running and running yet going nowhere, but it never works. 4 TVs on the wall with different programs, Hulu playing something on my iPad, or music, my mind wandering, yet I still can’t escape the thought of being on a treadmill.

Interval training helps, 1 minute hard, 30-45 seconds at a comfortable pace (not to mention it is the most efficient way to burn calories and improve your cardio respiratory condition), but the miles just drraaaggg. I have conquered getting lost in my runs outside, I just need to control my mind while inside.

I have always said that running is about 80% mental, and I am reminded of that on every run.

But I did it… I got my training run done for the day.

May I also just take a moment to say how blessed I am to live a life where I can complain about running on a treadmill? Having the means, the physical ability, and everything that goes along with that.

For every time I bitch, I try to remember all the things that make that complaint possible.

Care Bear moment over…enjoy your evening, and keep the following in mind:

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