Up, up, up

Some days running is a definite upper. I get up, I run, and the rest of the day is just gravy. I’ve done it, I’ve succeeded, and everything that follows after the run is just easier and better.

Today is not one of those days.

This morning’s run was not too bad. I only did two miles, and the humidity has let up a bit. But both of my favorite shirts were dirty and I just felt off. The rest of the day has followed suit. Suit? Is that right? Is that one of those sayings where the word is something else other than what I’ve always thought?

I digress. As usual.

I just feel so meh. And I’ve got deadline work to do and laundry to fold, and what I really want to do is crawl back into bed. No rest for the wicked though.

Three Weeks

In three weeks my boys will go back to school. This is not a good thing. This is an expensive, I get very lonely sort of thing. But such is life. But my little dude wanted to be in better shape before school started, so we are doing a three week bootcamp.

It’s not really that intense y’all. It’s basically just making sure that I stick to my healthy habits and he’s doing some tracking of his own healthy habits. Making sure he gets enough fruits, vegetables, water, and exercise is basically it. But it’s good incentive for me to build back up my mileage. I’ve only been semi-regularly running, and only 2 miles at a time.

So I picked up a Jeff Galloway book at the bookmine today, and I’m recommitting. Today I did awesome on my calories. I did a combination of running, walking, swimming, and biking to total over 60 minutes and over 700 calories burned. Being a big girl sure helps with the calorie burn. Also being a really inefficient swimmer!

But now it’s just past 9pm and I am completely exhausted. Yep, I think I am going to bed *that* early. So much to do tomorrow. And I plan on getting up and getting a run in before the daystar comes out and tries to kill me dead.

Girl Power

Got up this morning and ran/walked 2 miles. It took me about 26:30 – not bad for being such a slacker lately.

So yesterday I went in search of some girl power songs. Things to give me a pick me up. I got some suggestions, and I went with some super cheese. Here’s what I got so far. Don’t judge me. And hey, what’s your favorite girl power running psych you up kind of song?

Because I’m Awesome – The Dollyrots

You Don’t Have To Believe Me – Eric Hutchinson – If you listen to only one song, listen to this one. Read the lyrics. And then make every teenage girl you know listen to it and take it to heart.

Don’t You Forget It – Glenn Lewis

Firework – Katy Perry

Unwritten – Natasha Bedingfield

If You’re Gonna Jump – Natasha Bedingfield

Who Says – Selena Gomez

Still here.

In the same place. Not moving. Having a hard time being everything to everybody.

Like most women, I have a lot of hats. Mom, wife, chief cook and dishwasher. Friend, volunteer, and committee runner for school and church. Then there’s my little business. I design stuff – and then I work it up and sell the patterns. Finally there’s my fitness self. The woman who wants to lose all this weight and run half marathons someday.

I seem to be only able to do one thing at a time. Why is that? I feel like there are four people trying to fit inside me, and I’m some crazy Sybil-like split personality and oh by the way did I mention we are trying to buy a house? Yeah. That’s a full-time job in and of itself.

So I haven’t been running consistently. Nor have I been eating well. I’ve published new designs, and I ran a successful Vacation Bible School up at school. And I think for about five minutes my house was clean.

I want to do it all. And I don’t know how.

Oh and today is my birthday. I’m officially 39. Which means I have one year to attain my self-imposed goal of not fat by forty.

I’m rambling. I know. I’m going to go and lay out my running clothes for tomorrow morning and set my alarm clock. So I’m ready. So I stop standing still.

Longer and faster.

I think that someday I will miss these days. Right now so much is changing. More often than not my runs have something new or better. Today I ran for 3.5 miles. This is the longest run I have done so far. I also ran faster than I did in my 5K a week ago. I kept a 13:14 pace per mile.

I know that there will come a point when I will just be trying to keep up the pace that I’ve established in the past. When injury or fatigue will force me to run shorter distances. But right now it’s very, very awesome and I’m just trying to enjoy it.

Today I ran on a bike trail – one of the rails to trails projects – and it was the best run ever. I was tired in the beginning, but after I got into it I was feeling pretty strong. The path itself is perfect in so many ways. There are mile markers every half mile. It’s flat and smooth asphalt. You have to share with the bikers, but 90% of them are very good about letting you know they are coming up behind them. To the ones this morning that didn’t, well I hope you get a rash on your bum. You nearly clipped me even though I was running on the far right side of the road!

But enough with the ranty panties. I really did have a good run this morning. And my husband came out and road his bike along with me – which was nice. I’ve set a new running goal – which I will let you know when I’m a bit more confident about my training.

Graduation.

On Saturday morning I ran the Human Race 5K. And when I say ran, I mean ran. I ran the whole thing. I ran ALL the miles. To say that I am proud of myself would be so much an understatement.

To prevent a repeat of last week’s foolishness, this time I was prepared. My special pink tee shirt was all laid out with the capris and socks and all the other things I wanted to wear.

This was after the race. Just me and the older boy went, so I didn’t have anyone to photograph us during or before or after the race. Speaking of the older boy – he got 3rd in his age group!!! Even though he hasn’t been running much lately.

But back to me. I ran the whole thing. All 3.1 miles. And suddenly it seems like the world is wide open. I wore my super special t-shirt from Ben Does Life and I felt kind of invincible. Actually his story was a big part of why I started running again. (Grab some tissues before you watch that by the way!)

So now I’m just figuring out what to do next. There is a half marathon that happens here on Thanksgiving Day and I’m seriously tempted to work towards training for that. On the one hand I’m all “woo-hoo I can do anything” and then on the other hand I think “13.1 miles will kill u ded”. If anyone has suggestions for a good next step program, let me know. Right now I’m leaning towards One Hour Runner, but I also think trying to add in a fourth day might be a good idea. Somedays I think if my body could handle it I would run every day. Which is kind of awesome, but also kind of invasion of the body snatchers.

Setbacks

Well since I finished the program my running has not gone super well. I seem to poop out after 30 minutes most days and my schedule has been crazy. But it was ok, I had a 5K to do on April 30th and I was going to run the entire thing.

I woke up the morning of the 30th – ate a luna bar – and proceeded to get dressed. I could not find my pink “Do Life” running girl t-shirt. I was frantic. I *needed* that shirt. I had planned to wear it and now I was all thrown off. But I could not find it anywhere.

This was a sign from God that I ignored.

Other signs I ignored were the nagging “first day of school” feeling I had the night before – when I did not sleep at all and had odd nightmares about being chased by zombies and getting my brains eaten before I could finish the race.

One should not ignore the signs.

Finally I found the t-shirt, grabbed the boy who was doing the 1-mile fun run and got out the door. We were in great spirits, it was a cool and lovely spring day and we were gonna kick butt. We hopped on the highway and were exiting into downtown when something bad happened.

A woman (who was cited by the officer who arrived on the scene) “failed to yield”. Which meant even though I was only doing about 30 on the downtown street/exit ramp I still hit her when she came out into traffic from the cross street without looking.

My car will be in the shop tomorrow. The boy and I were shook up but thankfully not hurt – neither was the other driver. But the police report stuff took so long that the boy and I both missed our races.

I should have paid attention to the signs.

So should have the other driver.