Running Update

I had planned to write a running update post weeks ago. But life got in the way recently, stuff I choose not to discuss on the Internet. Rest assured everyone is safe and sound but I needed the last week or so to regroup. We’ll just say when one door closes…I’m hoping to find that door that is opening real soon. In the meantime I’ll be pulling up my Big Girl Pants a bit more.

I feel like I left everyone hanging in suspense way back at the end of March when I said I would be running an April Fool’s Day half marathon. Truthfully, many of you (what few readers I have) probably forgot all about it. I’m sure keeping up with my running habits are at the top of your priorities. But just in case you didn’t forget…I aim to please.

The half marathon was a success! I shaved four minutes off my previous time (2:33 to 2:29) and overall I felt stronger than I did last November. Only the last mile was really tough…my legs were burning the whole mile and if it weren’t for my cousin Alyson pushing us along to the finish, I probably would have walked in.

Two days after the marathon was not that much of a success. I woke up around midnight with incredible stomach pain. At first I assumed that I was about to lose my dinner but after some one-on-one time with the toilet and no results I realized it wasn’t my stomach that was hurting but rather my upper back and abdominals. It was so bad that I could barely stand up or speak. I weighed my options for a good 20 minutes before calling my parents (literally, I used my cell phone to call my parents on the house phone and was only able to moan that they needed to come downstairs right now). Thirty minutes later I was sitting in an exam room at the Noble Hospital ER getting pain meds and IV fluids. I have been struggling with pain off and on in the area for well over a year now. Add that existing condition to my lack of fluid intake after the race and you’re looking at a $600 ER bill. Lesson learned.

Which, as a brief aside, can you believe that Noble Hospital had record in their computers of me being there in 1989?!?! I must have gone there for some blood work or something, near as we can figure. Who keeps records that long?? Not only that, then the intake lady goes… “wait, what was your maiden name?... Does your dad work at the high school? I know who you are!” So much for flying under the radar…

After that little incident I took a good week off before my next run…and naturally started back in slowly. I’m still dealing with back pain occasionally but I’ve added Pilates, regular professional massages (it’s medically necessary, right?) and more fluid intake into the mix and that seems to help.

What’s funny is a year after starting this whole running thing, when I couldn’t even make it a mile, I can’t imagine giving it up. Ted and I live very hectic, scheduled lives. To have an hour or two each weekend to yourself that you can get outside and think…well… it’s heaven, even if I’m sweating like a pig. And you’re telling me I get to listen to whatever music I want???? NO Disney or toddler tunes???? Well now. I really do use the time to regroup, think about goings on in the last week and think about what’s happening in the week to come. If it’s one of my short weekday runs, it’s my chance to get out of the office or regroup before the bedtime routine starts.

Did I also mention that it is also a relatively cheap and easy way to stay in shape? Ok, yes, there is the cost of a pair of good running shoes, but even those you can score on sale if you’re diligent. And the cost of them stretched out over the course of a year is WAY cheaper than any gym membership. I’d like to add here that running has also enabled me to keep eating whatever I want without gaining weight but that isn’t entirely true. I’ve found that diet is even more important now to full those tough miles. And a 30 minute run does not cancel out a Sonic milkshake. Darn. After the half marathon, Aly and I treated ourselves to Five Guys burgers. I am sure that we consumed the entire amount of calories that we had burned mere hours before. I hate simple math.

So what’s next? Ted and I (and the kids of course) will be heading up to Massachusetts at the beginning of August. While we’re there, we’ll be running the Bridge of Flowers 10k up in Shelbourne Falls. After a half marathon, a 10k (6.2 miles) may not seem like all that much but there’s a catch here. For a good 1 to 1.5 miles we’ll be running up a hill which I think is comparable to the side of a mountain. No joke, I’ve seen the pictures. I’m up to the challenge but I expect that my legs will be quivering by the time we’re at the top. It will be a good challenge to take up as I begin the training plan for the Raleigh half marathon in November.

I’m also looking forward to cooler temperatures. Trying to fit a run in on a 100 degree day is tough. Humidity that feels like pea soup is even tougher. I keep telling myself training in these types of conditions will make things easier in the fall.

And there is nothing like running on a crisp fall afternoon…

Our Little Fish

Katherine has spent the last almost two weeks up in Massachusetts.  A good part of her time was spent perfecting her swimming skills, look at this!

She starts her way home tomorrow morning with a stop at Hershey Park.  I haven't posted much about her trip because the kid hasn't wanted to talk with us one bit.  She's been having too much fun. My mom has been giving us frequent updates but I can't wait to hear all about it from her perspective.  And don't think her travel schedule is over for the summer!  At the end of the month she'll be spending a week up at Fawn Lake with Papa and Gram Coberly to try her hand at tennis for the first time.

Kind of makes you wish you still had summer vacation, doesn't it?

Pictures

As usual I am woefully behind on pictures.  I feel like I have been behind for a good year or more, probably back to when Teddy was born.  At first thought it was the second child syndrome, that we just haven't taken as many pictures of Teddy as we did of Katherine.  Then I realized it was less about that and more about technology.

Believe it or not just six short years ago when Katherine was born smartphone were not commonplace.  I know, I'm scratching my head too...how did I even get along without my iPhone?  Right before Miss K was born Ted and I purchased a very nice HP digital camera.  Part of my insistence for purchasing that little camera was because it came with a dock for the computer.  Simply plug the camera into the dock and viola! the pictures were automatically uploaded and placed in a fold by month taken.  Simple and easy.  It made doing monthly picture albums out to friends and family a breeze.

Enter the smartphone. Right around the time we announced that Teddy was on his way I got my iPhone.  And wow, picture taking got all that much easier.  No need to carry the camera around, just whip out the phone.  Unfortunately picture uploading was not as easy.  Not that it's hard but no more automatic filing by month taken.  And there's three different cameras to upload from, two iPhone and one digital camera (at some point we upgraded from the HP camera but we don't use it nearly as often as the phones).  The end result is hodgepodge folder on the computer titled "iPhone" photos that needs to be manually sorted.  Say it with me now...ugh.  I don't even want to think about the 600+ pictures that are still on my phone.  You better believe I've been procrastinating on this task...for a whole year.  I've been procrastinating on this blog post to explain myself for probably the same amount of time.  I even hesitated to take a few pictures because I knew it would be one more to add to the pile of ones I hadn't dealt with yet.

I'm figuring with all this new upgraded technology, I'm missing something right?  There has to be an automatic setting that I just have turned on that would make this job easier?  There's no way that the technology got better and the ease of use got worse.  All you people who are more tech savvy than me, help a girl out.

The bright light in all of this?  I just read that Shutterfly (where we have our picture site) bought out Kodak Gallery (where we used to upload and create albums).  Supposedly they are in the process of transferring all of the pictures over and they will notify users when they will be available through Shutterfly.  So at least there's one task that will be taken care of for me, right?