Wishing for More Than Stats

I haven't had any funny running stories to tell for a long time and that makes it difficult for me to put out the effort to write in this little blog-thingy.  I haven't given up running; I'm still steady at it.  In fact, on Saturday I ran 2 miles in 20 minutes, which means I managed to maintain a 10 minute mile for 2 miles.  I know.  I'm a genius when it comes to math.  Now, I've just got to figure out how to get from 2 miles to 6 miles before April 26.

Yesterday, I did a silly thing.  Monday is my grocery day.  If I don't make it to the grocery store on Monday morning, my week starts getting hectic and before you know it, it's Wednesday and all we have in the house is ramen noodles and mayonnaise. (Have you ever tried to get a kid to eat a mayo sandwich for breakfast?  Not pretty.  "Just pretend it's butter, sweetheart.")  So, I needed to get to the market and I had an 11am meeting of a new writing group I'm helping to start (Saline County American Christian Writers, if you're interested).  Inside my fascinatingly complex mathematical brain, I had my timing figured down to the quarter of a second.  If I stayed on schedule, I could take the kids to school, drop Ruby at my sister-in-law's house, do the shopping, throw the cold stuff in the freezer, and still have time for a 30 minute run, a 30 minute shower and blow dry, plus 12 minutes of travel time before my meeting.  At 7:30am, I'm yelling at the kids to grab their lunch sacks and head to the car and (of course) there are missing gloves, torn homework papers, unsigned permission forms for "abstinence education", and Ruby pooped in her diaper.  On the way to school, my sister-in-law calls to say her baby is sick.  I rearrange the child care, recalculate the math, kick the kids out of the car in front of their schools and zip to WalMart.  I live in a small town and I forgot to calculate for the 4.5 people I would see at the store who would need to chat about PTO and the controversial new chief of police who was just appointed by the mayor who is currently at odds with the city council.  Drat, I'm now 14.25 minutes behind schedule.  I flew home, threw most of the cold stuff in the refrigerator (turns out I missed the sour cream, so now it's really sour cream), and headed to the park for my run.  On the way there, my daughter calls to tell me she's lost the permission form and needs me to come up to the school to sign another one.  I decided to save time and get a little revenge by running around the school campus -during school hours... isn't that your mom, Mattie?  What is she doing?  What is she wearing?  Sweet revenge.

But, as so often happens, my plan backfired.  I was about 50 yards into the run when my head started spinning and my stomach felt nauseated.  I was shaking, sweating and cold.  That's weird.  The only time I ever feel like this is -ding, ding, ding- when I forget to eat.  (Ha!  Ha!  You thought I was going to say "pregnant"!!)  I have issues with my blood sugar.  I sat down on the sidewalk with my head between my knees for about 5 minutes until I could stand without getting dizzy.  Didn't get much of a run, but I had plenty of time to get ready for my meeting.

Yesterday I ran 2.8 miles.  I timed myself on the first 1.2 miles and I did it in 10 minutes!! I thought maybe I'd had a break through on my speed... until I timed myself on the other 1.6 miles and realized it took me a full 20 minutes to the 2nd bit.  sigh.  Well, at least I'm still at it.

Today, I took the girls and did one lap.  We didn't time ourselves.  We had a good time on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, spending time together, laughing, getting stronger.  And I guess that's what it's really all about anyway.

Attack of The Lazies

Lazy.  No way around it.  I've been lazy about running and lazy about recording it here when I do run.  I ran last Tuesday, Jan 20th, and did 2.4 miles in 28 minutes.  Still pretty slow, but I'm doing more running and less walking.  On Friday, January 23, I ran the regular 2.4 miles (twice around the school campuses) and then I walked an additional .8 mile around the park.  I wanted to run/walk the lap around the park, but my knee was staring to give me trouble and because of the direction I chose to go, it was slightly up-hill on three sides.  I'm going to have to start adding more distance regardless of how fast - or slow - I am if I'm going to work up to 6.1 miles by the end of April.  The next day (Saturday the 24th) my knee was giving me LOTS of trouble and I was popping so many Tylenol and Advil that my stomach was cramping up.  After that, I had several days of "too busy", "too cold", or "too lazy".

Yesterday, Thursday, January 29th, was beautiful!  Sunny, 53 degrees.  Mattie and Jenna really wanted to run with me, but Mattie was supposed to baby sit at 5pm.  We went out and did one fun, quick lap around the schools together.  The girls would run fast ahead of me and then walk until I caught up with them, while I plodded along at a slow, but regular pace.  We didn't time it, we just enjoyed it!  I am planning to go out again by myself for a longer run today, but it all depends on Jeff's availability to help me out with Ruby.  I have a mini ladies' retreat to go to this evening and my ride will be here at 6:30.  When I allow time for showering, packing, and cooking dinner for my family, that doesn't leave me much time.  We'll see what happens...

Only 1 mile today.  Daisy is throwing up at home and I don't feel too great either.

Injuries

Okay, so my knee pain is not just imaginary or an excuse; it's real.  I could hardly sleep last night.  It's my right knee.  My right pinkie toe is the one that's broken, so maybe I'm compensating more than I realize, or maybe my plantar fascitis (sp?) is flaring up again.  I do have some pain in my right heel when I first get up in the mornings.  No, I haven't made that follow-up appointment with the orthopedic doctor yet, so I don't know what kind of healing progress I'm making with my toe.  What I DO know is the high temperatures for Thursday and Friday are predicted to stay below freezing.  I know I won't run when it's that cold, so I went running in spite of knee pain today because I am planning to not run again until Saturday afternoon.  Mattie, Jenna and I went 2.4 miles around the schools, but didn't mark the time.  They both out ran me.  I had to mentally chastise myself a couple of different times.  My natural competitive instinct says that if you are in front of me, you are my enemy.  Deep breaths, Kama.  That's your daughters' up there.  Be proud of them.  They are healthy and strong and beautiful and you are teaching them to enjoy taking care of their bodies.  They are not your competition, they are your children.

Sometimes You Just Have To

I didn't run yesterday because Ruby was sick.  Excuses, excuses.  I didn't want to go today, either, but Mattie pointed out that she hadn't been running since last Thursday and really needed to get out.  I don't feel safe letting her go by herself, so I went.  And I'm glad I did.  2.4 miles in 29 minutes.  My legs felt like they weighed a ton and my right knee was hurting a bit, but we made another slight improvement in our time, nonetheless.  My mood was better after the run, too.  Funny how that works.

Cooked Goose

Well, now I've really started something.  My brother and his family went to lunch with us today after church and my kids overheard us talking about running.  My 7 year old son, Elijah, and 5 year old daughter, Daisy, made it quite clear that they are feeling neglected and unloved because I have not allowed them to go running with me.  In their minds, it is the new thing to do if you are a part of our family.  Elijah was especially indignant.  After all, he is only 13 months younger than Jenna, 1 inch shorter and 1 pound lighter.  If she, his mere sister, is allowed to join Mom every once in a while, it only stands to reason that he should be given equal time.  So today I broke down and took Elijah and Daisy to the lake with me for a little jog.  We went around 1 1/2 times laughing and talking about all the different creatures that lived in the water and would probably eat us up if we accidentally fell in.  The most exciting part of the run was when we passed a flock of geese on the side of the path.  I got an invigorating shot of adrenaline when the "alpha goose" lowered his head and started hissing and running toward my little Daisy.  Oh, yeah, bring it on, Goose!  You'll be on my dinner table within the hour...

I dropped them off at home and headed to the school to do my regular run.  2.4 miles in 31 minutes after the little 1.5 mile jog with the kids.  Not bad, Girlie!