An old truck, rubbed raw, and just plain lazy.

After finding a few new blogs to get me motivated to run, I have been running more often, not more miles.  I only ran 22 miles in August, but that was after about 10 days off during and just after my vacation.  I was going to run on Saturday and Sunday this last weekend, but I didn't.  That would have put me at 27 miles for the month.  

Sunday I was just lazy.  I did nothing.  I think I only got about 2500 steps on my Garmin, that's how lazy I was.  

On Saturday my sister, Nancy, came over.  She also brought a friend who is restoring my family's 1920s Ford Model A (he owns it now).  However, he is about to move and needs someone to store it for him for awhile, Nancy volunteered my garage.  It is running and really cool, so Nancy and I got to go for a drive in it.

After the guy left, and the truck was stored, we went for lunch and then a walk . . . a really long walk.  We went out to do 3 miles.  I thought one of the routes I recently found was only 3 miles, so we went that way.  I forgot that I turn off my Garmin and walk the rest of the way and our walk ended up being about 3.75 miles.  It was long and I definitely didn't wear the right clothes, I had a rub on my inner thigh from the jeans shorts I wore.  Oops. Plus, because we didn't realize how long we'd be, we almost missed our pedicure appt. We walked for just over an hour, which is pretty good time, about 16 and a 1/2 min/mile pace.

After that I didn't feel like running but told myself it was a long weekend, so I'd just run Sunday and Monday.  And then did nothing, literally nothing, on Sunday.  Monday dawned and I still didn't go run.  I decided that I was going to watch an episode of Bachelor in Paradise. (I don't actually like The Bachelor(ette), but I do like the Paradise version . . . or did until this year, it's terrible this year.)  Anyway, I decided if I was going to watch bad TV I should do it while riding my stationary bike.  So,an hour and 20 min later, I had ridden 18 miles.  It was not a vigorous ride, simply a "move your body instead of rot on the couch" ride.

I did run 2 miles today.  I've been telling myself to just go for 2 miles and that's it, it's really the only way I've been able to get out of my house and off my butt.

2025 Lake trip - picture heavy

 I did say a few posts ago that we went to the Lake the first week of August.  

I actually started at my family's farm.  It's a long story, with unflattering tales of two of my sisters, but the sister I am closest with and lives the closest to me and I decided that most likely this will be our last visit to the farm due to family dynamics and changes of residents at the house I grew up in.  So we went before my trip to the Lake, and also broke into the bunkhouse.  A bunkhouse, for those who haven't grown up on a farm, is a small "house" where the farmhands stayed during harvest.  Harvest was always busy with several people being hired for a month or so, so farmers had to have somewhere for them to stay.  The families (my mom and before that my grandma) would cook breakfast and dinner, and provide a "sack lunch" for anyone that stayed on the farm. The bunkhouse at my parents' house was not used in my memory, they stayed at the bunkhouse by my grandma's house, which was only 2 miles away.  My parents' bunkhouse mostly was used for storage and we had not been able to get into it since my dad died.

We could not find a key to it, my sister looked everywhere and none was to be found.  Finally, with this being our last opportunity, we decided to break into one of the "boarded up windows."  I was super happy we got in, we found the old chest that my dad had in boy scouts that my parents used for camping, and I took it.  I don't know if I'll use it, but I'm very happy to have it.

Turns out that the door wasn't locked, just rusted shut.  With a ton of WD40 and a screwdriver used as a crowbar, we were able to get it open from the inside.

This is not the chest I talked about, the one I wanted
is the green one under the traveling trunk

My other two sisters and Maddox joined us 
once we got the door open.

Just an old TV we found

I am super sad the barn is falling in, it is worse 
than when we were here in March

Even the opposite side is starting to fall over.
It won't last another winter, I don't think

Chris, Damian and Asher did not join me at the farm, they met me and Maddox at the Lake on Sunday.  It was a really quiet week on the Lake, no neighbors.  Well, a few came and went on one side, but the other side didn't have anyone until Saturday night the day before we were leaving, so it was really nice.  They are mostly friendly on that side, but there is zero privacy and they share our beach and are really rude with their dog (letting him roam without a leash).  We were able to let Peanut (my dog) run free and he did really, really good with staying on our beach.  My sister came on Thursday and brought her hound dog, who also did really well off leash.  We kept a very close eye on them and leashed them when the rude dog owner neighbors arrived.  

We had two days of high wind, and one of rain, which sucked, but I wasn't at work, so I suppose it was still a win I suppose.  I did go on a couple runs early in the week.  When I was there in June I did short hill runs and definitely noticed them getting easier as the weekend went by, unfortunately, this time with the "storm" I only did 2 hill runs.  When my sister came on Thursday we went walking on the hills, but it wasn't the same as running.  I also did a couple short paddleboard rides before my sister came, but it was still a little windy, and paddleboarding in the wind is really hard, so I didn't go far.  

When my sister came, we did a couple longer paddleboard trips, and it was much less windy.  I noticed last year, and again this year, that my feet start hurting if I go to long on the boards.  I blame the lack of running any significant distance.  The first many years of having the paddleboards I was running a lot, so I could spend a really long time on the paddleboard.  My feet are just not accustomed to being on them as much as they once were. 

One of the best parts of this particular trip was that Damian joined us with Asher for the entire week.  I don't think he's joined us for the entire week since he graduated high school and started working.  I loved having Asher there, all he wanted to do was play in the sand and the water.  

Also, Maddox has gotten so big.  He is definitely NOT the little kid I once had.  He looks like a teenager now, and that makes me sad.  

2015

2025

Oh what a difference 10 years makes!

Here are the highlights from our trip in pictures.  😊

Do you think running is as popular as it was 10-15 years ago?

I know blogging is not popular at all anymore, most of the bloggers that I followed 12 years ago are no longer doing it.  The only 2 that are regularly blogging now (at least that I see) are Mary Fran at Belief in Myself and Stained Glass Butterfly and I didn't follow Stained Glass Butterfly 12 years ago. Even the blog that got me into blogging, Katie at Runs for Cookies, has cut way, way back on her blogging, she's still there, but once upon a time she was blogging daily and she's down to a few times a year now.

Last week I had a couple of slow days at work so I went looking for any motivational running blogs.  I found one, Darlene at My First 5k and More..., through searching through Mary Fran's blog readers (I don't think Darlene follows Mary Fran, but she was a blog that one of Mary Fran's readers follows) does that make sense??  She's been running and blogging since 2007 or so and is older.  I have really struggled the last couple years with getting out and running and liked that she was older when she started running, so I scrolled and searched my way to the beginning of her blog (she does not have a handy calendar that you can click on to find a specific date).  Through her I found another old blog Laura at 50by25, who apparently did 50 marathons (I think one in each state??) before she was 25.  She also started blogging around 2007 and was living in New York at the time.  

I noticed that most of the links to other bloggers in their old posts lead to "Page Not Found" error messages.  I know blogging has mostly gone away, I know that TikTok, instagram, and whatever other social media platforms have taken over, but I do find the blogs much more interesting to read than watching a 30 second or less video.  Must be another sign of old age.  😆

So I went down the rabbit hole with both of them.  It is interesting to read blogs from 15 or more years ago.  I was not running in 2007, I started in 2013, but when I did start, the blogs I was reading were really inspirational for me.  Whenever I found a new one, I'd go back to the beginning and start from there, it's a lot like binge watching a show on Netflix or one of the other streaming platforms, which is my preferred way of watching shows as well. I do follow a couple runners on Instagram, immrsspacecadet, who I found through an article in Runner's World, and Shut Up and Run, who used to blog, but quit a few years ago.

Anyway, I noticed as I was reading Darlene and Laura's old posts that I was feeling that old desire to run again.  I also noticed that I had more desire to blog than I've had in awhile.

So back to my title question, is running still popular?  Maybe the question should be, has running ever been popular?  Maybe I just submersed myself in the running world 12 years ago and thought everyone was running (well, no one I knew personally, but everyone else).

Maybe I'm not following the right people on my social media (my preferred is Instagram for "influencers," I like to keep Facebook for family and friends, although I do follow a lot of wine pages there).  I can almost guarantee that if I hadn't been sucked in the blogging world in 2013, I probably would not have continued to run.  Oh, I've always liked it, but maybe I'm just one of those people that needs something inspirational to keep me going, especially when I'm in a funk like I have been for the last couple years.

Anyway, after not running hardly at all the last 3 weeks, I did 2 runs this weekend.  They weren't long, 2 miles and 3 miles, but it's the most I've done in 4 weeks.  I am also feeling it today.  My back is sore and I just noticed when I sat down that my legs are also a little on the sore side.  It's sad that 5 miles over 2 days has me sore (definitely not marathon or even half marathon sore, just a little sore), I used to easily run 5 miles at a time and not feel anything afterwards.  Anyway, I should not think about what "I used to do" because I am not there anymore and focus on what I can do now.  

2 miles on Saturday

3 miles on Sunday

A very low key July

 I don't know how I let July slip by without any posts.  I don't even know what happened to July.  One minute it's the 4th of July, and the next it's the second week of August.  

We went camping the second or third week of July.  We just went to a KOA not far from home, but it's nice.  They have a pool, which Maddox and Asher loved.  It was a pretty busy weekend for the campground, but 

Other than that, it was a pretty chill month.  Our pool is up, and Asher loves it.  I do wish Maddox would get in it more, but he's hit that age where the more imaginative active play is not as fun for him.  He's really into his video games now, which annoys me, but I do know most kids his age are playing them a lot.  

I did not run as much as in June, and have not been running enough to train for the half marathon I was going to do.  I have been back to feeling very complacent and not motivated.  It's annoying because the sunny weather is a great time to run.

And sadly, those are my updates for July.  We did go to the Lake last week, so I'll do a post on that soon.

Busy June, and running plans

 I'm pretty sure I mentioned that my April miles were fantastic, and then my May miles went down again because I was dealing with a bad backache.  Well, so far in June I've been pretty lackluster again.  The first week in June I went to the Lake because I had a virtual conference and decided that it would be nice to do it at the Lake.  It was only a 3 day conference, but I decided to go for the whole week.  I ran 1.25 miles 5 days in a row, on hills, which I felt was very helpful, but that still only equals 6.25 miles for the week. Then last week I ran only 2x.  I went to Leavenworth with my sisters on Friday afternoon for the weekend, and I had planned to run Friday morning, but then didn't. 

I did print out a calendar with the thought of doing a half marathon in Sept, even decided on which one.  The training is supposed to start June 29th, but we shall see. . .I really would like to get back into half marathon shape, but that means I have to actually run regularly.

My June miles are not terrible.  I have one week left and I plan to run another 3-4 times, that will put me in the 30 mile range for the month.  And honestly, that might have been where I screwed up in April, I jumped from 23ish miles in March to 45 miles in April, which is probably why my body started falling apart in May.  

I am still struggling with my motivation to go run, but so far I'm averaging 3 miles, 3x a week, which is better than some of my weeks in the last 2 years or so.  Weekends used to be my favorite days to run because I could do it earlier in the day.  Back when I was running a lot of miles, my sweet time was about 10am, but right now, I'm lucky to even run one day on the weekends.  I haven't run any Sundays in June . . . but I was gone 3 of the 4 Sundays so far, so that is probably one reason why.

I am really struggling to get up and do pilates 4 days a week with my sister.  Last week I didn't do it at all because I flaked out 2 days and then neither one of us did it on the other two days.  I planned to flake out again today, but I pulled myself out of bed and did it.  Honestly, I think the weighted pilates is more important than the running, I just hate waking up to do it.  Running I am either doing during my lunch break (I bought wipes so I can do a "ho bath" afterwards) or in the evening after work.  

If I'm serious about doing a half marathon this fall, official training starts next week.  If I do it, my monthly mileage is going to jump from 35(ish) this month to 62 next month, and that's a bigger jump than my March to April, so that worries me a little.  But I would like to work on increasing my miles, and this seems the easiest/best way.  I'll (try) to keep you updated.  😊

Maddox was promoted from 8th grade to 9th grade, and then had his 14th birthday this month.  I can't believe he's already that old! Oh, and he got a hair cut. 

Here are some of my photos from going to the Lake and then Leavenworth.  I will try to keep them brief.

I gave Maddox his "big" birthday
gift early so he could use it at the Lake.
He loved it.

Me doing a work conference, and 
Maddox doing school.

Colonoscopy

 Well, after doing so well with my running in April, I have cut way back in May.  I cut back because I've been having some back pain, and I didn't want it to get worse.  Lucky me, it's gotten worse anyway.  My sister has been bugging me to go back to the dr and ask for an MRI, so I messaged them, and my provider is ordering a x-ray and physical therapy.  I'm not super happy with that.  I really don't want to do physical therapy, maybe it will help, but I am an active person, so I don't think that's the cause of it.  

I know in my last post I said that I had increased a bunch of things, but even after decreasing weights, not running on hills and stretching, it's not helping at all, so how can it be because I got more active.  I don't know.

I am getting a colonoscopy tomorrow, I've put it off for 3 years, but I finally decided to just do it.  I can't be getting mad at Chris for not doing medical things, when I am avoiding a colonoscopy.  You have to actually prep before a colonoscopy, which if I knew about that, I would have probably continued to put it off.  Basically the 3 days before you aren't allowed to have fiber.  It's supposed to be a protein heavy diet and then on the day before, clear liquids only, like broth.  I can have jello and popsicles, but nothing with red, purple or blue dye in it.  And then that evening you have to clear out your bowels by taking a supplement of some sort.  They have a pill form and a liquid form, the liquid sounded nasty (and you have to drink a gallon of it in a short amount of time) so I got the pill form, and then you sit on the toilet.  THEN at least 5 hours before the procedure you take the supplement again. 

My procedure is at 8:30am, and when I complained that meant I'd have to be up at 3:30 just to take the pills, she said I can start the pills earlier the next day because my procedure is so early, and then I have to wait 6 hours and can take the second dose.  I'm a little worried about not getting any sleep tonight, but I have a friend who did it and she said the second dose isn't too bad. Sitting on the toilet isn't as bad because you've already cleared your system out. I really, really hope she's right. 

Anyway, this high protein diet I've been doing helped me to lose 4lbs.  I assume the events of today will cause me to lose more, but I refuse to stick with today's diet (all liquid, and "poop pills").  I'm thinking I may work on keeping closer to a strict protein diet.  I also have not been drinking alcohol, so that may also play a factor in the weight.  I plan to continue that as well.  I'm going to weigh myself tomorrow after everything is out of my body and see how much shit I actually carry around.  😂

I ran this last weekend, on Sunday, but I haven't run since.  I was going to run today, but I don't think I'll be able to.  Once I'm done with the colonoscopy, I'm told that I'll go "back to normal" and be fine (I can eat and drink whatever I want), so maybe I'll go run tomorrow, although there is sedation that happens, so I may be sleeping.

We did go to e. WA last weekend, which I forgot about.  But here's a picture of the sunset Saturday night after it rained a ton.

Still here, still running

 Oops, I didn't write at all in April.  That was not on purpose!  Anyway, I have not stopped doing all the things, in fact, I upped my running in April.  

The last few weeks I've had some back pain that just won't go away.  It feels muscular, not spinal, but I went to the dr last week anyway because it got worse.  I even quit all activity for 8 days but it actually felt worse.  Anyway, the dr didn't think there was anything wrong, other than overuse, upping mileage, running hills, and increasing my weights for weighted pilates. I've been doing some stretches and she said she thought it would be fine to exercise, just listen to my body.  

Just now I was looking at mapmyrun and noticed that I ran 45 miles in April.  That's not a lot when looking at my past mileage, but for the last few years I've really struggled with motivation to go run, so I looked back at my monthly mileage to see the last time I ran that much.  January 2023 is the last time I ran 45 miles in a month.  Plus, I have added hills back the last few months.  It makes sense that my body is rebelling.  

Anyway, I started running again this weekend, and did yoga for the first time this morning.  Yoga really bothered my back, but it's probably what I need most. 

Sunday I decided to brave crossing a highway.  It's a 2 lane highway, and is fairly busy, but they put a crosswalk on it a few blocks away and down from the street I live on, however, I didn't use the crosswalk, but it being there made me think I could cross.  It was a beautiful run, it basically went out of town into farming country, but was still only 3 miles.  I could make it longer, but 3 miles was perfect this weekend.  I will definitely be doing it regularly now. I even found a cemetery, and I love cemeteries.  

Stop stopping

When I went to college I gained weight pretty quickly, (I have never been really big, never bigger than 180ish), but I didn't notice it much.  I was 19-20-21, it wasn't a thought, I don't even know what I weighed.  Then I got pregnant and gained weight (obviously) from that, but after I had my son I did not lose much weight, my highest pregnancy weight was in the 180s, I probably went down to the 170s.  I had dropped out of college to have my son and get married, and when I went back I started taking a pill that was similar to phen-fen (even though apparently from my google search Phen-fen was already off the market at that time).  I lost 20lbs or so on that, I was exercising as well, and felt really good about myself.

I don't know my weight at all throughout my 20s, but I feel like I was pretty similar to what I am now (170s).  I regained some weight after the diet pills were no longer accessible, and then got pregnant with my second son.  I don't remember what I weighed in that pregnancy, but I know that it was lower than Damian's. But I ended my weight unconsciousness after having Maddox.  Only about 9 months after having him I started running again and consciously trying to lose weight, I was 177.

Like I said, up until then I did not think about my weight much, I was not super unhappy with how I looked.  No, I did not wear bikinis, but I never had, even in high school when I was small.  

My problem now is that I know and remember what it was like to be fitter, smaller, and feel good about my body.  Now I am pretty close to what I think is what most of my adult weight was and I am extremely unhappy with it.  Almost all my clothes (other than pants, because I had to increase the size) are clothes I wore when I was thinner and I remember what they looked like on me (I think I still look like that in them until I look at a mirror) and I get frustrated and mad when I see myself as I am now.

About a month ago, Chris told me he lost about 25 lbs.  He's been drinking a lot less and went for about 3 months with no alcohol.  I don't know if he changed what he was eating, but I know after he lost a bunch of weight, he started eating better, or at least less.  I actually had to look at an old picture of him and realized it was very noticeable.  (You know how hard it can be to tell as it happens because it's a slow process.)  

This is from our trip last August.

This is from a month ago.

Anyway, I thought, may be worth a try to give up alcohol for awhile.  I've been flirting with the idea anyway because I think my relationship with it could be healthier.  I'd like to try to have one or two drinks on the weekend, so I'm trying that first to see how it goes.  But I was also looking at a year ago when I was trying to lose weight for our August trip and I was somewhat successful.  I stalled and gave up, but I had lost close to 10lbs, and at that time I was intermittent fasting.  So I decided to go back to that.  This week I started both (cutting back alcohol and intermittent fasting) and I lost 2lbs.  And I was annoyed.  

The problem is the number is still high.  I remember when I lost the weight 10+ years ago, I was so happy to lose anything.  Now I want to lose 10 lbs in a week.  I want to go back to my 2015-2021 weights.  Even a "high" number like 155 would be fine with me. Ugh.  

Also, I need to let it work.  I need to stop stopping when it's too slow for my expectations.  

I forgot to post my runs, I ran 2x this week. 

3/17/2025 Monday: 2 miles, 11.20 min/mile

3/20 Thursday: 2 miles, 10.40 min/mile

Mid-March already?

 I have really slacked off with the running.  I don't really know why other than maybe because it got rainy?  Anyway, here is the last 4 weeks or so of (non)running.

2/18 Tuesday: 2 miles, 11.04 min/mile

2/26 Wednesday: 2 miles, 11.04 min/mile (hilly)

2/27 Thursday: 2 miles, 11.13 min/mile (hilly)

3/5 Wednesday: 2 miles, 11.12 min/mile

3/15 Saturday: 2 miles, 11.18 min/mile

Five runs in 4 weeks is terrible.  I have such a hard time forcing myself to go run nowadays.  It's really terrible, and when I'm sitting in my office thinking about it, I don't want to be that way.  But then when it's time to go run, I don't.  It doesn't help that my work has been really busy lately, so I don't have time at work and by the time I get home, I don't want to, or talk myself out of it. 

March 5th run

My weight hasn't budged, at all.  I am still high at 175.  Back when I was training for my first marathon (I realize that was 10 years ago now), I lost the weight while upping my mileage.  When I trained for my second marathon I ate a lot of crap but figured that the mileage increase would still help me lost weight, it didn't.  So my belief that running is not the key to losing weight began.  But now, I'm not running much and I am eating healthier, and I'm still not losing.  It's frustrating.

I know that it is related to my age.  10 years ago, was 10 years ago and I am now closer to 50 than 40.  I would like to figure this new body out, but I'm struggling.  

Mid-February check-in

2/2 Sunday: 3 miles, 11.17 min/mile

2/8 Saturday: 2 miles, 10.44 min/mile

2/9 Sunday: 3 miles, 11.05 min/mile

2/11 Tuesday: 2 miles, 11.27 min/miles (hilly)

2/13 Thursday: 2 miles, 11.08 min/mile (hilly)

2/15 Saturday: 3 miles, 10.53 min/mile

2/16 Sunday: 4 miles, 11.13 min/mile

I don't really know why I took the first week of February off from running.  We had ice and freezing temperatures, and I guess I just didn't want to bother with it.  I am planning on continuing to run in Mount Vernon on the hills during my lunch break.  For now, I 've decided not to increase those miles.  I can't even run the 2 miles without walking, so I figured I'd just keep with the 2 miles.  My min/mile are getting a tad faster, so that's not terrible.  

Yesterday I decided mid-run to run 3 miles, instead of 2.  When I was done I decided I'd run 4 miles today.  I know I want to increase mileage, but I've been reluctant.  2 miles is so easy, 3 miles seems so long.  It's easy to talk myself into a 2 mile run, not so easy to talk myself into a 3 mile run.  Today I ran 4 miles, I really didn't want to run.  I talked myself into 2 miles because I did 3 yesterday, then while running, I decided I might as well do the 3 miles.  At the turn-around point for 3 miles, I just kept going, and ended with 4 miles.  Often when I really don't want to run, I don't take Peanut with me.  I feel guilty about it, but I do like running without him, so I can usually force myself to do it if I don't take him.  

I'm still doing the weight training, although haven't been as diligent at doing it as often as I was.  Yesterday I did legs, and man do my legs and butt hurt today.  Earlier this week I did biceps, and that was also very, very painful the next day.  

I am still weighing myself daily, which is quite disappointing.  I am also taking measurements every 2 weeks or so, and I've seen a little bit of change there.