Insane Inflatable 5k (last weekend)

I did not mean to go a week without posting anything.  I haven't felt like I've had a lot to say, however, you all were probably waiting on the edge of your seat to hear about the Insane Inflatable 5k.  ;-)  Or not.  We had a very good weekend (last weekend).

My sister, Nancy, and I carpooled, so we didn't have to both drive.  She drove her car because it's bigger, and has better gas mileage than mine.  (Damian and Maddox went as well.)  On Friday after we got there we spent the whole evening designing and painting "matching" shirts.  It was fun.  We basically started before we even had an idea of what we were doing.  My dad suggested using his cattlebrand and some paint he had and paint that on the shirts.  We had an old sheet that we were testing it out on and then we painted.  Most of us put the brand on the back (Damian and my nephew did the front) and then we decided the front was too boring so we spent a lot of time trying to figure out a splatter technique (with spray paint).  We splattered, then we wanted to put names, so we spent more time on trying to figure out how to do our names.  We ended up with a nametag design which I loved (and you can't really see in the picture). 

A better picture of the front.

 We left early Saturday morning to go to the event and then waited around for awhile before we were scheduled to start.  I've heard lots of people say that mud runs, and other obstacle-type races are really hard, so I was totally expecting this one to be the same, hard.  But when we got there and were looking at the blow-up obstacles I didn't think it actually looked as hard as I thought it was going to be. 

The obstacles weren't hard at all.  And I was pleasantly surprised that my oldest sister, Barbara did all the obstacles.  She (and her family and ex-husband) didn't do all the walking, but she did way more than I expected. 

At the starting line (my favorite picture of the day is the top right)

 After we were done, we went to a park and ate lunch.  It was a very sunny day (thankfully) but there was quite a wind at times, so it wasn't too hot, for the most part. 

All in all, it was a very fun event and we want to do it again next year.  I would have like to run it with Damian (he took off close to the beginning) but I didn't want to leave my sister Nancy by herself.  I'm glad I walked with her, but I really wished she ran so we could do these types of things as runners rather than walkers.  :-)

 

We are not doing anything this weekend.  Chris works (as always on weekends) so I will just be spending the 3-day weekend at home, hopefully with a lot of wine and a book.  :-)  I really hope the weather report is wrong and it clears up and is sunny, but today it looks like it's not going to.  Yesterday was 75 here, and that is perfect, but today is cloudy and much colder.  Sometimes I really hate western WA. 

 



It's getting better

Have I mentioned that I am doing "Insane Inflatable 5k" this weekend?  Seriously, go check it out, it's a little crazy. 

My sister, Barbara, found it (in eastern WA) and brought up that it would be fun to do.  Her son wanted to do it, and then her daughter decided she did, and her ex-husband.  She knows I run, so she invited my other sister and I and anyone of our families to do it as well.  My sister, Nancy, and I and Damian are all going over there tomorrow (well, Maddox too, but he's too small to do it).  It looks like it will be fun, and really hard, so I'm a little intimidated by it. 


My sisters and I, Nancy is on the left, me, Barbara, and then
Tami (who lives in N. Carolina and won't be doing this). This
was taken just a few weeks ago after my aunt's funeral.

Yesterday Damian had a parent meeting for his summer baseball league that he wants to do, so Chris and I went to that.  Since we moved back to Mt. Vernon, I've mentioned several times that I want to go to the library.  I listen to a lot of audiobooks and have been craving reading an actual book.  The meeting we were going to was passed the library and Chris asked if I had gone, when I said no, he asked if I wanted to stop on the way home.  So we did.  Just being in the library and reading dust jackets made me so happy and excited to be reading a book.  I couldn't wait to get home to read something.  :-)  I made myself a salad for dinner and then just sat and read while I ate (it was leftover night and I had leftover steak in my salad, yum!!).  Then I went outside and read, and then I took a bath and read, it was heavenly.  ;-)

It seems that the end of April and even into the first week of May I wasn't eating very well.  I felt sluggish and bloated and just not my "skinny" self.  I had recently bought a new water cup for work ($1 area at Target) and have been using that instead of my old water bottle.  I think the difference in size and having to drink through a straw had made me start drinking less water during the day.  So I decided that I needed to increase my water again and I started keeping track on my cup.

And it seems to be working.  I feel much better this week.  Plus, I'm eating better, less crap, and more good stuff.  I avoided getting on the scale all last week, I think it was a fluke that my weight was so low on the 1st of May (I forgot to update that on here, I'll have to do that when I finish).  Yesterday it was in the 146 range, and today was a little more (147ish).  But even if it's higher than it was at the beginning of April (144.8) I feel so much better this week than I have for 3 or so weeks. 

I really think it was the stress of moving that hurt me at the end of last month.  I was eating a lot of fast food and just plain crap because we didn't have much ability to cook (at least the last week of April and into the first days of May). April was just a hard month.  Car problems, having to move, not completely sure I wanted to move to where we were moving to, just a lot of stuff going on all at once. 

Right now I feel so much better. I really do love the house we landed in, even if the kitchen is tiny (I'll have to take a picture for you, it's seriously tiny.)  But the rest of the house is very nice, and I love the neighborhood, and the deck outside.  Plus, I never felt settled in the Burlington house, we moved there because we HAD to, and even though we loved the house, we always knew it was temporary, even if it was a year or 2 years, it was temporary, this house is somewhere I feel we can stay awhile.  It doesn't have that "temporary feel."  We are back in Mt. Vernon and I don't need to worry about Damian's school (we never did tell the school district we were in a different town, we just hoped they didn't find out). 

Even the library was a worry to me.  I didn't want to go to a new one, and I didn't want my old one to find out we were in a different town.  Now I'm back in Mt. Vernon, I just feel less on edge and it's good. 

Happy Mother's Day

One of the blogs I read often links back to his blogs from a year before.  So I decided to go look at May 2014 in my blog.  I didn't write on May 11, 2014, but reading what I did over Mother's Day and about my garden made me smile.  I did pretty much the same things yesterday that I did a year ago, although I'm in a different house than I was.  And the garden part made me sad.  I still have my planter boxes, but no seedlings this year, and no dirt.  And I don't think I'll be getting the dirt.  :-(  With having just moved and then our car problems from a couple weeks ago, I just don't think we can afford the expense right now.  I'm super bummed because I LOVED having the garden last year, and learned a lot from it.  Although, with our new place I'll have to learn about the sun and what grows best. 

I am also sad about losing the house we had lived in.  While it had a lot of problems, the biggest being a mold problem, I really did love the outside space I made, and I miss knowing that it was ours, rather than rented. 

On Saturday the weather was gorgeous.  I woke up at 5am, and decided to just get up.  I had coffee and was watching some TV and decided to work on unpacking my house.  I arranged the living room and cleaned off the table in the kitchen.  It is soooo much nicer now.  And I did all that before my hair appt at 11.  I spent the afternoon outside enjoying the sun.  I did go for a 4 mile run, but then was noticing the runner tan lines I'm already forming, so decided to go to our backyard and sunbathe a little (with sunscreen) to try to conteract the runner lines, which I hate. 

I just got two new bathing suits from Sammy Dress which I love.  However, the sizes run quite small so even though I got a large, the bottoms to one of the suits is too small, like really too small, luckily the bottoms I got for the second one match the top to the first one okay.  :-)

In the evening our neighbor and friend invited us over to watch a movie on their outdoor screen.  They borrowed Transformers from us, so they kinda had to invite us over.  :-)  But it was really fun.  The day on Saturday was beautiful and so warm.  It was perfect for an outdoor movie. 

I was expecting Sunday to be just as nice so I was really disappointed that the clouds had come in.  They were really high clouds (I'm sure there's a name for them) so it wasn't stormy, but it was definitely cooler and windier than Saturday. 

Damian made me breakfast and then I was going to go for a run.  It was so hard to get myself out the door.  Like I've said many times, Mt. Vernon is much hillier than Burlington (where we just moved from) so the 6 months I spent running in Burlington was all flat, now when I run I have to run up hill, unless I drive somewhere, and I don't like doing that.  This means that my legs (thighs and hips mostly) have been a little achey which made it that much harder to go for a run.  I just didn't feel like it, and knowing that I had 6 miles planned, and knowing that none of it would be flat. . .  well, it was just hard to leave. 

Last summer I was running with the jogging stroller to the park to let Maddox play for a little bit and then back home.  Yesterday on my run I ran through that park and couldn't imagine running with the stroller right now.  It is all uphill to that park, even if some of it is a slight uphill, it is still uphill. And then, as weird as it sounds, it is uphill when you leave that park as well, it flattens out and then the end of the run is downhill (which is why I do it that way) but I just feel like the uphills outweigh the downhills. 

Chris and Damian made me dinner last night and then we had a very small fire.  And then I took a bath.  One thing that I definitely don't miss about our old home (the one that we lost, not the most recent one) is the water heater, which wasn't big enough to fill the bathtub with hot water.  The place in Burlington had a great bathtub, plus enough hot water to fill it.  This new place has enough hot water, but the bathtub is rather shallow, which sucks.  I had gotten into the habit in Burlington to take a bath at least once a week (I really do love baths) and probably had more there in the 6 months we were there than I did in the 6 years we lived in the other house.  I'm not quite willing to give up my bathtime yet, so I'm suffering through a much shallower bathtub. 

Damian and Maddox gave me a necklace that I saw in Walmart a few days ago and pointed out to Damian.  It's an infinity symbol with "mom" written in it.  I really, really like it. 


Move and Have a Heart Run

I wrote this yesterday but was trying to add some pictures of our move, but I couldn't get them, so you're stuck with whatever I was able to get on.  :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's been a week since I last posted on here, but what a week it has been!  We moved.  We officially left our house in Burlington and moved back to Mount Vernon, just a few blocks from where we just moved from 6 months ago.  It was a crazy busy weekend for us and our new house is still so full of boxes, it's not even funny.  I'm so sick of boxes.  I wish I could take this week off and just unpack, but unfortunately I don't have the ability to do that. 

My parents came over to watch Damian play baseball and helped us move.  They helped a lot and I can't express my gratitude to them enough.  We are really going to like our new house.  As much as we loved our old place, loved the quiet and the dead end street, this house was remodeled 3 years ago and only had one tenant since.  There are 2 families with 4 kids each, so there are lots of kids everywhere, and Maddox fits right in.  Damian's best friend is 2 blocks over and has been at our house everyday this week, and they are building a treehouse/fort in the backyard. 

I have discovered as I've gotten older that I am not a very social person.  I enjoy friends, but not everyday in my house.  The "gang" of kids that is in our neighborhood drives me crazy, even though they are good kids.  I just don't want them constantly at our house, and right now, we are the exciting "new" neighbors.  We've actually known both families and have been friends with them for many years, we just haven't hung out a lot, especially in the last 6 months because we were away from the neighborhood.  But when I get home, I want peace, I want quiet, I want my run and then my glass of wine.  I am not currently getting that, I am getting my run, but then I have a messy (extremely messy) house so sitting in it is not peaceful or very relaxing.  So the other day I decided to go outside and enjoy our new deck, but then we had the "gang" of kids come in the backyard and they were all over me.  I don't want to be the "mean lady next door" but I seriously just want them out of my yard! 

I'm sure the longer we are there, the less exciting we will be, and they won't be over as often, but right now . . . right now I get frustrated.  Last night I came home, went for  run, took a shower and then was sitting inside while Chris was outside with Maddox and the neighbor girls (just 2 of them).  I went outside for a min and Chris decided he needed to show the girls' father (our really great friend that has helped us more than a million times, he was the one that helped me with my car a few weeks ago, and the one that found this house for us) something inside.  I thought they'd be quick, so I was outside with the girls and Maddox, and then they were inside forEVER (it was probably 15 min).  When did I get so grumpy?  I've never been very social, but I've always loved kids.  I did get some great pictures with them, though.  :-)

 Rant over . . . I think.

I forgot, I also did the Have a Heart Run on Saturday.  I met a coworker who had signed up forever ago with a friend of hers.  They did the 5k while I did the 10k.  This 10K was the first one I've done since the Fowl Fun Run in 2012, which was my first and only 10k.  I am calling the Have a Heart 10K a PR, even though the results page lists me 1 sec over the Fowl Fun Run time.  The reason I am calling it a PR is because I pushed my button as I crossed the start line, and the official time started with the "gun" (there was no real gun) and not when each person crosses the start because there were no mats.  I feel that my time is more accurate than the "official" time, so I'm going with it.  :-)

It was a really pretty run.  It went along the Skagit River (a different part of it than what I have been running by) and then through some farmland, which I love.  I love, love looking around as I'm running, so running a pretty route through an area of the Skagit Valley I've never been to, was perfect. 

I was following one guy, and we were going way too fast for a 6 mile run for me (about 8:45 min/mile), so I slowed down.  He slowed down more and I passed him.  Then I was behind a couple of guys going about a 9:10 min/mile and I thought that might be too fast for me (my 7 mile run the weekend before was around 9:21 min/mile) but I didn't want to slow down again so I stayed with them.  Then they slowed down so I passed them.  I had steadily been getting a little slower each mile so at mile 4 I sped up so I wouldn't have positive splits (where each mile gets slower).  However, mile 5 ended up being my slowest mile, but mile 6 was my second fastest (after the first mile, which really was too fast).  I didn't finish feeling like I had nothing left, like I did at the Tulip Run, so I think I could have pushed myself a little bit more.  But overall, I felt good about the race.  I was thinking that since this is such a small race  I had a chance to be 1st in my age group.  Sadly I was 2nd (2nd place didn't get anything) and I was behind that person by 5 min.  Oh well.  :-)

One awesome thing was that my parents came to the race.  They tried to make it to the start, but they were about 30 secs too late.  They were walking to the start line as we started.  Then, since I was going to be running about an hour, my dad went back to his pickup to take a nap, and sadly he didn't see me cross the finish line.  My mom was there though, so that was nice.  :-)  I heard her yell my name as I came up to the finish line.  I felt really bad for my dad because I think he was more interested in it than my mom.  He's always expressed interest in my running, and has talked about how cool it would be for me to run the Boston Marathon (I told him that likely would never happen).  My mom has been visiting in the past while I did races and has never gone to the race to cheer me on, so I'm pretty sure it was my dad's influence on her coming.  Don't get me wrong, my mom is supportive, just not the same as my dad.  When I do a marathon, I'd really like my dad to be there, which is one reason (not a big reason) why I want to do it in the Tri-Cities, it's close(ish) to their house.

Running the Dream

I have not mentioned that I changed my name and my banner at the top.  It has been on my mind for quite a long time that I don't care for the "Living the Dream (a Convoluted and Crazy Dream)"  or whatever it was (I can't even remember exactly anymore, that's how much I didn't care for it).  I never particularly cared for that name, but kept it because I was lazy and my url is "convolutedcrazydream." A while ago I made a facebook page called Running the Dream and I really like it.  I have debated about changing the name here for a long time, but never did.  Recently I also started a instagram page with the same name, Running the Dream, so I decided to change my blog name as well.  It only makes sense.  =)  Besides, I just like it better, it fits me so much better than the other weird one. 

Anyway, this last weekend was fairly uneventful.  Saturday Damian had a school "field trip" (I use the term loosely) to go play paintball.  He was super excited to go, but didn't write down the times or where it is and the school was closed and no way to find out from the teacher any information.  I had to look up the paintball place and call them and ask if they had a reservation for the high school.  Luckily I was able to get the info, and Damian had a blast. 

I did 7 miles on Saturday, again, the longest run I've had since September.  I didn't even realize that I hadn't run 7 miles before recently until I was looking at my running calendar and realized the 7 mile run I thought I did was actually only 6.7 miles. Saturdays run was really nice.  I ran along the river.  I knew that it was probably my last long run at this house, and running along the river really has been my favorite run, although running through the farm land is also a favorite.  The problem with where I am currently living is that to get to the river, or farmland, I have to run at least 2 miles, and when I'm only running 3 miles during the week, I don't make it that far before having to turn around. 

The reason the bottom left picture is there is because that is a bunch of soccer fields, I used to be one of the parents sitting there watching Damian play soccer at those fields.  It looked like there was a big tournament there this last weekend, but I remember seeing people up on the trail next to the river and I always wondered how they got up there.  (This was pre-running.)  I thought it was cool/funny that I was  now one of the people on the trail.  =)

Sunday I ran 3 miles, and then did a bunch of squats and clam exercises and duck walks, oh, and don't forget the plank.  There was a time I could do a 5 min plank, Sunday I only made it to just under a min and a half.  =( 

I was hoping that what I did was enough to make my legs and butt sore on Monday, but I wasn't sore at all.  I was rather bummed about it.  I was a little sore yesterday, Tuesday, but not much.  So I did more of the same last evening.  And I'm not really sore today.  I'm thinking I need to increase the number of reps or something. 

Monday I ran another 3 miles and then today or tomorrow I'm doing another 3 miles.  This Saturday I signed up to do the Have a Heart run that I did the first year I was running.  It was my very first 5k race, and this year I'm doing the 10k.  Oh and don't forget the move that is happening tomorrow and Friday.  I will be working . . . but my parents are coming to watch Damian play baseball and to help us (or should I say, Chris) move.

I've talked about the amount of donuts my work has regularly and that donuts are my kryptonite.  We haven't had donuts for awhile now and every morning I have been bracing myself for them to come in, knowing I was going to say no (or at least attempt to say no).  Well, today was the day for donuts.  My boss came into our morning meeting with a box of donuts.  I didn't even look at them, even though I had coworkers saying it isn't bad to have one donut a week (and I only ever eat one).  But to me it's the mental struggle, the telling myself I won't have one if they're brought in and then always taking one.  Today, I didn't take one.  =)  I was dreading the rest of he day though because it always seems to happen that they sit in the break room after our meeting and tempt me throughout the day.  Often, even if I resist in the morning I end up eating one (or even a couple bites) sometime throughout the day.  Today there must have been another meeting after mine because the box never appeared in the break room, and I was disappointed.  Ugh!  That's the hold the donuts have on me, even though I'm telling myself no, I usually give in.  Today, I only had to get through a 45 min meeting and then they were gone.  Whew!  (But still that little disappointment.)

Here are a couple collages that I posted on instagram this last week.

 Maddox got a haircut.  He's so cute!

Last Thursday I did a #tbt on instagram. The left is me at my
heaviest around 177 in 2010 (I think), and the right is me on
Thursday at about 147.

April

April is not over yet, but it's close.  And I'm glad. 

I usually think people who say, usually at the end/beginning of the year, that they are glad this year is over and happy the new one is here are kinda silly.  December 31st is no different than January 1st. Your problems don't go away just because the year changes.  Same with the month, May 1st will not be very different than April 30th.  But maybe in my head it will be.

April has, historically, been one of my favorite months.  I like spring, I like the flowers and the plants budding and the freshness that's in the air.  I like planting and being outside.  Winter is over and there seems to be a fresh start in my mind, much more so than January 1st.  However, this particular April has been very hard for me. 

First we found out that we have to move.  Then we have both our cars break down, and costs a ton of money to fix one.  There was the scare of no water.  And then last Saturday my aunt died unexpectedly. 


My Aunt Mary Kay.

My aunt was not healthy.  She had been sick for a couple years. In fact, the first year (2 years ago) I ran Bloomsday she had actually lost her sight for a while (she got it back, but for a few weeks she didn't see well).  She was living with another of my aunts and sadly when my other aunt got up, she found her in the kitchen.  They think it was a stroke as she had been having little ones regularly, but they didn't do an autopsy because they know it was natural causes. 

Well, my family scheduled the funeral for yesterday, but I had no time to take off of work.  With all our financial needs this month, taking several days off without pay was just not possible, so I told my family I wouldn't be able to come over to go to the funeral.  (I was very upset that they didn't take into consideration people that work, but that's a lot of years of inconsideration building in me and I won't go into it). 
My sister, Nancy, suggested that she take me over the mountains early Thursday morning (I actually had an appt with our new landlord to sign our new lease Wednesday evening) and then we come back really, really early this morning so I could go to work.  This meant getting up at 4am so I can be at work by 8am.   I was really thankful my sister was willing to do that for me and I took her up on it.  We weren't even in eastern WA for 24 hours.

It was really, really nice to see some of my family, and I wish I could have stayed longer, but I'm very grateful that I was able to go for the day. 

My sisters and me, Nancy (the one that drove me), me, Barbara
(lives in eastern WA), and Tami (lives in N. Carolina).

________________________________

May 1st we are moving.  I am not happy to be leaving the house that we currently live in and love, but I will be really happy to be in the new place and not having to worry about anything moving. 



Marathon musings

As I write this I have the Boston Marathon playing right next to where I'm writing.  I was watching it yesterday, not live, but didn't finish it.  I do know who won, in both females and males, so it's interesting to watch the way it plays out.  I find myself rooting Des Linden and Meb and Ritz (on the men's side) on to win, even though I know they don't.  As I type this the women are approaching the finish.  I actually saw the women's finish early yesterday, and I was amazed.  The top two women had an all out sprint to the finish line, and I can't believe that they have that much energy after running 26 miles already.  It is truly amazing to me.  They are running somewhere under 6min/miles for 26.2 miles. That is amazing. ---I just watched the women finish (again) but it is so much more amazing to me after watching it all (or at least the elite runners). 

Who would have thought that this would have been interesting to me 2-3 years ago.  But it is, it is truly amazing.  (I know, I need new words, but seriously, that's all I've got, it's amazing.)  I want to be a part of that, maybe not Boston (I don't know that I could be fast enough), and definitely not an elite runner, I will never be elite (after all, I'm 38 and all the elites are younger than me) but I want to run a marathon.  I hope my feet allow me to do it this year.  This is my goal.

On that note, last week I ran 15.4 miles.  That is the most mileage since September.  And I have had some issues with my feet, but not too bad.  I've been rolling them every night and icing them.  This weekend I decided to switch my long run day to Saturday, I have been doing it on Sunday, but most races I do are Saturday, so I decided to switch.  Plus, with Damian's baseball schedule, my normal Tuesday, and Thursday runs aren't possible.  If I wanted 4 days of running, I had to run on Monday.  Which meant 3 days in a row, which I haven't done for 7 months.  Anyway, I expected my feet to be pretty sore today and they aren't.  What is sore are my shins, which really sucks. 

Saturday I was able to run 3 miles at an average of 8.31min/miles and my run yesterday for 3 miles was an average of 8.50min/miles, so I think the 3 days in a row really slowed me down, but I'm still so happy to have an average of under 9 min/miles.  Yesterday my shins were really sore, and I felt slow, plus, the temperature was close to 70 degrees, and I always run slower when it's warm.  My body isn't used to 70 degrees. 70 isn't bad in the summer, but in April I'm still used to 40-50 degrees. 

First wearing of shorts on a run, and of course, that comes
with the first chafing of the year, even with Vaseline in bad
spots.  =(

--I got sucked into watching the finishers at the Boston marathon.  Now I'm really excited to do a marathon.  I think I'll try to do the Tri-Cities one I was planning on doing last year.  It's flat, in October, which is good weather in eastern WA and maybe my parents will come cheer me at the finish line.  (Maybe)

The weather here was beautiful this weekend.  I spent Saturday hanging out with my sister shopping and getting pedicures.  But on Sunday I spent the day outside enjoying the sun.  Yesterday was the warmest day, temperatures being 70 and above.  And of course today the clouds are back.  =/

____________________________

My aunt died suddenly last Saturday.  She was not healthy, but it was also unexpected.  I was not very close to her, but I am traveling to eastern WA to go to her funeral on Thursday.  It will be a very quick trip as I don't really have the time to take off at work.  I don't think we'll be in eastern WA for even 24 hours.  My sister came up with the plan to leave early Thursday morning, go to the funeral Thursday afternoon, and then drive home very, very, very early Friday morning so that I can go to work.  It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive, so that means we'll be leaving somewhere around 4 am Friday.  That makes a very long day for me, and I will be exhausted.  I get very annoyed with my family, my aunts, mostly.  They don't take "normal" people into consideration when they make plans.  (Normal being people that work for a living and have to juggle family and jobs.)  Anyway, I (my sister) made it work and I'll be there. 

And me, being the runner that I am, immediately thinks that this will mess up my running schedule.  I'm supposed to run on Thursday.  I guess I will try to run tomorrow instead. 

More woes

I follow a lot of blogs . . . blogger says 37, but since I now read all my blogs on Bloglovin' a more accurate count is their number and that's 55 (holy cow!).  (I will say that many of them are inactive or only post once a month or less.)  The vast majority of the blogs I read are written by runners, and if they are not runners, then they have lost a large amount of weight or are working to lose a large amount of weight.  I'd say that most are both, runners that have lost a lot of weight.  I can only think of 3 that are not weight or running related (one is hilarious, one is my college roommate and writes fantastically, and the other is just because I like reading about her life). 

Anyway, since I read so many fitness blogs, especially of people that have lost a lot of weight I tend to feel self-conscious about talking about my weight issues (don't get me wrong, sometimes I over-obsess about the scale) and I worry that if I talk about something I think of weight-wise I will come across as insensitive.  I mean really, at my heaviest I was 180 (after my first son, this time around I got to 177 before losing weight, again), and many of the people I read are talking about starting weights in the high 200's or 300's.  180 is not that much when you think about it, it is some people's goal weight. 

So, like I said, sometimes I feel silly about sharing some stuff, today I feel silly, but it's still on my mind. I really hope I don't offend anyone, or make some people roll their eyes, but if you do, you can choose to not read what I write (not many do anyway).  =)

I think that everyone has days where they "feel" fat, even 105 lb women, without an ounce of fat on their bodies, feel fat sometimes.  And I also think that everyone "feels" skinny at some time, or skinnier, maybe I'm wrong, but I think that most everyone has a day where they think they look great (maybe skinny isn't the right word).  Today is a "fat" day for me.  Although just a couple days ago I "felt" skinny and I weigh the same today as I did the other day.

Anyway, when I was heavier (who am I kidding, I still do this), I would stand in front of a mirror naked, or with just bra and panties on, and suck in my stomach as much as I could and wish I could look like that.  On the flip side I would also push out my stomach as far as it could go and think that must be how fat I am, what I must look like to everyone else.  Well, the other day, on my "skinny" day, I was doing just that and realized that now when I push my stomach out, I am still not as big as I was 30 lbs ago.  And then I realized that 30lbs ago when I would suck in my stomach as much as I could, I wasn't as skinny looking as I actually am now.  Who would've thought?
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Yesterday I went for my scheduled 3 mile run.  I was trying to run fast (well, fast for me) and I managed a 8.26 min/mile average, which is pretty good.  I am actually looking forward to moving back to my old neighborhood just because of my running routes there.  And, don't tell anyone, but I'm looking forward to running the hills there again.  I'm a little worried about it being a lot harder than it was 8 months ago, but I will be in so much better shape running up hills rather than all the flat running I do now. 

After my run yesterday I was stretching, my calves have been uncomfortable while running lately, so I'm trying to get back to my good habits of stretching afterwards, and my husband popped his head out the door and told me to "not sweat too much."  I was confused and asked what he meant.  He said that the guy that is tearing out the roots of the trees behind our house hit a waterline and we have no water.  He thought that maybe we wouldn't get any water back because why would they fix it to our house when they are just going to tear it down.  I told him they have to fix it, we still live here and even if they tear the house down in 2 weeks (it will be longer than 2 weeks), they still have to provide the water for us to live for those 2 weeks.

I was super annoyed by the lack of water, and quite worried about how long it would take for them to fix it.  We even had Damian's friend who was bringing him home, stop and grab us some water so that we had it to drink and make coffee in the morning. Thankfully, we were only without water about 2 hours and I was worried about nothing. 

I'm supposed to get my car back today.  It was ready a couple days ago, but we didn't have the money.  We got the money yesterday but Chris was unable to go to the bank, so I'm just waiting for him to tell me he's been to the bank so that I can go get the car.  I'm getting a little anxious, it's only 2pm, but I don't know how long it will take and I'd like to go to Damian's baseball game that is in Everett today.  I can't wait to get my car back.

Moving, part 2

I've been thinking of posting since last Wednesday.  I looked and realized I hadn't posted since Tuesday which I was surprised about. 

Anyway, there hasn't been a lot running wise going on.  Every week I start out the week saying I'm going to increase the number of days I'm running to 4 and then every week something happens and I only do 3 days.  Last week I was going to run on Thursday (I had already run Sunday and Tuesday) but we had to look at a house (more on that in a min) and then a thunder storm rolled in.  I will run in rain and wind, and would like to run in snow (haven't yet), but not in a thunder storm, no thank you!

So I went for a run on Saturday, instead of 3 miles, I did 4.  On Sunday I was trying to decide how many miles to run.  Last week I ran over 6.5 on accident and was okay, so I thought about doing 7 miles.  Then I was thinking, well, if I do 7 miles and then 3 on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, that's 16 miles and I'm not sure if I'm ready for that.  So I decided I should figure out what I want more, longer long runs, or more days of running.  Before plantar faciitis, I was running 5 days a week, and ideally would like to go back to that.  But I was also doing 8+ mile long runs, and I'd like to go back to that as well.  After thinking about it for awhile, I decided what I'd like to do first is get back to running more days a week.  So I only ran for 6 miles yesterday and then told myself that I HAVE to go for a run on Thursday.  No excuses this week.

Even though I'm actually increasing my days this week (and miles) I am a little worried.  I had a couple weeks with no pain in my feet, but last week after my Saturday 5 mile run and then Sunday 6.5 and Tuesday 3 miles my feet starting tingling.  I don't know how else to describe it, it's not a pain, but a tingle in my heal.  I had it before with the PF, and it wasn't horrible, but it worries me.  Maybe I'm not letting it heal by increasing days/miles.  It is very frustrating though because I've been super good since September and I'm still dealing with it.  That's 6 1/2 months . . . ugh.  I'm beginning to wonder if I'll be able to do a full marathon this fall.  Soooo frustrating.

I have been walking more, which I wonder if that is causing the tingle.  I know that when I walked a lot when the PF was at its worst, that made it feel worse than the running did.  My coworkers like to walk on lunch breaks, and while I don't go with them often, I have been doing it about once a week.  So last week I not only ran 14 miles, but also did a 2.5 mile walk with my coworkers, and our car is still in the shop, so I had to walk to the store on Friday and then walked to get my nails done on Saturday, so I probably walked and ran a total of 18 or 19 miles last week. (I don't keep track of walking mileage, so that's a guess, but I know the walk at work is 2.5 and to the store is about 0.4 miles). 

nails and coffee

You know how they say bad things happen in 3's?  Well, I already told you about our 2 cars, both dying within 4 days of each other.  The third thing, well, actually the first thing, to happen was that we were told we would have to move out of our house at the end of our lease.  They sent us a letter about 2 months ago warning us that they weren't renewing our lease.  They actually said that she had accidentally done a 7 month lease instead of a 6 month lease which is what they meant to do, so we have until the end of May, but they asked if we could try to be out by the end of April.  We've been looking, but there are not many places for rent, which surprises me because I thought that this time of year there would be more.  Maybe the summer time is when people move?  I don't know, it's not the fall and it's not the spring, as we've found out. 

Anyway, we knew it was going to happen, we just thought it was a few years down the road.  They are building (have already built 6 with 2 more going up right now) duplex townhouses behind our house.  The lot we rent, which is large, will fit another 6-8 of the duplexes.  So that is what they are going to do, tear down our fantastic old farmhouse and build crappy, cheap duplex townhouses.  (In fact, as I typed this, Damian, who is home sick, sent me a picture of them cutting down some of the big trees behind us).

Well, a good friend of ours, actually the same one that helped me with our car, told us a week ago that the people directly across the street from him are moving and he knows the owners of the house.  He told the owners about us, and we are guaranteed the house if we want it, we just had to go look at it.  Chris was given the number of the guy that lives there currently and we had to arrange a time with him to go look at it.  We went and looked at it on Thursday.  It's about the same size as our old house, which is smaller than our current house, but with the smallest kitchen imaginable.  We've been pretty spoiled on our kitchens, the one at our old house was a good size and the one at our current house is huge.  This house also doesn't have a dining room, just a little "breakfast area."  We have a large dining room table that was my Grandma's, so I'm not sure how we're going to do that.  Plus, we always host Thanksgiving and Christmas with about 5-6 other people.  It's also got a very small yard, but it has a deck and it's completely fenced in.  And there's a 3/4 bathroom in the master bedroom.

Anyway, we really like the neighborhood, it's only about 3 or 4 blocks from our old house, we know 3 families on the street we'd be living on, and 2 other families a block away. Plus, Damian can walk to school again, and it's on a quiet street (not as quiet as our current dead end street).  So I think we're moving there. 

I think the negatives are large, but with sooo many positives, I guess they outweigh the negatives.  (Can you tell I'm not completely sold on moving there?)

Monday madness

Yesterday's post was getting long and I have another post to write about my Sunday run and my Monday morning.  This is why you are getting another post already.

Let's talk about Sunday's run first, it's much more pleasant. =)  Sunday I really, really didn't want to run.  I had to wait for Damian to come home from his friend's house, and by the time he was home it was after 1pm and I just didn't want to do it.  I commented on Leigh (from Poonapalooza)'s instagram page (did I mention that I started one that is not my personal one? you can find it here) about needing motivation, she basically told me to woman up and go run because I'd feel better afterwards (I'm paraphrasing) =). 

Anyway, I got dressed for a run.  If I get dressed, even if I sit down or do something different I always make myself go out for a run.  So I got dressed . . . and went for a run.  I decided to go for 6 miles even though I had just run 5 miles on Saturday.  I decided to go easy, I wasn't looking to go fast or anything, just to run.  And I did.  And it was great.  Although, I took a new route and found some beautiful farm land and ended up going 6.7 miles instead of 6 miles.  When I saw how far I had run I thought about adding another 0.3 to the run to make it a nice 7 miles, but I was tired and didn't want to so I stopped. 

I was sore that evening.  I forgot how sore you get when you run farther than your body is used to.  I felt my back get tight on my run and then that evening it was very sore.  My legs were stiff as well, but by yesterday I felt fine.  I have to say, it feels good to be running longer distances again.  I can't wait till I can say "My longest run ever" again instead of  "My longest run since September."  Oh, and my feet?  Don't hurt at all. They were sore on Sunday night, I rolled and iced them and no pain yesterday or today.

Which brings us to Monday morning, aka worst day ever.

I was driving along, perfectly fine on my way to work when my car jerked.  I looked down and saw the check engine light was on.  I know you shouldn’t drive with the check engine light on, so I pulled over right away, about a mile from my exit, and turned the car off and it wouldn’t start again.  After a very teary and scary 15 min or so where I had no idea what to do a Washington State Incidence Response truck showed up and looked at the car. 

He said he thought it was the timing belt and then our good friend, who was working close (he sells automotive supplies to mechanics all over northwestern WA), came to the car and helped me find a tow truck and told me where to take it.  So it was towed to a place and they told me yesterday that they didn’t think they’d even have time to look at it yesterday, however that guy called me after 5 last night.  He said it was the timing belt and he asked me if I was keeping the car or had plans to sell it.  He said if I was selling it, they could just replace the timing belt for $55 plus labor and I could sell it.  Or if I was keeping it and wanting to drive it for awhile, then they would have to take it apart and look at the insides and replace the water pump and many other things and “it all adds up.”  He said if they look at it and everything looks good and all they have to do is put it back together it would cost $1100-1200, but if he needs to “replace the head” then that could be an extra $1500-2000. 

 

So it's been a very stressful couple of days, and will continue to be that way for awhile.  I hate money, by the way.

Today I'm going to run again, only 3 miles.  

 

Easter weekend

I hope you all had a good Easter.  We didn't do anything.  I am always rather sad now on Easter.  It used to be a very big thing, as big as Christmas or Thanksgiving, in my family growing up.  We went to our church's sunrise service in a cow pasture (it was cool, they had even put up a cross that everyone walked to after the service) and then home to get dressed in our brand new clothes and then back to church for the Easter service.  After church we would go to my  Grandma's house where we would have a big dinner, take family pictures, and then an Easter egg hunt.  It was always a lot of fun. 

My Grandma died when I was in college, but I still went to my parent's house and they had dinner, but it was never quite the same.  When I moved to western WA I quit going to my parent's house (I don't really know why), but then it was just Damian and me.  Sometimes I would go to my sister's but not all the time.  And then when Chris and I got back together he always worked on the weekend, so we never started doing anything together. 

This year, Damian went to a friend's house for a birthday party on Saturday and asked to stay the night, so since we weren't doing anything I said okay.  Sunday morning was very calm and quiet.  I didn't go to church, but Maddox and I hung out. I made us pancakes, bacon and eggs, of which Maddox ate the bacon (too much Easter basket candy). We went outside and watched a train for awhile, and then we went for a walk and found caterpillars and a garden. 

Damian came home after lunch and found his Easter basket.  My parents alternated ways to hide our baskets when I was young. They would either tie a string to it and then wind the string throughout the house back to our bedrooms and we'd have to follow the string.  It was fun because there were 4 of us, so sometimes we'd get mixed up and find the wrong basket and have to start over.  The other one they would do is a scavenger hunt type of thing.  They would write clues and we'd have to follow the clues till we found the basket.  I did the clue one for Damian this year.  I have always avoided that one because of his reading problems, but I thought he was plenty old enough this year.  I had him going back and forth through the house, down to the basement and up to the attic.  Even if he didn't have fun, I did.  :-)

When Chris got home from work we did an Easter egg hunt with Maddox, which he loved.

Saturday I did the Tulip Run.  I really wanted to place like I did last year but didn't expect to.  I knew I'd be slow and fully expected to be over 9 min/miles.  The first mile I was about a 8:44 min/mile according to my Garmin (which I loved having for the race) and I felt really, really good.  I thought "I could totally speed up" but then thought about the saying "don't judge a run by the first mile" and knew I'd need something in my tank at mile 5 so I refrained. 

I don't remember exactly when but I came up behind a girl that was going my same speed and decided to stay behind her.  I passed her at one point, but she passed me again.  At about mile 3 she sped up and I worked (hard) to keep up with her.  Then (thankfully) she slowed down at mile 4, I didn't pass her again, but I was able to keep within about 30 feet of her.  I finished in 43.58, and was not even close to the first place person in my age group.  In fact, she was 8 min faster than I was last year, so I didn't feel so bad.  Even in my best running shape I couldn't beat 34.41 (that's a 6.56 min/mile, don't think so!), even the third place person was faster than my time last year, she did it at 41.02. 

Oh and it's so good I didn't speed up in mile 1, I was giving it everything I had in mile 5 and that was my slowest mile.

Every mile was under 9min/mile . . . amazing!  Following someone really helps, you just have to follow the right person.  =)

I've done this run 3 years and never had a picture online for it . . . happily this year, I have 3 of me, one full on.  :-) 

I know the picture wasn't of me, but I'm in it. (The
green in the back)

This was the lady I was chasing the whole time.
She clicked her heals but unfortunately the guy
didn't get it exactly, I thought it was hilarious.

I was still laughing from the lady in front of me.

 I have tons more to talk about, including my run on Sunday and my crappy Monday morning, but this is long enough, so I will try to get on tomorrow and type that up. =)