Hills?

1/18 Saturday: 2miles, 11.09min/mile

1/19 Sunday: 3miles, 11.36min/mile

1/20 Monday: 2miles, 10.54min/mile

1/23 Thursday: 2miles, 11.49min/mile

Yesterday I knew I wasn't going to have time to run after work, so I decided to take running clothes to work. My job is about one mile from my old house, so I know the streets, and used to run on those streets.  Holy cow, the hills are killer.  I felt like I barely ran at all, but just walked most of the "run."  It was terrible, and also made me realize how out of shape I've become.  I used to run 3, 4, 5, 6+ miles in this neighborhood without stopping.  

Last fall I started doing hill repeats after work, but I quit when I got sick.  I'm thinking I need to do at least one day a week after work there doing hill repeats.  Either that or just start running that neighborhood again, but that would mean Peanut never gets out.  I don't know.

I have not done yoga consistently since October.  My sister was gone for a couple weeks and when she came back I was sick, then the holidays, and most recently my side/back issue.  So I have done yoga/pilates only about 3 weeks sporadically (not in a row) since October.  I have been doing the weight training with Caroline Girvan 3 to 5 days a week since a week before Christmas.  I haven't seen any results, but I am trying not to get discouraged.  

On another note, I measured Maddox this last week and he has grown!

That is 4 1/2 inches in one year! He is officially taller than me now.

I don't have a lot to say, but I am still wanting to update, because it's important to me to be consistent.  

Update

Thursday 1/9: 2 miles, 11.04 min/mile

Saturday 1/11: 2 miles, 10.39 min/mile

Sunday 1/12: 3 miles, 11.14 min/mile

Tuesday 1/14: 2 miles 11.29 min mile

Sometime last week I did something to my sideback.  On Thursday I could barely move, it hurt so bad.  It is getting better, but it hurts to sleep on my side, not because I'm laying on it, but because if I lay on the side that doesn't hurt, it scrunches the side that hurts, and if I lay on the side that does hurt, it stretches it and hurts.  I am not a natural back sleeper, but I've been trying to stay on my back.  

A few months ago I got a waist leash to help with Peanut's pulling, but he still pulls.  Saturday he was doing okay-ish, but then I let him sniff a couple dogs in their yard and he started jumping around to play, and pulled on the leash.  It almost brought me down from the pain in my side.  

I really wish it would snow here.  It's cold enough at night, but no precipitation.  That's the problem with this area, when it's cold enough to snow, it's always because there are no clouds.  The clouds insulate, so often when there is precipitation, it's too warm.  We haven't had a really good snow in a couple years.  It makes me sad.

What else is going on here?  I did 4 days of the weight program I've been doing last week, but today (Wednesday) was the first day I did it this week.  We'll see if I get my butt up the rest of the week.  

I don't have a lot to share, but wanted to update.

A couple days of running

 Sunday: 3 mile run. 11.45 min/mile

Monday: 2 mile run. 11.17 min/mile

A long time ago I decided you all (all 7 that follow me, who knows if all 7 even still look at my page) didn't care about the minutiae of my daily runs and my weight loss.  But I'm thinking that it is for me, not all you strangers.  So I have been writing them down here.  I just posted on Saturday, so felt like I should not post again so soon, but I am proud that I went for a run today.  

I didn't sleep well last night and was exhausted, so went home early. It was super sunny when I got home so I decided to go for a short run.  I also didn't want to take the dog, so I didn't.  I always feel guilty when I don't take him, but I get really tired of him pulling all the time. 

Well, I was talking to a friend, and I kinda sorta agreed to train for a half marathon in June.  I did put a caveat that I could back out up until March.  So we shall see.  

Anyway, the last two days runs. . . yesterday was 3 miles, and they were slow.  I am not able, or maybe it's just my brain telling me I'm not able, to run a full 3 miles without walking.  Looking at stats, I walked 3 min and was "idle" for 1 min.  My moving time was 31 min.  

Interestingly, today I only did 2 miles and walked for 2 min, but no idle time.  I'm thinking I need to quit walking.  Today I did a lot of activity, yoga this morning, a run, and then 10 min core workout with Caroline Girvan.  She has a lot of videos on youtube, which is what I am using, but apparently she also has an app or website that you can subscribe to.  I already subscribe to Beachyogagirl which I do with my sister, so I'm not willing to pay for another site.  The youtube videos are fine, I do wish I could filter them better, but so far I'm figuring it out.  I am not following just one of her series (she has several), but finding shorter ones (20 min) and keeping track of what body parts I'm doing so I don't repeat.  

If I'm going to be posting here more again, I need to start remembering to take more pictures.  I don't have any new ones from the last many runs.  This one is from October, but I didn't have Peanut that day either, so it works.  😊

back to the beginning

 First run of 2025 done, a short 2 mile run.  Pretty slow.  11.38 mile/min.  

Before getting a bigger dog, I thought that if I had a dog, I'd want to run more often. Peanut is a great running dog, but he's still a puppy and not always a great companion.  For example, before Christmas, he got spooked by a parked car (yes, parked) and jumped in front of me causing me to trip and fall. 🙄 Stupid dog.  He also pulls quite a bit, and while I got a waist leash and at least he's not pulling at my arm anymore, he's still pulling me. At first I thought that would help make me faster, but it just makes me more tired.  Even if I run faster, he's still pulling at me to go faster.  No matter what, he's faster than I am.  

I was planning on going to do a Caroline Girvan workout today to make 5 days this week, but I don't know now.  I've done 4 days in a row and would like a break, which I was planning on taking tomorrow, but maybe I'll take it today.  I am planning on running again tomorrow.  

I may post small posts to keep track of my running.  I don't know if that will keep me accountable, but I am interested in trying something.  

My kids (and Peanut) on New Year's Eve

Reading old posts is interesting.  Although depressing.  In April 2012 I was battling getting under 170, and almost 13 years later, I'm back to that same dilemma.  However, this time I also have peri-menopause to deal with. 13 years and a lifetime different.  Also, it's weird to think about it, but Maddox was only 9 months old when I started running.  I can't believe I've been running his whole life.  

Also, I was kicking around the idea of doing dry January, but then I saw someone describe their January as sober(ish) January, and that is what I'm doing.  Less alcohol, but still some for the weekends.

New year, new me - crap

I started a post at the beginning of December, and got 2 sentences in and didn't finish.  I was going to talk about Thanksgiving, but that was so long ago.  Well, all my sisters came to my house for dinner.  It is the first time my oldest sister has visited me for 9 years.  She was never at my previous house and we lived there for 7 years, and then we've been in this house for 2 now. Anyway, it was a good Thanksgiving.

However, my nephew had a terrible cough, and my sister (a different one) said he had been to the doctor and was told it was allergies, so he was on allergy meds.  Well, guess what, Sunday after they left I got a sore throat and was sick for that week.  Then the sore throat turned to a cough, and I still have it.  That was 5 weeks ago.  I call bullshit on my nephew's dr.  It is getting better, there was about 2 weeks where I had to sleep sitting up, and another week or so of waking up coughing soooo bad.  Although, I did go to e. WA this last weekend for my sister Christmas and the cough got bad again, but I think it was the dry air, because it's better again (still there, but better).  

Christmas was good.  I always go overboard on the presents, and this year wasn't much better, but I think everyone was happy.  It was also the first year Damian had Asher for Christmas morning, so that was a lot of fun.  

Then we went to the Lake for the weekend after Christmas.  This is our 3rd year doing that, and I am not a big fan of it.  It is a really long drive and there just isn't enough space for everyone.  But it was okay.  Turns out the sister with the nephew that got me sick, was sick and decided not to come because her cough was still really bad.  Damian had to work on Saturday so Chris and I took Asher with us, and Damian joined on Sunday.  It was a lot of fun to watch Asher play with his (much older) cousins (1st cousins once removed, but who's counting?).

I didn't want to make this post all about pictures, that's why there aren't so many.  

I actually decided to post because I was reading the very beginnings of my blog, and thought maybe I should write again.  I don't mean to not write, but I really haven't been running much.  I was doing really well, and was increasing my miles.  September I had my highest mileage month (only 34, but still pretty good considering) and then I got a tooth pulled in October and used that as an excuse to not run, and then I got sick in November, even before this stupid cough, I had some weird thing where I was just exhausted.  Then I just didn't in December, well, that is technically when this cough started (Dec. 1). And here we are, the end of Jan. 3rd and I have not run this year at all.  

I did start a new workout with weights.  I follow a facebook page, and there are lots of recommendations for doing Caroline Girvan workouts for weight training, so I started doing that right before Christmas.  I committed myself to doing it 5 days a week for 2 weeks, and then only did it 4 days (to my credit, I was in e. WA during some of that time), but I came home and tomorrow will be my 5th day for this week, my 3rd week.

I'd like to start running again.  Which is why I got on here to look at my original posts.  I was reading the first month, and I was running 5 or 6 days a week and had already increased my speed and my miles by week 4.  I have not been doing that this time around, obviously.  One of the things I was thinking about yesterday is that I started running in March when it's much sunnier in the evenings, and right now it's dark when I get home.  I know that I have run in the dark a million times, and the rain, but right now, those two things seem insurmountable.  I have intentions to go run, but I just don't.  But then what is my excuse for the weekend? because I'm also not running both Saturday and Sunday.  I don't know.  Maybe I'm not a runner anymore.  I want to be.  I want to be that person that ran 2 marathons and a ton of half marathons.  But the work to get there again is so overwhelming . . . I think it's the again part that is frustrating.  

But . . . it's a new year, and while I don't believe in resolutions or "new year, new me" crap, I do want to make this change. 

Oh, and I am exactly where I was weight wise at the beginning of 2024, when  I promised myself I wouldn't be.  It's sooooo frustrating.  I know it's age related, but I also have bad habits I've picked up again after 10 years and I can't seem to find the motivation to make the changes I have to.  

October

 I got on here and was thinking, oh, I did post in September, I'm not as far behind as I thought . . . forgetting there's a whole month between September and November, and it's my birthday month. 🤣

Anyway, what did I do in October?  Well, like I said, I had a birthday.  I decided to go back to the Lake alone for my birthday because I enjoyed it so much last year.  For whatever reason, it wasn't as enjoyable this year.  Maybe because last year I went for a longer time period.  I had Covid and went for 5?? days, this year, it was just a long weekend.  I took my hammock chair and a hook thing so I could sit in it.  I left the hook attached to the roof, and am excited that now I can take my hammock chair in the summer too.

I did stop at my sister's house (where my parents used to live, and I grew up) on my way through.  I was there less than 12 hours, but it was a hard day.  I was sitting outside watching the sunrise and was just really, really sad. I couldn't figure out why I was so sad, suddenly I remembered what day it was, October 4, exactly 3 years since my Dad died.  

I made a detour through Lind to "see" my parents.  I had been planning on doing it even before I remembered the date, but it made it harder somehow.  I had brought some flowers from home and left them.  I sat and cried and talked to them for a little bit.  It was just a sad morning.

We had a night of incredible northern lights.  We missed the big one in the summer so I was determined not to miss this one, and it did not disappoint.  Although, we could only really see it amazingly when we took pictures.

And of course we went to the pumpkin patch.  These are pictures we've been doing for years.  We started going to this pumpkin patch when Maddox was a baby.  The ones of small Maddox, he was 1 year old, I know there's some from when he was only 4 months old, but I couldn't find them in the time allotted to write this.  😊

And then of course, there was Halloween.

At the beginning of November Chris and I went to a Seahawks game.  It was my first live NFL game.  I had a lot of fun, but don't think I'll do that again.  I enjoy watching it on TV better.  I can pause, rewind, and hear the commentary.  But it was an experience I'm happy I did.

And that's pretty much what we did the last month.

I suppose I can talk about my running. I was planning on October being my highest mileage run month this year, but then I got a tooth pulled and quit running completely for a couple weeks.  I don't really know what happened, but in September I had upped my "long" run to 4 miles, and was working on getting my daily (and by daily, I mean the 3 other days I run) to 3 miles, but in October, I did no long runs at all.  I was doing hills 2x times a week, but then with my tooth I quit that.  I have struggled to get back into the groove of running (again).  Especially since it's now dark outside when I get home.  I did just get a lighted collar for Peanut, so we'll see if that motivates me a little more.

Happy September

 I have been doing a lot better with running.  Starting the second to last week in August I have been faithfully running 4 days a week.  I am only running 9 miles a week, 3 miles for a "long run" and 2 mile the other three days.  I did run 4 miles a week ago for my long run, but then last weekend I went to Long Beach (WA, not CA) and skipped 2 of my last week's runs and my "long run" on Sunday.  I could have gotten most of my runs in, including Sunday, but was lazy.  I was home early enough on Sunday to do something, but just didn't want to.

I have tentatively made a running schedule, but it usually ends up differently. Sunday is an always, then Tuesday and Wednesday or Thursday and Saturday is another always.  However it has ended up being Sunday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.  That does mean I'm running 3 days in a row, but it's still 4 days a week.  Today is Tuesday, so I keep telling myself to just go run tonight, but then my brain says I don't have to, I can do tomorrow and Thursday.  I don't know.  

Last week was Asher's birthday, but he was with his Mom, so we're celebrating tonight (another excuse not to run today).  Yesterday was Damian's birthday . . . there are so many September birthdays in my family, it's crazy!

2 1/2 weeks ago was Maddox's first day of 8th grade.  I can't believe how big he's gotten in the last year.  He is a teenager now, and that hurts my heart.  I really do miss his little kid goofiness. (The video is a million times better with sound.)

I wrote this earlier today, I actually did come home and ran.  So yay me. 

Family trip: Disneyland (3 days)

 I forgot to post my pictures of Disneyland.  

After our cruise my family, and 2 sisters, with one nephew, went to Disneyland.  One of my sisters decided her and her family didn't want to go.  I'm pretty sure it has something to do with her boyfriend's political beliefs, but I really don't know what those beliefs are. (He's a whack job, so I don't know.)

Anyway, we exited the cruise and went to Anaheim and had a very quiet afternoon before the craziness of Disneyland on Saturday. 

I have over 200 Disneyland photos on my phone, for some reason they are not all saving to my Google photos.  The ones my family took and shared aren't uploading and they have some of the best pictures.  Damian has all the ones of Asher and the characters.  (Damian made a point of getting Asher signatures with the main Disney characters, I think the only one he missed was Minnie Mouse. We saw her, but she was always going on a break.)

We flew home Monday evening and we were pretty exhausted by the end of the day.  We went into Disneyland on Monday, but we really didn't ride many rides.  The one I really wanted to do we couldn't get on, so that was a bummer.  

I'm really annoyed I can't get the pictures to upload.  I didn't take a ton of pictures, others took more, and the cooler ones are 

Rabbit hole

  Have you (those of you that write in a blog) gotten sucked into a rabbit hole of your own posts?  My sister told me a few weeks ago that she read that hypothyroidism has many of the same symptoms as peri-menopause and she talked to her OB/GYN who said that if you are on hormonal birthcontrol you won't have peri-menopausal symptoms.  I didn't believe her at first, but then was looking at hypothyroidism symptoms are almost identical to peri-menopausal symptoms.  

Anyway, yesterday I was looking at foods that are good and not good for an underactive thyroid and remembered I used to drink a "green drink" which was almond milk, frozen blueberries, spinach and cinnamon.  I couldn't remember all that I put in it, so I was searching my posts for it and ended up going down the rabbit hole.  

Somehow one of my marathon and several other races I've done ended up in the search results even though they didn't mention "green drink."  

I ended up reading several of my posts about my first marathon in 2015 and remembered how much my family supported me.  This is the first post (of the ones I read) that talked about my family support, it's not really about them, more about my crazy head space.  Here's the second one again, not specifically about my family, more about the results of a 5k I did that year, but part of the group of marathon posts I wrote.

But this one, this one right here, made me miss my parents a lot, especially my dad.  Back then I never thought a lot about it, and it was really his death that made me realize that he was my biggest supporter.  He drove me to my first marathon, I don't know what I thought back then, I just thought he didn't want me to have to drive in alone, which might have been part of it, but I think it was more that it was his quiet way of supporting me.  I also think that he wished he ran.  I never asked him, but now I wonder if that was something he enjoyed, but never had time for.  Farmers work from sunup to sundown and I don't think he ever prioritized himself or his health.

~quick aside talking about my parent's support, I also read this post about my Leavenworth half marathon in 2017 where my parents drove to Leavenworth to watch me finish that half and then take me to lunch.  I don't know what they did afterwards, I wish I had asked, they probably did something, but I was the reason they made the drive.

Then there were my sisters and mom who drove all over the place just to meet me to cheer me on.  And lastly, there was Damian.  That post I just linked up there, man, I forgot how much Damian encouraged me at the end of the race.  

While I was reading those posts I realized I will never have that support again.  Yes, I likely won't ever do another marathon, but I don't have my parents.  I don't have that safe place to stay where my Mom will thaw steaks just so I have a high protein dinner right before a giant race.  I have my sisters and Chris, Damian and Maddox, but there was something special about my parents being there, especially my Dad.

To make this post go in a full circle, I did message my doctor about checking my thyroid, and was told I had a thyroid test in 2022 and it was normal.  That means my weight gain is my fault and peri-menopause and that sucks.  

Family Trip: Cruise (4 days)

 Last week we went on our cruise and then Disneyland last weekend.  I only ran one day, in case you're curious.  I wanted to run more days, but every day was crazy busy except one that was our "at sea" day.  Funnily, we started in LA and our first stop was Catalina Island, which is very, very close to LA, but they made our second day "at sea."  Basically we went down towards Ensenada (our 2nd stop) and then just cruised (haha) around in the ocean for a day, and then went back up to Catalina Island for our 3rd day and then back to Ensenada, Mexico our 4th day and back to LA.  We made it from Ensenada Mexico to LA in 12 hours or less, so obviously all the stops were very close.  I think it would have been better to go to Catalina our 2nd day and then a "sea day" the third day, and Ensenada the last day, but I'm not in charge of how they do things.

Anyway, this post is pretty much going to be a photo dump of our trip.  

Plane ride to LA

Our first (and only) night in LA.
The hotel was a bit sketchy, but 
it was only for a night.

One our way to the ship!

Boarding!

Our view from our dining room table.

Our Steward made towel animals 
every morning

We had one day "at sea" but I took no pictures.  I did go for one run on our "sea" day.

Off the ship and onto to Catalina Island

Catalina was pretty, but I wish we had been able to explore the island more. We were on foot, so only able to go to the shops right next to the Harbor. 

We did an "undersea" excursion.  The kids loved it, but I would have liked more exotic fish.  These are not WA fish, but seemed to be very, very common ones from CA.  Maybe "exotic" fish are only exotic because we don't have colorful fish in WA.

Day 2 animal

My excursion in Ensenada was a city tour that took us to the oldest winery in Mexico (with a wine tasting) and the home of the invention of the Margarita (with a tasting).  We ended at an ocean blow hole, but was mostly a tourist trap (with free tacos).

He was tired!

Chris, Damian, and Maddox went horseback riding. They had a lot of fun.  Asher was too young, so I went on the city tour.

Day 4 towel art

I don't know what happened to day 3 towel, I don't even remember what it was.

Anyway, I am going to post about the second half of our trip, 3 days in Disneyland. That will (hopefully) happen next week. 😊