Walking like I'm 80

I don't really have much to report since I'm trying to get up and walk around every 30 seconds or so.  After the 5 miles on Sunday, I've been a little sore.  Okay, a lotta sore.  I'm walking like I'm 80.  I have to use the handicapped stall because the toilet is higher, which is something my grandma used to look for. 

I almost cried last night when Zoe wanted to play school and it was show-n-tell day.  That means I have to get on the floor, wait until teacher Zoe asks who has show-n-tell, get up, go to the front of the class and then get back down to her level and show my item.  If you're counting that's two downs and two ups from the floor, because staying on the floor after I show my item isn't an option. 

Tonight is family Wii night at our house and I'm praying that means some yoga.  Mamma's legs could use a little more stretching.  Since Zoe was talking all about rowing, dancing and running, I have a feeling she has different ideas.

That's not a bad thing.  While I feel 80, apparently I'm not 80.  At the run on Sunday, at least two 80 years olds beat me.  Not like I let them cross the finish line first, but by at least 15 minutes each.  I've got 47 years to go until I'm actually 80.  I really hope that I can run 5 miles in under 50 minutes sooner than 47 years from now.  At this rate, it may take that long before I run again!

I Had To Use My Powersong Twice

In an effort to get me into the gym and get me to my goal weight, I decided to run.  Not just any run, a 1/2 marathon in May.  I signed up for some shorter road races in between now and then.  The first was the St. Paddy's Day 5.  It was a shocking 5 miles rather than 5 kilometers (aka 3.1 miles).  It was a flat course and I knew I could at least finish it.

Because this is a qualifying race for Bloomsday, it brought out many runners.  Like the kind that do a quick mile to warm up before the 5 mile race actually starts.  Maybe someday I'll be that person, but let's face it, I'm lucky I remembered to stretch my hamstrings and grab my iPod. 

While I picked up my number for the race on Saturday, I was at a local running store.  It's THEE store to go to for anything running.  I found a Nike sensor for the Nike ID thing.  Basically you have this sensor that goes into your shoe and it talks to your iPod as you run.  It will calibrate your pace, your distance, etc.  You can set it to tell you when you've reached a certain distance or time.  It also has settings for 1/2 marathons!  I love it.  You can also stream your playlist through the program so you can listen to music as you run.  Then you can upload that information onto a website and track your performance.  It will tell you your fastest mile, fastest 5k, farthest run, etc.  For an analyst mind like mine, I love it.

My favorite feature is the "Powersong."  You can select any song from your iPod library and set it as your Powersong.  When you're running uphill, with the wind at your face, you push the "Powersong" button and your inspirational song will play and you get your second wind to make it up that hill.

Around the 4.5 mile mark, I was coming into the end, the wind was against me and I felt like each step only moved me a centimeter.  I hit my Powersong, which happened to be Eye of the Tiger by Survivor.  Nothing screams Powersong to me more than that song.  Maybe Chariots of Fire but that one isn't on my iPod.

I came cruising into the finish line at 1 hour and 2 minutes.  I didn't think was terribly bad considering I had zero training.  My Nike ID thing said I ran a 12:30 minute mile.  I'm proud of that. 

What's even better, I made my goal of passing the 1 mile marker before someone won the race.  I actually think I was close to the 2 mile mark before someone won.  That's even better!  There is something totally discouraging to see the people coming back to finish as you're passing the mile one marker.  My shirt is the same as theirs!

In other race news, Zoe ran her first race of the season.  A 300 meter run!  She loved it.  We made a race shirt the night before for her to wear.  She ran and walked some as she's still got a bit of a cough.  At the end, she received a ribbon and a t-shirt that matches mine.  As you can assume, we played "race" all night around the house!

Here's to making it to the gym more between now and April!

Resolutions and Lent

I'm not sure about you, but I'm not real big on resolutions.  I try to always learn from the past and be better about the things revealed to me that I'm definitely not great at.  I know it's pretty general, but God has revealed many specifics in that general resolution!

This year I decided to spice it up a bit and add a real resolution.  I've lost 30 pounds in 2010 with Weight Watchers.  I have 15 more to go in 2011.  Honestly, the only way that's going to happen is if I exercise.  I have a gym membership, but sometimes that's like having a Subway rewards card.  I use it if I go there, which isn't all that often.  Actually, I get more use out of my Subway rewards card than I do my gym membership.  Which is sad. 

Anyway, my resolution this year is to do a 1/2 marathon.  I'm not going for speed or time or anything like that.  I'm doing it to say I did it.  One of my bucket list things since college is to do a marathon.  I'm hoping this 1/2 marathon goal will get me loving to run and then I can be ready for the Portland Marathon in October 2012. 

I had a schedule for the gym.  I even did the first week and felt fantastic.  I saw marked improvement in that time.  In addition to the 1/2 marathon in May, I've signed up for some smaller races between now and then. They build in length the closer I get to May. I did that because 1) I really want to be a runner and 2) it would keep me on the training schedule!  I was pacing myself for the 1/2.


Then in mid-January I got pneumonia, missed 5 days of work, cracked a rib and was basically sick all of February.  It wasn't until this week that I felt great.  If you read yesterday's post, the illness in our house is back.  I'm losing sleep to take care of Zoe, so the gym is a back-burner.  God, oh how He has a sense of humor.

I came into work this week and a lady I work with is also doing the same training things I am for the 1/2 in May.  We're both signed up to do the St. Paddy's Day 5.  This Sunday!  It's also got a kid's race that's 600 feet and I know Zoe was excited about that.  It was going to just be fun!

In the racing world, everything is in kilometers.  If it's a 12k, it's really 7.46 miles.  If it's a 5k, it's really 3.1 miles.  The St. Paddy's Day 5 would be an easy 3.1 miles.  If it took me 45 minutes, that's just okay.  It would also show me how much I need to get to the gym.  The Race for the Cure in April would be a chance to get better with my time and something to train for that isn't terribly overwhelming. 

The sweet lady I work with informed me this week that the 5 in St. Paddy's Day 5 is actually 5 miles!  Neither of us read any fine print.  We both thought it was a 5k!  Apparently it's a "fast" 5 miles and a qualifying race for Bloomsday (which is a 12k).  I'm not even sure what a "fast" 5 miles is.  That doesn't sound fast to me unless I'm in a car!  The 2010 winner of this "fast" 5 miles did it in 23 minutes.  23 MINUTES!  That's a 4.5 minute mile.  I don't even think I can walk from my car to the treadmill in 4.5 minutes. 

Honestly, I was a little shocked, stunned and humored by it.  Oh God does indeed have a sense of humor.  Instead of a 45 minute goal, I'm just hoping to get past the first mile before someone wins the race.  For 5 miles I'm going to be telling myself that my t-shirt looks exactly like the 1st place winner's t-shirt.

Apparently I'm not giving up training for lent.  Instead I'm giving up biting my nails.  I can't be sick anymore before the 1/2 marathon or I might be taken off the course on a stretcher and still not get my shirt.

When It Rains It...

This week has really been a trying week.  I'm not sure if it's because at small group someone prayed that we'd all get to know God better this week, but man, it's been challenging.  It feels like we are under attack and our only way out is to rely on God.  I'm not a real big fan of moments like these.

I'll be perfectly honest, I'm not the best or more graceful during these times.  I can become outright defiant, mean and tempermental.  Which are all traits N just LOVES about me.  I'm sure he brags to all his friends at school that I'm so tempermental that I just keep life so interesting and he can't wait to see what he's coming home to. 

This week Zoe has come down with a nasty virus.  We had a doctor appointment to re-check her ears.  Yes, she had an infection.  No, that's not why we went back.  She has this green thing in her ear.  It looks like a small blade of grass to the doctor, which really isn't possible since our grass is either under snow or is yellow.  It looked like a green fuzzy to me.  Which doesn't make sense either since we don't own green, fuzzy things.  They tried to put some water through her ear that would help get it out, but that lead to much crying, screaming and general hate and that green grass/fuzzy thing is stubborn.  It's been in there for a month.  The good news is that it's coming out.  In about one to three baths, we should see what it is.  I know this is probably totally wrong to admit, but I'm super stoked to know what green thing is living in my daughter's ear since she doesn't stick things in her ears or nose.  You can better believe if it is a fuzzy, I'll be searching for what that might be in our home and keeping it miles away from Zoe's ear.

While we got good news about the green thing, we got bad news about her illness.  It's an influenza virus.  Not the worst kind, but not great.  She'll feel like junk for 5-7 days and probably have some vomiting with it.  By the way, it's highly contageous!  Oh great.  What's been the really hard and down right scary thing, her fever will go from 100.8 to 104.6 in a matter of 15 minutes.  That's like a drag race for fevers.  I don't like drag racing.

We have to give her Advil every 6 hours just to stay on top of it.  Even on meds, it's hovering around 101.  Just to give you some insight, giving Zoe medicine is like telling her you're going to feed her boiling lava.  She hates medicine, she cries, yells NNNNOOOOO, cries, gets herself worked up to the point of vomiting, cries, then kicks/pushes/covers her mouth, and cries some more.  It's the most exhausting moment of my day.  I get 6 of those moments a day because she also has to take cough and cold medicine at night. 

We've bribed with chocolate, books, trips to Disneyland, her own brick of gold to no avail.  "NO MEDICINE" is her motto. 

I was looking forward to going to the gym after work to release some of this "NO MEDICINE" stress when N called.  He was at Starbucks.  His car was dead.  He threw a belt.  I know really nothing about cars.  The only belts I know anything about are fan belts and timing belts.  Fan belts make a squealing noise before they go out and his car doesn't do that.  I had a near panic attack when I thought it was the timing belt.  My Dodge Neon threw it's timing belt and now we have a new car. 

When I asked him which belt, his response was, "the one that runs everything by the motor."  I almost blacked out, but then he said something like, "you know, the air conditioning, power steering, alternator and stuff like that."  Apparently there's another belt that I know nothing about.  It's a serpentine belt.  What was even better, he was positive he could fix it. 

I know nothing about cars, N knows a few things, but he can fix just about anything you give him.  I think if handyman was a spiritual gift, I could safely say that's N.  I picked him up at the Starbucks and we went to the auto parts store.  We came back to the car and he did this:

That's right, he's got half his arm stuffed down into the motor compartment of his car.  I honestly don't think I've ever had my nose that close to my engine in my life.

He had a problem.  Apparently there are all these pulley things that the serpentine belt has to weave around.  They were way down in there and he couldn't get his hand far enough down.  I offered my arm because honestly, getting a little dirty and being nose to grease in the motor compartment is way cheaper than a mechanic.  He insisted that my job wasn't to get dirty.  Which is certainly one reason I married him.  I do indeed hate being dirty.

I tried to get creative and found a toy of Zoe's in the car that makes a whistle sound. 

He tried to get it to work and got a little music to entertain himself.  That still didn't do it.  We ran home, got some tools and voila, in about an hour total, he had his car working again.  What's totally of God, a sweet lady in the Starbucks was leaving and brought N a mocha (which is his favorite) and told him to have a blessed day.  If that's not God saying, "I've got this" then I don't know what is.

Now if we could just use a 1/2 inch wrench to get Zoe's fever to go down rather than Advil, I think we'd be home free.

I'm Dusting Off My Ruby Slippers

This weekend I scored tickets to this:

There are no words to describe my excitement.  My mom and I are going since she's a HUGE Wizard of Oz fan.

Puppy Love

This weekend we celebrated three birthdays:  our Uncle Mike, my brother-in-law Jerry and my mom.  In order to celebrate as a 4 year old would expect, you have to have a party with 31 of your closest friends, play games and make sumpin!

It's really hard to convince a 4 year old that, once you hit a certain age, you don't do that anymore.  It's akin to telling her that her puppy is dead and Santa isn't real all in one day.  She just wants to pretend to be a baby all the time because then you still have many birthdays ahead of you rather than being one year closer to the death.  Apparently Grandma is only 24...no make that 25...no make that 48.  I guess she does have some time before the big parties stop.

In order to make Grandma's birthday official, she wanted to make a cake.  She picked out a chocolate cake and we got to mixing.  Zoe is anti-loud noise.  If there is a potential for a loud noise, she will run into her room, slam the door and wait for the blasted thing to stop.  What I learned this weekend was that Zoe is really just good practice for our getting Toby.  Apparently, when there is loud noises, he runs to his bed and hides too.

Fortunately he has someone in his life that totally understands.  Zoe went to give him hugs to make sure he was okay. 

I'm pretty sure there is nothing sweeter than seeing your child love her on her puppy so that you can lick the bowl in peace.

She Gets Her Mad Skillz from Me

This weekend was low-key with gorgeous weather.  That is my kind of weekend math.  On Saturday I had a memorial service for a dear friend of my mom's.  I've known her since birth and she fought ovarian cancer for the last 10 years.  She was a true woman of God and her life testimony reflected that.  After hearing about her love for God and her love for family, it made me want to get home and love on my family.

Since it was sunny and like 45 degrees, Zoe and I decided to walk the 1/2 mile to the park for some play time.  Exactly one block from our home she said, "I'm so tired, will you carry me?"  I threw her on my shoulders and off we went.  On the way there we spoke of heaven and Jesus's love for her.  While I'm not sure she totally comprehends the whole concept, she did say a prayer asking Jesus in her heart.  It made the 1/2 mile with a 4 year old on my shoulders completely worth it.

When we got to the park, they have this play area with a "map."  It's basically a physical fitness guide for kids.  There are 7 stations for you to work on your muscles.  Zoe had to do them all.  We first did the monkey bars, then some leg lifts, then some sit-ups, then a balance beam, then the parallel bars, then a chin up and ended with some push-ups.  Check out her form.

She gets that from me.  By this time we were officially pooped and N came to pick us up in the car because after all that exercise we went to dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant where we had a coupon for the bodybuilder's meal. 

It was a great afternoon and evening with the people I love the most in this world.  I couldn't feel more blessed.