Oh hey, Look at that!  I have a blog!  Cool.  I almost forgot abou this thing... Now that I'm on facebook, it seems kind of pointless.

I haven't even run a whole mile without stopping and I'm already injured.  Great...   I woke up Friday morning with a "twinge" in my ankle and by the time I was getting ready for bed it was definitely painful.  So I guess I'll be taking a few days off and starting again.

I guess its better than trying to run with pain.  After all, the real goal here is to be running for a lifetime, not just for a couple weeks untill I completely screw somthing up.

I just wish I could have gotten that through my head on Friday.  It would have improved my mood drastically.  Oh well, as I always say, the worst person to be around is and injured runner.

 

 

So I've run 7 times now.  And since that's more than a half a dozen I suppose this is my comeback...  Baby J is almost 3 monthes old (already!) so its time to get back on track (no pun intended, I almost never actually run on a track...).

I can't believe how hard it is to run again.  I knew it would be difficult since I haven't run in a year but it is incredibly difficult.  The difficulty comes from muscles that have been stretched and stressed and not exercised in a long time.  And since this is baby number 3 they stretched a little more than the last time.  Its also my third c/section and that always takes a long time to recover.  But also there is a definite mental barrier.  The first time I started running I didn't actually know how far I could run, so even if I only made it a quarter mile, it was a big deal.  Now that I've run a marathon I know that I can run, in theory, so the fact that my body doesn't seem to want to cooperate is very dissappointing.  Oh well, it might take time but I'll get back to were I was.

Right now my plan is to run a half marathon next spring and a full marathon in the fall (hubby wants us to do Chicago).  But I think I'll be happy if I can just make through a 5k.

 

Wow... I can't believe I've ignored this blog for so long.

Oh well, I'm not really looking to up date it anytime soon.  I haven't run in monthes and monthes.

My official due date is July 31st.  So I may not get back to running till next year.  My husband thinks I'll be back to it in no time, but those first few monthes can really knock you out and I know I'll be super-busy with three.

But right now I'm thinking about possibly doing another marathon in 2010.  I just have to pick one out, lol.

 

So I went for a little run yesterday.  Very little run.  After several days of non-running I decided that it was a perfectly lovely day for mid November, the kids were in reasonable order, and I was in some strange sort of aggressive mood and therefore there was no reason not to go for a run.  Right.  After getting dressed, getting the kids dressed, getting everyone on the potty, finding my gear, realizing my heartrate monitor needs a new battery, getting kids water (we can't go anywhere without water) and toys for the bike cart we finally get outside to run.  That's were things turned tward the dark side. 

I know what you're thinking, that's where things turned to the dark side?  Well, yeah... all that other stuff is mearly annoying. 

After nearly taking off without stretching I had to turn my gps on and off to get the satallites to tune in.  And while it was a nice day for mid November in Michigan, it wasn't so nice I would want to stand around.  So we finally took off and headed down the road at what I would call a steady-yet-easy pace.  We made it to the end of the street and crossed without much waiting around.  I continued down the shoulder of a slightly busier road for about a quarter mile before turning off to the road I normally run on.  I made it another oh... quarter mile before it hit.  I liken it to a small nuclear explosion of the digestive kind. 

Still, I was feeling good so I thought, oh well, lets just run home, use the bathroom and head back out.  Not only did I have to walk the entire 3/4 mile home, I had a terrible time in the bathroom followed by slight nausea.  By the time I got out of the bathroom again, my daughter had changed out of her pants and into a skirt, they had their shoes and coats off, and felt so tired out from the indigestion issue that I didn't think twice about stretching and calling it a day.

Its really frustrating to have issues of this sort.  As I may have mentioned before its not like having some sort of muscle problem or even knee pain.  Those are things you can talk to fellow runners about.  But no... I have disgusting running issues!  Nobody wants to talk about why you can't have corn or beans the night before a run.  And let me tell you, if I do, I better stay within a quarter mile of home.  I know I've been eating sort of junkily and I know I haven't been running but dang it all!

I need to get my butt on the treadmill and walk it (it need to be walked on...) so I can get back to running or else I'm not gonna be racing anytime soon.  Sigh... especially with all the holiday stress, food, work that is going to be coming (I don't have any presents purchased yet and tons of cookies to make for MOM's Group).

I didn't end up doing the Turkey Trot, I just didn't feel up to par.  It did end up being a fun morning and I was glad that I went along to be my husband's "runniny caddy".  It turns out that a friend of ours drove up from South Bend, IN and won the race.  We also got to see my freshman roommate from college and her groom run the race.  She ran in a veil and he ran in a "tux" t-shirt. 

My husband ended up coming in fourth, but first in his age group, so he won a really cool trophy with a turkey on the top.

So even though I didn't run, it was a fun morning to be away from the kids.

This article was in the local newspaper about a month or so ago.  I kept meaning to post it but haven't gotten around to it until now.  They actually sent out a photographer to our house to take our picture.  I thought at the time that it was going to be this little tiny blurb on page three of the sports section but it turned out to be on the front page of Sports section with this gimungus picture (and no, I will not be posting the pic....)  Names have been changed to protect the innocent... well, mostly innocent.  What can I say, its probably my 15 minutes of fame.  ;)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Husband] didn't discover he was a runner until after he turned 28 in 2005.

 

"I never ran in high school or college," he said. "I didn't know anything about running."

 

It didn't take him long to learn – [He] qualified for the prestigious Boston Marathon in his first 26.2-mile race.

 

In May, less than three years after he first took up the sport, the Township resident finished the Green Bay Marathon in 2:57:04, qualifying for Boston with nearly 13 minutes to spare.

 

On Sept. 22, [he] improved by another six minutes at the Fox Cities Marathon in Appleton, Wis., finishing sixth overall among the 858 finishers in 2:50:48.

 

"I've got a competitive nature," [he] said. "I try to improve all the time."

 

He plans to run his third marathon on April 21, 2008, in Boston.

 

"A guy at work got me into running," said [husband], an electrical engineer. "He said, 'Hey, you're pretty fast. You should enter some races.' "

 

[Husband] has improved so much, so fast, he left the guy who introduced him to the sport [Running Buddy], trailing in his wake.

 

"In no way can I compete with him," [Running Buddy], 39, says. "We don't get to run much together anymore."

 

[Running Buddy] began running a year before [Husband] and recently finished his second marathon, the punishing North Country Train Run in Manistee, in a respectable 4:40:19.

 

At least one clue to [Husband’s] running talent went unnoticed during his boyhood near Saginaw.

 

 "I did a lot of non-competitive, long-distance cycling. I rode my first Century (100 miles in a single day) as a 13-year-old kid," [Husband] said.

 

Although many have bemoaned the fact his talent didn't come to light before now, [he] doesn't regret for a second that he didn't discover it sooner.

 

"If I had gotten coaching in high school, I might have changed where I went to college and not met my wife at [College]," [Husband] said.

 

[Husband] and wife [imsubrosa] (Fox Cities was her first marathon) have two children -- a 31/2-year-old daughter,  and a 11/2-year-old son.

 

After [Husband] graduated from [college] in 2000, he switched sports from cycling to table tennis. More recently, he began walking to lose weight.

 

Once he started running he was hooked.

 

"Running gives you more of a sense of feeling good," he says. "I can work through my problems when I'm running. I can go into a run in a grumpy mood and come back feeling happier and everything seems better."

 

Boston is only the beginning for the talented novice. "Eventually I'd like to become an ultra-marathoner," he said. "There's one up in the Manistee National Forest that's 50 miles. I'll start training for that one and longer distances as long as God keeps me healthy."

 

[imsubrosa] caught the running bug, too, while watching her husband finish the 2006 Green Bay half-marathon. "Watching him come in, I thought it was exciting. I thought, 'Maybe I could do it.' He said he thought I could, so I decided to give it try."

 

A week later she went on her first training runs. She finished the Fox Cities Marathon in 4:52.16, 191st among the 339 women in the race.

I'm supposed to be doing a Turkey Trot on November 10th.  I'm just not excited about it at all.  My mother in law is going to come and watch the kids for us and everything and I just can't get excited about it.  I really wish I could because then maybe I would be a little more aggressive about getting my runs in and about watching what I eat (you know making bad food choices, I have no problems viewing the cookies...).  My husband is very focused and did an excellent job this weekend of not eating any of the sweets or chips or other not so great food that was presented to us.  I on the other hand sort of did a belly flop right into the middle of it all.  Lets just say I was feeling more than a little bit sorry for myself because of all the non-running/headaches/etc.   I really need to get control of my health again.  I just hope I don't have to make a fool out of myself at this race to do it.

Today is the first day of a new month and so I thought maybe I should update this thingy before I forget again....  It has been simply crazy around here for the last week or so.  And I have been having a lot of headaches this last week that just seem to go away and then flare up again. 

We were going to my in-laws this weekend and found out on Friday (before we left) that my husband's uncle had passed away.  We had known that he had cancer but apparently it was extremely aggressive.  He had only had a diagnosis for about six weeks before his death so it was rather unexpected.  The visitation and the funeral really cut into the week and coming home on a Tuesday felt rather strange.

Then yesterday was Halloween which is always busy and on top of that I had a mountain of laundry to tackle from all of the traveling and what-not. 

And on top of everything my running has become extremely erratic.  The days are getting shorter quickly and some days I am simply not able to run in the morning.  The treadmill is non-operational right now and so running after dark is out of the question as far as I'm concerned (I don't feel comfortable running by myself outside in the dark as we have no street lights and no sidewalks).  Yesterday I was able to run though, and I felt like I was waddling along at the speed of jell-o.  My GPS said otherwise, but I don't always believe that thing.

So anyway... Yesterday was Halloween and my husband took the kids out trick-or-treating while I manned the candy handout.  We had a Cinderella princess this year and a tigger.  They had a lot of fun except that tigger (my 23 month old son) didn't really get the concept of the bucket for his candy and wanted to just carry one piece around, exchanging it at each house.  lol  Oh well, it only comes once a year.  After we turned out our house lights we drove over to visit some friends so they could see the kids in their costumes.  We stayed there for about an hour then came home and put the little kidlets to bed.  Finally! 

Then I got all the fun of ironing a load of pants before I finally got to bed at around midnight.  On top of that I had to get the kids up early today and we have to go to church tonight.  Fun times, fun times.... yeah, the head aches are most likely from lack of sleep....  now if only I could find time to go to the grocery store.

I haven't written anything in a while because I am on a new mission.  I am one of those people who, once they have some sort of idea, latch on and don't let go for dear life.  My new idea is VBAC.  For those of you who don't know, VBAC means vaginal birth after cesarean.  Ok, I know some of you are leaving the site right now.  I mean not too many people, even women are comfortable reading the word vaginal.  *sigh*  There go the rest of you....  lol

Anyway, long story short.  My daughter (now 3 1/2 yo) was breech during delivery and the doctor on call decided to do a c/section.  With my son, I sort of wanted to have a vbac, but was told I could not have one because they don't do vbacs in my county.  Well needless to say, being young and naieve and believing that doctors have my best interests at heart I went along with it.  But now that I'm older and considering having a third I've decided thats not a good enough answer.  I didn't particularly enjoy being cut open and having my children surgically removed.  Not to mention having cesarean depression with my daughter and the unnerving sensation of not being able to feel your legs for a very very long time.

And lets not get into me not being able to breastfeed... :(  Anyway, what was I saying... oh, yeah.

So this time I am doing everything I can to make having a "normal" delivery possible, before I get pregnant.  I don't want to be driven by fear and hormones into something that is easier for other people.  Needless to say it has not been easy to find out the information that I need.  People have this annoying habbit of telling me no.  So that's what's been taking up so much of my time. 

I still plan on writing something up about my marathon and about the article on my husband and me that was in our local newspaper.  I just have to get over my o/c right now.