Activities this Week

My son and I have been trying to keep busy by doing some stuff together before he leaves for his visit with his dad.

swimming....

I took the camera and used it underwater for the first time, since I can with it, but those pics are hilarious AND embarrassing... :)

Go Karting at the new go kart place here.  I had to change karts three times because the first adult one the seat slipped back and I could not reach the peddles.  The second one we realized the adult ones were just too big, so I ended up in a kids one. lol  We had lots of fun!!!

Then we went for some mini golf at the same location as the karts.  Loved the course as it was way longer than where we usually go.  It even had some REAL greens for puttin!

Last of all we went to the driving range for a bit which was located there also.  They only had one size of club so it was pretty big for the both of us.  My son was trying to teach me how to drive a ball out there...  I guess you need to have some of those tee things.  Thankfully one man gave us a few. :)

So, today my son is going to visit my mom and sis with the new baby, and Nanny while I head to work for 8 hrs here.  Tonight will just be some relaxing and maybe a small run later when it is cooler.  Tomorrow we are going swimming again and then not too sure what else.  I would still like to get a nice bike ride in with my son on the trails with a pic nic lunch also... I guess we will just see how the time goes.

Other than that, I slept in again for my swim. :(  So I will need to either find a time this weekend for some lanes or just call it done for the week.

Wt wise... still up. :(

Should have brought the camera

Those puppies were so CUTE!!!  Austin had a blast with them.  The mom was just a darling and sooooo sweet.  I am not sure if I gave any back ground to these dogs but a breeder for pitbulls could not do it any more so my friends (which are family to the breeder) were trying to find homes for everyone.  In the mean time two of the dogs got pregnant and all were soon to be meeting a bullet if no homes were found.  They managed to find one home that would take one mom and puppies, but the other mom they couldn't, so they drove to Alberta to get them.  The one male is still out there though, but supposively has a home.  The mom, Mysteek, is a gorgeous well trained dog and the puppies are the cutest.  My friends are going to keep one of the puppies and the mom may be going out to a farm.  It is a good thing I do not have a farm right now or otherwise the mom would be coming with me.  She was so well mannered and just loved Austin. :)

Yesterday, my son and I did not manage to do very much besides go out for supper, look at the puppies, and then played a board game.  It was so rainy, stormy, and ugly out that we were not able to do very much.  Today they are saying rain again here so I am going to look in the phone book to see if I can find some indoor things.

I have hills on the schedule tonight with the running group and I will be out there with my bike with them.  I may be going out for a run here in a bit before my son wakes up so I can get it done.

Other than that, not too much else is happening here.

Condolences are sent to Tanya and her family right now...  ((((hugs))))

Sleepy Wednesday

I did it again... I slept in on my alarm this morning and missed my swim. :(  It looks like I will be fighting the crowds here at noon now then.

Later this afternoon I will be going to my Physio for an assessment in the gym and such.  I was going to email him earlier this week to get my new running schedule for the week but decided to hold off until today when I see him.   I finally managed to go out for a run last night at about 10 pm when it was cooler out.  I only headed out for 30 mins since my son was home and no hubby.  Since yesterday afternoon at work, I have had a bit of a tight ITB - not affecting the knee, up in the side of the thigh - so I took it easy on the run and stretched before and afterwards.  I woke up this morning and I could still feel some tightness so all exercise will be gaged on that today.  Something has to be out of alignment here as I am doing all core work, stretches with foam roller and such and still something is a a bit off here.  Physio was to look at my hips and see if there is anything there so I will maybe see today.  Knee feels wonderful!  Still continuing to ice lots after everything just to be careful.  Something tells me that I either have to go for some orthodics or my shoes are off.  You know I never had a problem with my body until I got fitted for some shoes?  I always used to wear just regular cushioning or the ol' Asics 1000's series and not a problem.  It still seems like I am running on the outside of my shoes at the moment which would mean too much arch support.  Good thing that I am just about due for some new shoes here... I can justify it more. lol

Well, it is cloudy and rainy here so I am trying to think of some indoor stuff to do with my son here today.  I have found someone to take my clinic group out for their run tonight so I can spend some time with my son also.  We are not heading to the lake (cabin) now because it is going to be full of men. :(  Later tonight we are going to head to my friend's house and let my son check out the pitbull puppies they have - NO... not for us... just to look at them since they are sooooo cute and my son would LOVE that. :)

Well, off I go to feed the zoo and then some core work for me until my son wakes up. :)

Edit:  Well I just got back from physio and a running store.  I am now in a neutral shoe... lol  I have also received some new running drills for pre and post runs to do to correct some of my gait problems.  My toe out on my rt foot has been corrected, I just now have to run with a bit of a wider stance - feet wider apart so my center of gravity is below my hips and not in the middle.  So in between going for my 1500m swim... then having a bit of a work out at physio... I am wiped!  Now to break in some new shoes. :)

Wow... two days in a row :)

Well I did not manage to go out for my run yesterday so it looks like tonight I will be heading out after work.  I was pretty bummed out yesterday as $20 was missing from my till. :(  I was hardly on it as I was out doing some other stuff around there.  Not too overly sure who else was on there besides the two other managers that I know of.  So I stressed myself out over that.  Things happen I know but I have never had that happen in over 20 yrs that I have dealt with cash!  Also... I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to a few things. lol

So, besides working and running tonight, I am heading out shortly to pick up a new swim cap and goggles as the ones I have fit a bit funny and hurt.  So I am going to try some different ones.  With all the talk about bikes on blogs and another forum... I just may go look at some here.  NOT BUY, just look. :)  I would not mind a cyclocross or a road bike as it seems that a tri or du is in my future I think.  Next yr though.... I have to focus on getting my base back up to a comfortable level here.  I have thought more about a cyclocross as it would be good for commuting and for some tri's.  It won't be as speedy as the road bike but would suite my needs more.  I won't go for a tri bike as I won't be focusing on winning anything, just out for the fun and experience.  Heh, I have even seen some MTB's out there!

You know, I checked on the scale this morning and things just do not want to budge here.  Soooo frustrating!!!  Stress, lack of sleep, and a few other factors I know are affecting it but I thought for sure with the last couple of days here things would have gone down some.  OH well... keep on moving! lol

Nanny is still the same.  My hubby is heading out here till this weekend for work so it is just going to be my son and I around here.  I am trying to plan some interesting stuff around my work schedule.

Well, time to go get some more stuff done. :)

What can I say...

But holy hanna I have been sooooo busy!  If it was not one thing it was another here.  I am finding that I am going to bed really late and having to get up super early just to fit everything in. :(  Time for some restructuring here...

My Nanny came out of the hospital on Monday cause she did not want to be there anymore.  Then on Sat. she was admitted again.  She is coming back home today but with home care and family taking care of the IV.  She can't stand the hospital and feels that it is just making her worse so we are trying to make her as comfortable as we can here.

Two of my Best Friends are moving this last week and I have been too busy to even help them!  I feel so bad as they have always been their for me.  As soon as I have some time here, I am going to see if I can go and help them somehow.

We are driving my son to Calgary here next week and I am trying to do as many things here in my spare time as I can because when he gets back, it will be time for school and we have not managed to enjoy our summer as planned. :(  We haven't even gone camping here this year!!!!  I don't think we will have a chance either. :(  So.... I am going to try to do things here in between everything so we can have some fun.  We have gone swimming together once, minnie golf, movie, Taste of Sask., 20 minute RR challenge, and I hope we can get out for some more swimming, minnie golf, fishing, and biking before he goes.

Ah... the RR 20 minute challenge!  It was a blast!  My son walked with me since I was the leader of the walking group because I did not want to take my bike for the runners - too crowded.  We enjoyed some cake afterwards and received this year's green hat to our collection. :)

Wt. wise it has been crazy here.  First of all, at the beginning of last week I thought things were coming back down and then on Friday's wi, I was high again at 135.8!  I am really going to try to get cracking here to see some improvement by this Friday.

Running is slowly coming back as I am moving up to 3 mins running this week with 2 mins walking and still my 10 mins of both warmup and cool down.  On Friday I made my first 5k since my injury and was sooooo excited!!!!  I have been managing to swim over 1000m twice a week, and bike 3 times a week here (one of them being over 20k).  Mind you, part of it is with the runners on their long runs but the rest of about 7k is there and back.  I know I am doing something because my muscles are getting harder and showing more, so I know I am gaining muscle but I would really like to see some wt disappear.  It will start to show sooner or later... I know... my body is just in transition getting all my muscle back, but it can be sooooo frustrating!  I am trying my best to be patient though.

It was great to catch up and read everyone's blogs here again and I really need to find some daily time again to get back on here again.  I feel that it really does keep me on track and I am missing it. :(

Work is crazy busy and I have been asked numerous times to work extra since they are sooooo short staffed.  I just wish we had more time during the day....

Food wise I am trying my best and there has been some weaker days... but it is getting better.  This week I will be really focusing on going over and beyond my water intake to flush things out a bit.

Well take care all and I hope to be back here again tomorrow!

What a week!

Ok... sorry I have not been around to post lately but things sure have been a whirl wind around here...

First of all... McD's has sure been keeping me busy and on my feet.  The people there have been great and very helpful.  That till though is going to be the death of me. lol  I have worked every day here except Sun., Thurs., and Fri.  Yesterday I even went and got some gel inserts for my shoes cause boy oh boy have my feet been killing me. lol

Last Sunday, I get this phone call and my Nanny was rushed in to the hospital because she had broken out in a rash all over the front part of her trunk and was throwing up continuously.  In the mean time my youngest sister (23) was starting to have labour pains....  We were wondering if we were going to have to take her in also at this pt.  So... my Nanny got worse and things spread all over her body and we just found out today the cause of it.  Something must have gotten in her during her surgery to take out the cancer when her breast was removed earlier this year. :(  They are hoping to get it under control but said it may come back again. What!?!  She is finally starting to see some improvement but she is super tired and is sick of being in the hospital here and wants to come home NOW.  We are still not sure when she will get out.

In the mean time my sis's contractions were getting worse.  Monday morning she was taken in and finally on Tues., July 9th, my first niece was born.  Callandra (Cally for short) was born.  Here is a pic that is of Cally and I on Wed.

We had to laugh because she was born at 7:11 am and so we said we should all celebrate with big gulps for everyone.  I had to have a big laugh also because we have something in common.  7 11.  My birthdate is that number also. lol  My son was so excited to see her!  He insists though that we have to call her by her proper name, Callandra, though. :)  That is so him.

So... as we back up a bit here to Tuesday... I went for my last acupuncture appt. and guess what... I get to start my back to run program!!!! Wa hooo!  You should have seen the smile on my face and the guy just laughed at me.  I guess I will be continuing to see him as he is also going to take over my physio part too.  I see him again here hopefully this week if I can manage to get an appt with him.  They were all booked up when I called for this coming week. :(  And... I don't have my schedule yet for the next week.  So, my back to running program is a 10 min walk warmup, 4 x (1 min run/4 min walk), 10 mins cool down, so basically 40 mins in total.  Things feel pretty good so far. 

I have to confess though... once I heard that I was so excited and tensored up my knee and went to a ball tournament and played 2 short games of 4 innings each.  :blush:  I know.... BAD.  I think I was just full of adrenaline. lol  but no pain...

So, I have gone out running twice now with my new program and no problems so pretty happy about that.  As soon as I can get an appt with my physio guy, he is going to take me in to the gym and go through some stuff like my gait and that to see if we can get some stuff sorted out.  I have noticed that my gait is off a bit since I injured my leg so I need to get on top of this now.

So... as the week continued.. if you have not figured it out already, it was my birthday yesterday and what did I do?  I woke up at 6 am to go swimming. lol  I counted laps for the first time yesterday to see how far I was swimming.  I have gone a few times here and this past Thurs was also another day and it felt so good that I wanted to go again the next morning... thus going Friday morning. :)  You know how far I went?  1450 m!!!  This is in 41 mins mind you and not really fast at all, but I am surprised.  But happy.  I am still swimming however I can and swollowing and sputtering lots, but I am doing it and having fun with it.  I even went out and bought myself some new goggles (I lost my last pair) and a speedo cap so I would not choke over my hair anymore.

I then treated myself to a Timmies coffee and went home.  Then my aunt called me to take me to breakie for my B'day.  So I went.  Came home and then took my bike to get some more of a road tire on it to make life easier since I am on the roads more right now and not trails.  Then we went to the movie "Journey to the Centre of the Earth."  Check out the cool shades. :)
If you thought this was a nerd convention... wrong... we are wearing these funky glasses because the movie was in 3-D.  All I can say is that this was a super cool movie to see and boy have they come far with these 3-D movies!  My heart was just a racing!  I just had to have someone take a pic of the 3 of us while we were there with our cool shades.  By the way... I had a water during the movie... no popcorn!

In the rest of the afternoon, we stopped by to see my mom and my sis with Cally.  We were informed that they had forgotten a huge bag of brand new gifts for Cally at the parking pay thing at the hospital.  So my hubby and I drove there to see if anyone had turned it in and thankfully someone did.  The cloths... fine... but there was a $140 breast pump in there that they were worried about and you know what?  Everything was still account for!  So we returned it back to my sis. :)

The rest of the day, my hubby treated us to OPA (greek food) and we watched the movie "The Ruins."  I had read the book already and really wanted to see the movie.  Let's just say that not too many people will like it... but I thought it was not too bad... just not one of my favorites - just a renter.  Then it was early to bed for me since I had to get up early for my longest shift yet at McD's - 8 hrs.

This leaves me to today.  My feet are sore... I am tired... and I think I have finally caught up on everyone's blogs for now.  I finally managed to visit my Nanny in the hospital tonight which was good.  Now, since I get to get up early again tomorrow to bike with the run club as they do their first 14 k run, I am heading to bed.  For me in total it will mean about a 24k bike ride.  Then tomorrow night I work at McD's.... long day for me again.  I am supposed to go out for a run but it may wait for Monday after a good night's sleep. ;)

Well, take care all and I am off to sleep.

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope all our southern neighbours are having a great day today! ;)

As for the not running right now... I am ok with this and know that I am not ready.  I still feel like my knee is not right and the pain that I have that comes is just plain wrong.  Even when there is no pain, my knee still feels like it is puffy somehow - just not right.  Thanks for bearing with me everyone! :)

Today has been quite the busy day for me here as I finally managed to sleep in till 8:30 am for once :) and then I realized that I still had not written my weekly email to my running clinic members!  So... instead of taking advantage of a bit of quiet time before heading to work, I completed my email including all the running routes planned for the week.

Then I went to work for my second orientation training time as the Wed. night one was cancelled.  It was a pretty good joke around the restaurant about me working there 20 yrs ago and I had many questions about 'did you have this... or that then?' lol  It really was quite cute.  Then they left me to continue showing some of the other new people there with me on how to do some things since I guess I remembered correctly. lol  So all in all it was pretty interesting and I am actually quite surprised at how much the chain has changed in some areas.  It is in fact a better place to work employee wise than before!  There are WAY more perks too. ;)  So I am finding a light with this and making the best out of it.  In fact I actually had fun.  It is so different to go to work and not have to think (not saying it is a no brainer job) and have so much pressure and responsibilities like my school job.  Depending on my injury... I may even try a bit of softball on Tuesday if I get the OK since McD's is having all the restaurants here in a tournament against each other then.

As for food... I have to confess... this morning since I was in such a rush to get going and get my email out I did not have time to make something to eat so.... I took advantage of my food discount and ate just before my shift at McD's.  I was weak, but it tasted soooooo good! lol  I must remember to plan to eat more at home because I can't have me eating there like that because it is WAY to convenient.  I also can't have all that weight come back on either.

Speaking of wt.. I was up 1 lb this week.  Not overly happy but then again, I did not manage to get some swimming in and I also had a bit of a flare up with the injury again.  So I was not moving as much as I was last week.

Tonight I am relaxing and taking turns between tensoring and icing my knee, and watching TV.  Tomorrow is about a 20k bike ride so I need to be rested up here.

Well, I hope everyone is having a great day!

No Running Yet...

The verdict came... and I was not to happy but understand.  There was some hope that since my pain and discomfort has been almost completely gone here, I had a flare up yesterday working outside on the yard.  Today there has been some pain also.  It is funny though because just before I headed out for my bike with the running clinic last night, the pain went away, so I attempted to bike up one hill with the runners...  no problems!  So I biked up 2 more times with them and then back to the store.  I drove my bike there instead of riding it there because I did not want to take chances with the earlier pain.

So anyways, my acupuncture person (also a physiotherapist) said that running is going to have to wait a bit more yet here. :(  He is hoping next week will be ok to try running a bit.  I just have to remember that sometimes things healing can get worse before they get better...  I was careful in what I have been doing and making sure that I was not over doing it and the biking they said I could do only if there is no pain doing it - I had zero last night!  Oh well, I have the rest of my life to run and make up for it. :)  I guess they call this stage the 'runner's blues'...  I am trying hard though to find a replacement activity like my biking to stay active, but it just does not feel the same.  And now that the summer hours are happening for the pools... the times SUCK!!!  I really don't feel like getting up super early to go swimming.  I liked it better when they offered the mid-day times for lane swimming. :(

Well, the temp here is quite high and thank god for the air conditioning!  My son is at my mom's tonight for a sleepover and my hubby is away till tomorrow night, so I have the place to myself with my zoo.  I am going to have to find a movie here to sit and watch and would love to go on the stationary bike right now while watching it, but I was told to take it easy tonight. :(  I just have a hard time staying still sometimes! lol

I hope everyone has a great weekend here and has some lovely weather to take advantage of!

HBC Canada Day Run

The HBC Canada Day run was FANTASTIC!!!  Picking up our race/event package was quite smooth, the shirt was awesome, and the goodie bag was the best ever. :)  We just made it to the start of the 10k race at 8 am and I took loads of pics of people that were in my clinic and of many others that I knew.  We then headed for our huge pancake breakfast where we were offered pancakes, sausage, ham, bacon, and eggs all buffet style with a choice of juice or coffee to drink.  After we had finished eating we headed over to watch the 10k runners cross the finish line where I took many photos. lol  

My son had his 1k event next and managed to finish under 7 mins and I was quite proud of him on his first ever 1k event!  The picture above is of my son's Educational Assistant, my son, me, and my BF Kerry (we ran my first full marathon together).

Next up was our 3k walk event and I ended up playing a bit of cat and mouse with my son's EA to keep her moving. lol  I would keep on saying 'I am catching up to you' and she would move quicker and at one point she broke in to a jog just so I would not catch up.  I eventually did. ;), with NO running. :)  I am not too sure what the 3k walking time was and I really don't care too much.  I had stopped so much to take pics along the way of everyone and even the spectators that I knew! lol  I was basically just being a goof and having some fun.

The main thing was that my whole family managed to get out and do something together.  My hubby was there to but I don't quite like the pic of me. :(  That is why it is not posted.

The weather was beautiful and we ended up staying after for some cake that was made for the event which was 4 feet by 8 feet!  Then we sat on the grass and enjoyed some multicultural dances by various groups.  We ended up leaving around 1:30 pm to get back home to the animals and full intentions to come back for the fireworks, but some people forgot to wear sunscreen and ended up a bit burnt.  So needless to say we stayed home for the rest of the day.

In running news... there is a possibility that I may be able to start the back to running program here come Friday!  The acupuncture is doing so well that things are healing up great!  So, pretty happy here. :D

Tonight is my second orientation with McD's.  The first night we spent most of the time watching cartoon training video thing.  It was informative, but WAY different then what I watched 20 yrs ago!

Because of the McD's shift being an orientation, I have made arrangements for me not being with the running group tonight.  I believe the manager will do it in stead.  After tonight, I should not be scheduled to do another shift during my run times again. 

Well, I should get going here as I wanted to do a bike ride and some physio exercises before I start some cleaning on the house.

Hope everyone has had a great Canada Day and today you are recouping nicely. :)