Happy Valentine's Day!



So, how are things going?  It has been one busy week for me... A bit of an update for you all:

I am in university and working as a half-time Educational Assistant right now.  I am in year 3/4 of my degree.  I say 3/4 because I am finishing my third year classes and taking the remainder of the fourth year classes right now.  That will leave me with just my internship this fall! Then I will be done and will finally have my Education Degree.  It has taken a while and quite a busy life schedule but I finally see the end in sight now.  That is one of the biggest reasons why I have not been blogging for quite a long time.  For those that knew me prior, I was registered in the nursing program but I injured my back and decided maybe I should not continue with nursing and go to the next thing that I wanted to achieve.  I am excited that things are working out now.  (Doing a happy dance)

The last couple of years has also been hard for me with family and close friends.  My aunt who was raised as my sister died two years ago in May very suddenly.  She was only 4 yrs older than me and we were very close.  Then, one of my closest friends died last May.  She died of Leukemia (AML) and it was very quick.  She was just diagnosed a couple days after her 42nd birthday in the previous November.  I took this quite hard - I hid a lot of it and I think that is why I still have a hard time just even writing about it now.  I wanted to do something for her so I asked her if I could run a race in her honour and she said yes.  I told her that I couldn't do much for her but support her in anyway I could. She passed away just over a week from asking her... I joined Team in Training for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and raised the money to run in her honour in San Francisco during the Nike Women's Half Marathon last October here.  This was a very emotional run as what I have not mentioned yet was that my Nanny (grandma) died at the end of May this last year also of Cancer.  I also ran on behalf of my other relatives that lost their battle with Leukemia: my mother-in-law, and my cousin.  Cancer does suck.

Now I can't remember if I had wrote at all about the first time I ran the Nike Women's event and will have to do a race recap of it also with pics. ;)

Well, since I am not on my computer with my pictures and such at the moment, I will have to edit and add to this post later.  Tonight my hubby and I are going to do our traditional Valentine's diner at McD's that we do every year. lol If you have any quirky traditions like we do, let me know!

Cheers!





LIfe... in General of Course

So yes, been busy kept on thinking today I will update and... well, nothing. That reason of life really just gets in there. :0)

How has everyone been? I am eager to read about all the race reports and such that have happened. I am slowly getting a new routine down here but obviously it needs a bit of tweaking... I mean I used to blog in the mornings, tried the evenings for a bit but found that the mornings work best. But now... with my new routine I am trying to work out, things are not going as smoothly as I had hoped. I will keep trudging on though. lol

Thanks for all the well wishes on everything. My Nanny is at home now, has not really recovered hugely but she is managing to walk around a bit but tires very easily.

House, doing well minus all the little glitches that a person does not notice when you first move in to a new house. I am starting a list and it is slowly growing... The lovely blizzard weather we have just had here, my fence gate decided it was going to do a 'Dorothy and Toto' and went for a small tour. lol It is now safely (but not so prettily) tied down to the fence. I did what I could in the midst of the high winded snow attacking me. lol

I am loving my new furniture but my Husky has decided that the couch is hers to sleep on and she is being quite persistent about the whole thing. Good thing I am being persistent about her NOT being on there. lol It just has been the last couple of days here that she really wants to be up here. The ONLY good thing about leather is that her hair just wipes off. lol

Chewy, my puppy is doing very well and I am impressed. Litter trained already. I am not saying he will not use the outside eventually, but he really does not like the outside at all. So for now, I am saving my sanity and floors and considering how hard Yorkies are to potty train, I think we are doing well. Puppy socialization was on hold for two weeks due to some cases of kennel cough but back at it next week, and we start our puppy kindergarten class in a week. So tonnes of fun with the little man. He is now 2.5 lbs and full of energy - but HATES the leash.

This last week I have had off of work due to Easter holidays and this wonderful list of things to do and finally get done, like finish the other house cleaning and to get this house unpacked completely. Do you think I got anything done? Nope. Well I can't really say nothing done... I had appointments that I had to attend like vet, mechanic, chiro... those got done. ;0)

Mind you I did get something else done... getting outside and moving more! My pain is doing well, still having some bad flair ups but for the most part I am doing well. I am not going to head out and do any races tomorrow or anything but I am getting out there and working at getting back in the groove. :0)

I have really been trying to listen to my body to be more aware of my limitations and for the last week and a half I have been going back to heart rate training. So if you see a snail out there with two dogs pulling along ahead, that would be me. I haven't done some heart rate training in a while and forgot how humbling it can make you at the start (although the improvements are wonderful) and for someone whose cardio, strength, and endurance are not up to what they were, wow. Do to still in the mend, I am not doing any speed work and just keeping the heart rate between the 60-75% zone alternating days of a 70 and 75% max so I don't have two days in a row over 70%. So any grief my body is feeling or if I am pushing myself too much, that annoying little chirp goes off. (I say it is annoying but really I like the feed back :0) ) For all the people out there that are in to fitness gadgets, I am using my ol' faithful, Garmin 301 HRM for this purpose. This way I get all my info in at once. If you notice on the right side where I am to be tracking my mileage and such, I just keep forgetting right now to enter info and might just get rid of it as mileage is not what my focus is right now. We'll see. ;0)

As for races and such this year, I am kind of seeing how things go. My friend would like me to walk the half at the end of May and I am sure I could do it, but would it be wise? THAT I do not know. I have walked over 10km here last weekend... I would like to run it though and I know THAT would be out of the question at this point. lol If I do it, I want to dress up for it though. Last year when I walked with her for support (it was her first time walking instead of running due to can't run anymore), I kept saying I should have dressed up. I had my iphone blaring music the whole time (on its speakers not my ears) as loud as I could get it, and we sang pretty much most of the way... I also danced from start to finish the whole way. It was soooooo much fun and I really needed a goofy outfit and bells or something because I think I cheered on almost everyone other participant on the course we came across, which was a lot considering we were holding up the back end. lol So much fun! I had no voice, a very sore throat, and bruised hands from clapping - wearing rings does not help in the fact that they make the bruising worse... Any ideas on what I could wear if I did it? :0)

My work friends would like me to walk or run with them in the Local Bridge City Boogie 5 km in June. Again, walking it would be, if anything, at this point. I am out running but not ready.

In the fall I would like to do a running event of some kind... we will see how it goes.

So there you go, a bit of a book again but heh, I had lots to say. ;0)

Now to see if the wind has died down enough for the furries and I to head out for a small jaunt... yesterday was a right off with the weather and I am not too sure about today. I see the sun but, we still have travel advisories out. We shall see.

New Shoes



Well this past weekend was spent looking for new shoes. I figure what can hurt me even more by getting them. So off I go to our 'better' running store to get checked out. Again, overpronating when walking but looking at the tread wear... I am on the outside. So Neutral with cushioning and then what ever worked after that with them watching my gait.

So, came home with my tried, tested, and true favorite brand, my Asics (Gel-Landreth 5 this time), and a bit of a newcomer to me in the walking world, some New Balance Walkers 845's. I figure with all this walking I am going to be doing for a while here I had better get the right shoe for the job. The New Balance aren't the prettiest out there for my taste, but they were the ones that worked. The runners, well, I am staying optimistic that I will heal in a descent amount of time and not to mention but there was a sale going on at the store...

I went to chiro again today as I am still at 3 days/wk for now and I so can not wait til I can see the ortho so maybe some light can be shone on the situation of what is up. This not being able to sit, walk, stand, ANYTHING for the past while now is driving me crazy. I am faithfully doing my stretches, trying to get about a 30 min walk in every day, ice, ibuprofen, a bit of core work, etc., and the list goes on. I am slowly getting the wt back down so there is less stress on the body. I am just really running out of answers/questions here on what to do next. This is where I need to practice my patience... to wait till I see the specialist. Tomorrow though I have to see the family doc to see if I am able to head back to work yet. I highly doubt it but work needs to have a note and tomorrow was the next check in day. I also have to start the EI process as there has been no income while I have been off. If I could pin point this injury to where/when it happened then great, this may be easy, but when things just got worse and worse... I don't even know anymore. I am scared that this is some bio-mechanic thing initially from my car accident that did not heal right or something I did wrong in the process. For all know this could be from one of my falls that I had on my long runs that I had treated with physio... See? Many questions.

Now this weekend I was not the only one getting new shoes, my son was also. All I can say is size sevens for my son! Ack! He has hit one of his growing spurts and I am sure he is going to tower over me by summer. He is now the proud owner of two new pairs of running like shoes.

Now for a bit of chic flic talk (guys you may want to leave now).

I just watched the movie My Life In Ruins and it was hilarious! I enjoyed this movie as it was just what I needed right now. A lot of humor, a bit of sadness, and a happy ending. Typical plot but heh, who cares! I was happy. The Rotten Tomato site pretty much summed up that it was a waste of a movie, but I do disagree and since this is my blog, I can. :0)

Weight wise things are going in the right direction. I am going to continue to do what little workouts I can until I am told I can do more.

Walking: 30 mins 3 mi/hr
Stretching
Core work