Wednesday, January 30, 2013

What a hack

So after two plus weeks of being sick, I finally caved to peer pressure and went to see a doctor.  A very nice and seemingly intelligent woman gave me my official diagnosis.  I have a cough.  
Fortunately, along with that diagnosis came some medication.  UNfortunately, I was also told I'm probably going to be hacking away for the next week, at least.  Just what a runner wants to hear.  I need to breathe, people.  It's one of very few required items on the runners checklist - working lungs!  

This morning, the day dawned unseasonably warmly, and I just couldn't take it anymore.  After I dropped the kids off at school, I went for a walk.   After a mile, I turned around to head home and told myself I'd just run as far as I could.  If I made it a mile, great - I'd be home.  If not, that's fine, too. No pressure.  

.73 miles later (but who's counting) I had to stop to have a coughing fit.  It was not pleasant.  I decided to walk the rest of the way home and not push my luck.  It was totally worth it, though.  That not-quite-a-mile was the most fun I've had in over two weeks.  It was also on the speedy side (at least for this slow old lady).  The pace probably contributed to the coughing, but I couldn't slow down - felt too darn good to move! 

Since I record my runs rather religiously, I put my piddly .73 miles into my log at Running Ahead  and the measly 3 endorphins  that were "high" after my short run were immediately shot down upon seeing my Goal Tracker. "You are 28.5 mi behind the Pace Bunny."  Thanks for nothing, pace bunny. 

I've never had rabbit stew. I'm considering it now.  Thoughts? 

Monday, January 28, 2013

Stir Crazy - not nearly as yummy as Stir Fry

Due to a hacking cough, I have not taken a single running step in 2 weeks.  I am officially going stir crazy.  It amazes me how something so foreign to me not that long ago has become so integral to my life.  Not being able to run - for whatever reason - makes me bonkers, and this time it's even worse.

2013 started out on a very positive note.  Nagging shin pain that I'd been dealing with was seemingly under control, I managed a long-ish run at a faster pace that I'm used to, my mileage was slowly creeping up...  and then Wham-O.   The big funk hit.

I've stopped participating in my FB groups, isolating myself from my running community.  I have trouble reading about people's runs and their training plans and race schedules when I'm not out there, pounding the pavement myself.  It's selfish and silly, but it is what it is.

February is right around the corner, and I'm praying I can get off the DL (that's Disabled List, not Down-Low) and back on the streets.  I miss my Brooks, and my Garmin is lonely.

Stir Crazy, I tell ya.

Friday, January 25, 2013

1 year Runniversary

I started running a year ago - January 2102, I got a wild hair and decided that I was going to be a runner.  Laughable, really, if you knew me.  Hate the gym, I'm lazy, fickle, and decidedly un-tough.  Not exactly the type of person who gets up off the couch and laces up some fancy shoes and goes running.

But I did.  One slow step after another - and one year and a few hundred miles later, here I am.  A runner.

Running saved my life.  Not because I was obese or ill or hooked on drugs or anything like that.  Sure, I could stand to lose a few pounds (and have, thanks to running), and it's possible that my relationship with peanut butter cups isn't EXACTLY rational, but the truth is, I started running not so much to rescue my body, but to rescue my mind.

Never having been much of a social butterfly, when I quit my job in 2007 to stay home with my son, I essentially lost all contact with the outside world.  After my daughter was born in 2009, things got even harder.  I tried my best to keep up a happy face, but the truth is, I was struggling.   Martha Stewart, I am not, so staying at home all day left me restless and unfulfilled.  As much as I love my children, as the years of being at home started to pile up, more and more I was rebelling - but only in my head, and truth be told, it was getting rather loud in there.

I enrolled in a local community college, thinking maybe my I needed to stimulate my brain.  It didn't help.  The one thing that has helped calm the waves of insanity - not dispel them entirely, but at least calm them - is running.  Being able to put on my shoes and go, no iPod, no tiny hands grabbing at me, no husband asking if I'd washed his favorite shirt - just the sound of my feet, my breath, my thoughts.   Mine.

Running saved my life.

I'm 34 years old.  I have two kids, a husband, and a dog.  I am a runner.   Welcome to my insanity.