Tales of one woman stumbling her way through motherhood.
Stomach virus.
Enough said.
I’m now seeing my weight in the 170’s, but I don’t feel like celebrating at the moment.
Ugh, slinking off to rest some more. As you can imagine, any working out has been completely derailed this week. But I also haven’t eaten anything more than stale saltines for the past 30 hours.
I do not endorse this method of losing weight.
How did time go by so fast?
How did my baby girl:
…become my six year old?
Happy birthday to the girl who made me a mother. You made sure that my first experience with motherhood was anything but typical, just like everything else in my life up to that point. You turned my world upside down, you showed me new depths of love, and you taught me new heights of tolerance. Because of you, I discovered an inner strength I never knew I had.
You’re brilliant, even if you don’t want to show it. You light up a room with your warm, cheery personality, and it’s hard to find anyone who isn’t immediately charmed upon meeting you.
I’m convinced the reason you rarely sleep is because there is too much of the world left for you to discover. Perhaps sleep will come when you’re older. In the meantime, how can we say no to letting you bring book after book to bed with you?
I can’t predict what the future holds for you, Cordelia, but I know you’ll continue to surprise us.
Happy sixth birthday to my Amazon warrior princess.
After the BlogHer 5K, I knew I needed to sign up for another 5K to keep me motivated or I’d simply stop exercising like I did a year ago.
I signed up for the March of Dimes Night Moves 5K for a few reasons. First, it benefits March of Dimes, a charity I have always supported. Second, it was at night, and since I work third shift I tend to do better running on a nocturnal schedule.
A few weeks ago I suffered a back injury that made it difficult to run for a little while. My training slowed as a result and I continued to be stuck at 25 minutes of running max. Last week I did manage one 28 minute run, but only to avoid social interactions. So I knew going into this race that it was nearly certain I’d be walking for part of it. My motto was “Just don’t finish last.”
Friday night the area around Front Street was packed with people, and I immediately felt excited when I walked into the plaza and saw the crowd. After I picked up my shirt and goody bag, I changed into my shirt and began stretching for the race.
Shortly after that, Brooke found me. She left a comment here last week saying she would be running this 5K as well, and I told her I hoped she would come find me. Thankfully she did and I quickly made a new blog pal! We talked about how neither of us had run a full 5K, and decided we’d run together. I warned her I was slow and gave her full permission to leave me in the dust if I started walking. (To be fair, she gave me the same permission, but I thought it doubtful that she would be slower than me.)
We cheered on the 5-mile racers as they started before the 5K runners, and then took our place in the pack. The run started on a hill – going up, of course – but the crowd was buzzing with excitement and as we started running I watched as other people darted around us. I was determined to keep it slow and steady, though, and not overdo it at the beginning. Brooke was kind enough to slow down and stay with me.
Everything felt great for the first mile or so. I fell into a good breathing pattern, and even managed to pass a few people who were already walking.
The second mile was harder, though. I started to reach the threshold of my running limits, and felt that sharp ache in my side. I tried altering my breathing to force it to go away, and it would help for awhile, but then it came back again. I could now start to hear my breathing over my music. My right shoulder started to hurt, too. The urge to walk was becoming stronger, but Brooke was still running, so I was determined to stay with her.
The last mile – especially the last half mile – was pain, pure and simple. My side hurt, my shoulder hurt, my lungs burned, and I felt like I was going to throw up. When we made the final turn towards the finish line, I wondered if I could make it or not. On one hand, I could see the finish line way up ahead, so it seemed silly to stop running now when I was so close. On the other hand, panic was beginning to set in and I wondered if I’d black out before I made it to the finish line. I could easily hear my breathing over the music now, which meant people a quarter mile away could likely hear it as well. I sounded like I was drowning in my own mucous.
With the finish line only a few blocks away, I made my mind up to finish this damn race running. Of course, that then meant I had to convince my body to go along with what my mind decided. I’m sure I was grunting at this point as I had to mentally force my feet to keep moving, force my arms to keep swinging, and force my body to move forward. I know I was swearing at myself to keep going.
And then at 41 minutes and 4 seconds, I crossed the finish line. Running. I didn’t plan this accomplishment – I thought myself several weeks away from graduating from the couch to 5K program. Yet there it was: I ran an entire 5K.
How did I feel after the run? Mostly happy that it was over, honestly. I had to sit down and suck in some air for a little while to feel OK again, and my legs still felt wobbly for the rest of the night.
I woke up the next day feeling like I’d been hit by a car. Everything hurt – especially my back and sides. I guess my next goal will be to work on relaxing while running so I’m not so tense.
Big thanks to Brooke for running with me – I strongly doubt I would’ve kept running without seeing her still running beside me.
Up next? Well, I want to keep working on my distance, as I doubt I’ll be able to repeat that 5K in my own neighborhood with no one running next to me and no race to participate in. So I’ll go back to C25K and keep slowly working up my time. I might start working some intervals back in as well, trying to increase my speed just a wee bit.
And I’ve already selected my next 5K – the Fright Night 5K in October. Nothing like running through a haunted graveyard and woods at night to keep you moving!
Believe me, folks – if I can do this, you can, too. I used to be the lump on the couch, the woman circling the parking lot for 10 minutes to get the slightly closer parking spot. It’s not easy, but it is possible.
…she is comfortable enough with her surroundings to settle in on one of the couches for a quick nap:
Mira started her new preschool last week. Her teacher, the much loved teacher that Cordy had for special-needs preschool, has won over the second born as much as she did the first. Mira is absolutely thrilled to go to her afternoon preschool class and comes home each day with stories of all of the cool new things she did that we don’t let her do. (Like use scissors.)
But having a full day of school – with morning preschool at one location and afternoon preschool at another location – is affecting her nap schedule. She doesn’t have the ability to nap in the afternoons now, leaving her a grumpy mess by dinnertime. The situation above hopefully won’t be a trend, and she’ll either adjust or learn to sleep when being transported between schools.
Ask Mira if she’d rather nap or go to school, though, and she’ll quickly tell you she’d rather be at school. My little one insists on growing up as fast as possible despite my efforts to stop her.
Yet when I come home in the mornings, she still makes me “I missed you” cards (even though she slept while I was at work) and sometimes cries when it’s time for daddy to take her to school. It breaks my heart, but it also confirms for me that no matter how fast she tries to grow up, she still can’t avoid being my baby.
I’ve been having a lot of trouble with the 25 minute mark in running. Ever since BlogHer I’ve managed to run a full 25 minutes straight only a couple of times, and other times my legs have given out at the 22 or 23 minute instead. It’s been frustrating.
But Monday night, I set out to do a 25 minute run again, and a funny thing happened: I ran for 28 minutes – the next step on Couch to 5K. I’d like to say I did it due to great stamina and mental conditioning, but the truth is far more humble and a little funny.
As I looked at my iPhone and realized I had less than a minute left to run, I noticed two of my neighbors walking up ahead of me, going the same direction I was. At 20 seconds left, a quick calculation in my head made me realize that if I went into my cool down walk right at 25 minutes, I’d be stopping roughly at the same spot they were at. Which would mean I’d likely have to talk to them. We don’t get along all that well, and I really wasn’t in the mood to talk, anyway.
So I kept running. I ran right past them, my huffing and puffing a perfectly good excuse to not say hello or even acknowledge them as I focused on putting one foot in front of the other. I had to make sure I got far enough away before slowing to a walk – to keep it from looking obvious – so I gritted my teeth through the pain in my side and finished 28 minutes of running.
Social awkwardness: who knew it was such a great motivator?
This Friday I’ll be running in the March of Dimes Night Moves 5K. My hope was to run this one entirely, but I know I’m not quite ready for that yet, so I plan to run as much as possible and be proud just to finish. Well, that’s the plan, but I’m worried that I’ll come away disappointed if I don’t put in a certain level of performance, too.
As much as I want to run an entire 5K, I know that my body is still adjusting to the idea of being a runner. It will happen, though, and I’m hoping that the excitement of being at a 5K race again will push me to go a little further without walking.
Hey, I did 28 minutes straight, right? Maybe I just need to imagine the people in front of me are my neighbors who might want to have an awkward talk?
Tech geek, wife, mom of two, Disney fanatic, woman with ADD, and a complete domestic zero. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but that's not so bad when you get to keep trying new things, right?
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