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Showing posts from August, 2012

Hey You

This letter was posted on the I *heart* to run   FaceBook page yesterday.  I don't like the word "fat" unless we are talking about a macro-nutrient in food.  I almost changed it to post on my blog - but I don't want to offend the original writer - whomever it was at I *heart* to run.   It was somewhat serendipitous that I noticed this post, because after I ran on the treadmill at the gym, I came in to the locker room to see a very overweight young lady testing her blood sugar.  She was obviously post-workout and exhausted.  I tried to catch her eye a couple of times, but she wouldn't look at me.  Me, in my running gear and no-longer-overweight skin.  She judged me just like she assumed I was judging her.   I wish I could wear a shirt that said "I used to weigh 70lbs more than this."  Maybe I should get some tech shirts made up.  I wanted so badly to give her some encouragement, a hug, a high five.   So - enjoy this letter that was posted yesterday

Fight Foreign Oil

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I had to skip my Sunday swim due to long run scheduling, and was excited to get back in the pool today.  I have a goal to swim 10,000 yards per month.  A few months, this year, I have far exceeded that, and at least  a couple I have fallen short.  Tonight, I knew that I needed 2,000 yards to meet my goal for August.  A year ago, that kind of distance was out of the question.  I feel good that not only did I complete the distance, but I worked on some skills and felt great about my effort. On my way to the YMCA for my swim, I pondered our geographical location on this planet.  We live quite close to the downtown area, and in between two campuses of a College Town. I grew up in the southeast part of this city and would have never thought of moving north back then.  Things were different in this area then, and great improvements have been made in the way of clearing old dilapidated buildings and inserting parks and clean, inviting architecture.  Our street is lined with working class

Do Hard Things

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Our son read a book this summer called " Do Hard Things ."  I intended to read it as well, but admittedly, only got as far as the forward - but the forward was written by Chuck Norris so I get a few points, right?  As a book written to rally the teenage consciousness to do more than simply get by, it was right up Liam's alley.  Somehow, our oldest son got the picture in the last couple of years that life is what you make it - and it's not your own.  God gives you a finite number of days to do His work and His work ain't easy. The title of this book came to mind lately as I spoke with someone who has set some long-ish (a year to two) term goals to get out of a career that they would like to change and pay off debt.  I thought of this phrase again when I had a panic attack going to the Freshman Football Jamboree on Saturday morning.  Every cell in my body was screaming not to walk down those very steep  bleachers at Seacrest Field.  After I was seated I was glued

Remember the Name

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You would not believe the day that I had. Remember the stolen bike? In case you missed it - our Freshman son, Liam, had his bike stolen on Tuesday.  He had saved up and paid for half of this really nice bike in the spring.  He proceeded to ride it to the lake every week to fish, rode it at 5am to catch the detassling bus and took himself to a part time job at the game shop to earn money for a new game system.  He rode to the church for Bible study and to help the men of the church to work on the grounds on a Saturday mornings.   He's not satisfied with recreation.  The boy has purpose.  Having his bike stolen crushed him.  That bike was everything.  His independence.   Yesterday, some friends of ours replaced that bicycle.  My sweet friend told me that she and her husband heard of the theft and both said that they needed to buy that boy a bicycle.  I was flabbergasted by such a generous offer and asked if we shouldn't wait a week or so to see if the other one t

To Tired to Stay Sane

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Workout today: 4 miles of pure torture.  Was it hill repeats?  No.  Was it speed work? No.  It was just the very last thing to do after a very very long day.  It was supposed to be "just a run."  but it was humid and about 90 degrees, so my body just felt like lead.  I guess the 30 miles I did on the bike, yesterday,  made my legs feel like posts as well.   I headed out to release stress, but didn't have enough mojo left to do my run justice.  I came home and picked up our 10 year old daughter for her training run.  She is running her first 5k in October.  I haven't heard a word of complaint in her 3 weeks of training.  She asked me today, if I liked running with her. Nope. I love it.  :) I'm afraid I don't have any super duper pictures for you today - even though Miss Alahnnah did her "Quad-wa-ceps Song" and the dance that goes with it...gotta record that for you!! So I will leave you with a link to my sweet friend, Amanda, and he

Road Miles and AWANA

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Today started out beautifully.  I did manage to get my road ride in and even slowed down long enough to take a couple of pictures. Here's one of my view from the halfway point: Great place for a rest. I even took the time to b.r.e.a.t.h.e and take a look at my surroundings.  This route was very hilly, so putting out a good effort wasn't a problem.  I managed to ride 30 miles and enjoyed every single minute of the peace on the road.  As soon as I turned off the trail and got on the highway I thought "Oh road miles, why have I forsaken thee?"  I haven't ridden road miles since David and I were training for the Century Ride.  I miss riding with David too...sigh... Step in to my therapist's office. After refueling a little at home, we checked out a lead on our son's stolen bike.  I felt like a Momma Ninja walking around apartment buildings looking for the bike.  Hubby found it driving in the van and text me - "Found it."  I was all pump

Is It Friday Yet?

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Workout today: Lower body weights, ab routine and a short swim.  It was hot and boring in the weight room and I went to the Y that caters to kids and older folks so the water in the pool was too warm.  Although, I gotta admit, I was in the mood for some soothing so I swam slow, longish sets and enjoyed feeling like it was recreation. In other news:  Miss Susan lost her very first tooth today while eating...APPLESAUCE!  She was not impressed at first and was absolutely horrified that it was bleeding!!  Once we rinsed and she got to look at the tooth she felt better. Susan sans tooth. In school today, we talked about having a plan in life.  Our Bible story came from Luke 12 where Jesus tells the parable of the man who built the house and then couldn't finish because he ran out of money.  We made little "piggy" banks out of chip and formula cans - thanks to our friends for the donations!  The girls made one each for "tithe", "save" and "sp

Paradise

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Just another day in Paradise. The Teen started Lincoln High today.  The girls and I dug in to a brand new school year with 5th grade, Kindergarten, and a dose of pre-school on the side.  We made maps of the little ones rooms and a 4 block radius of our neighborhood for the older one.  We talked about the disobedience of the people who built the tower of Babel and how God will accomplish his purposes with our without our cooperation. The kids all had good naps - thank you Lord - and I made a beautiful Chicken Tortilla Soup for dinner.  That recipe is a keeper, a hit, loved by one and all.  Today.  Next time I make it - probably not. I managed to turn my legs in to jello at the Y and wash it all down with a short swim.  We stopped at CVS afterward for the mid-week milk run and picked up a little snacky food for a treat.  The kids didn't get to bed on time, but who cares. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate this day an 8.5...just short of perfect because I still had to cook

Better Off

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You know when you think that things are hard on you? When you wallow around in some self pity stink-ola for a while and figure that only Job had it worse than you? Then it happens. You have a day when you are blessed enough to be the recipient of other peoples issues.  You are trusted to listen to them and what's going on in their lives. It takes time.  It takes emotional investment.  It might make you want to take a sip of something silly. But then the magic happens. You are now OUTSIDE OF SELF. All the things that seemed so real, all the issues that laid purchase in your psyche have been replaced by other peoples concerns.  "You" seems smaller.  "They" seem bigger.  You stop trying to figure out how you can survive your own issues, and start to feel grateful that your own issues are all that you have going on. You feel empathy, sympathy, you relate, you can't even imagine.  After the 3rd of 4th exchange you realize what's going on.

Hey Runner

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One of my favorite sites is over at Hey Runner Girl .  I laugh every single time I visit.  Though, I didn't know who the dude in the pictures was and had to ask a friend.  Yes, I do live under a rock...  But Ryan Gosling is not really my style. So, here is my attempt at a little Hey Runner Girl humor, with an actor that I find nice. My Nicolas.

Having a Marathon Baby

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Training for distance running for the first time, is a lot like having your first baby. Go back in time with me, if you will, to when your first child was new born. Imagine the new found joy, the pride, the accomplishment.  Remember feeling how much bigger the world got and how much more focus one singular thing in your life required. Imagine the sleep deprivation, the swollen-ness, the lack of touch with the real world, the hunger, the pain.  Remember how you wished other people knew "just how much" you were suffering!?  Remember how folks would ask you to social functions and you wanted to yell "NO! I can't possibly go to dinner, I HAVE A NEW BABY, DUH!!"  Exhausted, out of touch with anything else, consumed. I think being a new distance runner is sort of in the same vein.  I remember the first time I ever ran 10 miles - I felt like I had given the world an amazing gift in my accomplishment.  As I trained, I became a different person from the inside ou

stresseddesserts

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Every. Day. Of. My. Life. Feeling completely unimportant yet utterly overwhelmed.  Like I have to do everything, but nothing that I do matters. You ever get like that?  Of course.  I'm sure, everyone does! I have a home daycare that I will be way over capacity in for a short time...and school is starting the same week as the new kids.  As a home school Mom, I have a little different perspective on back to school.  I'm tellin' ya - if I see one more FaceBook or Blog post about how stressful it is for parents to send their children back to school, I'm going to slap someone. I have one child starting public High School...stress.  One little baby beginning Kindergarten...stress.  No big deal - I'm just solely responsible for her ability to read.  No pressure. Same story as everyone else.  Life's challenges wax and wane.  We all have seasons of relative tranquility and then some marked by a solid, relentless up hill climb. What do you do when you are

Cornhusker State Games Triathlon

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My second triathlon experience was July 28th at Holmes Lake.  The Cornhusker State Games Triathlon was a small, Sprint distance race in my home town.  The race started with a 750m lake swim, then a 20k bike race, and finished with 5k run. I woke up insanely early for my race.  I had the alarm set for 5:00am but, woke up about 4:15am and couldn't go back to sleep.  Shocker... I had a hard time falling asleep that night, so I managed about 6 hours of sleep after falling to sleep at 11pm. I had my usual pre-race breakfast of half a peanut butter sandwich and half a banana.  I wash it down with some black coffee and do my best to use the rest room before I leave...knowing full well that I will need the porta-johns when I get there. David had packed up my bike for me in the mini-van, and I had everything ready the night before.  So, it was just a matter of getting dressed and driving 15 minutes to the venue. As you can see, I love purple! When I got to the venue, there wasn&

Higher

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Did you ever hear a song and it takes you back in time?  The walls of reality are skewed, and you can see back to days gone by.  Maybe days that you are glad can't follow you. Music was what drew me to Christ.  My soul just can't deny the melodies.  I want to sing at the top of my lungs - for better or worse!  I started listening to Christian music and some of it just turned the right dials in my heart.  Twisted them right off, thank you Kutless, Seventh Day Slumber and Thousand Foot Krutch. What an amazing bridge between where I was and where He wanted me to be.  Music.  Woah. Doing the crazy things that I do these days - I sometimes need some help to endure pain or just plain apathy.  Biking some miles and getting off the bike to run, without a training buddy or group can get a little lonely.  This is actually a good thing and builds - how you say? - mental toughness. But when I "need" music, I like what my husband jokes with me as "angry music" wh