Hello Again

Hello again, I have not blogged for awhile.  Life has been crazy for a few weeks now.  I went to physical therapy and started to get better and run again, pain free!  Just when I could start running again, illness hit our house and hit it hard.  This was my week three weeks ago.  Monday- one daughter has slight cough stay home to be safe.  Wednesday another daughter has a UTI and Friday both daughters have Influenza.  Sunday one daughter gets worse so we run to ER, only to be told she is fine.  She does not have pneumonia, she is not dehydrated and to calm down the flu takes 5 to 7 days to get over.  I disagree so we got back to the doctor on Monday.  While driving to the doctor I am praying, and praying.  My little D ( 4 years old) does not look good, I know something is very wrong.  We see the doctor they take one look at her and one listen to her dehydration and pneumonia!! They say hurry to the hospital we will call ahead.  I am all by myself. Rob is home with the others kids.  I call him.  I get to the hospital the nurses look her over, one nurse informs me they have to call the Rapid response team because of her respiration rate and because she is so lethargic, think little rag doll.  Soon the room is filled with about 10 more people all with gowns and masks and equipment.  They are from the ICU they attach monitors all over  her.  It is hard for me to be close to her with so many people.  I am not totally sure what is going on. One nurse asks me " Mom how are you holding up?' OH man, don't ask me this now.  I am strong, I am fine.  I have to be strong for D.  I squeak out a little "OK" .  One nurse hugs me and says " I am sure she has had better days".  The tears start to silently flow.  Is she going to be OK?  Why did that ER doctor send me home? Then then try the IV.  She is so dehydrated they can not gets it.  One nurse tries, another nurse tries.   They get an anesthesiologist to try, then they get the head anesthesiologist on duty to try.  ALL in ALL it is 12 times!  Three in her left hand, two in her left arm, three in her right arm, two in her left foot and two in her right foot.   She cries and screams with each one.  I pray and pray.  They then decided to stop trying and just try to get her to drink.  We end up staying at the hospital a week.  She goes on Oxygen and gets up to 3.0 Liters and then goes down  and then back up.  They try an IV again a few days later and they get it on the second try and that seems to really help her.  She is home now and doing well and even went back to preschool today.  I know this is not about running, it is  about a hard week in my life that I learned many things.  I learned to trust myself,  I knew she was really sick no matter what the ER said and I took her back and thank God I did, her personal doctor said I could have saved her life.  I am so thankful for my parents and all their help taking care of A and  P while my husband (  when not working) and I stayed at the hospital.  I am so very lucky to have them and it would have been so much harder without their help.  I also have a new focus on my half marathon this year.  I am thankful I did not sign up for the full :)  I originally wanted to have a goal time and really own this one. Monday my official training starts and I am the least  prepared physically to start training that I have ever been.  My shorter runs have been hard, and I feel like I have lost a lot from not running for awhile.  Mentally I got this.  Mentally I am tough.  I know I can do this, I have run Lincoln two times before and I know I can run 13.1 miles. I just made it through a very tough week and we all are doing well now.  I got this.  I think I may actually slow down and enjoy this one.  Wave at more people, give more high fives and maybe even dance to the music.  I will encourage others and just enjoy my running. Life can be hard at times, but that makes me what to enjoy the good times all that much more.

Running, running, running....

Well, I am still at it! I have not backed off my training plan. I moved indoors last week for all my runs. I have to say that the treadmill was not as awful as it could have been. The saving grace for my long 6.2 mile run was having a HUGE fan blowing right on me. I can't complain about that!

One thing I totally failed at last week was making it to my local running store for new shoes. I paid for that laziness today. The weather was foggy and kind of wet and totally reminded me of the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I was super excited to be outdoors but my legs and feet were not happy with my shoe situation. Ugh, slowest 5k ever!

My current shoes are Brooks adrenalines and I am not sure about staying with Brooks or trying out Mizuno. Are you loyal to a brand and line or do you change it up often??

Random running tips and other cool finds

Brr, it is really cold here! My personal threshold for running outdoors in the winter chill is about 15 degrees Fahrenheit. I looked around the world wide interwebs for guidance on what I should be wearing to stay toasty. I found a pretty detailed explanation at Runner's World.
Here is the chart, straight from the article (which has other great tips).
30 degrees: 2 tops, 1 bottom. Long-sleeve base layer and a vest keep your core warm. Tights (or shorts, for polar bears).
10 to 20 degrees: 2 tops, 2 bottoms. A jacket over your base layer, and wind pants over the tights.
0 to 10 degrees: 3 tops, 2 bottoms. Two tops (fleece for the cold-prone) and a jacket. Windbrief for the fellas.
Minus 10 to 0 degrees: 3 tops, 2 bottoms, extra pair of mittens, 1 scarf wrapped around mouth or a balaclava.
Minus 20 degrees: 3 tops, 3 bottoms, 2 extra pairs of mittens, 1 balaclava, sunglasses. Or, stay inside.

According to the chart, I dress for no less than minus 10-0 degrees when it is 30 degrees out! Well, I do stop short of wrapping a scarf around my mouth. I find 3 tops  and two bottoms (running tights and a second workout pants) to be my comfort zone. I wear mittens that I can peel back and bare my fingers after I warm up, but I always keep my ears covered.

Other note worthy tips for cold weather running included, changing out of running gear as soon as possible when you finish and to warm up indoors prerun.

I have a basic training plan in mind but I can't seem to stop searching and reading other plans. A neat plan that I found uses the Runners World website again. Their smart coach training plan is free and pretty easy to customize. It uses your goal and a past race time to calculate average paces for your training runs and helps guide you to a specific finish time for your upcoming race. This plan really made me realize how I need to actually race when I run a race rather than coast by at my usual training pace. What I really liked about this tool is that you can select your long run day and the tool adjusts your training week from there. 

My last cool find is a treadmill pace conversion chart! Like I said above, I have no shame in hitting up the treadmill for temps below 15 degrees. Personally, running on a treadmill doesn't inspire me to up the ante and use the incline feature. In my mind, I am a winner for not just going back to bed so it is not likely that I am going to challenge myself too much on the treadmill. This chart is a great motivator for me to either push my pace or try to increase the incline for at least part of my treadmill runs.  

Just life...

I had a pretty good training week last week. I hit all my goals and only had to hit the treadmill for one workout. I even got lucky enough to have a huge fan blowing on me for the entire 4 miles. Usually I feel like I am going to burst into flames 2.5 miles in on the treadmill.

This week has not been a glorious training week. In fact, I have not been able to make a single run so far. I wish I had a crystal ball so that on Monday, when I chose to put off my run because it was FREEZING, I could have known that Tuesday would be spent with my sick-at-home 1st grader. The poor thing has her second case of strep throat for the 2013 calendar year.

I can still take control of this flop of a training week and squeak 3 runs out. Keep your fingers crossed!! How do you recover from plans that get thrown out the window? I have to really talk myself into going with the flow. Change comes hard...

Training Season!!

Yikes! I have been a bad blogger! Now that winter break and the holidays are over I am happy to be getting back into training mode. I always work better under a deadline, even if it is a manufactured deadline, I need the pressure to get motivated.

Currently, I am signed up for a 10K and two half-marathons. The 10K is in early March, the first half-marathon is in early May and the second half is in late August. I am strangely excited to finally be training for a half. I wanted to last year and just could not make it work with my schedule. This year I am getting promoted to the big 3-5 and it feels great to have such a concrete goal as my prize.

My challenges for training will likely revolve around the weather, the health of my kids and my husband's work schedule. Right now our weather is cold but manageable. However, I am really not going to get out and run on snow and ice covered roads. I know some runners do and I applaud them, but I am not as coordinated or sure enough on my feet to brave icy roads. So far my route has been in great condition and I hope it stays that way.

Sick kids and and a non-traditional work schedule for my husband will just have to be handled as they happen. My plan for dealing with those obstacles is to allow extra weeks in my 13 week training plan. Or send my kids to school hopped up on Tylenol and run fast enough to out pace the Tylenol wearing off. ;)

This week's training plan is pretty basic and focuses on getting used to running 4 days a week again. I ran very little (once a week) while the girls were on winter break. I ran 3.15 miles on Monday and 3.30 today (Tuesday). Wednesdays will always be my rest days and I plan to do my long runs on Thursdays with Friday being a slow easy recovery run or cross-training. This Thursday's long run will only be 4 miles and Friday I will run 3 miles at the insanely hot gym.  

I hope to share my training each week and hopefully keep my self accountable through this blog. Next week I plan to post my training schedule. It will be a mixture of a Hal Higdon's schedule and the Train Like a Mother's Finish it half-marathon schedule. I can't have any weekend runs and only can run 4 days during the week so I am trying to work out a happy medium between the two plans.

What training plans do you like best? What are the biggest obstacles to your training plan? DO you have any special goals or prizes in mind while you are training?

Happy Holidays!

I am so happy to have a reason to put on snow pants and some outdoor gear.  Snow!

I had two weeks of off exercise, one from travelling and one from sickness.  It was so nice to get to snowshoe around the block with my boys and stretch my legs.   Once you get into the habit of moving your body, you realize how much it adds to the dynamic of your whole life.  You start to yearn for movement.

Now, I'm looking forward to some time in the North Woods, snow shoes and sledding instead of a treadmill at the Y.

See you in the New Year!  I hope you either enjoy the snow, or have the choice to stay snuggly warm inside.

I just signed up for my first event of 2013, an indoor triathalon to see how I'm doing.  I waffled for too long on the Lincoln Half Marathon-sold out in less than a day!

What are your plans for 2013?

Goal... Interrupted

So I really really wanted to run the Full marathon in May.  It was a Goal.  I was doing so well.  Then I got hurt.  I am really way more hurt than I let on.  I ended up going to the doctor.   I had to find a new doctor just to go to one.  So I had not been to a Family doctor in a few years.  He referred me to Physical Therapy and I started that on Friday.  I told her my goals and that I had hoped to run a Full.  She figured out what was wrong with me and told me she has a plan to get me back running.  I have not even been able to run lately.  She said I can help you but I think if you run the full you will just be right back in here seeing me again after you are done.  The half is a reasonable goal and I can help you with that but the Full is not something I would recommend.  So I was disappointed and started thinking what should I do, should I listen to her, should I still try it?  I then walked out of the room we were in and everyone was talking about Sandy Hook Elementary.  I turned on the radio in my car, I then watched the news on the TV.  I cried and cried.  I hugged my little ones.  I gave Paige the biggest hug when I picked her up from school.


I felt silly for worrying about what race I would run.  The thing is I will be able to run a race again.  I want to be able to run 26 miles for the 26 victims at the school shooting but if I can't do that in May I will still do it.  My dream is not gone, my dream was just interrupted by a injury.  An injury I can work though and overcome.  In light of recent events what race I run on May 5th does not seem all that important.  My family and friends and spending time with them and telling them I love them is what I want to focus on now.  My thoughts and prayers are with all the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.