My New Running Buddy....Gus

You know those days that you just need a little motivation to get out there and run....when it's in the mid 40s and rainy...when you just don't want to settle for a treadmill, but are having a hard time lacing up the shoes to face the elements? It's been dreary and rainy hear for several days in a row. Actually, today was the first day we had dry running weather in about 4 or 5 days. Blah...makes me just wanna curl up under the covers and sleep the winter away.

Well, I have found that a running buddy that loves the rain! He doesn't mind the rain, as a matter of fact when we take him out to "do his business" and it's raining, we have to get a treat to get him to come inside. I don't mind running in the rain...it can be fun, but after a couple of days of it, and it's cold....I'm really just not feeling it. But Gus....he's all about it!

Gus is a smart boy! Today is his 8 month birthday! We have had him for 3 months. As soon as I start putting on my running gear he gets super excited!!! He loves to run, just like his momma of course (*wink)! And check out those big brown eyes....A girl can just melt with those puppy dog eyes...of course I'll take you for a run big boy!!! Who's a good boy?! 

 So....this past Saturday my boy Gus and I headed out for a short and easy run in the rain. He started out fast like I knew he would, but I figured we could take it down a notch after the first mile...nope. We kept a pretty decent clip for 4 miles and had a blast jumping through the puddles. After we were done I helped him up in the hatch and we were both completely drenched and yes...we both smelled like wet dog.

I always keep a blanket and some extra towels in the back...They came in handy this day! 

*For those of you reading this, that I would call running buddies...no worries!!! Gus is still too small for the longer distances, and you know who you are...And of course great friends (*and family) are hard to come by and even those big brown eyes could never replace you! <3

~Happy running! From Kathy and Gus :)

Competition is Good for the Soul!

A little competition never hurt anyone. As a matter of fact, it feels pretty darn good! I have spent the past several many weeks watching my baby girl train and run cross country. This is her first year in middle school, and her first attempt at running. It all started when I told the coach that she was too lazy to ever want to run. He told her, and the rest has been history! She did start out slow and steady. Through much pain, sweat, a little blood (she's a little clumsy like her mother-ha!) and yes even tears she has pushed herself beyond anywhere that I thought she would go.

I am so very proud of her. It really was like at some point after the season started something clicked and man was she competitive...is this the same girl that cleaned the dirt off the bases and play with the grass in tee-ball, the girl that showed up for tennis in the summer heat, and go to basketball practices just to see her friends.

In her first meet she heard one of her coaches tell her that there was a girl right on her tail, and she kicked it in to finish ahead of her....I think it was like a shot in the arm for her. Her self confidence has boomed and has transferred over in her school work and everything... Yup! That's right! My babygirl made high honor roll her first grading period of middle school. Oh yeah!

 She still has fun with her friends, but when she's running it's game on! This was at a regional meet in Michigan. She finished 37th out of 250+ out of 6th grade girls. The boys and girls started at the same time. This was the largest race she has ran in to date.

 It has been fun taking the whole family along to different meets to cheer her on! This is Zach and our newest member of our family~ Gus! He was so excited to take him with us to this invitational...Gus has been a great addition to the Miller family! Getting him was a story in itself, we were able to rescue him from our local shelter....Share the love! Adopt a pet! :)

So, in the middle of all of this cross country traveling and cheering on I was also in the middle of my volleyball season. Both of these activities were great for different reasons. However, I chose to put my own training on hold a bit in order to do them. In the last two weekends I competed in a 5k and 10k. The picture above was from the 10 k. It was tough, but my mantra that I kept repeating to myself was "no regrets-don't give up!" It was a family event. My "wee one" ran the 1 mile fun run, and the Mr., Syd and I ran the 10k. We had a good day! I finished my first 10k in 52:43 not a bad time at all! But guess who beat me by 20 seconds.....yep Sydney! I told you she was competitive (wink*) ..the Mr. beat us both cause he's fast like that.

I started out too fast, and stopped to puke twice...first time was gross (mental note, not to eat too much for breakfast even if you think you have "plenty" of time to digest)...second time just dry heaves.. it was a tough course, but felt soooooooo good to be running a race again.

I have started helping coach the off season cross country group...she thinks it's so I can spend more time with her, but it's really so I can get faster so she doesn't beat me at the next race!!! kidding...kinda' ;)

..That and the core work they do is torturous, I need to get a jump start on bikini season Spring Break isn't that far off....

~happy running!

Crash, Splat, Almost Splat, and Zing

....So go my recent riding adventures...

I am very grateful for the weather and the time off where I have been able to get out and ride more this summer. I've even talked the Mr. into riding more with me. This has been fun! I really enjoy alone time, out on a run or ride...just me and the elements I can see how far I can push myself, or not worrying about easing up a bit and just enjoying the solitude. However, there is a whole other level of enjoyment when you have good friends, or family, or both to share the experience with.

It's probably been about 3 weeks ago now that the Mr. and the kiddos and I went out on a family ride...Usually we have the kids ride and we run behind them along an 8 mile out and back trail, but this time we all went along for the ride. Most of the way is free of traffic, but when we were almost at a complete stop my little guy edged out a little too far for my comfort level and I tried to reach out toward him...I was already clipped out of one pedal, but ended up falling the other way...this of course led to him freaking out because I "CRASHED" in front of him, but really it was just like tiiiiiiiiimmmmmbeeerrrrr.... BUT I did kinda do something henky to my wrist when I fell, and it's not quite been the same since. hmph! Being we were almost home I sucked it up, it was only two blocks, I could manage that (wink)..

The SPLAT happened on a nice ride on my own. I only had time for a shorter ride so I made it hilly to get the heart rate up! Anyway, on my way out a bird found me as a reasonable target and yep.....all down the arm !!! Niiiice...Nice shot considering I was going about 17 mph at the time.  So I did like anyone else would do and wipe it off and carry on... can't let a silly bird mess with my attitude..Sorry no pic on that one though, it was quite nasty!

The ALMOST SPLAT happened about a week and a half ago...I went out with some friends super early on a Sunday morning for a ride. This was probably my fastest and longest ride of the summer....yeah, I've been riding, but I'm not too good about pushing myself past comfort zones...anyway, great ride with some really great peeps, but being a longer ride I had to portion out my carbs and keep my blood sugar up enough to not bonk! Well...I was almost completely successful until we were riding along and I missed a turn. If it weren't for the person I was riding with yelling out "car back"....well it is probably just a really good thing they did. Turning around and getting on the right rode led me to run off the edge of the shoulder. I was able to keep it upright (yay!! for improved bike handling skills) ...and Emily immediately asked "Do you need sugar?"  ....good call!! I loaded up and we carried on...

And lastly, the ZING...yesterday I went out for a 20+ ride with Becky and Mark (more awesome family) and maybe at the 2 mile point I feel these sharp sticking pains in my back!!! What the heck!! I stop quickly and yell out "I think I have a bee in my jersey!!!" I ride up to where they are and strip of my shirt (thank u sports bras for covering the necessities) with my arms flailing around and shaking out my jersey....I'm sure I looked ridiculous, and how did it get down in there anyway?? ..I have been known to blow up like a big red puffy mess from bee stings. I never saw what actually came out but we carried on to finish our ride....I wasn't gonna let a stupid bee rob my ride, plus Mark is a police officer, I figured he's been trained in life saving skills if needed (smile).  It didn't bother me too much on the ride, later on after showering and what not I was aware of the stings but nothing unbearable...but this morning I wake up with these babies...

Notice the two giant red welts on my back....yeah...it hurts a whole heck of a lot more today than it did yesterday....STUPID BEE!!!!

So...is there a lesson to be learned in all of this? Not sure....but I plan to carry on regardless...

~Later

Yay for Warranties and Overnight Shipping!

Sooooo....there we were having a great time at this water park that is about an hour from where we live.... We went with some family, and were having some pretty good fun! The weather was perfect a few clouds every now and then just to take the edge off. This place was very family friendly, if you pick the right spot you can almost see everywhere...a parent's dream. That and taking along some young cousins to help keep the eye on the wee ones. I was able to have fun myself ie. water slides, diving boards, etc.

 Sydney (my baby girl), Courtney, Jorden, and me

*thank you to Jorden for saving the twins

...the little white dot on my side is my pump site..

always fun to watch people's faces when you know they're wondering what's "wrong" with me..I like to behave as though nothing is, but it's days like this that make me feel so handicapped, and discouraged about everything. I really HATE feeling "broken". I try very hard to control my diabetes, and not let it control me, but sometimes stuff happens and makes things difficult to say the least. 90% of the time I almost "forget" about it (so to speak)...I don't let it "define" who I am. Not sure if that is a right attitude or not, but it is the one I have. It's just that 10% of the time it can really kick my butt.

I even got a smile out of her

(a tad blurry, my phone takes crap pictures)

Sydney has really started to learn to swim this year as well.

I'll turn my kiddos into beach vacay kids eventually!

 Mr. Fish (my zach-zach) finally put together how to swim this week and had a complete BLAST!!

Sooo fun to watch! He even went off of the diving boards. This child was terrified of the water two summers ago, and wouldn't get in past where he could touch last year. So very proud of my little man!

We had a really nice time! Reasonable drive, great price on admission and food.

     And then the Mr. comes up and says "Why does your pump have all that writing on the screen?" Hmmmm..I look down to see and my pump says "BUTTON ERROR" See, I'm a type1 diabetic, and I wear an insulin pump. It is hooked up 24/7 unless I am swimming, or running short distances...or showering and what not. Anyway, I didn't realize how "attached" (yes! pun intended) I was to this thing until it quit working. YES, I said QUIT working. 

    

     CRAP!!!! Well, now what? Do we stay longer, and I just go without, or do I make everyone leave because "I have diabetes". Sometimes diabetes truly SUCKS! So I call the product support number and they confirm that yes, it is broken and that they will send me one in the morning. The really good news is that it is still under warranty until this October. Whew! 

    

     So in the mean time, I went back to using syringes until it came. This meant I had to check my blood every  couple of hours to make sure I didn't spike up to high because I only have the fast acting short lasting type of insulin because of the pump system...that and drink lots of water. That seems to help keep the body flushing out what it needs to. I was told it would come by 10:30 the next morning (today)...

 And low and behold it DID!!! (10:16AM) Yay!! I think I could have given that UPS guy a hug! I almost thought to ask him for a pic, but then thought that would be weird so sorry no pic of the UPS dude! (*wink)

So for those of you who often wonder how all this works...first I take the vial and connect the container to draw out the insulin that I need that stays in the pump.

and there's the disc with the canule,  and needle that goes under under the skin. The needle pulls out and the canule stays under the skin to deliver the insulin.

And for anyone that knows me at all, I am a "due date" kind of girl. The very kind lady that helped me when I called customer support told me that it was very important that I send back the broken meter in 3 days, in the prepaid envelop otherwise there would be a $3000.+ charge to my account. Needless to say right after I was all hooked up I went directly to the UPS store and sent off the broken pump....(good girl, right?)

What did it in?? heat and humidity! Yep, condensation under the button caused a malfunction and the pump recognized it as the button being held the hold time and it permanently locked it up. Weird...but I'm glad it is over and I am back to being connected.

Being 200+ for more than15-18hours really kinda took it out of me. Then I bottomed out this afternoon...so I kinda feel like I've been on quite the roller coaster ride - not just a few water slides...so I'm just take'n it easy the rest of the day....

~maybe I'll knock out some Homework

CAUTION: Long Post Ahead...

Goals, Aims, Objectives...

I've been reading about these three things a lot the last few weeks in relation to curriculum development and analysis. I have really tried very hard to stay ahead of the game in this class, read the material (mostly) and submit all of my homework ahead of the deadline. So far I have been able to do this. With a lot of effort, and yes some whining I am down to the last assignment. I have been able to keep up with my running through this process, but my riding time and swimming time have gone to pot! Boo!

But the light seems to be getting a little closer at the end of the tunnel....

Hopefully that doesn't mean I'm going to die! Ha!

I have had several people say to me, "You sure to have a lot going on!" and I tell them that I often feel like the Chinese acrobat trying to keep all of the dishes spinning...as long as I can keep a good eye on everything hopefully they won't all come crashing down. Time to give that swimming dish a spin if I ever want to complete a triathlon this season!

Honestly, there have been a couple times in the last year or so that I thought everything was going to come crashing down. Ya know what I mean? I'm sure everyone deals with these types of feelings, right?.. I'm sure. But on the other hand I don't really think I could be that person that sits and lets life happen around them, just sitting back in the recliner and watching it all take place on the TV in front of them. I'm just not wired that way! Don't get me wrong I like to watch mindless TV as much as the next girl....(Gotta Keep Up with the Kardashians~*wink) it's not a literal point. 

I already find myself asking "What will I do when I'm not taking classes at the end of the summer?"....aside from hopefully throwing a big-o party in a new house~with a pool, hopefully! (We are trying to sell our house if anyone needs a nice beautiful three bedroom bungalow) What new adventure will I set my sights on? What are some things that have suffered because of the journey of completing my Master's. Does my marriage need refreshed? Do my kiddos need more of their mom? Do I need a dog? (the answer to this Q is an obvious YES!) ....honestly the answer to all of those questions is probably a yes.......Do I see things as really stressed right now because I'm spinning too many plates, will it get better if  I slow down, or will that make me more stressed and miserable?

BALANCE is key, I suppose....finding it is a little tricky at times.

BUT Balance, to me, doesn't mean TIME. You can spend plenty of time around or with someone and never be present, or worse have a negative influence creating discord. What good is it to be with someone if there is no joy? Your ATTITUDE affects the atmosphere around you, whether you realize it or not...I've seen it happen again and again...at work, in the classroom, in conversations with friends, in relationships. It can even make a difference between a good run and a run that sucks! ...and medically proven to improve health and recovery as well. So I guess what I'm saying is that balance comes from within (attitude) ...that peace that passes all understanding makes all the difference. So finding it and keeping it is necessary for survival. 

Believe it,embrace it, and share it!

~later

Always Come Prepared!

Last weekend I ran a the hardest 13.1 miles EVER! I signed up to race the Parke County Half Marathon with some friends and the Mr. This race was said to be a scenic run through the bridges with a few rolling hills. Sounds good right? Well, that's what I thought. I really did not mentally prepare myself for the challenge of the run. We even dressed up (something in the back of my head I never really thought I would do), but hey this was gonna be just for fun anyway...right?

The crew! (Alicia, Josh, Sarah Me...the Mr. took the pic-he didn't dress up)

We were a bit of a hit....even had some peeps ask us to have their pic taken with us! hehe :)

It was sooooooo hot!!!! The skirt came off around mile 5 and I switched the pig tails to a high pony somewhere between mile 7 and 8..and the shirt quickly followed. No coconut bra! That would be a major chafing no no! haha!

I ended up walking "some"....mostly the uphills, but I really kinda just couldn't get my head into the run.  I'm not really sure what to compare the experience to except maybe the "Tilt a Whirl" experience I had as a teenager. ....bunny trail warning...I let this cute guy talk me into going on the Tilt A Whirl with him. He was quite a bit larger than me and so the uneven weight just kept us going around, and around, and around...you get the idea right....yep! I puked...and needless to say there was not a kiss at the end of the night, or a second date! Ha.....I didn't puke on the run (a bit surprised, and thankful) but it was definately NOT what I had hoped for! Going in I kinda set a lazy goal of 2:15 because I had injured my calf about a week earlier on a long run, and I knew it was supposed to get hot that day (haven't had much training in the heat yet)...my time on my Garmin said 2:13.03! ohmyheck! Almost 20 min longer than the half that I did two weeks prior, but the two races don't compare at all! (course, preparation, temperature, etc) So I guess I shouldn't really try and compare the times.

After a few days of pondering, I have come to peace with my time. (Thanks to Kung Fu Panda 2 - kidding- we took the kiddos to see it after the race) I learned that I need to push my self through the difficulties...some old "cut and run" thoughts had to be conquered to even finish that run, but I believe I have come out on the other side of it a stronger runner.  Sometimes I guess you have to face the pain and frustration head on and let yourself get a little messy and just push through to the end...and keep the end result in mind. In this case, that was the ice cream at the General Store! (I ended up opting for a cheeseburger instead though).

Now maybe if I can apply that to the summer class that starts up next week....

hmmmm...I think I can... I think I can... *wink

~later

Live, Laugh, Love, Run, Fun! ...Repeat

The last week has been spent recovering from the half marathon that I ran on May 7th (and preparing to ride the bike leg of an upcoming triathlon). Last Saturday I ran the Indianapolis Mini Marathon. Going into the race I had a "realistic" goal and a "super great" goal. I met my realistic goal. I'll get to that in a bit. This was the second time that I ran this particular race and my 3rd half marathon.

The area that we live in has a great Roadrunners club and a training program to prepare runners to run the half marathon. The Mr. and I signed up in November and started training in late January for this race. I met some really great friends through the training and really ended up learning a bit about myself in the process too. I am really looking forward to continue running with my new sweat buddies. I've already signed up for another half in two weeks...a little crazy, but why stop now! :) Thanks to my running buddy for talking me into it...

The Mr. and I went over the night before the race and walked around downtown, grabbed some good food and relaxed a bit without the kiddos. Niiiiice!! It was even better to be able to sleep until 6:00 instead of getting up super early and driving over the morning of the race. We were within walking distance of the start line. Which was also very niiice. I was a good girl and didn't over eat the night before, and packed my prerace meal of a half of a bagel and some OJ. My blood sugar was normal and I didn't forget anything! (yeeehaw) But my training buddy, who was in the same corral as me, was running late and we never found each other until after the race! Boo! The Mr. and I already had a bit of a competitive thing going on and we agreed to start together, but not worry about running with each other...but I was a little bummed about not getting to start the race with Sarah.

It ended up being a good thing that I didn't bet anything too costly with the Mr. because he ended up beating my by 3 minutes! Darn him!!!

I ran a decent race...I could have pushed myself a little harder at a few different points. I finished in 1:55:29! This is a new PR for me and almost exactly 2 minutes off my time from last year!!
mile 1 - 8:56 lots of weaving through people
mile 2 - 8:18 making up for the first mile
mile 3 - 8:41 trying to find my groove
mile 4 - 8:38 feeling good
mile 5 - 9:09 slowed down a bit for fuel and water
mile 6 - 8:45 back in comfortable pace
mile 7 - 8:49 feeling good
mile 8 - 8:49 holdin steady
mile 9 - 8:55 not bad, but could be better
mile 10 9:14  ohmyheck!! more fuel and water, but I didn't think I was that slow...

mile 11 8:40 trying to make up for mile 10

mile 12 9:08 paying for trying to make up for mile 10

finish 13.1 9:23 sprinted the last .25....HARD, but felt a lot better than the finish last year...

which made me think that maybe I could have pushed a little harder on those slower miles....but it is what it is. I guess the fact that I think I can do just a little bit better next time keeps me running (smile). 

By The Way....the Mr. may have beat me by 3 minutes, but he could barely walk the next day while I was getting along pretty good.....(insert evil laugh)!        .....which of course makes me think I shoulda' pushed harder, maybe I'll beat him next time (*wink)

Me and the Mr. after the race....uh yeah...It was cold! This was his first half...and in all seriousness I'm very impressed at how well he did!

Me and Sarah...we finally found each other...she beat me too darnitt!! But she rocked a PR too!

So I'm excited for her! (smile)

Great new friends!