10 Things I’ve Done Since My Last Post A Hundred Years Ago

The days slip by and life goes on. I know everyone is busy, and I’m not exception, but I haven’t made blogging my priority like I wanted to this year. I’ve really missed it, so I thought I would catch you up on some “goings on” in my world.

1. I did a trail run!!!  A few months ago, my friend wanted to go do this 20k trail race at Rocky Face Park, so I jumped on board. We rented a cabin in the woods, complete with imaginary murderers, and had an absolute blast hanging out, hiking, drinking some really good craft beer, and enjoying the beauty of the North Carolina mountains. It was a challenge I’ve never faced and wasn’t sure about, but I am totally in love with trail running now. I have more planned….
2. My Epic Running Company spring program ended with a 1 mile fun run and a 5k. I absolutely love coaching. These kids aren’t always easy (who is?), but they are super fun, and they worked so hard training for their races. We had 33 kids run in both races (unfortunately, many of the kids had other sports that interfered with the race), but the race was a sea of red Epic shirts. We had several podiums and personal bests, two of which were my sons, so I am still reeling in the feelings of proudness of all they did. I’m expanding the program, and am so excited over the possibilities!
3. I’ve had issues with my knee since Ironman, and it finally got to the point that I couldn’t ride easy without pain. After two years, I went back to my chiropractor and had my back and neck adjusted and ART on my back, knee, and IT band.  After two sessions, I can tell a difference. Thank you, Dr. King! I appreciate the fact I can talk to him about his scuba diving excursions to get my mind off how much I want to kick him for hurting me. No pain, no gain, right?gI went to Iowa for the funeral of my 43-year-old cousin. He passed from complications of Huntington’s Disease, which is basically a combination of MS, Alzheimer’s, and ALS. It’s horrible, and it’s not fair. It was good to see my family, my best friend from elementary school, and re-connect with many I had lost touch with. There’s something about funerals for people who die before their time that changes you. I don’t think I take my life for granted, and I try to walk the line between preparing for the future and living for today, but I feel differently after this trip than I did before. Not sure how it will specifically play out, but I was reminded of how precious life is, and it’s not always a bad thing to grab life by the balls and live it.
4. I was quoted in the new Hal Higdon Half Marathon book, and I even got a signed copy of it for providing a quote he used. Yes, I’m famous now. Ha. My quote, on page 54, was this: “Running is something that makes me truly happy and is my own. I think, I vent, I laugh, I cry when I run. I come back home happier, healthier, and refreshed – even after a hard speed session.”
5. The first step was to admit I was powerless against it. Then I admitted I needed help.  Swimming is my nemesis. Swimming is not fun nor easy for me. And I don’t particularly enjoy swimming. At all. But swimming is the one thing I am not good at that I haven’t quit. Saturday, I finished a three-session swim clinic and started swim workouts with my training group. I know, right? I AM doing this. For Christmas, my sister got me a one-month package of swim coaching, which I totally loved/hated. I knew I needed to do it, but honestly, I was terrified of being overwhelmed and pushed around like a goldfish in a lake of sharks, so the only way for me to go was for someone else to sort of force me into it. It didn’t turn out to be scary, and it has been **GASP** fun. Yes, fun. It’s so much more than swimming laps at the pool, so the hour flies by and I am actually learning to swim better. For all you doubters, if I can swim better, there’s hope for anyone!
6. Maybe this should be listed under things I HAVEN’T been doing? I have not been going out on long bike rides as I thought I would. I have not been open water swimming. I HAVE been doing lots of workouts 5-6 times a week, just NOT on the weekends, and not much over an hour. I miss a lot of my training buddies, so it’s time to get back out there. I’ve been running 7 miles consistently, biking an hour a few times a week, going to Orange Theory, and swimming, but other than that, eh, not so much. I’m sleeping in on the weekends and spending more time with my boys. I was supposed to go biking with a group on Sunday, but I decided I wanted to sleep in  and make the boys breakfast of grits, pancakes, and eggs. It was delicious and so worth it to see them and warm and cuddled up on the couch in the morning.
7. Studying for my personal trainer certification. Yeah, no, I’m totally not doing that. I was doing really well, until I got to the chapter that is very in-depth regarding what weight training exercises exercise what muscles. I have zero interest of working in a gym setting, so I sort of lost steam. I need to just finish the darned thing up, and take the test, which honestly, I’m not confident I’ll pass. Maybe it’s the “it’s not what I thought it would be” or “I haven’t had to study in 20 years so it takes me 20 times longer to learn something” or “I would rather be reading about running” syndromes, but I know I need to get this finished up before the kids get out of school.
8. I’ve been watching some episodes of “Hoarders” to make myself feel better about the amount of clutter and mess in my house. According to “Hoarders”, I’m not a hoarder. Or anything even close. I’ve been trying to re-organize a lot of stuff, and when you don’t have the knack for organization, it is extremely time consuming and rather frustrating, especially when the kids constantly leave an F3 tornado of crap behind them. Hurricane season is getting close, so I’m going to have to clear out their rooms a little more before they’re home for the summer. Then there’s all the pictures on my phone. Eye roll.
9. I don’t want to sound like a saint or anything, but I’ve taken notice of others more than I normally do. If someone needs help, I’ll help, or at least offer to help. Ok, I didn’t yesterday when this “older” lady was using a hand truck to truck one bag of mulch at a time over to the garden. I thought I should ask her, but I didn’t want to offend her or anything. Sigh, only in this day and age would anyone worry about offending someone by offering to help. I should have asked. I digress, I have helped friends with their yards, I have made dinner for others, I have called people when I thought they needed a pick-me-up, I have responded to emails with a compliment when I normally wouldn’t have. I let my kids listen to music that I normally wouldn’t let them listen to (hey, I listened to Poison and Madonna when I was their age and that certainly wasn’t appropriate for me but it didn’t wreck me), and I let them have a Coke when they should really have water. I let them eat cereal for lunch or dinner on the weekends. Just sometimes. But we need to enjoy our lives, we need to let loose, we need to enjoy each other and take care of each other. No one should be too busy to notice other people or say hello or to help, because that’s what life is all about. Community, family, and love.

So that, in a nutshell, is what I’ve been doing. I have missed blogging, I have missed some of those blogs I haven’t seen post in a while, and it’s time to make it a regular part of my weekly diet, sort of like running. If I could just come up with a fancy catch phrase, like “Taco Tuesday”, but blogging doesn’t really rhyme with anything cool, now, does it?