Presenting Mt. Lebanon Magazine's newest blogger!

I'm very excited to announce that I am now blogging over at Mt. Lebanon Magazine's site. Check our my first post here. No worries though for my faithful readers - I'll still be here as well.

And now, on to some daily ramblings....

Tennis. I have now missed the first 3 lessons. The first was canceled for weather. I was away for my second lesson. The third was the same night as the MLJWC board meeting, and it was my turn to speak, just as the clock hit "go get changed into your tennis clothes" o'clock.  I emailed last night to let them know that I will have to join the next class instead. <patting self on back for knowing when to say no>

Juniper Grille. I am heading there tonight and can't stop thinking about the yummy food that I'll be ordering and enjoying. I am beyond grateful for the group of ladies I will be meeting there as well. Seriously, I am too lucky!

Running. Today calls for 5 miles at race pace. Yippee Skippy!

Marathon. This is different than running in that not everyone who runs is crazy enough to do it for 26.2 miles. And yes, I don't even like to *drive* that distance.... A few of my friends who are at the same point as me in training are running more miles per week and that is freaking me out. Gotta learn to trust my plan....

Kids. It's Vacation Bible School week for us and it starts in 5 minutes, so.....ummmmm, GOTTA GO!

The 4 F's.

Q: What do these four words have in common: 

Family
Fun
Faith
FitBit

A: They were what I did on my family vacation.

On Saturday morning, we stuffed the back of our Swaggerwagon with as much as it would possibly hold and headed to Catholic Familyland.  This family camp has been one of my Summer destinations since I was 16, so this was year number 20...errrrrr, ummmm, I mean 10 for me. *wink* 

Amazingly enough, my shoulder and neck felt completely fine as we arrived at the park and unpacked. If I were my husband, I would have been a bit skeptical about this injury especially since I had been in too much pain to pack the van, but I'm calling it a miracle. 
One of my commitments for the week was to never drive the van or accept a ride. The two sections of the park are connected by a trail that is just a little over a mile long, so I knew I'd be in for quite a bit of walking. And I was right! 

According to my FitBit...

Saturday - 13,226 steps (total slacker on the first day, I guess, but I was still nursing my injury)
Sunday -  31,142 steps
Monday - 30,016 steps
Tuesday - 30,020 steps
Wednesday - 8,268 steps (Note: I, along with a few others, had a little stomach thing going on...)
Thursday - 20,880 steps 

And during that time, I only accepted a ride ONE TIME and that was because it was just about to rain (meaning the trail would be a muddy mess), everyone was anxious to get lunch started because a few of my nephews were scheduled for a trail ride, and my stomach wasn't feeling all that happy.

After close to a week away from civilization, I realized a few things:

• I am incredibly blessed to be with a man who supports me in every way. Nick has always been there for me and is incredibly proud of everything I do. And, I hope that he realizes that I am proud of him too.

• I have and will continue to inspire other people. This is one of my sisters (and also my best friend). She has never been active but after participating in a few of my challenges, she made some life changes and was actually excited for our hike together.

• I am a lot stronger-willed than I think I am. Yes, this is me, hiking the trail in my dress for Sunday's Mass. I know I look like one of those ladies downtown with the bright white sneakers and the business suit, but I'll have you know that I did, indeed, switch my shoes for church.

• If you move more, you can eat more. Ok, this is not the most flattering picture of me, but see that S'more I am eating? I earned every single bite of it!

One of my friends posted something on her Facebook page and I am stealing it because I think it truly captures my thoughts on the week. "

"I don't believe that I am any more blessed than I was a week ago, I just think I slowed down enough to remember what is right in front of me."

Amen. 

Maybe you didn't miss me but....

I sure did miss YOU! I've been camping for the past week and for the couple of days before that, I was dying. I'll catch y'all up tomorrow.

Until then,

Blah...

Remember how my neck was hurting on Tuesday and Wednesday? Well, dumbie me decided to go ahead and run my 2.5 miles of speed work plus some time on the ARC trainer. On Wednesday night, I got a massage then walked 4 miles with friends. I was feeling pretty decent until....

Thursday morning. Ugh, ugh, ugh! I woke up and thought that my neck must have been pretty much healed so I headed to the gym to run my 5 miles. When I got there, I realized I had left my cell phone in the van so I trotted outside to get it. All of the sudden, my shoulder and neck seized up. The pain was unbelievable. Still in denial, I got on the treadmill and attempted to run. Not happening. So, I then attempted to walk and made it a mile and a half before tears started rolling down my face.

I got some ice from the folks at the front desk and sat for awhile. Of course, the ice made it even tighter and it got so bad that I could barely walk out of the gym. After I got home and got the kids some lunch, I laid down. Well, that was a big mistake because then, I couldn't move. Literally. I tried for 45 minutes to roll to my side to no avail.

After making a few desperate calls to friends to see if anyone had muscle relaxers, I called my doctor. She called a prescription in for me and a friend of mine picked it up and brought it over. Sadly, it didn't kill the pain at all so we headed to ER as soon as my hubby got home.

I was seen immediately. The conclusion was that I had a severe cervical strain. Two shots of Dilaudid and a Valium brought me from a pain scale of 10 to about a 7.5 - 8. I headed home, with prescriptions for Valium and Vicodin.

I am off all activity for 72 hours so it's looking like I won't be doing a long run this weekend. Thank goodness that I am still early in my marathon training.

Lesson of the day - LISTEN TO YOUR BODY! If I had taken that Tuesday as a rest day, this may have been avoided.

Decisions...Decisions...Decisions....

So, I'm marathon training. This requires a lot of planning and commitment because my schedule has 6 days a week of workouts. I do cross training on Mondays and Saturdays; Friday is my rest day; Today is Wednesday. By using deductive reasoning, that means it's a run day. But....

MY NECK HURTS! I mean, *really* hurts. It was a little tight when I woke up yesterday morning, but I was fine during my 6 mile treadmill run. Sadly, as the day progressed so did the tightness. I was popping Ibuprofen like candy without much relief. I even tried a heat wrap that had been part of a SWAG bag from one of my many races. This morning, it was painful to get out of bed.

Now, I am faced with the decision on whether to run or not. I haven't completely made up my mind. On one hand, I could use the rest. But, on the other hand, I really want to get some good mileage in! Luckily, I have a massage scheduled for tonight so tomorrow's run should be just fine. Ack! Help me decide!!!!!!

What I would eat if I didn't have self control...

Inside Out S'mores Bars

Click on the pic to link to the recipe if you dare...

DOUBLE DIGITS!!!!!!

As soon as I finished my last blog (read: whiny, annoying, self-deprecating post), I logged on to Facebook and saw this: 

SNAP! I am back to reality. Who cares about the stupid pain I have in my ear or the fact that I am still wearing my ugly glasses? Is it really *that* big of a deal that my hair is filling up the drain? 

I've got a marathon to run, people...

99 DAYS!