Day 7 of running prison

I have been a very good girl. I have not run for 7 days now nor have I lost my mind.  Honestly, I have felt pretty crappy and the weather has been pretty iffy this week so I don't think having a week off was too bad.  Yesterday was the Wicked Marathon in Wamego.  I had committed to volunteering and was sent to water station mile 6.  It was the prefect day for running and much of the course was either on my long run route or my in town route.  I decided to ride my bike out to the water station so I could be mobile and head to another water station if needed.  There weren't many runners so water stations were pretty easy.  All of the runners were through my station by an hour and half so I headed to the next needed station, a turn where runners needed to stay on the right side of the cones and stay on the right side of the road for an upcoming right turn.   I got the first few runners through and then was sent to another area where the runners needed to be directed to go straight instead of turn.  I was so glad I had my bike so I could ride back and forth from the water station at mile 22 to the tricky parts.  I didn't have to sit in one spot and I got to see all of my friends come through.  I had some very chatty runners who wanted to talk and some that were in the zone and didn't want anything to do with me.  I talked to those who needed it and directed those silently who didn't.  Since this was a small race, the runners got pretty strung out and I think those who weren't running together got lonely.  After the last runner came through, I headed to the finish to congratulate my friends.  The finish was so cool, they got a medal, a shirt, a poster that a child had designed in wamego that was Oz themed and they got their picture taken with the wizard of oz characters.  I missed most of my friends finishing but I stayed till the last runner came through.  The cut off was 6 hours and he made it in 5:56 something.  Wow.  He gutted it out.

I saw that so much though and it truly inspired me.  I saw people who looked like normal people go 26.2 and it really got me fired up.  I truly must run a marathon.  Three people who really made me so proud.  One was a friend of mine who is a super strong runner.  She hit the wall at mile 18 and really had a tough time with cramps.  Her husband started running with her, not in running clothes at all and ran over four miles with her.  I didn't get to see her finish but she finished with him and her two sons.  So awesome.  The second was a husband and wife team that have run marathons in 49 states.  There had to be in their 70s at least.  The ran the whole thing together and finished together.  The third was the last guy.  You could tell he was in pain and was really struggling and had to stop several times but he never gave up.  He made it with 4 minutes to spare.  We all cheered him on till the end!  He was so grateful and the first words out of his mouth were, Kansas isn't flat at all LOL!  I love that so many people think it is flat but we are in the flint hills after all:)

I am looking forward to trying out the old lungs tomorrow.  Will probably just do four slow miles but any running is good running:)

home again

Since i have been put on rest duty and I know the only way to make myself rest is to stick to the computer chair.  If not, I will be up cleaning and doing laundry and all the things that make me cough.  I came home after my doctor's visit and have been stuck in this chair ever since.  I have to say that the antibiotic they gave me is making me feel oh so nauseous.  I took it with food but bleh.  So here is the latest.  I  have what my dr calls the "edge of pneumonia".  What a technical term huh?  I ran three times this last week,  two fours and a 10.  The 10 wasn't the best run ever and I had several times of stopping to have a cough attack but it was a beautiful morning and I couldn't resist.  Afterwards I felt horrible though.  Lots of coughing and lots of just more than normal long run hangover.  Fast forward to sunday when I started coughing up bits of blood.  Yeah, that was fun.  I actually felt so weak that I had to just hand over the kiddo to the husband and go lay down for a few hours and sleep.  Still no other symptom than a cough.  I guess I should take things more seriously but to me, a fever means serious, a cough means well, you have a cold and or virus that isn't going to go away with help so give it time.   I actually got the best sleep last night i have had in over a week so I really thought I was on the downside of this.  Except the fact that I have coughed my guts out this morning. After the drs visit, I was told to go get my meds and go home.  Thank goodness I have excellent students working in my lab right now that can handle things when I am gone (which has been a lot lately:(.  I guess I get a free no running pass this week and I get some good drugs.  I am scared of my inhaler though.  I have never used one and I have no clue what I am doing.  The pharmacist went over everything with me but I am just nervous.  Will have to wait till tony gets here i guess to watch over me and make sure I do it right.  Yeah I am pretty much a wuss when it comes to any eye, ear, throat and or nose spray/drop/inhaling apparti.  I will avoid doing any of those things till i absolutely have to and will have a panic attack while doing so.  Yep, big wuss here.

The good part about the weekend was that we worked on Andrew's room again.  We converted his crib to a big boy bed.  He immediately snuggled in and started reading his book.  Now, how do I get the nerve up to put him in there at night and leave him in there?  I am the problem now, not him:)

He is going through this phase where all things baby are in vogue again.  This was his tiny baby crib that he slept in for a few weeks by our bed.  Doesn't really fit now does he?   We are also firmly addicted to Thomas.  He pretty much carries those trains in both hands at all times and will do a full freak out if you try and pry them out.

And last but not least, poor deuce.  He has been a mess since the surgery.  Not sure how much is real and how much is him being a drama queen.  He doesn't handle pain very well at all.  Nor does he handle the cone of shame very well.  Kind of glad I could be home with him today so he didn't have to have it on.  We bought one of those blow up soft ones but it didn't work at all.  He could still reach to lick.  Maybe we need the bigger one?  This one fits but like I said, he can lick all he wants to.  He is also super grumpy.  He went after stella today when she stepped on him trying to get to me.  He also picked a fight with harley again.  Not sure what is going on with them but we have to make it stop.  Seems that food is always present when they happen.  The odd thing to me is that deuce grumbles, then lunges and then harley is like oh know you didn't and it is on.  Afterwards, harley will come straight back to him and lay beside him.  He isn't showing any fear of deuce even though Deuce is starting all of the fights.  Usually when harley would get into it with a foster dog (which was common when we did APRH since harley has always been the bottom of our pack and the most insecure), harley would slink away and avoid that dog at all costs. Either harley is becoming senile or there is some complex story unfolding between the two.  I have been watching hard for triggers and like I said, when I have food that seems to be it but why is that a sudden factor now, five years into deuce being part of our home?  As I sit and type this, they are laying together and harley was cleaning his ears.  Wonder what gives?

Still sick!!!!!

Okay it's thursday and I am still sick!  This makes a record breaking three weeks I have had one ailment or another.  My coach says this is common when you are training hard.  I guess next time I move andrew to a new situation,  I will make sure it is not a month or so before a big race, lesson learned!  I called my dr today to get some better cough meds.  I have tried pretty much every cough med out there in search of relief this week.   I need the good stuff this time!  I am contemplating trying to run this afternoon, very slow of course.  Or I may just wait another day.  I do feel like the coughing is slightly better today but I not sure I want to make it worse.

On another note, Deuce is getting neutered today.  After this weekend and after a few times of grumbling at other male dogs, I have had enough.  Him and harley have started getting into little tiffs and the worse one happened this week,  with neither one of them wanting to give it up.  So, I called the vet on monday and made an appointment.  He is going to be one pissed off pup tonight when i pick him up.  He is a big momma's boy and doesn't handle pain very well so this should be super interesting.  I would say with all of my male dogs that I have had neutered that the worst part is the razor burn on their scrotum.  I hope his isn't too bad and we can let it heal up quickly.I have a show in a couple of weeks so would like to get some sort of practice in.

Andrew is having a better week at preschool so that is the best thing about this week.  While he still cries a little when I leave and clings, he will readily go to his teachers and stop crying.  I think it is more about the prying of the binky out of his mouth than me leaving.  I wish we could just ditch it but he knows it is in his cubby so as soon as he gets out of his class room every day, he goes straight to his cubby and asks if he can have it.  I would just go cold turkey but after last week when he seemed to be having issues, I thought at least I could give him some support and comfort that the binky brings.  Maybe in a few weeks we can try again to wean him from it.

Monday blahs

I feel like a broken record.  I knew this weekend would be a toss up since I hadn't gotten to practice in two weeks.  It was on turf and I know he takes a run or two to get use to turf. So knowing these things I had 0 expectations and decided that I would just work on contacts.  After waiting all day to hear back from the daycare, after 2:30, I was given the go ahead to travel as andrew was having a better afternoon.  I had a pleasant two hour and a half trip as the weather was nice and sunny, although a bit windy.  Our hotel wasn't the nicest but it was clean and quiet and right next door to a perkins.  We had pie to pre celebrate any successes we might get the next day.  Everything started out like I expected, knocked bars the first run (maybe three) with less the next run (maybe one) and then none the rest of the day.  Still not together totally but good parts to every run.  The most proud I am is that he listened in both snooker and gamblers and we had kick ass beginnings on both, which is one less thing for me to worry about.  Still pushing me on contacts.  Instead of asking for toes over and over again, if he stopped, I would just say, uh oh, where are your toes?  When he would come into position, I would tell him what a good dog he was and release him.

Then day two came.  Usually he is so much better day two but as the day went on, he got worse and worse.  Missing weave pole entries, running past obstacles and not even trying to collect.  No bars but that was probably the only good part.  After another weird run where he ran past a jump and then went sight seeing after the weave poles that he missed, I decided to pack up and head out.  I can only take so much and I had, had enough.  I cried most of the way home.  What do you do when you don't have enough hours in the day?  What do you do when you feel pulled in so many directions.  As usually the logical side of my brain says stop.  Stop wasting the money, stop wasting your time.  But my heart just can't.  I love running deuce and I love agility and my friends.  Dropping down to one show a month has helped with finances for sure and I might be able to just do one show a month and not teach.  Maybe devote teaching time to training time and still keep going to Joc's barn once a week too.  I am entered in one more two day show in april and then I will probably do the local USDAA show in june.  Still thinking as usual.  Not an easy answer for sure.  Think.Think.Think. I have decided to neuter deuce and the deed is scheduled for thursday.  Maybe between neutering, more practice and maybe taking another online class, we can get somewhere.  Still not ready to give up totally.

On the other side, I sure did miss this little guy.  I have yet another cold, this one with some icky coughing so we went to bed early last night and got a good night's rest.  He didn't want to get up this morning and neither did I.

Type A issues

This has been the week from hell.  I guess this is part of parenthood so I should just get use to it.  The week went something like this.


Monday: beautiful day because of course it was a rest day.  Contemplated going out anyway but my legs said do it and die bitch, so i listened.

he figured out how to couple his other train to his train set.  This kid is getting smart!

Tuesday: Dropped Andrew off at preschool.  He has started coughing but no fever and i was pretty sure it was viral.  He had been a little more fussy than normal but he has had this cold for 8 days now.  Preschool teacher told me that he had been very fussy at school and was not eating at all.  He had not really been eating well at home either so mommy intuition thought it might be an ear infection even though no fever.  Called the doctor and the doctor said to bring him in.  Had a few hours before I had to trek to Manhattan so dropped him off, got four miles in and went back and got him and took him to the dr.  Dr. says, viral, no ear infection, nothing I can do.  Drop him back at preschool and decide to take the rest of the day off and get stuff done around the house minus Andrew.  All in all, a nice productive day although the kids at work had to do a prep without me and I felt very guilty about that.

playing on my kindle with his fav app

Wednesday:  Had mexican the night before.  Had ingested some onions.  Onions HATE me and give me horrible indigestion.  I woke up feeling like I had a bad case of indigestion which got worse and worse as the morning wore on.  Finally puked in the garbage can at work and felt like pure poop.  As soon as the kids came in, I went home where I spent the rest of the day in bed/praying to the porcelain gods.  Andrew was a saint and watched Disney channel/slept and even though tony had the same issue but from the other end, he took him and let me rest die a slow death.  Last puking episode happened around midnight.  No running that day but no desire to run either.

Thursday:  Went to work.  Probably shouldn't have.  Was super weak and going on 24 hours with no food.  Screwed up and experiment at work.  Got the call around 1:30 that andrew was running a fever.  Headed out to wamego as quick as I could.  Sure enough, he was running a low grade fever.  Called the dr who called in an antibiotic (thank you, you saved me another trip into town).  Got a chocolate milkshake as all I had stomached all day was a little portion of trail mix.  That was the only thing that sounded remotely yummy.  Andrew and I shared it and i got him dosed with some Tylenol for his fever.  Spent the rest of the afternoon watching Disney channel.  To All of you moms who don't let you kids watch tv, I have no clue how you get through illnesses either yourself or your kiddo.  Disney channel is perfect for those times.  Started to panic about leaving for the weekend.

he lets stella eat his legos.  At some point, he is going to regret this.

Friday:  Had planned on having the day off.  All the days I was off, I had multiple calls/emails from work I had to deal with so was i really off???? Had the final presentation from  kiddo that i was mentoring.  She did an amazing job and I am glad she is done and can now graduate.  Got home and was packing when I got a call from preschool.  Sigh.  Not sick, just super fussy, what should we do?  I have no clue what to do.  He certainly isn't feeling 100% but I can't pick him up every day that he doesn't feel 100%.  Teacher and I decided to leave him till nap time and re evaluate.  I am so hitting the road as soon as I hear one way or the other.    Then I look over at deuce who is licking his manhood over and over and over again.  I just about panicked.  Not only was it red and swollen, there was blood coming from it!!!!!  WTH!  Called the vet who reassured me that this was normal and probably he had just gotten too aroused and it swelled and then got a little bit irritated.  So next time, i have to lube him up so it will go back in as soon as it is done swelling.  Really Deuce?  Prolonged erection issues?   Wow.  Only me and only this week.

I need a dog show and I need some good runs.  Did four miles before lunch just to see where I was at.  I am still pretty weak.  I had a very slight meal last night.  All hopes of getting in 12 today are dashed.  Hoping I can get something in this weekend and then I can do hill work Sunday night when I get back.  I am so type A that when one thing goes wrong, I get in a tizzy.  This whole week has rocked my type A world.  I am super busy at work (which is an awesome problem) but so is tony so we can't take turns taking care of him.  I really feel bad for tony because I did have relief to work for me so my projects got taken care of where he didn't have that and hat to be sick at work.

I am bad

Forgive me.  I meant to update last week after andrew's first days at his new preschool.  I wanted to take pics but I also wanted to make sure he got in okay and i got away without any tears (from him of course;).  The first couple of days were awesome.  I could barely get his coat off and his binky out of his mouth.  Then things changed.  The director told me it would.  The next few days he would linger by the gate and the teacher would have to lead him in.  Today, he wouldn't let go of me.  In his defense, it was a rough weekend in terms of sleep and eating.  He went on a complete hunger strike saturday and wouldn't eat anything we gave or made him.  Sunday he ate breakfast and lunch but wouldn't eat dinner and wouldn't go to sleep thanks to springing forward.  That spilled over to this morning when both of us couldn't get up.  So I am saying a little prayer for his teachers this morning that he cooperates and isn't too much of a mess.  Last week he brought home art work and his first book order.  I had the biggest smile when I saw that paper in his cubby.  I LOVED book orders when I was a kid and drove my poor mom nuts (probably) over them.  Not only did i HAVE to have every book on horse and unicorns, i had to get enough to get the cool poster they sent you with your order.  I am pretty sure mom paid a small fortune in those cheap paper back books, most of which I still have and now andrew has inherited.

This last week wasn't the greatest for running because of the stupid cold that my wonderful son shared with me.  Poor guy still has a nose that is running like a fountain where mine has pretty much dried up.  I got all of mileage in but I couldn't for the life of me hit any of my paces.  I did 11 yesterday in the beautiful 60 degree weather but a 16 mph sustained west,southwest wind with 5.5 of those miles going straight into the wind.  It wasn't pretty but I got er done.  My brain tried to give up around mile 9.  My BRF had gone with me but she was getting over a stomach virus so she wasn't 100% and had to give up and head back around mile 4.  I haven't had to fight with my mind as much as I did during those last couple of miles.  I kept telling my mind to shut up that I wasn't walking.  My body was not very happy with me when I got done either.  I think breaking in my new shoes and socks probably didn't help.

This was later on in the day.   Andrew already is hitting on the ladies.  Helps that he now has a class room that is over 50% little girls.  These two had so much fun together!

The coldest run EVER

I had 10 on the schedule this weekend.  I wanted to go out saturday which was the better of the two days weather wise.  Both days had pretty cold wind chills but sunday was suppose to have 8+ inches of snow to contend with.  I have always said, cold doesn't bother me, but wind does.  I have really awesome gear and I can always layer up if the wind is too bad.  The problem was I have never gotten a good answer on below zero wind chills.  I have read do it and I have read DON't and its hard to know what is right.  My hubby had just bought this really awesome face thingy that covered pretty much all of my face and I stole one of his big hats so it would come down over my face.  I doubled my gloves up and wore my usual mizuno base layer. I HAD to get out.  I had done 4 miles on the dreadmill the day before and all i could muster was an 11 minute pace so it took FOREVER.  I was lucky that andrew stayed asleep since I was by myself since mom had left and tony was working. I just couldn't do it again.

So I did what any type A personalilty would do, I read a million articles on cold weather running, tried to wait till it got the warmest it was going to get for the day and asked my coach and my body works guy.  Everyone said stay close to home, no exposed skin and be careful.  I am so stubborn and get so bored if I loop so I decided i would at least get in five by doing a down and back down military trail road.  It's not the best protected from the wind but i knew it would be plowed after our dusting of snow/sleet.  I figured I had done 5 before on the dreadmill so I could do it again.  That was the plan till i started running.  The wind was howling from the north, north east and my first 2.5 was due east.  I felt warm enough, oddly only my covered stomach was cold and the tops of my thighs.  At the end of 2.5, I had a decision, to commit to a 7 mile loop or go back and get just 5.  Since I had a mile going south I thought, I will just try this and see how I feel, i can always turn back, although turning back would be running due north into the wind.  I committed to the 7 mile loop and knew if the going got bad, i would just have to call my hubby to some and get me.  I did learn something new on my run though.  The airport, which is on my 7 mile loop and never in use, has a really nice porta potty.  I hadn't fueled properly the night before (two beers and junk) and I had tried to eat pasta for my lunch which was giving me indigestion even though I had waited 2 hours post eating.  I had to make an emergency stop and once I saw it, I was so relieved because I am not sure my bare naked butt could have handled that wind chill!  So nice to actually have toilet paper too:).  I ended up sticking in an extra mile and three quarters and then finishing up with a mile on the dreadmill to warm up.  It really wasn't that bad as long as I wasn't running into the wind. I am so ready for spring and summer running though!!!!  I am TIRED of this winter crap!!!!  I am officially now a member of the frozen eye lash club and the frozen nostril club.

 This guy.  He is going through a second baby hood I guess?  We have been trying to store all of his "baby" stuff and he keeps getting it out and playing with various toys.  He also has decided the pack and play isn't a baby prison and likes to play in it.  So weird.

This is the I am fixing to throw this at you face.   We really need to stop laughing when he throws stuff at us.  He has deadly aim and I have been lucky that it has thus far been soft stuff.  He started his new preschool today and as I let him into his room and took his binky, he took off running to see his new friends and never looked back.  Wiping the tears away, i walked away and hoped and prayed he had a good day at his new school.  Updates tomorrow!

mom is here and gone

Lots going on this week.  First off, my mom came from TN to keep andrew for a week before he starts preschool.  After he starts his new school, we probably won't be pulling him out for  a solid week, unless we are going on vacation so he keeps his routine.  They have specific nap and eating times and we want him to stay on those schedules.  It was super sad to stop taking him to his in home day care but I am excited for him to be in a classroom with kids his own age.  We went friday to pay and he got to spend an hour with his new friends.  It was super cute to see him interact.  The director said they had never had a kid come in and be so social.  That makes me super happy!!!!

Since mom was here, we had all of these things we wanted to do.  We wanted to have a date night, we wanted to get the room his bedroom is in cleaned up and ready for him to be in a toddler bed (it is currently our storage room.  Not a problem with him in a crib but huge problem with him being loose and about at night), and we wanted to get some runs in.    I am happy to say we got the room started and have four bags of stuff to go to goodwill.  Making some hard decisions to get rid of stuff that we really didn't want to but if we haven't used it in a year or more, do we really need it?  We did get to both go on runs and did one run together at the track.  I had to do eight 400 m repeats at an 8:15 pace so he could just run mileage while I did laps.  I did one cool down lap for every repeat plus a couple to warm up and cool down.  While i prefer to run on the road, I am glad we got these done because the wind made it super cold.

 Andrew and mom came to town twice during lunch so I could i see him during the day.  Mom also headed out to agility practice with me wednesday night.  While I think we wanted to do so much more, we did get a lot done and that is awesome.  The best part is, mom did most of the chores I have to do at night so I didn't have to rush home and do laundry and dishes and on and on.  I actually feel rested today:)  I hate she had to leave early but this winter storm coming tonight is suppose to dump 8+ inches on us so she needed to get her friend home and not get stuck here.  Heck, I may get a snow day monday because andrew's preschool closes when the school system is out.

Am hoping to get my long run in tomorrow even if it gets bad.  I need to do 10.  Managed to get on the treadmill and get 4 in today while andrew was napping.

It was hard to get out today with mom leaving and tony working and then there is this.  The weather is just not conducive for me to run.  Winter is plotting against me.  I am thankful though that i do have a treadmill so I do have options, even if I bitch about the mill.

I did get to do a yoga class last night.  My boss is a yogi or whatever they call them and she was upping her certification.  I got to do two hours of kind of hot and sweaty yoga as all of the ladies trying to get their certificates taught moves.  Some were really, really good, some not so good.  Some people just have that teaching vibe and others don't.  I hope they all got some good constructive criticism to help them become the best they can me.  My core is super sore today so i know I got an awesome work out.  I really do miss getting to do yoga on a regular basis.