My husband had a stone removed that way (with a stent) and said if he ever met the person that invented that stent, he would punch him in the face it hurt so much. Praying you dad has really good meds.

ME: “Why do I run?”
SAM: “Because you love it.”
ME: “Right answer, boy. Right answer.”

Like you said though, “…today, I want to focus on what should be, not what, regrettably, was.”
Running has changed my ‘mind’ to a higher level, I do believe I’ve found a new ‘drug’ with (so far) the side effects of:
Great Running Friends!,euphoric reaction to crossing the Finish Line and receiving a medal, and being much more healthy due to a better diet! (Just don’t have the cravings for fast food like I did before)

Of course I do have to mention, drug co’s can’t bottle and sell “running”….

I will check up the website.

For now I’ve done one week by the book, then I stopped because of TOM.I asked other girls if they stop during TOM and some of them said they do, others they don’t.

I dropped few pounds.

For cardio I understand running is great but I couldn’t run not even when I was a teenager and 100 pounds lighter. It just wasn’t my thing.

You look absolutely gorgeous in this picture!

I just want to say you look awesome in that long hair red dress pic, you look so young and petite!It’s like you always have been like this, I could have never guessed you were fat if I didn’t see the other pics.You did a great job losing weight and toning your body!

I am at 290 pounds, and I just started Body for Life, I want to do it 3 times=12 weeks x3=36 weeks, it’s one day cardio,one day weight training,Sunday free.

I know you don’t activate on sparkpeople anymore but can I ask you to be my sparkbuddy? Could I come here each Sunday and let you know I did it? It would mean a lot to me, my weakest point is to stick with the plan, so if I’d know I have someone to report to each week it would oblige me to stick with it. Could I ask this favour from you?I have many teams on spark but the people are inconsistent, one week come to support you, two weeks nope. So…

If you don’t like me to comment here about it, no problem.
just tell me.

By the way, my name is Alexa and sparpeople username is ALEXAALEXA.

Have a great week!

thanks again for the tool bench and duplo table. Ephram loooooves it. I mean, truly loves it. There are already plans to find a toolbelt for him for his birthday.

I have some hair pins I made for you – since baking is pretty much out lately. I’ll plan to get them to you soon.

Karri

If you are going to give away of the kids board books, we’d be interested in some as we’re trying to build up a collection for Eli so that we can instill a love of reading and good family time around books.

I hope he gets the “smiley” one, too!

Fingers crossed for Sam – he certainly deserves a more pleasant year!

(I did write “English” in the box, though. Should have written “American Bad Guy,” which is what he told me he spoke last week when he was dressed as Senor Evil.)

I had friends who were taking their math courses at the Community College starting there Junior Year of high school because the High School did not offer classes for their level.

Sorry that the kids are bullies though.

Frank

That tunnel sounds intriguing for sure!

Greg, how’d you do? Farra, congrats to you, too! Love those beer mugs (even though I don’t drink beer myself!) Were you behind me when I took one of my headers into the mud?

Angie and Joy, I definitely do draw from my birth experiences out there; in fact, I discussed that with Rachel while we were running. Relaxing the body when you start tightening up, breathing through pain, treating the hard running intervals like contractions (“I can do anything for [X amount of time,” etc.), and so on.

Rachel, I ran this morning (Tuesday) for the first time since. Felt okay, thank goodness! Still a bit stiff, but definitely improving!

you are a great writer, and a great training and running buddy!!!! thanks for the best race ever. i dont think i’ve ever been this sore!!

Rachel

But it gives me a lot of inspiration, knowing that you, too, had to start somewhere, and look at where you are now! I’m so proud to know you!

You should be very proud.

Very best of luck for the 50km.

Can’t wait to hear how it goes.

David

I’m hoping to get into shape enough to do the Wildwood Runs but this just looks evil.

Shopping around will help a lot. For example, I buy chicken and ground beef from my local Asian store, basic seasonal fruits and veggies at a nearby produce market, cheese and corn tortillas from the restaurant supply store down the street, and eggs/bread/milk from Target (of all places, Target! LOL). I only buy the “super sales” from our two grocery chains – everythign else is just too expensive so we do without.

Crazy, huh? I usually run all of my errands early Saturday morning when the kids are at their dad’s house. That in itself saves my sanity.

Karen, that’s probably around what I was spending, though it’s hard to say, what with impulse buys here and there and the occasional trip out for an ingredient or two that we needed for the night.

Diane, maybe as I get more adept at this, I’ll be able to store-hop; as it was, it took me way too long just to select this pile!

I never knew how much other people spent on groceries until I had mentioned a figure to a friend last year and she couldn’t believe I spent that much. So I proceeded to poll my friends and that’s when I realized as a single girl, I spend more on groceries each week than families with like five members.

I still have yet to figure out how to lower my grocery costs.

And they have some yummy – and inexpensive – snack crackers, too.

then the thieves came back and took her car using the spare keys they had stolen.

And just about a week ago, good friends and neighbors had their house broken into as well. Like you they completely ransacked the house and stole their big tv, game consoles and games, jewelry and other electronics. It happened between 9:00 and 11:30 AM. One thing to be aware of, that the police told them was to install some kind of alarm system or something because often robbers will come back to a house a month later when all the items stolen have been replaced!

I agree, things can be replaced, but the feelings of being violated and the fear of someone trying to break in when you or someone you love might be at home is much worse. Even WITH the alarm system we had installed after our break-in, I still don’t like being alone at home with the kids when Michael is out of town.

I’m so sorry and I’m sending big hugs your way!

Terry

Just hug your family close and remember that what’s most important to you is safe! It will take time, but the feelings will pass and you will feel safe in your home again.

Sending lots of prayers for all of you!

For the Devil’s Lake expenses – I’m wondering if Restaurant.com has any restaurants in that area listed? The gift certificates are $10 (or less) for a $25 certificate. You usually have to have a total check of $35 or more(so you are out of pocket the $10 for the certificate, plus $10 for the difference between the certificate and the total check – so $20 for $35 worth of food – a 29% savings). They have fairly casual places listed – might be worth a try.

All the best with all these stressers! Ugh, and what is it with boys and rocks!? One of mine chipped (yes, he did!) a friend’s tooth tossing small ones about, AND hit me on the head (!) one winter when he just randomly tossed a stone! We need to ban those things.

Hang in there!!

2. Homeowners insurance should take care of the car damage. Possibly your auto policy. Either way, check with your agent.

3. Health insurance? HSA to cover the co-pay? Payment plan?

4.Birthday party/Devil’s Lake: not much can be helped there, except to weigh costs and be careful with dining out, etc.

We’re pinched too. Big time. I’m going to have to go back to work before I finish my degree, and I am not real happy about that.

The party sounds awesome. I hope you all have a great time.

but i know what you mean about the new stage. kristian recently stopped wearing nappies at night time and i donated all the extra ones we had. it’s so strange to not be changing anyone’s nappy after so long!

Keep rollin’!

Lake Andrea is open for the season… it’s shallow enough to walk and the sand bottom might give you enough resistance to get a good workout. You can swim along the shore there too. VERY VERY easy and good place to swim for beginners, especially for open water.

Go watch the triathletes train!

Take care of yourself!

It sounds like right now it might be a serious flare-up of the ITBS, or something else entirely… so you might be past the KT tape stage at this point. But it’s something to consider and for a $12 roll it might be worth the experiment. It sure did wonders for me. (I found out about it from another runner/blog that was recommending it; I have no affiliation at all other than a full price paying customer)
————
PART 2: WtRS e13
I’m a salty runner too. Caked on my face, shorts, shirt… the whole works. Through (another) runner/blog recommendation (rundiggerrun) I did some fairly extensive reading at the Hammer Nutrition website and put together a fueling system that worked perfectly for my longest training run to date. A 24 miler as I’m getting ready to run my first marathon. At the Hammer site they have 2 free books (PDF format) that you can download and with 30-60 minutes of reading you can get a good understanding of what they recommend. I trust their program, although I plan on looking into this more when I find the free time. The 2 free books are:

Product Usage Manual (The little red book):
http://www.hammernutrition.com/products/product-usage-manual.pum.html

Endurance Athlete’s Guide:
http://www.hammernutrition.com/products/endurance-athlete‘s-guide.fh.html

With those, this was my plan I used on my 24 mile run (the ENDUROLYTES were used to address the salt issue):
FUEL:
80 oz. – Water (approx 20 oz per hour)
8 – ENDUROLYTES (2 pre run and 2 @ top of each hour)
8 Scoops – PERPETUEM mixed with water in a 20 oz. 4 hour bottle (sipped about every 15 minutes for the duration of the 4 hours)
2 – Hammer Gels (Raz & Vanilla) & 1 hour and 2 hour marks
** Post Run – RECOVERITE single serving & Cool Mint Clif Bar

+++++

I hope that helps a bit… and I hope even more that you get better soon!!!

I only covered about a quarter-mile yesterday before stopping and then resting the heck out of it all day, and today when I woke and thought about just biking or cross-training, something stopped me and told me to rest it some more, even though it doesn’t seem to hurt. I’ll spend another day babying it and see how I feel tomorrow, along with whatever the doctor says…(doesn’t hurt that even the rain is conspiring to keep me from simply walking the mile and back to the farmers’ market as I’d planned to do this morning).

I got new orthotic insoles, and I’ll start with my new shoes when I run again. Main thing I’m wondering is, if it is an overuse thing, whether it’s IT-related or actual runner’s knee. Treatment is so similar, of course, so it’s probably not going to make much of a difference either way. RICE, I guess.

Don’t get too down as your mind WILL affect your body and make it worse. You have plenty of time before DWD and could easily take a good week off and rest, and still be more than ready to do that race.

HAPPY anniversary.

love your photos–you’re so hard core

And yeah, that’s some serious clenching. Heh.

I hate that allergy test. It’s like the devil. I react to every single thing they prick me with so it’s useless.

Awesome race report. Well done on an amazing ‘training’ run!

JayDub

I know what you mean about being referred to as ‘tiny’. My fingers and wrists are on the large size and growing up, my relatives would always have a hard time buying me jewelry because I was so big.

Thanks. And, no, Sam and Gabe wouldn’t touch the lasagna. Eric used the extra noodle dough to make them up some regular noodles, which they had with butter and cheese.

Your family is truly beautiful both inside and out.

I love how colorful and festive the cake is. ::smiles::

70 is too warm for me, too. I’m really not built for any type of heat – including moderate.

::hugs::

Joanne, I liked the Higdon marathon training plans, which are online. Most of the plans I get are online, really. I liked that the Higdon ones, other than the advanced plans, don’t really get very complicated; the intermediate-level marathon plans are pretty simple.

If we go early Sunday, will have to be early enough that I can get to church by 10:15 (no choir this week, but Sam has a play I can’t miss). Eric might be later getting in on Saturday that I though, so it’s possible I will be doing the whole 22 on Sunday, after all (I wouldn’t have minded starting it around 5, but going from 7-10:30PM doesn’t tickle my fancy). If I started around 5:30 AM on Sunday, it would work…

I’ll put Norwalk on the prospectives list.

I love the running update. I would really love to run with you Sunday on the trails early in the morning if you still want too!!!! (Please say yes, please say yes…)

Also, that is a bummer not getting into Lakefront Marathon–dang nabbit. I am going to go for Maniac status in the fall, so maybe we can do a marathon together that is in Wisconsin in the fall!! The Rails to Trails one looks pretty cool. We could drive there and drive back together and make it a road trip.

Also I changed my blog name to gurlrunnr.blogspot.com!
I cant give up on the blog, I ended up feeling really sad when i cancelled it.

Good luck sorting things out for your 22 miler. ::fingers and toes crossed for Carrie::

My grades kept me from even considering an Ivy League despite the fact that I had it in my head since I was small that I was going to attend an Ivy League. Heh.

When I hear about the tuition costs for East Coast schools, I nearly faint. Both my under-graduate and graduate school cost me less than 3k per year.

It worked out. Sam ate potato and brussels sprouts, and Gabe ate cauliflower and broccoli. They left all the mushrooms and butternut squash to me, which was fine and dandy.

About shoes: I’m a stability/support running shoe wearer and a Brooks Adrenaline fan… and have ran in them as my road shoe. (my wife also runs the Adrenaline) The series does have a trail/off-road version, and although I’m thinking it’s not as beefy as the Cascadia shoe (their neutral shoe) they do have the Adrenaline ASR 6 which is defo an option. (I plan on trying them myself soon)

Here is the Brooks page with more info:
http://www.brooksrunning.com/product/1200611B/123210/Adrenaline%20ASR%206

I hope that helps a bit.

Cheers from Seattle,

Douglas (OasisDouglas on twitter)

Congratulations on your seitan success!

“Fermented pressed soybeans,” for the record, are actually Tempeh, which I also love. Not many people know how to make it properly, though. (We slice it thin, fry it on medium heat with olive oil, then coat it in some sort of sauce to soak up (barbecue sauce makes for a delicious BBQ sandwich, with coleslaw.)

At some point if you have time and don’t know what to write I’d love to hear your thoughts on eating vegetarian while still cooking for a meat-eating family. I’ve always been curious about how that works, though I imagine it’s a bit easier when eating vegetarian food is more for health and taste reasons than for full-blown PETA reasons.

Good luck tomorrow, Carrie! Run like the wind!

As far as shoes go for trail running, I think that one of the great benefits of trail running is the way it works the lateral muscles in and around your ankles, calves and knees. There’s always an inherant risk of rolling an ankle, no matter how much ‘ptotection’ a shoe offers, but I think too much of this protection will mitigate the lateral benefit from running on trails. Just my opinion. I tend to stick to just using my road shoes.

Trail runners are good for helping you not roll your ankles too much and for protecting you from rocks, etc. If you’re wearing pretty solid road shoes, you might not need trail runners. It really depends on the particular trail; like I said, for me and the trails I’m running (even the rocky, hilly single tracks at Baraboo, from what I’ve been told) my Sauconys are plenty sufficient. I’d ask a local running store, whose employees may be familiar with the trails you plan to run.

Would you recommend that I get a specific pair of trail running shoes if that’s the route I wish to go? The more and more I think about it the more and more intriguing trail running gets. As a matter of fact I found this yesterday:

http://www.pctrailruns.com/FP_Course_Map.htm

I’m so glad you enjoyed the city–we certainly love it!

(I still think you should go for it!)

If one year it isn’t a joke, make sure it’s happy. I don’t want to be all “ROFL, your mom died eating a sandwich!” when it’s for reals.

You are the best. I knew what day it was because a few friend has a birthday today, but you got me anyway. I didn’t figure it out until I read the comments.

Of course, now I’m insanely curious about this race. I can’t believe it exists!

You get me EVERY SINGLE TIME you do this. I didn’t figure it out until I got further down in my blog reader and someone reminded me what day it is.

I should have known I could count on you to be my first today. ::smiles::

I couldn’t wait to get up and read your post for today. You always have the best ones.

Daytime: 86 – 120°F (30°C)
Night: 40 – 58°F (14°C)