I am going on 8 weeks of sickness. I cannot tell you how much I am over being sick. It is the coughing that is driving me the most insane. I feel like I am right at the end of it all but it just won't let go. At least the remedy is a fun one. You really have to love a southern remedy.

Here we go again!

I didn't just fall off the workout wagon; I fell of and it rolled over me and left my lifeless body in the muddy trail.  I have finally picked up my lazy bones and chased the wagon down and very ungracefully swung my leg over and pulled myself back onto that damn workout wagon. I think I must have smacked my junk when I swung aboard because everything hurts.  Of course that may just be that I have been a slug for the last few months.   I can tell you one thing for sure; it is like starting all over again.  UGH! The worst thing is that I have nobody to blame except myself. I can make excuse after excuse but really it all comes down to the fact that I sat down on my fat butt and let the lazy useless side take control.  OK, enough of that. The good news is that I am back at it and rebuilding what has been lost. It will be a tough battle but I will keep at it and get faster and stronger. I have a ½ marathon (my first) to run mid-March and a 70.3 (also my first) to finish mid-August.  It is time to get serious and get the eating under control and the workouts focused and regular.  Good-bye fast foods and sodas. I don't know why I let you back in my life but you are gone again.

I even managed to wake up early this morning and get my slow run in. It sucks so bad to wake up early but it is so awesome to be done with your workout before the sun comes up.  The run was rough. I was never a fast or even medium speed runner. Today my legs were very vocal about how little I have used them over the past few months.  My aerobic conditioning is in the toilet; I felt like I was going to die.  I knew that I wouldn't since this isn't my first time going through this. I used that knowledge to keep pushing on and suffering through the pain. I did stretch and used my new Stick rolled (thanks mom and dad). I just have to keep doing these morning workouts and they will become routine. That is what I need is a good routine. Plus if I do morning workouts I can do double workouts again.

Merry Christmas!

I was woken up by my niece booking up the stairs to her parents room as the sun was just peeking out over the horizon. I wanted to go back to sleep but I knew that wasn't an option. My mom knocked on the door and told me that the girls were up and ready to open gifts. "The sun isn't even up yet" I said. It was a losing battle. You can't reason with little girls on Christmas morning.
It was a great Christmas morning and I loved watching my nieces open their gifts. I received some excellent gifts (thanks everyone) too. Plus the view of the pond is nice while drinking coffee. Merry Christmas everyone!

Halloween Oreos

I was innocently pushing my cart through the grocery store while shopping for the healthiest of foods.  It was all going well when suddenly from one of the nearby end caps I heard tiny whispers of chocolatey seduction.  I started to move quickly away but made the mistake of looking over my shoulder towards the promises of taste bud bliss.

What the?!?!?! It was too late, I was caught in the neon glow of sugary goodness.  Delicious Oreos with neon ORANGE cream filling.

I love things that are orange. I love delicious chocolatey Oreos. Combining the two creates something that I could not walk away from. I had to let a package jump into my cart and join me in the car ride home.  I was able to ignore the siren song of the fantastic treats last night.  I thought about inviting people over so that I wouldn't be tempted to eat the whole pack on my own. I almost did it but the thought of giving away such treasures was too much to bear.  I resigned myself to the knowledge that it is me against the black and orange temptresses in their little plastic house.  The key is to devour eat them in one sitting moderation.  Tonight I decided to put myself to the test.  Could I just eat four Halloween treats? The answer is YES! Well, so far yes, I may wake up in the middle of the night or sleep walk to the sinfully delicious cookies.  Who knows for sure until the dreaded sun comes up way too early in the morning.  While I pulled apart the cookies and ate them in pieces, one dog slept (knowing he would get none) and the other dog relaxed while keeping an eye on me (hoping that I would lose my senses and give up a crumb.....fool).  I am also enjoying a Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale.  Pure freaking heaven of a night!

 

What about you? Are you drawn to Oreos or other cookie treats? Do the odd holiday versions make you want them more or less?

WAM300 teaser post

I finished the WAM300 ride yesterday and I am SORE!  I mean like sore everywhere.  I am sore in places I didn't realize existed.  That being said it was an amazing ride with rock star people and I already plan on doing it again.  That's right, even at the peak of soreness and not wanting to be within 15 feet of my bike, I know I want to saddle up next year and log another 300 miles to raise money for these awesome kids that need a break from the treatments and surgeries that have become the norm for them.  They deserve a trip to Disney World to see the princesses or to see the great national parks in an RV.  They need to know that there is a light at the end of the long, dark, painful tunnel that they are in.  I will do a whole post up about the ride this week but I am still traveling home right now.  You should check out WAM for yourself.  They have the 300 and 50 mile rides.

Knee update

Good news on the knee front.  It feels a lot better than it did just 24 hours ago.  The swelling has come down significantly and it isn't as stiff.  It is still a little sore but I like the direction it is headed.  I am going to head to the gym tonight to do some easy spinning on the stationary bike to get a real picture of where it is.  I need it to be 100% by Friday morning when the Make-A-Wish 300 miles in 3 days across Michigan starts.  The good thing is that the ride doesn't have a lot of hills on it.  It looks like 1400 ft of elevation gain on the first day and most of that is within the first 30-40 miles.  As long as the knee holds up for those uphills I should be able to survive the rest of it.   At least I hope I do. Of course I am going nowhere if I don't get packed tonight.  I need to triple check my list so that I don't forget anything.  It isn't easy to reduce everything you need (including sleeping bag and mat to sleep on) down to one bag weighing 25 lbs or less.

Mountain biking

I decided to try my hand at mountain biking.  Some friends and I have been trying to go for a few weeks but something always got in the way.  Mostly it was work but once the trails were closed because it was raining.  Well, we finally made it happen yesterday.  One of the guys goes to the mountain biking trails at the U.S. National Whitewater Center (NWC) all the time so he was our guide.  Matt is much faster than we are and can take off and disappear in a second so Colby started calling him Ghost.  We started off on the green trails for beginners.  Riding on the trails, threading through trees, and finding the right line through roots and rocks  definitely took some getting used to.  My first thought was "This is bat shit crazy".  After we finished the lake loop I was feeling a little more confident and we decided to hit a blue trail (intermediate).  Ghost did well in keeping us out of ditches and things but we really need to work on his timing.  He would warn you JUST before you were on top of something.  There was barely any time to get ready.  We went barreling down a hill on a trail that was maybe 2 feet wide and PACKED with rocks.  I couldn't focus on what was ahead because everything was bouncing up and down so much as I plummeted down this hill.  All of could think was "oh shit don't fall don't fall". I couldn't tell you how long that hill was but it seemed like it went on forever (so probably 3 seconds).  As I got more comfortable on the bike I was able to go faster and ride more smoothly.  This is when Ghost decided we should hit a black (advanced) loop.  Sure, why not, I am feeling pretty good.  I now know that there is a big difference between the blue trails and the black trails.  For one thing, the black trails like to make you climb straight up over roots and rocks.  I quickly learned that I have a lot to learn about picking lines and climbing in a mountain bike environment.  I kept hitting a rock or root just right and BAM, I was dead stopped.  Let me tell you how impossible it is to get started again when you are part way up a steep hill and there are still obstacles all around you.  I did get to ride some berms which were a lot of fun once you get used to them.  As we were finishing the black loop I came up on a little berm and decided to keep my speed by riding it high.  I learned something new right then.  The top of the berm was more pine straw and soft dirt than hard packed berm.  I washed out the front wheel and came down HARD! 

Knee is a little swollen

Thankfully I was in the back so nobody saw it and I didn't get run over.  As I lay there for a minute I was thinking that going mountain biking a week before I am headed to Michigan to ride 300 miles over 3 days might not have been the best idea.  The knee hurt for awhile but we finished riding the blue trail and then the green trail again as a cool down.  I did much better on the green trail the 2nd time around and really enjoyed myself.  I am definitely going to be doing more mountain biking in the future.  Now I am watching my knee and hoping it will be back to normal by next Friday.  It is a little swollen and sore right now.

It gets dirty mountain biking.

Have you been mountain biking? What was your first fall?