Running Log Star Date: January 2011

Well, three trips to Urgent Care really hindered my mileage this month.  January's total is an utterly embarrassing 28 miles.  So much for getting close to 15-20 a week!

The ankle is still swollen and the little run up the Hogan's driveway yesterday didn't help...so much for thinking I'm ready to hit the treadmill.  To the water I went today.  When I was a kid I LOVED to swim.  I spent everyday at the pool, but being older I have two things I will whine about.  1.  Water gets in my right ear when I turn to breathe and it doesn't come out.  2.  It's COLD, not so much in the pool, but in the locker room after the swim...burrrrrr! 
But I can swim and it doesn't hurt my ankle.  I wonder how much muscle workout I'm getting, because it seems more a lung workout at this point.  I had trouble doing a full lap freestyle.  I could breaststroke all day, but I need to freestyle for the tri.
One last whine...because I haven't whined enough...the Y pool is only open for lap swimming early in the morning or at 8:00 at night.  I will have to get over the time issue and hit the water this week or I'll have to change my diet ~ and that's just asking too much ;)

and yet again...

For the third time in 2011, I was at urgent care this morning.  This time on crutches with a left ankle twice the size of the right one...

Last night ~ as we were warming up for our 9:30 soccer game, a girl from the 8:30 game is sitting on the top of the bleachers with her purple tie-dyed sock off her foot ~ and an ankle with a black and blue baseball-size lump on top of it.  I actually have the thought ~ I hope that doesn't happen to me...  So I pull on my purple tie-dyed socks (the ones that brought me good luck when I wore them for the first time and scored my first goal in 4 season) and hit the field.  In the LAST 5 minutes I run after the ball, stop, plant my left foot and roll the whole foot under me ~ I heard it snap-crackle-and-pop.  I got off the field and wanted to cry (Helen told me to go ahead).  I limp off the field after the game and try to pull off those purple tie-dyed socks.  It hurt so bad that Mike had to do it.  Yep, I had a racquetball-sized lump on that ankle.  So I did what any reasonable person would do ~ I had a Christmas Ale.  It didn't really help.

Today, I got the good news that it's not broken... and after a day of watching my DVR'ed shows and a Free movie-on-demand and reading my book and being waited on by my incredibly wonderful husband, it's starting to feel better. 

And here is my smile from Mike ~ in the form of  cookie brought home from the grocery store. 

MELT!

Met my friend Anita for lunch today at MELT.  OH SO YUMMY.  Always fun to sit and chat with my Bean friend ~ but to have such great food too....

Here is my order:  
Northcoast Shores ~ handmade crab cakes, wilted garlic spinach, roasted red pepper, herbed cream cheese - $12.00

I want to go back and try a few more...but I don't know, I might have to get this sandwich again.  I think it was the cream cheese that made it so wonderful!

We won't even get into the fact that I had to find a parking spot (which I did) and feed a parking meter (which I did ~ even after I'd just cleaned all the change out of my purse) or the fact that when I returned to the car there was a big delivery van parked right behind me...and I had to maneuver like I was born driving in the city (which I wasn't).  But I handled it all like an anxiety-ridden champ.  Such a country girl am I.

Back to the Doctor

So now I'm on a steroid and prescription Benadryl
To support the shot of steroid and Benadryl
Given in my butt
At 9:00 this morning.
All to get rid of this rash
I woke up
Covered with
This morning.
Because I took Bactrim
To get rid of the infection
I had in my finger
That swelled up and turned red
Because I had a little cut
And I put it in dirty water.
All because I was tired
Of living in a dirty house
So I made a New Year' Resolution
To create an atmosphere of clean.

funny

On my kitchen cabinets I've kept cards that I think are funny.  As part of my atmosphere of clean I've taken these really old cards down ~ but I want to remember them so I'm keeping them here.

For my 40th birthday (yep, that's two years on the cabinet) Amy gave me this one.

Which is funny, because I like surprises ~ and Amy does not.  I think this was her way of showing me how right she is in her dislike. 







This one is from Stephanie June in Alaska ~ my freshman year roommate ~ inside it says, "It's Valentine's Day, so wear your good panties just in case."
Cashon added, "This one made me laugh out loud in the store.  It's you in 40 years!" 










My 42nd birthday card from my other college roommate ~ Anita Jo.  I'd like to think this is us, just being silly ~ and getting older...making the whole laughing adventure a little more risky!










And Janice wrote inside, "IT'S A CRISIS!"  Which just makes me laugh more.  (You have to picture me flapping my hands while saying that!)  Our joke is that if she's in a crisis and calls me, my only job is to get her to Barb Hogan.

And my FAVORITE card ever ~  from Clare, Bill, Maggie and Maggie's imaginary friends.  I actually put this one back up in the kitchen. 

Pigtails are a party for your head!

2 ½ hours

Atmosphere of clean ~ BACKFIRE

As happens every winter, I get little scrapes on my hands from dry skin hitting this and that throughout my day.  I had a little scrape on my right index finger.  Sunday night, I go to bed.  Monday morning I wake up and my finger is swollen up and it hurts and I can't bend it (most likely because it was so swollen). 
I figure I'm going to die. (Really, from years of watching medical dramas, I think Dr. House needs to be called in ~ I had a sore throat too, it may have been related in some rare and deadly way.)
I do show it to the school nurse ~ by 11:30 the swelling has gone down, but it's quite red and gross looking.  She tells me I should really see a doctor.  So I go to urgent care at 3:30.  At 6:00 I leave with a prescription (He didn't think I'd die ~ or even loose my finger.)

I figure sticking my hand into the gross water from scrubbing my mud room did me in.  I may be creating an atmosphere of clean...but at what price?  I have to take antibiotics because I want a clean house...

I guess you have to wonder how dirty my house was. 

marathon?

I spent yesterday reading my Runner's World magazine ~ While my 1/2 marathon pushed me to my limit of endurance, "It was so hard.", I read about all these people who've done numerous marathons and I think, "I could do that."  The question is, do I really want to?  Certainly not this year.  Last winter was the first time I'd run all winter ~ I've been a spring and summer runner for years, but only a full time runner for one year.  I've only ever been in four races!
But I read about a training program that only has a 16 mile long run in its program.  I just wanted to bookmark it here, in case.  In case I become insane and decide to run 26.2.  I think that highly unlikely (since I can't get excited about 13.1) ~ but you never know. 
I would also like to remind myself of the blisters and the ruined toenails and the exhaustion.  (Which makes me think of the feeling of accomplishment and success.)
I really don't want to run a marathon.  Really.

I Resolve

Ending one year and starting another is a great time to reflect on what is good and what can be better.  Last year I kept 50% of my resolutions: I ran the Cleveland 1/2 marathon (and finished...under 2 hours) but I did not become a better person ~ seriously?  Why I set that resolution I'll never know ~ I should know from years of writing IEP goals, things need to be measurable!

This year I have three. (I have four on my preliminary list, but one of them is really far reaching...but maybe I'll call it 3½ ~ you shouldn't really have 100% success on new year's resolutions!)

1. I will keep a running/workout log and keep track of the miles I run in 2011.
2. I will send out Christmas Cards.
3. I will clean one room of my house EVERY DAY. 

I have had this quote from Jill Churchill from Farewell to Yarns on my refrigerator since June ~ "I really love to clean.  It's not anything compulsive, it's just that you can see a difference when you're through.  Not like raising kids or something that you're not sure how it's going to turn out for a couple of decades." 
I want this to be my belief.  It is not how I feel deep down ~ I clean something and it just gets dirty again.  But I WISH I felt this way.  I'm rather embarrassed that my house always has dog hair in the corners and cobwebs on the ceiling and a layer of dust on the ceiling fans.   So I figure that cleaning ONE room each day will create an atmosphere of clean.  New year, new leaf.

3½.  I will keep in touch more consistently with my family.  I thought about texting one member of my family everyday ~ but I fear this is too much change all at once.  I will try.