A Weekend of Living, Loving, Running, and Praying

Live

Happy Sunday everyone (aka Happy Day the Ravens Kill the Steelers Tonight!).  Thanksgiving break is coming to a close and I’m kinda confused…where did the week go?  And why aren’t all those papers I planned on doing still untouched?  Oh well.  I’ll ay for it later but the relaxation and family time have been worth it.  So today’s post might get a bit long so I’m breaking it up into Live, Love, Run, and Pray.  Read what interested you…skip what doesn’t.  We’ll see how this format goes…

Love

So I spent yesterday with some of my favorite people.  Family, Boyfriend J, Best Friend D, and Best Friend M.  I spent the morning with family and D came with us to my godson’s baptism (but more about that later).  D goes to school in Michigan and rarely gets home so it was great to see her doing well =).  Last night J and I doubled dated with my friend M and her boyfriend from Delaware.  It was such a fun night!  We all went to ESPN zone and had a blast.  J spent the night seeking revenge on me for beating him in games the last time we were there and unfortunately he succeeded (although the only reason he one in ice hockey was because when the score was 4-4 I someone managed to knock the puck into my own goal.  Cool Katye, Cool.).  We all had so much fun together and it was so good spending the time not worrying about anything but friends and fun.

Me and M

Me and J

Showing off my football skills..I think I'll stick to running and leave the QBing to J

Run

Today’s run was AWESOME!!!  New distance PR: 9.65 Miles Average pace: 8:34/mile and then a .5 mile cool down at 10:00/mile. This is super fast for long distance for me!  I was shocked!  I felt awesome.  I really think I could have gone further but I know I shouldn’t increase to fast.  The weather was absolutely perfect out today.  It was about 45 and sunny…perfect for running the trail. This week I’ve been feeling sluggish and really tired all the time so I’m so happy my run went well.  I was scared I wouldn’t make it 1 mile…much less 10!  So anyway, I spent some of the run reflecting on all the things I’ve learned since that fateful first 2 mile run back in July (let’s just say I had no idea what pacing meant and nearly gave myself a heart attack).

• Running is really not all about the legs! I’ve been strength training with a running coach for a while now and at first I was confused why we were only do a few leg exercises.  But now I understand the important of a strong core to keep your form, strong shoulder to help propel your arms, and strong lats the help keep you upright, chest out, and lungs open.  It’s amazing what training the whole body does for your running!
• Too much too fast=disaster
• Not stretching before and after runs=OUCH
• Hydration is so important!  Now more 6+ miles without water for me. With some advice from a marathoning friend I investing in a Nathan water bottle (the one with the hand strap) and it is amazing!  I’ve been afraid to buy one of these cuz I thought I would hate holding something but honestly it’s design is so awesome…you barely notice you have it!.  And its great for people like me that just can’t handle the fuel belts and packs.
• I’m not solo runner.  I can run on my own for shorter distances but I hate running long distances alone.  Yay for TNT group runs!
• My body can do so much more than I ever imagined!  We don’t give our limbs enough credit.
• Sports beans=miracle creation
• The right shoes make all the difference.  Before I invested in my Brooks at the running store, I had no idea what I needed and my ankles and feet told me so.  Having a great stability shoes has done wonders.
• Running Blogs are awesome!

I guess that’s enough for now.  I’m still on my runners high!  I want to go run a few more miles!  But I just showered…and I know my body needs healing time so I won’t.  Instead I’ll just leave you with these lovely pictures so you can all see how great I look after a nice hard run…

LOVE the new Nathan!

I just ran HOW far?

Pray

If you know me…you know my godkids are a huge part of my life.  SB and HJ are my mom’s best friend Kim (I call her my second mom)’s little ones.  SB is a beautiful amazing talented smart HILARIOUS 3 years old (although she’s about as big as a 1 year old…hence the reason we call her Peanut).  HJ aka Pumpkin or Bug is a 5 month old ball of joy.  He is seriously the happiest baby I’ve ever encountered.  He smiles and laughs all the time and his big blue eyes will put a smile on your face no matter what mood you’re in.  At 5 months, he’s also practically as big as his big sister. Yesterday morning was Bug’s baptism.  He looked so handsome in his little outfit and I’m not kidding you…the child laughed and smiled through his whole baptism.  When the Priest poured the water or his head he giggled so hard.  He had everyone smiling the whole time.  Kim was holding Peanut so I had Bug and apparently we weren’t moving fast enough for him cuz he grabbed onto my hair and face and started sucking my cheek (this is his way of saying he’s hungry and if you don’t get him food…we will eat you).  Anyway it was a wonderful day and now Baby Bug is officially a child of God!.  Christ plays such a huge part in my life and I’m so honored to be a part of Peanut and Bug’s Spiritual upbringing.  They show me the power of God’s love and grace every time I see them…I just hope I can show them the say.

Big, Me, Peanut

D and Bug

So that’s my weekend…hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!  GO RAVENS!!!

And the Winner is…

Congrats to the three winners of my first giveaway!  The first place winner has asked me not to share their name or info so I am respecting their wishes but 2nd and 3rd are Tina from Mindful Living and Melissa from Crazy or Determined!!!  Congrats ladies and thanks for everyone who entered! I will contact you guys and you can tell me your selection from BondiBand (remember its any headband you chose! there’s tons of them on there so take your time).

So on another note Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you’re all happily stuffed to the gills as I am.  I definitely have a lot to be thankful for!  If I listed all the amazing people in my life this entry would never end so rather I’ll leave you with two particular things I’m thankful for today…

• Thanksgiving is enjoyable again! For the past few years, Thanksgiving has been a huge anxiety producing holiday when I was still allowing Ed to tell me I wasn’t allowed to enjoy the food and to hate myself for enjoying it.  Thanksgiving is a time of family, friends, and thanks…not about worrying and fearing food!
• A PR for my 5K this morning! I know its not super fast but I ran today’s race in 25:48.  Yesterday I nearly passed out after barely making it through 3 miles at a very slow pace.  I’m not exaggerating…literally came close to hitting the floor (which I’m prone to do when a needle is involved but not running).  I think I didn’t hydrate nearly enough.  I just kind of woke up, rushed around, and hit the gym too hard too fast.  I don’t know about you guys but I definitely need adequate hydration, warm up, and stretching or else I’m in trouble…even if it is just a small run.  But anyway I was definitely scared that today would be a repeat of yesterday.  I drank plenty of water last night and this morning and it did the trick =) But there were so KILLER hills that I was not expecting…which makes me even more excited about my time.  It just felt great to feel the blood pumping through my legs and the air pulling into my lungs
• God so so good! He has continually blessed my life over and over and over

So thanks you to all of you who take time to read my random thoughts.  And thank you for sharing your thoughts with me through your blog!  And congrats again to the three winners and thank you SO much to everyone who shared their wonderful stories with you.

God Bless!

Great Quote

Not to late to enter!!!!

I will give you the longer post later when there aren’t 25+ people in my house but I just wanted to remind everyone that you still have a few more hours to enter the giveaway!  ANNNNDDD in the Thanksgiving spirit I’ve decided to give away a Bondi Band to both SECOND and THIRD place! Happy Thanksgiving Blog World!

2nd Prize!

Hey guys! So I’ve gotten such awesome heart felt responses for my giveaway that I decided that in addition to the prize pack described, I am going to give out and second place prize as well!  The first name drawn will receive the filled TNT bag, and the second name drawn will receive their choice of any headband from BoniBand!  So keep the entries coming!!!!! and tell your friends…AND FEEL FREE TO DONATE!!!! =)  Hope you all are getting excited for Thanksgiving.  I’m officially on break (but I have about 2 research papers to write over so called break).  Getting excited for the 5K Thursday morning too!

 

TWLOHA and Swine OhNine baby!

So first and foremost, I want to congratulate my friend Ashley and Tina from Mindful Living who both completed their first marathons this weekend at the Philadelphia marathon with some very impressive times!  Congrats ladies!  You are inspirations!

On a side note, my training did go as planned this weekend.  I was overwhelmed with dance and school work and just couldn’t clear my mind enough to have a successful run.  I also think I might have pushed a bit too hard during my weekday runs and wore my self out a bit.  But oh well…no sense dwelling.  I’m shooting for 7 solid miles tomorrow morning before class so we’ll see how that goes.  Thursday, my dad and I are doing the YMCA of Towson’s Turkey Trot…I’m looking forward to redeeming myself from the Baltimore Running Fest 5k asthma attack disaster.

I know its over a week late but I just wanted to share my TWLOHA’s day thoughts. To Write Love on Her Arms is such an amazing organization that I learned about 2 years ago.  Their cause is very near and dear to my heart and I was proud to show my support by literally writing love on my arms!  My ED involved it’s own form of self mutilation/destruction and someone very close to me dealt with cutting years ago.  I’m glad to say we are both well on our way toward healthy living and thinking but if you think about it…don’t we all have our way to beating out self up?  We over work ourselves, stress ourselves out, blame ourselves, pick ourselves apart, guilt trip ourselves, kick ourselves down, you name it.  Self destructive behaviors do not always have to be physical to be damaging.  So let’s cut (no pun intended) a break and started realizing how awesome we are and what great things we are capable of rather than focusing on the all the things we wish we could be. Any thoughts?  Please let me know!

PS. Got my H1N1 vaccine last week after watching its dreadful effects take over my friend S’s life for a good week (she literally did not get out of bed for over a week, she was in so much pain).  Training, Holidays, and Swine flu just do not mix.  But I’m a paranoid person and I’m still waiting for my third arm to grow from the new vaccine.  I’ll keep you posted.

Guess I won't get a mask and look as cool as Speidi...oh well.

Another Wake Up Call…

Today I spent another morning at Ridge Ruxton and yet again…BIG wake up call.  Honestly I can’t stress enough how much I love this school and the kids.  They teach me so much (and yet I’m supposed to be the “teacher”).  Today I was helping out in a different class than I usually do.  I usually work with a group of elementary students ages 6-10 but today I was in a junior high/high school aged class (ages 14-19).  This is where the wake up call comes in.  I was working with one girl, H, doing some one on one sorting, identifying, and practical activities.  She is actually the first verbal student I have worked with at all so far but her communication is still at a very immature level (think communicating and reasoning with a 5 year old).  H was actually doing quite well but was a bit distracted (I was the “new” person in the room and apparently H reallllly enjoys attention from new people).  All in all she worked very hard and did very well but it still took alot of direct instructions and reminders to get her through her activities.  After “work box” times (when they do their one on one activities), we some time for a story.  The class gathered together and one of the other aids read them a story about Johnny Appleseed.  H was pretty astatic about the fact that almost every picture had a dog in it.  She loved helping turn the page and with every page she squealed (I’m not exaggerating), “LOOK JOANNE, PUPPY!!!!!!!” and every time Joanne (the aid reading the story) patiently let H point out the dog for the class.

All in all, we were having a great time.  The kids ended up making a card for another teacher and the class intern decided it would be a good idea to paint the students hands and have them make handprints.  Now I don’t know how much experience you guys have had with cerebral palsy, autism, seizures, etc. but it’s pretty safe to say that covering these kids hands in paint…without covering their clothes, faces, tables, and mouths completely, you’re going to have a HUGE mess and well…a lot of eaten paint.  H picked out red for her hand and well…she got me right in the shoulder.

My hair got the worst of it.  So yeah it was a fun day =) But you as I was leaving I realized something pretty big.  H is not one of the elementary kids I work with.  She is a 19 year old young women.  She is A YEAR younger than me and here I was instructing her as if she was a first grader.  I don’t mean that I was disrespectful or mean or anything like that, but it just really hit me that this girl is my peer…we could be sitting in the same college class together, but rather here I am “teaching” here to sort her colors and make hand prints.  It’s not that H doesn’t love these activities (because let me tell you, she does) but a mind is nothing to waste.

I guess this is why I get so frustrated with so called students who do all their assignments last minute, slack off, party every night of the week, or are just plain lazy.  I completely get that college is about having fun, and I love to have fun as well…but in moderation.  Call me an old lady, but one, maybe two, big nights out a week are plenty for me.  I am SO blessed to have an able, active mind and an amazing opportunity for education.  I’m sure as well not going to throw that away.  Anyway, I guess my main point is use what you are given and use it well!  Wherever your talents, skills, and even simple abilities lie RUN WITH IT (pardon the pun).  Do it for young women like H who are working so hard and pushing their limits every single day to accomplish things the rest of us take for granted.  We can learn so much every day.  Today I learned that I should talk to H less as a child and more as the young women she is.  So yes I might have to simplify things a bit for her…but she does not need to be babied.  She wants friends, companionship, EQUALS, just like anyone else.  I can’t wait to spend time with her again.

 

Obnoxious Shoe Laces, Purple Nails, and Training Like A Princess

Ok so I really don’t know where to start today.  It’s just been one of those days where things just seem to go right (these are SO much better than what I call “hit the wall days”).  I woke up early (well at least early for me) and got to Treading Class at the MAC with Neal by 8:15.  Treading is a pretty intense intervals workout on the treadmills lead by a running coach.  You go through intervals of comfortable base speed, your up tempo speed, your fast speed, and your sprint.  Its a great class because your speeds are completely based on your ability and comfort level and its a great way to push yourself a bit.  I really like doing Treading to mix in to my regular speed workouts.  After class I finished off another two miles for a solid 6 miles. It felt really good since I haven’t tried running since my failed attempt Sunday.  So yay!  Running spirits are back up =)  Speaking of high spirits…I decided to cheer up my feet from their injury…with some NEON PINK shoes laces.  Obnoxious but wonderful =)  Neal found them pretty entertaining.

Love them =)

Speaking of obnoxious…it took me about 20 minutes just to get in my car today because the car next to me decided to park rather far over the line making for quite the tight fit.

That's my car on the right...Getting my door open and getting into the car was well...interesting.

But anyway enough complaining…after my run I cleaned up a bit and went to get a manicure.  One of my favorite things about fall is dark nail polish =) I pretty much wear the same color all fall/winter (OPI “We’ll Always Have Paris).  I love the super dark purple.  Oh and I love Irish Festival too.  My dad and I went to the Irish Festival at the fair grounds on Sunday.  Seriously, something about Irish music just puts me in the best mood.  And my dad bought me a ring that matches the bracelet he got me this summer in Ireland.  Green’s my favorite color and I love shamrocks so yeah I love it.

new nails and new ring

So yeah, now you now I have short stubby fingers.  And I was noticing in the picture of my shoes, my feet actually look rather big…which brings me to a question for any tall runner’s out there.  I have always had alot of ankle, foot, and shin problems.  When I finally decided to go get fitted for some nice shoes, the girls pretty much told me my biggest problem wasn’t the shoes I was wearing…the biggest problem is my feet.  I wear a size 8 and I’m 5′10.  Apparently for my height, my feet should be a size 10.  Pretty much my feet are too small for my height so I don’t have enough surface area touching the ground (ie my feet) for how tall I am. Cool.  So pretty much all I can do is wear really stable shoes and hope for the best.  Has anyone ever even heard of this problem before?

Pictures of Lindsey (who I am running in honor of) and Amanda (whom I am running in memory of)

Anyway there are my random thoughts for the day.  Don’t forget to enter my giveaway and invite all your blog friends!  8 more days left!  Oh and I almost forgot!  I officially signed up for a second event with TNT!  My dad and I have raised $11,500+ for the Disney Half so now I’m starting fundraise for the Disney Princess Half in March!  YEP…starting ALL over. BUT YOU CAN HELP ME OUT! If you feel so compelled please give what you can (even if its a $1…every tiny bit counts and is GREATLY appreciated!).  And please share my new page with friends and family!  Thanks YOU!

Getting a Grip

Ok so I’m guilty.  Guilty of self pity, being selfish, and dwelling on myself.  I spent the majority of yesterday and this morning moping about my hurt foot and debating whether to trying running again today or if it would just do more harm.  But I gathered myself up and headed to Ridge Ruxton, the special education school I volunteer at and was quickly cheered up.  These kids always put a smile on my face, I just can’t help it.  But today was a big wake up call.  I was working with one student who has serious CP but I was SOOOO proud of her.  Using her walker, and assistance, she walked a few feet today!  Every step is a battle for her as she fights her legs and feet to align and move forward, but she did it and was clearly exhausted at the end of it.  Now here I am complaining about foot pain that’s keeping me from running my weekend miles while this little girl puts everything she has into taking a few steps.  God blesses us all in very different ways and it is definitely not up to us to question why some of us have abilities that others do not, but it is our job to appreciate our abilities and make the most of them.  So thus, moping about a sore foot is going to get me nowhere.  So what if I might have to take a few days off.  I still have the ability to run and enjoy running and I have the ability to help students walk just a few feet.  If they can put everything they have into their goals, I can put the rest and effort into reaching mine.

Why do my feet HATE me.

So I have a few minutes and decided to use them to vent my frustration.  Today I was really excited to set out on my long run.  Felt great and its an amazing day out.  The first 2 miles went by without a hitch.  I actually ran them a bit faster than I usually pace but then I got to a rather big downhill.  You would think downhill would be the best part of runs but the truth is down hill messes with my joints.  It just feels unnatural to me and makes me feel off balance trying to keep my body in control when gravity just wants it to fly to the bottom of the hill.  So anyway by the end of the hill the middle of my left foot was aching pretty bad.  I tried jogging it off but it didn’t die down so I finally decided to try walking it off.  Still not better.  Then the horrific thought hit me.  The pain is RIGHT where I broke my foot this time last year.  So yeah I panicked a bit and excepted defeat, turned around, and walked home.  So my 8 mile run turned into a 2 mile run and a 2 mile walk.  Boo.  Its frustrating but I’m trying not to panic.  I guess I’ll just try to rest/ice it for the next few days and wish for the best.  I swear, I am cursed when it comes to my feet.  I guess dance really does screw with your metatarsals…not that I will be stopping that any time soon.  Any advice.  I refuse to spend another Holiday in THE BOOT.

In case you forgot how beautiful THE BOOT was.

 

Keep the entries coming!

Just a reminder…keep the entries for my giveaway coming!  You have till Thanksgiving!  And thanks for all the stories shared so far!