I'm committed

No, the inevitable has not happened, I have not been sent to the loony bin. Instead I signed up to run the Frederick Fair's 5K. It is in just over 2 weeks. And there are no refunds. It will be my first race in 10 years. The last time I raced was the turkey trot my freshman year at college that Mary talked me into running. Today I did just under 3 miles. I know that I'll at least be able to finish it, and I should be able to run most of it. I'd like to be able to run the whole thing. We'll see.

No More Pain

Ok, so not so much NO more pain, but today I did 2 easy miles, and it was my calves that hurt, not my knees. So I figure it's a good thing when my muscles hurt, and not my joints. So I'm sure that all of you are really tired of reading about each time I go running, but well, right now, that is the most exciting thing in my life. Plus, it gives me a bit of accountability. So if one day I stop writing about about running, all of you need to start asking me if I've given up. One day I'll have to get creative about it due to the cold, and I don't want to take the kids out in the cold, much less me run in the cold. Oh well.

Oh, the pain

Ok, so yesterday I tried to do a speed work interval run. By the end of the work out (yes, all of 10 minutes of it) I was limping as I ran. Not an uncommon thing these days. I'm thinking that perhaps I am over-training or something. Or, I'm just fat and this is what happens when you put too much weight on your knees. Anyway, I'm hobbling around, and today when we tried to run it was just comical. Jesse looked back at me after he took over stroller duty, and he decided right there that perhaps we should walk the rest of the way.
BUT... I am not done. I am going to take it easy, perhaps ice my knee every night or something, I don't really know the rules for this stuff. I just know that I cannot give up this early in the game, I just need to change the game a little bit. In case it is not painfully obvious to the rest of you, pretty much after the first week I decided that I will never be ready for the half marathon in October, so I'll have plenty of time to get into shape so that I can train for that. Who knows, maybe I'll go all out and do the marathon next year.
Of course, Jesse plans to do the half marathon this year, and then wants to do a spring marathon, and then do the JFK 50 in the fall. But that's ok, Colleen said that she would try not to get pregnant again, and she would run it with me next year. What a good friend she is.
So there you have it, I can hardly walk up and down the stairs, but I am not deterred. I still plan to have regular exercise in my life.

Keep on Running

So this past week has been difficult for running. There have been a lot of last minute things added to my schedule, and that has made finding time to run difficult. Then on Monday I tried to run, and Graham screamed the entire time, so that run was cut short and was more frustrating than fulfilling. But today I went out again without the kids. At first it felt like I was starting from scratch it hurt so much, but I ran through it, and it got better. The second lap I ran a little faster, and did a few sprints at the end, but through most of it I was kind of limping as I ran. I'm trying to find that fine line between training to strengthen my body and not over training to hurt my body... It's always a fun place to be. So I'm still here running. I'm not great yet, but well, I'm still trying and that is what is important.

New Quilts

So, as Jana requested (ages ago) here are pictures of the quilt that I made for my friend Dessi's new baby. I recently helped her make her first quilts- 2 twin size quilts for her twins. (What a first project!) Anyway, it took about a year to complete, and she was saying that she wanted to make a quilt for the baby, but was thinking that her husband would not be too happy if she started another quilt. So I stepped up to the plate. It turned out super cute. All of the pinwheels are little flappy things, so that's fun. Plus, I'm getting pretty good at my free motion quilting.

This other one I made a while ago, with some fat quarters I had lying around. I just got around to photographing it today. I think I may try to sell it. Anyone interested? :)