Je cours

(This is the first post that I’m actually writing in WordPress. It’s all so new and exciting!

Today was the Spring Fling 5K at Sarrett Nature Center near our home. It was COLD (below 30 when we left the house) but the sun shone brightly and the birds sang to us as we strode the trails.

Greg was running, I was walking. Neither of us caught our full times, but he was 28 and change (a 5K PR for him!) and I was 42 and change. He was disappointed that even with a PR he didn’t place (there were quite a few very competitive runners in his age group). If I had done the run instead of the walk, I’d have placed no matter how poorly I did…only two women in my age group ran! (It’s a smallish race.)
While there we ran into a woman who works with Greg. She was walking her very first event and had great fun! We also saw two folks from our Grand Canyon group and they kicked butt on the run, too.

Okay, so I’m off to post this to TypePad, too. Serious posting will begin again soon.

Short updates today…more soon, I promise!

• I won’t be back at McNaughton this year after all. Too much stuff going on, unfortunately
• It looks like the first race of the season will be a local trail 5K, followed by a local (right down the street from me!) road 10K
• I’m still working on moving this blog to my domain. I’m just slow.
• Rose (as she says, "tha daughter") is going to Japan this summer! And she’s up for two awards. Her students nominated her for a best supplemental instructor award. And she’s also been nominated for some type of award within the Foreign Languages and Bilingual Studies (or, um, as they call it, "FLAB") department at her university.

More soon!

As I’ve mentioned a bazillion times, I hate treadmills. Unfortunately, they are sometimes the best case scenario for my needs. So I’m always looking for new tricks to get me through a treadmill workout. Here’s what I did yesterday.

I got on the treadmill, 1% grade or higher (as usual).

Fast walk/slow jog first song for warm up.
Run 12 songs. (I had planned on 16!) I figured that 16 songs would equal out to somewhere around 4 miles, estimating that songs would average out to about 3 minutes each. After every five songs, I upped the speed.

By the end of the 12th song, I had gone 4.2x miles already! I was surprised.

So after 12 songs, I walked one song to cool down.

It’s amazing what a difference music makes.

To keep in mind the next time your pouty inner child wants to stop your workout early:

I am likely to miss the main event
If I stop to cry and complain again
So I will keep a deliberate pace
Let the damned breeze dry my face

Ooooh mister wait until you see
What I’m gonna be

I’ve got a plan, a demand and it just began
And if you’re right, you’ll agree

Here’s coming a better version of me

Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee lost more than 100 pounds and found a passion for fitness and obesity prevention. Last year, he did two marathons and there was a story about him in Runner’s World. Today he’ll be on the Diane Rehm show.

Yeah, he’s on the wrong side of the political spectrum for my tastes. But you gotta give the guy his props on his fitness focus!

Ephemera floating around my cluttered mind…

I’m probably way late to the game on this one, because I have my little system in place and I’m not in weight loss mode. But I just now discovered SparkPeople. It’s an online weight-loss planning/tracking/motivating and more tool and it’s FREE. I poked around a little yesterday and it looks very cool! Check it out.

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My planner shows a big 25 miles of running and four lifting sessions over the past two weeks of recovery. Time to step it up and get back into a training plan. I haven’t really set goal events or anything for the year yet and I’m itching to do so. When the plan is set, you’ll be the first to know.

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Minor annoyances with Disney and the Goofy:

• No "Goofy" t-shirt. I’d have been happy to give up the (very cool, technical) tees for the half and the whole if they had given us Goofy folks a Goofy-specific tee. In fact, I’d have been happy to give up the half medal and whole medal for a single Goofy medal and technical shirt.
• Even the "for sale" Goofy shirts were inadequate — not a tech tee among them. (That I could find.) I finally gave in and bought a cotton tee because, hey. I’m never gonna wear that medal, right? But that tee will be seen on me on the ‘mill at the local club.
• This will be our only Goofy. Not because it was difficult (I mean, hell — Greg’s knee made us walk the entire final 10 miles of the marathon!) but because it creates too much of a park visitation interruption. We had to go to bed early Friday night because we had to be up in the middle of the night. We had only a partial day for parks on Saturday because we did both the half and the 5K. We had to be to bed early Saturday because we had to be up in the middle of the night. Out of our entire visit, we were only able to do the Magic Kingdom (ended the day early because of sleep considerations), the World Showcase part of Epcot (which is our favorite anyway because we drink our way around the world — but it was entirely too little time!) and spent some time in Downtown Disney. I know we booked a much-too-short for our liking vacation, but I think next time if we do Disney again we’ll choose one or the other or even volunteer. I need my park time or I get cranky!

Now, for your viewing pleasure, more Disney photos.

First, links to the best of the Action Sports photos.

• Greg in his "crazy pants." There is a long, storied history to these outrageously loud workout pants. And they are too big for Greg now, so they were to be "throwaway" clothing for the race. However, hapless spectators gave him so many compliments on the crazy pants that he kept them. Curse you, hapless spectators!
• Our post-finish photo. Frankly, we’re perplexed as to where the shadow came from. This backdrop was set up in the middle of an open area…no structures or trees to cause shadow that we can remember!
• I love that I’m smiling in this one. I’m not even sure where it was taken — through the Boardwalk resort, perhaps?
• My mom’s very first finish line photo.

Now some that we took:

Meeting Mom at the airport. (My mother is often mistaken for my younger sister. I think you can see why in this picture!)

Greg and I being Goofy at the Magic Kingdom. I can’t believe how long my hair is getting!

This one is for Suzanne, who wanted a Pooh picture!

Greg gets what’s coming to him from Capt. Hook, half marathon:

Morning fog makes the marathon look like Dawn of the Dead (or Shaun of the Dead, if you prefer to smile):

Could Greg have met his match?!

That’s okay. I can deal. I got me a back-door man!

More frequent updates coming — honest!

Did you come to the new year determined to make a change?

Did your doctor tell you that a more healthful lifestyle would help you control your diabetes?

Did you have a scare with some chest pains in December and finally decide that 2006 was going to be the year to do it right?

Did you get tired of a sore back, buying bigger clothing, huffing and puffing your way up the basement stairs?

Congratulations! This is your year!

Please. Don’t start out too quickly. If you’ve been sitting in front of the TV for a decade, don’t go out and try to run a mile.

Every little change you make will add up! Start small: Take a walk. With your kids, with your dog, with your love, or by yourself. Don’t go far. Simply choose to do it.

Make it a daily habit. Yep. Daily. Every single day, take a walk.

After a week, add another 5 minutes every day. The next week, add 5 again. And so on.

Until you walk for one hour daily, every single day.

One hour a day. That’s still only about 4% of your day.

Do it instead of TV. Or use a treadmill and do it while you watch TV. Or listen to a book. Or chat with a walking friend. Or catch up on new music. Or listen to the birds, look at the trees, smell the fresh air.

Or simply enjoy the fact that you’re showing yourself some love.

After a few months, you may want to kick it up more. Find an event. Make a goal. Join a group. Whatever it takes to keep you motivated.

But the most important thing is to love yourself. Believe in yourself. Know that you can do this!

Make the choice. Do it today. You can do this!

He was picked to be onstage at the Adventurer’s Club TWICE in the same night! We only went to two shows in the library and he was picked both times.

Greg with Emil’s cow

Greg marches along with Pamelia

On December 31, 2005, Brayden Schultz was born to Rose’s best friend, Tiffany, and Tiff’s husband, David.

Rose had the privilege of actually being there — helping, even! — for the birth.

Tiffany was there (obviously). David was there. Tiff’s mom, Sharon, was there. Rose was tapped to videotape, but about an hour before the birth, Tiff decided she didn’t want it on tape. (As a woman who has given birth, I don’t blame her!)

To say Rose was affected would be an understatement.

After telling me that at times she thought Tiff was possessed, she mentioned that she thinks she’d rather adopt.

But she couldn’t let the experience go. On the way back to school (from Benton Harbor to Ypsilanti), every once in awhile she’d just look up and say, "Baby!"

"Mom! I can’t get Brayden out of my mind!"

"I think we’re hard programmed that way, sweetie. It’s an evolutionary thing."

She held him the entire time I was there in the hospital. Caressed his cheek. Helped out when Tiff breast-fed him for the very first time.

I told her I was jealous. She’s seen something that very few Americans get to see! Yeah, I’ve seen it in a mirror — but I’ve never had a bird’s eye view.

"Baby!"