Overestimating my running abilities

So this morning was a 3 mile group run with the training program. Let me first mention that two days ago I ran five miles - FIVE MILES - around my apt. complex. I was so excited and proud :)

This morning's 3 mile run nearly killed me. I mean, it was bad. I was slow, I felt yucky, I didn't think I was going to make it. I don't know if it's because it was so cold or I was running in the morning instead of afternoon like I usually do, or if I just felt worse about it b/c I could see how many people were running faster than me. But it made me, truly for the first time, doubt my ability to do this race. I know that I have 2 months to go. And, truly, I should be absolutely thrilled to be able to do anything close to what I'm doing considering where I was a year ago. But you know my family motto - "Good enough is never good enough".

*Ugh* LIFE. Why does it have to be so complicated?!?!

Tonight at Kid's Club...

my kids were discussing (as we do pretty much every week) my age. One sweet 3rd grader busted out with, "31 is the new 21!"

Thanks, Sarah. Awesome name by the way :)

Is this day over yet?

So it hasn't been a good day. But that happens. And at the end of it, I get to go to bed!

Honestly, my school is like a soap opera there's so much drama there. I think that's true at all schools. Is it true at other workplaces as well? I tend to think it's more true in schools because it's all women, but I could be wrong...

So yesterday I ran 4.5 miles around my complex. No problem. Kept at about a 12:00 mile, which is my estimated pace for the race. I ran on the treadmill tonight - just for 30 minutes, but I increased my speed slowly to faster than I've done before. (That's what was on the training schedule for today) No problem. (And when I say no problem, please translate that as "I didn't die") Then I got off the treadmill and started walking across the gym - I was headed upstairs to do some weights. Suddenly EXCRUCIATING pain hits my knee. Out of the blue. I didn't cry (inside the gym), but it was tough. I couldn't bend my knee and I could barely, barely walk. I slowly, slowly, slowly hobbled out through the sleet to my car. By the time I got home, the pain had lessened, but not gone away. Although my knee has been giving me some problems, this kind of pain has only happened once before. I've bought a brace and I'm wearing it now. I think I'm going to have to go see someone about this knee issue, but I have no idea who to go see about it. I think I'll ask a trainer either at the gym or at my training run on Sat.

So here's the conversation I had with a 5th grader today. It's quality. Deja has decided that my desk needs to be cleaned off (she's right), so she's done it for me. Now she's updating my pictures of Abby and Brian

Deja: "Oh, I thought these were your kids"
Me: "No, they're my sister's"
Deja: "Why don't you have any kids?"
Me: "Well, I don't have a husband."
Deja: "You don't need a husband to have a baby!"
Me: "Well, yes. I do."
Deja: " No, you don't"
Me: "Well, I do. Having a baby is a lot of work (Deja interjects: "No, it's not") and I want a partner to help me with it."
Deja: "Why don't you just get your boyfriend to help you?"
Me: "I don't have a boyfriend."
Deja: "Why not? All you have to do is go on match.com!"
Me: "Oh, I didn't realize that's how it worked."
Deja: "Yeah. Let me finish your desk, then I'll go on for you and get you a boyfriend."

Man, it's good to have Deja around.

Being 31 - ahhhh!

I am not and will not do a sappy reflection on how different my 31st birthday was from my 30th. Because that's just not how I roll. But I will say this - I know I'm different than I was last year, and I got more love and attention for my birthday yesterday than I would have thought possible. I'm clearly in a different place with the people around me, especially at work. To be completely honest with you, it was a bit overwhelming. I'm not terribly shy but I think I'm glad birthdays only come once a year :)

I also decided that since it was my birthday I could eat whatever I wanted all day long. And I did. MISTAKE, Sarah. I'm not going to go into what I ate - because I'm embarassed, and because that's not what I do, and a lot because I don't want to be reprimanded - but I ate basically throughout the day. I didn't get sick or dump or anything, but I did feel generally yucky. And it didn't really help me enjoy my birthday. NOTE TO SELF: Find other ways to celebrate your birthday. :)

So this morning was my first run in the YMCA 10k training program. (They ran last week, but I was in Charleston. Luckily for me, too, because apparently it was 7 degrees last week. SEVEN. This week it was 52. Much more acceptable) We did 2.5 miles today and I did fine, although my knee was bothering me some at the end. I stayed somewhere in the middle of the huge group (there were like 200 people there!). I definitely got passed a lot, but I passed some people, too - mostly walkers. :) They put us into groups based on our projected finish time. I signed up for a wave that finishes in about 70-75 minutes - about a 12:00 mile. That was the fastest group at the training this morning, which is scary. (I'm signed up for the novice runner group - there are some run/walkers - there's also a walkers group and an intermediate group) I hope I'm not in over my head here. I definitely felt like the fat girl that everyone was looking at going, "Seriously? What is she thinking?" It may not be true, but that doesn't stop me from feeling that way!

I also picked up my schedule for the next 9 weeks and surprisingly enough, the most it ever has us running in training is 6 miles, which it only has us do once two weeks before the race. Then it backs the mileage down until the day of the race, which is 6.2 miles. Does this strike anyone else as odd?

Today my friend Laura is coming and we're going to visit Julie and her new baby. Yay! I have been out-of-control busy the last week and a half and have completely neglected my poor BFF, the new mom. Hopefully she'll forgive me and I'll be able to make it up to her.

I'm off to clean up a bit and NAP. That's my most exciting plan for the day. I hope you get one, too!

Happy Birthday to me!

Doesn't it seem like on your birthday little birthday elves should come and get you ready and dressed in your sleep? Then you could just sleep in on your birthday, hop up and head out the door. Now THAT would be a birthday present!

Abby's Birthday and Brian's baptism

I had a great long weekend in Charleston! Tons of family came in to celebrate Abby turning 2 and Brian getting baptized. They both just get so much bigger and sweeter every time I see them :)

Although Abby almost slept through it :), her party was a big success! There were balloons,

cake,

tattoos,

and lots of Thomas supplies!

Even Brian got in on the theme :)

The next day Brian was baptized at church.
He wore his dad's christening gown, which was really sweet.
During the sermon, Kay and Bruce got a "shout out". They were held up as an example to the whole congregation! After the service, the family posed for endless photos...

I love these kids!!!!!

10k

Ok, I'm officially signed up for the race.  Keep me in your prayers because I'm going to need them!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!!!!!! My favorite girl in the whole world turned 2 today.  I'm in Charleston now (I got here after she went to bed) so we can celebrate tomorrow.  With a Thomas party.  Then Sunday my favorite little boy is getting baptized.  Big weekend all around.

STAY WARM EVERYONE!!!!!!!!

New shoe update

So this afternoon I laced up my new shoes and did 4 miles on the treadmill at the gym (which nearly killed me, by the way) And NO KNEE PAIN! And not even any blisters - even though I forgot to put band aids on the old ones!!!!

I'm super super excited about this development. Yay running shoes! And Roadrunner! And the girl who helped me whose name I don't know! And Clark for giving me Christmas money to buy them! And Lisa's friend Christina who was at dinner with some friends the other night and suggested I needed good shoes to help the knee pain!

So I'm dangerously close to signing up for this 10k now. Terrifying. No way could I do 6.2 miles right now but I have time to train, right?

No gallstones for me!

MY BFF JULIE HAD HER BABY ON FRIDAY!!!!!!

Lila was born at 7:23 am and weighed in.....um, I forgot. But she weighed in as something. 7 lb, ? oz maybe? Anyway, she's really, really cute. Julie was in the hospital 3 days and I went to see her 4 times :) They came home Monday so tomorrow night I'm taking them dinner and I can't wait to see that sweet baby at home away from all that hospital stuff! She's absolutely perfect and I LOVE that I live so close to her. Poor Julie is going to want to kick me out soon! I'm not going to post any pictures b/c I haven't asked Julie if it's ok. But I will if she says ok.

So, after a few days of phone tag with the surgeon's office, I found out today that my ultrasound was clear and I don't have gallstones. I didn't really think I did, but I feel better having ruled it out. There are, however, two downsides to this situation - 1. This pain isn't terribly frequent but I don't handle pain well and it HURTS. Now I don't know how to fix it. and 2. I had to get the ultrasound done at the hospital where I was considered an outpatient and my co-pay was $100!!! But, all in all, good news.

I know I haven't updated lately - smack my hand here - so here's what's going on with me:

- I have been a GRUMP RUMP this week. I felt icky on Monday, but I don't really know what's going on here. I have not been really pleasant to be around, so be glad you're not around me. I apologize if you are.

- I don't know if I've talked about this much, but I've had to seriously scale back my running because my knee has really been hurting (see previous point about me not handling pain well). I was up to running 3-4 miles at a time, but for the last month or two I've only been about to make it about 2 before it hurts so badly I can't run anymore. So mostly I've been doing other things - swimming, classes at the gym, the elliptical, etc. Several people have told me to go get good running shoes, so yesterday I took some of my Christmas money to Roadrunner and had them watch me run and evaluate me and help me pick out good shoes. The girl was really nice and I picked out some Nikes. So last night I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill. My knee didn't hurt nearly as bad when I ran, and I made it just over 3.5 miles :) (It took me about 45 minutes) Although, my knee did hurt quite a bit after I got home. I'll deal with that another time. But by the time I got off I had blisters on the inside arch of my foot and my toes were hurting and feeling cramped. At which point I realized I forgot to mention to the girl how enormously wide my feet are. So I took them back today and she watched me run some more and exchanged them for new ones. (She also suggested running socks which I, naturally, bought) My new ones are made by Saucony and they look like this:

They're a Progrid Omni 7 Moderate if any of you know what that means. I don't. I'll let you know how they do.

- This one is also about running. So it really could be a sub-bullet point of the last one. But I'm letting it stand on my own. Just a personal decision. I think I'm going to sign up to do the Monument Ave 10K here in Richmond at the end of March. This race is a huge deal around here, and I know lots of people who are doing it. They limit registration to 35,000 so I need to hurry ;) They have a training program through the local Y that I think I'll sign up for. How scary is that? Last year at this time I couldn't even run 6.2 yards, much less 6.2 miles! But I really want to do it. I'll be sure and keep you updated on my training. Quit holding your breath. It's like 2.5 months away and I don't think you can go that long without breathing.

- After I went shoe shopping yesterday, I went costume shopping. Some friends are having a come-dressed-as-a-movie-character birthday party in a few weeks, and I've been thinking about what to wear. So I went into a costume rental store just to try on a few things. It was SO MUCH FUN! It was like grown-up dress up. And, honestly, it was mostly fun because I could fit into the costumes ;) I would NEVER have even dreamed of trying that when I was heavier.

- Despite the fact that I bought some size 14 jeans tonight (a size I haven't seen since like middle school), I am feeling FAT FAT FAT FAT. Part of it is the fact that my stomach is shaped like a muffin top even when I'm not wearing pants, so I always have this nasty stomach roll to contend with. Part of it is some recent pictures. And part of it is just seeing the fat. It used to be that just be "normal sized" would make me happy. Now I think I'm going to need to be actually thin. Maybe this is part of my grumpy mood this week. Maybe I'm PMSing and have hormones flying all around. Maybe this is part of my "good enough is never good enough" mentality/issues. Maybe it's just part of the normal cycle following WLS. Maybe I need to seek therapy. Maybe this whole bullet was TMI for some of you. Sorry!

- On Friday, Abby turns 2!!!! And Brian is being baptized on Sunday. So everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) is going down for the weekend. I'm really excited - it will be fun. I'm also really excited that I'm staying a day longer than everyone else so I'll have some time with my sister. She reminded me that last year on this weekend the two of us went to Patriot's Point. (Since Kay planned so well and had Abby near MLK, Jr. day we fortunately always have a long weekend to go down and celebrate.) It was a good time, as you can see from these pics:



So I'm thinking that we need to make a "sister outing" a tradition for this weekend. I haven't mentioned this to Kay yet, but I'm sure she'll agree. Kay? Whaddayathink?

This is why I should post more often. I get so wordy when I don't....

Here's to lots of sleep and warmth for all of you! And me, too!

6 month follow-up continued

I did forget to mention one thing about my appointment. I've been having some random pains in my right side, which I mentioned to Dr. Elliot. He said it didn't sound like classic gall stone symptoms, but he wanted me to have an ultrasound to be sure. So Friday morning I'm going to have that done.

Also I got my pictures uploaded - I'm sorry some of them are fuzzy. My self-timer and I are not BFFs. Or maybe it's just that I don't know much about photography.

(side note - right now, my cat is sitting up on her haunches on my desk with her head down on my arm, which is about at her feet level. She's just chillin' like that. It's bizarre)

The day before surgery

6 weeks out

3 months out

Yesterday (6 months)

6 month follow-up

It's hard to believe it's been 6 months since my surgery! But it has, so I went in to see Dr. Elliot today. I had my blood work done for the first time as well. Dr. E. said everything looked good - all of my vitamins and such were looking good. Apparently my albumen (?) which measures protein was good but my pre-albumen (?) was just a little low, so he said I could try to get a little more protein in. He said it would be ok if I did a shake for breakfast every other day or so, since that's the time when protein is the hardest for me. Overall, he was pleased and said everything was going well.

So my total weight loss is now at 120 pounds. I have about 40 pounds left to go, although Dr. Elliot says I've lost enough to consider the surgery a success and get the health benefits of it. He says I could possibly go as low as losing another 55 pounds, but I've set my goal at just low enough to get my BMI to say a normal weight. That's hard to imagine :) To see how my life is different now, you can click here. I'm not going to rehash all of that stuff, although I'm sure there is more that I could add :) But because I'm crazy - really because I always like to see other people's - I'm posting some of my "along the way" shots in honor of my "surgiversary" was the WLS community calls it :)

Well, Blogger isn't liking uploading my pictures for some reason, so if I have another brave moment I'll try again another time!

P.S. - Carolina has a chance to redeem themselves tonight against the College of Charleston. It doesn't start until 9 and it's not on tv here. I'm REALLY REALLY tired, so I probably won't make it up for the game which is, in and of itself, rather shocking. But GO HEELS!

HA!

I read many UNC basketball blogs (I know you find this hard to believe since I am neither - pronounced with a long i, not a long e - an internet addict nor a UNC fanatic, but it's true). One of my favorites is Carolina Water Cooler. Those guys are seriously funny AND know their stuff. It's awesome. Also, it's not blocked by Henrico County. Hooray!

Anyway, the point is in their preview of Wed. night's epic matchup against the College of Charleston, they referred to TEATS, which they indicated by an asterisk meant "The Eight And Twenty Season" I cracked up. I refer to that dreadful time in our basketball history rarely - and our coach at the time even more rarely - and it steals a little piece of my heart away every time it comes up.

But this is awesome. I am keeping TEATS in my vernacular for sure. Because it's not something that any true UNC fan is likely to forget anytime soon...

The mini-debacle

I haven't posted much about my TarHeels this season because they've been good beyond belief and I've been busy. They've been a unanimous #1 and although they've looked not as good as they should have the last few games, they were clearly the most dominant team in the country.

Until last night.

When they LOST. To BOSTON COLLEGE.

(Who, in case you were wondering, was picked to finish #11 out of 12 in the ACC this year)

I'm calling it the mini-debacle, because the big debacle was, of course, the disastrous Final Four game against Kansas last year.

There was no defense last night. None. I'm not sure the boys even remembered what a rebound was. And the shots just weren't going down. We shot something like 38% for the game and only like 55% from the FREE throw line. At one point, clutch time, near the end of the game, we had three completely wide open 3-pointers in a row (on one posession) and bricked them all. It was physically painful to me.

I've said all along I wouldn't mind us losing an early season game to get that undefeated talk out of the way and make the team realize that they aren't invincible. But this was a CONFERENCE game. Our conference opener, in fact, which makes it more painful.

But we learn and move on. It's not the tournament, and we still have a great shot at being national champions. I am not going to be depressed about this, I am not going to be depressed about this, I am not going to be depressed about this...

(Why I take basketball so seriously and what needs to be done about it is clearly an issue, yet a topic for another day)

Wednesday I have my 6-month follow up with Dr. Elliot. I'll have blood work done at that point, so we'll see how everything is coming along. This whole constantly needing new clothes thing is really wearing on me, although I know it's a good thing and not something I should be complaining about. I'll let you know what he says!

A New Year...

Ok, it's that time of year. Let's look back at the past year and forward to the new one. Because I said so, that's why!

This has been an amazing year for me in so many ways - I have a new job that I love at a great school with co-workers who have really made me feel accepted and welcome. I've become involved with a great group at my church and made new friends there as well. And let's not forget that I've lost over 100 pounds (almost at 120 now!), so I look and feel like a new person, and all the myriad of new things that go with that. At this time last year, I had none of that - or even an inkling that any of it would happen!

So why am I still not satisfied? Why do I want more, more, more?? Why do I feel like none of these things are good enough if I can't find a husband, get a house, and have a baby? Because I'm a fallen, sinful, greedy human I suppose. My small group (yet another blessing to come out of this year!) has been studying John Piper's book When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy. So my goal this year is to do just that: fight for joy. We are commanded by God to fight for joy, which comes only through growing closer to him. Although you would have to do the whole study to really get a lot out of it, here are Piper's 15 strategies to use in the fight for joy:

1. Meditate on the Word of God day and night.
2. When reading, focus on the centrality of God.
3. Do not skip the terrifying parts of the Bible.
4. Learn to preach to yourself.
5. Pray earnestly and continually for everything you need to be happy in God.
6. Fight against every sin in your life.
7. Share your faith.
8. Spend time with God-saturated people.
9. Read biographies of great Christian saints.
10. Read great books about God.
11. Get the rest, exercise, and proper diet that God has ordained you need.
12. Make a proper use of revelation in nature.
13. Do the hard and loving thing for the sake of others.
14. Get a global vision for Christ and pour yourself out to the unreached.
15. Be patient in the night of God's seeming absence.

It's an overwhelming list, so I'm just going to concentrate on making sure I do at least one of them daily.

On a completely different note, I went to the movies this morning. (Marley and Me - cute, made me cry, but not going to make my top 10 list) They must be making those seats bigger. I fit in it with room for my arms as well and room to spare. You can't imagine the horror of going to the movies and being afraid you won't fit into the seat until you've been there....or of having to put your arms on the armrests because there's no room for them in your seat.

Christmas

My family is strange and weird...

At Grandma Nash's, we get to open poppers.
They have treats, riddles...and crowns!

Favorite Christmas presents...
The kitchen!

Thomas!

A piggy bank! "Change?!" "Bullet?"

Finger puppets!

The Taggie elephant - so popular, Kay and I both bought the same one!


Our favorite things to do...

slice bread


play trains

help BeBe put on makeup

write letters to Santa

Mario Kart!


My favorite part of Christmas!