The gluteus maximus

I shall whine now. Here is a common recurrence that happens over and over, because that's what recurrences do. I take up some form of exercise, usually jogging. (At this point I'm going to refer to what I do as jogging, not running. Jogging seems more honest.) Anyway, I do my darnedest to take it semi-seriously and stick with it, but something always happens. Tendonitis, shin splints, sciatica, groin pull, you name it. And I'm really disciplined about stretching beforehand. A couple of years ago (or more) I was playing tennis and hurt my arm/shoulder. It still hasn't healed. Back in December I ran a 5K that perhaps I hadn't trained enough for and have had problems with my sciatic nerve ever since. I have a throbbing sort of pain in my right butt cheek, the right side of my right knee, and ditto on my right ankle. I feel quite ladylike saying my butt hurts.

I suppose it really is age. Man, that sucks to know the truth. But I want to fight this aging thing for as long as I can, butt pain and all.

Miles to go

Nice to know some things never change, or maybe not. It still takes me over 11 minutes to run a mile. That's right, I said it. But it felt good to get some exercise again, especially after making it through the first week of school. One of my coworkers wants to start doing some 5Ks again, so I needed to get out there and see if my legs still moved. If I'm going to keep this up though, I should probably find out what to do about this pinched(?) sciatic nerve that's been bothering me since last December.

Two songs from my iPod that help me keep going during my little jaunts:

1) Green Day's "Brain Stew" - you have to try working out to this song some time, especially when you're getting to the point when you want to stop. Awesome.

2) George Benson's "On Broadway" - because how could anyone not LOVE that song?!

One thing that is not helpful:

Right after my workout, Alan comes breezing in from his 18-mile run saying he's still feeling good and is going to take Duke for a 3-mile run. Geez.

Swimming

I'm on my way to go swimming - my latest workout of choice. I won't make any claims that this will be the exercise I'll stick with long-term, because when have I ever stuck with something? But a workout with no impact, no sweat, and no weather issues is tough to beat! The downside is not knowing if a lane will be available, although so far it hasn't been an issue.

I was a little self-conscious at first, because there's no telling what I look like swimming. I've been comfortable swimming since I was pretty little, but I never had to swim with "form." So far, it's really relaxing in a butt-kicking kind of way. I can only do about 10-12 laps right now, while Alan does about 27. Show off!

Anyway, I'm enjoying it for now, and it's an awesome workout!

It hurts so good!

I can't remember if I've mentioned it, but recently we joined the gym. I've dragged Bailey to spin class, body pump, and I've tried Zumba on my own. We've also gone a couple times just to run on the treadmills.

I probably shouldn't point out things that make me look old, but oh well. During spin class I did something to my knee and was up that night for three hours due to the sheer PAIN. After Zumba, I could still feel the muscle soreness after 5 days. Wednesday, Bailey and I went to Body Pump, and here I am two days later up at 5:00 a.m. taking two Advil. Body Pump uses free weights and whatever you call it - a barbell? As we were leaving the class, I literally could not lift my arm high enough to talk on my cell phone. I had to bend my head DOWN to the phone. Bailey and I were laughing so hard at how our muscles were reacting, particularly when we had to walk down the stairs to the lobby of the gym.

Bailey is suggesting swimming next, and I am all for that. A nice warm pool to soothe these aching muscles.

Tomorrow is a 5K that I'm not ready for, but I might attempt anyway. It's strictly for girls and women, and the motto is "run like a girl." I can do that! But only if these muscles have recovered some. Still...it's a GOOD PAIN!

Old School

I was out of coffee this morning, so I rode the bike to 7-11 and bought some. After going for a ride yesterday morning and then getting back on today, I quickly discovered a new butt-friendly seat is in order. Ouch.

Run, stink, eat

I'm not very good at this NaBloPoMo thing. Maybe I just don't have much to talk about, or much that I can talk about. Or maybe, had I not been a permanent fixture on the couch when I got home from subbing yesterday, I could have written something.

So I took a month off from running to get completely healed up and started back this past Sunday. It was ugly to say the least. Then I went on Tuesday after school when the weather was really chilly, which just happens to be my favorite weather to run in, and lo and behold those wonderful shin splints are back. Yes! But I'm going to try again this morning, because Alan and I are invited to a "hash and dash" (or something like that) on Saturday. Apparently the plan is a group gets together for an afternoon run and then finishes at someone's house for beer and BBQ. I just have to say - with temps expected in the upper 80s, I hope the party is spacious and OUTSIDE with lovely breezes to carry all the odor away. I know how Alan smells after an hour of running, so can you imagine trying to eat around a whole group of smelly, sweaty men? Gross.

Time to get up

Just catching up on some "Freakonomics:"

Actually now that Alan's through reading it, I think I'll check it out. But right now I'm deep into a murder mystery called "Monkeewrench" that DeeBee recommended, and it's AWESOME. I may have a new murder/mystery/detective series to read. That's mostly what I've been doing the past couple of days, since I've been lacking the motivation to do much more than breathe. Can't explain it, it's not a big deal, and it will pass.

I've decided a mean spirit is doing whatever possible to keep me from walking and running. It wants me to be lazy and get fat. First it was tendonitis, now it's a lingering case of shin splints. But yesterday was the last day I had to take the "fat pills," so I have motivation to keep going and see if this exercise will finally result in a leaner body.

Stuff from the weekend I can talk about

I'm starting to mourn the end of my summer, and I don't even have a job yet. But hopefully the job situation will change soon, since principals are due back from vacation on Wednesday. If I do what I should today, several of them will have my resume on their desk when they return. And several of them will have my resume for the second time. It just always sucks to be in job searching mode....it seems you can never really relax because you know it's hanging over you...and the interviews...such joy. BUT, the end result is teaching, and that's very cool.

Saturday we had a minor scare. Alan had left for an 18-mile run and came back an hour later, clearly not having run 18 miles. He walked in and with very short breaths said "I - need - help." To make a long story short he stepped on an ant bed while running, maybe a fire ant bed, and had a bad reaction. We've all been bitten before and just dealt with the typical itching and irritation, but apparently because he had been running, the venom ran quickly through his whole body. His hands were swollen, his face was puffy, his skin was red and blotchy literally from head to toe, and anywhere you touched him he would wince from the severe itching. We called a 24-hour nurse hotline and began treating his systems for both dehydration and an allergic reaction to the ant bites. It took several hours for the swelling to leave his hands, but good old Benadryl took care of the itching pretty quickly. The ant bites slowly started surfacing that afternoon and evening, and I'm guessing we couldn't see them right away because of the redness that covered his whole body.

It sucked that he wasn't able to finish his run, be he made it up yesterday. And I ran a whole 3 miles today. :-)

Those crazy marathoners

It's been cool lately (finally) to be able to go for a run, and as long as I've done my stretching beforehand and afterwards, not spend the rest of the day wishing I could cut my legs off at the knees. And then there was today. Ouch. This morning's jog has left me with the knees of an 80-year old. Not sure what's going on, but I'm not going to let it stop me either. Not yet anyway.

Alan is about 8-weeks away from his marathon in Albuquerque. Tomorrow he has a 10 or 11 mile run, and every Saturday from now until the race he'll be increasing that amount, with shorter runs on the days in between. Living in Midland, he doesn't have the luxury of having a running group to train with, so this is something he's doing completely on his own. Personally I think that makes this accomplishment all the more impressive. Luckily though, Alan has a couple people he knows that have done this and can offer great advice, particularly Heather who just completed hers in April and won 1st place (I think) in her grouping.

I'm going to tag along to the marathon and do the 5K portion at the end. I can't wait to be standing at the finish line when he crosses. How cool!

It's all relative

I had a couple good runs in the past week and had decided that today I was trying for three miles. I know - doesn't sound like much (the most I've ever run IN MY LIFE is two miles). I really hadn't let my muscles rest enough from the last run, and I had the hardest time finding my pace. But I got to two miles and told myself, "just do this one time and you never have to do it again." That kept me going, and I was able to finish! I really only wanted to do it this one time, but just maybe....four miles some day? Hey, I know - four miles when I turn 40!

La Familia

We celebrated a belated Father's Day with Dale by going out to Dos Comprades last night. It was nice for the six of us to get together again. It's been a while! We should do this regularly.

Not sure how it happened, but I ran again today and actually enjoyed it. No tendonitis pain, no feeling like I'm about to vomit in front of other the walkers, joggers, drivers, etc. I think the key for me is to only do this a couple times a week and walk the rest of the time. Oh, and very cool temps help. Yeah, if I could have those for the rest of the summer, that'd really help me out, thanks.

In other news....Junior wouldn't come in from the garage last night when it was time for bed, so we left him out there. My gardening flip-flops (given that role because they had so many teeth marks in them that I couldn't wear them out in public) were out there and dumbass chewed them. Not only chewed them but actually ate part of one. I had a nice pile of puke and bits of green flip-flop to clean up when he came in this morning. Let's remember that the last time Junior ate a flip-flop, we spent $250 and endured the embarrassment of having our cat FREAK OUT on everyone at the vet's office. And here's Junior right before he bit my arm this morning. No reason.

Certain to pay for it tomorrow...

Remember when I said I wanted Alan to be my trainer? He made me go on a 5.2 mile walk today, although I'm proud to say I jogged the first 1.5 miles. I whined and complained much of the way with "how far have we gone?" and "what time is it now?" I sort of forgot until just a few minutes ago that I asked him to do exactly this. Other than the 6 mile hike we took a few summers ago in the blazing heat of Palo Duro Canyon (we had this crazy notion there'd be water somewhere in the canyon), that's the longest I've ever walked I'm sure. I'm trying to resist rewarding myself, because I tend to do that with food.

Losing ground

We had a great time in Oklahoma and did everything we planned to do. Relaxing was a big part of the plan, and we did plenty of that as well. We're already looking forward to when they come to Midland next month - yea!

Although DeeBee and I walked while we were up there, it's been over a week since I've done yoga or pilates. Guess I better get back into the routine, but I have to say it's pretty frustrating to be doing all this exercise and cutting back on calories and getting absolutely no results in return. I don't get it. Yesterday I washed both cars, weedeated, walked my two miles, and the day before did heavy yard work in the heat of the day. I probably gained weight doing all of that.

And by the way, that was the fastest walk I've ever done. This old lady from down the street (who walks at least 2-3 times a day) was behind me at the walking park, and I could hear her Keds gaining ground on me. I already walk fast and couldn't believe she was about to reach me. I picked up the pace, but thank God we reached the circle where she went one direction and I went the other. I would have had to start jogging to lose her.

What's next? I want a personal trainer. I asked Alan to take the job because he's friendly and cheap, but he's not on board yet.

Half-moon

I'm about to go do yoga (in my yoga room!). I don't dread it yet, but there are parts of it that I can't wait to get over with every day. I found a picture of the hardest position for me. I'm guessing it doesn't look nearly as hard as it is. You should try it just for grins, and don't forget to hold it for 10-15 seconds.

Namaste!

I've been "releasing my pelvis and pubis and opening my collar bones and floating my rib bones appropriately and breathing into my muscles and letting my brain release into my heart." All the while I'm doing this with an easy-on-the-eyes, barely dressed Asian dude who contorts his body in the oddest of positions. Yep, it's yoga time again. Rodney Yee is kicking my butt into shape.

Update, next morning: Ouch.

My exciting life

I haven't had much to talk about lately, so I've been filling the blog with photos. Mostly that's my way of saying I'm aware that I'm boring right now. (If you want to read a non-boring blog, I suggest reading the May 21st posting on www.verygeorge.com where he publicly bashes some former girlfriends.)

We're still busy around the house, and Leigh is arriving today to help with the guest house - yea! We're also having a party tomorrow night, so I've been getting ready for that. I think this will be a small party though, so really there hasn't been a whole lot to do. But it doesn't matter if you have 2 or 20 people coming over, you have to clean your house. I was cleaning areas on the back porch yesterday that no one will ever notice. Like the ceiling fans. Think someone's going to notice that layer of dirt when they're spinning that fast? I don't know...I can't be convinced.

Alan's been diligently running almost every day, and I've been keeping up my exercise about 6 days a week. I can't jog for a while because of tendonitis in my right foot. Boy, I am really upset about that. NOT.

I have no serious leads on jobs and have been told it could be July before I hear anything. July! School starts in August. Not what I was hoping for, but that's okay. Speaking of teaching, I was at Wal-Mart yesterday (because I like to punish myself like that every once in a while) and overheard a teacher chastising a boy for making a mess in the cracker aisle. It wasn't her son, wasn't her business, but she sure had to point out that it was the "teacher" in her that made her speak up and say something. Whatever. If I ever become that pompous, I hope someone will make fun of me.

Maybe I'll have some pics to post after tomorrow night.