still alive...

although, i received a phone call from the nurse about my bloodtest. Said everything was fine, except that i might have to consider an exercise program, because my cholesterol is high. I was in a fitting room trying on new clothes at the time, and i new from the image in the mirror that exercise was well needed, but high cholesterol....oh my!!
So much has been going on that a 30 minute run a day is about all i have been doing. It's a shame :(
Kids have me spinning my wheels literally. My oldest boy is starting to drive and i am literally hanging on for dear life when i am sitting in the passenger seat. If anyone reading this see my car..little landrover...stay far away!! Ashley will be getting her permit this week, so stay double as far away.
I did get in a wreck the other day, but not because of them. A teenager rear ended me on Barton Springs Drive. I lost several items from the rear, but i was just relieved my 12 year old was wearing safety belt.
Teenage drivers are dangerous!!
Well, cross country season is finally over. It called for early morning drop offs at zilker for Ashley to run with her team. She was the only one to qualify for state cross country from Westlake High. The team went to support her and she felt so greatful for such wonderful friends she had made in the short time as a freshman. Unfortunately, she took a big spill during the first part of the race, managed to get up, but i could see that "deer caught in headlights" look. She ran strong and tough. Reminded me of the time she had her first ballet recital at age 5 and slipped on stage. Everyone gasped and then applauded, because she got up and jumped right in. Poor thing!!
It was really windy out at the State cross country course and quite cold, but i was amazed to see so many young talent. I was hoping cross country wouldn't become a thing of the past and judging from Saturday, it is as strong as ever. So many divisions and races. In South Africa we were grouped in age groups. Girls ran in age divisions...under 14, under 16, and then under 19. Boys ran under 15, under 17 and then under 19. We had provinces and then picked a province team to go to Nationals. Exciting times!! We would fly to the national championships either in Pretoria (yucky altitude) or Johannesburg. If we were lucky the national championships were held in Stellenbosch which was beautiful. The course took you up in the mountain and finished on the soccer fields. Good times. That's where i met Zola when we were about 15 years old.
Anyway, i am going down memory lane.
Baseball has been so exciting. Two of the 4 boys' are now actively involved in baseball and the youngest one is still our little soccer champion.
I have to pick up one of those Picayne (spelling)? newspapers, because Ashley just text me and said she is athlete of the week. Wow, that's exciting.
Even more exciting was homecoming. Never experienced the "home coming" per say, but the excitement was definitely in the air...dress, shoes, date.....and party bus. I wonder why she chose to get ready at a friends house - could it possibly be that she was afraid her 4 brothers might give her date a difficult time? Reminds me of the country song...."ill be waiting hear cleaning my gun, be home before 9 or something like that"?
So, plans for the future, hmmm.....since we have holidays coming up and one more week of baseball, i am going to make an effort of joining the gazelles for a few workouts. Gosh, it's going to be humiliating, but i miss seeing everyone. Got to get that cholesterol down (no more pizza, and more red wine will do the trick).
Then, after holidays i have got to get Ashley ready for track and i was thinking of dropping her off for the morning session. Not sure how she will handle getting up at 5 am, but we might give it a shot. The boys' will get extra help with baseball, because one wants to be a "catcher" and one a "pitcher". Unfortunately i have no experience in this area, so will have to rely on private coaches, just hope its not too costly. The one time i did try to pitch i almost broke my 16 yr olds' nose, so there is a good reason why i stick to running. And hoping to do more of that real soon :)

Been a long time...

and sometimes it just feels plain weird giving strangers an insight of what's going on around here.

It was a very interesting and eventful summer. My oldest boy turned 16, Ashley will soon be 15 and i have to tell you, time is moving fast!! My 12 yr. old flew to my dad's farm for Labor Day weekend. So, it's a quiet Labor Day for me, with just 3 children. No wonder i have time to ponder this blog. I finally have a substitute teaching job and it will keep me busy, because i am noticing a lot of pregnant teachers already.

Zilker relays came and went and it was nice to meet up with the other gazelle groups, which i hardly see at all. I have become more of a social "afternooner". Training has been a little sporadic and i am hoping to run a little more when the weather starts getting cooler and we head into Fall. I always like the 3M half, so might start counting the weeks and see if i can get motivated to attempt that. I have also thought about Boston in April. But, i will do it for fun and not try to force myself into super long runs which tear me up and make me dislike running. Running that far makes me feel as if i am fighting for survival or doing some sort of human challenge....not for me anymore. A nice hour or hour and a half at a steady pace is about all i can handle. Unless ofcourse, i can win the lottery and have a full time cleaning person...mopping, cleaning, dusting has become my predominant form of exercise. Not to mention yardwork or car washing.

So, back to Zilker..i think our team did pretty good placing 4th overall woman. The next morning i had to miss the long run group, because we had our first high school cross country meet. It was only 1.8 mile and Ashley ran the varsity division. She placed 5th and wasn't super thrilled. She looked a little worn out from the excitement of first week of high school, getting up to early practices etc. I also think we need to work a little on speed/faster turnover. We have about 6 weeks till the State Meet, so i think i can pull out all my old running logs and try to get her where she needs to be. It's difficult because she trains with the high school group and depending on what happens there, i add a little here and there combined with the gazelles. At this point i think it's important for her to enjoy her running and run with girls her age and keep it fun.

Oh, another exciting thing that happened was that my uncle from South Africa came for a visit. He was my running inspiration..well, my dad too, but i loved hearing about how he placed 12th at the world cross country championships when he was only 16 yrs. old. Ran a 2:24 marathon at the same age. How he had to stitch up the bottom of his foot with needle and thread before a national cross country championship. Interesting stuff!! He has some incredible times for a junior (even held the record for covering the farthest distance in one hour around a track which was covered in potholes) and although riddled with arthritis at the moment still manages to keep in great shape...we walked a brisk 4 mile loop with him, my dad, Ashley and our new dog.

Here's a picture of the 2 old chaps who was once known as the 2 brothers who ruled cross country in South Africa....but, could never have the opportunity to qualify for the olympics, because of all the political mess south africa was in.

Back in the heat of things...

We really had a wonderful roadtrip...mountains, altitude, snow, sand-dunes and cool weather. The good thing is we are back safe and sound, the bad thing is...Ashley has finally overtaken me on the running scene. I am running behind her most of the time, which is kind of a weird thing...she really has no mercy and i wonder if she will wait on me if i get really slow. I guess i better move on to the next child who wants to run, but my pickings are slim. One is a hunter, the other plays' soccer...so, i have my eye on Daniel who is only 7 now, and by the time he starts getting ready for cross country i would definitely need a motorized vehicle of some sort to keep up.

It really is hot here and i have been trying to get back in the swing of things, although i skipped out on the long run last weekend. Believe it or not i was talked in to getting the new iphone and stood in line for 7 hours 20 minutes on July 11th to get the darn thing. This is my first modern piece of technology in a very long time!!! I am kind of excited, now i just wish i had a few more texting buddies :)

I might try running longer again this Saturday. At least we made it to Wilke. It was a good start. There were quite a few new faces, which is always a pleasant surprise. For the most part we managed to run during our trip and since we have been home, but driving all those miles on my own....wore me out. I take a day off now and again and try not to feel guilty about it. We could even find a track at one of the hotel's we were staying in and it was quite interesting doing a few 4oo meter repeats at altitude...quite the humbling experience.

Oh, and i couldn't escape the gazelles completely....guess what street i came across...i couldn't help, but take a snap shot..

Hello from Colorado!

My trip began with driving from Austin to Kansas City, MO. We made it in 2 days', which was kind of surprising. My son, Michael spent 4 days' with us and i finally had all my children with me. We had such a great time....baseball game, water parks etc. We did not slip up on our running too much. Managed about 40 minutes a day with lots of strides.

After our Kansas City visit we headed to Colorado. I have never been and couldn't wait to see mountains. We drove all day and made it to Nederland, CO that evening. I stumbled upon this beautiful town, after getting a bit lost in the mountains and totally frazzled. That evening i re-read Erine's email and to my surprise she highly recommended a visit to Nederland. I was in luck. It reminded me of Switzerland and was between 8,000 and 9,000 ft above sea level. Running was a little "breath-taking" at first, but soon we got the hang of it and managed an hour run in the mountains and trails. The weather was in the 60 degree range. How wonderful. We went hiking oneday without really planning on it and let it be known to never hike with flip-flops at 11,000 ft!!

We had 3 nights there, and was very sad to leave. Felt like i left a child behind!! Now, we are in Colorado Springs and resting up to climb Pikes Peak tomorrow. It's very rocky here and more dry...still nice and cool though. So far, i prefer Nederland...but who know's what tomorrow will bring.

Summer of 2008

It's been ages since i have blogged and i was surprised to remember my password on this site. Can't believe another school year is over. I will have an 11th grader, 9th grader, 6th grader, 4 th grader, and 2nd grader starting in August. Oh, what fun. So, here we are about to get ready for our first road trip. We will probably leave Monday and head up to Missouri. The kids are excited, because they have only been to 3 different states. We plan to do a little running along the way and hopefully find new and exciting places. This week we did pretty good getting back into the running. We made it to Gazelles on Tuesday and Thursday evening. The 700m's was the first time i did intervals since February or March and boy do i pay the price now. I could only manage 4, but that's all-right.

When we came home, we had 3 tiny visitors waiting at our garage. It was too cute. I will attach the photo's. This morning (Saturday), we went to the long run. Just did the 7 mile loop, but it's a start. It was kind of humid out there, but i am so glad we woke up early and got it over with.

I am going to try and blog my little trip and hopefully it will be worthwhile....it's nice to tell someone about it anyway.

Finally, getting back to running...

It's been a while since i have written and i can't even remember what i did last, so i guess i will have to back-track a little.

Spring Break is almost over and it was a good one. I took a few weeks off of running after the marathon. I really had enough of struggling with aches and pains. I did go to the Y and worked on strength a bit. Jogged on the trail late one night (in the dark, so no one can see how pathetic i became)....and, wouldn't you know??...i ran in to one of my favorite Gazelles :) (who happens to feel the same way). I actually felt better knowing someone also needed a break.

So, Thursday (first week of March) came and i was talked "into" going to the track to pace Duane. It was more the fact that Ashley's track meet got rained out and we could use a running buddy. It was freezing cold that day. Honestly, if Duane didn't show up i would've been in my pajamas at 5:30pm.

I made it to the track...unwillingly! Ashley ran 3 x 800m. She paced Duane on the first 2 laps and then i was supposed to do the last 2. He was doing 3 x 1 mile repeats. Well, i was fine up to 300m...after that, i knew i was only going to make a 400m. How pathetic. After 1x400m i was gasping for air. All the rest and marathon stuff made my lungs shrink to the size of raisins...just kidding! I managed to do 2 more 400m's and realized i better start running soon. Mr. Bandana is getting too serious with his 2 a day workouts etc. and in really good shape. We made it home and glad to say the bandana was left behind on the track. Couldn't find it the next day either, so someone keep a look out for Duane's bandana :) (not that he doesn't have a whole collection).

This week was fun. We went to my dad's farm and didn't run "by the book", but more how we felt. When we felt like doing surges, we did. When we saw a little incline, we worked it. My sister-in-law even showed me really good hamstring exercises which i might try at home. The kids road horses, fished, hunted and found a stray dog which they actually named.

We came back to Austin and signed up for the Daisy 5 km. So nice to have a race with childcare. I will support that till the day i can't run anymore. It's nice to have the family out there and know they are safe. Even nicer, when we get home and EVERYONE is tired from getting up early and doing the kids 1 km.

So, i am hoping to be back in the swing of things and if i can make it to a gazelle workout this week it would be great. Just have to figure out the soccer, track, and baseball stuff.

Week after marathon/distance challenge.

Not much running going on. Even if i wanted to, i am a little too sore. I did walk a bit and started lifting weights on Friday. I figured i was sore already, might as well just start lifting again and even all the soreness out. Sunday (a week after the marathon), was the first day i attempted running. A whopping 15 minutes!! I figured i will start with baby steps and be patient. I can't be taking anti-inflammotories just to run anymore. Now, it's time to deal with the injuries and get healthy and stronger, naturally.

The distance challenge is over. I don't think i trained very hard, but i did the best i could considering the aches and pains. The long races were my long runs. I am a little worn out by the whole thing. It was a big commitment for me. It was a constant worry to stay flu free...rested and arrange my stuff around the kids. I can honestly say that it is nice to be free from the fact of knowing there will be a race in 2 weeks or something. Also nice to spend a Saturday and Sunday doing other things. It's amazing how much energy one has when not doing a long race over a weekend. I can actually walk around and take my kids to lots of places without eye-balling the wheelchairs. Hopefully i won't loose all my fitness and be back injury free, mentally re-charged and eager to go again soon!!