When Life Gets to be Too Much

You may or may not have noticed my lack of blogging lately.  With the exception of race recaps I’ve really not blogged anything since the New Year.  Even before that I was not consistent.  You may have even assumed by now that I’m not blogging anymore, this is just a dead blog.

In some ways that would be a completely fair assumption, since I really haven’t blogged much.  But, my intention has been to continue this blog all along.  You see, I started this blog to write about “the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of my life with a little humor mixed in”.  So, this blog has been, all along, about my life, with the intention of helping others who may have similar things going on in their life paths at the time.  Through the years, we’ve chronicled my children growing up, our foster/adoption experience, you’ve listened to me cry over my mother and our broken relationship, you know that marriage is one of my hot buttons, and you’ve read as I was healed from an 18 year affliction with Rheumatoid Arthritis.  You know I struggled with the decision to homeschool, and you know how important my faith is to me, you have cheered me on as I began my journey as a runner, and you know that being a Police Officer’s wife isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

So, I ask you to consider that my absence these past few months has also been a chronicle of events in my life, because it is the very evidence of just how busy this past year has been.  Having teenagers and toddlers at the same time is it’s own animal, and one I don’t recommend.  It has been a tough school year.  Over the past several months I have barely had any time to sit, let alone think.  Auston will graduate next year (2014), so his High School schedule really picked up this year.  He joined choir, which had us out of the house every Tuesday afternoon/evening, which was quite a challenge.  It effectively took several hours out of my already busy week.  There is definitely a tipping point where you find yourself on the downhill side of being too busy, and I think we found that this year. 

Our schedule this year looked something like this:

Sunday: Church, Youth Group
Monday: Shea to Therapy, Boy Scouts
Tuesday: Tuesdays with Mom, Choir
Wednesday: Youth Group
Thursday: Bagel Run, Bible Study, HIS Classes, Date Night
Friday: Sports Day

You can see this put one of the adults in this house out every evening, with some Fridays and Saturdays home.  I have had many people tell me to just hang on, it is a season….  And, that is honestly what got me through the year, but really, it was too much.

This week is the first week off of the majority of our activities, Youth Group will continue until the middle of June, but the bulk of them are done, so I’ve found myself this week taking a look around my filthy house and beginning to take stock of where I need to focus now that I have some time.  I’ve written out a new weekly cleaning plan, and started to catch up on all of the things that haven’t been done….  It will take me a few weeks to get a handle on this monster…

Through all of this craziness I maintained my running, sometimes better than others.  Last week I only got two runs in because the boys were gone on a camp out for 3 days, but this week has been an oddity.  I find myself at Wednesday and haven’t run a mile yet for the week.  I have been getting in activity each day, I started participating in a plank challenge with my MRTT chapter, and I’ve been doing some leg work and some push ups, but I haven’t RUN.  My main excuse is that the babies have been getting up early lately, and I am nervous about being gone and them getting up.  Normally I would just get one of the boys to come to the living room, but they’ve been just as busy as I have, so I’m trying to give them a week or two to rest too.  So, this morning I thought to myself, is it really THAT big of a deal that I haven’t run in 6 days?  In some ways it is, because you loose some endurance, but I don’t really have that much to begin with LOL…  But really, is it a bad thing for me to take a couple of days off?  I mean, my life has been so crazy these last several months, I think it really IS ok to take a few days, even a week or two, and regroup.  It hasn’t even been an option for so long.  And really, my next big race isn’t until the end of July, and even that one I can take down from a half if I need to, so if I’m going to take a breather, now is the time to do it, before I have to get training hard for my fall racing schedule.

So, I’ll go to the Bagel run in the morning, because I really, really do enjoy it.  But I’m giving myself permission to run my long run this week or not.  And next week I’ll be camping, so I’ll probably only get a couple of miles in then too.  I’ll take this time to work on some strength training that I’m generally worried about doing because I don’t want to be too sore to run LOL.  I really need strength training, and my lack of muscle really affects my run, so I need to get over that… (which is why I joined the plank challenge), and then once we get back from camping I’ll hit the roads hard again.  I just want to make sure that my training doesn’t become such a burden that I don’t enjoy running.  THAT would be REALLY bad, since it is like the one thing I do for myself… 

What do you think?  Have you ever taken a breather from something without dropping it entirely?

Race Recap- Esprit De She

When I heard about the Esprit De She race, a race for women only, I was only hesitant for a second about signing up.  And that was because the race was a Thursday evening.  I don’t run in the evening and Thursdays are date night.  Well, I decided to bite the bullet and sign up.    I was only pressured a *little* by my BRF Jess.  So, I told Trishia about it too

Trishia refused to wear a tutu.  So we surrounded her with out awesome tutu-ness for the picture LOL 

Here’s a picture of my flat mama- so you can see the back of our shirts

As we were standing around waiting for the race to start suddenly, out of no where came this ball of happiness exclaiming, “OMG are you Semalee?”  I turned and said, yes…..?  It was Charissa- the chapter leader for the North Houston MRTT!  So cool to meet her in person, and this kind of fast friendship is just what I love so much about Moms Run This Town.    She was doing the 10K, so she went off to get ready to start, and I didn’t even think to get a picture!  UGH!

The Expo at the Start/Finish Area was pretty nice, we perused the vendors and walked around for a bit.  I have to say I was actually quite surprised that there weren’t more ladies in tutus at the race

We got our traditional pre race pictures and were ready to start…

The race was held in a nice area of town, but it is also a busy area of town, and race start time was during a busy going home time for residents in the area.  I was a little taken aback by all the traffic, and because of the large amount of traffic the officers had to stop the racers a couple of times to let the cars go by.  It didn’t bother me too terribly because I was there for an easy run, no PR goals or anything.  But if I was looking for a PR that would have really irritated me.  We even had a couple of drivers get frustrated enough to start honking at the runners.

This was my first evening race and I was tired.  I had to push myself to keep going, more than usual.  I think I’m not much of an evening runner.  Or I just need to do it more   I race a casual pace of 3/1 with Jess.  Trishia took off and left us in the dust  

As far as the race, I liked it.  I would recommend it to others, for sure.  I found it to be well organized, and full of fun.  I really enjoyed the free mimosa afterwards too   They had a nice singer and candles on the tables with table cloths when we got back, and it was a beautiful  night.  I really thought it was a nice touch, it didn’t seem like it was just thrown together, but like they had put thought and effort into the after party.  That doesn’t always happen   Oh- and free photos!

Here are Trishia and Jess….  I must have been snatched by aliens….

I love how happy Jess looks

What’s with the tongue?

One of my favorite pictures.  <3

But seriously, this is the classic one….  What do you do when you’re at an all girls race?  Compare bras, of course!  Who knew there was a photographer standing by????  Caption this!  LOL

And on that note, I’m out!  LOLOLOL

Race Recap- Austin 10/20

So, in typical fashion, Jessica and I scheduled a big race on top of a fun 5K.  After this experience we decided that scheduling a 5K AFTER the big race is ok (serves as a recovery), but BEFORE….  Notsomuch…..

As we waited in our corral I saw a shirt I want…  On the front it said, “This sounded like a good idea 3 months ago…”  and on the back it said, “Race Official, Do Not Pass!”….  BAHAAHAHA…  Too cute….  And pretty much how I was feeling….  As usual, my nerves were off the charts and the fact that I had some lingering soreness from the day before was not helping.  I also forgot to pack breakfast, so I ate a protein bar for breakfast that they gave us in our race packets…  In hindsight this was a BAD idea…..

Two things on this flat mama…  First I NEVER wear the race shirt (I’ve heard it’s bad luck….  maybe that’s why I got sick?), but I liked the shirt and just wanted to wear it.  Oh, and for some reason Jess and I are great at planning outfits for 5Ks, but anything bigger and we suck LOL…  Second, I have GOT to get some new shoes…  These are my old shoes, since I have determined that the Sauconys I bought in December could be part of the Plantar Fasciitis thing…  They are WELL used…  Yuck.

This was apparently the 2nd year for the Austin 10/20.  It is a super cool idea- 10 miles, 20 local bands playing for you along the way  

Smiling at the start…..  or was that gas????

It was in Austin, which is hilly, but their website advertises, “Our ten mile course is flat and fast – yes, really!  The big Austin hills that some people have trouble with are not in our part of town. “  Apparently Austin’s idea of flat and Houston’s idea of flat are two different things….. 

They even had an elevation chart on the site which didn’t look toooo daunting….  Clearly there are a couple of long slow inclines…  but before we were actually out there it didn’t look so bad…..

Interestingly my garmin doesn’t show the same elevation map……?????  My garmin’s depiction is closer to how it felt- I know that much for sure!  You can see towards the end I was pretty much completely done trying to run uphill, and just started walking…..  That was also about the time my stomach started gurgling. 

The race had 4847 participants….  Here’s the start line….  Jessica and I started dead last….  I was finisher number 4461, Jess was 4401 (She finally left me the last 1/2 mile)…  Not too bad, huh?

I started out ok, sore from the day before, but ok….  But the course (as you can see above) is pretty much NOT flat at all.  Very few STEEP hills, but long, dragging hills were the main idea of the course.  The three weeks of hill workouts were apparently not enough to prepare us ….  I began to tire WAY too early…  Like around 3 miles….  This was NOT a good sign at all….  But, we kept on…  I will say, we started literally DEAD last (I really don’t like people passing me…  I feel slow enough already), and we passed quite a few people right from the start.  The course had a few turn around points and I was really surprised at how many people we had passed.  As we were at the point about 4 miles in where we were doubling back we saw the person who was now dead last.  (She was about a mile behind us) and she was struggling.  I was struggling too, but not that bad.  Still, Jess and I talked about if we were still this close to her later in the race that we would just double back and walk with her to make sure she made it.  It did look like someone else had the same idea possibly, or possibly they put her on the SAG wagon…  I’m not sure because fortunately, (or unfortunately since it meant I had to keep running LOL) we were too far ahead of her by the next turn around point and didn’t see her before making another turn.

At about 6.5 miles I was D.O.N.E. with the hills.  There was a LONG hill in front of us and I told Jessica I was just done.  It was around here that I thought maybe I didn’t care if I finished.  I seem to do this at every long race.  I hope I never give in, because I actually DO care, just not at that moment….  I thought it might be nice to just leisurely walk the rest of the way.  We weren’t in the back, and they weren’t closing the course on us, so I felt ok with that idea.  I didn’t verbalize it, though, and Jessica clearly wanted to keep running.  I tried to encourage her to just go.  I think she knew I would walk if she left, so she stayed with me.  At the time I just wished she would leave me alone, but in real life I’m really glad she stayed with me and pushed me.

I could tell it was a tough race, because we are usually pretty chatty.  We probably said like 5 sentences the entire.two.and.a.half.hours……  Seriously.  Pretty much out of character for us….  LOL….  I think we both hated each other for much of the course….  LOL

Let me just say that 10 miles is far.  I had a very lose goal to finish within 2:30, and even loser goal that I just wanted to finish and I would have been ecstatic to finish before 2:15…  In the end I finished at 2:26.  So I did make my main goal.  If I had been able to keep running the whole time I would have made 2:15.  The hills got me, but what really got me was my stomach.  I haven’t ever had that happen before.  I’m hoping it was a one time event.  I was seriously afraid I was going to either puke or shart for the last 3 miles.  Maybe both.  Walking more managed to keep the bodily fluids inside, but I felt TERRIBLE.

The bands were mostly good, a couple that were better than others, but it was fun to hear all the different bands.  There were only a couple of places on course that were spread out too far between bands, which I think is pretty impressive.  The race organization was great, the corral spacing was great.  The medal was great.  All in all I was impressed with everything except what I call false advertising on the “flat course”.  Would I do it again?  Maybe….  At least if I do it again I will be better prepared because I know about the hills.  Also I will probably not do a 4 mile race the day before.  That wasn’t super smart.

Race Recap- Blue Bell Fun Run

This year was the 35th anniversary for the Blue Bell Fun Run.  35 years!  Can you believe that?  This fun event advertises all the Blue Bell Ice Cream you want at the finish.  That is enough to get me out, and apparently approximately 4300 other people too! 

Because my BRF Jessica and I have NO COMMON SENSE we decided it would be JUST FINE to do Blue Bell with the kids the day before the Austin 10/20….  We decided we would just commit to walk the bulk of it.  Auston has run this 3 times now, and this was my second time.  It is something Auston really looks forward to, and the promise of ice cream made it fun for all of the kids.  Ice cream also brought my other BRF Trishia out….. It even enticed my husband out!     I think the people like Ice Cream! 

Here’s our whole group- Gregory, Sara, Trishia, Jordan, Me, Shea, Auston, Mikey, Jesssica, and William in the stroller as we waited for the Kids One Mile to start.

Because I have an extremely overactive 4 year old, who doesn’t EVER seem to tire out, I figured I’d give her a go with the Kids One Mile.  She was SO excited!  She wanted me and Jordan and Trishia to run with her, so of course, we did.  It was probably a bad idea for me and Jordan, because Jordan usually poops out around 1.5-2 miles into the 5K, and this put an extra mile on her before the 5K even started…  Sorry Jess!    And for me, it added another mile to me too right before my 10 Miler the next day…  Oh well, I wouldn’t have missed her first race for anything

Proudly wearing her medal! 

Jessica and I had shirts made up for all the girls in our group.  I think they are super cute!  Here’s mine and Shea’s flat mama- so you can see the back of the shirt-

I’m kind of jealous of Shea’s shorts…….

Here are all the girls at the race- we had a lot of people comment on how cute our shirts were

As for the race, I think organizing a race of 4,000+ runners is quite the task, and Blue Bell does it well.  I’ve never had a problem with race day packet pick up or anything.  It was quick and painless.    The start line doesn’t have *official* corrals, but they have people with pace signs so you can get in the right spot.    The course is hilly, and beautiful.  Maybe next year I’ll have had enough hill practice with Jess to actually run it?  Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!  Maybe…….  In addition to the Kids 1 mile and the 5K, they also offer a 10K.  Two of my MRTT friends ran the 10K and passed us on the course.  It was fun to have a cheering squad come running up from behind us   I love my MRTT girls <3

The only complaint I have is as the race gets bigger they may need to find another way of giving out the ice cream, because that area can be a little……  *intense*……  But even still I managed to get plenty of ice cream…  I think the babies each had 2, I had 3, Sara I think had the record of SIX ice creams

I love that there are fun events like this that I can bring my family out for and they can have a good time.  I love that Auston had a new PR for 5K time at 21:20!  He was 8th in his age group.  He WILL place…  It’s just a matter of time….  I love that I have 2 great friends that share this sport with me.  And I love that my husband was willing to take our kids AND Jessica’s girls home so Jess and I could straight to Austin   It was a great day

Me and Jess

Me and Trish….  And on an only slightly related note, I love that my friends love my kids….