I'm the one with all the scrapes on my knees--from XT!!!

Oh, the continuing bike saga. Of course, I remain determined to master this biking with the clipon shoes despite my fear. So, today, I considered riding my bike to my office to work. But, I didn't have a backpack/couldn't find a backpack so decided to just ride up here to see if it was doable on a Sunday without too much traffic. And, it was--a little over 4 miles and I did well, even stopping a couple of times and not falling. So, I guess I was getting a little cocky/overconfident but I was thanking God all along the way for helping me manage to stay upright, stop without falling, etc. And then I decided I wanted to make this a LONGER bike ride and to ride up a little ways on Rice Road and through some subdivisions now that I have conquered stopping without falling--NOT! I used my new method of unclipping only my right foot when I got to a red light at St. Augustine (God did not make it change to green on time for me not to have to stop) and somehow I managed to fall over to the right. Scraped up right knee and elbow as I had decided I did NOT need the elbow and knee pads today--WRONG. I managed to get up and act like I was fine and no one even stopped to see if I was okay. I rested a minute or two and drank some Propel and decided to push forward/south on Rice although I could have turned down St. Augustine and been home soon--I should have! Went a long way and it was a little scary when the road narrowed down to two lanes and got curvy. But, I made it and turned around and came back and turned into the school road before I got to Madison Avenue but I still had to get back on Madison Avenue. Again, as I stopped, unclipped with one foot, I fell over, this time to the left side. Scraped up the left knee and bruised my upper right arm. Had to reach in and unvelcro the shoe that was still hooked to the bike so I could extract my foot. This time, someone coming out of St. Ives subdivision did stop and make sure I was okay as it took me a minute or two to extract myself and get upright and nonchalant again. With two bloody knees and one bloody elbow. So, I managed to get going again and get back home, praising God for letting me only have scrapes and bruises and thinking of how nice and safe running seems to be compared to this!!!! Now, I can ride a bike as long as I have regular pedals and shoes without falling even though I am old. Why did I think I wanted to learn to do this????? Oh, yeah, I thought I might one day want to do a triathlon. I may just have to look like Grandma Moses again and use a bike with upright handlebars and old-timey pedals! But, I did manage to ride 14 miles so I am proud. And then I cleaned up and am now at work (via my CAR) for a few hours. The computer system is being worked on tomorrow so I needed to get a little work done today so I don't lose a whole day's pay tomorrow.

My brother has Parkinson's disease that has progressed very rapidly recently, and he struggles to walk and dress himself and put his own seatbelt on in the car and cannot even drive himself right now, so, being able to run and walk and bike, even with all of our aches and pains and sweating, is truly a blessing we should not forget.

Today was good

Today was not too bad of a run--not as hot as I thought it would be and I found out 4 more people's names!!! I got to run more than half of the run with Jeff, Sam, and Christy and figured out who Scotty was! Since I missed many of the first runs I did not get to figure out who too many of you are so I'm glad to start making some new friends this year. Running with someone else makes the time and distance pass by so much quicker!!! And, I had breakfast at Beagle Bagel with Jody which was also nice. Having a breakfast place you can walk to when you finish a long run is a big plus--and you can go by more gels and sport jelly beans, too! And drink Monster Drink. I hated it at first but am growing fonder of it each week. Matt, how many ice cream cones will it take to make up how much it is going to cost you to have functional seatbelts and airbags??????

Oh, what a beautiful morning!

Such a nice day, in several ways. It is still so nice and cool and refreshing to run in the nice cool air--this is going to be a faint memory soon, I fear/remember from past years. Also, Sally is back!!!! So, I didn't have to run/train alone. It helps so much to have someone to go with. Any and all of you are welcome to join us at the Rez Y at 6 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a 4.3 mile jaunt--you can go any pace you want but the comraderie is very nice. Also, I took O2 Gold today which is an Advocare product. Now, it was either my imagination or the weather or whatever but I was not as short of breath today while I ran so I guess I'll be trying to remember to take that on some other days, particularly on the long runs! I hope I can make it on Saturday. My boys are flying in on Thursday to go to my youngest daughter's graduation from high school Friday night and I'm not sure what time everybody has to be at the airport on Saturday morning. But, I don't relish running 10 by myself so I'll see what I can finagle--is that how you spell that word? And, Matt, I need someone to mow my yard since I did manage to burn up my lawnmower. I need to take it to get fixed but need help lifting it up into my van. I LOVE mowing but I'm not too good on keeping the machines in good working order. I figured out it probably needed oil after it began smoking so I bought some and put it in. However, I failed to put the cap on the oil thing back on correctly so, while I'm mowing away, large clouds of billowing smoke starting coming out of the mower. I ran from it as I was afraid it was going to blow up. And, I was almost done with the mowing so now I have a mohawk look in the back yard. I consider mowing the yard an awesome workout/crosstraining exercise so now I'm mad I can't do that.

Free concert Saturday night

Sally Cohen and I play in a band called the MS Community Symphonic Band. We have a special concert this Saturday night at 7 pm at the Belhaven Center for Performing Arts. We have a guest soloist on trombone that we are accompanying on several songs. We rehearsed with him tonight and he is amazing so I encourage any of that can to come hear him/us on Saturday night!

Carol

Have now made it through three"runs" without Sally

I said"runs" because I didn't really run all three times like we usually do. I noted some beginnings of the plague of generalized foot pain after last Saturday's 9 miler so I decided that this week was "Be Kind to Carol's Feet Week". So, I walked on Tuesday and today with my old walking buddies for 2-3 miles and then went to the Courthouse and ran 2 miles on the treadmill. Theory was that walking should be easier on my feet and running the treadmill causes less pounding. So, we shall see how I do this Saturday. This is my third year to train for a marathon. I had many and I do mean MANY muscle aches and pains from the waist down the first year. Second year went pretty well until I began having the vague foot pain all over which culminated in a stress fracture which completed itself 8 days after the marathon. So, I took 6 weeks off, tried to run a little and couldn't, then broke my 5th toe the clutzy way so took some more time off. Started back walking and running in January and even saw the foot doctor to make sure I wasn't going to cripple myself. Have actually done fine while I ran no more than six miles at a time. So, I hope the tootsies will let me go forward with the increased mileage since I've now signed up for both the Twin Cities Marathon in October and the Disney half in January! If I could lose some weight I'm sure my feet would be under lots less stress but I've been trying to do that for about 40 years, fairly unsuccessfully!!!!

I am a spoiled rotten baby

I ran today which is a good thing although it wasn't one of my better or easier runs. I am very spoiled about having someone to meet and run with on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Sally had her 8 am meeting today so I had to go by myself. I, of course, took advantage of the opportunity to stay in bed a little longer and didn't get out til nearly 8 am. And, yes, it was a little warmer and more humid than I like and my legs felt like lead and my lungs like I was a smoker, and I'm not! And, since I have felt the big bad overall foot pain since the Cannonball, I decided to take it long and slow which I would have done anyway since I was running long and slow anyway!!! Instead of running the 3 mile route in the neighborhood and then running to the Park for another couple of miles, I went out at the far point of the neighborhood run and went on sidewalks toward the Elem. School. Then crossed the street and went into St. Ives and then back to the school and back to the neighborhood. But, not before I stopped for a rest on a bench at the school. I enjoyed the rest but wondered if they worried about strangers that stopped on their benches so reluctantly got up and went on. I have now officially signed up for the Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis with Sally so I am going to put my poor pitiful feet up to the challenge one more time. It's on the same day as Chicago so it makes the training with the group just perfect, if you can call running in the summer in Mississippi perfect. But, if you can survive running long distances in MS, you build up MUCH stamina which comes in handy running 26 miles in a cooler, more exciting place! Since I've done Chicago twice, I decided I needed new scenery to help pull me through miles 13 through 26 this time--I struggled mightily the second year to get myself to keep going. My serious determination of the first year had left me! But I did finish, thank the good Lord. And so will all of you if you set your mind to it!

Cannonball Run

I'm glad to have participated in the Cannonball Run but, somehow, it brought back some memories of the Goat Milk Half Marathon of 2 years ago which I will not go in to. The trail running was a surprise and a challenge for me but I'm happy that my new shoes didn't get as muddy as I thought they might when Doc mentioned that there were puddles and muddy areas. I can't wait to get my tshirt from the race--they were out by the time I signed up. But I do love waiting for packages. It was truly neat to see such a sea of MM tshirts--I would have worn mine but a friend picked mine up for me and I haven't gotten it from him yet. And, a really neat thing happend after the race. I got home and was searching for something in the back seat of my car and my neighbor called out to me--she was being dropped off from having run the Cannonball and is doing Marathon Makeover, too!!!!! Since I have not been doing my Saturday runs with you guys for various and sundry reasons, I didn't realize this so it was exciting to know that we might be able to train some together, ride together, and get to know one another better! What a small world.

Carol