What a Long, Strange Spring It’s Been

 

I had a really great time working out in the morning, while it lasted.  Actually, I really do plan to keep up my morning workouts, maybe I’ll even work out this morning.  But I have been derailed a bit.

Wednesday I had a fantastic morning workout.  Then I came home from work where the girls and I literally walked in the door 2 seconds before a torrential down pour.  The tornado sirens started going off about 4:00 so we were hiding out in the basement closet and listening to the loud noise of something pelting our house.  After the sirens stopped we went upstairs to find this:

It’s hard to see but all those white flashes of light are hail.

The biggest hail we’ve ever had in this house, for sure.  It was bizarre because it only hailed in the back yard.  Out front (where our car was parked) had only a few pieces of hail.  Only one of them hit our car, so I counted us lucky.

When Dave got home we went out for dinner, and on our drive home got reports of more storms on the way.  So, we went home and turned on the TV where all programming had stopped in favor of covering the storms on the way.  They kept telling us that there was a storm headed for us, and that the radar showed clear rotation.  The weather forecasts were actually astonished at how clear the rotation was on the radar, apparently it was uncanny.  So naturally we were kind of freaking out (privately…didn’t want to freak out the kids!)

Around 8:00 the sirens sounded again and we were back in the closet, listening to hail pound our house, and debris crashing around.  This time the hail was baseball sized.  It was already dark, so I didn’t take any pictures.  Also, we glued ourselves to the TV because a) we thankfully still had power and b) they were reporting a tornado in my tiny town.  It had gotten dark, so news crews (who are stationed 2 hours from us) couldn’t make it in time to get pictures or aerial footage.

We were very lucky, we had no damage to our home.  The hail got our cars this time, so we have some good sized dents and dings in both cars, but other than that we were really lucky.

At 10:15 the sirens sounded yet again.  We were in the closet for an hour this time, and about 10:30 the power finally cut off so were in the dark except for the light of a flashlight.

It was a SCARY night, seriously.  We were up (kids and all) past midnight. 

Thursday we were still without power until about lunchtime.  There was definitely no morning treaddy time.  When I went in to work I was able to check out the news and see that there was a confirmed EF-2 tornado in our town, about 5 miles east of our neighborhood.  Thankfully, it was in a less populated area, so the destruction was minimized, but there were still several houses that were completely flattened and 12 injuries reported.  But, no casualties, which is a blessing.

The 10:15 tornado warning produced an EF-1 tornado north of us, which flattened a neighborhood, but thankfully only caused 8 injuries and again, no casualties. 

Driving past the devastation is heartbreaking.  But it is amazing to see huge cars and trucks, flipped on their sides, picked up and moved from their driveways, bent and broken…houses flattened to a pile of rubble…and yet to know that somehow the people inside were left mostly untouched. 

Snoozing is for Wienies

Today, for the 2nd day in a row, I woke up early and worked out before work!!  Me, who CANNOT get out of bed without snoozing for an hour.  Yes, an entire hour.  Me, who would rather snooze 2 extra times and then sport a wet ponytail to work than to actually get up and put effort into looking nice.

I didn't do anything super intense because I'm still having the weird calf pain.  (p.s. I really am going to get that checked out soon, I just have to find (make) the time)  I ran a mile yesterday morning on the treaddy, then did some free weight strength training for upper body.  Today I ran another mile and did some lower body strength training moves. 

I love going through the day knowing my run is already done, instead of spending the day mentally wrestling with how and when I'm going to fit it in.  I also really do feel better during the day, energized and such.  I LOVE IT!  The only downside is that it's dark, so I'm running inside on the treaddy instead of outside which is a) boring and b) hurts my calves worse than pavement does.  I have been catching up on episodes of I Used To Be Fat to help alleviate some of the boredom! 

I'm hoping tomorrow will be another snooze-less morning workout day!

Plumbers, and Thin Mints, and Treadmills-OH MY!

I was bored and decided to see what search terms have led people to me this week.  It's usually good for a laugh, you should try it.  The search terms were:

• how to be a runner its hard
• Wow, how much do I complain on here?  People who hate running find my blog.  Great.
• marathon training
• Scary.  I have never actually run a marathon, so please don't take advice from me.  Seriously, just don't.
• any day i am too busy to run is
• Yep, now that sounds like me.
• image thin mint crack
• Okay, is anyone else picturing a plumber here?  No comprendo this search term.

And now back to running.  I ran 3 miles on the treaddy Tuesday night while watching Biggest Loser.  I won't spoil it for anyone, but can I just say "YAY!".  I LOVE the way the top 3 is shaping up! 

The run itself was torture.  My knee felt pretty good but my "insides of calf/shin areas" were on fire.  I think that's a technical term.  My mind also was not on board with a full 3 miles.  But I persevered and the run is in the books.

I think I've decided to go ahead and continue with the plan to run a fall marathon, even though my half was a bust.  In fact, I've already reserved a hotel room.  Just have to take the plunge and register for the race.  More on that as it is finalized!

I'm Baaaaack - an Indy Mini Race Recap

Hello all!  I hope you haven't left me during my long absence.  And now I don't even know where to begin...

Almost exactly 2 months ago I fell down and I've had a hard time getting back up.  My knee has re-gained all of it's skin, but it still hurts like you wouldn't believe and feels a little twisty and out of place.  Leading up to my half marathon I never ran any longer than 3 miles, and most of my runs were more like 1.5 - 2 miles.  I knew there was no way I could run a half and that I would have to downgrade to the 5K.  Frankly, I was depressed about it.  I know it wasn't a lifelong goal like Boston (and I can't imagine living with me if it had been that big of a race) but I had been training and training and was having the moment robbed from me by a stupid crack in the sidewalk and I was angry!

I didn't want this blog to become a place where I wallowed in self-pity (and have it live on forever in the world of the internets) so I've been away.  Mostly taking piddly little training runs and then finishing off a lot of these:

Don't mind the Liquid Plumr.  I wasn't that down about the sitch.

So anyway, I spent the whole week leading up to the race toying with the idea of running the half anyway.  I mean, I had paid for the half, my shirt said I ran the half, and if I had to I could run or walk that far.  You know, if I was being chased or something.  The night before the race I laid out my gear for the morning:

We woke up race day and took the requisite pre-race picture (both of us still thinking maybe we could do the half, and knowing we would be crippled for a good long while if we did):

Yes we look haggard...it is early, don't judge.

We literally walked out the front door of our hotel room into the corral for the 5K.  The starting corrals are lined up for blocks and blocks, but somehow we picked the perfect hotel for our corral.  Go us!  Usually we have to walk a mile in the freezing cold.

Anyway, the 5K starts in the half marathon A-D corrals.  Corrals E-Z are already lined up behind you and the half marathoners who want to get into A-D stand off to the side and shoot you ridiculous 5Kers dirty looks.  As a person who downgraded to the 5K you can feel the energy, nerves, excitement, etc of all the people behind you who are about to do something they've trained and looked forward to and maybe even feared for months.  Personally, I understood the glares from the people on the sidelines waiting to get into my corral.  Last year I was in Corral D, and I wanted the 5K to get out of my way already, because it was COLD on the sidelines and at least in the corral I would have body heat surrounding me.  All of that energy surrounding the half made me still want to get out and run it while standing in the 5K start line.  Glutton for punishment?  This girl right here.

In the end, we did run the 5K.  It was so congested that we walked for almost the first half mile.  When it finally cleared a little you had to spend the next half mile or more dodging people, weaving in and out, because no one actually lined up according to their pace.  In the end, Dave and I finished together in 33:07, the first time we've ever run a whole race together from start to finish.  It was a nice thing, running together.  But next year we are totally running the half!!

We got done in time to head back to the finish line of the half (score some Dippin' Dots) and watch the quickies finish the race.  I even saw some people I knew from our running group at home and one guy I went to college with (random) and cheered them on as they ran down the final .1 mile.  It was exciting and fun to cheer for people.  You could see who had some left in the tank and who was totally crippled by their effort.  One chick actually had blood gushing down her legs (we think from chafing, we hope from chafing).

We cleaned up and went to do our traditional post race gorging of ourselves.  Dave wanted PF Chang's and so for the first time in my life I tried tofu (the sacrifices we make for love):

No, just no.  Nononononono.

I had to wash the taste out of my mouth with something:

While we were walking around the mall eating our cookies we saw a Proactiv vending machine.  The things you can buy out of vending machines these days astounds me.

The good news is, we weren't crippled by running a 5K (smart decision? yes.) and we were able to have a great weekend playing mini golf, shopping for new furniture, and eating yummy chocolate at The Melting Pot.  But we will be back to avenge the Indy Mini next year!