I Run These Towns

This morning I started my day at an early physical therapy session. We taped my feet, did tons of strength and balance exercises, and by 8:15 am my hips were on fire. I questioned this PT regiment when I first began. It doesn't make sense to do tons of hip and core strengthening exercises. I hurt my foot  people.  You'd think given my extensive PT experience that I'd learn not to question their methods or why every physical therapist has deathly strong hands. That's a serious query: are these individuals who already had strong hands or do they grow into it? Speaking of my PT manipulated my foot this morning, and ouch. Ouch. Granted I haven't spent the remainder of the day wearing the most appropriate footwear, but my shoes are gorgeous, medical tape and all. Bringing sexy (medical tape) back. I continue to marvel at the resiliency of the human body. Life has thrown Crohn's and its related complications at me, and I've confounded the situation by ...

It's been nearly six months since my dad died. Six months since we heard him laugh or sing to himself or tell us he loves us. It's still unfathomable. I still can't believe he's gone. Do you ever get used to it? Last night I te arfully rea d through some of the blogs I wrote right after h e died. Despite my sa dness I remembered the perspective I had during that time. Nothing was more important than being with my family. I didn't return work emails. I didn't worry about the unimportant tasks that usually feel so important. I felt so connected to myself, and it seemed like that focus would remain. Love this photo of my dad with my son at his baptism last April Of course life loves to derail my perfect perspective, and here I am nearly half a year later stressing about the small stuff. I return work emails when I should be playing with my son. I push myself to complete all the household tasks - laundry, dinner, picking up toys - at a pace that's absurd. ...

I sipped my cappuccino and tasted the familiar bitterness as the caffeine heightened my senses. A decade ago I could get by without the espresso kick; now some days it's necessary to function. Maybe not necessary  but helpful. I was driving to pick up the dogs at the kennel after a weekend with one of my best friends. It was one of our most tame weekends we've ever had, but drinking tons of magaritas is child's play compared to parenting a toddler.  14 Years Earlier I met Julie in 2002 in Killeen, Texas. We immediately clicked in a world filled with Army wives with multiple children at age 20. I was finishing law school at Baylor, and she was finishing her masters degree in speech therapy. We realized we had a lot more in common other than being a sucker for men in uniform.  When our guys were deployed (both domestically and abroad) we filled the time by shopping, hanging out, and drinking way too much. It was amazing. We commiserated about being lonely and ate a lo...

Missy Elliott meant something very different with the lyrics in her song Work It than talking about running and cross training, but that song is stuck in my head from my treadmill playlist so I am using it. The last few weeks I've been tired and struggling. Instead of my usual bad ass self I've felt sluggish. It's been rough. My blogs have been less about my running these towns and more about my struggling to be awesome. I've gone with it though because if this entire blog was just about my running and traveling that would be amazing and unrealistic. And everyone would hate me. These days I'm acutely aware of my own humanity.  I'm a few weeks into the sub 20 minute 5k training schedule, and it's very difficult. I have never worked out to the point of nearly throwing up, but that's how I feel after every run. I'm running 4 days a week, and my workouts are much shorter than I'm used to. The intensity, however, is insane. It's also exhilara...

Last week I read a piece about the fatigue of parenting. I try really, really hard not to use that as an excuse in my life. I chose to have a child, and I waited a long time for the joy of being Will's mom. I expected the initial exhaustion when I was sleeping a few hours a night and trying to keep a fragile newborn alive. Even with that I managed to run a half marathon when he was three months old and barely missed a beat. What I didn't expect was the long-term exhaustion that would ultimately set in. I think having a newborn and the anticipation of finally having a baby kept me going on pure adrenaline. I loved having a revolving door of visitors instead of sleeping. I didn't mind those snuggly moments in the middle of the night. This is what I'd waited for after all. Yet here we are fifteen months into my incredible child's life, and the exhaustion has hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm just really, really tired. I realize I only have one child, and I serio...

Let me summarize this blog for you really quickly so you know what you're getting into: ice cream, potato chips and red wine.  I've been notoriously open about the fact that I eat like a seven-year-old. I love fast food with an unabashed joy, and the last time I was anemic I remedied that with Filet Mignon and Cabernet . I'm an overachiever. I'm notorious for posting about nutrition a few times a year to remind everyone that I'm still not too serious about it. Actually that's not fair - it's not that I'm not serious about it, but it's really hard to figure out what works. That stresses me out, an d as a result makes it hard for me to take it seriously. Last summer I took at stab at going low FODMAP (eliminating certain sugars that are hard for your body to digest). When I went to see the nutritionist I explained to her that I have Crohn's, I run marathons (or a lot even when I'm not training for a marathon), I have the metabolism of a h...

I've been running long enough that I often have people ask me about training plans and my secret to getting faster as I've gotten older. I'd love to say I have some magic running elixir or some really fabulous training plan, but I'll let you in on a little secret: I don't train for races. There's a bit of a caveat here because I used to train. When I first started running I followed my training plans to the letter. I was so nervous that if my schedule said to run six miles and I ran 5.75 that I'd never be able to finish the race. I've gotten over that. Training for a long race (I'd say 10k and longer) means you generally have to log some sort of regular miles. But I've found that most training plans don't work for me. If I insist that I have to follow a training plan exactly, I will get bored. My life is too busy, and I need flexibility. Once I built up a base of miles I found it pretty easy to jump into races up to the half marathon dis...

When I met my husband he was obsessed with Canada. Okay he still is, but I had never met anyone so enthralled with our northern neighbor. Maybe it's growing up in West Virginia, but I never thought much about Canada one way or the other. I moved to Michigan during the winter Olympics and met this guy who insisted we meet at the bar and watching curling, a "sport" I didn't even know existed. He loves hockey and wears poppy pins to commemorate Canadian military personnel who have died in war. He can talk about Canadian Parliament like he works there, and before we started dating I had no idea who Steven Harper was (immediate past Prime Minister of Canada...please tell me other people didn't know that.) I had never been to Canada ten years ago. In fact the more my husband raved about it the more I dug in. I like to think my antagonism is part of my charm. My first time to Canada was on foot - I ran there during the Detroit Marathon. The second time was a few years ...