Newbie . . .

What in the world am I thinking doing this? I wondered for awhile about blogging. I always figured I didn't have anything to say and I wasn't witty enough . . . maybe that was because I grew up with my brother constantly telling me "that wasn't funny". Or my husband rolling his eyes at my jokes. Or him looking at me with a face that says "OMG does she ever shut up!??". Or his comment of me "living in my own little bubble". Or any number of comments from him . . .

But as I read other blogs, I think - I can be funny and it doesn't always have to be funny anyway. That just helps. Plus I find that when I can't talk to people I end up writing them emails that end up sounding just like blogs. I need an outlet.

So . . . a little background for now . . . I am just 39 yrs old (omg when did that happen!) female, married, 2 teenage children, 2 teenage step-children, wannabe athlete (specifically running and the occasional triathlon and just entering the world of weight training) , full time job - sucks takes away from sooo much.

As I run, I talk. I talk non-stop usually. Actually I talk all the time anyway. It's not that I am uncomfortable with silence, it is just that I have so much to tell people. One day one of my running buddies said to the other running buddy . . . If Michele would just shut up, she would probably run faster. Wow I thought, what a concept! I never thought about my talking slowing me down. So I try. Some runs I keep quiet, some start out talking and then I let it go for a bit . . . I know I won't actually stop talking but I do try to not do it as much anymore. Plus I thought "maybe someone else would like to talk once in awhile"  . . . hmmm.

I just finished a half marathon in March. My last long run before the race included a re-occurence of an IT band issue - Ahhhh Nooooo!  So off to the sports injury doc for a lovely bout of ART therapy. Owww. Fixed me up for a bit, race was OK, but still had pain for the last half of the run. Continued to train - did the weights and hills for strength and shortened my long runs to 12-16 km  . . . but still got the pain at 8-9km mark. Just figured oh that's normal timing - nothing awful.

Well  . . . Last Saturday I went out to do 10km. Felt the normal little twinging at 8 km . . . stopped at 9 km for a small walk (10 & 1's) and as soon as I stopped the pain in my knee was more intense than I ever felt. So I tried to pick the run back up again - no way was my knee having that either! I proceeded to limp peg-legged pirate style back home.

So . . . now I'm thinking the May half marathon I'm supposed to do is out of the question. I am cutting back my runs to 4km (last night - went ok), 5km tomorrow and 7km on Saturday - see how it goes. But my long runs were supposed to go like this - this week 16km, next 2 weeks 18km, taper down to 12km then the following week is race day. There is no way that is happening. I'm not 100% ready to give up this race - waaahhh. I guess I'm going to have to. Drop down to the 10km race. I have to get myself healthy. That must be my main concern right now. If not, I'll never run right again. Dammit!

Weight training hurts. By the way, I'm a bit of a whiner . . . I think in the nicest way but still a whiner. It's my outlet. It's just what I do. I hate training anything hard - I'd rather not hurt - LOL.  So tonight will be the weight training night. I'll have to work hard - I have to get past this mental block of hurting - because it really isn't physical. Yes, it hurts but that's not what stops me . . . it's my brain. Weakling in brain strength! Do they have an exercise for that too??

As I look back at this blog, I see that yes I talk a lot. I'm not even done yet. But I'd hate to lose my first readers, just because I can't shut up.

Sooo  . . . . have a wonderful rest of your day and maybe you'll come back to hear the rest of my rambles.

Later!