idontbelieveingrammar

I love summer. I love the smell of chlorine on my kids skin and sunscreen and an excuse to eat ice cream every single day. Not setting the alarm and no nagging papers that I should be grading. Time to actually eat breakfast. To stay up late. Time to put away the laundry and be completely caught up on my TiVo daily. Going out on a weeknight. I even like all the sweating. Summer is my season. The summer before last was pretty epic (and I know I am too old to use that word and be taken seriously). But, really it was uh-mazing. I spent a week in the mountains, a week in Vancouver and pretty much the rest of the time at the pool and the lake. It left a lot to live up to. I pushed through a long Spring and an exhausting school year just trying to make it. To summer. I had high hopes for cleaning out my house. Room by room. All the lessons I would plan. All the friends I would see and all the adventures my family would have. And it was a big fa...

A year or so ago I read Born to Run. I didn’t go out and start running barefoot, or even buy those weird looking Vibrams (although I seriously considered it). I didn’t sign up for a marathon or even a half. But I probably have run more since I read it. It was mostly stories about ultramarathoners and was really interesting and easy to read. Even if you aren’t a runner and just like a good story. The most intriguing thing I read in the book wasn’t that we are wasting all our money on expensive shoes, or that I should run on the pads of my feet or eat salad for breakfast. But that these runners going 100 or more miles often have pace runners. Friends or volunteers that are allowed to run the last 30-50 more miles with them. To keep them going. To encourage them. And because it is always easier to run with a friend. (Well, unless you are sometimes like me and talk so much you use up all your oxygen!). But these “volunteers” often run in the middle of the night for long stretches for not...

Lately it has been cold and yuck and rainy. Which means I have better luck running at the gym. I hate running at the gym. What I really like is to lace up my shoes. Plug in my headphones and to take off down the driveway. And not come back for an hour or more. And although I like to do almost everything with other people. And will gladly accept any offer for someone to run with me, It is something I actually prefer to do alone. At my own pace. And I don’t run loops or circles or carefully plotted courses. I like to get lost. To run down roads I have never been down before. To try and get as far away as I can. But there is one problem. I don’t always remember to leave anything in the tank to get back. I run until I can’t anymore. Until I’m a little dizzy or cramping or can’t push myself any further. (and before you read this and think I am some super runner…keep in mind I max out around 5 miles..and often less...so I’m not talking super far or anything impressive)...

I had another crazy busy weekend. Owen had not one but two soccer games (both wins!). My parents were in town. My in-laws were in town. My house got skunked, again (and still smells!) I threw a fabulous 2nd birthday party for Tess. My grades are due at 8 am tomorrow ( and still aren’t done in case you were wondering). Plus, I’m still really tired from my Portland trip earlier in the week. Exhausting right? ….oh, and I also ran a Sprint Triathalon! Last night after the soccer game and birthday party and ridiculous amount of food I ate at dinner (thanks dad), I tried to get to bed early. I read a little  Born to Run as motivation and wished I had resisted the urge to have dessert at dinner. And I couldn’t sleep. And it wasn’t just the dog barking, the 2 year old crying or the 5 year old falling out of bed. I was totally nervous. I have done lots of races. Even hard ones. Like a half marathon and the Mud Run last Spring with Shaun. But this race, with the swimm...

For the last month I’ve been training for a sprint triathalon. It is a 300m swim, 20K bike ride and 5K run. Guess who won’t be sprinting? It was a little crazy for me to sign up. Because I’ve never swum laps and the peak of my cycling career was about when I was around 10 years old. I have run in over a dozen 5Ks. Or at least mostly run. And even a few longer races. So training for the running part doesn’t really scare me. And back in the day, I owned my neighborhood on my Schwinn, so how hard could the bike part be. I was petrified however, of the swim. So. I joined a gym. Bought a decent pair of goggles, a speedo and started swimming laps. I even broke down and bought a swim cap. My first time in the pool was rough. After only two laps I was winded. I couldn’t figure a breathing pattern out and the water felt thick and heavy and hard to push through. But eventually, every day I swam a few more laps. The water started to feel relaxing and I got into a rhythm. I still haven’t figured o...

Tonight I went running with a friend ten years my junior. I asked her how far she was running and when she said only about 1.5 or 2 miles, I teased her that I could go at least twice that far. And to just let me know when she needed to stop. I have been running pretty regularly for the last few weeks. It isn’t long but keep increasing my time and distance. I’ve stopped getting blisters. I don’t suck wind after five minutes anymore and I was feeling pretty good about myself. Thinking I might even be able to out run this girl who was so much younger and obviously in more shape than me. As we started to jog I told her that I run pretty slow. Like my husband used to walk beside me while I ran, slow. And she slowed her gait a little bit for me but it was still faster than I usually go. I was a little embarrassed and was not going to ask her to slow down again. So I just ran at her pace. I stayed close. And was fading fast. A little over a mile in I was ready to quit. Again, pride, which isn...

So maybe July in Texas isn’t the best time to start running again. But I have never been confined by logic, So lately, My Nikes which have been on hiatus for a while are getting a workout. Just last week they still looked shiny and new even though I’ve had them for months. I used to run. I’m not really sure how that started either. One Spring break I was broke, most of my friends were either out of town or weren’t lucky enough to get Spring Break and my husband was on the road for business. So I decided that I was going to run a marathon that week. Not like in an actual race. Just that in the next 7 days I was going to run 26.2 miles. And I did. Which was kind of dumb idea for a beginner. The first day I ran 3.75 miles. And my legs felt like jelly. The next day I ran another 3.75 miles and prided myself on how not too miserably sore I was. And on the third day, I wasn’t sure I could even get out of bed. But I ran my 3.75 miles anyways. I finished my 26.2 miles that week and kept runnin...