Sick

For the past week I have been battling the cold from hell. Thursday morning I woke up with a scratchy throat, did my 8 mile run, and proceeded to get a bit of a stuffy nose. Friday was about the same but I could tell I was starting to get more and more congested.

Saturday I woke up and did a 4 mile run but could tell my balance was off because my head was so stuffy. We had a wedding to go to that evening and by that time I was in full fledged hell. My head felt like it was going to explode, I couldn't breathe, my nose was running like crazy. Fun.

Sunday I was supposed to do 10 miles for my up and coming half marathon. Didn't happen and I was bummed. I almost ventured out anyway until my husband knocked some sense into me convinced me to rest, this is my body's way of telling me I've been going a mile a minute the last 6 months and to give it a break. So I listened. I did venture out to see The Hunger Games with some friends Sunday afternoon (which it ROCKED!!) I read the books long time ago so have been very excited to see the movie. Of course I felt like crap the entire time, having to blow my nose and cough and my head being so stuffy. Just a reason to see it again.

Monday I called in sick to work and laid in bed. All. Day. Lost my voice too. However through out all these days I've been sick I have not been sleeping well. How are you suppose to get better if you're not sleeping? I can't breath and my head has been so stuffy it's been really difficult to sleep.

Tuesday I went to work still feeling like crap but I had stuff that had to get done. Woke up about 12:30 this morning coughing my brains out, blowing my nose, and having the worst sinus headache I think I have EVER had. So I didn't sleep much last night either.

Oh not to mention my eyes were all crusted shut and am on the verge of viral pink eye AGAIN!!! Luckily after my shower and cleaning them out they don't look as red and they did when I first peeled my eyes open.

So I'm at work again today and hoping that someone puts me out of my misery, oh I mean I hope I start to feel better because I really want to run tomorrow and I have to do my long run Saturday which at this rate could be long and painful. I'm throwing a baby shower Sunday so I really need to be feeling better.

Why don't I take any medicine? Well I'm really weird about med's and won't take any unless I absolutely have to. Sleeping pills? NO WAY!! So I suffer. But if it's just a virus it still has to run it's course. If in another week I'm still this bad off then I'll go to the doctor and bed them for an antibiotic but in the meantime I can kick this myself. I think it makes your immune system stronger, which is why I warded off colds the last year. This was just my time and boy was it out to get me.

I hope to be up and running tomorrow. Literally.

In other news Sophie is officially paci free!!! Last week was a little rough but I had her convinced that the paci would make her teeth nasty and that she gave it to her baby cousin. It seemed to work because she asked for it only a few times but when I told her it was gone she seemed fine with it. And the really good news is she's still sleeping pretty well!! So happy to be done with that phase of her life.

Operation Paci Take Away

It's been a long time coming. I've put this off for way longer than I ever said I would.

Operation paci take away has commenced and it has not been pretty.

Yes, I realize that my child is almost 3 and still sleeps with a paci. The dentist has lectured me and family members have lectured me but what can I say? I've needed my sleep.

I'm sure at some point in the blog I've mentioned how horrible of a sleeper my daughter was and really within the last 8 months has she started sleeping through the night consistently. Who could blame me for not wanting to take the one thing that would aide in her sleeping well? Call me selfish I don't care. I personally would just call me tired.

I always figured it wasn't killing her. She is a happy and healthy girl so who cares that she sleeps with a paci? Yes, I realize that it could mess up her mouth and the odds of her needing braces increase tremendously but both me and my husband had braces so she's doomed anyway. 

Over the last few months I've tried to with hold the beloved paci but I couldn't take the tantrums that went along with it.

Last Friday she went to bed without it (surprisingly) and slept all the way until 5:00 but woke up asking for it. I caved. What can I say I was tired. Horrible excuse I know but who really can deal with a screaming child at 5 am?

So Saturday she's just pissed from the get go and cried for over an hour when I wouldn't give it to her. The real kicker? "Can you get it for me please mommy?" I am mush and I caved yet again. Confusing this child? Yes! I have no will power.

So fast forward to last night I try a different tactic. I say "Sophie, paci's are nasty. They are yucky and you don't want that nasty thing in your mouth." "Paci's are for babies and you'r a big girl."

She seems to contemplate this for a few moments and finally tells me "Mommy, I give paci to a baby because I'm a big girl." What?? OK roll with it. So I tell her to give it to baby Lawson (her cousin who is 10 months).

She gives it to me and then a few minutes later she asks for it back, well cries for it really. So I give it to her but continue my negative talk of the paci. My new plan is to make the paci sound like it's the grossest thing ever in hopes that it'll ultimately be her decision to give it up. Sophie just isn't a cold turkey kind of kid.

We fall asleep in my bed and all hell breaks lose when my husband tried to move her back to her bed. She wakes up crying because she wants to sleep with mommy and daddy (we've been letting her fall asleep in our bed but move her when she's asleep - just another one of those phases that'll work itself out in time).

So I go in and tell her she can sleep with mommy and daddy if she takes her paci out. If she wants paci she has to sleep in her own bed. Once she gets in bed she tells me "Paci's are for babies, I give it to a baby." and she hands it over.

And she sleeps all night with out it. I, however, did not sleep. She's a kicker. 

Let's see what tonight brings. Either way I call it a step in the right direction.

The Long Run that Wasn't

I'm running my 6th half marathon in just under a month and "training" did not start off very well this past weekend.

All I can say is sangria is evil. It goes down way too easily and before I knew it most of the bottle was gone! I blame the 80 degrees and friends over for a cookout.

Me, Jill and Rachael - mom's of girls = sangria and lots of it :)

Kinsey, Kendall and my girl Sophie - best friends!

We grilled out for St. Patty's Day and invited our good friends over for an afternoon of letting the girls run around together. As I mentioned I had about 1 - 4 glasses too many of sangria and I felt like going to bed at 8:00.

Then I woke up in the middle of the night dehydrated and didn't sleep well so when it was time to wake up and get my run on, I laid on the couch for several hours instead, drinking water and hoping my motivation would come.

It didn't really and by that time it was sunny and 70 out so I knew it would be miserable. My mother in law wanted to take Sophie for a few hours so Ricky and I do what any normal married couple would do when their kid is gone for a few hours. We went to the gym together - something we haven't gotten to do in a long time.

By the time we got to the gym it was warm (I mean it's the South, crank that air UP!) and smelly so after 3 miles I was done. Sweating profusely and still not quite right, I did weights instead. Then we went home hoping to plant a bunch of shrubs we bought at Home Depot but the thunderstorms rolled in and nixed those plans.

Lesson learned: easy on the booze because I'm a light weight and nothing good ever comes from it.

So Saturday I will have to knock out 8 - 10 miles before the wedding we have to go to. Race is still about a month away so I'm not concerned. I'm just kind of running it and hoping for the best, no real goal for this one. Mainly because I'll be traveling to Charlotte just me and Sophie and I might be a little stressed and tired but I want to get one more race in before I (hopefully) get pregnant - I say that a lot lately.

The weather has been beautiful here lately, minus the afternoon storms that pop up, but we're used to that all summer long.

I hear the beach calling my name soon, just need to get through a wedding this week, baby shower next week, a birthday party the week after that, Easter, race, and THEN beach! Free time? What's that?

Stole this picture from the Summerville Journal Scene:

Obviously I'm not the dude in the yellow shirt, coming up from behind in the teal shorts and black shirt. I don't get too many "decent" pictures of myself running but I'm digging my leg muscle. You can barely see the cellulite.

I love the time change, so happy that it stays light later now but my body is not adapting well to the loss of an hour. It's been very difficult waking up in the morning, maybe because even though my clock says 4:05 it's really 3:05. Big difference. I did make it up yesterday but not this morning.

Speaking of yesterday, it started out as any other Monday morning. We're ready, loaded in the car, make it all the way to daycare when Sophie throws up all over the place. In my car, on the car seat, on herself. Yuck. Poor kid, she was very upset about it too, not that I blame her.

So I clean her up and we head back home after calling daycare and work to tell them we won't be there today. I mean I can't possibly send her to school after she's thrown up and my car is covered. What's worse is my drive is 45 minutes so I roll the windows down and off we go.

So my morning was spent cleaning my daughter, cleaning the car and doing laundry. Poor girl, she slept for 3 hours and then seemed fine after that. When she woke up she ate and kept everything down and was a whole new girl, ready to play and run around. Maybe it was just an upset tummy? Who knows with kids. Too many little viruses going around to tell for sure.

We survived and she's at school today so hopefully there are no more puking incidents but I'm glad she's feeling better. I hate it when she's sick, I want to make it all better immediately.

Flowertown Festival Run

Yesterday I ran in the annual 5 and 10K race in our town. It's a pre-festival race called the Flowertown Festival Run, or I guess they just call it the Flowertown Run now. Every Spring right when the Azaleas are in bloom, our town has what's called the Flowertown Festival where local vendors come out and sell things, there's food and games for the kids.

To be honest in the 6 years I've lived here, we've NEVER been. How crazy is that? Actually it's not crazy at all seeing is how I've heard how crowded and expensive it all is. But now that Sophie is getting older it's one of those things we will eventually start taking her to. Starting this year, I think.

So anyway this run is put on by the local YMCA. It's actually a really nice run through our town (the 10K loops twice) and a lot of people do come out to support. It's very well organized for such a small race and we even got tech shirts this year!

Of course it being in our town we participate. My sister has come down the last 2 years to run it too. Ricky even runs, and he is not a runner. So it's fun.

We had perfect weather, except for the small wind gusts that like to keep you in check (I hate the wind).

For the last couple of weeks I've been working on getting faster. I knew I wanted to run this race fast since I didn't get pregnant last month. I'd been training for something faster than an 8:15 pace, my time last year was 51:28, my fastest 10k. It was something that I needed to prove to myself, that I could run fast (fast for me) since the last 5 months were spent training slowly for the marathon.

The plan was to start out slower, about an 8:30 pace and then speed up every mile. Well, I started out fast, I couldn't help it, I saw a guy that I see at the gym a bunch and the competitive person in me said "I will beat him."

Mile 1 - 7:59
Mile 2 - 7:54
Mile 3 - 7:57

By this time I was feeling really good, even though I was running fast, but before long I started feeling like this was too fast and I wasn't sure how long I could keep it up. I passed the guy (yay!) but I started to slow down due to the cramp in my side.

Mile 4 - 8:20 (ugh!)
Mile 5 - 8:11 (guy passed me, crap!)

At looked at my watch and realized that if I sped up I could come in under 50 minutes and that truly was my goal the whole time. Unfortunately as I approached Mile 6 I felt like I was either going to hurl or pass out (maybe both) so I slowed a bit and then picked up the pace.

Mile 6 - 7:59
.2 - 7:48

Time 50:18 - so close!!!!

I was bummed that I didn't come in under 50 minutes but I ran my heart out and beat my best time by 1 minute and 10 seconds. Plus I ran 4 out of the 6 miles in a 7:50 something pace, I haven't run that fast.....in a long time, maybe even ever? It felt really good.

So I've signed up for my next race in April, the Charlotte Race Fest half marathon.

I've honestly been enjoying these shorter distances. Maybe it's the lack of pressure I feel to run and do my day to day life. I don't have these crazy long runs to do anymore. I mean I have a decent base that I don't have to go and really "train" for the half, but I will do a few longer runs between now and April 14th.

Race season is coming to an end for the Summer, which is kind of sad seeing as how I might be really pregnant in the Fall, but that's OK, I will continue to run.