Sunday, June 30, 2013
D-Now and Ziva
In December Andy informed me that him and Lyla had decided that we needed a dog. Andy is a dog lover. While I like animals, I prefer them at other people's houses. I'm just not one of those people who gushes over animals...of any kind. Andy and I had Emma, the miniature dachshund for a couple years (until she fell in love with our neighbors and moved with them). Then we had Tank...the great Dane for about 4 months until the dog hair and dinosaur sized crying got to be too much. Especially since Lyla was still so small. My house had been joyfully pet free for a couple years. However, being the great wife and mother than I am (hahaha) I gave in. On Valentine's Day Lyla and I went to pick up Ziva, a small lab mix, from some friends who were moving and couldn't keep her. Ziva was 1.5 at the time and kennel/potty trained. She took to our sweet little family quickly and Lyla and Andy are totally in love! While I don't love the dog hair that is EVERYWHERE, I do love that Ziva makes my family happy and is a great dog!
That same weekend we were a host family for a our church youth conference, D-Now (Disciple Now). FBC, along with a couple other churches, put on a youth conference every February for the local youth. Families open their homes to be "host families" for the kids for the weekend. Usually D-Now falls during one of my competitions, but this year it was on a free weekend. Andy and I signed up for girls as we really wanted Lyla to be around Godly young women. And not to mention our house is a girly one....Andy is the only male. We ended up with 11 8th grade girls! Andy became fearful of the all "hair flipping". I seriously thought he was about to check into a hotel for the weekend. But he perservered. It was an awesome experience. We got to attend the worship and large groups which was AWESOME! Nothing like several hundred middle and high school students worshiping the LORD. Our house was filled. We had an air mattress in Andy's office, two in the living room and two in Lyla's bed room. Each couch was slept on and Lyla and Ziva slept in our room. Lyla stayed up playing with the girls each night until at least midnight. In fact, she cried the last morning because her "friends" were leaving. She loved having a mass sleep over for the weekend! It was such an honor to feed these girls, spend some time talking about our savior and laughing and their youthfulness. Our two college students who were the leaders for this group were amazing and sweet and just a joy to be around. It was a wonderful experience that I hope to do again. God certainly used our tiny little home in a big way and I think we were all changed for the better because of it!
Big Ole Honkin' Catch Up: Part 1 - Half Marathon
Wow! It's been 6 months since my last blog. Obviously I am not too good at keeping up with this. I've been thinking about blogging for a while, but I'm not going to lie....with it being so long, I've been a bit intimidated to even start! So here we go. It might take me a few posts, but there are just things that I want to document more for myself than for the hope that people are reading about my busy/but mundane life. ;)
Shortly after the 5K I ran in October, I decided I wanted to run a half-marathon. I figured I could train/prepare for a year and run the Rock-N-Roll in November 2013. However, I started talking to some running friends who insisted that if I was already up to 5 miles that I could easily get to 13.1 and long before November of next year. So I started a running plan on runkeeper app and started looking for a half-marathon to run. I decided on the Herothon in San Antonio in late January. My friend Misty was suppose to run it with me, but she had to back out at the last minute due to some family health issues.
Andy was a huge help in my training. I would run 2 short runs during the week and one long run on the weekends. Once my long runs go up to 7-9 miles I really needed help. He would drop me off places so I could run home, bring me water and a fiber bar when I needed it and sometimes pick me up when I couldn't make it another step.
I started having knee problems once my miles increased. I went to my school athletic trainer (perks of teaching on a high school campus and working alongside the athletic program). He gave me some hip and lower abdominal excerises to do to increase stength in those areas and take the pressure off my knees. However, my left knee was still killing me. Sometimes to the point of tears. I went back to him....2 weeks before the race and told him, "I don't care what you or I have to do. I have paid for this race and trained for this race so I'm running it. Just tell me how to get through it!" He thinks I have a tilted knee cap and so the constant motion of running aggrevates it. He suggested a knee brace and told me to rest my knee until the race.
Race Day: Andy and Lyla got up with me at 5AM to eat breakfast and head out to downtown SA. The race started at 7AM. At this point I hadn't run more than 10 miles in my training, but everyone told me if I could run 10 by myself I could run 13.1 at the race. So off I went. Setting a steady pace and looking forward to seeing my cheering section along the route. The nice thing about technology is Andy could call me to encourage me along the way and find out where I was and let me know where I would see them next. The first 3 miles were a breeze. I was thinking, "this is easy! I'm so doing this again!" Then mile 5 hit and my knee started hurting a little. Downhill is always the worst. However, at a moment when I was really struggling I looked up to see "I can do all things through Christ" on the back of another runner's shirt! Thank you Lord, just what I needed. Andy called and said him and Lyla were at the bottom of the hill at about 5.5. Seeing their faces was just what I needed. Gave them both a kiss and a hug and continued on my way.
At 6.5 I saw my parents...signs, cow bells and all! My school athletic trainer was working the med tent at 8.2 so after the encouragement from my parents I set my goal for seeing Scott. He came running up alongside me, asked about my knee (which was feeling a little numb at this point....7 miles was real pain), gave me some encouragement and sent me on my way. Andy called to say him and Lyla were at the 9 mile marker...Yay just what I needed. This is where little goals were a big help. Andy and Lyla handed me water at mile 9, my parents were at mile 10 (with a protein bar), Andy and Lyla made it to mile 11 and because this was a loop I saw my parents again before mile 12. And then it was the last stretch. It was hard, I was tired, but I had a goal to run the whole thing and do it in under 2:30. Luckily there were pace keeperes along the way so if I kept the girl with the 2:30 sign behind me then I was good. The last little half mile was up hill...seriously!!! I came running in to cheers and finished in 2:28:09! WooHoo!! Met my goal!
It was a great experience. The training part was the worst, but the reward was AWESOME!!! I've kept up with my running although my longest distance since that race has only been 6 miles. But I've got to listen to my knee which still hurts frequently. I probably should get it looked at, but my two athletic
trainers at school have said the only thing a doctor could do is surgery and I'm not willing to do that! I plan on running the Rock-N-Roll half this coming November. I've heard it's a blast with music and huge crowds. I can't wait.
Upcoming Blog Posts: Spring Break, Lyla's 4th birthday, Lyla's dance recital, Summer Fun
Shortly after the 5K I ran in October, I decided I wanted to run a half-marathon. I figured I could train/prepare for a year and run the Rock-N-Roll in November 2013. However, I started talking to some running friends who insisted that if I was already up to 5 miles that I could easily get to 13.1 and long before November of next year. So I started a running plan on runkeeper app and started looking for a half-marathon to run. I decided on the Herothon in San Antonio in late January. My friend Misty was suppose to run it with me, but she had to back out at the last minute due to some family health issues.
Andy was a huge help in my training. I would run 2 short runs during the week and one long run on the weekends. Once my long runs go up to 7-9 miles I really needed help. He would drop me off places so I could run home, bring me water and a fiber bar when I needed it and sometimes pick me up when I couldn't make it another step.
I started having knee problems once my miles increased. I went to my school athletic trainer (perks of teaching on a high school campus and working alongside the athletic program). He gave me some hip and lower abdominal excerises to do to increase stength in those areas and take the pressure off my knees. However, my left knee was still killing me. Sometimes to the point of tears. I went back to him....2 weeks before the race and told him, "I don't care what you or I have to do. I have paid for this race and trained for this race so I'm running it. Just tell me how to get through it!" He thinks I have a tilted knee cap and so the constant motion of running aggrevates it. He suggested a knee brace and told me to rest my knee until the race.
Race Day: Andy and Lyla got up with me at 5AM to eat breakfast and head out to downtown SA. The race started at 7AM. At this point I hadn't run more than 10 miles in my training, but everyone told me if I could run 10 by myself I could run 13.1 at the race. So off I went. Setting a steady pace and looking forward to seeing my cheering section along the route. The nice thing about technology is Andy could call me to encourage me along the way and find out where I was and let me know where I would see them next. The first 3 miles were a breeze. I was thinking, "this is easy! I'm so doing this again!" Then mile 5 hit and my knee started hurting a little. Downhill is always the worst. However, at a moment when I was really struggling I looked up to see "I can do all things through Christ" on the back of another runner's shirt! Thank you Lord, just what I needed. Andy called and said him and Lyla were at the bottom of the hill at about 5.5. Seeing their faces was just what I needed. Gave them both a kiss and a hug and continued on my way.
At 6.5 I saw my parents...signs, cow bells and all! My school athletic trainer was working the med tent at 8.2 so after the encouragement from my parents I set my goal for seeing Scott. He came running up alongside me, asked about my knee (which was feeling a little numb at this point....7 miles was real pain), gave me some encouragement and sent me on my way. Andy called to say him and Lyla were at the 9 mile marker...Yay just what I needed. This is where little goals were a big help. Andy and Lyla handed me water at mile 9, my parents were at mile 10 (with a protein bar), Andy and Lyla made it to mile 11 and because this was a loop I saw my parents again before mile 12. And then it was the last stretch. It was hard, I was tired, but I had a goal to run the whole thing and do it in under 2:30. Luckily there were pace keeperes along the way so if I kept the girl with the 2:30 sign behind me then I was good. The last little half mile was up hill...seriously!!! I came running in to cheers and finished in 2:28:09! WooHoo!! Met my goal!
Upcoming Blog Posts: Spring Break, Lyla's 4th birthday, Lyla's dance recital, Summer Fun
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)