I Will Do Better, I Promise

I have been shamed into writing this. Not that many people read what I have to say on here, but I have been told and I realize that I am not doing a very good job of keeping this blog up to date. I am going to work on being more consistent with my posts. That being said, there’s a lot I need to catch you up on:

Brennan – He’s definitely part of the reason I haven’t been writing as much, but this is not a bad thing. Once the initial shock of his diagnosis wore off, we got all of his medications filled and started palliative care. Although at one point we thought we had only a matter of days with him, but once his pain medication, anti-inflammatory, and anti-acid medications started working, he improved. The past two weekends with him have been great – we’ve been going for walks, to the dog park, and to get “puppy cones” at Sheridan’s Frozen Custard (seriously, we order him a miniature vanilla cone and he loves it). He’s been spoiled with homemade dinners of chicken, rice and green beans. We are definitely thankful for these good days we’ve been given. Unfortunately, the tumors are still appearing all over his body, but he’s still doing fine. He’s taken to barking and/or growling at me in the mornings when I come in to tell him goodbye before I leave for work. This breaks my heart, but David tells me it is just because he doesn’t want me to leave. It still breaks my heart because I don’t want to leave him.

Here are some of our photos from the dog park:





Running - My running is back on schedule. During those tough few weeks with Brennan, I got off track. I would come home from work and skip my run so I could sit with him and spend time with him. I finally realized that my evening workouts weren’t working out too well, so I have changed it up. My rest days are Monday and Friday, so I have been getting up early and getting my workouts in before work on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. On some days, this definitely means I am tired in the afternoons, but it feels so good to have my workout done before I get to work. On my way home from work, I don’t have to stress about how I am going to get in my workouts, making dinner, and running whatever errands I have planned. My bedtime is definitely earlier, but I think this is working out well. Hopefully I will continue this schedule; frankly, it may be a necessity in the hot summers in Fort Worth. The other plus is that I get to come home and spend my evenings with David and Brennan without that nagging guilt!

Training – I got a trainer. Actually, David and I both got one. We signed up at a new gym when we moved and the training session prices were reasonable, so we each got 5 sessions. David’s trainer is a triathlete, and my trainer is a marathoner. When I say “marathoner,” I don’t mean a “slowly-run-one-or-two-marathons-per-year” marathoner such as myself. We’re both marathoners, but she blows marathoning out of the water. I won’t reveal her name, but I will give you some of her stats:

• She ran the Dallas White Rock Marathon (the one that I ran in December) in those less-than-perfect windy and warm conditions with a time of 3:56:02, almost an hour faster than me.
• In 2009 (yes, I mean just in January and February of this year), she’s run the following marathons: Walt Disney World (3:54:52), Houston (3:35:58 – Boston qualifying), and Austin (3:38:38 – Boston qualifying). She’s running the Ultramarathon at Cowtown a week from this Saturday. I won’t list all the half marathons she’s already done this year.

If you don’t understand by now, you never will. This girl is a freak. However, she's exactly the kind of freak that I want to have as a trainer. We’ve had four sessions together, and I will tell you that it is not getting easier. She’s made some changes to my running schedule and I am strength training twice per week. I am not lifting heavy weights; instead, I am doing routines that incorporate strength, balance, and core training.

Last Saturday’s workout included four exercises done in an hour’s time. First, lunges, but not just any lunges. I held a 10-pound dumbbell in each hand, while standing on the end-line of a basketball court. I would lunge forward, do a bicep curl while at the bottom of the lunge, then come up and balance on my front leg. I repeated this, alternating legs, all the way down the length of the court. On the width of the court, I did the same thing, except that I did shoulder presses with the dumbbells. Then back down the other length and width of the court. After lunges, I put a large resistance band around my ankles. I stretched my legs apart, stood on my tip-toes and did squats all the way down the length of the court. When I got to the wall at the other end, I did twenty leg lifts on the outside leg. Then back to the other end of the court and leg lifts on the other leg. Finally, I did squats with a medicine ball down the length of the court. I would squat, throw the ball up into the air as high as I could, run after the ball (it could bounce once), catch and squat, and repeat. I did this down and back. Then I repeated everything. And worse, I paid for this torture after I had already run three miles. I was so tired when it was over. It was a great workout that left me out of breath and sore the next day, but it was also a fun challenge. The nine miles on the day following the workout were not much fun, but they were good practice on how to run on tired legs.

David’s New Job – Sadly for David, his days of sleeping in and three-hour workouts are limited. He starts his new job a week from today. I don’t know all the details, but he’ll be working with persons just out of prison on parole. It should be interesting, and he will have the opportunity to get hours toward his full LPC license. Best of all, his office is close to mine, so hopefully we’ll get to commute together most days of the week.

The Cowtown Half Marathon is Coming, But My Foot is Holding Me Back – I am signed up and plan to run this race. We have friends coming into town, and David is planning on running the 5K. It’s been too long since I’ve raced, and the spirit and excitement of the race is what excites me and motivates me to keep running. However, my dream of breaking 2 hours in the half probably won’t happen at Cowtown. I have been having pain on the outside of my left foot. The pain is not consistent – sometimes it hurts when I run, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it hurts when I am walking around at the grocery store, sometimes it doesn’t. I visited a doctor last week and I was diagnosed with tendonitis. The doctor is making me custom insoles for my shoes, and I am icing my foot nightly and taking ibuprofen every day. This hasn’t stopped my running, but running sure hasn’t been as pleasant for me as it has in the past. The insoles won’t be ready until after Cowtown, so I am going to do my best and run the race as a long run to prepare for San Diego.

A Crazy Thought – My plan for this year is to run the San Diego and San Antonio marathons, but I had a crazy thought yesterday. Why not enter the NYC marathon lottery? Last year, about half the people who entered the lottery got in (I am not sure of the exact stats, but something like 80,000 applied and 38,000 got in the race). I want to do this marathon someday, but I hadn’t really considered it for this year. If I do get in and decide not to go, I think I can defer my entry until next year. And, if I don’t get in this year, next year, and the year after, I will be able to enter in 2012. I look at this as setting myself up to run NYC at least by 2012. I need any motivation I can get to keep running until 2012.

All in all, life is good. We are thankful for every good day we have with Brennan and we are trying to avoid all the negative thoughts about losing him. Our running and workouts are progressing, and I am rejoicing in the simple pleasures in life, such as the fact that Daylight Savings Time begins in a couple of weeks and it won’t be dark when I get home from work. Here are some recent photos of Brennan, including one with him and his new favorite toy, his flea ("bite me" - get it?):