Rest and wait...

I took another rest day from running.  I don't know if it was the right thing to do.  My knee seems much better.  Now it is my calf muscle that is continuing to give me grief.  It hurts to the touch and even when I walk.  I am continuing my roller stretches 3 times a day and icing it.  I am also going to try out these on my next run.  http://www.amazon.com/SpiderTech-Calf-Arch-Spider-Kineseology/dp/B003CMCPMY

  Hopefully by tomorrow I will feel healthy enough to do some kind of run.  I am HATING taking this much time from running.  It is so close now.  I just need my body to hang in there a little while longer.

I am watching this tv show called "World Without End".  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1878805/  
I am up to the 4th episode.  It's a great show.  It inspires gratitude.  Gratitude that I was born in the 20th century and not the 14th century.  At the slightest hint, by anyone in at any level of power, that a woman might be a witch...she was hanged.  In a previous episode a woman is legally sold to another man by her father because she wouldn't allow her father to rape her anymore.  I think (Gov.) Mitt Romney may be a producer/writer on this show ;)

Sanity-cation from Facebook

I was finding that every day I was logging onto facebook it wasn't fun anymore.  It made me feel bad about myself, sad, angry and a little lonely.  Despite the fact that I had "access" to hundreds of facebook friends on a daily basis.  I was shocked at times what people were willing to post, including myself.  So I will be posting here for at least the next few months, and if I find that I don't miss FB, I may discontinue using it altogether.

I am still training weekly for the Chicago Marathon which I will run on October 7th.  Recently, (the past two weeks or so) I have been suffering from some running injuries.  First it was my hip.  So I listened to my body and took three days off in a row.  Which is difficult for me to do anytime, but really difficult for me to do without feeling massively guilty because the race is so close now.  The hip issue cleared up and I ran my 20 mile run without a problem a week back from last Sunday.  Then earlier this week my left calf muscle began to give me grief.  So I gave myself two days off.  Even though it was still a bit sore I ran my scheduled 13 miles this past Sunday.  While I was running my right knee started to get stiff.  Not enough to make me stop the run, but it got my attention.  Today it really hurts.  So I am taking today and tomorrow off and will reassess after that.  The worst possbile thing that could happen now is to get a permanent injury that takes me out of the race.  I would rather lose a digit.  I have been training since February (you may have noticed one or two posts on facebook ;)  ).  That is a scenario I am unwilling to accept.  So if it means I don't do another training run until race day...so be it.  I am running that marathon dammit!  I have a roller and have been rolling out my legs and hips and butt several times today and stretching.  Send me good running/health vibes.  This is a bucket list dream of mine to run this particular race.

Last week we took a trip to Chicago.  Finn and I took the Loop train into downtown Chicago to go to the Shedd Aquarium.  We had quite the adventure getting there.

As wonderful as the Shedd Aquarium is I was a little shocked by the entry price.  I know they have overhead/operation costs but $26 for a three year old and $35 (plus tax) for me seemed a little excessive.  Charging this much makes it cost prohibitive for many households to visit any of the Chicago museums.  That's sad.  Think of all those children that would love to experience such a wonderful place but their parents have to decide between a fun/educational experience for their children or food/shelter.  That's not right. 
We had our snacks in the park outside the aquarium and took the pic above.

Finn is super interested in going to school and being with other kids in his age group.  He mentions it every day.  If anyone has any suggestions for good preschools or playgroups lay it on me!

Peace

RunninMama here now

I decided to combine my two blogs.  I don't post much for general topics anyway. 

234.  That is the number of days I have to train until the Chicago Marathon on October 7th.  I really began at the end of December with my running focused training. I got a short-term membership to the Princeton Club so that I didn't have an excuse to take the whole winter off, like last year.

Prior to that, in the fall, I was participating in a class called, TRX, with Woodall Training (Kari Woodall) in Middleton.  I can't wait to get back to practicing TRX at least once a week.  I have never felt as strong and healthy as when I was taking TRX in combo with running/biking.  All my hip, neck, back, knee, hip, etc. pain went away after only 3 weeks of TRX.  I recommend it if you haven't tried it.

This past week has been not so stellar.  I got sick last Friday with a nasty cold and I am STILL sick.  I haven't been running this whole time I have been sick.  So the Frosty 5K I am running in Madison on Saturday morning should be...fun.  If by "fun" I mean really hard and definitely not my best time for a 5K.  But who knows?  I will just relax and try to have a good time.

Thank you Alabama

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/14/us/alabama-immigration-report/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

I would like to thank the state of Alabama for taking our country back sayyyyy...ohhh...50 years at least.

"Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at [discriminated peoples] in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them. "
Martin Luther King, Jr.

You know all those jobs that illegal immigrants happily do every day?  Well, they have those jobs because the people that were citizens of the U.S. already didn't want them.  They are an integral part of our U.S. economy.  Don't believe me.  Here's what Former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, has to say about this http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aeQKG53ULolk

There were once illegal immigrants in the U.S....I believe they called them Pilgrims and settlers.  The only true citizens of our country are Native Americans by the way.  

Our forefathers came to this country with the same dream as these "illegal immigrants".  They wanted a better life for themselves and their families.  They wanted freedom.  They wanted to contribute to their new community and help it grow and prosper. 
A portion of the poem, "The New Colossus", on our beloved Statue of Liberty reads, 
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Ya, this applies to EVERYONE, not just Pilgrims and other European immigrants.

Alabama, you are only giving our "governor", Scott Walker, ideas.