So I walked my dog 3 miles today.  It’s not much, but it still counted as day 93 of my walk-run-elliptical streak.

While walking on my lumpy bumpy frozen (but no snow) trails is great for my joints, it’s not great cardio for me.  So to supplement my cardio, I tried a zumba DVD.  I loved doing zumba when I was part of a gym that offered classes.

It was fun, but it didn’t get my heart rate as consistently high as I was expecting it to.  Possibly because I’m no dancer and couldn’t really keep up with all the moves.  BUT, I was excited to do it.  Which is a lot more than I can say about heading to the gym when it’s busy.  I can’t stand watching people practicing bad form on the weights or burning themselves out on cardio.

First Half marathon of 12.1/2.12 is coming up this weekend.  It’s an indoor race, with a pretty steep time limit, but I’m excited to start this challenge I set for myself.

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I only went home for a couple days. But they were nice days and the weather was mild. I should have gone for a run, but I didn’t want to spend time away from my parents. I didn’t run but I got some activity in:

• Walked around the airport on my way out
• Two brisk walks with my mom
• Some time on my parent’s great little elliptical
• Tried out my mom’s Christmas gifts, Zumba videos.  She sent me home with a couple so I can play with them too.
• A playstation Move game.  My brother and I spent hours playing archery and gladiator games.  Boy is my right side sore.
• Walked my brother’s new 100+ lb rescue dog.  He’s a real sweetie.  He was walking well for me as soon as he figured out that I knew what I was doing with his prong collar.

Back to working out and enjoying my own dog tomorrow.  But sometimes I do miss home.

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When I was a competitive athlete in college, we didn’t get to chose when we worked out.  Our team needed us.  Fever was the criteria for if you would show up in the morning.  Even when you were pulled because of injury you would have to show up at the boathouse in the pre-dawn hours.  The bike was the alternative for arm and back injuries and leg injuries often meant you were the team videographer for the day.

One of the older girls told me that long before my time, our male coach used to buy the menstrual cramp excuse.  Yes, it’s an excuse.  I’ve had awful cramping before.  Perhaps not endometritis bad, but I’ve had cramps that made me nauseous and dizzy and generally very very unhappy.  But I trained through all of them.  My coach obviously became wiser and told people to train the best they could.

I almost used the excuse the other day.  I think I just wanted a day off.  I’m on day 88 of my minimum of 1 mile a day walk-run-elliptical streak.  But I didn’t, I went to the gym and did a lighter elliptical workout and then a 20minute bike cooldown.

I actually wish I had stayed on the elliptical.  While I was on the machine my uterus stopped punching me in the gut.  It came back with a vengence.

It is a lesson however, when you don’t feel up to it lacing up your shoes and trying is worth the effort.  You might get a great workout.  Your 3 mile run might turn into a 1 mile walk, but at least you will be moving.

And you’ll show the world that women are not delicate creatures that could break if they try to workout once a month.

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I’m debating if I want to resurrect this blog for real.  Yes, I want to blog a little about my running, but not to a level where I worry about readership.  So I will probably blog a little here and there.  I do track my running on dailymile and I blog about food at Sometimes I Veg.

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Since the stress fracture and other personal matters my running has been mostly fits and starts. It embarrassed me to write about my running and lack thereof in this blog. So this poor little blog lay dormant.

I kept meaning to start back up. It just happened that New Years was it. I wanted to make sure the running would stick again, I wanted to committed to running and to this blog before working on it again.

10 days and 40 very slow miles later, I’m pretty sure this is it.

I started over on SparkPeople (as blondepoodle) and have a whole new log over at running ahead.

I’ve joined in on some challenges, I’ll be doing Tall Mom on The Run’s 1000 mile challenge. I’m also doing some challenges on Spark people. I need to get my weight back down to where it was at the end of May.

And how has running been, well it’s basically been jogging. I’m slow as molasses, but I love it. Cooper and I have run on miserable icy trails and done 7 miles of rural road near my house, it’s been great.

Hopefully soon I’ll be back to racing shape and have fun running and hiking reports to post here.

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So glad autumn is here and that cooler running weather is back!

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So our coxwain asked if there were any volunteers for the single. Looking around I realised I was the only one who had recent experience in the single. Especially because the Charles river is a very twisty course with a lot of bridges.
by future15pic

Everyone seemed concerned about sending me out in a single, it was cold, raining and pitch dark. But I felt confident in my skills.

I ended up loving it! It was surprisingly relaxing.

1. It felt like home: The Charles was my home for 5 years. I have rowed so many strokes on the twists and turns. I’ve been the stroke and I’ve been the bow. There is no other river that has ever made me feel like I belong. I know when to start making a turn for the bridges in the single despite very rarely rowing anymore.
2. Surreal, but nice: The dark, the misty rain, the lights from the cars on Memorial and Storrow drives, the bridges, rowing the Charles in this different light was like rowing in a dream. Everything was completely different, but still the same. The mist made me feel like the atmosphere was enveloping me. Definitely a strange experience, but worthwhile.
3. Other boats on the river: The other boats seemed so ghostly to me. They were apparitions in my dark dream rowing world.

Have you ever tried your sport in a completely different but the same environment? Like running trails at night, in a snowstorm? Maybe I’ll have to try that.

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By the end of my rowing career my hands had developed such thick calluses that I couldn’t sympathize with my teammates and their chewed up hands at training camps.

Yesterday I received a reminder of the pain and discomfort. I went to row with the Alumni team. By rowing a race piece with the team  my hands got all chewed up.

It had been a long time since I had rower’s hands.

My hand hurt and stung, I had made the mistake of cutting an onion for lunch.

I have an old school method of helping heal my wounds. It’s a simple mixture of baking soda and water.

I simply soak my hands in the baking soda mix for as long as I feel like it.. It makes my hand sting like it’s being disinfected. I’m not sure if that is the magic of the baking soda mixture or if it just dries out the area.

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Tip #1 – Socialize

Whether you plan on running off-leash or on-leash, on road or on trail, you want to make sure your dog can handle whatever it encounbters. This might be an over enthousiastic off leash puppy (I’m really preparing you to run into me), a horse, a motorcycle. It might be the neighbourhood children playing ball.

Your dog does not need to enjoy the tractor trailer whizzing by at 20 over the speed limit. But you should be able to maintain control.

We spent a long period of Cooper’s puppyhood just taking him around town. At first, he was terrified of children. Now we work on not bounding over to children when we meet them on trail.

We have also spent a lot of time in dog parks. Cooper loves all people and dogs now. But through our other training he now seems to understand that unless invited he shouldn’t go loving strangers.

It’s work to socialize a puppy but adult dogs can be trained too. Your local animal shelter has plenty of great dogs who might be looking for your need to run everyday.

If your new to you pup has problems adapting to the social scene, professional trainers are available to help. We found the Canine Good Citizen course especially valuable to Cooper’s inappropriate reactions (some dogs prefer a calm sniffing to an invitation to start a rucus).

Got any tips or concern for socializing for the run, share them below.

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The race consists of short uphill dashes. Runners are expected to wear high heels as their footwear. Heels 2″ and higher are eligible for prizes. It seems like a blast!

I hope that some men decide to try it out.

Unfortunately I will be playing and training in Colorado at the time. Actually, it might be a fortunate thing. People recovering from stress fractures probably should not be attempting to sprint in high heels. Especially not because this person recovering from a stress fracture owns 6 inch heels because years of rowing with women 6 inches taller than her gave her a short complex. I actually dated a guy who was a full foot taller than me for a short while.

I hope that some New Hampshire or Southern Maine runners make it out to the race. Let me know if you do.

Would you consider running in heels for charity?

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