Life Ruins All of Our Best Plans



The New Year has brought many challenges to our household so far, beginning with our house being struck by a tornado on the morning of New Year's Eve. No one was hurt, so we really have nothing to complain about, but we were all home at the time & were very surprised to emerge from the basement to find that our porch, along with a nice portion of the roof, had been taken off. Trees were down all over the neighborhood, along with miscellaneous "stuff" strewn all over the yards. It was absolutely surreal. A lot of people, though not in my neighborhood, lost their entire house so we really have nothing to complain about: just a minor inconvenience. We still don't have a roof, & snow-melt has started to leak through the ceiling into my oldest daughter's room, but materials were delivered on Friday & I was told that they would start working on Monday or Tuesday. I can't wait!!!

Promptly on Monday, my son fell & hit his head requiring a staple, my younger daughter got a double ear infection that also infected her eyes, & my washing machine broke. Then it snowed. Currently I'm taking the laundry either to the laundromat across the street or to my dad's house... in the snow. Five people sure do create a lot of laundry! My husband is doing his best to trouble shoot & try to get the machine up & running again, but the poor guy is always at work. On top of all that we have had tragedy strike a close family member, & we are helping to deal with that.

Then this little fur ball showed up in my garage & I had quite a time finding his owners. He spent the day, & night, with us & was gone by the next morning, but it felt like he was with us for a week. Minor inconvenience. 



What does this have to do with running, you ask? Everything. We are all extremely stressed out & finding it hard to do all of the things we know we need to do to maintain our sanity in the midst of this most-inconvenient stretch of life we have been dealt. Things that were routine have now taken a backseat to things that are now facing us.



I had all these "plans" for January. Plans to strengthen & stretch, to spin, to swim, to run a little... My efforts have been sub-par, at best. But this is life. We have to deal with it as it comes at us, & even though training has not met my specifications, I'm still doing "something". Upon running with my much speedier friends at the social run, I discovered that I've lost some running fitness. It happens. One exciting thing is that I now have a brand new pair of running shoes!!! :) :) :) While my body & mind needed a few weeks to just chill, I am definitely ready to start ramping back up again. Very excited to put my new little shoes to the test. I switched from Nike Pegasus to the New Balance 759's, which are a firmer shoe, & so far they fit me very nicely. I can't wait to get out there & check them out. I've never run in New Balance before, so I'm pretty stoked.



I also got my hair cut. I don't exactly love it, but it needed to happen. Per usual, my hairstylist scolded me for not putting my hair up when I run (most of the time) & pointed out all the breakage, etc... yeah, yeah, yeah, get on with it... What can I say? It gives me a headache! This will at least be easier to deal with, & tri season is just around the corner. Needless to say, I need to get to the gym...