Some Memories and 56 Flights of Stairs

Me holding Tiff with April looking on

Yesterday marked the 23rd anniversary of my sister April's death.  Typically, I write some memory about her here on this day but this year, I can't think of what to add to what has previously been written.  So if you want to share in some April memories with me, look here and here.  I still miss her and think about her a lot. 

Yesterday, Kevin and I participated in the Anthem Fight for Air Climb, an event that benefits the American Lung Association.  Kevin and his friend from work, Mary Jo, do this event annually, and this year was the first year I participated.  The event is a stair climb up 56 flights of stairs to the top of the tallest building in Denver and it occurred to me while climbing the stairs that it was somewhat fitting to be doing an event benefiting the Lung Association on the day that the cancer in my sister's lungs took her life.

Here we are getting ready to race.

The guys hanging with a woolly mammoth (why there was a woolly mammoth mascot for the Lung Association completely mystifies me).

This was the first race type thing I have done since hurting my back and it was a lot of fun to get back out there and to do this with Kevin.  Although, after running marathons and half marathons, it was kind of odd to do a race that is over in like 15 minutes.  Quite a big difference from an endurance event where you have to ignore a brain screaming at you to please end the agony and stop running.  I was pleased to see that my lunging and walking or elliptical workouts have paid off and I made it to the top with no thigh burn and no real huffing. 

Maybe We Should Change His Name to Pig Pen

Earlier this week, Drew and I were looking for one of his hoodies.  We looked every place we could think of and couldn't find it.  So, yesterday, we renewed our search and went to look under his bed.  This is what I pulled out from under his bed........................and then my head exploded. 

Okay not really, but I swear this kid's sloppiness is going to do me in one day!  He never wants to throw anything away.  If I find trash in his room, I have to hide it in the garbage because if he sees it, he will pull it back out.  Yesterday's excavation turned up plenty of ripped cardboard, cuz you never know when you might need that, a Dusseldorf city guide, which he insists he "needs" despite telling me repeatedly how boring Dusseldorf was, many Star Wars books and Nerf bullets, a few cd's, a bag packed with books he insisted needed to stay in his room and more.  Even Ella seemed intrigued by the pile of crap that came out from under that bed.   

How this happened is beyond me.  His dad and I are neat people yet we have this 11 year old who's life goal appears to be hoarding things and spreading junk far and wide.  His room pretty much always gives me anxiety and his version of a clean room and my version are about as far apart as Roseanne Barr and Giselle Bundchen. 

Get Me Off This Thing!

from We Heart It

When I was a kid, my family used to leave our Chicago home and make an annual trip to Winter Park Colorado for some skiing.  Up on the mountain, my younger sister, Tiffany, and I loved to go off the groomed runs and ski the trails in the trees.  Instead of smooth and wide, they were narrow, twisty, and bumpy, with large pine and aspen obstacles, and the occasional 4 foot drop at the end (totally had my knees in my ribcage on that one BUT stuck the landing).

As I got older and taller, my skies got longer (this was before the whole parabolic thing) and as they got longer making tight turns in the trees became a bit trickier and brought a whole new element of thrill to the entire outing. 

On one particular day, we were schussing through the trees and all of the sudden, tight turn out of nowhere.  Well, me and my jumbo skies did not make the turn and I ended up off the trail, stopped by a pine tree.  Luckily, I was not going too fast, so no physical damage but I did end up with one ski on either side of the pine tree and my body pressed up against the tree.  Tiff and I had a good laugh, in fact, I seem to remember one of us making some yellow snow (the one who's name rhymes with Biff) and then after quelling the giggles, I moved to extract myself.  I pushed back against the tree with both arms but my arms were not long enough to get the tips of my skies past the tree trunk and when I let go of the tree, I slid right back into place, up against that trunk.  A few more attempts yielded the same frustrating result.  Back up against that tree.  Finally, admitting defeat, I snapped myself out of my skies and resorted to removing my skies with my hands.  

The past few months of my life have seen me struggling with some things.  I am trying to work through some feelings I have and I am trying to change the things I need to so that I can move ahead.  But despite the best intentions, I feel like I am back up against that darn tree.  I push away, feel like I am making progress and then, bam, hello tree again.  Only this time, no easy fix by removing my skies, instead I have to just keep pushing and hope that eventually, I see my way out of this bunch of trees and back on the trail once again.

Random Stuff

Okay, yes, again I have changed up the blog background.  I found the black to just be too heavy and this isn't THAT kind of blog. 

Once again, the kids are off school today.  I think it has been about 6 weeks (okay, not think because I am keeping track and I am beginning to get bitter) since the kids have had a full, 5 day week of school.  There have been 3 snow days, two of which were merely because it was cold and had the Chicagoan in me accusing our school district and it's inhabitants of being complete wusses, MLK Day, 2 teacher work days, and 2 days of Ethan home with Type B influenza.  Today, another teacher workday and Ethan, in some effort to infect the entire family with something once and for all, is again sick, this time with strep throat. 

Nothing at all noteworthy or exciting going on today, hence the time to mess around with blog formats. 
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On a side note, this week in my workouts I tried something new, Bulgarian split squats and I kind of like them.  Well, okay, I suppose I like them in the same way I like it when my husband rubs out a knot in my back.  Hurts like hell in the process but feels good afterward. 

I saw this exercise in a workout book and the author of the book said it was one of the most hated moves in her gym but one which gets great results.  Just having the word "Bulgarian" in the name, to me, suggests something less than easy.  So, if basic lunging gets boring or it seems like you have to do a million lunges to get any muscle fatigue, try these and you will definitely feel something.

Here you go:


photo from Laura Kowaleski

Our sun worshipper

We have had Ella about a year and a half now and one thing we have learned about Vizsla's in that time is that they love to bake in the sun. Probably something to do with that thin coat and being cold easily. This morning I found her wedged into a patch of sun on the stairs.

The other thing with the thin coat/getting cold easily stuff is that in winter, during the night she often gets cold. Our first winter with her, she would wake up during the night, crying and sometimes suggestively nosing the edge of our down comforter. Realizing she was cold, we got her a doggy heating pad for her dog bed.

Still waking up in the night crying.

Then we bought a blanket and put her to bed every night with her doggy heating pad AND a blanket covering her.

Still waking up crying.

I was complaining to my mother about the having to get up in the night and cover our crying baby with a blanket and she, being a seamstress extraordinaire, came over with a tape measure and whipped up this little number for Ella to sleep in.

Does the trick on the cold nights and provides entertainment for Kevin and me because she looks completely dorky in it. Like the other dogs at the dog park would beat her up if they saw her in it. I think it looks a bit like a Snuggie and that thought had me briefly, and I mean briefly, considering setting her up with her bed jacket on, a bowl of popcorn and a remote on the couch and using that photo for this post but then the logistics of keeping her face out of the popcorn long enough to take a picture stopped me.

Playdate for Ella

Since Polka Dot died last month, Ella has been missing having other dogs around. My friend Kelly and I have been trying to meet up weekly at our local dog park so Ella can play with her dog friends Lily and Bandit.

Ella pretty much runs full speed the entire hour we are at the dog park. If she can find a dog to chase her, she is in heaven but if not, she will still run her guts out regardless.

Bandit was trying to get Lily, who had snow stuck in her pads, up and moving with some backup from Ella. As usual, Ella is approaching the problem with maybe a tad more gusto than it actually requires.

A brief pause from running and attempting to kiss all the humans to pose for me.

After a trip to the dog park, Ella pretty much spends the rest of the day like this. She has two speeds, full blast and asleep, and not much else in between.

More to Working Out Than Just Running

Photo from: We heart it

About 7 years ago, I took up running. I had always thought it would be cool if I could run a marathon (and let's be honest here, I also thought if I were a runner, rock hard thighs and the ability to eat like a lumberjack would finally be mine). After some encouragement from my marathon running cousin, I picked out a race and started running. Five years, two full marathons, and countless half marathons later, I was definitely hooked on being a runner.

But, my body (traitor!) had other ideas. About a year and a half ago, I injured my back. Herniated a disc, to be exact, while training for my third full marathon. I managed to still run the half marathon out of shear stubbornness (can you say painful?) but that was literally, the last time I ran. I then spent the next year doing PT, getting injections in my lumbar spine, considering fusion surgery, trying a chiropractor, taking narcotics when needed, crying a lot, and feeling frustrated with walking as my only form of exercise.

Over time, it became clear that returning to running wouldn't really be a good idea and so I continued walking at least 2 miles a day and sometimes riding the stationary bike or using the elliptical at the gym all the while moaning to Kevin, my husband, about my inability to really work my body out.

This fall, Kevin suggested I hire myself a personal trainer and have her tailor a workout plan for me that would work my body out but do it in a way that wouldn't cause injury to my fragile back. I have to say, I was nervous about the whole thing because after a year of horrendous pain, it is safe to say I am a scaredy cat.

After some steady encouragement and pep talking from Kevin and putting my fears aside, I contacted Kate at Xceed Fitness and explained my situation. She said I would be a challenge but that she thought she could work up a program for me. I nervously went for my first session where she worked my butt off for an hour. I walked out with shaking arms and legs and a smile on my face. I worked with her for a month and since then have been doing the exercises on my own.

Most of the exercises use your own body weight, free weights, and bands and sometimes machines like the leg press. I am doing things like skull crushers, pushups, lunges, planks, rollups on the ball, flys, and much more. I have always worried a bit about weight training, that I would end up looking like this:

Photo from: We heart it

Soooooooooo not the look I am going for. To my surprise though, after 2 months of working out this way, I have more muscle definition (the good kind, not like above) and feel more solid than I ever did when I was simply running. (Don't quite look like the chick at the beginning of my post yet though - something to work toward maybe?) My thighs even are more firm and muscle defined than they have ever been and my husband keeps teasingly calling me muscles, which I love.

On a fitness blog I read, the author tries out different exercise routines for several months and then blogs about the results. Recently, she followed a plan by Rachel Cosgrove that has you doing no cardio at all and only 3 hours a week of weight lifting exercises. The author and her workout buddies were really nervous about abandoning their cardio but to their surprise, all of them lost inches and clothing sizes without doing any cardio. You can read about it here.

So, in spite of my previous feeling that running was the best workout around, I am newly convinced that if you want to look lean and tight, weights and weight bearing exercises get the job done.