A Case of the Runs

The other day, I went with "The Ukrainian" to the LA Marathon Expo and recorded a little mash-up for YouTube. I had not been to that expo in a couple of years, and since neither of us are doing much running these days, expos in general haven't been something I've seen a lot of since 2014 or so.  I didn't go through all of my thoughts in the video.  Yesterday was the race, and since I spent the day with Tuesday (our son ), I had more time to think about what I was missing.  I would have normally said "dwell" rather than "think," but it really was more of a "think" than "dwell." I used to be SO bothered when I couldn't do a race, for any reason.  Standing on the sidelines felt like I was giving up, which seems so, so ridiculous to me now that I'm a month away from turning 32 and feeling like I'm 62.  I wish I didn't spend all those active racing years beating myself up for not finishing races at goal, a...

If you have been reading my blog for a while, I do a lot of home video workouts, especially now that I have to work around all of our schedules with Tuesday's new school. Among my favorite home workouts are barre style, which basically incorporates small movements based on ballet that are done repetitively to really focus on them.  I've reviewed some different types of barre videos in the past, most of which are linked in this post (linked as to not spam this post mentioning other "brands"). One of my favorites is Xtend Barre - Lean and Chiseled -- I like it so much, in fact, that it's currently the video loaded in my laptop.  Well, truthfully, it has been a while since I've been doing barre videos regularly since I've been trying to hammer away at some other programs and lifting more weights.  But I did start doing it again recently knowing that the studio was opening soon, and according to my Apple Watch , I'm burning about 200-ish calories for...

In my last post , I announced that I had been signed up for a half marathon and decided not to run it, making it my very first "did not start" (DNS) race.  A few years ago, it would have taken breaking both my legs or something of that magnitude to keep me away from the racing game, but this time, it was literally a cough and sneeze (again, see my previous post for details). Ironically, I did start feeling a little bit better during the race weekend.  Bear in mind that I've had these injuries for close to a month now, so I had no idea when I'd finally start being able to roll around in bed without excruciating pain.  And yes, I did see a doctor, and "The Ukrainian" asked our chiropractor -- both basically said it's just time, ice, and pain meds.  I picked up my race bib at a very low-key showroom the day before, still wondering if I was doing the right thing. Swag I did not earn (but paid for?) -- yes, I am still going to wear this shirt, as a re...

In my last post , I said I was going to try to post soon afterward, so I'm counting this two-week gap as "soon."  Of course, I am aware it is March now, but at least only the 2nd. After recapping my recent 5k, I mentioned that a half-marathon is in my near future -- in fact, this Sunday.  I also mentioned that a number of issues made my 5k harder than it should be, namely, a bad cold followed by a rib muscle sprain. Unfortunately, it gets worse.  I pulled another rib muscle, on my other side.  While the original offending side is healing slowwwwly, this new one got way worse a couple of days ago when I sneezed.  Yep, I've done so many races  and bounced back from Cesarean section, only to get blown out by a sneeze. My entire upper ab/chest cavity is out of commission.  It's a tough pain to describe to someone who has not had this unfortunate injury of sorts, but basically, I can't even do a plank now without great pain.  Lower body stuf...