I see turkeys. And (completely unrelated) I have no shame.

I'll bet you didn't know this was an official Turkey-Sighting Blog. Yep...check out the blog-roll over here. I received this distinction with this post...and cemented my good standing as a Turkey-Sighting Blogger with this post. So believe me when I say...

"I see turkeys."

the kid+who+sees+dead+people pics on Sodahead

My most recent turkey-sighting happened this past Sunday when I was on what shall now be dubbed...

The Fiasco Run

The plan:  run 13.1 difficult, hilly, alone miles after having held down the fort (i.e. watched 4 kids while my husband was away) for 4 long, exhausting days.
Planned time of departure:  3:00 p.m.
Planned time of return:   5:30 p.m. (optimistic and including bathroom and water breaks)

The last time I successfully ran this route was just about a year ago.

It looked the same... like this...

The fun began right away with a 4 p.m. start, which pushed everything later...duh...and anyone know when sunset is? Yeah, me neither...then. Now I do ;-)

My husband had spontaneously offered to meet me at the sort-of-halfway to give encouragements, and that got me super excited. I gave him a window of meeting opportunity at the 5.3-mile point...right before I would begin a 3-mile loop back to the same spot (increasing possibilities for successful meeting). Cell service is very sketchy in that area so we needed to be coordinated ahead of time.

At around 4 miles into the run, I heard a baby crying. Wow, I thought to myself, that sounds exactly like Miss C! How funny! I wish they were cheering me on HERE!

A little over a mile later, I got to the meet-up spot where no one was and texted...

At the loop and going to loop it now. Prob 32 min. (4:55 p.m.)

I ran the loop in 32 minutes and headed to the conveniently-located bathroom (part of why I pick this trail run is the plethora of conveniently-located bathrooms). And saw no one and texted...

Finished loop. Peeing now.  (5:33)

*waiting, waiting, waiting...stretching...ShotBlok-ing...*

Starting back. Wish me luck. Prob abt an hour. I'm super tired so I'll be slow. 

If you don't hear from me in an hour, please call or text. 

And if you don't hear from me in 90 minutes try again and then call the police!  (5:39)

I started off slowly, realizing that my SI joint is quietly screeching at me, and heard the obnoxious chime of an incoming text...

We are on the loop road above the Farm waiting.  (5:41)

To which I replied...

I'm down at the portapotty!   (5:41)

It is important to note that you can only send and receive texts from a few random pockets of this park. If you move, you may be rendered communication-less. So I stopped and stood still.... waiting for them to come down the road because the place they were now waiting was backtracking for me and up a LONG hill that I didn't want to run back up!  I was so tired, it was getting dark, my butt hurt. But they didn't show up and no more texts came, so I grumblingly ran back up the dang hill...

I got to where I thought they would be...at the top of the LONG hill...and there was no one. Not a soul. But there was cell reception, so I texted...not knowing if he was in a place that could receive, however :P

I'm on the loop road. Can I hook back to the playground and get a ride?  (5:47)

*waiting, waiting, waiting...stretching...*

Where?   (5:49)

Right in that Little Farm parking lot. Say yes. I'm planning on it.  (5:50)

With that, I ran down the hill and through the farm.  And I'll be gol' danged if I didn't see some cows...

and...

...yep... TURKEYS  :)

A close-up to verify the turkey-sighting.

I reached the playground parking lot and find the car. YES! But... there was no family. I hung out a little... stretching... and I got this text...

Where are you?   (5:57)

The little play area with the big rocks. Meet you at car. Where are YOU?  (6:01) 

It took a few minutes to answer because of the lack of cell service

*waiting, waiting, waiting...decided to jog around a little since I was getting cold now*

We are waiting for you out at Jewel lake. Are u not getting my messages?  (6:16)

Jewel lake is the place where I heard that baby crying that sounded exactly like Miss C

...oooops...

We finally got it together and met at the car and I got a ride back to my truck.

9.38 miles in 1 hour 39 minutes. That was enough. I felt not at all badly that I didn't finish out the plan.

It was after sunset (which is how I now know when sunset is) when we pulled into the parking lot for me to retrieve the truck...and the ranger was closing the gate! I had a mini-freak-out at the thought of having run back and gotten stuck in the parking lot! My husband reassured me that they only lock the coming-in side. They do let people out.

Pretty sunset.

I got home where I had a lovely houseguest waiting for me...RunningHutch from Heavy Medal (a Nuun HTC 2012 teammate!) stayed with me for part of her Nike Women's Marathon experience. She ran the half-marathon and came away with a shiny, new PR :)

I rested Monday...all those missed connections, random jogging in a parking lot, and slightly screechy SI joint mandated rest, so I took it. And then on Tuesday I headed out for some....

Hill repeats.

I was busy chatting with a good friend and got a late start. I could only fit in 2 out of a planned 5.
No shame.
I need to remember to be a responsible mommy, a connected friend and not just a dedicated athlete :)

I told that good friend with whom I'd been chatting that it was hot here and that I planned to run in my sports bra and short shorts....with no shame. I have decided that it isn't only people who have smokin' hot bodies who should get to be comfortable. I am almost 50. I've had 4 kids. I have some weird GI issue that makes me look like I am always about 3-4 months pregnant. It is what it is. I am what I am.

I have found that folding the waistband over so that it lies under the gut protrusion 

is more comfortable and lessens the multiple-bulge factor.

Can you tell what I'm talking about?

Didn't think so... :(

comparison w/ 16 weeks pregnant belly photo...just letting it all hang out...

whatever...

wrinkly belly skin looking like an elephant's butt

So there it is...my gut in all it's glory. I hope it inspires some people who feel badly about their bodies to stop beating themselves up about it. Embrace what you are and who you are. If you don't like something about yourself, it's up to YOU to change it. And then remember to be patient with yourself. Changes don't always happen overnight. Although I did go from being a mommy-fitness-running blogger to a Turkey-Sighting Blogger overnight. I didn't even see that one coming ;-)

Do you beat yourself up about how you look? 

Do you ever see turkeys?

Less than Seven

Sometimes I find myself surprised.

In fact, today was full of surprises. For example, it rained. I suppose if I paid attention to weather forecasts I would have seen that one coming, but I no longer follow any information services (no newspapers, no radio, no t.v. news broadcasts, ignore updates on my smartphone...). I guess I kind of like surprises.

Anyway...

I planned on running this morning after dropping my kids off at school. But that didn't happen. I really wanted to go back to bed. So I did.

It was going to be an epic double Moeser...maybe even a triple. If I was going to exercise, I was craving arduous. Instead, I did the total opposite...I sacked out. It was necessary, but then I was faced with really wanting to run and not having the time to do what I planned and needing to shift directions.

The next window of running opportunity came at 8 p.m. Moeser was no longer an option in the dark and away from home. And the idea of slow, easy, boring loops at home in the dark was repellent.

Hmmmmm...what to do? what to do? A-HA! I know...

Time for a timed mile :D

I scarfed down a chicken andouille sausage because I was starving, got the kids in bed, put on my running clothes and decided to just do the best with what I had going on. I didn't stress about burping up spicy meat or the possibility of rain. I had a rough idea of what I was shooting for... a single seven-minute mile. My plan was to hit the first quarter in 1:45 in the hopes of an evenly paced mile and then either watch the wheels fall off, hang on to it, or destroy it. Or whatever the experience held for me. I was open to anything.

My two-mile warm up was comfortable and relaxed, but the few pick-ups I tossed in seemed to register slow on my Garmin. I adjusted my plan to running a 7:30 mile...I didn't care if I was slow, I wanted to feel successful :)

*beep*

I started running.

Oh, sh*t...the damn Garmin said 6:34. Well, whatever...just do what you can is what I told myself. After a blistering first quarter (6:31), I slowed considerably. I stopped looking at the watch and just ran. I felt like I kept things just this side of disaster. And somehow I managed to keep each quarter under 1:45 and finished the whole mile in...

6:47

The fastest I've run since 1997.

I felt like this.

But older.

And hey, wow...

I know you have all missed a good voting frenzy ;-)

Click on this pink circle and scroll down to Taking It On and click the little thumbs up...once every 24 hours...and it could be that very voting frenzy we've all been missing!

We could pretend that your votes are a little reward for running so super fast ;-)

Thanks in advance :)

Really Random Wednesday...with pictures

Random point number one...

"So much time, so little to do!" said the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.

We've been watching a lot of Alice lately...even though that White Rabbit has things backwards.  As you can see, Miss C has decided what she wants to be for Halloween. Unfortunately, I made the age-old mistake of letting her try on the costume before the big event. After wearing it for a full day, she has come to the conclusion that because the dress was hanging in her big sister's closet it actually belongs to her big sister and, therefore, she (Miss C) cannot be Alice for Halloween. 

Toddler logic is so confounding.

Random point number 2...

I am so disappointed in myself :(  I have a favorite elliptical machine now :(  I tried so hard to be flexible and content to use whatever was there and to mix it up even when all machines were available. It didn't work. My favorite machine is the one third from the right-hand side of the picture...the one with no hand thingies (those things make me crazy!). It's near a fan. The angles always seem comfy. The resistance is adjustable in ways that make me happy. And it has a cup holder for my water bottle. It is my favorite and now I get bummed if it is in use :(  I'm heading to the gym now...I hope it is not in use.

Random point number 3...

Our local video rental store is going out of business. Are you thinking "It's about time!"? I guess we live in a retro community or something, but we've been patronizing this place since the mid-90's. As they get ready to shutter the shop, they are selling everything super cheap. "Why would anyone want a bunch of VHS tapes?" you might be asking. Well, because there are some great movies to be had and watched...so we stocked up. Call us foolish. We don't care.

Random point number 4...

Someone commented on my last post that I should include the elevation profile for the long run I did on Sunday. I've posted the hill before...but not the hill in quadruplicate.  Here is an image of it doubled from the spring, I think.

It's really the same hill twice...the jaggedy freak out was just signal issues with the Garmin-to-satellite communication, I think. So on Sunday I did the hill four times. So double this doubling.

Random point number 5...

The next time you see a mom with a bunch of kids in a rowdy, family-friendly restaurant trying to contend with a preschooler meltdown, have compassion. Ask if you can help. It does no good to say something shitty to the woman...she is struggling to hang on to any shred of sanity she might be in possession of. Saying something shitty might just make her cry...in public...in front of her kids. And we wouldn't want that.

I took my kids out to dinner the other night. Miss C realized after we had ordered our food that she had left her KITTY in the car, which was parked a long block away in a busy part of town. She flipped out. Baby X offered to go fetch it for her, which led to screams of discontent because Miss C wanted to get it HERSELF! Of course. I told X to just go, so she did. Miss C began the tantrum to end all tantrums. I just held her and told her it would be okay as she writhed and punched me in the face while shrieking at the top of her lungs. I was feeling thankful that it was a really loud restaurant filled with families being loud already. And then this woman came up to me and said something shitty...while Miss C is shrieking in my ear and head-butting me. I knew that as soon as the KITTY arrived, all would be well. I was hanging on for that moment...I knew it would come. But the shitty something made me cry. My togetherness was all an illusion :(  But sure enough, once the KITTY arrived, peace reigned the valley. 

See?

Any random things to bring up for you this Wednesday?