There is Always a Way

Well…didn’t go so well.  The training schedule called for 3 miles.  I got in 1.5. 

This is how the day went….

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Dear Migraine,

I know it has been a while since we have gotten together.  And I apologize for not being there for you.  But, I must be honest.  I haven’t missed you at all.  I know I should have kept in touch, but that doesn’t mean that you can just barge your way in to my life like this.  It is very rude.  I wasn’t expecting you at all.  And I don’t appreciate your abrupt return to my life. 

I know that now you are here, I must put up with you.  So, I will.  I will try and get my work done even though you must hate staring at a computer screen because you seem to scream every time I look at one.  But, you are just going to have to put up with that. 

And that tylenol I took about a half an hour ago?  Yeah, you probably don’t like that either, but I am hoping that tylenol will make you leave.  Tylenol can be good to me like that. 

And migraine, as for making me feel like crap, nauseous, tired, cranky, is it really necessary?  Isn’t the blinding pain in my head and neck enough?  I mean, seriously.  How much power do you really need over me?

So, you are here now.  It won’t be permanent.  And once you go, I hope we can say good bye for good.  Or maybe you can just send your cousin, the headache, next time.  He is a tad bit nicer to me than you. 

Your nemesis,

Kari

We had a pretty laid back father’s day yesterday.  Garry and Mark wanted to relax at home, so that is what we did.

After church, I ran up to the store with Mark and we got a couple movies and we got some supplies for lunch.

We had sloppy joes, lots of fruit (cantaloupe, pineapple, grapes, kiwi, mango, and cherries), chips, roasted asparagus, coleslaw, macaroni salad, and cottage cheese.  Pretty much a little bit of everything. 

After lunch, Cindy and I started on some chores outside.  Aydan passed out on the couch and Charly and Peyten played outside.  Garry took a nap and Mark cut his hair and relaxed. 

Cindy and I took out a lot of weeds.  It was a long overdue project.  We got a lot done and I took about 3 or 4 loads in a wheel barrow out to the woods.  I also ended up getting lots of dirt all over me.  It was lovely (sarcasm).  But, at least the girls were playing with the water hose and I was able to hose myself off a bit.  The fact that it was in my hair and on my face, was the worst part.  Don’t even ask me how it got all the way up there. 

After a good amount of work, we called it a day.  Cindy and I took our showers and everyone settled down together.  We had some cheesecake and we watched a movie with the kids.  

Before we knew it, it was past the kid’s bed time.  They didn’t go down quickly.  There was lots of playing, getting out of bed, excuses.  You know how it goes.  Mark and I had started watching a movie and I think we probably set a record for how many times we had to pause it for one reason or another.  But, eventually the kids got quiet and we were able to finish our movie.  It was called 50/50.  Mark and I both really enjoyed it.  I could complain about some of the language that I deem unnecessary, but overall it was an excellent movie and well done.  It was one of those movies that I was sad when it was over.  It could have kept going and I would have been ok with that.

I had a lovely day yesterday.  Mark and I went in to the day with quite a to do list, but we just did what we could.  I actually went in to the day feeling rather caught up.  I got a lot done during the week and didn’t have nearly the load hanging over me that I could have or have had. 

Friday night I got a text from my sister.  She and her family were on their way back from Oklahoma and wanted to know if they could swing in to our place on Saturday morning.  Of course I agreed! 

The morning was pretty laid back.  The kids and I relaxed, watched some toons.  When Mark got up, he got started on his Ichthus packing/planning.  I did have a little of my work to do, but it didn’t take too long. 

Mike, Mindy, Luke and Natalie rolled in about 9:30.  I had some leftover breakfast from Small Group the night before, so I heated up some breakfast for them to eat.  They had driven through the night, so I am sure they were tired and hungry.  They hung out for a little while and we were able to chat a bit.  It was a short visit, but it was very nice to be able to see them.  And the kids are always super excited to see their cousins.  It is always amazing to see how much they have grown, even if it has only been a month since I saw them last.

After the Richmond clan left, I helped Mark with the tents for the camping trip.  We took down our Jeep tent.  We figured out that it is pretty much useless.  There is many holes and two of the doors do not work.  The zippers don’t zip at all.  So, we took out another tent and made sure that was useful and all the poles were there, etc.  And the kids helped spray off the tarp for the large canopy that he is going to bring.  Brian came over to help figure out Ichthus stuff with Mark since they are both going on the trip. 

I got the kids ready and headed out to go to my cousin’s open house.  Mark stayed back to get some more stuff handled and plus his back was killing him from all the hauling and moving of tents. 

The kids and I ran a couple errands, but eventually made it up to the open house.  The open house was for the three siblings.  Ryan graduated from college and Jeff and Erica graduated from college.  It was very nice to see all the family and catch up on what is going on in their lives.  The kids ran around and played in the water and sand.  Oma got a good workout in when she pushed them around in the kayak in the water. 

My dad had to leave before I got there due to a church call, so I planned on going to their house after the open house.  So, Oma rode with us back to her house.  We left the open house right before a nice sized storm rolled in.  Lots of rain, wind, and some down trees.  We made a couple stops along the way.  I thought I could stop at a store or two and find a gift for my dad, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for.  I naively thought that finding a good fish spat would be easy.  I was wrong.  So, we just went back to the house.  And I gave dad an IOU for a gift;)  There is plenty of them on amazon that I can order. 

At Oma and Opa’s house the kids played outside, Oma gave them a bath, Opa made some mac n cheese, they watched a movie and ate some popcorn.  We just all hung out and relaxed.  Before long, we realized it was getting late and I still had a 2 hour drive home. 

We set our good byes and hit the road.  Aydan and Peyten were asleep before I knew it.  Charly stayed up for a bit and chatted.  We got a nice firework show on the way back.  As we were driving down 31, we could see the fireworks that Spring Lake was putting on.  Charly had fun watching and calling out the colors at they appeared. 

After a while I told her it was quiet time and I am pretty sure she was asleep shortly after that, as I didn’t hear a another peep.  We pulled in to the driveway at a quarter to midnight.  It was a long family filled day, my favorite. 

Today, we head to church in a bit and then it is another family filled day.  I think we are just going to have some family time in South Haven.  One of Mark and Garry’s favorite things to do.  Walk around town, sit down by the water, watch the boats, etc.  Hopefully weather cooperates, I didn’t even check a forecast.  If not, we will just switch gears. 

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!

This week:

Get stuff handled:

Catch up on bills
Redo checkbook/excel sheet
Help plan for Ichthus trip with Mark
Print, label, stuff, seal, mail 130 letters for Bazaar
Contact IRS and sort out issues
Clean house
Catch up/stay caught up on work work work
Gather GLScrip info for next order
Organize desk

Next week:

RUN!!!!

It is past 1am and I really should be asleep, but I am not, so yeah, there is that.

I decided on one of Hal Higdon’s marathon training programs.  It is 18 weeks long and doesn’t look too ambitious.  And since the marathon is slightly more than 18 weeks away, I think I am gong to devote the rest of this week to getting my higgledy-piggledy state of mind under control.  So, I will be cleaning house so to speak.  Which means I will do my best to declutter my brain.  Get my paperwork that has piled up at my desk and get my bills under control.  And gather all the info on my various projects and have it all nice and neat (like it would stay that way, lol).  Oh, and get super caught up with work.

So, my excel file is all updated with the training plan.  I will do my best to stick with it. We shall see how that goes.  June 19th is Day 1.  Here goes nothing!

I have been trying to ignore the fact that I NEED to start training for my marathon.  The task seems super daunting right now.  I have had so much going on in my life lately that adding many miles to it, well I just don’t know when I am going to do that.  I have avoided planning out my training….well, because then I would have to start it. 

But, I must plan, so I can start, because that is what I need to do.  Not because I feel like I HAVE to do it, but because I have to do it in order to achieve the thing that I WANT.  And that is to run a marathon.  THAT is what I can’t wait for.  It is going to be difficult and probably kind of crappy, but it will be a major accomplishment for me. 

So, I will work my jobs, I will take care of my kids, I will attend church meetings, I will plan for the bazaar in November, I will coordinate scrip orders, I will do laundry and clean the house, I will pay bills, I will continue to sort/purge the house, I will have fun with the SPLAT Youth, I will make lots of family time, I will run races with people I care about, I will go camping at least a couple times this summer, I will drive down to Florida with Mark to pick up Nate so he can move in with us, and I will run many many miles. 

As many miles as I possibly can.  There is no training schedule that I could actually stick to, but I will do my best.  I want to be as prepared as I possibly can be. 

Marathon training Day 1?  Possibly tomorrow, we shall see.

Sometimes my routine and schedule is interrupted for one reason or another.  It is bound to happen.  But, when I come back to the usual routine, there is always a period of adjustment.  Sometimes more difficult than others.

Last week, I took some time off from work and attended Annual Conference.  I may go in to a blog post about that another time.  It would just be too long and I am not up for that tonight.

No, tonight I am just trying to unscatter my brain just a little.  Why does writing help me unscatter?  I don’t know. 

Mark handled the house and kids on his own last week.  I was gone from Wednesday to Saturday.  It isn’t often that I take off on my own for any length of time.  I think I have only done that once before. 

I tried to get caught up on everything before I left, but of course that is impossible.  So, when I came back, I spent Saturday evening sleeping.  You would think I would have been well rested since I didn’t have any kids for 4 days, but no I fell asleep to a movie and never recovered.  I was a zombie to the world. 
Later in the night, I heard Peyten crying and I realized she fell out of bed.  I go in and pick her up off the floor, only to discover that it was a doll instead.  Oops! 

Sunday morning was a busy one since I had quite a bit to handle before and during church. 
After church, I took the girls with me and we ran some errands.  Got some groceries and a few other necessities. 
The rest of Sunday I cleaned.  Tried to get caught up on laundry and just general pick up.  I got quite a bit done.  Enough where I didn’t feel like the walls were closing in on me. 

Monday morning it was back to work.  It took me a good hour or more just to sort through emails.  And the rest of the day was busy.  Hopefully tomorrow feels a bit more normal and that I am back in the swing of things.

For dinner I tried to use up quite a few veggies that were close to expiring.  I was happy to have all the greens for dinner anyway.  I didn’t eat the best last week, so I need to spend the next couple days trying to get back to normal.  Slowly, but surely.

And then…oh wait, it is still Monday.  I think I will finish watching Captain America, since I fell asleep to it Saturday night.  And then drift off to sleep…..

There is that one time, when I bought a spicy brown mustard and thought I was satisfying my spicy brown mustard cravings.  And THEN I bought my all time favorite, Gulden’s, and was like whoa!  How did I ever go back to anything but GULDEN’S SPICY BROWN MUSTARD???

Seriously, no comparison.  Gulden’s all the way, baby!

Here is Brett’s recap of the race yesterday.  Was that yesterday?  Wow, feels so far away already…
I like his recap, it goes in to some different detail that mine didn’t.  And there is a video compilation link.

adventureswithbrett:

My sister Kari and I competed in our first adventure race Saturday. An adventure race is a multi-discipline event usually including orienteering, mountain biking, canoeing or kayaking and sometimes rope obstacles. Our race was the Spring Fury 6-hour Sprint AR put on by Infiterra Sports and consisted of canoeing, mountain biking and orienteering.

Here’s a video compilation I gathered during the race: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rLOOhOX4wk

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Oh, let’s see.  I am going to try and make this recap brief and to the point.  But, even still with that, this post will probably be long.  Who are we kidding, I don’t think I am capable of short and brief.

I crashed at Brett’s place on Friday night.  I live 45 minutes from Brett and the race was 2-1/2 hours further from there.  So, I just didn’t want to get up at 3am from my house.  Plus, it allowed us to get the bikes all loaded up the night before.

Saturday morning we got up about 4:45.  We ate some mini wheats and brewed some coffee for the road.  We weighed our packs (because that is what everyone would do, right?).  Mine weighed 10 pounds and Brett’s was just over 13.   

At 5:30, we were ready to head out the door and we were on our way.  The drive was nice and it took us right about 2-1/2 hours. 

When we got to the park, we checked in and unloaded our gear.  We had a little time to kill, but that is good.  It gave us a chance to get our bearings and check the place out. 

They did a 9am briefing to give us some rules and info.  Required check points, no GPS, etc.  After that, we went down to stage our canoe at the start and made one last pit stop.  Then we waited for the 10am start.

Here are all the canoes lined up:

The water was pretty dark and choppy.  It was a rather windy day.

Look at us, all fill of promise and naiveness, lol

Here is just a shot looking back from the beach at the parking lot area.  After the canoe section, we had to drag the canoe back up to there.

They lined us all up right before the beach and right at 10am, we were off!  We raced down the beach and got in to our canoe and took off.  Canoeing in to the wind was difficult, but we did it.

Here is us getting to our first check point: 

Now, this is where I wish I had more pictures.   I planned on taking pictures throughout the race.  But….

Story:  We rowed up to checkpoint 8, which was on a small island.  Brett got out and took off in the woods to look for the checkpoint.  I stayed in the canoe.  There was a guy in a canoe on my left and another on my right.  The guy on my right wanted to move his canoe closer to mine to make room for someone else.  I thought I would be helpful and pull his boat to mine.  Well, his boat ended up being slightly farther out of reach than I thought and I tipped my canoe!  Yeah.  Talk about feeling like a moron.  I managed to leverage myself with the paddle, so I was in limbo with the canoe on its side.  The guy on my left helped pull my canoe back up.  Luckily I didn’t cause either of the guys to tip over as well.  I was sopping wet up to my shoulders and the canoe was a bit full of water.  A handful of people helped me tip it over, empty the water, and tip it back upright.  Thank God for friendly competitors! 
And as if I didn’t feel like a complete moron enough, I had my camera in my pocket and NOT in a dry bag.  So, it got soaked.  And no, it isn’t waterproof.  As of right now, it is no longer functioning.  I was hoping as it dried more, it might work, but I am not hopeful.  So, I had no camera to take pictures with and my phone (per rules) had to be shut off.  So, I didn’t turn that on to take pictures.  That stayed in a dry bag! lol

The canoeing portion took about an hour and a half and it was pretty much straight rowing for that whole time.  With the wind, steering was difficult at times. And our arms/shoulders were definitely “feeling it”.  We got all of the 7 check points and headed back to the beach and dragged our canoe back up.

I checked my watch, it was 11:36.  We made it to the check point at the pavilion (home base) and then went back to the Jeep and put on our helmets, had a quick snack, plotted our course, and took off on our bikes.  The first biking check point (13) was pretty far away.  I have no idea how many miles, a couple I think.  At that check point, we had to get off our bikes and hike in to the woods about 100 ft or so. 

This whole first part of the biking portion was all on paved roads and some dirt roads.  Not too bad, but I did struggle with the hills.  I definitely did not train for hills and I definitely should have! 

There was one portion in between roads, where we were on a small trail and there was a massive hill.  We should have went back just to get a picture of it.  I walked my bike down and up the hill.  I just wasn’t going to risk that one.  And to walk my bike up the hill…well, it was more like push my bike up the hill.  I had to have one hand on the middle bar and another hand on the back of the seat.  It was a struggle to say the least. 

Eventually we made it to the recreation area.  There was a check point, gear check, and we fueled up with some gu’s/food.  And then we were off in to the woods on the one track.  It was 1:10 at this point.  And we knew the one track trail portion was going to be 5 miles, with 3 check points to look out for. 

The trails were great as far as trails go.  If I hadn’t been so exhausted from the canoeing and road biking, I probably could/would have enjoyed them more.  But, I was just losing energy fast.  I was staying pretty hydrated, but my body was spent.  I took a long time to recover and then my recovery didn’t last long.  I would feel good briefly and then be back to feeling miserable.  I could enjoy the flat trail and down hill and a few small up hills, but I had to walk up a lot of the uphills.  I did walk down about two of the downhills.  They were just too treacherous looking for me.  Maybe as I get better at trail riding, I can take those with a bit more ease. 

We ran in to quite a few other competitors along the trail.  Everyone was very courteous.  We would let people pass or they would let us.  Some parts, we would just ride all together. 

But, I was definitely cursing ALL THE HILLS by the end of the biking section.  If I didn’t see another hill again in my life, that would be just ok with me. 

We made it back to the pavilion and checked in.  They gave us our map for the trekking portion.  We dropped our bikes and took off our helmets.  Refueled and plotted a course for the trek.  It was 2:10 by the time we got our map, so we didn’t have much time left.  The cut off time was 4pm. 

We planned to get some check points close by.  We had to get at least 5 check points to be eligible to be in the ranking.  There was maybe 12(?) available.  We didn’t have much time, so we had to get as many as possible close by so we had time to get back. 

Well, the first three checkpoints went fairly smoothly.  The first was right off of a path.  The second was in the woods, but we could get to it straight off a path.  Maybe 50 ft in to the woods. The third took some orienteering with the compass, but we were able to pretty much go straight to it.  The fourth, we had to go through the woods (no trails) to get to it from the last check point.  We over shot it.  We were too far to the right and ended up in some thick brush before we decided to turn around.   
On the walk back to the trail, we saw some other people and actually found the check point we were originally going for.  At this time, it was about 3:30 and we knew we didn’t have time to go for another check point and still have time to get back to home base.  The nearest check point was too far out even if we didn’t get lost again. 

So, we hiked back to the pavilion and got there about 3:48.  12 minutes to spare.  We didn’t get all 5 required check points in the trekking, so we couldn’t be in the ranking, but we were pretty happy with our first attempt at adventure racing.

Here I am right after we finished:

And here is Brett:

Do we look tired?  lol

And here they are cooking up some burgers and hot dogs for us.  They also had chips, potato salad, cookies, water and lemonade.  I had a burger and some chips and that is about all I could stomach.  The cookies and potato salad made my stomach churn to even think about. 

After a change of clothes (dry socks and shoes!) and food in my belly, here I am:

After we relaxed a bit, laid in the grass, chatted with some people, we decided to head out.  We didn’t stick around for the awards or anything.  We went down the road and stopped in to the Blue Duck for a beer.  I was in so much pain and discomfort, I was a bit miserable. Ya know, in that “I just worked out for 6 hours and pushed myself to the limit and I am proud of myself” type of pain.  Oddly enough, I felt a tad better after a couple sips of beer. 

And after seeing many of the other people at the race bring beer for after the run.  Mabye beer is a secret adventure race recovery drink.

We played a couple games of pool (Brett won one, I won one).  The lady behind Brett was a bit creepy, lol.

We considered ordering some food, but it was all greasy food and well…it just didn’t sound good.  And we both weren’t really hungry.
We were both pretty sleepy, but not too tired.  Brett took on the task of driving, so I relaxed with my feet up.  (notice, there is not “too” many scrapes and bruises)

We got about an hour down the road or less and we both were absolutely starving.  It is funny how I could go from uncomfortable bloating to ridiculously starving in the matter of minutes.  But, I just put my body through something I don’t normally put it through and it just doesn’t know how to react. 

So, we stopped and got something to eat in Jackson.  And then I was back to uncomfortable and bloated again.  But, I was no longer starving and I was sufficed.  Give and take. 

Back on the road, I got a little snooze in and we made it back to Brett’s house.  We unloaded his stuff and I was back on the road to home.  I think it was about 9 o’clock when I finally made it to my driveway. 

It was a good, long, challenging, frustrating, rewarding, exciting, adventurous type of day!  I could probably come up with several more adjectives, but I will stop there.

I unloaded and took a shower and settled in for the night.  Then, I was starving again!  Like, stomach growling, feeling faint, kind of starving.  But, it was about 11pm and I knew I shouldn’t eat, so I chugged some water and went to sleep soon after.  I tried to watch an episode of House, but my eyes were closing so I just gave in.

Was the adventure race super hard for me?  Yes.  If I had trained more for the biking and hills, it wouldn’t been as difficult.  If I can figure out how to fuel my body properly, I can race longer without crashing so hard.  We definitely learned a lot yesterday.  And I think we will be doing this again next year. 

Oh, here is a link to the results page, etc if you are interested in that sort of thing:  http://www.infiterrasports.com/events/2012/spring-fury-6/