Doing My Part

Well, after waiting and waiting and waiting we finally got my MIL’s scan results yesterday. Yes you read that right. Scan on Thursday and they had us all wait for 5 days.

Talk about exercising extreme patience.

Instead of giving you an update I thought I would share with you her journal entry. This is a tear jerker and religion is mentioned so for those of you who feel uncomfortable about these type of things now is your chance to escape!

Without further ado, an update in her words…

Doing my part!

Written Jul 24, 2012 8:52am

Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.

But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.

Are not Abana And Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed: “So he turned and went off in a rage.

Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, “Wash and be cleansed!”

So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. 2 Kings 5:10-14

Well, I did not receive a great report from my scan.There was a slight increase in the size of the tumor so the chemo hasn’t helped. I went numb for a few seconds. I believe it is a test of my faith and I was checked by the spirit.

My sister, Donna, brought the above scripture to my attention a week or so ago. I have to be willing to do my part in my healing. God doesn’t need me to do it for my healing, I need to do it as my part in obedience . So I’m just taking a few more dips in “My River of Jordan”.

Please continue to pray for reduction of tumor size. I’m very thankful for your prayers and support. I’m still believing. I’m also going to get a second opinion on the “inoperable” part of my diagnosis.

God is good, all the time!

Love to all,

Kay 

Mama Kay and her little Bear

~

Getting the news that the tumor is resisting chemo was so very hard. I had a mini-meltdown in my office which I hate doing. I know I should walk away but the human in me did not have the strength do so. But then my MIL said it’s a test of our faith and I suddenly felt at ease. She is right. It’s a test. The strongest are handed the toughest of challenges and I know she will not give up the fight.

After the whirlwind of a day yesterday I went to a crossfit class down at the cove. It was such a great way to work out stress plus there is no better medicine than the ocean. When I got home my husband handed me a card. It felt heavy! When I pulled the card from the envelope I realized it was a sympathy card from many of our dear friends. When I opened it I got one heck of a surprise. Enclosed was an airline gift card to help my family with our next trip to Texas. How amazing is that? We are so lucky to have friends that we can call family. When the going gets tough they are right there beside us. Those are friends that will last a lifetime.

OK, let’s move on to some uplifting news!

Running:

Training is going so much better than I expected. Although my long run last Sunday was less than stellar (read: It was awful) I freaking got it done. I needed the reality check that not every run is going to be great. The sucky ones make the good ones even better.

This week is a much needed back down week. I just passed the 150 mile mark for the month and will finish July with my highest mileage month ever. Uninjured. Amazing. I am sticking to my plan and running my easy days really easy. I think that has been key in staying healthy. If I was running every single mile fast I would be on the injury reserve list for sure. My fingers and toes are crossed that I can keep this training up and feel strong and confident come race day.

Speaking of racing I am SO ready for the Olympics! Bring on opening ceremonies and live internet streaming of the games! I will be sporting Red, White and Blue for the next 30 days. Bring.it.on.

Hope you all are having a great week!

Training Like A Boss

My blogging has been slacking.

Big time.

My apologies.

I could up with a zillion excuses as to why but really it just hasn’t been a priority. In the past week  when I have had the opportunity to sit and write I’m just too tired. Imagine that. Sounds like crazy talk.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that in 2 weeks I have already logged more than 100 miles. Just barely but still. That’s a record for me.

If there was such thing as PRing in training I’d be on the podium baby. Doing work like a boss.

I’m taking this training for Chicago thing pretty darn serious. I have a real training plan and I’m sticking to it.  I have an awesome friend/coach/mentor who has willing volunteered time to keep me on the straight and narrow and encourage me. It is beyond awesome and I am feeling pretty blessed. I’m running like I have never run before. I’m also hungrier than I have ever been.

I’m eating all things. All the time.

It’s pretty impressive.

This week is going to be just as runtastic as last week but with just a few more miles.

Plan is as follows (just in case you are training too!):

Monday: 5 miles easy- done

Tuesday: Track: 2.3 w/u. 6×800, c/d: Total: 8.01 miles

Wednesday: 5 easy

Thursday: Tempo, likely 2 mi w/u, 4 @ mid tempo, 2 mi c/d

Fri: Rest

Sat: 4 easy

Sun: 18 @ LR pace with a fast finish.

If all goes well I will end this week with 48 miles under the belt. Can’t stop. Won’t stop.

In between time I am doing strengthening and conditioning as well as Yoga. Yoga has been a mental and physical savior for my body.

Have I mentioned that THIS GIRL is now a yoga teacher? I got to run with her and now I get to practice with her.

Class last Saturday: Yoga For Runners. With a view of Downtown SD. Fantastic.

If you are in SD check out her schedule and come to a class!

Alrighty, you now you are all up to date on all things running. Sa-weet.

Now for serious chat. How about an update on my MIL?!

She has had 3 crazy hard chemo sessions over the past 6 weeks. She has had good days and bad days. She is officially rocking all kinds of sweet wigs and battling like a true champ. We were told that she would have a Pet Scan after her 4th treatment but last week the doctor changed the game plan and decided to do it THIS WEEK. Thursday to be exact. If you are the praying kind we ask that you include her this week. Pray for encouragement:  we are hoping that the chemo is doing its job and kicking this cancer’s butt. Pray for strength: These next few days all of our minds are running wild. We know we shouldn’t worry unless we have something to worry about, right? Pray for guidance: that if things don’t turn out how we hope that they do that we will continue to have faith and trust in HIS will.

Thank you my friends for continuing to check on her and being cool with me freely writing about what’s going on. While I have not talked about it in a while that doesn’t mean that things are happening. It is a part of our daily life. We never know what tomorrow will bring so we have to keep the faith!

Let’s end on a happy note.

We are getting ready to move in the next few months! It’s bittersweet because it is our first home but it’s time to move on. Last year we tried to sell the place and couldn’t. Now we have decided to rent it out and move into new digs. That means all kinds of projects and legal mumbo jumbo so that we don’t have to deal with landlord duties. Bring on the boxes. Can’t wait to decorate a new place. WOOHOOO!

~

What have you been up to? What’s new and exciting? What have I been missing out on?

If you are having any struggles please let me know so that I can encourage you 🙂

Big Bay Boom.

Ahhhhhhh…July 5th. We have officially turned the corner to Labor Day. You think I’m kidding? Before we know it summer will be over and I will be singing Jingle Bells for 4 straight months. Before I get you all stressed out about how many shopping days are left until Christmas let’s talk about Coronado and the 15k.

This race is held annually at Tidelands Park in Coronado. It’s a flat out and back that draws some pretty darn fast runners. I’m talking several sub 1 hour 15kr’s. My plan was to use this race as a tempo run. I have not run a tempo in a while and being in the midst of Chicago training it would be a good test to see where I was at.

On Friday night I got a Facebook message from a gal I met through church asking if I wanted to run with her (we met during AFC last year and ran the end of the race together!). Since I had decided not to race I agreed. The pressure of letting someone down can be overwhelming, you know?!

We met at the start line and off we went. The first few miles felt good and were not too fast. Mile 1 7:45 (right at long tempo pace) mile 2 7:26. That 7:26 worried my friend just a little who had a goal to go out slower and finish strong. I think that’s a great goal! I told her if we could run and talk we could run faster. That was probably the only smart thing I said the rest of the race. She mentioned again that she wanted to finish strong and with that I had no problem slowing down (although it felt hard and if I remember right she said it felt hard too).

We hit miles 3 and 4 7:39 and 7:38. Just slightly faster than tempo. We ran through the navy base and once we made the turn around we talked about that planned strong finish. It was at this point that I should have stepped it up and encouraged both of us to push through and I didn’t. I feel bad about that. Running solo I can dig deep and just run. Getting someone else to do that with me is not easy. I give all the credit in the world to pacers. Don’t think I am ready for that duty 🙂

Miles 5 and 6 7:47 and 7:46. Right on pace. Around the 10k mark when she said she was feeling fatigued all I could muster is “We are almost done.” Why didn’t I help lay the hammer down?! GAH! Mentally I felt great. Physically my legs were good although I could feel myself losing a little gas which was a result of a huge nutrition fail. I again agreed to slow down to help try to finish strong.

Mile 7 and 8: 7:54 and 7:57. A little behind pace but no big deal. Still sub 8 and still on goal to finish at long tempo pace. It was at this point where I realized either mile markers were off or I was not doing a good job at running the tangents. I was about .10 ahead with only a few miles left. Probably ran bad tangents. Mentally creating list of things to do better the next time I run with someone.

The “just finish strong” theme continued and for some reason I went into “I need to back off and run solo mode.” We were almost done and my friend was running strong. I was not helping push us faster so I went into cruise control mode. Not normal race mentality for me and it felt kind of good. I let go of pace and just took everything in.

Mile 9 and last .43: 8:10 (oops) and 7:53.

My friend finished just ahead of me in 1:13 or so. I don’t think she noticed that I had backed off and that’s a good thing. That means she was in the zone! I finished (unofficial time) 1:13:28. My slowest 15k and what felt like my easiest 15k. The only big fail for me this race was nutrition. I had bad bad bad stomach acid post race from running on empty and ended up taking coconut water to the dome. If I could have shot gunned it I would have. Bad nutrition = bad running. Duly noted.

Overall I was pretty stoked with my performance. After 4 months of heel/foot lameness and a bad race at Ojai I was able to go out and run pretty spot on plan. Running relatively easy left my legs ready to run this morning. That’s right where I need to be.

If I would have run solo pretty sure I would have left goal at the start line and gone balls out. Yeah, I know I would have. Not what I want to do right now. Glad that I ended up running with someone and forcing myself out of my solo comfort zone. That’s something we can talk about later.

Things happen for a reason right?!

After the race we headed to First Ave to watch the parade. It was a chilly day (63 and drizzly) so we only lasted about an hour before my littlest was too cold to sit anymore. Our bad for not having warm enough gear with us. We headed off the island home to cook out and get ready for fireworks.

Speaking of did you hear about our fireworks show last night?

It was literally 15 seconds long. Not kidding. We were sitting on the Laurel Street bridge all cozied up waiting…and then it happened.

 All of the fireworks went off at one time.

It was one bad a$$ explosion. And then it was over.

Felt bad for the kids…and everyone that waited at the beach/bay all freaking day long for the Big Bay Boom and then got a meer 15 seconds of awesomeness.

Oh well. Hey, one ginormous firework is better than none! What a way to end the day 🙂

~

How did you celebrate? Please tell me your fireworks show lasted at least 20 seconds!

Up All Night

My neighbor should consider himself a lucky man this morning. Why? Because I didn’t walk over to his house at 1:45 this morning and put a boot in his hiney for being so loud. Apparently he has the week off, girl problems, needed another cocktail, was hungry, etc. I heard it all. Dude, after 10 p.m. on a Monday move it inside buddy. Next time you get the wrath of me. Trust me when I say you don’t want a mad Italian mom (or her ticked off kid) in jammies on your porch in the wee hours of the morning. The vein that runs down the middle of my forehead is BOSS (thanks Ma). No joke. Pipe down ladd. I don’t like being up all night.

After all that craziness I still managed to drag myself out of bed at 4:30 and hit the gym.  It wasn’t pretty but I did it. Hey COACH, I am dedicated 🙂

Today’s Workout: 3 miles with 3 strides, strength/core

Hardcore

I had to switch up my training this week since I am running the Coronado Independence Day 15k. I love this run. It starts and ends at Tidelands Park and is nice and flat. Bonus that there is an awesome parade afterwards and Coronado beaches pretty much rule. Not a bad way to celebrate the 4th!

As I was saying, I rearranged my schedule and should end this week somewhere between 43-44 miles if all goes as planned. Here is what’s on the agenda:

Monday: 8.35 miles hills w/ 4 hill repeats: Done

Tuesday: 3.15 easy miles w/ 3 strides: Done

Wednesday: 15k race (9.3 miles), hoping to run it as a tempo.

Thursday: 5 miles easy

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 5 miles easy

Sunday: 14 miles 

I want to finish this week feeling healthy and strong. The hill repeats on Monday were tough but I felt so good afterward. I love that feeling. I need to keep reminding myself that staying injury free is key this training cycle. I am so ready to have a good, strong race!

~

Now let’s rewind to where we last left off…

I started marathon training and filled you in on a few runs. It ended up being an easy, low mileage week as I traveled to San Francisco for my cousin’s wedding. We drove up early Friday morning and met up with the fam at the Giants game that night. If you didn’t know I was born and raised in NorCal. That’s home baby.

On Saturday we were up early and took a nice walk down by the bay 

We then hopped on the Muni and headed down to the Ferry Building to meet up with family to visit before the wedding.

My great aunt and great uncle with all of the kidlets!

While waiting for our train to head back to the hotel we decided that doing yoga would be a great way to pass the time. In San Fran you can stand around naked and no one would say a peep. Our yoga was mild compared to some things we saw!

Moi

My sis

My Ma

We were laughing at ourselves trying to get a cool “urban” shot when H-man said “Look mom, dancers pose…”

Freaking love that kid. 

After panicking about how long it was taking out train to arrive we ended our sweat sesh and finally made it back to the hotel. I don’t know how but we managed to all shower and be ready to go in 1 hour. Benefit of being a low-key family I guess. Ii probably helped that I forgot makeup brushes so a little mascara and lipstick and off we went.

Me and my handsome hubby

My handsome boy

Me and my pretty girl

It was a really pretty wedding and we had an absolute blast spending time with family.

My cousin Jon and his beautiful bride!

After dancing the night away we got up Sunday morning and drove back to SoCal. Sad to leave but happy to know that we go back in August for another family wedding! The best part of being the oldest cousin is all of the young ones are starting to get married. Weddings, weddings and more weddings. I.love.it.

~

I peaced out of work early and am going to chill for a bit before getting things ready for tomorrow. Can’t believe it’s the 4th!

What are your plans for tomorrow?

Anyone else racing? Will I see any of you in Coronado?!?!