Running Chick

Bunnies!

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:58:48 -0400

I came home tonight to discover these two hanging out in my back yard. Check out the one just chillaxin' in the grass. Rough life.

Thanks to my sweet, new telephoto lens, I was able to snap a few good shots before the neighbors let their dog outside and scared them away. More pictures of the bunnies in the gallery.

Remember when I used to run?

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:46:22 -0400

Seems like ages ago, right? I haven’t been on a complete hiatus, but I haven’t really been in the mood to blab about my continual struggles with shin splints, tendonitis, podiatrists and all that stuff because it’s pretty much as depressing as it sounds. Suffice it to say that I think I’m going to christen myself the Queen of Injury.

In my latest effort to rid myself of my various injuries, my podiatrist recommended that I get myofascial release therapy. I’ve read about it before and was surprised that we actually have a massage therapist who specializes in that locally. I figured I’d give it a shot. It’s not like I have anything to lose except money. :-/

My first session was early last week and he worked on my left leg which has been giving me trouble for over a year. It was a little weird and unlike any other massage I’ve had before. Instead of attacking knots & tightness using his fingers, palms & elbows, the therapist just placed his hands on whatever area he found that was tight and firmly pressed and stretched at the same time. I could feel the muscle slightly constrict against the pressure, but then, after about 30-45 seconds, I could feel it completely release. It was so bizarre. After an hour, he sent me on my way. I went home feeling so great that I immediately went out and went for a five mile run and it my left leg was completely pain-free. A little over a week and three runs later and it’s still pain-free. Woot!

Earlier this week, I had my second session. My right IT band has been super tight and giving me some lateral knee pain, so that’s where he focused his time. I went for a four miler tonight and, while the pain isn’t all gone, it’s probably 85% better.

I have two more sessions scheduled, and then we’ll evaluate where I am. I’m hopeful. So far, this is the only thing I’ve tried that’s returned positive results. It would be really nice to start increasing my mileage into the double-digit range, I’m getting so sick of the short two and three milers!

Josh’s Garden, Phase III

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:41:57 -0400

I took shovel to ground today and dug away at the last section of Josh's side garden. This is a really large section, so I decided to break it up into thirds to make it less daunting. This section was pretty much devoid of the giant rocks from the last two sections (yay!), but the majority of it was sod and a tangle of miscellaneous plants that made for lots of root-pulling and digging. Boo. Anyway, here's what it looked like before I started poking away at it.

Here's what it looks like now:

In the far back corner is a peony plant that I dug up from a spot where the garage is going to go. They can be a bit finicky so I’m really hoping that it takes to this new spot.

The front corner has a tomato plant that some nutty lady gave me for visiting her garage\book sale. She even had a name for the plant, it was “Helen”. Helen is comfortably residing in the front position.

I relocated the herbs I originally planted in the first section of the side garden to this new spot. Josh is planning on fixing the wall soon and needs the work space, so all the thyme and sage have been moved to their permanent home.

Their old spot is looking rather naked.

BTW, the herbs are looking really good. We should be ready to harvest the first batch in a couple of weeks. I hope Josh makes me something yummy for all my efforts!

Finally, on a semi-unrelated note, Josh’s apple tree is bursting with apples.

Tune back in toward the end of September to see if Josh can resurrect the ancient cider press he bought at an antique store.

Josh’s Garden, Phase II

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 23:01:24 -0400

I was a gardening machine today. Remember this from Josh’s Garden, Phase I ?

I dug it all up and filled it in with one dwarf lilac bush, two mugo pines, two spirea shrubs and some cedar mulch. I also repurposed the last of the stepping stones and made a path to the water spigot.

Onward! I tackled this nasty job next.

I lost count of how many rocks I dug out of this section, but it was more than you would ever believe. My back believes it, however. Oof, sore.

It’s now home to three hosta plants and some more cedar mulch. I used some of those rocks I dug up to make some neat edging.

When my back is my friend again, this is Phase III.

Landscaping Josh’s Yard

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Sun, 23 May 2010 22:10:45 -0400

Before:

After:

Two trees that Josh knocked over by hand. RAAWR!

Turtle Wrangling 101

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Sun, 23 May 2010 21:41:42 -0400

If you see one of these guys on the side of the road, do not be afraid. Well, be a little afraid. They could easily take off a finger or toe.

We saw him on the way up to Calumet on Sunday morning. He was too close to the road for my comfort, so I stopped and decided we needed to save him from an unfortunate demise under somebody’s wheel.

“We”, of course, did not mean me because I had to take pictures. So, here’s our guide to turtle safety.

First, turn the turtle around by stomping on the ground in front of him. If he’s a mild mannered fellow like this guy was, he’ll turn around. If not, and he hisses and/or lunges at you, then you’re on your own.

Once he’s turned around and pointed in the right direction, continue to stomp the ground behind him. Josh recommends saying soothing & encouraging things during this process.

Continue to stomp until he makes his way back toward the swamp.

Turn around to make sure the photographer is still on the scene.

When he gets stuck, helpfully point out the correct direction. “Over here! You need to go over here! Look, here, where I’m pointing!”

If he refuses to listen, indignantly place your hands on your hips and give up.

The end.

Apple Blossoms

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:05:58 -0400

Josh's apple tree is in full bloom. The bees are going crazy with the pollenating. If you stand at the trunk of the tree and look up, all you see is bees swarming everywhere. I tried to get a shot of one of them, but the little buggers are too quick. Pretty, right?

My kind of town

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:52:33 -0400

Josh and I spent a few days last week in Chicago. I was there for a conference and Josh tagged along for the ride. If I yap about all the stuff we did in this blog post, it'd be miles long, so I'll just stick to the highlights.

Chicago is awesome. It was a bit intimidating at first - people! traffic! sirens! crime! - but after wandering around in the midst of all that for the first day or so, I came to the realization that Chicago is a friendly, welcoming city and that my initial apprehensions were really unjust. I think it helped that our hotel was right downtown, just a few short blocks off of Michigan Avenue (aka tourist central) and that the majority of the people in that area were either the 9-5ers or camera-toting gawkers such as we were.

Our first stop was at Titletown Brewing Company in Green Bay for a tasty lunch and frothy adult beverage.

Next, Milwaukee. Guess who was driving.

Chicago! We never made it to the Sears Tower, but I got a picture as we whizzed by on the expressway.

We had some really cool food, like this platter of sushi at a Japanese fusion restaurant. That’s salmon roe, sea urchin, tuna & salmon. The next plate over are salmon rolls, which contained scallop, crab, cucumber, radish, lemon, avocado and lemon.

Of course, we had deep dish pizza from Gino’s East of Chicago.

Aside from all the good food and shopping (Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Tiffany’s – you name it, they have it), probably the coolest thing we did was spend five hours at the Museum of Science and Industry.

My favorite exhibit? Body slices. Disturbing, yet completely fascinating. I was so enthralled by this exhibit, that I forgot to take any more pictures after this first one.

We ended our day at the Irish pub across the street from the hotel for a few well-earned beverages.

Finally and sadly, our trip was over. We bid adieu to Chicago with fond memories, a lighter wallet and a plan to go back soon.

p.s. tons more pictures in the gallery, if you are so inclined.

Josh's Garden, Phase I

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Mon, 17 May 2010 19:49:20 -0400

Dug up Josh's overgrown side garden on Sunday afternoon and planted four types of herbs.

About fifty pounds of rocks were buried in that garden, for whatever reason. It took me ages to dig them all out.

I repurposed some old stepping stones & bricks I found laying around to make a little path and divide the planting sections.

Basil & oregano.

Thyme & sage. These guys are in temporarily (hence the pots). They'll come out when Josh fixes his wall and then go back in permanently.

Phase II. Vegetables, maybe.

OMG! Baby Robins!

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Mon, 17 May 2010 19:23:38 -0400

Discovered these little guys nesting under my deck this evening when Josh was mowing the lawn.

The picture shows three babies in the nest, but there was actually four crammed in there. One little guy got scared by the mower and flopped out, or his siblings gave him the boot because I was standing by the back door when he came hopping over to me. He gave me a "Are you my mommy? No? Okay, bye." hop, hop, hop, between my legs, hop, hop.

Being the calm, cool & collected type that I am, I hollered "JOSH! OMG! BABY ROBIN! OMG WTF! (oops, don't cuss in front of the baby!) OMG! WHAT DO WE DO??!!"

Josh, being the responsible type with all the answers, thoughtfully remarked "How the hell should I know?"

After debating whether to put him back in the nest, or leave him on the ground, we decided to do the former. Standing on a cat litter bucket (the step ladder was upstairs) and supported by Josh, I carefully placed the little fella back in the rest. He promptly flung himself to the ground. Then he flew about 20 feet across the yard. It was a wobbly, low flying sort of attempt, but at least he could fly. Then his mother appeared and flew over to him with a worm. So we decided that was good enough and went back inside.

Snow!

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Sun, 09 May 2010 11:29:41 -0400

Just outside of L'anse, looks like at least 2" on the ground. Haven't seen that stuff since March.

-- mobile post

Long overdue update

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:22:26 -0400

It's pretty clear that when I'm not running, I'm not blogging!

The last time I did any running was back on April 9th. I did 4.5-ish miles on the Tech Trails and could barely walk the next day due to knee\inner thigh pain. So, I just decided to stop.

At first I thought I might have pes anserine bursitis, but my symptoms didn't quite fit the profile. Finally, after much scouring of the internets, I landed on a sartorious muscle strain. I found this great link which listed all the typical symptoms of a sartorius strain, but I forgot to bookmark the link (dummy) and now I can't find the darn thing. In any event, after reading the article, I was pretty convinced that's what I had.

I finally got my insoles back with an additional adjustment to my arch. It’s 1/4”, but it looks a lot bigger. I’ve been wearing them regularly in my old running shoes but I haven’t done any running in them yet. My plan is to take the rest of April off and then pick up my half marathon training plan again in May in the hopes of doing the Appleton HM in September.

Insoles with arch adjustment

Original insoles

In the meantime, I've been having fun crashing my new bike! Fortunately, since all my crashes seem to happen when I get tangled up in loose sand, my landings have been on soft ground. Unfortunately, my legs look like somebody took a baseball bat to them. Hawt!

Jamis Durango 1.0

Josh and I broke out the cruisers a few weeks ago and we've been bopping all over Calumet with them. It’s funny, we get lots of compliments on them but most people refer to them as "old timey bikes" or "antique bikes" rather than cruisers.

Simon’s health has been stable for about three weeks now. His appetite has not been what I’d like it to be, but he is eating, and the constant vomiting seems to have stopped. Last month, I started tracking how often he was throwing up and it turned out in March, he threw up 17 out of 31 days. Most of those 17 days were in the first half of the month. So far in April, he’s thrown up five times. I think this is probably as good as it’s going to get with him.

Spencer has been doing really well. He’s been reaping the benefits of me having to feed Simon tuna to get his thyroid pill down (can’t give one tuna without the other), and he’s been putting weight on. He sleeps a bunch, pretty typical for a 15-year-old cat, but he will still race around the house like a crazy fool. One of these days I’ll dedicate a post to his water drinking habits and how I saved my sanity by teaching him how to turn on the bathroom faucet himself.

Reveal!

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:58:00 -0400

Stretch!

New cookbook!

The contents of the box!!1! OMG!

Little blue box

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:02:56 -0500

Scout sez you'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out what was in the box.

The Fronts

nospam@example.com (Running Chick) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:49:21 -0500

Wow, has it really been since 17 Feb that I've updated? I have been neglectful of my blogging duties! Well, let's get on with it then.

The Injury Front

Yeah, my legs are effed up again and I'm pretty ticked off about it. There were starting to bother me about two (three?) weeks ago so I went back to Podiatrist to see if I needed an adjustment. He observed that my left leg was shorter than my right leg and added a 1/4" lift in my shoes. I had three (maybe four) really good, pain-free runs (It's been so long, I'd completely forgotten what that felt like), and then things slowly started to fall apart until everything hit the bottom last Saturday when I set off for a 7 miler and had to bail at 2.5 miles in disgust because my shins & knees were killing me. In hindsight, I should have bailed after the first mile, but I didn't. I'm stupid. Anyway, I've got shin pain and now knee pain and I've never had knee pain from running before. In fact, it's about the only thing on my legs that haven't given me problems. Hamstrings: check. Hips: check. Calves: check. Shins: check. Ankles: check. Knees: awesome!

So, I'm taking this week off to do some ~~moping~~ cross-training and I'm going back to ~~yell at~~ discuss things with Mr. Podiatrist on Thursday. Last summer, he advised me that my problems were caused by over-pronation and that custom orthotics would resolve this issue and I'd be running big pain-free miles in no time. $500 custom orthotics will cure my lower leg issues, my ass! If anything, they seem like they've caused a good portion of the issues and I'm about THISCLOSE to going back to my original setup of over-the-counter cushioning insoles in my stability shoes.

The Simon Front

Poor little Simon has had a rough month: weight loss, appetite loss, vomiting, lethargy, drugs, drugs, drugs. He finally seems like he's leveling out and is (mostly) keeping food down and his appetite is much improved. I had to bring him back in last Friday so he could get his T4 (thyroid hormone) levels checked after being on Trapazole for the last month. He's been on & off the medicine so much in the last month, that I didn't hold out much hope for good news, but I was pleasantly surprised that his levels are back in the normal range. Woohoo, good news!

He's still having bouts of vomiting in the middle of the night which I usually step in as I stumble to the bathroom in the morning (gross), but it's sporadic. And his appetite is okay. He's never had a big appetite to begin with, so as long as he's eating and not losing any weight, I'm happy. So, we continue with the two pills/day and that's that.

Well, that's about it. Until next time!