Rest is Not Just for the Weak!

My devotion this morning was on one of my favorite verses, "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures." Ps 32.2 I like any verse that requires me to lie down. I love to sleep! Okay, so this verse doesn't exactly mean I have permission to sleep till noon every morning err ... afternoon. It is referring to the requirement we take time to stop the busy in our lives and dwell on God. This devotion in particular pointed out that this is the longest commandment given to us out of the infamous ten. God spent 96 words on this command (see Exodus 20:8-11) while only using 5 for adultry and four for murder. The value of rest in God's eyes is evident. He knew we'd be tempted to keep going and going like the engergizer bunny (he knew about that commercial long before our feeble minds thought it up)and knew He had to nip that in the bud right off the bat.
I was discussing this devotion with a friend who has just started running. She mentioned that she was taking a rest day from running because she overdid it the day before by both running and taking a Zumba class. Her comment made me think how important it is for us to rest both in our spiritual lives and also in our running lives. If we fail to schedule rest days into our running schedule we will eventually tear our muscles down and find ourselves injured. We need to rest so that our mucles have a chance to rebuild and something I've always found amazing is how our muscles will rebuild themselves stronger. As we exercise we create tears in the muscles and as those tears heal they actually strengthen! We come out stronger for having rested. Now, that doesn't mean we can simply rest every day and gain strength. It's not that easy. The strengthening can only come after we've done some work first. No excuses for being lazy! But if we do the work first and make sure to rest after we can be assured we will grow stronger.
Once again, our running lives are a great analogy for our spiritual lives. God wants us to work. He has a job for each and every one of us and He expects us to do our best. He gives us the tools and skills we need and if we follow His directions we will succeed but there is often one direction we frequently miss, skim over, skip and ignore. What is it? Yep, rest. We don't like to rest. Why? Maybe we think it will make us weak? Perhaps we feel it will put us behind the rest of the pack? Maybe we fear getting behind schedule but that is when we need to ask ourselves ... who designed the schedule?
When I train for a half or full marathon I use a schedule designed by an expert. The schedule will give me a day by day guide for what I am supposed to do in order to be ready for race day. Monday I will run, Tuesday I will cross-train, Wednesday I will run, Thursday I will ... gasp ... can it be? Rest. Wow, is Thursday ever hard. I'm usually on a roll and I don't want to rest. On Friday I am back at it cross-training. Saturday I have my longest run of the week. Sunday is, once again, a rest day and this time I am relieved for the time off my feet. The experts know the value of rest after a huge effort.
So too, the Expert who guides my life knows the value of rest. He knows I need rest before a big endeavor to build up strength(Thursday's rest) and also the power of rest to restore my soul after the endeavor is finished (Sunday's rest). As God prepares us for the things He has in store for us He requires that we rest. He knows how vitally important it is that we take time to sit quietly with Him. There are times when that restoration is in preperation of something big awaiting us. We may not know the exact date we will find ourselves racing but God does and if we trust His plan we will be prepared. We may not want to rest when the scheduled time pops up on our calendar. "But God," we'll say, "I'm on a roll here. My list is never ending. If I stop I won't finish in a timely manner." Once again, I ask, whose time are we operating on? Don't we think the Master List Maker has it under control? If He moves rest up on our list it is adviseable to take that into consideration and obey. I for one don't want to show up on race day fatigued, barely able to crawl across the finish line or worse yet, receive a DNF (Did Not Finish). And heaven forbid I wind up with a DNS (Did Not Start). These are all possible outcomes if I fail to rest.
I will take the time to read the plan in front of me (the Bible, anyone?) because I plan on showing up to the race prepared and strong, even if that means taking a day off once a week (or even two)to refresh my soul.

Yeah For A Healed Injury!

I just did my first run yesterday after almost 6 full weeks off. I say almost because there was one 30 minute run two weeks ago when I realized I needed a little more time to heal fully. I'm still not sure what I did to myself as I never coughed up the money to have it checked by a doctor. I simply treated it as worst case scenario and fortunately, it appears to be all better! Whoo hoo! I was a little worried with how my cardio survived during the downtime but it seems to be okay - not what it was but not as bad as it could be. I took it easy using a 3:1 run/walk ratio. This wasn't easy! I wanted to just keep running and cardio wise I felt like I could keep running. However, the last thing I wanted to do was risk re-injury so I let wisdom prevail and forced myself to stop and walk every 3 minutes. Well, until the last bit of the run. It seemed silly to stop and walk only two minutes away from the end of my run. But then it seemed silly to stop just shy of 3.5 miles. Anyway, I wound up running 8 minutes straight. I blame the poor judgement on endorphins. The good news ... the 8 minutes of straight running wasn't hard. Yeah for keeping some cardio up. Other good news ... I could feel a surge of energy coming on and knew I was just getting into a groove. I felt like I could have easily pulled out a 10K. Whew! No, it's not 26.2 miles or even 13.1 and yes, I still walked a lot but I'll take it. The other good news is there was no pain while running and no pain later. I'll take today off of running and cross-train and try another easy run tomorrow. Here soon I need to get my 10 year old daughter outside and running as we gear up for the Iron Girl 5K. It's September 12th and we haven't trained at all. I think she'll be fine as she's done some pretty difficult hikes in the 5-6 mile range but still, for confidence sake, it would be good to get her out running at least a couple times. I am so glad I'll be able to run it with her. I had feared I was going to be stuck walking it while she ran on ahead (which she was all set to do). The weather is supposed to begin cooling down by this weekend so we may have some good outdoor running weather next week. And hopefully, this 5K will be the kick start I need to a good running season this fall and into spring. I had hoped for 26.2 in November at the Seattle Marathon but now am thinking it may just be the half. Looks like my 2nd marathon will take place in the spring.
Meanwhile, I am just so happy to be running again! I don't care if it was on my treadmill, in my super hot house with fans blowing on me and the kitty box stinking in the next room (heat and litter boxes don't mix). I was running, my endorphins were kicking in and I felt great!

Pool Interrupted!

Well, it's been another week of no running. At least I think it's been a week. I'm beginning to lose track. I sure hope this leg heals up soon because I really miss running. It's so simple. Just throw on some shoes and running clothes and either hit the roads or the treadmill. In a matter of moments I have a good cadence going with my breathing and a soon to follow endorphin rush. It's pure sweetness! Now however, I have to work really hard for those endorphins. I've been doing a little pilates and then continuing to swim in the kiddos pool. I'm getting pretty good at twisting and turning (ab work, remember!) after swimming 3 arm strokes in the water. And when the kids join me I get a double workout as I have to swim against the whirlpool they like to create as they run circles around me screaming, "Shark!". Sigh ... it's not the most relaxing exercise in the world. I miss "ME TIME" on the trail. Yesterday I actually had the pool to myself. Grandpa and Grandma took the kids for a few hours and I was so happy to have adult swim time. No splashing but my own, no talking, no one screaming shark, no one screaming, "Dead spider in the pool! Get it, get it, get it!", no having to stop mid-stride to avoid a child's pool toy, no having to worry about kicking a child in the face on accident, no having to get out of the pool an incessent amount of times to "fetch" things. Well, 5 out of 7 isn't bad, I guess. I had just gotten my heart rate up when the little neighbor boy peeked his head over the fence asking for a paper he'd thrown over onto our side. "You know what, I'm working out right now. I'll get it for you when I'm done." I told him. I proceeded to swim. When I looked up a few moments later I saw his little face continueing to peer at me over the fence. Once more I ignored him and silently said to myself, "Go away, go away, go away." He didn't go away. I now know I should have just gotten out of the pool then and there and given him his paper because he stared at me the entire time. Why didn't I? I didn't want to lose the precious high heartrate I had achieved. I didn't want to interrupt my "ME TIME" for kids I wasn't supposed to be dealing with. Not to mention, it wasn't exactly warm outside and neither was my water. Each time I get out means another time of plunging myself into the shocking cold. Selfish? You bet! Anyway, after 40 minutes of being observed I finally said, "Do you need something?" Sure enough, he pointed at his paper. "I'll get it for you when I'm done. You don't have to wait there. I'll hand it to you. I promise." More staring. Fine. I took a deep breath and reigned in my frustration as I climbed out the ladder, retrieved the paper and handed it to him with a reminder not to throw things over the fence. His little head happily bobbed away not to be seen again. I should have just done it in the first place. It would have saved him anxiety over his paper and me a lot of frustration. Of course, even my own kids know not to interrupt mom's workout unless it is an emergency. I'm a much happier and less cranky mom if I'm getting my endorphin need met. But, as I said, my own kids know that. He's not my kid so how could he possibly know this about me? I suppose I should chalk this up to a lesson on loving one's neighbors. I actually like my neighbors and I'm blessed to have the neighbors I do. I suppose I just need to get running again so I don't wind up being "that cranky neighbor lady who won't even get out of the pool to give us our toy back".

Crazy Camping, Crazy Cakes and Crazy Considerations

It's been a busy couple of weeks in my house hold.  First we went camping at Lake Wenatchee.  It was an adventurous time.  No sooner had we set up the camper than my daughter told me, "Mom, my tooth feels weird."  I looked in her mouth to find a pus filled postule on the gum over her tooth.  She had an infection.  Oh joy, we hadn't even been in our site for 2 hours and we were already looking at possibly having to drive back across the mountains. We were lucky to be within cell range so we called the dentist office and they felt she could get through the weekend with ibuprofiin, which of course, I had forgotten to pack like I normally do just in case something should arise.  This meant a little trip to two different stores to track down children's motrin.  We finally found it and hurray for us (and her) the tooth didn't cause her too much pain.  What did cause her pain?  The mosquitos!  They were brutal!  It didn't matter how much insect repellant we used they just kept coming and coming and biting and biting.  My daughter is allergic to them so in addition to the Motrin she was also taking Benadryl.  It wasn't all a trial however.  We enjoyed a trip into Leavenworth where we feasted on German food and made a quick stop by the miniature store so my daughter could shop for her dollhouse.  We also took a 2 mile guided horseback ride.  The kids rode their own horses and though they were a bit nervous in the beginning they were all smiles by the time they dismounted.  And what is a trip to Lake Wenatchee without some time swimming in the lake? 

When we got home I had to quickly change gears and swap my focus to my son's upcoming 7th birthday party.  He had decided on a Toy Story theme as he is a huge Buzz Lightyear fan.  This meant a Toy Story cake.  Okay, I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to my kids cakes but I consider it my creative outlet.  It's lethargic in the same way as scrapbooking  only with sugar and cake instead of glue and photos.  Seriously, I love it.  It takes me forever (my son's cake took me 3 solid days), covers my kitchen in powdered sugar and cornstartch from the floor to ceiling, okay maybe not ceiling but certainly all over the floor and appliances and me, and reduces us to take-out for at least 3 days.  Who has room to  cook food in a kitchen covered with frosting and cake pans?  Maybe one of these days I'll get a kitchen remodel (and more room) out of my cake decorating but that's a dream for another day.

So, I made him his cake (all edible except for the spring in Slinky the dog), cleaned house and made up goodie boxes for the 12 party guests (did I mention I'm a glutton for punishment?).  Here's a photo of his cake.  While I'm at it I'll throw in a photo of my daughter's cake I made for her birthday in June.  Her cake went with her Nancy Drew theme and once again, it's all edible. Yes, summer is for cake decorating in my household. 

So that is how I've been spending the last couple of weeks.  It's good I've been busy because I haven't been running.  Not by choice, mind you.  I'm still dealing with that nagging and very annoying shin injury.  While I had once thought it was a bad case of shin splints I'm now fearing it could be something worse ... something like a dreaded stress fracture.  I sincerely hope not but I've laid off of any exercise that is weight bearing while I wait on some money to come in so I can visit a doctor.  Right now it is not hurting me but then again, I'm not using it much.  It's frustrating and now that the birthday parties are out of the way I'm beginning to really feel that frustration.  Lord, I don't remember asking for patience in any prayers lately so I'm not sure why this lesson is necessary.  I mean, my new running shoes are just sitting in my closet taunting me.  "Come run with us", they say.  They didn't ask for any lessons on patience either.  Or maybe this is a lesson on healing.  Either way, I feel like a kid in the classroom two weeks before summer break.  So close and yet so far.  On the bright side, if there is a bright side, maybe I'll get better at swimming and who knows ... consider a triathalon one day.  I know, I know, I always said I'd never do a triathalon because if I get tired in a marathon I just stop running but if I tire in the swimming portion of a tri I will drown.  I was quite surprised to find my thoughts, as I was swimming back and forth in my kids Intex 15 foot diameter swimming pool (not an easy feat, let me tell you), roaming to "I can see why people enjoy this.  I wonder how I'd do if I could just keep swimming straight for a bit?" (as opposed to turning over and over again in the tiny little pool).  Yes, the world is a crazy place, God has a sense of humor, and I am actually having serious thoughts about a triathalon.  I can't even believe I just wrote the last portion of that sentence.  Me doing a triathalon.  Well, crazier things have happened.  Crazy things like an ex-cheerleader who hated running finishing a marathon in her late 30's.  Yes, crazy things indeed.