Other than training/racing:

Other than training/racing:

-  Just went to my first bookclub in my new neighborhood.  My first thought is that Dave and I really picked an amazing neighborhood to live.  There is so much life here.

-The book we read was Boys In The Boat, and I highly, highly recommend it.  What did I get out of it?  Funny, but it wasn't the training, psychology of an Olympian, or athletic inspiration.  It was actually reading about how poor people were in the depression and how HARD they worked with every minute of their day available.  I suddenly felt incredibly lazy.  Well, after reading this book, I decided to take on extra work babysitting when Isla is out of school and I have to stay home with her.  If I can't earn money that day being a PT, I can earn it doing other things.  They book really pushed me to think outside the box with my time as it applies to earning a living.  So, here I am today...BABYSITTING another kid while I have Isla, and I feel great about it!

- I started a women's running group in my neighborhood way earlier than anyone should get up.  And the group is FAITHFUL.  We have all different levels, and it is just fantastic.  I am pumped I put myself out there to get something going as a new resident here.  Really, I love it here.  And, I love my new friends.

- Some great podcasts:  Bobbi Gibb interview and Neal Barnard, MD.  Check them out!

- Speaking of which

Sigh

And how do I even start on this.  I just can't take anymore damn bacon, meat, and dairy pushing.  Do I unfriend people?  Stop following them?  I only hate to do that because I want to be friends with everyone.  Then I wonder, do I?  Do I want to be friends with someone that promotes these industries...in the face of INSANE cruelty?  Do you really think that cow on your cookbook is snuggling with that little girl?  EVER?  That they have ever had a kind human touch?  What propaganda!  And Americans buy it!  Can you be a really great and kind person without striving to be kinder to ALL creatures?  It is really hard on my soul to read things on social media.  I also even got a message from a friend yesterday chastising me for not eating meat.  I started down this path when I was 14!!!!!! LOL on the funny message on how I will find food to eat without meat.

So I wrestle with this.  And believe me, it is hard.   Because I am certainly NOT PERFECT. I am striving, but not there.  I am trying to be better, failing a ton, but marching on.  My husband eats meat, but I know that after almost 20 years together it hurts him more, maybe just the tiniest bit, to do it.  Other people close to me blatantly brag and throw in my face their meat consumption.  Can you really be an educated person if you refuse to look at what factory farming does to animals?  If you turn a blind eye... I mean, really...isn't it just as bad as what happened with slavery...or with the Jewish in Germany?   but those are PEOPLE, Damie.  Hm.  Well, I dare you to listen to any sound bite of an animal tortured in factory farming and tell me if you don't hear a soul in their cries.

But besides that.  Don't argue with me on the "virtues" of meat as food.  Read the research.  And not what crossfit tells you.  Please, people.  Seriously?  But you know, tweet all you want about bacon and your steak for dinner.  But the minute someone that does not eat meat says a word about vegetarianism or veganism, everyone gets put out.  It is definitely not an open, honest, and loving playing field.  And believe me, I know that if anyone was reading this post anyway, I lost 90% of readers when I started talking about this.  That is the way it is.  But it doesn't have to be.  In the face of being educated our whole lives from teachers to commercials with how to eat animals, I can see why people just don't want to look at something in a different way.  Our culture has forced us into carnism like it is a religion.

So, I never want to push plant based eating on anyone.  We obviously have choices, and everyone has to make their own.  No one needs a preacher.  But, I am tired of being in a place where I am just forced to surrender to everyone pushing meat.  How do I separate myself from this and invite more positivity into my life on this front?

-  So then, I come to this place.  What to do with social media and such for the future.  What does it hold for me?  I think a lesser place in my life.  An advantage of it is keeping up with far away friends.  But I think there is more hidden stress in social media than I really even know.  (Of course there is tons of stress that is also in your face).

- This weekend...Def Leppard/REO Speedwagon/Tesla.  I am SO excited  I have listened to the album, Hysteria, more times than I can count.  I still play it when I run.

-Our house has not sold, and that stinks.  I asked my mom to bury a St. Joseph in the yard for me to help it sell.  Every bit helps!

- Isla has not been sick in months,  even with going to multiple daycares, and this is a huge deal.  We have been on antibiotics practically every couple of months for the first couple of years of her life.  This is the longest stretch she has had without sickness, and it has just been awesome.  She will even have a snotty nose and clear it a few days later without getting an ear or sinus infection.  So awesome!  Of course she stopped eating 2 days ago and has been crying non-stop for 48 hours, so my luck may have just run out.  But still, something about the move to New Orleans has really helped her.  Maybe less allergies?


Ah.  that is all.  It is a nice mouthful.  Too bad I am not training, as the posts are shorter and sweeter :)

August 2016

Life is good.  Not great, but good.  I have a borrowed bike.  It is too big for me, but I am making it work and I am so so thankful.  Things don't have to be perfect for you to be successful.  I have amazing friends.  I am definitely finding my way in Nola and loving my time here.  Training has been awful, as it has been for 9 months now.   And while I have had 2 accomplishments this year in the finishing of the Boston Marathon and a 50 miler, I cannot say I have raced a single thing.  I can hardly SBR, and for months now everything has been such a struggle, even at the slowest paces.  I really want to race.  Anything.  ANYTHING!   I have even looked on line at super sprints, but to be honest, I don't think I can run 2 miles faster than a 10 minute pace, and I think to myself....what will that do for me?  Dig me in more of a hole?  Why does my body hate me?

Dave continues to tell me it is time to get this checked out.  I agree, but where?  Who?  Try to find someone that works with athletes and Epstein Barr Virus, I dare you.  I am pushing forward but really struggling.  I am back to that place where I have to start to question if even easy training is too much.  I promise I am taking a bird's eye view to this all....to these 4 years of struggle...because I know that there is more good to come and this will just have been a puzzle for me to figure out, which is what we do in life.  The only problem is I am running out of time to race this season.  If I don't race, it is not the end of the world.  I will be sad.  I will definitely excuse myself from my teams that depend on me to race, because I am not able to uphold my end of the deal.  

In the meantime, I am looking for some serious cleansing plans.  If anyone has done anything for intestinal cleansing, EBV, yeast, infections, whatever....pm me.  Please.  Months of easy training is not doing the trick.  Before I have to completely sit out again with zero training for a couple of months, I would love to give this thing one more punch in the face if anyone has some suggestions.  

Life rolling on.... :)  

 I had my 20 year high school reunion last month.  Of course, I had nothing to wear, so hours before the event, I was trying on dresses and texting my sister for her approval.  This was the winner.- $30 thank you very much.  And then I bought shoes literally on the way to the event- in the sale section, thank you very much again.  Some things NEVER change.  

 Isla is quite the photographer of the family.  She LOVES taking photos, and I love looking at life through her eyes.  This is her view from the backseat.  

 Isla has been in gymnastics camp.  This was my first day of dropping her off.  (tear drop!)

 And she wants to wear "twirly" dresses to gymnastics.  Ha!  This is the day she would not drink water out of her cup because she told me it would "take off her lipstick (chapstick)."  WHAT?  whose child is this?

 Oh, the end of week performance.  I had THAT kid that refused to do anything, completely melted down and was crying, and had to be carried off.  Dave and I wonder....is it that she is not interested?   Is she too young?  (which, she is one of the youngest, but definitely there are 3-year-olds having fun out there). Was she just hungry and tired?  or is our kid the defiant one that will just not do what is asked of her?  It feels like such a parenting fail sometimes.  But then, we just have to shrug and let her be her.  I guess.  Parenting can be really hard sometimes-  not the day to day of it, although that is hard too.  But the psychological part of it...letting little people develop while setting boundaries.  Tough!  

]

And then sometimes she is having a complete blast :)  

 Isla and her neighborhood friend, Tre.  

A girl and her dog :)