Fitness Friday (Abs)

I decided after my last half marathon to take 2 full weeks off from running. My goal in taking this much time off was to see if my Piriformis would stop hurting completely. Interestingly the dull ache continued and seemed to get worse with time. I tried to stretch it out but the ache was chronic. Funny thing is since I'm back to running this week the ache has decreased substantially, this makes me laugh.
Running has been such joy again! Not feeling the crunch of a pending race has taken the pressure completely off and I am just enjoying the love of running. I have had a really good week being consistent at my additional goals of stretching and strengthen. In addition to running I have done some form of weights, stretching, rolling and ab work at least 4 times.
Life continues to have some challenges but I have been strengthened by the love and support of a few dear friends who I have opened up to. Their friendship is one of the greatest blessing in my life and as I thought they have rallied around me wrapping me with arms of love and care. I am overwhelmed with Gods grace expressed through them toward me.
Since this is fitness Friday thought I would post this chart of ab exercises I found to be helpful:

Pressing on,
Terri

Coming up for Air

 

If you have followed my blog for anytime you might remember me mentioning that we had a lot of family and friends come and visit this past year. Between the revolving door of guest, getting very involved with ministry at our church and running 3 half marathons approximately 2 months apart, I feel like life has been dragging me along. Like I mentioned in my last post I'm just not up to sounding Pollyanna about life right now. Pollyanna has left the building! Life has been very stressful especially the past 3-4 months. I won't get into the specifics but I will say that it hasn't been one single event but rather a number of things both personally and concerning others in my life who have contributed to a dark cloud that seems to relentless hover overhead. Initially I reacted to the stress as I always do; DENIAL. She is the sister of Pollyanna in case you didn't know. Then I sucked it all inside which is my second way of dealing with things. I drown before I come up fighting. But its time...time to come up for air...time to breath even in the uncertainty of what lies ahead. Time to believe God is able and willing to work in my life AND the lives of others! It's time to take the sword of affliction and allow it to wield away at the sin in my life and help clear the path so that I can walk by faith. The battle is not to try and change my circumstances the battle is for my faith. Yes, for my faith; "And without faith it is impossible to please Him..."  Faith is the expression of my "confidence" in God - in His fidelity, His truth, His wisdom, His promises. So its time to start living in the confidence of who He is and time to focus... This week I was reminded while reading Nancy's blog of the benefit of "tunnel vision." This got me thinking about races horses and the blinders they sometimes wear while racing. I did a little research and sure enough these blinders are used to keep the horse focused on what is in front of him, encouraging him to pay attention to the race rather than other distractions.
Right now there are a lot of things pulling on my focus and my resolve to keep my head in the race. That dark cloud overhead is swirling with distractions and the uncertainty of what storms lie ahead. Along with some issues in life I have been plagued with chronic Piriformis issues over the past 3-4 months.Two of the three 1/2 marathons I ran this year I completely lost my focus during the second half of the race because of pain. My training and mental focus has suffered also because of the pain. There are things I know I need to do that will help this and possibly correct it completely. This is a area I need to put blinders on and take the time to pay attention to. I spent this weekend planning out my running schedule which includes some new exercises, stretches as well as I plan to start getting regular massages that will hopefully work to resolve this issue. My goal right now is to take a 6 month break from running anymore half marathons to allow myself the time to focus on this Piriformis issue. During this time I hope to not only resolve some pain issues but more importantly focus on living by faith. It's faith that will keep me moving forward and running til I cross the finish line.



Pressing on (with blinders), Terri

Remember The Alamo !!

Well folks its been a while since my last post. I have considered deleting this blog as I simply don't have the desire to keep up with posting. Life hasn't really changed...my daily duties as wife, mom, runner and domestic engineer continue to be consistent and rewarding. I guess my lack of desire to keep up with this blog is more of a personal reality check... To be very real here, I'm kind of sick of hearing myself making lame excuses and foreboding about better races ahead. I'm just not up to it anymore. So although this will NOT be my last post I will try and refrain from sounding like a big whiner and making a bunch of excuses because the truth is...

Since my last post I have run 2 more half marathons; the Aramco Houston Half and The Alamo City Run Fest Half. For me personally both races were humbling. Funny thing is the first race had horrible weather (rainy and cold) yet I performed better in that race than I did on the second which had ideal running weather. Now here's a great place in this post where a lot of whining and excuse making could occur but the truth is I walked away from both races knowing the only person I had to blame was myself.

 (Left): at the Chevron Houston Marathon expo with my super speedy friend who ran the marathon around 3:30ish. She's headed to Boston (2nd time) in April. Isn't she beautiful! God has truly blessed me with some amazing godly friends who are beautiful inside and out.

(Below L): the only photo I let anyone take. I was a drowned rat by the end of the race and the picture is blurry because everything was damp!

My finish time was 2:16 (ouch)! This would be a great place to tell you about how getting to the race late and fighting the crowds greatly affected my time...but I simply will refer you to the above sign... The positives about the race are that I ran a very consistent pace and had a negative split the last 5k. I prayed throughout the race and God used this race to humble me and teach me a lot about what I'm willing to do to get the results I want. These lessons are not loss on the race course but are hard lessons the Lord is teaching everyday as I resist and yield. It would be easy to sit here and hide behind my Christan screen and say "this is the race God gave and in that I rejoice" but honestly I was disappointed at myself because I didn't put in the work to achieve some goals that would've resulted in a better time, and that's the bottom line. YET, if this verse is true in my life: "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever" Then those words become a real conviction to who I am. I believe in the complete Sovereignty of God in my life. There are no chances or luck...my life is ordered under the loving and wise hand of my heavenly Father, so in that I CAN say "I rejoice"!  

 

The Alamo City Run Fest was a combined wedding anniversary (23 yrs.) and race weekend. I feel incredibly blessed to have a husband who is willing to let me combine special occasions around racing. The ACRF was an inaugural race and I signed up before they posted the course map. The San Antonio area is also known as hill country so you can imagine when they posted the course map I had a minor mental overhaul. I was still excited about the experience of finishing inside the Alamodome so that kept me pumped for a new finish line experience!

Day one: A visit to the Wildlife Animal Park is always
a highlight for us city folk!

Day two we spent the entire day at Six Flags Fiesta and
yes I left feeling a little dizzy.

Both days were such a blessing, laughing, eating, sight-seeing...being together as a family...such cherished memories.

Race day morning I woke up exhausted. After a day at Six Flags and the obnoxious child whose parents allowed him/her to run and jump until after 11pm in the room above us I was set for a tough day. The weather was PERFECT and I was so thankful to be running a race where the weather was not going to be a factor. The first half of the race I was on pace for a 2:08 finish and knew I had it in me to keep this up for the remainder of the race if I could hold out on the hills. From the start of the race I was feeling the nagging pain that had been plaguing my hip/glute area for the past 3 weeks of training but hoped it would not get worse. Again I prayed through the race but honestly I struggled to sense the closeness I so often feel with the Lord while running... It's hard to put into words but I feel a nearness to the Lord when I run that I really sense at no other time. Maybe it's because I need His help so much to perform the task ahead, maybe it's the solitude that draws me to Him but for whatever reason I struggled to find it. Yet I knew He was with me me, enabling me...

 

struggling to stand upright

The lessons He had for me this day would be felt most profoundly on the second half of this race. My hip/glute area that had been just a nagging pain was turning into a spear that was affecting me both physically and mentally. The course was mostly rolling with a couple steep hills and little by little my resolve for a PR gave way to a resolve to just finish. I actually considered dropping out. I crossed the finish line disappointed in myself knowing I should've fought harder. The realization that
I gave up was an extremely painful lesson especially after the opportunity had slipped away. Yet, dare I say it...in this I rejoice!

I will post again on where all these lessons have left me with my training and hope to be back at visiting your blogs a little more consistently. Until then Press on!