The long run that really shouldn’t be called a long run because really

Posted on October 2, 2017 by flowerjovia

I wrote most of this post last night and woke up this morning to hear the shocking news of the mass shooting in Las Vegas. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the families of those who were killed or injured in this horrific and senseless tragedy.

Well just like that it’s October. Already. Seriously, does it seem like the year is just flying by? Maybe it’s just me but some years seem shorter or longer than others and this year is just flying by, flying.

Anyways, let’s get right to it shall we? I ran 17 miles last week.

YAS

I know. I have to say that I was pretty happy with it considering I haven’t really racked up any real miles in what seems like forever. Plus, I’ve got that nasty situation with the nerves in my hand which make it almost impossible to do anything without pain so seventeen miles is golden to me.

I will admit though that on Saturday I cut my run short to dig through a neighbors garbage.

Don’t judge.

im judging you

They happened to be throwing away a perfectly good plastic tool box exactly like one I already own which houses some of my crafting supplies and it’s overflowing and I know I paid 30 bucks for that thing and if I can get one for free, well, I’m going for it. So I may have ended my run a tad bit shy of 3 miles and dug through the garbage hoping it wasn’t busted in some hidden area that I couldn’t see, and, it wasn’t!

so excited

I dropped the toolbox off and then finished the run so it’s a win win! The next day I decided that since I had cut my run short the previous day I would try for a long run on Sunday. Not a really long run mind you since I haven’t put in any serious mileage since my hips have been recovering and my hands been nervy but just more than 3 miles.

I made it to three and a half. Good Lord, when did three and a half miles become a long run for me? It was the breathing thing again. Can you feel my frustration? Yes? Well, ignore it because I’m channeling my determination now.

Good God

I’m determined to get to the bottom of it and I will. I suspect it has something to do with my spine and I’m going to add in some yoga this week and visit the Physical Therapist to see if that helps. Couldn’t hurt, right?

MacGyver and I worked in the yard for most of the weekend in Clearwater, taking out some more trees and limbs, of course. I also managed to find time to decorate for fall so I thought it would be fun to show you.

I made this wreath.

Fall Wreath

I had a few leftover flowers so I put them in this jar,

fall jar

And these are the decorations around my front door

fall

Fall

I even pulled out one of our favorite fall blankets which Hank promptly claimed.

It’s obviously one of our favorite times of the year. I just wish it was a little cooler but you can’t have everything. What you can have is Oktoberfest and this year Tampa Bay Downs is having a, wait for it….

Weiner Derby

Did you see it? It’s the Wiener Dog Derby! Hells yeah! Hank is in training people. I may not be a race contender but my dog is.

How many times have you had to come back to running after an injury?

Older runners, do you find running is harder after injuries as you get older?

Memorial Day Weekend and a White Dove

Posted on May 30, 2017 by flowerjovia

I love going down to Nokomis for the weekends, especially when it’s a three day weekend, but after packing up to go down and then cleaning up to leave, and then coming home and unpacking and putting everything away, by Tuesday morning I feel like I got hit by a mack truck.

We left Clearwater on Friday night and drove down to Nokomis. MacGyver wanted to leave early but I had some rewards points from my credit cards and I had to spend them or lose them so I HAD to go to the mall. Had to.

In case you had any doubt about my skill, this entire outfit, including shoes was less than 30 dollars.

After power shopping we headed down to Nokomis and on Saturday morning I got up bright and early and got in a long run on my favorite trail.

MacGyver and I had some lawn debris to pick up and some garage sales to visit so we piddled around for much of the day on Saturday doing those things.

We didn’t find too much at the garage sales but we did go over to the jetty and we met this guy who had a metal detector and he was picking up things right and left. He told us that he had found 28 rings in only 6 months, twenty eight, including diamonds and sapphires.

hmmmmmmmmmmm

On Sunday MacGyver got up really early in the morning to go work on the boat and I went out for a run. He was supposed to change out the prop while I ran six miles and walked the dogs and then we were going to go out and try to do some fishing. Here’s what actually happened.

I did run six miles and walk the dogs but on the walk Hank got over heated and fell down which scared the hell out of me so I picked him up and carried him back home, (he loved it, I’m not sure but he may have planned it).

MacGyver pulled the boat out of the water to change the prop but the dealer had given him the wrong parts so he had to put the old prop back on, which meant he wasted a shit ton of time for no reason.

Finally, around 11am, my mother in law came to pick me up so MacGyver could get the boat back in the water since it was at their house in Englewood. When she showed up, this was what she walked in on.

My mother in law and I loaded my things, and by things I mean, my menagerie, into the car and then we headed off to Englewood.

(In case you’re wondering were Hank is, he insisted on driving.)

We finally made it onto the boat around 1:30 in the afternoon and made our way out to Stump Pass. I haven’t been to Stump Pass since last year and I was super excited to get out there, mostly because I really wanted to fish but also because I knew there would be a lot of people out celebrating and enjoying the holiday weekend. I was shocked when we got there and I saw this.

Nothing ever stays the same

Apparently the pass isn’t deep enough for the larger boats so they are ‘fixing it’. In my opinion, it will never be the same. Progress? I’m not sure that’s what I’d call it but it is what it is.

Anyway, there hasn’t been any bait fish anywhere. MacGyver is convinced that the red tide we recently had ruined the fishing but I disagree. We went to a few spots looking for bait and didn’t see any and we threw a few lures out but MacGyver was getting frustrated.

Eventually MacGyver and I decided that we should maybe start metal detecting but I said I wasn’t really ready to give up yet and that’s when I threw out a lure one last time and I landed the only fish of the day, and it was a snook!

Boom! What you can’t see in that picture is that when I was holding the snook, he flipped hard and his gill caught my thumb and cut it pretty good, and when he flipped, because I caught him on a double lure, the second lure flipped up and caught my hand as well so in that picture I’ve got blood all over my hand.

About 5 minutes after I threw the snook back I looked to the left of the boat and saw a large fin. Yep, a shark. I had hoped to get a closer look but it swam away.

After locating some band-aids we decided to head back and have some dinner. Later that night we had desert back in Nokomis and we decided to go over to the Jetty to try some metal detecting with a unit that MacGyver had bought at a black Friday sale a few years ago.

It didn’t work. (I’m searching craigslist for a new one today.)

Yesterday we hung out in Nokomis for most of the day. It was so hot that I really had no desire to go out in the sun at all. MacGyver and I watched some TV and hung out with the animals and worked a bit in the yard. We just enjoyed the day.

Late yesterday we met my laws for dinner before leaving and had a really nice time. The restaurant pulled a bait a switch on us which was annoying but there was a white dove hanging out there and I really wanted to take it home.

Wouldn’t you like a woodpecker brother?

I didn’t.

We got home last night around 9PM and MacGyver and I made it to bed around midnight. I managed to get up and run/walk around 4 miles this morning but I have no idea how I did it because I’m exhausted and I still have a full day of work ahead of me. This is why lunchtime naps were invented 😉 and why I excel at them.

How was your weekend?

Did you do anything special?

And just when I thought it was over……

Posted on May 22, 2017 by flowerjovia

On Saturday I ran 10 miles on the Legacy Trail and ended up with a mid-level migraine that ended up lasting for the entire freakin weekend. It sucked. This is what I get for playing doctor and not taking my thyroid medication for almost three weeks because now the long run migraines are back and I’m sure it will take a few weeks to get rid of them again.

Oh, if it were only this easy….

The bad news is, I might have finally solved the mystery of the eye twitch and it has absolutely nothing to do with the thyroid medication and absolutely everything to do with another medication I was sure I needed and it’s the only thing that got rid of my migraines when everything else failed previously. It turns out that the twitch could actually be caused by the topirimate! The blessed Topirimate!

In case you’re wondering, I’m not going to play around with my medications this time, I’m going to make an appointment this week and talk to my doctor about it, but since the ‘twitch’ started around the same time the doctor increased my dose of topirimate, I’m pretty sure that’s the culprit.

I don’t know why I never considered it before. As it turns out problems with the eyes are a known side effect with topirimate. Go figure. So much for my miracle drug.

I still managed to rally on Saturday and have a little fun. We went out on the boat and had dinner with the in-laws. We also went swimming and I found out that my Fibit Charge HR is definitely water resistant. I’d almost go as far as saying that bitch is damn near waterproof. I mean, I know it’s not, but it certainly seemed like it when I was showing off in the pool.

MacGyver was showing his dad how to execute the perfect swimming stroke. Is that even what you say? I don’t know because I obviously know absolutely nothing about swimming but that didn’t stop me from jumping into the water and showing off my perfectly imperfect breast stroke while forgetting to remove my Fitbit Charge HR. Yeah, I did that.

And then I swam across the pool a few more times. And then, I remembered I had it on.

It still works!

I slept in on Sunday morning and I slept a lot of the day on Sunday too but I could not get rid of the migraine. It just did not want to go away so I finally just gave in and decided to rest. For some reason that’s a hard thing for me to do.

This morning I was rewarded for it because I woke up migraine free and I was able to run again. It wasn’t a lot of fun though. If you follow me on Instagram or facebook you may already know why.

How was your weekend? Did you do anything exciting? Did you know the Fitbit Charge HR was water resistant?