Jingle Bell Run

Pensacola

Acute Achilles Tendonitis

Advocare Helpful Videos

Here are some videos that I found helpful when I started out on products. Please take a few minutes to watch.

Do's and Dont's

24 Day Challenge - Cleanse Phase

24 Day Challenge - MNS Max Pack

Here are some helpful documents regarding the 10 Day Herbal Cleanse:

Over 350 miles on the old Asics, so time for some new ones!

Another ice bath!

So....I FROZE this morning on our 11 mile run so then what do I do?
Come home to take an ice bath!! Well, apparently now that my
hamstring is healed up I have a piriformis hurting. Hope this helps
it!!!

Update

Hey everyone! I know I haven't been very good at updating my blog. Life has been busy and sometimes I just forget that someone out there may be interested in what is going on in my life. I am going to keep this updated better....if nothing else than to be sort of a diary. Something I can come back to and read one day to remember this journey.

So....running. Well, my schedule is that I do a couple of shorter runs (4-5 miles) during the week and a long run on the weekend. This past Saturday I ran a personal high....15 miles!!! I still look back in wonderment! Me, really, 15 miles... NO WAY!! But I did it. I got something even crazier than that!! Below is my schedule for last Saturday. Chris was out of town in Kansas and Coop was with my in-laws so it was just me and Cambo. Cambo spent the nite with friends so I could do my long run and I caught up with him at his football game. Here goes:
3am-wake up
4am-meet girls
4:15am-begin running
7:15ish-finish my 15 miles
Get home, shower, change
8:15isham-arrive in Fairhope for the 8:30 kickoff of Cambo's game
10ish am - arrive home, get Cambo cleaned up and changed
11am - take Cambo to Mellow Mushroom for a birthday party
12:30ish - arrive back home, shower, iron, get all fixed up
2pm - baby shower in Spanish Fort
4:40pm - get back home
6pm ish - a friend brings over her boy and girl for me to baby sit
10pm ish - friend comes and get kids
10:15ish - I GO TO BED!!!!

It was a good day...but a long day! I held in there though!

I ran 4.5 miles this morning before work with Mindy and Paige!

Check out my new side venture...
www.BEadvofit.com

Jamboree Game

Aren't they growing up! This was taken before Cambo's jamboree game. I looove watching Cambo knock over those other boys during the game ....isn't that just horrible!! I mean, the fact that I enjoy the aggressiveness of the game!?!?!

Advocare!

I am sooo excited!!! I have had such great results taking these nutritional supplements. I feel better! I feel better about myself!! I have more energy!

I was skeptical at first. I was running one day with a friend of mine, Lydia, and I was venting to her about how I run 20+ miles a week, watch what I eat, but STILL could not get rid of those last 10 lbs and couple of inches from my waist. She suggested I take a few products from Advocare. Well, I did...and waited. I didn't want any of my friends to know at first. I mean, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't want them to think I was crazy or anything. BUT...ya know what....it WORKED!!! I am fitting back into pants that I haven't been able to wear in over a YEAR!!! Don't get me wrong...they aren't magic pills. I still exercise and eat right...but these products fill in those nutrional gaps for me. They protect my muscles when I exercise and help those same muscles recover. And I have more energy. Anyway, I could go on and on...

I love the products so much I have decided to spread the word. I want to help other ladies (and/or guys) feel as good as I do.

Check out this page and all the products. Looove them!!!!

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Stay tuned...you'll be hearing lots more......

Ice bath

Thought I would try this ice bath thing that I hear everyone talking about. Chris got a kick out of dumping the ice RIGHT ON MY LAP!!! At this point I am numb from the waist down. At least I can't feel any soreness!

Curlybird

Ahhhhhhhh.........

So, I got the release from the doctor on Friday (after two weeks of physical therapy). So, yes I have a lot of issues!!! Weak muscles ALL OVER THE PLACE. Got a ton of stretches and strengthening exercises to do, but he said that running was GOOD for me!!!! YAY!!! Gotta work on my hamstrings, hip flexors, hip abductors (or something like that), core and so on and so on......but I am back on track with the running!!! He told me to start out at 50% of what I was doing and just increase however I felt...as long as it felt good.

So, I didn't complain one BIT about getting up at 5:00am on a Saturday morning. I was just so excited to go running with my girls. Them running without me felt like I was back in high school and my parents had grounded me while all my friends were going to the prom. But NOT today...I was going too!!! They had already ran 7 or so miles by the time I joined in. I didn't need to run the full 14 miles that they were running. It wasn't my fastest and it wasn't my farthest...but I was just happy to be there!!! So anywho...below is the route and the stats.....





Oh, on a side note I am trying out some products by Advocare. So far I am loooooving them. Becoming addicted actually!!!!

Air Dog!!

Frisbee dogs

These dogs are AMAZING!!!! And they are all rescued dogs. The dogs in this video lived the first 18 months of his life locked up in a tiny crate for 23 hours a day inside an apartment. We had a blast watching all of them!

Typical...

So this is a typical Saturday for us beginning this time of year.....hanging out with daddy at work. It's the alligator hunt.......

Cambo is in black jersey

Cockeyed....

Yes people, I am cockeyed! Because of that previous hip injury my left leg is 3/8" shorter than my right leg. This throws my hips out of balance and is just throwing EVERYTHING out of whack. I'm going through some physical therapy to strengthen some hip muscles and other stuff. ALSO, the doc wanted me to wear this shoe insert to get me back even. It felt weird at first, but I think I'm getting use to it.

Oh, and get this. Part of my physical therapy is to work on the stationary bike some to help keep my cardio endurance up. I spent 10 minutes on the bike this morning and was about to DIE!!! What is up with that!?!?!? I can run 12 miles but can't bike for 10 minutes. Talk about feeling PUNY!!!!! It works a whole different set of muscles and boy were those muscles mad at me!!

Interesting...

Something interesting I bet you didn't know about me. When I was 4ish I fell off of a slide and dislocated my left hip. The quack doctor at the time didn't know my hip was dislocated. Apprently a hip injury causes pain to show up below your knee. He thought something was wrong with my knee and put a cast on my left leg. I walked around with that cast on my leg, pulling that ball out of the socket even more for about 6 weeks or so. At some point after the cast came off a family member noticed that my left leg was longer than my right. Went back to a different doctor and this doctor said that my ball was out of the socket and that blood had been cut off to the area all that time. So they did some sort of surgery and I was put in a body cast to immobolize both hips for some time. There is a picture of that somewhere that I'm gonna try to find and post. I mean, I laid flat on my back for some time...I have no idea...I don't remember ANY of this! But....apparently they told my parents that they didn't know if my leg would ever grow normally, or would be a normal size, or that I would ever walk again on it. I was in and out of several reconstructive surgeries. At some point I got fixed I suppose. Ok, fast forward...several years ago I went to an orthopedic doc for a hurt shoulder. He was more interested in talking about my hip. He talked about the trauma to it and blah, blah, blah. Well, fast forward again. I was going to see a sports medicine doctor on Friday about my hamstring. I thought he might want to see the x-rays the other doc took several years ago of my hip. So I went over and picked up a copy. Here they are. You may think this is all boring...I think it is pretty neat. Looking at my pelvis (hahahahaha, sorry, that cracks me up) you'll notice that the right hip (the left side of the picture) is a nice round ball. You'll notice that the left hip (the right side of picture) is shaped more of like a mushroom. Yeah, well, see, a mushroom is NOT gonna fit into that round socket for very long. Eventually, from what I am told, that cartilage is gonna rub thin on the outside edges. So, none of the doctors have told me I can't run..or that I should stop running. BUT, both doctors have talked to me about the eventual need for a hip replacement...or the new doc talked to me about something new that is just a ball replacement. BOTH docs said that by the time I need something there is NO telling what advances may be made in this field though. I've pretty much told the docs that that hip is about the ONLY place I haven't felt an ache or pain since I've started running. My philosophy is I'll run until it hurts and then when I can't walk or run anymore I'll talk to them about getting me something new!

My left hip is on the right side of picture and my right hip is on the left side of the picture.

My left hip. Looks like that mushroom is fitting in that round hole pretty good if ya ask me!

Bad news...

I've been having a lingering ache in my right leg, upper hamstring area for about a month now. It has progressively gotten worse, nothing more that a bad ache, but my biggest fear is that the more I ran the more I was injuring myself to the point that one day I wouldn't be able to run anymore. So I decided to get it looked at. Good news, nothing serious. Bad news, no running for two weeks! So bummed!! And all my girlfriends are headed out for a long run in the morning WITHOUT ME!!! Doctor said that the area where the hamstring joins to the bones is irritated or inflamed or something like that. Probably an overuse injury. Anywho, nothing two weeks of rest and physical therapy shouldn't take care of. I'm not sure how I'm gonna handle two weeks without running. I've already been trying to come up with some alterior modes of crosstraining. Maybe this will be good for me. Think outside of the running box a little bit. Anywho, will check back in a couple of days and let ya know how everything is going......

No training wheels!

PR

Nope, not public relations. In the running world it means personal record....and YES...I set one Tuesday night. It was the Crime Prevention 5k. That race is special to me. Let me tell ya why.......we had just moved here 4 years ago. I had not been running much but was trying to get back into it. I didn't know anyone here, so I was all on my own. I signed up for this race because I knew how much motivation going to races provides. I didn't know a single person to run it with. I was at the office, downtown, had my clothes in hand, needing to change and get ready for the race, but scared to death. "I can't do this by myself, what if I can't run the whole way, what if I'm the last to cross the finish line, everyone is gonna know I'm not a 'runner'". All these thoughts were going through my head. I was just about to pack up my clothes and head home when I had a revelation....."I am too darn old to care about what anyone else thinks about me. This isn't high school!!! I'm gonna do this for me and if people wanna laugh...I'll give them something to laugh at!!!". So, I put on my running clothes, put my hair up in pigtails and thought "if they are laughing...I'll just assume they are laughing at the pigtails". So I ran the race, by myself. I did have to walk some...and it wasn't my best run. But I did it! And I wasn't the last to cross the finish line. And I stayed at that finish line and cheered every last single runner across. And I had a blast. Flash forward 4 years. Me and some of my best running buddies decided to do the race...and again the theme was 'if people wanna laugh.....then we'll give them something to laugh at and we are gonna have FUN!" So we put on our running clothes, put the hair in pigtails and we ran! And I set a personal record....29:14. My goal was to do under 30mins. And we had been under a heat advisory that day!!! It was HOT!!

Some of the most fantastic ladies I know. Paige, Melanie, Mindy, Katrina, Laura, Ann, Dana, and last but not least...me!

We crack me up!

Being serious!

We do silly really well!!!

ummm, Cambo is in there somewhere

Not me

So, I didn't run this route. I was running with the Couchto5k ladies, but Mindy borrowed my watch and ran with the 5k to 10k group. Thought I would post the stats for her to look at...

Sole2Soul Sisters

This was the Causeway 5k back on June 19th. We had about 50 ladies running.....

This is the five of us who really had a passion for getting this ministry going. I'm second from the left....

I am NOT ready for this.....

9 miles

I actually had a good run this morning. I needed it too. Been having some bad weeks. I finally decided that maybe blogging again would get me back to being motivated about this whole running thing. Don't have much time...but I figured out how to paste the info from my Garmin watch to my blog. Click on these pics for an enlarged view. Mindy, I know how much you love the data, this is for you. Sorry you weren't there this morning. We missed you!

Chris coaching

Just like his mommy!

This is the second phone Cambo has taken apart just to see how it
worked....

10.0 Miles

Did a 10 miler this morning with the girls! Getting out of bed early is hard, but I love running and watching the sun come up. I won't say it was an easy run because I was ready to give up about mile 5 or so, but I always feel great when I finish. Besides, I can't the girls run without me. I might miss out on something!!! Sitting here waiting on the rest of the house to wake up......

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!!!

Alligator Alley

Two boys in tow!

Chris is still out of town and I wanted to go see the girls this morning at the Sole2Soul Sisters group run. Sooo I asked if the boys wanted to get up and go to the track with me. They were so excited! The slept in their clothes and they woke straight up at 5:30. We took their bikes up there and they were great!! This pic was at about 6:00am. We just finished breakfast at The Waffle House and now gotta go get ready for a 11:00 soccer game. I'm just a little worried that this early morning may catch up with us a little later in the day.

Braves, Spring 2010

Braves, Spring 2010

Spring 2010 School Picture

Aaaaaahhhh, Home Sweet Home!!!

Dauphin Island!!

Saturday, 12:09 pm

Well, I did what I came here to do!!!! Oh yeah!!!! Ran EVERY leg, EVERY mile!!!! So excited!!!! My totals:
1st leg-3.6 miles in 34:40 for an average pace of 10:14
2nd leg-3.4 miles in 36:09 for an average pace of 10:37
3rd leg-3.6 miles in 37:43 for an average pace of 10:28
4th leg-3.6 miles in 38:50 for an average pace of 10:47
5th leg-2.6 miles in 26:33 for an average pace of 10:12 (all of our legs were shorter the last leg)
Totals: 16.8 miles in 2 hours, 53 mins, 55 seconds for an average pace of 10:27!!!!

Whoop, Whoop!!!!!! So excited!!!! Sooooooooo excited!

That was the easy part....YOU ALL did the hard part!! Thank you so much for contributing to The American Cancer Society Run for the Reason!!!! Thank you!!!!

Saturday, 11:04am

I am up next!! Should start running my last leg in about 12mins or
so. 2.6 miles this time!!! Looks like we will hit the island around
1:00ish.

Christina
(Sent from iPhone)

Saturday, 9:19am

Just left hotel headed out for our fifth and last run. This will be a
little shorter at 2.8 miles. We are on track to be on the Island
somewhere between 1:00-2:00 (thinking it will be closer to 1-1:30).
This is probably been the smoothest relay I have done and it has been
great fun.....BUT I am looking forward to getting home!

Saturday, 5:00am

At La Quinta Inn in Satsuma. So close to home but yet soooo far
away. Gotta be back down at the RV at 9:00. That doesn't leave much
time for sleeping. Speaking of which, gonna close my eyes now. Nite,
ummm, or mornin' whichever the case may be.....

Saturday 2:40 am

I DID IT!!!! I was soo worried about that run because I have been so sore....but it was a relatively easy run. For one thing, I didn't have to deal with the heat and humidity. Secondly, and most important, was I had someone to talk to. I know, crazy!!! I have figured out the secret to running....doing it with someone. Carey and Delacio sat on the back of the lead vehicle and talked to me the whole run. David (the lead vehicle driver) did a great job of keeping them close enough to me so that we could talk. I didn't have time to think about how sore I was or how much farther I had to run. I just talked...and ran. Sure, I probably could have run a little faster if I didn't talk so much. But I would rather have a fun slow run than a fast miserable run. I ran 3.6 in 38:50. I've gotten a little slower each run, but you have to remember that this was my 4th run in 2 days and I'm going on very little sleep. But feeling good. Right now I am on that runners high. Been hydrating really well and keeping food in my stomach. I have figured out that I have to eat well to run well and feel good afterwards (no headache crash afterwards).

One more thing....At about 1/2 mile to go, Nicole shouted out to me..."just one more time around the track". It was just the boost that I needed to finish my run up (I had been looking at the hill that I was gonna have to run up my last stretch) and the reason is because I thought about all my Sole2Soul sisters that I run around the track with in Daphne. They should be getting out there in a couple of hours to do the Couch 2 5k group run. So I was thinking about you girls as I ran that last 1/2 mile. Was picturing us out on the high school track running that last lap together........

Saturday, 12:44am

Brandon is running so I'm up next. I'll probably be up around 1:15am
or so. Gotta go get ready.

Friday, 11:01 pm

At least I think it is Friday night at 11ish. Seems like morning time to me...early morning. Laid my head down for a few hours. Not sure I actually ever went to sleep, but it was nice to lay down nonetheless. Got up and met at rv at 10:30. So it doesn't seem like night...seems like morning. But this is the part of the trip where sleep deprivation kicks in. It's hard to remember what day it is. Hopefully everyone will be a little more tolerant of each other. It's hard to be nice when you are this tired. But don't get me wrong. I still think this is a great adventure for a great cause. Sometimes I wonder who might have ever dreamed this thing up. I mean, it's really crazy. I can see that confused look in peoples face when I tell them what we do. It's really hard to explain. Hopefully this blog will give you some kind of idea how it works. So we are on our way down Hwy43. We left Thomasville and I think we pick up the baton somewhere just North of McIntosh. It's nice to be so close to home. 2 more legs to run, 1 more time to rest. So part of what makes this trip so much fun is tricking out the baton before you hand it to the next team. I have to say that my team, Team C, is the master of the prank. Here are a few pics of what we've come up with so far....

Well, this is actually a baton that was given to us....peanut butter, feathers, and a can taped to the top


Yes, Jeff is crazy!!!! Kevin brought a squirrel skin. That IS the actual baton...it just resembles a dead animal.


And of course our latest antic......costumes!!!! We had DJ Lance Rock, a bull, and a rodeo clown....

Friday, 7:35pm

In Thomasville at some hotel about to close my eyes. Soooo tired!
Gotta be back on RV at 10:30

Stay tuned. Got some hilarious pictures to be posted soon!

We so crazy!!

Friday, 5:08pm, Supper!!

The gang