Tag Archives: running

In My Defense, It Still Hurts a Little

Posted on January 9, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

I mentioned recently that I don’t usually blog about work. I mentioned it in a post in which I told a story of something that happened at work. So just to get really post-post-ironic on you (I have no idea what that means, I just thought it sounded cool), here is another post about the work that I don’t usually blog about.

I had no handy topic for a post, so I thought to do something I used to do quite frequently: run and then write about that. Regular readers know I have not been running lately and have been beating myself up about it (which is not as good exercise as you might think). The weather was supposed to be warm. It would be great!

I am SO my own worst enemy. You see, I had a slight problem at work today. I was carrying a small pan when I tripped on a wooden pallet and twisted my ankle. Ouch! In fact, all I could do for about two minutes afterward was say, “Ow! Ow! Ow!” I am rarely articulate when in pain.

I finally was able to limp over to some co-workers, get some sympathy, inspect the ankle, then limp back to work. Soon the pain gave way to feeling really, really foolish. You see, on a pillar right near the pallet is a sign reading, “Caution: Tripping Hazard.” I first saw that sign months ago when they put it up and I laughed my head off (not literally, although that would have made a good blog post). Apparently somebody had tripped over a pallet and the safety guy made them put up the sign to warn others.

To add to the irony (I guess that’s taking a few steps back from my post-ironic stance of the first paragraph), a day or so after that, I tripped over something in another section. In my defense, what I tripped over had been left in a stupid place. That day I went around saying, “If ONLY there would have been a sign saying, ‘Caution: Tripping Hazard.'”

How the mighty have fallen (No, I don’t really think I’m mighty. It’s an expression. Sheesh!). In conclusion, my ankle is probably not sprained, but it is a little swollen and tender, so I opted not to run, but to write a silly blog post which will give some of you a chance to point and laugh (you know who you are).

Oh dear, I can just hear the naysayers I was complaining about in yesterday’s post saying, “Oh, sure, there’s always an excuse! You should have gone running anyways!” Come on, people! Cut me a break! Say I go running. Then what if I have to go into work tomorrow with my ankle the size of a balloon? “Well, you see, boss, I was following the advice of some purely hypothetical people who may or may not read my blog.”

Leave a comment

Posted in humor, personal and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Running with a Headache

Posted on December 2, 2012 by mohawkvalleygirl

I’m writing this later than I usually make my Saturday posts, but I had a dreadful sinus headache earlier. It is inexplicably gone, but I’m trying not to notice that too much or it might come back. You know, like it hasn’t gone far, and if it sees me noticing it’s gone, it’ll say, “Ooh, she misses me! I’d better go back!”

Now some of you are dialing the men in the white coats (two dated references), because my headaches talk to me. Hey, I write fiction. I can anthropomorphize anything.

Be that as it may, I did get myself out running, because I wanted to use it as a blog post. I didn’t care to do an “I-can’t-post-because-I’ve-got-a-headache” post because I’m saving something for Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

It was dreadfully cold yesterday, and I had expected it to be less so today. So much for great expectations. I had a pair of stretchy pants I thought I might as well run in. I put on a long-sleeved t-shirt and winter running socks. Found my toque but didn’t bother looking for my mittens. Regretted that almost as soon as I was out the door. No matter, it would be a short run.

I did not run during the week at all. One more thing to regret, but I did not repine. The only thing to do in these situations is tough it out and try to run sooner next time.

Oh, that air did not feel good. I debated whether to run any hills but ultimately decided moving my legs at this rate was effort enough. I had walked Tabby to the post office earlier so I knew my could move. I was only asking them to move a little faster, and not much faster at that.

At least, maybe it was faster than I thought. I saw a couple walking two blocks or so ahead of me. Soon it was only a block and a half. Then a block. I usually take a lot longer to catch up with pedestrians. Perhaps they were extra slow. I turned down a side street when they were less than a block away. I was feeling unsociable.

I looked around for Christmas decorations. I saw a couple of the hard plastic light up snowmen such as Steven and I coveted last year (I wrote a couple blog posts about it). Steven says they are called “blow mold,” but I don’t like to call them that, because I’m afraid people will think I mean those big blow up things. Those are fun to see when they are billowing in the breeze all full of air. When they are limp and deflated, they look a little sad. I don’t want one in my lawn.

I did see a smaller blow up snowman in a lawn and heard the sounds of the Nutcracker Suite playing. I couldn’t tell if the snowman was swaying in the breeze or if he was moving in time to the music. In any case, it looked good, and that part of the Suite played in my head for the rest of the run. It was good running music. You know how I love music to run by.

As I approached my house, still a good three blocks away, my legs told me they would like to walk. I told them to keep running. That led to three blocks of half-baked philosophy I’d like to share. You almost never HAVE to stop running. You CHOOSE to stop running. Now I’m not a terrible hard-ass drill sergeant about this. Sometimes stopping running is absolutely the right choice to make. And I’m always an advocate of feeling glad about however far you did run. But I have learned, and I stand by it: most of us can run further than we think we can. I proved it to myself again today.

When I was walking my cool down with Tabby the wind picked up and it became uncomfortably cold. The Nutcracker was still playing in my head. It was the section that goes doo-dootle-oo-doo-DOO-DOO-DOO. I know, that probably doesn’t tell you much, but I thought it would look funny to type it that way.

As always I was glad I ran. Right now, though, I am even more glad that my headache is gone (I whisper that last sentence). Soon I’ll be off on more Mohawk Valley adventures. Maybe tomorrow won’t be Wrist to Forehead Sunday after all.

Leave a comment

Posted in humor, personal, running, running commentary and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

First November Run

Posted on November 4, 2012 by mohawkvalleygirl

I worked till 11 this morning, and while I was at work, I had a vision of a certain residential area I sometimes run in. I could see that it was a grey day outside. I thought about running under the grey sky, possibly on wet roads and sidewalks, looking around at houses. However, I told a co-worker, “I’m just as likely to make myself an egg sandwich and take a nap.”

When I left work, it was cold. Cold! Who said it could be cold? It’s still autumn, isn’t it? Since when does November have to be so cold? And that shows you what a difference a day makes, because Friday when I stepped outside and it was cold, I said, “Ah! That cold air is reviving me!” I had been literally falling asleep over my book during the 2 o’clock break, and it’s not a dull book.

So I got home feeling I had every reason to talk myself out of it. Then I thought, I want to take a shower anyways. Why not take a short run first? I’d either be sweaty and really need a shower or I’d be cold and a hot shower would feel twice as good.

My temperature doo-dah (that’s the technical term) said it was 42. Normally over 40 degrees I wear shorts and a t-shirt, but I thought since this would be the first cold run of the season, long legs and sleeves was the way to go. I had a pair of silky long johns I had worn under a skirt last night (so much more comfortable than pantyhose). I dug out a long sleeved ARMY t-shirt. I found a knitted toque (rhymes with spook). I was off.

Were you hoping that this was a fun run? That I reached the “I can rock this” stage and stayed there? That I got a huge endorphin rush? Yeah, well, that would have been nice. Right away I wished I had worn a sweatshirt as well as my long sleeved t-shirt. I told myself to keep running, I’d warm up.

Traffic was not at all bad. I crossed German Street very easily and headed toward the hill at Valley Health, which I have had it in mind to run for a few days now. As it felt surprisingly difficult to run, I considered running into the unknown park instead. A couple of small hills, that was more my speed. But that was not where I had pictured myself running while at work. I ran by the unknown park entrance, reminding myself that I do know the name of the park now but thinking, “Really, if they want me to call it Brookfield Park, they ought to put a sign at the gates.”

It seemed to take a long time to get to the hill by Valley Health. I did not feel that I was warming up. I was very aware of my hips. They felt huge. Here was the hill. Oh dear. I reminded myself of the trick an army friend of mine learned from our drill sergeant, who would know, “Just look at your feet and shuffle up that hill.” I made it. That didn’t seem to take too long, so I felt encouraged.

I saw a group of healthcare workers (they were wearing scrubs; I can’t tell nurses from aides from attendants etc.). They were talking loudly and laughing, so that was nice. I don’t think they were laughing at me, but of course you never know.

I continued my run, looking around at Halloween decorations that were still up. Some I had noticed before were gone already, but many people had at least left their mums and pumpkins out. Fall decor, I thought, can legitimately be left up from September 1 to December 1. Halloween stuff is really best in October. That said, Steve’s and my decorations are still up, and I enjoyed looking at other people’s as well. I do love Halloween.

I thought about the egg sandwich I had mentioned at work and it started to sound pretty good. I knew I had whole wheat English muffins as well as some cheese. Mmmmm… I remembered I had pepperoni as well. Even better. Then I remembered my enormous hips and rethought my menu choices.

As I got closer to home I thought I would prefer to run an extra minute over sprinting at the end. You see, I like to stop at the top of the minute and be exact when I put the time in my running journal. Sometimes I go a few seconds over, if for example I have stopped to pet a dog. That was not the case today. Two houses from my house I picked up the pace anyways. An extra minute is a long time at the shape I’m in right now (round and puffy).

It was really not a bad run at all. As always I felt good that I had run, and I made plans to run more often during the coming week. I enjoyed my egg sandwich, and I left off the pepperoni. Those hips are going bye-bye! Eventually.

Leave a comment

Posted in commentary, humor, personal, running, running commentary and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Walk, Don’t Run

Posted on October 13, 2012 by mohawkvalleygirl

I was going to go running yesterday, because halfway through work I realized my back felt much better. I miss running! For one thing, I go further away from the house, so I see different scenery than when I take a walk with Tabby. For another thing, I’m gaining weight again. Say it ain’t so! If any more motivation is needed, it’s a built-in blog post.

On the other hand, for the past week my back has been really paining me. I mean, more so that your common or garden over-40 aches. I seriously considered going to the doctor and embarking upon a long struggle with addiction to prescription painkillers. Of course, there was no guarantee I could get in to see the doctor right away, and even less guarantee that he would prescribe anything beyond physical therapy and weight loss (say it ain’t so!).

While I dithered, I did some stretches I found in a Women’s Day magazine (April 2012) as well as a couple shown me by my mother and a woman at work. I know, this is not the same thing as working with a trained physical therapist who can ensure I am doing the appropriate moves with the proper form. Well, it fit my schedule and my budget for now.

And IT HELPED!!! I felt joyous. I knew I had sports bras clean. It had only been a week and one day since my last run. I could rock this! Then I thought, don’t be stupid. Your back just this minute stopped hurting, don’t instantly do something known to cause back strain. Still, running helps with the weight loss thing. I dithered a little more (I always say, go with your strengths).

Perhaps it was fortunate that my back started twinging again on the drive home. I thought a nice walk with Tabby would be more my speed. Tabby was agreeable. She didn’t want to go very far, either. Two blocks was all we did. I stretched some more later on.

Today at work, my friend who had shown me the one stretch brought me a copy of the physical therapy exercises she did when she was out for a month with back pain. I showed them to another co-worker and assured him I intended to do these exercises faithfully, “So you won’t have to listen to me complain about my aching back ANY MORE!”

He expressed skepticism. I explained that he would still have to listen to me complain about other things, and he believed that much.

I had actually meant to write a blog post about my two block walk with Tabby. When I sat down and put pen to paper, all this garbage about my back came out. I originally thought I might segue into an amusing description of the walk and edit out the back garbage later, but for some reason I never quite got to the amusing description. Then I thought, it’s Lame Post Friday! What could be more lame than two Fridays in a row complaining about my aches and pains? Stay tuned for more posts about Why I Can’t Write a Decent Post. Happy Friday, everyone!

Leave a comment

Posted in humor, lame, personal and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Disreputable Run

Posted on September 30, 2012 by mohawkvalleygirl

I guess Saturday Running Commentary is back.

This morning I ran a couple of errands (OK, one errand), so got running after 9:30. That is the joy of this time of year: you don’t have to get out the door prior to 7 a.m. to run in a comfortable temperature.

I have taken 13 days off running (I went to the calendar and counted). I can explain this as I explain many of life’s vicissitudes: shit happens. I almost talked myself out of it yet again, but then I thought I might be glad if I ran.

One good thing: all my running clothes were clean. I didn’t even have to search the laundry basket for socks. Bonus! I set out with determination and high hopes.

And at first it was not too bad. I knew I would not run any hills, and I knew I would not run very far, and I think everybody knows I do not run very fast. But I ran. I crossed German Street, because I saw a pick-up truck parked across the sidewalk. I did not feel like running around it, and I had a good opportunity to cross. Then as I got closer to it I was glad, because a guy was standing near it talking to two ladies on the porch. Not that I mind running by people and even saying hello, but to interrupt their conversation and run around their pick-up truck seemed a little complicated.

So there I was on the side of German Street with all the hills. Surely one little hill wouldn’t kill me. I decided not to take the chance. I ran up a block of Main Street so I could cross over and run down the nice path over what used to be a hydraulic canal. I looked at the houses now next to a nice path not a nasty ditch and thought they must like it. I saw a lady waiting outside a house. Waiting for a ride to work, I speculated. Then I speculated she worked someplace with a lax dress code, because she was wearing sweatpants. As I got closer she turned so her back was to me. I guess she didn’t want to take a chance I would say hello, but maybe I am again speculating.

I continued down German Street and ran up Dorf Street. I like Dorf. It looks a little back roadsy, because it is very quiet and there are no sidewalks. It curves around too, and that adds a little interest. Dorf crosses Prescott, a dead end street. I started to go up Prescott but saw a pit bull looking dog which may or may not have been on a leash. I turned around. He may have been a perfectly nice dog, but most dogs get a little agitated at runners.

I went back down Prescott onto German and quickly found a place to cross back to my side of the street. I saw a pedestrian walking on the side I’d just been on, coming towards me. I waited till she got closer to wave or say good morning. She kept her eyes pointed studiously ahead. I thought I must look more disreputable than I thought. I wondered if the pick-up truck people would have greeted me but turned off German before I got that far so I will never know.

After a while I got a little tired of running, but I persevered. It wasn’t a bad run at all, except for the people who acted like they didn’t want to look at me. But perhaps I’m reading too much into it. Still, before I go running again I may spruce up my running outfits a little. Too bad I don’t know how to post a picture.

Leave a comment

Posted in commentary, humor, personal, running and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Where’s That Wisdom?

Posted on September 11, 2012 by mohawkvalleygirl

Middle-aged Musings Monday is supposed to be easy. My idea was to have another day where I could write any old thing and kind of let myself off the hook. Ease into the week, I believe I said in the premier Middle-aged Musings post. After all, sometimes it is enough effort to get through Monday at all, let alone entertain and inform. Ahem, I hoped to still entertain.

Can I just say, IT’S NOT WORKING!!! I have no musings, middle-aged or otherwise. And I have the worst case of Writer’s Blank I have suffered in a long time. I am also suffering from the related malady, Cross Out Or Erase Everything As Soon As I Write It. And I am composing at the computer, so no wide X’s I can just read around later and say, “Oh, that isn’t so bad.” When I erase it, it’s gone.

I had thought I could go running and blog about that (I won’t say “write about it,” because I cannot so dignify my meanderings today). I figured it would combine running commentary with middle-aged musings. I even had a title, “Musings on the Move.” I may have used that title before. I believe I have observed more than once: I am not above repeating myself.

I did run. The weather was nice and cool, although the sun came out near the end of the run and that was a little hot. It was no problem, really, since I did not run very far and I certainly did not run very fast. I thought if I wrote a blog post about it I could call it “Go Play in Traffic,” because there were a lot of cars on the road. I did not cross any busy streets.

I tried to muse as I ran, but I didn’t come up with anything. You know, I thought I was getting pretty old. Shouldn’t that wisdom thing have kicked in by now? There’s a musing for you, although I didn’t think of that while I was running; I thought of it just now as I was reflecting on how I couldn’t think of anything.

I see that I am over 300 words for today. A respectable post if only I would have thought of something intelligent to say. It seems I am always craving my readers’ indulgence as I write yet another stupid post. Oh well, they say no life is wasted because you can always stand as a bad example to others. If nothing else, you can look at this and say, “Huh. At least I didn’t write THAT!” Happy Monday.

Leave a comment

Posted in blogging, humor, personal, writing and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Lame Attempts

Posted on August 11, 2012 by mohawkvalleygirl

So there I was at work, writing a blog post titled “Dithering over the DARE.” I am, of course, a past master of dithering. And then I didn’t like it.

I had intended to go running after work, despite the tremendous humidity, so I thought I might write about that. I even had a title picked out, “Oh, the Humidity.” You know, like that guy said, “Oh, the humanity!” during the Hindenberg disaster. Or is that being flippant about a tragedy? Could be, but I have several times seen and heard “Oh the humanity” used with ironic intent, so I think it is OK. But when I sat down at the computer, nothing.

I thought, “I can’t do ANOTHER post about not having anything to write about.” Then I thought, “Sure I can. It’s Lame Post Friday; I can do whatever I want.”

The reason I could not finish writing the first post is that I felt certain any number of people would tell me to stop being such a whiny baby or to quit rationalizing or some other rude, superior thing the people in my head can always come up with. I tend to spend a lot of time having imaginary conversations with people who criticize everything I do, say or think. In fact, as I write this, I can picture some snotty writer telling me I MUST silence the inner critic or I’ll NEVER be a writer. And somebody else telling me to quit complaining about it.

Huh. I bet neither one of them are published either.

And now I don’t like this post either. You know, I’m just not messing with it today. I’ll say something concrete instead: I was dithering about the DARE 5K because I have not been training as hard as I had intended to. Also, my running partner and cheering section have defected. After work today, I ran up the steep hill that is part of the DARE 5K course, in the steamy humidity. I made it, and the way back down was distinctly pleasant, what with gravity and the breeze picking up.

I think this has been the lamest Friday post yet. I don’t know whether to feel proud or sheepish. I’ll compromise on silly. See you Saturday.

Leave a comment

Posted in blogging, humor, personal, writing and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
←
Newer Posts →