Over the last 10 months running has become a major part of my life. It seems to have snuck up on me. It has gone from a chore I was doing to lose weight to something that I really enjoy and miss when I am unable to do it. It has really surprised me how the times when I am unable to run has affected me. Looking forward the next 6 weeks will be filled with challenges but I’m looking forward to them and meeting some of my personal goals for myself.
I’ve never been one who gets down during the winter months but this winter has been hard for me. I have always been a bit of a night owl and winter has always just provided me with more night. This year it was different and somehow winter got to me, making me feel out of sorts and diet suffered as I turned to snack foods. Though the real problem wasn’t the winter at all, in fact the real problem was that the week after Christmas while out for a 10k or 11k run my knee started to hurt. It took a couple of days before it felt better that first time but every time I would brave the cold for a run after that the pain would return. I handled the physical pain and the emotional pain the way I always do, I ignored it. I paid it lip service by going to the doctor, but I never seemed to have time to follow-up with the sports medicine doctor that I was referred to.
I never gave up on running because I knew it was important to me so every week or so I’d head out to see how my knee held out. First I didn’t change anything about how I ran, I just ran untill it started to hurt and then I would push myself untill I got home and be more depressed than before. Finally, after some time, two things changed: one, I started using a knee brace, and two I forced to take a slower pace. With a slower pace and the knee brace I was able to run 45 minutes pain-free, it was during one of these runs that it hit me how much I’d been missing the act of running. I have continued running regularly, but the turmoil of the last few weeks has limited my opportunity but thankfully I have tried hard to take some steps to keep focused in the right direction.
Today I take the next step in my running, In less than two hours I’m taking part in Harry’s Spring Run-Off in High Park. It’s a step I’ve wanted to take since last fall, but I always seemed to have an excuse that kept me from registering for an organized run. Today that all changes and once the race is behind me then the real challenge begins. I have 6 weeks to train before I run my first Half Marathon. That’s 21.1k for in case you were wondering. As I work on this post I have been trying to remember when the thought of running for over 2 hours went from an impossible torture to a doable challenge, but that’s a story for another day. I have been thinking about running this Marathon since the fall, but it wasn’t until last week that I went beyond thinking and registered. It will be just 54 weeks over a year since the first time I asked my mom to sit with the kids so Melissa and I could give running a try. That day we managed to go 3.17km in 33:54. Today I hope to run 5k in under 28 minutes, but will be happy with any time under 30 minutes. So along with this race today I’m starting a new series of running posts, with weekly updates and tracking. I’d hoped to have more of it finished for today, along with the refresh of my blog, but life has had other plans. For now Wish me Luck, You can hopefully follow my run on my RunKeeper page.
Today while Jacob was having lunch with his Nan before school, Melissa, Violet and I headed out to get some lunch for ourselves and do a bit of shopping. Today Violet insisted on sitting on chair like mommy and daddy, so we pushed the high chair away and set her up at the table. It was just another moment of Violet showing me how she’s growing up. The day was filled with them, from her wearing underwear out and going to pee on the toilet. Of course however old she gets she’ll always be my baby girl.
Today after work I Picked up my race kit for my very first official race The Harry Rosen Spring Run-Off. It’s very exciting, I just wish I didn’t have to wait two sleeps for Race Day. Stay tuned for more running posts over the next couple of days.
It was 11 years ago I registered my first domain, Guetterman.com. It was to be the host site for a game I was developing with my friends. The game never got finished and we morphed it into a company providing digital services. We had some clients. we did some nice work, but it was never more than a side business that we all moved on from. Still Guetterman.com lived on, providing me with my primary email address and a place on the web where I could play. When I started to blog it was on a sub domain of Guetterman.com. And for a while I tried to make Guetterman a central blog site for my friends and family, but at the time I didn’t blog regularly and though some of my friends had great posts for a while, it didn’t last long.
It became clear that last year when I switched hosting companies that Guetterman.com had served it’s purpose. I setup my mail accounts, but never got around to setting up the website. At the time I thought about not renewing the domain, but it held too much sentimental value so I hung onto it. This year as I look to renew the domains I control I’m past wonder, I think it’s time to let it go. What do my readers think?
Tonight’s picture is me… an early Looking in the Mirror post. I’m hoping to have something special to take a picture of tomorrow night.
Today while waiting for Jacob after school, Violet met a new friend. She met her shadow. It was very cute to watch her chase after it. Of course I wouldn’t have been able to see it if Melissa hadn’t take along our flip camera and captured the moment.
Continue reading “POD: Violet’s New Friend”
I snapped this picture before heading out the door for work. My Little girl sitting on her potty watching Dora on Netflix. It’s amazing how quickly she has gone from diapers to the potty. Sure we still have accidents, but they are fewer and fewer. I’m in awe of how patient Melissa has been with our little girl, I’ve spent more of the training days at work than at home so I’ve missed most of the accidents. Even Jacob has been a great help.
Today should be another mobile Monday, but once again it looks like it wont be. I’ve been working on reviews of a number of apps, but as I read them over I think I want to take some more time and do them right. I’m currently reviewing a number of E-Reader apps, and will be posting them either in a single big post or as individual posts over the span of a few weeks. There are a couple of factors that are holding up my post. The first is I’ve recently updated my phone to Android version 2.2, I’ll probably be posting about that before the E-Reader series.
I’m also in the process of updating my blog. I’ve been having a few issues behind the scenes recently and so to fix them I’m doing a refresh of my blog. I’ve been taking a little longer then I hopped to get it done, but hopefully by the end of the week you’ll see a bit more polished look with some new features and more regular posts. One of the things I hope to have for the end of the week is a new dynamic header, you can see sample at the top of the post. So Stay tuned.
Today the kids help me fix Mommies Laptop table. To be fair fix is a strong word. We were just tightening up some of the screws to make it more stable. Still it was great to have the help.
Today after dinner Jacob and I headed out for a little treat. First for Ice Cream at McDonald’s the to chapters to look at books and play with the train set. It was a nice time with just the boys.
Continue reading “POD: Ice Cream by the Fire”
