It is So Freaking Cold!

I managed to get over 50 miles on my feet this week, not all running, actually very little of it was running- only 3 days. But I got out and moved. Each day got progressively colder and the night of Christmas we got more snow.

Today it is the kind of cold that seeps into your bones and makes you not want to leave the house. It will be a bike day for sure. I feel like I had a successful week though, I did all my resistance training and stretching and all the extras. I will get there with the running, I don't need to get injured or sick like I did this fall. It's been such a long time since I've run much, I do need to start back carefully.

Somehow I will have to convince myself to start going up to Horsetooth as of next week, just once a week, to get the hills in. I'm hoping we'll be back to double digit temperatures in the mornings by then.

Spring is less than a week away.

Brownie & The Rocket

I have not lost my mind. Even though it would appear that a woman walking the streets pushing a hybrid bike trailer/baby stroller with a bag of brown mulch, and talking into her phone might seem like she crawled out of a cave (which she did!) and is off her meds (which she isn't!)...

I am just multitasking the best I can, dictating my various business and content ideas into my email while I get some exercise.

Last week was an incredibly busy week from a networking standpoint. I had some enlightening and highly motivating conversations with several different people. And I also participated in a Google Hangout with a number of international bloggers with similar interests trying to improve the patient experience interacting with the entire healthcare system and all its players. That was so cool.

I got my tire cover for my car, so now I'm officially promoting my soon-to-be-completed but not-soon-enough project.

If you want to see what it's all about, I now have a landing page, which you are welcome to visit.

So, among all these things, I'm still struggling with finding the motivation to get some sort of consistency in running and working out. Pushing the Rocket, whether it contains Isabelle or the bag of mulch, aka "Brownie", is a good workout, and I can get a lot of my thoughts down in voice memos and email messages. Occasionally I can tweet or post to Facebook, but I haven't tried doing a moving tweetchat yet. Eventually I might have a full moving desk, Bluetooth and all, though I'm not that technologically advanced yet, by intention.

I ran twice this past week and there were three days when I got some decent miles on my feet.

I did get an awakening yesterday when one of the runners I know from NorthCoast in Cleveland contacted me, asking if I was going to be there at the race this fall. Uh, no....but I realized it's been a year. A full year of not training like an athlete. September 20th was nationals last year. So I am telling myself that September 20th is when I need to start working on consistency again, even if I am not training for anything.

It's weird how for 30 years the priority of my day was getting my run in. And after just one year of a break, it's so hard to get started again.

But I have additional motivation now that the mornings have turned noticeably cooler. I need to make sure I can fit into my pants when I need to start wearing warmer clothes. I've been wearing skirts and dresses all summer. Now, for the reality check...

I am so looking forward to the cool weather. I have been in super hot flash mode lately, with the sleep disturbances and all. Hopefully this is it, finally, the real thing, now that I've slowed down and gained enough weight, menopause can finally catch up to me and stay. Bring it on!

Sunshine!!

It's back. It started out raining this morning and looked like we were in for another day of gloom and steady rain. But by late morning, it stopped coming down and gradually the sky lightened until blue holes started breaking out everywhere.

The damage and destruction are not even comprehensible. You can look up anything on the Internet and find pictures under Colorado flood. I looked at some of the pictures, it's hard to look at them. So many people and animals displaced and destruction everywhere. The roads and bridges that are washed out, disconnecting and isolating small towns in the foothills, people still stranded and in need of rescue.

Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters have been flying overhead, it sounds like a war zone outside, all day long, flying over our houses in Fort Collins, which seems to have been least damaged of all the Front Range cities. It will be a few weeks before we know what all has been lost and how long a timetable we're looking at for restoring some of the roads. Right now it's too soon to tell.

This morning I got an early start, got over to EPIC and jumped in the diving pool and ran with my friend Connie for a little over an hour, then I swam 450 meters, then this afternoon I went for a run, for 45 minutes, in the warm, humid, sunshine.

I have this awesome free feeling. yesterday was my last scheduled back to back 12 hour shift, and I got to go home early, too. I am ready to take my life back. I have 3 more scheduled 12 hour shifts, and then I'm done. After that, I only work when I'm available, if they need me. And no more 12 hour shifts unless I choose to stay that long.

I'm at the beginning of a new chapter of my life. It feels like sunshine!