Wow, thanks for the feedback on yesterday’s post. You guys give some good advice! Now I just hope that if you’re ever in my shoes that you listen and take your own advice.

I know in my heart that I have to just accept my slowness right now. Otherwise I’ll never be able to finish my longer runs and that’s just flat out unacceptable. I have to make every run a quality run. No junk miles for me.

In addition to starting to run again I’m also starting to teach again! One of the ladies at my gym had to leave indefinitely due to some medical issues and they were in a bind. So I’m teaching Group Power Tuesday and Thursday nights for the time being.

Tonight was my first night back and I am feelin the after burn!! I’m getting back in shape on all ends. The weight training can only help my running so it’s back to 100% training mode. I’m kinda excited.

I was also excited because I received my package from Jess and Amy’s Great Blog Sweet Swap! The container looked promising:

But look what was inside:

Cookies gone granola! Stupid fedex delivery man. I swear he was just jealous he wasn’t getting any of Shanna’s oatmeal butterscotch-choc chip cookies.

A few of the cookies were still intact:

But, honestly, it didn’t matter. These things were so good that I may or may not have gone at the “granola” with a spoon. I think the entire container lasted 2 days in our house?

Good thing I’m back to running and teaching…………..hehe. Seriously, what’s life without exercise and cookies?

How would you phrase that question? What’s life without ________ and _______?

Hey guys!!

I have a dilemma. You see, I’m starting to run again. But it’s hard. Sure, I knew it was going to be hard coming back from my ankle injury, but nothing prepares you for the reality of it until you’re in the middle of a run struggling to catch your breath and keep a decent pace.

Yesterday I ran 4 miles. But they were painfully SLOW. Slower than I’d like to admit (and probably the slowest 4 miles I’ve ever run!) but I felt GREAT. I had no idea what my pace was until I got home, J connected his Garmin to the computer, and I saw an average pace of 10:46 (ouch). My heart immediately sunk and I was so disappointed in myself (I still am). I’m not gonna lie – it really affected my mood.

I think you can see the disappointment in my face here:

I know some of you are going to say “But you haven’t trained and are coming back from an injury!”. I know, I know……….but it’s really hard to accept.

So today I was determined to redeem myself. Four miles, 40 minutes or less, or bust.

I ended up with a time of 39:37, an average of 9:54/mile.

I wanted to be happy with this, but man I STRUGGLED!

Kinda happy, kinda not.

Happy because I met my goal. Not happy because it was HARD. Ten minute miles used to be cake (9 min/miles used to be my average for shorter runs)! Sigh……

So here’s my dilemma:

• Do I run at the much slower, more comfortable pace and try not to let it affect my mood (and my pride!), or…
• Do I push myself for the 10:00 min/mile pace I really want right now?

I don’t have the option of speed training right now since I have to be careful with my ankle. I’m just focusing on getting the miles in. Period. I need to build up my nonexistent base.

To be honest, NYC seems like it’s unattainable at this point. Doubts run through my head every other minute of every day. I’m going to do all I can do, but it’s not going to be pretty. My guess is there will be many tears through the next 10 weeks…………send your prayers to J.

So I don’t end this post on such a depressing note, there is one real good thing in my life right now. I’m pretty sure I have the cutest, hippest 4th grader in Lakewood:

Baller, right?

So, weigh in……..what would you do if you were me?

…………..I RAN THIS WEEK!! Holler!!!!!!!!

When I was at the beach I went walking a few mornings and was so tempted to test out the ankle but I decided to wait. I didn’t want to push it.

But enough was enough. I couldn’t take it anymore.

So Sunday afternoon I put on my neglected (but still loved!) running shoes:

And just did it.

I ran a mile. Just one mile. And it was AWESOME.

Sure, my ankle was tight. And, sure, it was a little uncomfortable. But it was still awesome.

I was itching to try again but that would have been plain stupid. So I took a rest day yesterday.

But then J and I hit up the track today after work.

source

He had speed work on his training schedule so I just tagged along and ran the track. One and a half miles!! Hell yeah, I did.

It’s actually still a little uncomfortable (luckily it doesn’t hurt!), but I really have no choice. I can’t wait any longer. New York is 10 and a half weeks away.

I’m going to take it slow and steady. Definitely slow. I’ve lost ANY speed that I used to have. It’s pretty pathetic, actually. I haven’t even worn my Garmin because I don’t even want to know. I need to focus on my ankle, not my speed. I just want to get through this race. Period.

And since it was such a short run, I took my bike out for quick 11 miler.

(putting on my shoes for the ride – someone won’t leave my side lately!)

I felt a little wobbly at first since it’ s been almost 2 weeks since my last ride, but it went GREAT.

Today was a good day.

How was your Tuesday??

After all the Biggie craziness, it felt so great to finally be able to relax at the beach.

Every day was pretty much the same.

1. Head down to the pool around 9:00 or so:

(and surf on Grandpa – hehe)

2. The ladies would relax:

3. Eat lunch

4. Head down to the beach to build sand castles, boogie board, and body surf:

5. Head back to the pool where many shenanigans always seemed to occur in the afternoon:

6. Either eat dinner in the hotel room (we had kitchens!) or gorge ourselves on awesome seafood:

7. And, once again, go back to the pool. But we mostly hit up the hot tub at night:

8. Crash:

One week of pure bliss.

Back to work (and school!) tomorrow. Sigh………I’m sure gonna miss this:

Did you go on family vacations when you were younger? Where did you go? We went on one every summer. We always tease my parents because most of them were educational (you know the type, Williamsburg, VA or to see the Liberty Bell)……only a few to the beach…….

Hey there!

It’s sure been a crazy week or so. But I want to start from the beginning……..(grab some popcorn cuz it’s a looooong story!).

Kimi was kind enough to agree to watch our 6 month old chihuahua, Biggie, while we went on our family vacation to Myrtle Beach this year. I will admit, I was nervous. But only because of how attached he is to us, not for any other reason. I was worried he would cry a lot or poop on her floors out of anxiety. I had no idea I needed to worry that he would escape!

In any case, we were already packed and 2 hours into our drive down to the beach:

When I got the call that Biggie had gotten out and couldn’t be caught. A friend of Kimi’s had opened their front door without knowing about him and left it open a little too long. Just long enough for the pup to run right out.

Kimi called me in a panic. She said she had seen him running between the same 7 houses or so but he wouldn’t sit still long enough to pick up. This is a problem we have with Biggie. He won’t go to others. He doesn’t like to be approached and picked up – he has to come to you. It still happens with me when he wants to stay outside!

And that sucker is FAST. Ridiculously fast. And he’s got the endurance of an ironman (irondog?)!

Anyways, after the call we decided to pull off the freeway and grab dinner to see what happened. We didn’t want to keep driving in case we had to turn around. And when I received the text “I don’t know what to do” I knew we had to go back. There was no question.

But here was the dilemma. See the extra kid in the car? Well, that’s my friend’s boy and he was coming with us because her and her boyfriend have 5 kids between the 2 of them and this way they could drive together instead of having to take 2 cars (2 cars = 2 times the gas!). So instead they had to drive separately AND they took C with them, too (sorry, and thank you!!!!!!).

J and I got to Kimi’s house around 9:00 Friday night. It was already dark. We spent another 2 hours searching but no one had seen him since about 7:00 and it was late. J and I both slept (well, kinda slept) at Kimi’s house that night so that we could get up bright and early and start looking again. And once the library opened we printed off 100 flyers and handed them out to every business, home, and local we passed.

But there was still no sign of Biggie. Talk about feeling defeated. I didn’t know what to do. C was in Myrtle Beach but I couldn’t see leaving in case Biggie was found. J finally made the decision for me. He said “one of us has to be with C and one of us has to stay here for Biggie”. So I caught an early flight down to the beach Sunday morning while J stayed back. He even went back out to Vermilion after he dropped me at the airport and covered over 30 miles on his bike looking for the little guy. There was nothing else we could do. We were just hoping and praying someone would call and tell us they had him.

And that phone call came a few hours later. I was walking from the pool up to my room and luckily had my phone on me. This is how the phone conversation went:

• Kimi (excited and out of breath): Heather, he’s here! He’s here!
• Heather (wide eyed and in disbelief): Where? He’s IN your house???!
• Kimi: Yes!! I heard barking and he was at our back door!
• Heather hangs up on Kimi and calls J.

When I called her back to get the details she said that she literally just opened the slider door and he ran in. Unbelievable. Like nothing had just happened. Like he hadn’t been gone for 3 days and 2 nights by himself in the fields and country of Vermilion. Un-freakin-believable.

There wasn’t a scratch on him. He was pretty damn skinny, which you can tell in this picture:

But other than that he was completely fine. Ridiculous. We’ve since been saying that he’s the badass dog from the streets. Don’t mess with him. (Allison, him and Harv could start their own gang!)

Monday morning J called a doggy daycare in the area and once he was confident Biggie would be fine there he packed up the car and left for the beach. He got there around 11:30 Monday night.

It’s no wonder this happened at 10:00 the next morning:

It’s not lemonade in those red cups, friends. Hehe.

More on our vacation adventures tomorrow. There were some interesting nights:

But for now I’m off to spend more quality time with Biggie. He’s been on my lap pretty much all day. I missed this face:

Thank you again to everyone. It was really a stressful time for us and every time a tweet, Facebook comment, text, or email came through it really helped us stay positive in such a horrible situation.

Hug your pets tonight, guys.

Hey guys it’s Jay,

Heather & C are down in Myrtle Beach but I wanted to give you an update on the Biggie situation.

After Kimi, Heather and I canvased the town with “Lost Puppy” fliers on Saturday, I decided that this morning I would hit Vermilion on bike after I dropped Heather at the airport for her 6:00 am flight to Myrtle.

I hit Vermilion when the sun was rising and after 10 miles of looking at this

I was no where closer to finding Biggie.
I did the loop where I thought he might be a few times and after striking out there too I opted to try some off the bean’n path roads like this
.

Still nothing.
The rain was starting and I had covered 26 miles in 4:15 mins and I honestly was feeling pretty hopeless so I figured I’d call it a day and try again tomorrow.

I’ll be honest. My Instagrams and tweets were not to keep you guys up to date, but my way of keeping my spirits up. My posts would land some fantastically positive responses telling me not to lose hope. This encouragement along with Heather and C’s is what kept me peddling and looking for Biggie.

Vermillion is roughly 45 mins from Lakewood and every drive back without the little guy was making me feel more and more helpless. I guess no one likes to fail or let down the ones you love right?

After getting home and grabbing some food I collapsed on the couch for about 2 hours. I was exhausted from the stress, the search, the logistics involved in stopping a vacation in motion.

I woke to my phone ringing. Heather was calling from Myrtle to tell me a nice man had let her know that he saw Biggie Friday night. While this was super nice, it wasn’t anything new to us but we were touched by the effort.

When my phone rang a few minutes later I didn’t think much of it, but instead I hear…
“She HAS HIM! SHE HAS HIM!!!!!, Kimi Has HIM!!!!!”
I think all I said was…”I’m on my way…”

I get a text a few minutes into the drive with this picture attached. I couldn’t believe It was him!
He looked super skinny with his ribs showing, but he aside from that he looked great!

Kimi and her husband had taken part in the races in Vermilion this morning and had just returned from grabbing some food when they heard a terrible howling sound. They looked out the back door to find Biggie on their porch wanting inside.

When they let him in he ate a lot of food, he’s like his daddy , and wasn’t dirty and smelly like a dog on the run should be after 2 days? He smelled like he had just received a bath even?

There’s a lot of stuff I’d love to know about his “trip” but honestly I am just so thrilled to have him home that I really don’t care about all the strange details like…

How’d he get into their fenced in back yard to get up on the porch?
Why was he so clean and smelled like he just had a bath?
Where the F#$%^ were you hiding the last 2 days boy!
Are you really Agent B.I.G?

After a celebratory beer with Mike we left for home.
The ride home went like this
  

And even now we are still doing this

Trying to stay positive is one thing, but actually believing 100% that a bad situation will end up in your favor is another. We are SOOOOO lucky to have Biggie back.

Thanks to everyone who posted, tweeted, Facebooked, or texted and called with your support. It truly means a lot to us to have you in our corner during these emergencies.

What did I learn over the last 2 days?
I can honestly say that after this weekend I learned 2 new things.

1. 7lb dogs are smarter and tougher than me (and you too Heather!)
2. Vermilion is a small and fantastic town filled with super friendly people. Thanks Vermilion!

Now it’s time for me to finally crash after this madness.

P.S. Sorry for all the reading. I tried not to turn this into the Iliad, but I should have known that was impossible for me.

Dear Biggie-

Mommy misses you:

Your brother misses you:

The whole family misses you.

We don’t care that you sometimes poop in the house or chew our socks or follow your brothers lead and bark at strangers for no reason. We don’t care that you piddle on our feet when you’re excited to see us or make us steam clean the carpet twice a week. We just want to see you again.

We miss you terribly. We miss your welcome home licks, cuddly demeanor, and love of dog treats. We miss your curly tail, big ears, and ability to escape baby gates. We miss your passion for life.

Please be safe, be smart, and take care of yourself while you’re not home. You’re a part of our family and we need you.

We love you, Biggie.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help us find Biggie! He’s a 7 lb, 6 month old chihuahua. He was last seen in Vermilion, OH near the railroad tracks by Lake Rd and Adams St. He is the most lovable, cuddly puppy ever, but he does not willingly go to strangers. In fact, he will most likely try and run. What I ask of you is that if you see him please call, text, email, Facebook, or tweet me or Jason Mursch (@jamursch) asap. We just want to know where he has been seen!

If you don’t live in the Vermilion area, please help us out by posting about Biggie on your FB wall, tweeting (please see flyer here or original tweets here), or blogging – doing all 3 options is even better! It only takes ONE PERSON. So PLEASE take the few minutes to help us out. You could be that person…..

Thank you!

I never realized how many people actually use lists! I have to admit, so far it’s working. I’m right on track for the week. I even had time to take C to the library (after I went to the grocery store, cooked dinner, booked a pedicure for Thursday, and made a last minute trip to Target!).

I’ll have to show you a final draft of the list later this week – it’s even more of a mess now. Story of my life.

Which brings me to this: my ankle. What a mess.

Remember what it looked like 8.5 weeks ago?

Ugh.

About 5 weeks later it was much better, but still pretty swollen (but at least I could get my tennis shoes on):

My physical therapist is awesome and was trying everything she could to help me heal faster. I even have an at home electrode kit that I’m supposed to use 3 times a day for 30 minutes each time (which mostly happens twice a day). I still have some swelling, but it has definitely helped:

Those crazy horizontal lines are from my compression sock.

But when the pain wasn’t getting better my actual doctor scheduled an MRI for last week. She was worried that there may had been a fracture or bone chip that they missed in the initial x-ray. I’ll admit, I was completely and totally freaked out. If there was a fracture I was going to need a cast, and that was just not acceptable (which I most definitely told the doctor).

But luckily this was not an issue because it didn’t turn out to be either of those, just some bad bone bruising! Wahoo!!!!! She said that this level of bruising normally takes 8 to 12 weeks to heal so I’m right on track. My first question to her: when can I run again? Her answer? Two to three weeks. HOLLER!!!!

So, right now my focus is getting my cardio up. I need to be in great cardio shape so that I can jump right into training. Of course, I’m going to have to go slow so that I don’t re-injure myself, but I need to do everything else I can so that I’m ready for when this funny bump on the outside of my right ankle finally goes away:

When I swam yesterday it was the first time I was able to kick without any pain at all (I have been swimming looking like a fool and dragging my right foot along without kicking it!). The last week I’ve really seen some progress and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s been a long 8.5 weeks.

I will admit, thinking about training for the NYC marathon in 10 weeks is scary. Training for a marathon at all is scary, but this limited time frame has me a little more than freaked out. I’m going to be needing lots of running buddies so let me know if you’re interested in running in Lakewood, Rocky River, or the Towpath (and remember I’m going to be SLOW as molasses since I haven’t run since June) and I’ll definitely hit you up!

This injury has definitely taught me to take advantage of my good health. Those days when you’re feeling lazy and don’t wanna work out? Just do it! You’ll never regret a workout. Promise.

What motivates you on those days you just don’t wanna workout?

Oh, and sorry for all the feet pictures!!!!!

I’m not normally a list maker. I don’t plan ahead, I don’t pack early, none of that. I’m always a last minute girl, a procrastinator if you will. It just works for me.

However, we recently decided to leave for vacation a day earlier than planned (and stay overnight halfway instead of powering through the awful 13 hour drive!). Which leaves me with one less day this week. And tons of stuff to do.

So I made a list.

The messiest, most disorganized list ever. It has a weekly agenda, Target shopping trip, grocery shopping trip, and vacation meal planning all in one. This is why I’m not a list maker – it doesn’t even make sense.

BUT, I did stick to Monday’s agenda.

1. I went to Lululemon:

And scored my favorite racer back tank on clearance!

2. Made dinner (which was a success!).

3. Went swimming – swam 1,000 yards in 23 minutes (2 minutes faster than last time!), then aqua jogged for another 500 yards

4. Went to Target – got everything on the list……..and then some….

I loved the hat above, but C ended up with this one instead:

Baller.

5. Last thing on the list = Blog

Maybe lists really do work. Who knows. It’s only been one day.

I have my workouts on the list for this week, too:

• Sunday: 25 mile bike ride (check!)
• Monday: Swim (check!)
• Tuesday: Hill repeats on the bike
• Wednesday: Spinning
• Thursday: Swim if there’s time

I finally convinced J to let me take my bike on vacation! I know it will be a pain with the bike rack, but this will be the first time I won’t be able to be physically active on vacation (well, not as much as I like to be). I definitely like to enjoy myself and splurge some – I mean, it’s vacation! But I always offset that with workouts and/or running and since I’m very limited to what I can do it’s going to be a struggle.

I seem to be sticking to the workout plans I’ve been posting each week on the blog, so maybe one is in order for vacation, too?

Crap, I think I just admitted that I like lists (or at least that they work)………..

What about you? Are you a list maker??

Wow, has it really been almost a week since I’ve blogged? I have no other reason than “life just gets in the way”.

Things have been busy up here in CLE.

There have been trips to the zoo:

Sweaty hill repeats (and I’m still not any faster!):

Trips to Cedar Point:

MRI’s:

(not an actual picture of the test, but you get the drift) – Ankle update coming this week!

And lots of this:

Honestly, it’s been hard to fit everything in.

And this week we’ll be busy prepping for vacation:

• Oil change
• Give both dogs baths
• Meal plan and grocery shop
• Bake cookies
• Target shopping for sunscreen and other essentials
• Laundry
• Packing
• Give C a haircut

And the list goes on and on and on. We leave Friday!!!!

What’s the most important thing you take on vacation? For me it’s my big floppy beach hat and sunglasses – the best beach accessories!!