Minor setback

The best laid plans . . . well, sometimes they don't work out exactly as we'd like them to. Some of you may recall from a previous post that I have laid out some pretty specific plans for completing a marathon by the time I turn 30. While that plan is not completely derailed, it is at least going to be slightly delayed. The amount of time for which it will be delayed has yet to be determined.
You see, I seem to have suffered an injury in my left quad. I actually pulled it and knew I had last fall. I was doing some sprints in order to increase my speed. I was running on a track at the time. I stopped doing the sprints, but continued running even though I had pain; I can deal with pain - I do childbirth without any drugs. I also changed the direction in which I was running on the track. The pain decreased, and then soon after that I lost all motivation to run for a while (I was pregnant and feeling a little sick). Later during my pregnancy I did cardio workouts on an elliptical, so there was little to no impact. That muscle should have healed completely. And I suppose it did.
My recovery was SO good after having Enoch, that I began running even sooner than I had hoped I'd be able to. I ran my first 5K near the end of September, sooner than I had originally anticipated. Rather than just keep on running 3 miles a few days a week to maintain the fitness I had achieved, I decided to train for a 10K even though by the time I was ready there wouldn't be any official 10K to run. Things went swimmingly with my plan until after I ran 4 miles. Then my leg started to ache, but not so much that I thought I needed to worry about it or back off of my training. Not too long after that I ran 6 miles for the first time ever. My leg hurt so badly! It was basically throbbing on and off during the rest of the day.
Having very little experience with muscle injuries . . . or injuries of any kind really (I was seriously one of the least injury-prone dancers I knew) I found it hard to believe that this kind of pain was originating in the muscle. I thought it surely had to be nerves, or possibly even bone! But I'm married to an athletic trainer, and while he doesn't have a bone scanner he can pretty accurately dismiss the possibility of a stress fracture. It's a pulled muscle. The end. It is a pretty major muscle that gets used a lot, so I guess I really shouldn't have been surprised that it was bothering me so much.
He's treated me with some fancy thing that has electrodes (I feel like such an athlete when he hooks me up to it :) to help the muscle fibers heal. I was completely taking it easy for a whole week, then tried running a mile (my leg felt like it hadn't rested at all) so now I have taken my training way down in order to let my muscle heal. It's a little frustrating. I had been planning to do speed workouts in December, start training for a triathlon at the beginning of January and then train for the marathon after that was done. But I'll have to spend some time working back up to 3 miles before I can do that probably. *sigh*
For now, I'm just doing 20-30 minute workouts on an elliptical or a stationary bike and doing some strength training. I just really hope that this will be the only injury I have to deal with as I try to complete these goals. Here's hopin'.

Show and Tell

I LOVE getting projects finished. I feel like I mentioned awhile ago that I was crocheting afghans for my kids. I thought I'd share the final result. Kate's didn't get finished until last week. I was trying really hard to finish them before Enoch came. Dietrich's was, but Kate's wasn't - in fact, I was crocheting hers when I was waiting to go in labor at the hospital. :)

This is Kate's. Purple is her favorite color, plus it matches her bedspread made by her great grandmother.

The edging is Red Heart pomp-a-doodle yarn. Isn't it fun? The pattern is also Red Heart's.

Dietrich's favorite color is not green, but it matches his bedspread also made by his great grandmother. She quilts a lot.

A closer look at Dietrich's. This is a Red Heart pattern, too. It is altered a little bit b/c I wanted it bigger. My alterations made the pattern inconsistent, but it works.

I didn't make this last gem, but it's been on the to-do list a long time. I got it custom-framed for around $60! That's kind of amazing when the thing is about three square feet. I didn't get it done at a custom framing place. My Mom helped get this one done. She commissioned the frame at a cabinet shop, and the glass from a paint and glass store. I don't think I'll ever do custom framing in the usual way again! Completely unaffordable even with 60% off. I was so excited by this alternative - thanks Mom!

This piece of decor has been waiting to go on display for some time. It's in the master bedroom and my husband hung it up this last weekend. LOVE IT!

Three for Thursdays: December already?

 Three things I do on December 1st (traditionally or just for today):

• Put up the Christmas countdown I got from "The Friend" last year.
• My good friend, Elise told me that they use some of their Halloween candy every year to make a Christmas countdown with plastic wrap and ribbons. Brilliant. So I put that up today, too.
• Today I made chicken noodle soup. Mmmmm. Crock pot version. I love that little appliance.

Three “blessings” I’m grateful I do NOT have:

• A large house. Would I like a bigger one than I currently have? Yes, but not a lot bigger. Not enough time or motivation to clean a bigger house. 
• Being pregnant. I love my children, and I'm very grateful that so far becoming pregnant has not been our challenge. But my! do I love not being pregnant. :)
• In some ways I'm glad that our garden has not produced a bountiful harvest. Someday I hope to be able to have enough home grown produce to bother canning it, but I'm kind of glad I didn't this year. Or last year. hahaha

Three things I spend waaay too much time doing:

• Checking stuff on the internet, like fb and my iGoogle page. But I'm doing better! I've been exercising much more self-control lately. Could hardly do less after reading this. I really felt chastened after reading this message from the most recent LDS general conference. 
• Thinking. Ha! Okay, that's totally a joke. I have a "nothing box" and I go there frequently. Don't know what that is? Watch this. If it doesn't make you laugh . . . well, that's just weird.
• Getting annoyed with my kids. They're good kids, and my fuse is too short many times. Working on that, too. :)

Three things that Reese Witherspoon and I have in common:

• Ummmm . . . 
• I've got nothing.
• Really.

Three fads I find absolutely 100% ridiculous:

•  Skinny jeans. In my opinion, no fully grown woman looks good in them (unless she has absolutely no curves, like a little girl), and no man of any size does either. No offense intended. I still totally love you if you have chosen to embrace this fad. hahaha
• Feather and "bling" extensions for the hair. I just don't get it. Again, no offense to any of you who have or have had these. :) Can we still be friends?
• The blog I get this prompt from responded Twitter for one of hers. Ditto. Really, fb is absurd enough but to me, Twitter is just beyond bizarre. I do participate in fb, but I will NOT participate in Twitter. Side note to Terrianne: I'm pretty sure I have commas in all kinds of wrong places. I have read your blog post (loved it!), but I need to study it more.

Three pictures:

Winter on David's mission. Ride that frozen bear!

This year marks our seventh wedding anniversary. Simultaneously feeling "Is that all?" and "That long already?" haha

Yes, I was pregnant when we celebrated our first wedding anniversary together. Doesn't make for great pics, but we were really excited!