Eagles - Written February 2011

And he will raise you up on eagle’s wings, bear you on the breath of dawn, make you to shine like sun, and hold you in the palm of his hand….

The last few weeks I’ve felt like I was in a holding pattern. Just kind of waiting for something…not sure what just something.

Now, here’s where the above part comes in…I’ve been spending any time I’m not out walking or picking the boys up from school sitting in the same place in the same room for the last said amount of weeks.  From this vantage point I have a clear view of the sky and the trees that reach up to it from the gully in the back of the monster house.  Notice I did not refer to this as a back yard as there is none.  But the good part about all this is that we do have a gully and since there is a marshy area, wildlife abounds out back. Not only the two-legged little boy kind that loves the adventures out there, but wildlife in the gully is an awesome example of the food chain.  In the backyard are various types of squirrels and other rodentia and just as wide a variety of birds.  The birds that eat the rodentia have a veritable feast below the canopy in our gully.

 As I was sitting, wasting away and occasionally breaking out in tears of boredom and gluttony and self-pity, towards the end of last week I saw a huge bird swoop down and perch on one of the branches of one of the trees out back.  Out of the corner of my eye, or maybe during a commercial or maybe even as I prayed that I would feel more whole instead of life less, it launched itself off the branch and into the air so fast I scarcely could see it. It dove into the gully and as it did I leaped off my perch and watched to see if I could see where it went and what squirrel mcnugget it was going to call lunch.  It disappeared.  Over the course of the past week I kept watch for my newfound bird intrigue.

 Then one day, I saw it.  Up high in a tree against a bright sunny winter sky. The White head and yellow beak of a picture perfect bald eagle. Now you really don’t normally associate Michigan as home to our national bird, but I’ve seen them out at the park that I had been planning on perching at in my spare time but had never seem to get to in the past couple of weeks. Maybe God sent them this way to the gulley just for that reason.  If the mountain won’t go to Mohammad…

Anyway, this particular day, I saw the eagle. It started in one of our windows and flew across the width of the gully just like in one of those endangered species commercials! It was awe-inspiring!  I couldn’t believe it. Over the course of the next week or so I would see it’s flash as it went after some tasty treat in the gully.

 A few days later, I realized I hadn’t seen it in a while. I looked out the window every now and then and saw a flock of nasty blue jays and an occasional gold finch, of course lots of squirrels but the eagle hadn’t been around lately.

 Then it happened. Luck seemed to turn just as the calender turned to the new month.  I went out for one reason or another and came home to find a sub job open. I needed it. I grabbed it.  Then I checked my messages. A job I had applied for three weeks ago had called me for an interview.  On my son’s birthday no less!  Another day went by and I had to take my son to the doctor and was getting close to a deadline that I had missed the week before.  The deadline had been extended by a week, so I hurriedly tried to get them done when I hit a computer glitch. I e-mailed the woman in charge then took a breath and tried again, this time with success.  I got 3 of my 4 applications completed. I took the little guy to the dr. and got home to find an e-mail form the woman asking me to call her, that they had gotten though but she wanted to make sure the glitch  wasn’t keeping other people from applying as well.  I called her and was telling her about something I had done in the past and she is very excited about running a similar program here in my hometown.  She’d like me to run it. 

The Eagle flew away and I guess God decided that was it was time for me to fly. Time for me to feel my spirit regain strength in the palm of his hand.

What have I been up to?

Not that anyone is really following me, and I wouldn't blame them if they did becasue I haven't written in a  while but a lot has happened so I figure I'll catch y'all up.

March was let's just say a low energy month. I got new running shoes got some miles in. Got a few swims in too.  In looking at my log it seems the weather was not very conducive to running at all.  Looks like I got 13 running miles in and 5 swimming miles in. Not impressive.

April brought a new set of personal challenges and pulled my focus off of me and on my financial responsibility to my family.  Our financial advisor went over things and it was decided that Great Oaks, a possible steady income for me and the tax breaks it gave us would be worth opening again.  So I went to work, begrudgingly, getting things set up again. Bear in mind that the room had turned into a play/treadmill/bed/junk room. I also decided, against my better angels, to add Infant care this time. So I comandeered some of the TV Room space for that.  So I am even a month later, still trying to get everything ready for re-licensing Great Oaks.  Needless to say all the cleaning and moving furniture and organizing took away training time but at least it got me moving so I guess it's a good thing.

Towards the end of April, my BFF's daughter asked me to help her train for a race this summer. I said sure, I already have training stuff figured out. The first time out we went 3 miles at a walk/run. She has since registered for her first 5K and I could not be prouder. I just need her to stop sprint/walk/sprint and get her steady pace running.  The nice thing is she is laid back and I have run in to the trheat of shin splints and sore arches so we take things in stride.    The best part is that we make plans and she holds me to them. I'm getting my base built back up and am back to being able to run an entire 3 miles in under an hour and no walking needed.

So May has been the best training month so far this year. I'm not doing the Riverbank but I am not regretting it. GR Half Marathon is on my plate- I've already registered for it even- and I love that race!  I was going to work towards a TRiathlon in June but I might do the Sprint Distance Duathlon instead. The cold temps haven't warmed any of hte lakes enough to get open swims in and lap swim at the pool is over.  So I'm just building my base fitness again and going from there.

Here are my stats for May thus far:
May 1: Rest
May 2: 3 Miles walk run
May 3: 4 mile ride
May 4: Rest
May 5: 4 mile walk run
May 6: rest
May 7 & 8: Rest
May 9: 3 mile run
May 10: 550 yard swim - shoulder pain
May 11: 3 mile RUN!
May 12: 10 mile ride- no pain and didn't die!
May 13: Rest

So I've done 17 running miles, 14 riding miles and .30 Swimming miles this month so far and it's only mid-month!

I also found a new doctor. I'm really excited about this since the last doctor I had was so busy staring at my Psoriosis and recommending I get help from HER husband the dermatologist, that she didn't hear a word I said about anything else.  So after an exasperating day of trying to find a doctor ( a story for another blog) I bit the bullet, found a doctor and had a physical. After an hour long conversation I felt great. She respected my ability level as is and she herself is passionate about running and getting people fit.  She leads some weight loss classes and take appointments with patients to meet withthem about modifying their diets. So I am keeping a Food journal. She sits down with patients every other week and goes over hte journal helping them find where they can cut down calories and balance things better. If you think about it, the co-pay for the visits is cheaper than Jenny Craig or something like that.  Those food programs don't teach you portion control-they sned it to you and you still end up adding to it anyway so they aren't for me.  She doesn't want to take away things you love but help you balance things out using what you like to eat and modifying it(meaning I won't have to eat carrots!). She asked what my ultimate wieght goal is. When I told her she wasn't freaked out.  She sasked me if I have short term goals along hte way and I told her. I also kind of challenged her to get me off that 235lbs-238lbs.  hump in under 6 months.  She is really great and I am looking forward to this.

So that's the short version of training. There have been a lot of life challenges between February and Now...loss of an important person in my  life, I joined a choir, sending Patrick to a new school next year, the boys first concerts, subbing jobs sprinkled here and there.  There is a weird little creative writing type thing I will post next. If you don't want to read it, it's cool.

Take care everyone. I'll see you on the bike path!