23 days and counting ...

It's only 23 days until our departure for the marathon in Switzerland. The sad news is I'm sitting on my couch recovering from my knee surgery I had done last Thursday.  I haven't lost sight of the full marathon just yet but the journey to get there looks alittle different now.  I definitely won't be "running" anything but I'm hopeful to be able to walk something. I'm counting on my stubborness and my sheer determination to get me to the start line of one of the races.
The next week is pretty low key, I have some exercises that the Surgeon gave me to do post op and I see him again Oct 9th, so I'm hoping to get some answers then.  The emails, facebook messages, visits and phone calls of support have all been very welcoming. I have the most amazing family, friends and arth-kicker supporters and everyone is an important part of this journey. I couldn't do it without any of them.

This Friday is our "send off" party for the Alberta Team and it's going to be great. Alot of postive energy and excitement about the trip! :-) We would love to have some of our supporters there so feel free to join us. We are going to be at "Wurst"  Friday night at 5pm across from the Tech shop downtown.

So there won't be much to blog over the next few days unless you want to hear about me complaining about being bored and frustrated that I can't do what I want to do..lol!!!
Thanks again to everyone for all their support!

Between Me, Myself and I ....

 
This is the song I will have on my IPOD to do the 42k and listen to it over and over because the only person I need to convince right now is myself!

I had my MRI on my knee today so hopefully I will have some answers tomorrow!

Broken Spirit

I’m not even sure where to start with this post. It’s been a brutal week and after 3 days I am finally able to actually write about what has been going on. I have felt like my body is slowly letting me down and breaking and I have been trying my hardest to keep my spirits up. My mind is definitely not in the same space as my body. It’s weird because why should I be so surprised to find myself in this situation??? I was clearly pushing my body, training with bootcamp, run/walk training 4-5 tiimes a week and I shouldn’t be surprised it has come to a screeching hault. On Monday I set out to do 24km but at the 21k mark my knees couldn’t take anymore. I called hubby to come and get me off my route and frustrated as ever I headed home. I knew I was in pain but that’s really nothing new for me, I always have some pain but this time the pain took hold of my spirit and mentally I broke down.

I guess I needed a voice of reason because a very good friend of mine decided it was time to tell it like it is! That was a hard conversation to hear because I knew it was all true and that I would have to slow things down but it was a breaking point for me. I cried and I wasn’t sure why I was crying, was it because I was in so much physical pain or was it the mental pain I was feeling because I felt like I was failing at what I set out to do. Right now the end is so close yet so far away. I found a quote by -Vince Lombardi, I have no idea who he is..lol but the quote was so fitting for what I am feeling right now … “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender! “ I need to complete this journey one way or another and so I have to face the fact that I may have to walk another entire marathon. I didn’t want to walk the entire thing but the truth is, I don’t think at this point there is any possible way I can run anymore. So time to pysche myself up to be out on the course for 8 hours yet again! Thank goodness my teamie Tracy will be there this time to walk it with me, it won’t be as lonely as the last marathon I did!

So for now I am on limited activity as I try and get some of the swelling and inflammation down in my knee. I’m slowly getting the feeling back in my foot. I guess with so much swelling it’s pushing on the nerves and causing the numbness and tingling. I have seen my family Dr who has put in a referral to see my surgeon that did my previous knee surgeries but I have no idea how long it’s going to take to get in and see him. It doesn’t really matter anyway because seeing him isn’t going to change the fact that I can’t run. I’m actually afraid to see him before the marathon because I’m scared to death he might say I can’t even walk it and that would completely devastate me.

A friend posted a picture on facebook about being Successful and under the picture of the straightline it says “what people think it looks like” and then under the picture of the very twisted squiggly line it says “what it really looks like!” It is soooo true and I can’t thank my friends and family enough right now as they support me through that squiggly line!

TV interview

Check out the link from my TV interview on Global this morning for Arthritis Awareness month! I'm so not good being on TV ... I was a nervous wreck and my heart was pounding out of my chest! (You'll see it ...lol) I love telling people about our cause and Joints in Motion.. Just NOT on TV..lol! Watching the video is really hard and my heart starts to beat out of my chest just watchig it!! But it's all for a good cause so if one person that has Arthritis signs up to do a marathon because I inspired them, that's awesome. That's exactly what I want... to be an inspiration!

http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/video/arthritis+awareness+month/video.html?v=2277120203&p=1&s=dd#morningnews/video/special+guests

Recovering ...

Well that sucked!!!!!!!!!! I ended up with a nasty flu/cold and have been knocked on my butt all week. Yesterday I ventured out to do a short run, it ended up being about 4km. I decided not to go with the group downtown because I wasn't sure how far I could go and I knew it was going to be a slow go, so thought it was better to just venture out on my own close to home! Today I managed to do 14.5km and didn't collapse at the end so I would like to think I'm on the road to recovery. :-) I so did not need that little hiccup in my training but it is what it is and onward I go! :-) My training partner is back from holidays so Melissa did the last 4.5km with me today! YAY only the first 10k were lonely and boring...LOL! Although I have to say doing the intervals does make the time go alittle faster. :-) So I have 2 half marathons coming up to incorporate into my training and keep me on track! :-) I will be doing the harvest half at the end of September and then the Okanagan half at Thanksgiving! Only 56 days until the Lausanne Marathon ... exciting and nervous at the same time!!

Excited that hubby has decided to be my companion on the trip to do the full marathon. He wasn't able to be there for my fist full marathon in Athens, so I'm pretty excited he's gonna be there this time. I think he's only going this time so he can keep an eye on me so I don't go and get another race tattoo like I did in Athens...LOL!!!
Will be fun! We will have a supporter there to hold up our Arth-Kickers banner when we all cross the finish line!! :-) I wonder if he will wear a pink Arth-Kicker team shirt too...LMAO!!! Guess I might have to make him his own "Arth-Kicker Supporter" shirt!!
Countdown: 27 days to harvest half marathon in Calgary ... 35 days to Okanagan half marathon in Kelowna ... 56 days to Luasanne full marathon in Switzerland!! As one of my best friends would say "Giddy Up" !! :-)

Half Marathon Adventure!

Check out the Arthkickers.com blog to read about my half marathon this past weekend!

Half Marathon-Sunday Morning!

Tonight I did my last 6km (run for 1min/walk for 1min). This week I joined John our Joints in Motion Trainer, his wife Joy and the rest of the crew for 2 training runs on Tues and Thurs. They were short quick 6km runs and I felt really good during and after. (Thank god otherwise I would be really worried about doing this half if I felt like crap after only 6k..lol) It was nice to be out with a group. I always enjoy chatting and sharing my story with the other runners. The more people I have cheering me on the easier it is for me to keep going and finish. John set up my running watch for me to do 1/1 intervals so it will beep after each minute and now I don't have to keep looking at my watch wondering if the minute is up yet...lol! It set it up for 99 reps which is 3 hours and 20minutes, so that is my goal. :-) The last time I did this race I finished it in 3 hours and 37 minutes and that was walking the entire race. So let's see what I can do this weekend. It really is just a practise run for my run/walk training so I can see where I am in order to finish the full marathon in Oct doing a run/walk. My team mate Heather will running it as well, the great news is she's faster and will finish before me and will be there to cheer me over the finish line with my family. :-)
Saturday night my 2 youngest kids are registered to do the Kids' run and my oldest son and sister Crystal will do the 5km. I love that my kids want to be so involved and do what I'm doing. Every race I have done this year they have participated in the 5km category!! (Although my 7 year old says she's only doing 5km cause she doesn't want her toenails to fall off...LOL)
Thanks John and the crew tonight at the run for all the good luck wishes, those are what push me to get through the race! :-)
Stay tuned for Sunday night's post to hear how it went!! :-)
I'm only $595 away from my fundraising goal and I have 2 weeks to raise that, so please support my half marathon on Sunday by donating to my page. How about $1 for every KM... $21. :-)

What's New????

I posted an update on our website so please go there to read my latest blog entry.  Arth-Kickers.com Blog.

Thank you for following my journey.

5km "run" with my 10 year old

Well it’s back to regular walks/runs. Since the Calgary half marathon I have been training more to do a run(jog in my world)/walk for the upcoming Marathon in October. It’s been been going pretty good, I’ve been doing mostly 5 and 7km training runs right now just to build up my walk/running. Sunday I did 7km in 1hour and 6min, and for me that was awesome. School is out and it’s difficult to get to the gym during the day and most of my training is being done in the evening which I find challenging as I’m tired. But I have been pursuing through and staying focused. So today I decide that I will go and do 5km and my kids can either job beside or ride their bikes. So my younger 2 opt for the bike riding and my oldest (10) wants to job with me. He has down running club at school and he’s on a mission to complete a half marathon in the near future…lol! We set out to do 5km, and holy it’s hot already. After the first km I’m already dying of heat but onwards we go. I have to say this was probably the most entertaining 5km I’ve done and it was a serious blow to my “training self esteem”…LOL!! We start our first 5 minutes of jogging and my son says “this is how fast you go? This isn’t running mom” … I just kinda of laugh to myself. We continue on and the whole time he’s chattering away about this that and the other thing and then he says to me “mom you’re already huffing and puffing and you don’t answer me back.” Next I have my youngest who is on her bike and she’s riding back and forth and around me and rides up beside me and says, as she pedals slowly “this is how I do a jog riding my bike” and then speeds off ahead and says “this is how I do running on my bike”!

We finish our first 5min and now walk for 2minutes and he says “we are walking already” … I seriously can’t help but laugh to myself and wonder what my training really does look like to anyone watching…LOL! (good thing I don’t really care..lol) The next 5km is all about him and his nice little comments and his indirect way of saying “mom you suck at this..lol” Towards the end of the 5km I am so hot, ready to get out of the heat and sweating buckets..lol and I look at him and it’s like he hasn’t done a thing…LOL! His last comment to me is “I don’t know how you did a full marathon in Greece it must have taken you all day!” As a matter of fact it did…LOL!! It was a painfully hot 5km and it was fun having the kids do it with me but I think I will stick to the lonely 5k’s where I tell myself I’m doing a great job..LOL!!

It’s only 101 days until the marathon and I feel a bit of panic!! On the bright side of things all my training is paying off as I have lost 35lbs since Feb. I am officially back to the weight I was when I did my first marathon in 2010 and I still have 3 months before the one in October so I’m confident I will definitely weigh less to do my 2nd marathon!

I have some pictures from our past fundraising events that I will be posting! Thank you to everyone who has supported us, it is greatly appreciated. We are getting closer to our fundraising goal !!

Walk to Fight Arthritis today

It was a gloomy cloudy day but we escaped the rain for the "Walk to Fight Arthritis".  We were dressed for rain and cold but it turned out not to be too bad.  Over 470 people turned out to support the Arthritis Society even with the rain looming overhead.  Me, my kids and Grandma walked the 5km through Fish Creek park. The kids love being a part of my journey whenever they can, so they were pretty excited to join in for the walk. In the last few months both my 6 year old daughter and my sister have been diagnosed with some form of Arthritis so today I was walking for them.  I'm still nursing a sore knee so it was alittle tough but I got through it.  I did 5km last Sunday as well but I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to do much more than at, at one time.  I've gone back to the gym to do weight training and the eliptical seems to be okay so that's my cardio of choice these days.  Onward I will push and hopefully get some answers with my knee and figure out my training is going to look like.

Thank you to everyone that supported our walk today! You can help too by donating to my fundraising page in support of the Arthritis Society.  This journey is not just about me anymore, it's about my daughter and my sister too!
http://arthritis.akaraisin.com/alberta/teamjordan

We did it...half marathon completed!!

Happy to say that Tracy and I both completed the half marathon on Sunday! Together we crossed the finish line in 4:03:36!! The day started out at 4:15am to get ready for a 7:00am start time! Of course it's hard to sleep the night before so how is it possible for one to be completely rested?? 4:15 seemed to come sooner than it should have..lol!! We did it though, up, fed and ready to go, ride on the c-train to the Stampede grounds, bags checked and at the start line with 20 minutes to spare!There were people everywhere!!! The line ups to the porta potties was insane and people pushing their way to get to the front to start the race. As a walker it's kind of scary at the start line, cause you gotta stay way over to the side or you risk getting mowed over..lol! And even over to the side people still running past you on both sides, kind of makes you feel like you're standing still..lol! The first 10km went pretty fast and we were on track to finish in 3 or 3.5 hours. We were never at the back, there was always someone behind us so it was good motivation to keep up our pace. Things started to go down hill around the 12km mark when I had to pee. The problem with stopping to pee when I'm doing a race ?? ... is my arthritis... stopping for anything , tends to stiffen me up right away and it's very difficult to get things going at the same pace they were before! Note to self, maybe not drink so much pre-race so I can make through an entire half without stopping. :-)

The last 6 or 7km were alittle slower for us, getting my pace back up after stopping for a pee never really happened and we were both having pain in one spot or another..lol!! Through the entire route, anytime I had to go down a hill of any kind, I had to do a slow jog. The pressure on my knee going downhill was very painful but if I jogged it was in a slightly bent position and didn't hurt as much. The last hill at the 18km mark was a tough one, I didn't really have the energy to jog but I knew that my knee would never hold up having to extend it fully in the walking position. Somewhere I managed to get myself into a slow jog and the strangest thing happened ... I couldn't stop. The pain was less in my knee because it was slightly bent jogging and so I just kept jogging so it didn't hurt so much. Who knew I could find it in me to actually jog the last 3km and across the finish line! :-) Tracy was great, she was having pain but she just jogged along beside me, well and she's got longer legs then I do so her walking could actually keep up to my VERY slow jog...LOL!!! The last 5km was pretty quiet as we pushed through being tired and in pain. But we did it, we finished and Tracy can now say she has completed her first half marathon!

Thank you to everyone that donated towards my fundraising this past weekend in support of the half marathon, your donations are greatly appreciated! My next fundraising walk is June 10th. Stay tuned for those details.  Visit our website www.arthkickers.com and subscribe there to follow our journey and get all the up to date details on events and fundraising!

Help me Reach $500 this weekend!

Less than 24hrs to go and we will be standing at the start line ready to walk the half marathon. :-)

The Arthritis Society is one of the charities of choice for the Calgary Marathon so please donate to my fundraising page in support of this event! My goal is to raise $500 this weekend towards my fundraising.  So please help me by clicking here and making a donation in support of my half marathon tomorrow. Any amount is greatly appreciated, all the $5.00 and $10.00 add up! Grab a group of friends or co workers and make a group donation.

I truly appreciate any support you can give and thank you for supporting me in my personal fight with Arthritis, as well as my daughter and my sister who are very dear to me and are also fighting this disease.

Thank you again for any support you can give! :-)

Calgary Marathon - This weekend!!!

.5Wow, I can't believe it's here.  The half marathon that Tracy (my arth-kickers team mate from Red Deer) and I are walking is on Sunday!! I thought that my time would have been spent training and putting on the km's in prep for it, but that hasn't been the case. My last training walk of 17km was back in March.  The past 2 months have been physio, cold laser treatments and rest in hopes that I can complete this half.
Last week I saw my Dr. and he did a cortisone injection in the knee as well.  He has given me the ok to do the half and use my own judgement as to how far I will be able to go.

This week it has been feeling pretty good, I've been walking the kids to the bus in the mornings and it feels good.  So I'm optimistic that I will be able to finish the race. :-)  I am super excited to do this half with my team mate Tracy as this is her first half marathon. 

It's an early start of 7:00am so I don't think Tracy and I will be doing to much catching up when she arrives Saturday night...lol! But hey walking the half we will have 3.5 hours to catch up..lol!

Wish us luck and if you're in the area stop by the stampede grounds and cheer us on!! We would love the support!! :-)

Calgary Half Coming Up!

Wow, I can't believe the Calgary Half is just around the corner! It's still undecided if I will be able to walk it or not. I'm still doing physio and I just started some laser treatments. I think even if I am able to walk it it's going to be a tough one since I haven't walked a single km since the begining of April! :-(  I see my Dr. today so we will see what his take on the situation is. We were away for a few days and the rest, sitting by the pool definitely helped and I'm hoping if I limit the walking on it before now and the 27th, it will be enough! I was able to do a bit on the stationary bike on Monday, so that to is an improvement from a couple of weeks ago when I couldn't even do that!! Let's cross our fingers and toes because I really want to be able to do the half with my team mate Tracy, especially since it's her first half marathon!!! 
Congrats to Heather, her brother Jon and our friend Tanner for finishing the Vancouver marathon May 6th, Great Job!!

Have a great day everyone!!

Knee Injury . . .

I'm sure you read my post last Sunday when I had to stop my long walk at 10km because of pain in my knee. Well it hasn't gotten any better. After limping around for the first part of the week and trying to do personal training on Wed I decided (ok my trainer insisted..lol) that I at least go and see a physiotherapist, so I did on Thursday.  The verdict is he's pretty sure that I have damaged the miniscus.  Not sure how or why but it's injured and he recommends staying off of it for 2 weeks. :-( I need to follow up with my family Dr and have some x-rays or scan done to determine if it's just irritated and pinched or if it's actually tore. Crossing my fingers the 2 weeks rest will be all it needs.  I can continue with upper body and core strength training but only with minimal weight bearing on the injured leg. He recommended using a crutch, well you can imagine how well that went over for me!!! I am trying to walk on it less and let it heal, I am honestly. I maybe stubborn but I know that if I don't let it heal I will be out of training for longer.  I am frustrated and worried that I won't be able to do the half marathon the end of May but I'm not going to give up hope just yet.  This was my facebook post yesterday cause it pretty much sums up how I was feeling  "I knew the road I chose was gonna have a few potholes that might slow me down occassionally but apparently it's under construction and I have to stop and wait for the on coming traffic to get through before I can proceed!!"  

Thank you to friends and family for the words of encouragement you always seem to lift my spirits and that means a lot!! :-) I know it will all work out but it's alittle disheartening when I get into a groove and feel as good as I can with the arthritis and then something non-arthritis stops me in my tracks! :-S   But thankfully I don't stay bummed out for too long and my relentless and persistant personality kick into high gear. (see sometimes being relentless and persistant is a good thing...lol)  So today a took a day to just regroup and get a plan in place and tomorrow I will be back at the gym doing what I can without hurting the knee further. :-)

Have a great weekend!

Check out the blog on www.arthkickers.com

Thank you for following my blog and supporting me and my team!!!
Please follow this link to read my blog entries at
www.arthkickers.com.

Behind on blogging but still workin out and walkin!

It's been awhile since I've been able to get online and do some blogging. It's been a bit of a crazy couple of weeks but I've still been busy with walks and gym workouts. Melissa and I did do our Sunday walk and our last one before Easter Weekend was 17km. It took us about 3hours and 20min and both of us were a bit sore after that one. I ended up taking Mon and Tues after that as rest days just to make sure my body was recovered. We left for vacation just before Easter and so my workouts have consisted of walks along the West coast on Vancouver Island (I could definitely make a habit of walking in places like this, so refreshing and peaceful). Gym workouts have been in hotels and the 8 floors of stairs was a great workout for the legs. Oh and I'm not sure how many stairs I've climbed to the waterslides..lol A few more days and then it will be back to regular gym workouts and walks. Just alittle over a month to the half marathon in Calgary.... Kind of excited and kind of nervous!! I have high expectations for myself for the half marathon. I want to be back at the weight I was when I did Athens (and holy man being on vacation isn't helping that I'm sure..lol) and I want to finish the half in 3.5hours. I've done it before so I hope I can do it again !!!! I am super excited that my teamy Tracy is gonna walk it with me... our trial walk to the full in October!!!!

Okotoks Western Wheel Newspaper Article

Newspaper Article

Slow Week with a Bad Hip ...

So remember my last post where I mentioned I wasn’t sure I would be able to walk the next day after my Friday the 16th workout??? Well I was right !!! I spent all of last weekend on ice and advil (by Sunday it was something a bit stronger than that..lol) Melissa and I did do a short walk Sunday morning but it was a pretty slow one. It wasn’t too bad walking but bending over and sitting were pretty painful. And wouldn’t you know it I ended up with a dam pebble in my shoe on the walk and so on the side of the road Melissa had to take my shoe off, shake out the pebble, put my shoe back on and tie it up. Thanks Melissa!! Monday I ended up in the foothills for a procedure to blast the blood clot that was in my central line preventing them from getting my blood collection done. So finally on Tues I was able to get in and see my chiropractor. What a relief, my hip was out of place and pushing on a nerve. So by Tues night I was back at the gym, my first time since the previous Fri. I did take it pretty slow and only did 3km. Wednesday I was back personal training, still with a bit of caution but feeling pretty good. Not only was I recovering from my hip being out of place but holy man the boxing work out we did last Friday left my upper back and arms alittle sore. :-S But Friday’s workout was good and I was able to do 2 hours at the gym with another 3km and 2000m of rowing. Today I felt pretty good and was at the gym for 2 hours. I did 5.5km and another 2000m of rowing and some core work. So tomorrow back out for our long walk and hoping to do 13km.

Feeling some Success

It's been exactly a month since Motion Fitness in Okotoks donated my gym membership and I started doing personal training.  I did the whole fitness evaluation at the begining and today (a month later) they did it again. It's been a successful month!! :-) I was down a total of 9lbs for the month and my body fat mass went down 10%. My BMI has gone down! :-)  I need the reminders like this that all the hard work I am doing is paying off. I needed to hit my 10lb goal (which I did since I'd lost a bit before I started at the gym. But my aggressive goal of 10lbs a month feels like it could be attainable if I keep up at the gym, my training walks and personal training. Of course it's a happy balance to keep my gibbled body in check..lol!! (which after today's personal training is debatable whether I will be able to walk tomorrow or not! :-S  But I'm super happy with my results after a month and now I am walking 15k on my Sunday walks!!! I only have 72lbs to reach my goal weight for the marathon in October and 25lbs to reach my goal weight for the half marathon in May. :-) Wish me luck!!!