My weights and other exercise equipment (yes, there's more in my room!) are going to be my new best friend and running buddy. How do I know? I'm dedicated to the journey. Change is not the easiest thing for me because in general I am a very structured person. Most of my life I could organize things like I like them and then leave them there for...well, forever. After my doc visits last week I have been put in a position to really do some soul searching once again and determine what I want as a runner, an athlete and just as a person in general. I have found some major change is necessary. What sounds simple is very difficult for a Type A like me. So far my blood pressure has been good - a little on the high side of normal but not bad. And my pulse has been good too. It now runs in the mid 50s. My diet has been totally inside the zone (except for some cake and ice cream yesterday at my sister and mother's birthday party- but those are still low sodium, right?) Seriousl...

Whew! It's been a crazy few days but I think I'm over another major hurdle. I shared last week about my episode and now that's it is behind me and I can think more clearly I think I have come to some conclusions. First, my last 3 runs have been awesome! And I had a great time last night at taekwondo. No chest pains, no dizziness and even though I took it easy I had no difficulties at all. Well, except the fact that this fat old lady got her big toe caught in the pant leg of her uniform and jerked a toe out. Why can't I have normal injuries or at least noble ones? lol I've been spreading out my runs and it seems to be helping. I only run two days in a row. Overall my new strategies seem to be working but it's all new. I'm committed to the journey at this point and determined to be fit in the midst of personal struggles and physical roadblocks. I'm a thinker and a problem solver. Of course this leads to overthinking most of the time. But over the...

Well all I can say is half marathon #17 is in the books. It was by far the hardest race I've done and it was a fight between my body and my mind most of the way. The good part about that is that is made this the sweetest half finish line I've ever crossed! My mind is still trying to sort it all out but I feel like there are some things I did wrong and some things I had no control over. The last two weeks have been super stressful for me and even last night was stressful - just can't get a break on that and I guess I gotta figure out a way to handle life's stuff better. I'll work on that. I haven't slept much and kept waking up every hour last night to see what time it was - lol - I will probably never stop doing that. On one hand I feel like I didn't train enough between my last two half marathons. I literally had no long runs, I think I did one 8 miler. I've got to figure out how to make the right adjustments so I can train right, smarter and ...