Couch to 5K (in one day)!

Ok, I'm not really a candidate for the 'couch to 5K' programs. While I haven't been running regularly for a long time, at least 9 months, I'm not a rank beginner, and I've been dancing, walking, doing Pilates, and getting in an occasional run just so I don't feel like a complete slug. I hadn't been running because of a strained hamstring. It seemed every time I was starting to feel a little better, I'd push too hard in exercise class, or take a long drive and it would start bothering me again. HOWEVER, I think I've finally moved past it. The pivotal event was a long day of much driving. 8 hours in the car, all told, and not a twinge! Huzzah! So it was time to get back into shape. Of course, every morning that I had time to fit in a run, it rained or snowed. Last week though I finally got out. Twice! Roads are clear, nights are mostly above freezing, and there are only little bits of snow left in shady corners. Did I start out short and easy? Define short. Define easy. I started at 3 miles. I figure I have enough muscle memory to keep me going for 3 miles. I hadn't run since early February, and I hadn't been running regularly then either. I didn't have to stop and walk, and I even felt OK. I was REALLY SLOW! But I can live with that. So 2 runs last week. Four miles this morning. No snow or ice to worry about (I would hope not, after all, it's April). Maybe I'll find my stride again soon and move up to a sub-10-minute mile.

socks for dear daughter

On the knitting front, very little has been happening. I know I've written about my tennis elbow. I was in physical therapy in the fall and it was really a lot better. Then I volunteered to work backstage at my dance studio's production of the Nutcracker. Have you ever heard the phrase, "No good deed goes unpunished?" Seems the backstage work was a little harder on the arms than anticipated. That moved straight into having kids home for the holidays and all the cleaning and cooking that entailed. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled to have them all home, and it's much more satisfying to cook for a crowd than just for one or two or us, and I even got company and sometimes help in the kitchen. But it all took its toll, along with shoveling snow and clearing ice dams on the roof this winter. The pain has waxed and waned, and I've done little bits of knitting when I was feeling OK. The most progress I've made in knitting has been socks for my daughter.  I knitted on our vacation to New Orleans in March. Airplanes are great for knitting, and there was no stress on the unhappy arms while we were on vacation. Love those vacations---no cooking or cleaning!  Lately, though, both my arms have been a lot worse, so my knitting is currently not happening. I still go to knitting group, and chat and eat, and knit a little bit, and chat some more. Really, we mostly go to knitting group to chat. I'm going back to physical therapy next week and am hoping to finally get back to normal. Seems everything on my list of things I want to do involves heavy arm use.

  With all the knitting projects on the back burner, I needed a creative outlet. One was painting the kids bathroom. I find painting a room to be very satisfying because the change can be so drastic and the end result always looks clean and new and fresh. I've never been fond of the prep work involved, but it was all worth it. Our hall bathroom now looks like a lovely spa bathroom. Yay! It also helped that all the kids were out of the house and I could leave the mess when I was done painting for the day. The only thing I had to worry about was the cat peeing on my dropcloths. I was working with a deadline: I wanted to finish up before the kids got home for spring break. There are really only a few little touch-ups left, along with sanding and finishing the doors. I'll try not to let another 2 years go by before I manage to finish that up.

I've been doing more sewing lately too, also, I think, to satisfy the need to create. I made another version of"the perfect t-shirt" that I wrote about in the last post. I'm getting much closer to a really great t-shirt, and will talk more about that progress in my next post. Time to wrap up.

Shelley in CT

Summer Projects

You know, I started this blog as a way to record my knitting, sewing, quilting, and crafts projects, with a little bit of life thrown in. Somehow, that's not how it's working out. Especially during the summer. I just don't knit during the summer. It's just too hot. I thought that maybe after we put in the air conditioning, I'd be able to knit through the summer months, but I think it's the mindset. Even if it's comfortable and not humid inside, I just don't feel like knitting because I know it's summer. At least I've done a few sewing projects so I feel a little bit crafty this season.

paint samples

I finally got around to painting the master bathroom. It took me all week to prep. Here are the paint colors I auditioned. We decided to go with the rosier one. I had to patch some holes in the wall before I even got to this point. The morning I was going to start painting, I discovered that I had forgotten to buy the paint! I had the little sample pots, but that wasn't going to get me very far. Then, after I went out to buy the paint, I kept getting messages and phone calls that I had to deal with, and then I had a physical therapy appointment, and painting never got started.

patching the wall

This morning I finally was able to set aside the day and paint. I set up my ipod with a good playlist and only took a break for lunch. The bathroom isn't all that big and I was hoping it wouldn't take all that long to paint, but with all the little hooks and towel rods and corners to paint around, this first coat took me all day.

cutting in around the edges

 

first coat

It definitely needs a second coat, so I'll be painting again tomorrow. Luckily, I don't have anything else scheduled. Except we need to start packing. We have a family Bar Mitzvah (my husband's sister's oldest son) to go to next week in Colorado. Lots of relatives on my husband's side will be converging on Denver from all over the country. We'll have 4 days to visit with everyone, which I'm really looking forward to.

There is a big birthday dinner planned for the evening that we arrive, at which we'll be celebrating all the summer birthdays among my husband's siblings and their kids and his great aunt. That's a total of 9, that range from the end of July to mid-September. That means I have to get all the cards and any gifts that we'll be bringing. I want to sew 2 of the gifts but haven't even started yet. I'm going to blame the painting. I'll just blithely ignore that fact that I went to jazz class and went out for drinks and dinner afterwards with my "dance ladies" and didn't get anything done last night. Maybe I'll have an incredibly efficient and productive weekend (and don't miss those flying pigs!). Oh well, I'll pull some late nights and get it all done. I can sleep on the plane. At least packing for 4 days should be pretty quick and easy. I've already made piles of the little things that I really can't forget, and lists of what else to pack.

My running injury recovery is very slow, and I went back to my physical therapist and massage therapist this week. The theory now is that the injury is caused by the long hours sitting at work. Yes, even though I only work 1 or 2 days a week, because I sit for such a long period, and tend to work to my right, it's causing all sorts of problems in my hips and with my running. It's been several months and I'm still not back to normal with my running and I'm very frustrated with it. I haven't run more than 3 miles at a go in months! Hopefully this new set of stretches and exercises will solve the problem.

Time to make my lists for tomorrow and get some sleep.

Shelley in CT