Wednesday, October 29, 2008

New Doctor, New Hopes?

Well, my new insurance finally kicked in, so I finally got to see a much needed sports doctor.

I was initially looking for just a general doctor because I needed a physical for work, but ended up finding one that was both general and sports and thought- perfect!

He seemed very nice and listened as I gave him the long list of problems and what I had already tried. He ran me through the normal tests which, like always, didn't show much. From what I said and what little he could tell, he thinks its the pireformis (sp?) muscle pushing on my sciatic, which makes sense from the research I've done.

The plan is to get him my file and test results from before, and then come pack in a few weeks for a follow up. There's a treadmill in their building, so he'll have me run on it and then run me through some tests to see how they effect things. He also knows of some good PTs that are great with tough cases.

His plan is to get me back to ultras, which he thinks is totally possible, so I'm feeling optimistic!

*fingers crossed*

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Passing Marker

Not until I went over to Rick's blog did I even realize that the 2008 Dick Collin's race was last weekend (a huge congrats to him and the other runners of that race!)

Funny how a year flies....

Overall, with everything but running, this has been an amazing year, and I'm thankful for that. I've really been enjoying getting to re-visit with the running community through Ed and seeing it from the other side.

On an exciting note, I finally got myself a new pair of running shoes. They're Asics Gel Cumulus (I think?) but have a wider base and help with my supination (which I think is a little piece of the leg problem). I ran 2 whole miles with Ed right after I got them, and my leg didn't feel too badly, which made me thrilled. I also talked to a woman whose husband had a somewhat similar leg ailment, and she said he got a shoe insert, which correct a slight difference of leg length and it fixed his problem. A specialist will be able to tell me for sure, but I'm feeling patiently hopeful about that idea.

Still, if I can even run just a few miles every few days, that'd be great. At the very least, it's fun to have new shoes :D

Friday, October 10, 2008

The Weekend

"I can't wait for the weekend. I bet if I was a teacher I would have a glass of wine and say, "that was a very very very very very busy busy week!"

- A letter given to me by a student

It's the weekend finally, and I'm off to Cambria with Ed to celebrate some family birthdays and take in the ocean air. Rest assured I'll be working most of the time I'm there, but it'll still be nice :)

I'm promised a few hikes as well!

Have a great weekend all

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Stories from the classroom

This week has definitely had its highs and lows. My kids are getting very...energetic...and I'm having to restructure how I do things to get them back to how I want them. Still, it's great and I'm getting more used to working every day :)

I thought I would share a few of the shocking/sweet/funny stories from my room from the past few weeks:

- One of my students just gave me a "gift certificate" for $25. It's a very pretty one, peach and blue, and she made it herself on the computer :D When I asked what it was for, she said, "well, for your birthday of course!" At least I know she thinks I'm worth $25

- A boy asked if he could clean out the pencil sharpener. Thinking that was a great idea, I gave the okay and went back to get the class ready to go. Suddenly, I look over and I see him holding the electric pencil sharpener under running water! "What are you doing?!?!" I exclaimed. "Well, you said I could clean it" he smartly replied. Apparently these kids don't know that you can' mix water and electricity

- At the end of the day, one of my girls gave me her business card, in case I ever wanted a spa day, so she could do my nails, facial, etc.. "But, you can't call on Sundays" she said seriously, "we're closed on Sunday"

Gosh...kids a great!


On a side note, I'm loving the gym still. My clothes are fitting a bit better and I'm just feeling so much more confident, which I"m loving. I've been running about a mile every day (and even did a mile and a half earlier this week) which is fun. I even did a trail walk/run with ed (we walked out than ran back, 3 miles or so). It was beautiful!

The insurance is running late, so no doctor yet, but it should be any day now. I'm grateful, at least, that for an hour every day I get to be healthy and happy and not thinking (too much) about school :)

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Adult Life

On Wednesday I got my first grown up paycheck and can officially declare myself self sufficient. Of course, I had the expected shock at how much you lose to various government things(seriously...more than a quarter of the total?!?!?) but am nonetheless proud of this check that towers over any I've ever received, and that represents the hard 12+ hours I've been working almost every day for the last month and a bit.

While I do want to be somewhat frugal, so I can start putting money away for the future (house and the like), I did spend a fraction of it to get myself a gym membership. With a coupon I received, I got myself a membership to 24 fitness (located on the way to work) for $35 to start and $20 a month after that. Not too shabby :D

I've been going after work this week and really enjoying my time there. As is normal with new teachers (I hope!) I pretty much am working from the moment I wake up until the time I go to sleep, with short breaks for meals. There is always something to do. So, being at the gym for an hour has been amazing. I can't lesson plan or grade things in any official way for that hour. Being back in workout clothes has also been great- it reminds me of that other, athletic self that I had sort of put aside.

A funny part of all this is that, with my gym dates after school, I've switched back to wearing contacts again. Up until this point, I wore my glasses every day because, well, I like them and they're easier. But, contacts are a must for gym/running, so back to contacts I have gone. My students freaked out when they saw me without glasses and many parents/coworkers have also commented on it with some level of surprise. It's funny to think that glasses really started to define my appearance when, while I ran a lot, I almost never wore them.

I have to admit, I have started sneaking in little runs at the gym. A half mile here, a mile there. I figure the treadmill has a decent amount of give, and it's just so fun to run. Better to run outside, but anywhere will do. The leg isn't happy, but I'm just stretching and taking some ibuprofen every night, and it doesn't seem too much worse than when I wasn't doing anything active, so I'm going with it.

It feels great to be moving again, sweating, working my body. I'm tired of feeling (and looking) sedentary and I'm excited to feel at home in my body again :)