Up next, overeating.

I'm going to have to take a tangent here and talk about cooking instead of running, but I'm in the writing mood, so we might just have a few posts today or the coming days. I do love to talk about running

and cooking

and books. I'm reading some really good ones right now. One in particular deserves its own post, so I'll wait.

Now, no one likes a boastful person, so I won't say that I have recently outdone myself with my cooking will just simply talk about what I have cooked lately and the responses I have heard in and around my kitchen.

Wednesday night Chris and I were reading and I interrupted to tell him what we were having for dinner Thursday night. After my detailed description he says, "Well, I guess someone will be overeating tomorrow night."

We had this

in the crockpot with 1 cup of water, cooked all day on low. Then I shredded it up with a couple of forks and served it with soft tortilla shells, shredded lettuce, cheddar cheese, and homemade salsa. I did not major in anything even remotely close to English, writing, journalism, etc. so I do not have words to describe how good this is. I'm wondering how many days can go by before it is acceptable to prepare it again. I will be devastated if I ever cannot find this at a store. Go now to Sam's and buy it.

We also had corn on the cob, but that is hardly worth mentioning.

For dessert,

oh my. This is when all the noise started. I have never heard so many yums, uummms, oohs. Chris crowned it with the title of "best dessert I have ever made". It's all gone.

Now, here's a link to the recipe. I do not recommend using the icing she suggests. I made it one other time and I did not think it was the best icing I'd ever had. I actually thought it was the worst. It was the one and only time the Pioneer Woman has ever done me wrong. I still love her, though, because I used her recipe for buttercream icing instead and that IS the best icing I have ever had.

Now, just one more thing. I have her cookbook and the spine is broken and the pages are falling out. We have some overnight guests coming and I'm going running at 5 am tomorrow, so I was looking up things that I could prepare today or tonight for breakfast in the morning--things I can just heat up when I get back. I'm making a traditional breakfast casserole, but I wanted some muffins or cinnamon rolls too. I only have one pan of PW's cinnamon rolls in the freezer and I'm a little stingy with those, plus I'm not in the mood for a marathon, completely trash my kitchen session of cinnamon roll assembly. The cookbook naturally falls open to that recipe, so I almost missed these little beauties.  Please do yourself a favor and read her post about these and then make them.  I just whipped them up very quickly and had everything I needed on hand. 

I'll be thinking about them while I'm running in the morning and will be happy to eat several of them as soon as I get back.  With coffee.  Normally it would be milk, but I was out of town last week when my Oberweis milk was to be delivered so I had to buy one gallon of Prairie Farms to get us through until Monday when they deliver again and let me tell you, that milk is NAS-ty.  (Elise, that was for you.)

Running From Knives aka Part 2

I bought some Mizuno running shoes based on the recommendation of our local running guru at the running store. I felt legit. Not really.



I decided to do the Couch to 5K plan (you can google it). I was able to complete the first 3 weeks without dying. I actually felt exhilarated, my endorphins were already responding. It's no wonder and it didn't take much. Surely I had an excess build up of endorphins since I hadn't done any exercise in 6 1/2 years to release them. Then my knees started hurting, REALLY bad. And I've had a baby without an epidural, so this wasn't just your average almost 40-year-old starting to run and everything's going to hurt syndrome. I had to go to the doctor. I was told I had "fat pad syndrome"--not a really uplifting diagnosis for someone just starting back exercising (for the name alone). It's when the cushioning under your kneecap gets inflamed due to weak quadriceps muscles. It took about 2 weeks but I got through it. Someone (who shall remain nameless but lives in the same house as me) suggested I run on the treadmill for my first couple of times back. Perhaps it wouldn't be as jarring on my knees as pavement. Okay.

I'm not really sure where I started back up in my plan at this point, but I think it was somewhere in week 2, which means I was still doing way more walking than running. I hit the Y, hopped on a treadmill, and completed my "run". The outside of my left ankle was complaining. I didn't tell anyone. I just tried to push through. There was no way there was anything really wrong with it. I tried to convince myself that I was going to have aches and pains as my body adjusted to this running thing, so I did the RICE thing--Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevate. I also took large quantities of Motrin. It stabilized, mostly, and I tried to do some more of my plan.

And then I almost fell getting out of bed, so I gave in and went to the doctor AGAIN. Now at this point I am feeling like a complete loser. I had lots of thoughts going through my head; here are some of them:

"Am I just being a wimp?"



"Am I so athletically challenged that I can't even do something as straightforward as running properly?"



"How embarassing. I've gone and told everyone that I want to be a runner and I've signed up for a 5K and now I can't get past week 3 in my training. I'll never run this 5K. Fail."

I had a grade 4 (the worst) stress fracture in my left fibula and wore a big black boot for 8 weeks. In the middle of summer. I took the kids to the pool. I rode the exercise bike because that was all I was allowed to do other than swim laps. I tried to keep up my cardio and by doing intervals on the bike, I was able to work up a pretty good sweat. I still wanted to run more than anything. I felt psycho. It was tied to my emotions in a big way because I never felt like an athlete growing up. I didn't play any sports and was told I was uncoordinated. And now, here I am, free from all the peer pressure of high school, finally pursuing something that I feel very passionate about and my body is failing me.



There it is. I forgot I also wore the boot while we were on vacation in Seaside. I had to offset the hotness of the boot by wearing soffe shorts and tank tops everywhere. I would have preferred a boot in pink, green, yellow. Anything other than black. Good grief.

I saw runners everywhere. I wanted to trip them. It was such a strange experience to feel upset that I couldn't really "work out". I'd spent my whole life coming up with excuses so that I wouldn't have to work out and now I was desperate to.

Okay, that's enough for now. I'll dangle a carrot to keep you coming back. Part 3 involves a 5K race, an MRI, a bone density scan, and a post-menopausal bone disease.

I must stop and watch this on Netflix.

How I Went From Saying "I'll Only Run if I'm Being Chased With Knives" to a 1/2 Marathon

My husband is a runner. He wasn't always, but a few years ago, he just started running and before I knew it, we were driving to Kansas City so he could run in a marathon. I thought he was craaazzzzy, but it was exciting to see him cross the finish line. My first words to him: "You look like you've aged 20 years." Now that I've run a big race of my own, I know those weren't the most helpful words, but he's a guy and he loves me so I think I'm okay. At his graduation from ASAM in 2009, they did a roast for the graduates and he was picked on because of his running--it was actually very funny. He's from Alabama and my name is Jenni, so you can see where that went.



So, naturally people would ask me if I was a runner. And that's where my "Only when chased with knives" comment would come in. Another favorite was, "If my children's lives are being threatened." I didn't exercise at all. Prior to having kids, I went to the gym 4-5 times per week. I never ran, though. Ever. I remember struggling in PE to run a mile or whatever distance that was that they made you do. Actually, I remember being miserable, so I stayed far away from running. But I did other things and I felt like I was in good shape.

When I got pregnant with Michael, I had a little trouble at first, so the doctor advised me not to exercise, so I stopped. And I never started back. 6 1/2 years went by. Chris ran another marathon and one of my old friends, Jen Conley, moved into town. We picked up right where we left off, comfortable in our friendship because we had been neighbors 10 years earlier in Wichita. And one day when we were together she casually asked me if I was a runner. I laughed and gave her my standard answer and that was it. I didn't know it at the time, but "behind the scenes" things were a-happening. God was doing some magnificent orchestration, He had some plans for me that involved me doing the one thing I hated most. He has a sense of humor, doesn't He?

My husband was also doing some Jedi Mind Tricks on me while I was sleeping.



So, one random morning last May I woke up and thought I might like to become a runner. I am not making this up--it really happened exactly like that. I did not say one word to Chris. I needed to make sure that this was not some weird misunderstanding, some glitch in my brain. I gave it a few days. It didn't go away. When Chris was at work, I googled things about starting to run, couch to 5K, etc. I printed out a plan. On day 2, I was going to have to run for 90 seconds straight--I was nervous. Really, I was. Nervous about running and nervous about telling him. I'm not sure why because he is very supportive of all the other crazy things I come up with, but anyway. When he got home from work I told him I wanted to become a runner. He was surprised, but tried to not act surprised. You'll have to ask him what he really thought, but I think he was excited. It's hard to tell, he's got that Lanier "show no emotion" gene. His first suggestion was the greatest a girl could ask for, though:

He said, "Well, you need to go shopping and buy yourself a pair of good running shoes. Go ahead, I'll stay here with the boys."

to be continued.......

(sorry, folks, I know you are hanging on my every word, but I'm starving and this is going to be a book)

P.S. I'm going to put some pictures in these upcoming posts of me and my peeps during our 1/2 marathon. I don't presume that anyone out there cares to read about me and my running, so please know that I'm writing this really for my own memory. My journey to becoming a runner was a gift that God gave me and I want to be able to look back and see all that He did!