Hoopin'

So, I guess I lied.  I haven't recommitted to my yoga challenge.  I seem to have a mental block right now since I know I'm not going to hit my goal.  I'll start up again in June.  I think.

But this doesn't mean that all is lost from a fitness perspective.  My fitness hula hoop has been stashed right next to the yoga mat, and while I haven't grabbed the mat, I have grabbed the hula hoop.

The hoop that I have is 42" in diameter and weighs about 2 lbs.  I bought it from Canyon Hoops several years ago. I've been thinking of getting a 40" hoop which would probably be a better fit for me, but I'm going to see if I stick with it before I invest more $ in another hoop.  Interestingly, I discovered that this company recently merged with Body Hoops which has a studio in Santa Fe (about an hour away).

It turns out that there are a bunch of exercises you can do with a hula hoop, but I've stuck with basic waist hooping to get back into it.   It is a lot easier for me to do do counter clockwise hooping than clockwise hooping.  I've got a killer bruise on my right leg from trying to master the clockwise hoop motion. Ouch. But I think I have it sorted out now.

Have you ever done fitness hooping?

Friday Five

• FOOT:  I cancelled my podiatry appt and they were supposed to call to reschedule, but I haven't heard from them.  I think I'm just going to skip that.  Too much going on at once and that just doesn't seem important enough. My foot is healing. I've had two people comment that they noticed that I'm walking without limping. That's progress!!!!!  And it's mostly because it doesn't really hurt right now.  YAY!
• MOUTH:  I survived the bone graft procedure yesterday afternoon.  Whew!  So glad that's over.  It was a brilliant move to schedule this before a long weekend.  I can already tell that my recovery from this one will be much easier/faster than the last surgery.  I have been able to manage during the day today with ibuprofen vs. prescription pain meds (but I expect to need the heavy duty stuff for night again) and I'm much more functional today than I was the day after last time. I just need to give this time to heal...and then the final step...and this whole ordeal will be over in 6-8 weeks, I think.
• DEALING WITH CHANGE:  It strikes me that more has been changing in my life all at once than I'm able to comfortably process. My mom died in Jan. My running came to a sudden end a few weeks ago when I fractured and/or sprained my foot. My son graduated from college last weekend. And I've been told that my job is about to change significantly at work. It's all been out of my control and quite honestly that's not a situation that I like to be in. I told husband the other day that "I don't know what to do" because my leaning is to "do something" to try to regain a sense of normalcy. I've decided instead to try my best to be more of an objective observer and see what shakes out...
• PERSONAL YOGA CHALLENGE:  I was doing so well toward my goal for the month until we left for California. I got out of the habit and didn't pick it back up when we got home. I'm recommitting to this starting tomorrow, though!  
• NO RACES ON THE HORIZON:  I haven't had a single race this year and there is nothing for me on the horizon.  Wow.  That's different!  Another example of dealing with change.  Anyway, I think I'm okay with this right now. But I need to figure out how to stay fit and healthy. I think strength training will be making a return to my regular routine. Maybe swimming as well.  And when my foot gets better, I want to get back out on my bike.

Reflections after Berkeley Commencement Weekend

two wonderful young adults

Husband, Daughter, & I flew to California on Thursday for a long weekend celebration of Son's Berkeley Engineering Commencement.  We spent Thursday evening in Berkeley, Friday afternoon in San Francisco, Saturday afternoon doing a driving tour of the South Bay area, Sunday back in Berkeley for Engineering commencement ceremony, and then flew home Monday morning.

a rare mother son photo opportunity

I opted to leave the orthopedic shoe/boot at home, because I couldn't imagine doing as much walking as I knew was planned with it on.  That may or may not have been a wise decision.  I can say with certainty that we walked way more than my foot was happy with on Friday while we were in San Francisco.  But it was worth it to see the area of town where he hopes to live.  I was happy that we opted for a driving tour the next day though, my foot needed a rest.

he sees us! center with blue shirt

after the ceremony

Having a child graduate from college is a surreal experience. It's also clear how much has changed over these past four years.  He's grown more and more independent during each year of college. Four years ago he left home as an ambitious 18 year old to go to school out of state without really knowing what was in store for him.  Now he's a confident young adult with an impressive college degree, some internship experience under his belt, and a job on the horizon.  I'm mostly incredibly proud, but somehow, this also makes me sad.  As a parent, it seems that in the blink of an eye everything changes.

attempt at family photo

He'll be coming home for a few weeks before leaving again to go live his life as an independent man.  He has some travel planned this summer, including a trip to Europe. Then he's off to join the ranks of corporate America with a full time job in silicon valley.

one more shot of the recent grad

It's worth mentioning that Daughter isn't far behind him.  She's been taking classes during summer semester and is on target to graduate at the end of next summer, just over 3 years in.  She hopes to continue on for a masters degree after that.

I'm extremely proud of her as well, and am having a hard time getting my head around the idea that by the end of next summer, it is likely that they will BOTH be college graduates.  How did this happen?  Where does the time go?

So I guess Husband & I will continue the mental transition to empty nest. My immediate focus is on getting my foot healed (right or wrong, i cancelled my podiatry appt), and getting through this next oral surgery (Thursday, yikes!). I'm still debating whether or not to take a class this summer or wait until fall. Life goes on even as it changes...

Foot and Mouth

So actually, these are two separate issues and I didn't actually stick my foot in my mouth even figuratively, although I do find this image amusing.

Foot:  Still sore.  I was told to go back in if it was still sore after a week. It is and I did.  Apparently has developed "quite a hematoma," or so says the urgent care doc who saw me today.  Did not get another x-ray. He said that if the x-ray shows a micro-fracture, it means 3 more weeks in the shoe/boot.  If it doesn't, just wear the shoe until it stops hurting, which still is likely to be 3 more weeks.  He didn't think it was all that critical to know if it was a fracture or not since the treatment is essentially the same.  He did, however, suggest that I see a podiatrist mostly because I'm a runner and he thinks custom orthotics might be necessary in the long term. So I left with a referral to podiatry and the shoe/boot still on my foot.

Scheduling with podiatry ended up being way more difficult than it should have been. For whatever reason, they have zero flexibility if you say that you can only come in during the afternoon.  It's first thing in the morning on the next available day, or they look at some other day. What.the.heck?!?!.  So, I have an appt for first thing in the morning on Tuesday the 20th, because that was the first morning that was both open and worked for me.  I guess it's a good thing it's not urgent since he was only sending me for a long term solution (orthotic) vs. healing/treatment of whatever is going on right now.  Good golly.

Mouth:  So as it turns out I will in fact be having another round of oral surgery. This time a bone graft to try to rebuild a small section in my jawbone. It's scheduled for the 22nd (just two days after the podiatry appt.  lucky me). I'm none too pleased about the prospects of another surgery, but after having two separate consultation appts, I do think it's the right thing to do in the long run, so surgery it is. If I have this all figured out correctly, I have a total of 5 more appointments until this whole ordeal is fully behind me. That's assuming everything goes as planned with this next surgery and the pontic adjustment afterwards.  I am *really* hoping that this one goes better than the last, there are no complications, and recovery goes smoothly.  I'm ready for this to all be over!!

Enjoying What I Can

The swelling in my foot is down, but it still hurts. I suspect that I'll be heading off for another x-ray on Friday.  Running is off the table at least until whatever is going on in my foot is resolved.

I don't want to be wallowing in self-pity over what I can't accomplish right now, so I'm choosing to focus on what I can do.  Here are some of the things that come to mind that I can still do with this foot problem that make me happy:

Gardening:  Over the past few days, I've put in most of the plants for my garden.  I also tried planing asparagus several weeks ago, but I may have messed that up because of my need to recover from oral surgery.  If the asparagus doesn't come up in a few more weeks, I may dig that out and try again.  I also still need to put in seeds for soybeans (something new to try) and green beans.  Otherwise, my garden is mostly in and ready for tending.  I bought a new set of windchimes and had Husband put them up in the shade structure near the garden.  I love being out in the garden and hearing the chimes.  The veggie garden is definitely one of my happy places.

Yoga:  I did well with my yoga goals last month.  While I wouldn't say that I'm crazy about yoga, I am noticing that my flexibility is improving and I generally feel calmer after doing it than before.  So I want to increase my yoga practice by roughly one day per week.  My goal last month was 15 times in the month, so this brings it up to 19 times.  That's about 4.5 times per week.  It's a strange number, but it means doing it roughly every other day with one set of 3 days in a row each week or twice one day per week.  Something like that. Very doable and something that I think will make me happy if I achieve it.

Regular Dog Walking:  I had been in the habit of walking my dogs almost every day.  This fell to the wayside with the oral surgery recovery and then the problem with my foot.  I intend to get back to this because it's good for me, it's good for the dogs, and it's good for my relationship with the dogs. As the weather gets warmer, it's important to make sure I walk them in the morning so they don't burn their paws.  I'm going to need to figure out how to balance this with my yoga practice, but regular dog walking needs to become a mainstay in my daily routine again.  I just need to be careful not to walk too far, and make sure my foot isn't feeling worse as a result of the walks.  The good things about dogs is that while they love long walks, they are also happy with just about any distance and any time of day.  Every walk to them is a great walk.  I am going to try to adopt that same mindset.

April in Review & May Look-ahead

Numbers

• 15 yoga sessions
• 29.9 miles running
• 14.3 miles fitness running
• 5 full days recovery from oral surgery before easing back into life
• 3 Isotopes games (woohoo!!)

Thoughts

• Beyond the numbers or anything shared on the blog, April was a rough month and I'm glad to have it behind me.
• I did, however, achieve my goal of yoga every-other-day on average.  Yay.

Plans

• Finish spring semester graduate class
• Register for summer session graduate class
• Travel to see Son graduate from UC Berkeley in middle of month!
• I am registered for Sunday's half marathon at run for the zoo.  I've known since my knee started bothering me again, that the half marathon wasn't going to happen.  Was planning to switch to the 5K. However, that's clearly not going to happen (see below)  

Latest Injury

• Was out for a planned 6 mile run and started experiencing pain in my right foot. Ended up walking after 3.5 miles.  Took off my shoe and noticed significant swelling.  Iced it.  Still wasn't feeling better in the afternoon, so went to urgent care.  Doc suspects a fracture in the 5th metatarsal, even though it isn't showing in the x-ray.  If still hurting in a week, I'm supposed to get a new x-ray (week old fracture of this nature likely to show up better).  Otherwise, maybe it's just a sprain. In any event, running off the table entirely for now. *Sigh*