My last post here was two years ago, right around the time I decided to start my freelancing business. That’s been going very well, but the running and blogging have clearly not.

The blogging gave way to work requirements. Most of the blogging I’ve been doing has been for clients – you can see some work samples here, if you’d like.

I’ve discovered something about myself as a freelancer/worker bee, which is that I have limited time to actually get any work done, and so I essentially decided that I wanted to get paid for any work that I do. Thus, this blog got de-prioritized.

As far as running goes, after giving myself a lovely case of posterior tibial tendinitis at the Rain Run a couple of years ago, I was never really able to get back to running like I was before the injury – and ultimately just gave up on it. Part of it was that I figured what it really needed was actual REST. Which turned into an excuse to not run at all, work out in a very limited way, and continue eating like it was going out of style.

You can imagine how well that has worked out for me.

Every so often I’d try to start running again, but as soon as I’d add any mileage the ankle would start cracking and popping again. That was my clue that there was still inflammation around the tendon. So I’d back off again.

Well, this last month I made a couple of decisions.

One is, I need to make my personal projects (like this blog and my business website) more of a priority. I like writing, and doing it for other people is a great way to get paid. But it might not be such a great way to build my business long term, or to get personal satisfaction out of my work. I mean, I DO get personal satisfaction, but I’d like to do work that is more reflective of my creative side and what’s inside me. If that makes sense.

So, I decided to revive this blog.

I also decided that I wanted to get back to running again. But this time, I’m going to take it slow, and bring the family along with me. So I’ve committed to doing some 5ks with the family, which means we’ll have to train. We just finished our first one on Saturday. Very proud of my kids for making it (even if there was some complaining from the 7 year old for a significant portion of the outbound leg of the race. Can’t blame him…it was pretty hilly on such short legs).

The kids have always loved to run and thought racing was pretty exciting. The husband tolerated it pretty well except for having to be up for a 7am start time. And I made it without any ankle problems. So all in all, it was a win.

This time, my  return to running is based on trying to share my love of running with the people that I love, not on trying to burn off the excess calories I may have consumed, or trying to continually race longer distances until I  break myself down again.

I’m back. Care to join me?

August went by in a blur. Between kids, camps, family vacations, surgeries and starting a business I basically have been running like a crazy person since the beginning of the month. I am looking forward to kids going back to school so I can figure out what all just happened.

Starting with kids – we have now reached the part of summer where I am glad they are going back to school but realize that there really is a reason they start selling all the back to school stuff in July. I’m not really prepared to send them, and time is running out to do anything about it. I guess I’ve reached the part of this parenting gig where I no longer feel much guilt about that.

I did do the whole back to school list for Oleg, because it’s kindergarten and that is a big deal. However, aside from buying a few outfits for Max, I am completely unprepared for him to go back. My lack of preparation is not helped by the fact that his school has not assigned teachers to the 2nd grade yet, therefore, no back to school list has been sent out. I bought some pencils and an eraser and that’s about it. I promised him a new backpack but don’t know when I’ll be able to get out and buy one.

School starts in 7 days and 2nd grade will just have to wait.

The main reason I am feeling pressed for time is that Max had a tonsillectomy yesterday, so I am housebound with him until he’s healed up, which should be right around the time school starts. He has been a good sport and super brave but shopping is not happening. The school will get their dry erase pens and baby wipes when I’m darn well good and ready to go buy them!

Because we’ve had better things to do around here than buy a bunch of school supplies that near as I can tell get stuffed into a giant drawer and never used anyway. We had fun vacations and camps to go to. Max got to go to beach camp on Jetty island in Everett where he spent the whole entire week becoming insanely tan, making new friends and learning all about the local seashore ecosystem. He had a great time.

I also decided that I would start freelancing when the kids went back to school in September, and decided to start laying groundwork to find writing jobs before the end of summer. I figured it would take time to find enough clients to really worry about, but what actually happened is that I ended up with a full book of business right out of the gate and so am getting a crash course in how to juggle competing priorities. And had to hire a babysitter.

Then we went on a roadtrip vacation to California. We drove to Portland, stayed overnight at the Benson Hotel, ate at the Original, breakfasted at Voodoo Donuts, and generally did our best to keep Portland weird for about 12 hours.

Then we drove to Sacramento via Crater Lake. After staying in Sacramento for a couple of days we roadtripped again to my aunt’s cute little beach house in Santa Cruz. We played on the beach, rode the rides at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and took the kids to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

I also accidentally ran 4 miles while we were in Santa Cruz. I didn’t get too sore after, which gives me hope that my ankle is finally on the mend. We’ll see how it goes.

Then we came home and Max got his tonsils out. And with that, summer is drawing to a close.

Howdy! I’ve been a busy bee, not much time to post up in here, so this is a quick update in bullet format.

1) I am out of my brace and have very slowly started running again. I’m taking it slow. For instance, today I ran a couple of miles, interspersed with some walking, just playing it by ear to see how things feel. So far, so good. I do find I get a bit stiff and clicky for a day or so after, so I am only running once every two days. It will be a while before I can add miles but I definitely feel improvements happening and that is good.

2) I decided I would go back to work in the fall, so I got my resume and LinkedIn profile all ready to start looking for work as a freelancer. I am returning to my first love, which is writing and marketing. Anyway, two days after updating my linked in I got a recruiting call, and a couple days after that landed my first freelance gig. It was small potatoes, but it felt good to be working again after so long – like hey, I can still do this.

3) Today, I landed a job rewriting all the marketing collateral, website and a white paper for a small consulting firm out of Los Angeles, and have another proposal going out to manage the social media presence of another company.

So that’s what is happening. I am suddenly busier than a one-armed paper hanger and feeling all sorts of work-related mom guilt, but on the other hand, I am happy to have the opportunity to use my brain for something other than armchair psychoanalysis of my kids.

I’m still in a holding pattern with the running. I’d like to get back to it but the way it’s looking, it will probably be a while until I can. I have an appointment with an orthopedist next week on the 17th when we will go over the MRI in detail and hopefully formulate some sort of plan as to how I can start running again.

Whatever the case, I would not expect to be able to do a lot of mileage between now and the end of 2014. It will take time for it to strengthen and recover. Even just walking around sometimes gets painful at the end of the day, and this has been going on for several months now, so I can’t imagine how it’s going to be able to stand up to any kind of distance running any time soon.

So I am adjusting my goals a bit. Since swimming seems to be going much more…ahem…swimmingly than I remember, I am thinking I will look into possibly doing some sprint triathlons this Fall.

I did a couple of sprint tris many years ago and the swimming is always what held me back from doing it again, because I hated it. I am not hating it anymore (though I’ve yet to test this lack of hatred in open water) so I think that is God’s way of telling me that maybe this is what I should focus on for now. I have to focus on something otherwise I will get bored, and possibly fall off the exercise wagon completely.

My thought process is that as long as the running is between 5 and 10k, I could probably do that with minimal run training. I can swim and bike as much as I like and it never seems to hurt, I just need to hold off on running or load bearing exercise until the tendonitis goes completely away. I think that was my mistake previously – I just waited until the pain was “manageable” rather than actually gone.

Races I might consider doing in the fall include:

Whidbey Island Triathlon – Aug. 16
This is a hilly course with the longest bike course and a longer (1/2 mile) swim. The only attraction is really the proximity and even that isn’t so attractive since it involves a ferry ride. But I would consider it if I could be running by that time.

Lake Sammamish Sprint – Aug. 23
This race has the shortest swim (1/4 mile) of any of the races I would consider, and the flattest overall course. Probably the one I am most interested in doing.

Lake Stevens – Sept. 6
This race offers an option of a sprint or Olympic distance triathlon. Probably would be looking at doing the sprint since I am not sure I’d be up for a 1 mile swim! Has a 1/4 mile swim and only a 10 mile bike, plus is very close to home.

Kirkland Triathlon – Sept. 21
This race has a sprint (1/2 mile swim, 13 mile bike, 3.1 run) and an “Aquabike” option,which is just the swim and the bike. Kind of a long swim and I know the bike would be hilly but a definite possibility.

I would probably only do one or two of these and the more likely scenario would be that it would be a later race since I can’t run at all right now. Because of the Aquabike option, the Kirkland option is probably the most likely since I could sign put to do the tri and switch categories if I had to.

But we’ll just have to see how things go.

Have you ever done a triathlon? Did you like it?

I used to hate foam rolling. See this post – https://eatandrunmom.com/2013/09/22/my-foam-rolling-injury/ – for an example of my foam roller skepticism. Now I am a believer. You have to stick with it for a while to get the benefits, and for some parts of the body you need something harder to really get in there and release the muscles. But yeah, nowadays I do “just roll with it!”

If there is no finish line, will they have cupcakes at the aid stations?