Alter-G and PRS

While a good deal of you were shopping the morning away, I was doing something I have not done in a VERY long time, running nearly 6 miles. Now let me be perfectly clear a few things: One, I love to run. Two, I hate treadmills. I hate, hate, hate treadmills. That is, until I met Alter-G. When it comes to running, I am not a complete novice, but as of late, my mileage has been rather limited. Not so long ago I was in fantastic shape, completing back to back marathons (5 weeks apart). But burn out, stress, change in running partners and the dreaded busyness became just a few of the excuses I used to resume a life of stagnation. 30 pounds and three years later, I was miserable and could barely do two miles. What happened to the former me? I can’t blame it on kids, because my youngest was born a year before I completed my marathons! Those great jeans are still hanging in my closet-the ones I can barely pull past my thighs-but why wasn’t that enough motivation? I even have my marathon medals hanging for me to look at every day, but that only made me more depressed! So this fall I began running two days a week with my teenage daughter. But she plays competitive soccer and when she began practicing 5 days a week, we had to reduce our run time together, and still she began to outpace me. What was I to do? I knew that in order to pick up my pace, I had to lose weight, and that wasn’t going to happen running two miles, two days a week.

This is where Paul McCrae and Personal Running Solutions thankfully came into the picture. A dear friend of mine has been running with Paul and PRS for a while now. She has had incredible times as a result of Paul’s training, but with my limited capabilities I was well…terrified. That was, until I learned of Alter G. I really had not done much research on this treadmill, but with a number of other mutual friends using it, I thought I would give it a try. Especially since PRS was giving a free trial, I figured what could I lose? Paul asked if I wanted to sign up for a 45 or 60 minute session, to which I thought, “Yeah right…I haven’t run in 3 weeks and prior to that my longest time was what, 30 minutes?” Whatever, I’ll sign up for 45 and plug my way through it. See I have a treadmill. And I know that the time I can tolerate on a treadmill is far less than on the road. I am totally uncoordinated and spend half of the time trying to keep my feet from hitting the side of the treadmill! Plus, I am completely claustrophobic-I figured there was no way I could possibly have this thing wrapped around my waist while I run for much longer than 10 minutes. But boy was I wrong. Not only did I keep my usual pace for the entire 45 minutes, but I felt GREAT! I was able to reduce the amount of g’s that were placed on my lower body, and in doing so, was able to run much further than I thought possible! Plus, it was far less constricting and awkward than I could have possibly imagined. And that is by no means all! Two weeks later I have increased my pace by nearly 3 ½ minutes per mile. No, this is not an exaggeration. First run two weeks ago I was running 12 minute miles. Today, a good deal of my 45 minute run was at an 8.38 minute mile! AND, I can’t wait to get back on it again!
Alter-G is not just for runners trying to get back into shape, or even for basic training. It also designed specifically for injured runners who do not want to lose precious training time or who would like to run while recovering. Check out the Alter-G website to learn more specifics, but if you are in the Jax/St. Augustine area, I DEFINITELY suggest you contact Paul via e-mail at paul@personalrunningsolutions.com to set up a trial run. It very well could change your life. (Obviously, if you have an injury, contact your physician first and disclose all information to Paul before you begin!)

Thanksgiving...

I have spent the past few weeks seeing so many posts about gratitude and Thankfulness I almost forgot to mention mine. And on the eve of Thanksgiving, a (thankfully) rare meltown has given me a cruel reminder of just how thankful I am. Now my youngest child is extraordinarily intelligent. Not the “My Child Is An Honor Roll Student at …” intelligent, but a lesser version of “A Beautiful Mind” with better social skills kind of intelligent. But you wouldn’t have known it a year ago. See, around this time last year, we were dealing with daily meltdowns. In fact, more realistically: hourly meltdowns. And silly me, I initially fought tooth and nail against the diagnosis that ended up saving me from my hellish existence. I could try and describe to you my daily tears and hopelessness, feelings of absolute failure and resentment as a parent, the guttural nausea and ache of the heart that never goes away, but unless you have a child with Aspergers or any other behavioral disorder, you don’t get it. You will probably never get it. In fact, I HOPE you never understand it.
In addition to fighting the diagnosis (my child is perfectly fine right!?!) I likewise fought against medication. I too have heard the stories: “Overdiagnosis and medication of children,” “Parents Using Medication in Lieu of Parenting,” or perhaps “Children with Behavioral Disorders? It’s all in their Food Dummy.” I knew that I would be an even worse parent if I used medication to help me handle my out of control child. But that was until I saw the results. Do I think there is sometimes an overdiagnosis or overmedication of children? Absolutely, but until you walk in my shoes, reserve your judgment on my choices.
You have probably seen mom’s like me in the grocery store, or perhaps in the pool, and wondered why they couldn’t control an unruly child. You might even have been tempted to offer them suggestions of a change in diet, elimination of food dyes or even that they need to get more exercise. I can promise you one thing. That mom has likely tried everything. And the reason she looks so out of touch with reality, is because she likely is. She probably spends day in and day out trying to maintain her sanity and literally not pack her car and drive as far away as she can. Knowing full well it is something she could never do. We are fully aware that you think we are a horrible parent, but guess what. Unless you have had a child with a disorder like this, or are well read and trained in our particular disorder, we really don’t care what you think.
So today, upon the resurgence of those feelings of self loathing and inadequacy, I find myself surprisingly thankful. Thankful that this is no longer my daily existence and something I only deal with when there are significant changes to schedule or added chaos. I love my children more than life itself, but being able to understand them, and help them exist as well, makes me more thankful than you can possibly imagine.

A childs perspective...

So I kind of hemmed and hawed about writing on this topic. That is, until on our drive home tonight, my 13 year old brought up exactly what I had been thinking. And I promise, I won't always be so serious:) I was flipping through the channels on the radio (I have little patience for overplayed songs or commercials) when I came across one of our two local stations who have been playing 24 hour Christmas music since the first of November. I know all over facebook and twitter, people have been complaining for nearly a month about the Christmas items in the stores and the Christmas music before Thanksgiving, so I didn't want to add to the yapping. That is when a little thing happened to me, that tends to occur frequently-a little light bulb went off. I was walking through Walgreens yesterday, when I peeked down the Christmas aisle. A wave of peppermint washed over me, and, crazy as it may sound, the smell of tinsel. My heart instantly softened and my breathing slowed. Now I know it may sound nuts-I mean really, I am logical. I know the stores are hoping to use this need for Christmas in order to boost their sales and get us to increase our spending. But I realized something more. And this was echoed tonight in my daughters response to my changing of the station. She said, "Mommy, maybe people just need the hope of Christmas a little more and that is why they start everything earlier and earlier." She couldn't be more right. In an age where children are prey and few stand up for them-around the world and as evidenced so brutally this week in our own backyard-I think we are desperate spiritually for a simpler time. A time of hope. A time of peace. A time where our biggest concern was whether we were naughty or nice and if we got the part of the "good" shepherd in the church Christmas play. The internet has brought about many amazing things as well as shrunken our world. And with that has also come the realization that those Christmas dreams don't exist for every child. So maybe instead of a reminder of us to buy buy buy for those closest to us. Maybe my child is right-we look at it as an early reminder. A timely reminder that allows us time to make sure we seek out those in our community who need a little hope. A little peace. And a little love. Because while we first need to be Thankful for what we do have, we also need to take some time to prepare and help those who don't.

And it begins...again:)

After nearly three years of guest blogging all over the place, I have decided to make it official and begin my own blog. I suppose I will be talking to myself for some time, but that's alright-I am pretty sure the family tunes me out a good bit of time anyhow:) Nothing formal here, just random thoughts and ramblings.