911 and some other stuff...

The weirdest and scariest thing happened the other night. It was actually the second occurance, but the weirdest. It was Wednesday morning at 3:57am and we woke up to the doorbell ringing. Frank got up and looked out the bedroom window, only to see the police looking in the window back at him. They saw him and said, "Police." We were like, "uuhhh..." He went to the door while I trailed behind, a little shaken up. When he opened the door the police said, "is everything ok here? Someone from your house just called 911." Of course we hadn't, we were dead asleep. This was the sceond time this weird event happened and when we called the non-emergency line to ask, sure enough they had our house logged as calling! Turns out, something was wrong with our phone line that caused it to randomly call 911 and hang up! When comcast came out to fix it, they had to call a few different techs because this was something not even the supervisor has ever heard of. strrraaaange.

Next...
I went to my training this morning with so much anxiety. I am still dealing with calf muscles that won't give and the thought of the pain I would be in AGAIN just got me in a heap. I know the worry was taking over because I was sick to my stomach and was trying to think of every reason to not go. About 5 minutes into my run, everything began to ache and I wasn't even on the trail yet. I had 8 miles in front of me and all I could feel was the pain. I kept going slowly so I could at least make it on the trail and I could stop and stretch. Everyone passed me up and I was all alone, standing in the cold in so much pain I could hardly walk. All I could do was tear up and ask God to help me. I stretched some more and started walking again. So many thoughts were swirling and at one moment I almost turned around and went back to quit the entire thing. If I can't do this, I certainly can't do an entire marathon, was the only conclusion I could come to. But I didn't. I wiped my eyes and started running; I just couldn't give up yet. At the end of 2 miles, waaayy behind everyone else, my coach met me with some encouraging words and a new strecthing suggestion. It was a miracle! From that point on the pain was literally gone and I cruised through the remaining 6 miles. Sure it was still hard but I had no leg pain! I found me pushing myself beyond what I have ever done and actually ran alot more than walk. I ran the last 2 miles straight without walking at all! That might not seem like a big deal to alot of people, but for me that is HUGE! 2 miles is a long way! I made it back with energy to spare and actually beat my time from last week by 10 minutes! I ran 8 miles in 1 hr and 50 min. Now I feel so encouraged and know that I can do it again, even adding a few more miles.

Next....
Frank is working a graveyard shift tonight so I am awake watching Hallmark movies because I can't sleep. I love Hallmark movies. I'm so proud of my husband and his hard work. Don't ask me how, but over the last two weeks he worked 157 hours. And that's not counting the 40 hours at his part-time job. And even though he worked that much, I feel like I've seen him more these past few weeks than I have in a while! Go figure. I don't know how that worked out. He is such a hard-worker and I am so blessed.

Next....
Halfway through this semester already! My grades are good and I've already clocked 30 hours of kindergarten volunteer time. Humanities is great right now as we are talking about Christianity. My instructor must know I am a Christian because she always looks at me when she asks for feedback and explanations and I am happy to give them! It's so great! My group is doing a presentation on Jeremiah next week and it's cool to be the one in the group to help explain everything and head it up.

hmmm... I guess that's all for now!
Ta Ta!

My personal Jillian

I trained with Jillian Michaels on Wednesday night. No joke. My coach is usually so layed back and encouraging, just as nice as can be, but I don't know what came over her Wednesday. We were running fartlicks (easy, hard, easy hard running rotations... crazy word) at the Tokay track in the dark, but first we ran up and down the bleachers a zillion times. So I'm running, just dying. Like usual, I take a walking break becuase, well, I have to! After working with another gal she runs up to me and starts helping me adjust my position, my breathing and so on, then suggests that I go back to running. I do and get so tired so quickly, I can usually last longer but I only had about 3 hours of sleep the night before (another story) and was coming from a day in Kindergarten so I was exhausted. I started to slow and Jillian showed up. She would not let me stop and before I knew it I was running with my eyes closed feeling near death. I was literally thinking, "If I close my eyes it will all go away and I will come out of my body and wake up somewhere else." She was in my ear yelling, "No! You are not stopping! You don't need to walk! You can do this! Pain is good!" "But I have to stop, I can't move anymore!" "No, do not stop! You can't! Hate me if you have to but don't you dare stop running!" "I hate you! I do!" "I don't care, don't stop!" Before I knew it I had run twice around the track, no walking. It was fabulously horrible. But I was proud because I did it. I needed her yelling at me to push through the pain. When I had my eyes closed, I literally saw Jillian there screaming at me. It was wonderful. I can't wait until Saturday to run 8 more miles with her. yipee.

8 Miles!

Every stinkin' muscle and bone in my body is aching. It took me two hours this morning, but low and behold, I completed the 8 mile route for our training today! It was a doosey. The first 2 miles were horrendous with all the muscles trying to warm up. Miles 3-7 weren't that bad; 4 and 5 were kind of enjoyable actually. I had a good pace, the wind was blowing through my hair and I was smiling. Mile 8 however brought the feeling of death. I honestly didn't think I could make it as I had absolutely nothing left in me. Time to bring out the Goo from now on! When I got home, I ate some protein and collapsed. I took a cat nap...until 3:30! But that's ok, I needed the sleep. I'm excited because now that I have done the 8, I know I can do it again next week and be ready to jump to 12 miles the week after that!! Holy cow, did I say 12?

Visit my website!

My marathon training is moving right along! I had a setback while I was sick last week, but am getting right back in there. I will join my team for the 8 mile run/walk this Saturday morning!

I am also getting in full swing with my fundraising and hope to have my letters out by the end of this week, which will contain more details about the cause, the little boy that I am running in honor of, and an opportunity to send me a name that I can add to my honoree list. If you have family members or friends who would like to donate to this awesome cause, email me their address or pass along the below website. Every little bit counts and all donations are tax deductable.

I am really excited about this opportunity that I have and am just committing my fundraising goals to the Lord and will be doing everything I can to raise the funds to continue fighting these blood diseases. I will be posting the story of little Hayden soon!

Visit me here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sac/rnr09/lgarcia04q

cough cough cough

I just want to say that it was so good to be completely back in the real world today. Finally. After being layed up since last Wednesday night, I no longer sound like a hacking, 75 year old, wrinkled woman who has smoked since she was 10.

mmm... fresh air...

Have you ever had one of those days where you look back and go, "man, that was such a great day!" Yesterday was just one of those days for us. Even this morning, Frank and I were still talking about how nice of a day it was. Frank had worked 2 graveyard shifts in a row and has been exhausted from them. He left work early on Saturday night and got home around 3am, as he was so tired, he couldn't make it any longer. We were planning to get up and go to church, but needless to say, he was out cold. Around 11am he woke up and felt so much better, so we decided to take a walk. We went out to a levy around one of the channels of the Delta and walked all the way around, about 6 miles total! It was so peaceful. It was cold, the wind was blowing, birds were flying, a few boats passed along the sparking water, the clouds were puffy... it was so refreshing. We just walked along talking and laughing for the hour and a half it took us. When we were done we went for a swim at the gym which topped it all off. It just became one of those days that meant alot to us and we can't wait to do it again.

Run, run as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!

Last night, I shocked my socks off! Not literally with electricity, but in that I ran/walked 4 miles at my team training!! 4 miles! Unheard of in my book. I think I'm likin' this whole running thing. Let's see if I still like it when I have another 4 miles in front of me on Saturday at 7am.