Since the marathon...

What have I been doing since the marathon? The answer is... not much... well, at least physically... My very wise sister forewarned me about the post race crash... something that apparently runners experience... having trained and worked so hard for a goal, then achieved that goal... then what?? I was convinced I would not be one of those post race crashing types... but apparently I am. I was sooo excited to do the marathon, to finish it, and to finish it at a pace faster than I thought was possible... I got all kinds of praise from people at work, from friends, and have even had some strangers tell me they saw me walking the half and were impressed... So... after the half marathon (Oct 4)... that following Tuesday I went to the gym and did a light workout... then Weds. I made it to the pool to tread water for 45 minutes... but then I had a long weekend and other than a light walk in the woods with my family on Saturday 10/10, I did nothing... until Weds. 10/14, when I returned to the gym and did the elliptical machine... Then Thursday I was determined to go to the gym for Zumba that I got a little overzealous... I got to the gym at 5:20, figuring I would walk a little on the treadmill before the 6:00 class... well... the funny part of this story, is that the class didn't start until 7:00... so I worked out from 5:20 until about 6:50, then did Zumba from 7 to 8... I was quite tired by the time Zumba began... Then I didn't do anything Friday or Saturday, but did make it to ZUmba this morning... And... to add some excitement to Zumba... I brought a new accessory. My friend Debbie had a birthday yesterday... and I bought her a bday present, and decided to get one for myself too... hip scarves, that have jingly coins like belly dancer scarves... it was fun and does make me what to put my hips into it a little bit more!

My knee has been a little tempermental since finishing the half marathon, nothing major, but a little twinge here and there. And, it does make me nervous... but... in my head I am attributing it to the fact that I have done little strength training or the physical therapy exercises for my knee that I had been doing a lot... so this week I am going to focus on those exercises and see how it goes before starting to panic.

In addition to having some lull in my physical workouts, I had not been eating well... and had not been on the scale in about 3 or 4 weeks... so today, at the gym, I braced myself and got on the scale... and it was good news... good enough to make me wonder if the scale is properly calibrated... so I will follow up with another scale... before being too happy... but it does add some motivation.

The rest of life has been pretty hectic... work... I have had numerous meetings that involve extensive amounts of paperwork... so... I have felt a bit overwhelmed.

On another note, here are some random thoughts...
I think my mom has started appearing in my dreams... well.. not appearing... because I don't remember seeing her in my dreams, but I remember things she said or maybe thought in the dreams... of which there have only been a couple I think... I saw a commercial on tv that reminded me of one of my dreams... silly really... where I was talking about getting a new cell phone because my battery was dying in my phone (which has actually been going on).. so I saw the commercial on tv where the creepy robot talks about being able to replace dead batteries with fully charged ones... and I remembered my mom telling me to just get a new battery like the commercials say... and I remember telling her that my carrier was not the one for which the advertisement applied...but... I was confused after remembering that because those commercials are pretty recent... so.. it must have been dream... then... another dream... this one I do remember... took place in my parents house, not the one that they owned for the last 2o years or so, but the house we had when I was a little girl. In my dream... I remember being at the campground with my family... not sure who was there for sure, but do specifically remember seeing my dad, my sister and her family, and me, in the dream...I do not remember seeing my mother.... and for some reason I sensed that my parents and I went to their house, our house, to get something, and while we were there, I remember being in the dining room, dad and I sitting at the table and my mom directing my and my dad's attention to the sky to see the beautiful sunset...and somehow watched as the colors changed as the clouds went from puffy to soft horizontal lines of brilliant reds and oranges... now... I don't remember my mom saying anything in my dream, or hearing a voice, but I just somehow knew she was there... and showing us the sunset...

Sounds simple enough... but, I do know there is significance with the sunset... after mom's first surgery, my sister and I left the hospital to head back to my house, and I was very emotional... and as we drove, and ate various pastries, the sunset was gorgeous... and it got to me because I remembered my mom sitting up at the campground (before ever being sick) as she watched the changing sunsets... and made a comment that if she had a job after she died, that she would want to paint the sunsets....

Crazy? Maybe... but it made sense to me somehow...

One other thing... sadly I learned this weekend that my high school principal, who was probably close to my mom's age, mid fifties, died last week from a heart attack. He and his wife had been living in Florida and their kids, who are probably in their mid to late 20s still reside in Maine... another sad loss... my thoughts are with his family...

SO... I'm not sure what it means... to have the feeling of my mom in my dreams... especially the cell phone battery thing... but, I look forward to her presence in my dreams...