October 04, 2012

A walk in the woods

I'm happy to say that the situation with the neighbor yesterday is resolved, and I feel much better about it. His mom was very upset that he used the gun irresponsibly, and she took it away from him. And the boy felt terrible about what happened with the squirrel. He said he thought he was doing the right thing--he felt sorry for it because its legs were broken, so he thought it would be best to put it down (with his BB gun). When that didn't work, he pretty much panicked and felt like the situation was even worse, so he did what he could to kill the squirrel quickly.

His mom agreed that he didn't handle it well, and she explained to him what he should have done (told a grown-up about the squirrel). We let her know that we don't let our boys use guns (even BB guns) without an adult (and that's when she said she had taken his gun away when he told her about the squirrel yesterday). So I feel good about it now.


Boy, did I ever have a lazy morning. After I got the kids off to school, I was folding laundry in front of the TV. I put on an episode of Nip/Tuck, and got sucked into that. Two episodes later, I made myself get up and do some housework.

It's a gorgeous day outside! I wanted to enjoy the weather, so I decided to go for a walk. It's rare for me to take a walk "just because", but it was really nice to not worry about mileage or how many calories I was burning, or anything like that. I did bring my Garmin because I was curious how far the path was, but that was the only reason.

Remember how I discovered that amazing path through the woods a couple summers ago? We'd lived here for about eight years, and I never knew it existed right in front of my house. Anyway, I decided to walk that today. I was a little nervous to go through the woods by myself, so I grabbed my pepper spray.

I was so surprised as I got to the point where the path starts. The woods are practically gone! It's state-owned land, and I knew they were going to be making some changes to it, but it looked like a completely different path. Here is a picture from before (summer 2011):

 And here are some pictures from today:

It may not look very appealing now, but apparently they are supposedly killing and removing all the phragmites (those tall brown grass-like things you can see in the second pic from today), and then flooding the entire thing to be a sort of man-made lake. So I'm hoping it will be gorgeous in a couple of years.

It was still a nice, very quiet walk. Round trip from my house, it was a little under 1.5 miles. That's the perfect distance to get a little fresh air and not feel so lazy ;)


My Ragnar Relay team has some big news--good and bad. The bad news is that Mary is no longer going to be running on our team. If you're a follower of her blog, then you already know her big news--Mary is pregnant (the good news)!! It was obviously unexpected, but definitely exciting. I'm so sad that she won't be running with us, but we still consider her part of our team.

However, we do need someone to run in her place, so Carly has joined our team! You may remember her from the very inspiring guest post she wrote for my blog. She began running at 350 pounds (which was no easy task) and has since lost over 100 pounds and run a half-marathon! She is very excited about joining our team, and we are all happy to have her. She will now be Runner #11 and Ada will be Runner #4.


Tomorrow is my long run. On the schedule is 17 miles, but I know it's not necessary to do that many while tapering. Depending on how my knee is feeling, I might just do 12. I still haven't gotten a patella strap, so I had to order it on Amazon instead of driving through all the construction again to get to the running store. I'd like to have enough time to try it out before the marathon, though. Hopefully it will arrive soon!

14 comments:

  1. I follow Mary's blog and I was so excited to read the news last week. I'm looking forward to readin about her new journey. I'm also excited for Carly's opportunity to join your team. Both girls are very inspiring!

    Glad to hear the neighbor isn't as bad as he sounds ;)

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  2. Im glad the matter is solved & that your neighbor(Mom) understood.
    I have come across parents no matter what they just don't want to heat anything against their kids even if they are wrong.

    Congrats to Mary, I wish her all the best:).
    Carly is so inspiring...Some day I want too be isnpiring to others too.
    Xo

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  3. I'm not sure a patella strap would help you. I'm pretty sure I remember you saying the sports dr said it was IT Band correct? If so, the strap won't help…well maybe only mentally ;) Keep up the cross training and foam rolling. That's the best for the IT Band! Hope that helps :) love your blog!

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    Replies
    1. I should have specified that the knee strap is to help support the patellar tendon (connects to the knee cap), so that's why it wouldn't really help if it's your IT Band

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    2. My doc diagnosed me with both IT band and patellofemoral pain syndrome. The strap that I got actually has two straps--one above the patella and one below. So it should help with both issues. Crossing my fingers :)

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    3. hope it helps!! :)

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  4. Wow, I can't believe the difference in the path and I'm glad you took some pepper spray with you. I would've done the same thing...especially after watching so many episodes of Criminal Minds during the week. (11)

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  5. If you want to save money and arent sure if the patella strap is what you need, just buy a roll of pre wrap... The stuff the kids all use to keep their hair back for sports. Lol. You wrap it around your knee a few times then roll it down and make sure its positioned between the knee cap and the little bump at the top of your tibia. If that works you can spend more money on the real thing. Good luck ! Oh and if it's the it band, you can just position it over your knee cap. It still helps relief some of the pressure at the insertion point.

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  6. That whole squirrel situation, I'm glad you got it resolved, but it still bothers me just reading about it.

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  7. I had to do a double take when I saw the title of your post - I thought "what is my blog doing in my reading pane?!" Ha! Glad you got the squirrel thing sorted - that sounded horrible! I hope the strap helps your knee. Just a thought, but do you have any trails nearby where you could run? I was just thinking it might help altering running surfaces (you know I'm a newbie, but it was just a thought).

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  8. My long run tomorrow is 17 miles too!

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  9. Good luck on your run! I hope your patella strap helps!

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  10. I commented on the previous post before I read the update here about the squirrel thing. SO glad you handled it the way you did. :D

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