What Happens When You're Not Paying Attention?

First off, if you're really not paying attention, more than a year goes by without translating all those stories floating around in your brain into your blog. Holy macaroni! I haven't posted here since June 2024! 

A few major events have come and gone since then:

* I started running again on July 11, 2024, three months post-new-hip! Very short easy runs but runs nonetheless, trying very hard to stay on soft surfaces. Photos from my very first run (which happened to take place in Petoskey):

Running shoe on!

 

Wild life company along the trail

 

Taz came with, of course! (Bear River trail)

The official (allowable) time:
20 minutes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Our house remodel progressed nicely through the summer: one chunk while we were in Michigan early summer, another chunk while we were back in Boulder to take care of clearing out all of the main living area and handle some odds and ends, and the final chunk while we were back in Michigan late summer/early fall. 

Our kitchen after emptying out the living and dining rooms
(Kendall and sis-in-law Kitty on the couch, 
family & friends who helped with all the moving in the background)

* It turns out that when you're gallivanting around northern Michigan and not paying attention, your house can be transformed! This is the sight that greeted us when we pulled up to our Boulder home after three days on the road from Michigan after our summer/fall trip. A cement truck in the driveway alongside a portapot! 

* The remodel was/is fabulous and just in time! It also turns out when you're not paying attention your husband's knee may go kerflooey and, thus, require a replacement. No problem! We now have single floor living! (The remodel was to take out the garage and replace it with a bedroom, bathroom, and laundry room, accessed via a doorway punched into the dining room wall.) The knee replacement was successful and Kendall is cruising again!

Kendall cruising through our new bedroom
on his new knee! November, 2024

* As parents well know, when you're not paying attention your children grow up! We were treated with a visit from all of the VaughanMillers with the new year. Woohoo! 

Jen, Paul, Paula, Sasha, & Kendall.  January, 2025

 * Of course children can surprise you when you're not paying attention - and announce that they're getting married! Sasha and Tabytha had a beautiful outdoor courthouse ceremony in Oregon that I was honored (and delighted!) to attend.  

Sasha, Tabytha, and fabulous judge. March 10, 2025

*  What else happens when you're not paying attention? Well, you could take a step back forgetting that you're on a set of stairs and fall backwards landing on a concrete patio with your wrist taking 100% of the fall. The wrist sacrificed mightily (3 fractures and dislocated in two directions) but saved my head, new hip, back, neck - you name it. That wrist is my hero! Unfortunately, it happened one week into my 10-week Bolder Boulder training plan and was going to mandate another long lay-off from running and exercise in general.

Me leaving the hospital March 30, 2025

And the big deal what happens when you're not paying attention: you get waaaayyyy out of shape! Pounds pile on, muscles go flabby, cardiovascular system shrinks, and gumption gets downright lazy. When I was finally able to run again, I could not believe how uncoordinated and unfit I felt. I suppose I earned it having run for nigh onto a year gimping along with a bad hip, then not able to run for ages with my new hip, then a slow comeback through the winter, and then there was the wrist fiasco. Ah well. As I packed for summer in Michigan and discovered  that none - as in Zero - of my pants and shorts fit unless they had very flexible all-elastic waists, I declared a war on this fitness crisis. After arriving in Petoskey, 8 weeks after breaking my wrist, I was able to resume Real Running (vs. the "light jogging" that was permitted at 4 weeks). That was also when I set a goal of running + walking 10 miles per day - quite achievable in Petoskey since we walk just about everywhere there and every evening without fail we do a sunset walk. Even if we drive somewhere out of town, it was easy enough to have Kendall drop me off a few miles from home where I could pick up a bike path or trail from just about any direction heading back toward home. Combine all of that walking with a daily run, and the mileage adds right up!  

Taz on a sunset walk, Petoskey, Michigan

We've been back in Boulder now for a little over three weeks and I am nine weeks into the 10 miles per day walking + running goal. Since returning to Boulder I have picked up the intensity of my running (yay running buddies!). However, the heat has affected the length of our walks, especially with Taz, so I have  boosted up my running getting a bit more creative - inventing errands, running to and fro appointments (of which we have many since we schedule them all for between our summer and autumn Michigan trips), investigating neighborhoods for landscaping ideas (we need to rehab out post-construction yard), and all that in addition to my planned running workouts.  And that is how I ended up last night with my brain saying "this is what happens when you're not paying attention!" I totaled my running mileage for the week and came up with 54 (5!4!) miles of running! I haven't run 50+ miles in a week since the summer of 2022! In fact, I have only infrequently run in the 40s. The 30s seem to be my magic number this year. No wonder my legs were squawking! But my head and heart sure are happy! Note: I will be more sensible (i.e., I will pay attention to my mileage) - but it sure is good to know that I've still got it in me!