Editions of Me

I know Thanksgiving isn't until Thursday, but I won't have time on the actual day (because family!), so I'm writing this up now :) Between this Thanksgiving and the last, it's been a big year full of changes not just for me but for my loved ones as well: - I went from running my best marathon ever, to not being able to run at all. - But then I competed in my first powerlifting meet this year, discovering strength that I never would've thought I had. - My best friend got married, and I was lucky enough to be by her side for the big day. - My brother-in-law and his wife had a baby, so I became an auntie. - Jolie started kindergarten. She's just... growing so much, all the time. She's like an actual PERSON now. - I finally made the decision to move to Portland, after many years of hemming and hawing about it. - I am more than likely not going to return to teaching as well. ... and many other things, some of which are not mine to tell. SO much h

These last couple of days have been rough. I'm not sore, so much as exhausted  - I think I can say, more than ever, that I fully understand Mrs. Bennet of Pride and Prejudice  when she keeps going on and on about HER POOR NERVES, because the combination of all the stress, the heavy lifting, the long day, being around LOTS of people (I'm a total introvert in the sense that I get drained really easily around people and I always need lots of alone time to recharge), and the late drive home on Sunday night... well, you get the picture. I barely made it through the school day Monday, and decided that I really needed the day off yesterday because I needed to recover - not my muscles, but my entire nervous system. I went to the gym last night intending to stretch, foam-roll, do my usual knee rehab routine, and maybe do some light lifting, which we call de-loading........ "WHAT? No way. You're squatting heavy today," says Steve, incredulous that I would dare suggest s

Yesterday, I participated in my first-ever weightlifting competition. I didn't do the full powerlifting meet (squat, bench, deadlift), but I did the deadlift-only event, just to get my feet wet. I've observed a powerlifting meet before, but of course, watching is not the same as doing . I decided to sign up for my favorite/best lift and see how things go from there. How did things go? Gosh, I don't even know where to start. Maybe we'll back up a little bit: last week, the week before my competition, was a pretty lousy week: The cold/sore throat that had been developing finally decided to hit, and I wasn't able to go to the gym at all for pretty much the whole week. (I finally made it in Saturday morning  for some light stretching and knee rehab.) Progress report grades were due. 'Nuff said there. This is totally MY fault, but I didn't even think to look at the Norcal Powerlifting rule book until Gabe, my fellow Anchored member who was also competi

FINALLY. It feels like a million years since the last time I posted a race recap. I wasn't even sure that I was still going to do this one (because of my knee), but I realized that this might be my last chance to do this race (at least for a while), and also, Jolie really wanted to do this run with me. She's never run a 5k before, and she has also never been to San Francisco or seen the Golden Gate Bridge, so I decided just to throw caution to the wind and show up with the intent to walk. Okay, I didn't TOTALLY throw caution to the wind - I dug out my hefty knee brace that I used to wear as a gasket under my knee pads for derby, think that extra stabilization would help, right? Mind you, I haven't done any walking or running for a while, and the last time I attempted it, 10 minutes of treadmill walking made my knee ache for the rest of the day. Even walking from my car to my classroom every day results in me limping a little, and especially this past week, my knee