Couch to ATHLETE!

Last week, I talked about the fulfillment of the athlete; well, today I am going to talk about the delirious state of an athlete. I have been told by at least two people this week that I have been burning the candle at both ends for quite awhile now. My response? No kidding??? Thing is, I wouldn't change a bit about it! I love my bike riding time, I love my job and I love helping my friend. So, yesterday, we were heading south for a bike ride. We were doing a sixty, turned seventy mile ride. Again, we did extra miles for food. I mean, what else would motivate you in the middle of a tremendously long bike ride? Anyway, we have ridden over 750 miles this summer, and I can honestly say that I am somewhat delirious, this weekend especially. Not sure why, but it is what it is, and so I just need to accept it. I guess that also means I have to accept what comes out of my mouth, whether it makes sense or not. So, here is a collection of the gems that have come out of my mouth this we...

Me and my siblings What is the first thing you think about when you get out of bed in the morning? Me? I'm pretty sure I just jump out of bed, and immediately look at my phone to see how many alarms I slept through!!! I am one of those. I was on the phone with one of my many nurses about a week and a half ago and she was telling me about her husband. Apparently, her husband sets his alarm for 3 am and SHE hits the snooze alarm for him for three hours, until she forces him to get out of bed. Enabling? I'd say so. She told me she didn't know how to fix the situation, and I immediately said, why don't you sleep on the couch, or in another room until he figures out how to get himself out of bed. Makes sense, right? When I said this, it was as if she had never considered that she might be enabling him... And then I started wondering, who was really the patient in this relationship anyway, but I digress... Being goofy I believe that what we think about first thing ...

It is father's day, and I have to say my dad is one of the kindest, most caring guys I know. He has a loud bark, but very little bite. I can tell you stories about my dad's kindness that would have you going wild, and his ability to forgive people, especially me, is quite impressive. So, let me tell you a little story about forgiveness. Race season is in full swing, and I am hearing more and more about my friends' races. It is a very exciting time for a runner as we all LOVE to tell our race stories in very vivid detail. You literally get to hear the good, the bad and the ugly. The good might include PRs, awesome scenery, new friends, new distances, you name it. The bad might include the start and finish line being backwards, long bathroom lines, not meeting race goals, etc. The ugly... well that can take any form from bloody nipples, stomach problems or not enough water on a course. It is funny, a recent weekend, while I was participating in my race in Canada, a mil...

Warning, this is neither couch nor athlete related, but instead Sarah related. I promised myself that this blog would NOT be MS related at all. The reason? As I have mentioned before, my MS is only a sliver of my life that will change shapes and sizes throughout my life, but it isn't my entire life, however right now that sliver is a little bigger than I would like.  Also, I'm only an expert on my body and my MS. I don't have anything to offer other people regarding their MS because I am not inside their bodies, and you really wouldn't understand this statement unless you have a chronic disease that is mostly invisible to other people. When you say you are fatigued, tired, numb, feel like energy is pulsating throughout your hands/feet/back, people tend to not understand. When they see you walking around with your cane after a run, or stumbling into a wall, then they kind of get it, but also wonder why you weren't doing those things the last time they saw you. W...

I woke up this morning and I literally wanted to continue laying in bed, so much so, I hit my snooze alarm for an hour. Quite frankly, the thought of going for a 50 mile bike ride was annoying to me. I was living in a glass half empty kind of world; no, actually, I couldn't even find my cup... Sue just got pooped on... I'm quite confident everyone can relate to this. It is kind of like being pooped on by a bird... Waking up, not knowing whether you should laugh, cry, stay in bed, get up and face the world. You are simply at a loss and the bird is in a tree laughing at you... When I'm having moments like these, there is only one way I know how to deal with it. That is by getting out of bed and dealing with it. I literally haven't sat on my couch since before I went on vacation. I know this, because there are mountains of items on each of my couch sitting spots in both my living room and family room (basement). Believe it or not, this is not a normal condition of...

How did I end up running a half marathon in Canada? Especially since I swore I would never travel far for a race? Well, let me remind you. My friend Amy called me up and told me she was going to run a half marathon as one of her 'signature' events for the year. You see, she tries to do events that challenge her every year, just for fun, and to get the most out of this life as possible. When she called and asked me if I wanted to do it with her, I quickly called up Sue to see if she was on board (Sue and I train together for most races), and she said yes! Photo bombed by Katherine Switzer And so the story begins... Sue and I have been diligently training for the half marathon in Columbus, while Amy and her friends were training for the half in Dayton, Kent, Cleveland and Ottawa, with the plans of all meeting in Niagara falls, this month, to run a half marathon. We trudged through the snow, the heat, the spring like weather, the cold, the rough days, the awesome days,...