Why no August workout, you say?

Let's see, how did I get out of working out in the month of August???

I stood up at work right under an open cabinet door and got a concussion! I wouldn't recommend it. It hurt like hell, and I knew I was going to have a major headache, but I did not know how bad it was going to be.

I hit my head on Tuesday, August 2ND in the late afternoon. I went home. I took some Excedrin (which I now know is one of the worst things you can take when you hit your head. Stick to Tylenol) and then went to sleep for the night, a little nauseous.

Next day, August 3rd, I woke with a splitting headache, but sucked it up, (took more Excedrin) and went to work. About an hour into work, I was having issues with standing for a long period of time, feeling nauseous and dizzy. Around 12pm I figured out I wasn't going to make it at work through the day. I went home and yes, took more Excedrin, then slept until 4pm.

Jed called and asked if I was okay or needed to go to the doctor? I said I was okay, but then I got up to get the kids something to eat and about blacked out! I've never felt so horrible all of a sudden in my life. So, I called Jed back and said, "Yes, I need to go in to see a doctor." Jed left work right away and took me to Derby Family Med center to be checked out.

I ended up with a concussion and an x-ray of my skull. I was told to take Tylenol, (Do Not take anything with Aspirin, hence the bad choice of Excedrin, because Aspirin can cause brain bleeds to be worse) put ice on my head and sleep. I was written off work until Monday August 8Th.

I don't remember Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday much at all. I do know I slept on Thursday & Friday about 40 out of 48 hours. My poor kids. They just had to fend for themselves. Well, Kenna took care of them, fed them, made sure they stayed alive. And in the evening Jed took over. Jed had to do everything for them. Which is why this time was rough on him physically as well. Not only was he worried about me, but now he had to play mom and dad.

Saturday came and I woke with extreme leg pain. We're talking lower back pain and sharp knife shooting pains down my legs. Both legs. I was dizzy, nauseous, head hurting, memory loss, blurred vision and now lower back and severe leg pain. I took some Loritab that I had left over from 6 or 7 months ago and it seemed to help. Problem is....it wears off.

Sunday & Monday I slept a lot. I went back to see the doctor Monday night. He said I had a severe concussion and ordered a head CT. It was scheduled for Thursday, August 11Th. The CT was fine, I guess, they didn't say anything about it. I spent the weekend resting and the kids started school on Monday.

I was feeling better, but just maybe around 50 percent of my normal. I went back to the doctor for a weekly visit. The doctor said I probably need to see a neurologist and I am off work until I am headache free for an entire week. I don't know when that will happen, I have had a headache everyday still.

The good news is....I was allowed to drive again. Well, as long as I didn't take the Loritab during the day. So, now I've been taking Advil during the day and Loritab at night.

Sometimes I push myself to do more than I should. On August 18Th, I allowed myself to drive the kids to a birthday party in Wichita. Then after being there, I was dizzy. Luckily Jed was there with his car, so we just left his there and he drove us home.

Then the next day, Friday, started Mulvane Old Settlers Days, It was a pretty busy morning and totally wore me out, so KJ and I took a 3 hour nap. In the evening we watched Kammie in the Little Miss Pioneer coronation and then on to the rodeo. I managed, but by 8pm had a pretty good headache going again.

Saturday, was super busy. Koen ran, then Jed ran and then Kammie rode in the parade. My mom came to town and brought cousins Trinity, Xander & Orin with her. My friend Amanda came to watch the parade. She brought her husband, Luke and their kids Korbin and Emma. And Jed's mom and sister, Katie and cousin Hunter came too. Kammie had quite the cheering section!

After we watched the parade, we went down to the carnival, the kids rode rides, we ate lunch at Luciano's Italian restaurant, the kids rode rides, Kenna shopped the vendors and then we headed home. Exhausted. Jed, Koen, Kammie, KJ and myself all took naps. After sleep and food, Jed took Kenna, Koen & Kammie to the rodeo. KJ woke up and I watched Phineas and Ferb's new movie......

At the end of this past week, I was begining to think I was over the concussion, but then I had a major headache on Friday. (Aug. 26th) It was a "had to take the Loritab during the day" bad. :(

Next step: On September 7th I have an appointment with a Neurologist to see what can be done, and where I can go from here. Hopefully she can figure out how to get me back to normal.

It's been an exhausting month, but for some reason I am not Exhausted....

The one thing I didn't expect through all of this fiasco, was for it to bring me closer to God. I consider myself pretty strong when it comes to my Faith. I know God, and love Him. Yes, I've prayed throughout this ordeal, and asked for prayers from people, but I never considered myself to have any weakness of Faith. This, of course was very arrogant of me. So, how could my Faith in God grow stronger? Through the Holy Spirit.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).


Mel
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Now it's time to rest, rest and more rest so I can get back to work and exercising! (And I actually miss exercising! Who would've thought?!?!)


Mel

Warrior Dash

Warrior Dash......Where to begin?

Let's see...It was fun. It was wet. It was muddy. It was hot, yes, definitely hot. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

You know from reading past posts that I despise running. It's just not my cup of tea. I've always disliked it. But I still do it. Why? Because when I am done running, I feel good. No, I feel great. There's no other explanation. "It may have sucked big time, but I did it." That feeling.

So, when I found the Warrior Dash online, I was pumped up about something I could do that actually involved running/jogging/walking. I love "events". I think it is more exciting to run a 3.1 mile distance if there are obstacles involved. Or mud.

Day before race: The girls and I left town around 7pm and headed off to KC. Three hours later I checked us into our hotel and we'd decided to go down the street and check out Zona Rosa. After about an hour out, we headed back to our lair for the night. We made our tee shirts, beer mug iron-ons and letters that said "Will Mud For Beer," and stayed up talking waaayyy too late. One friend and I only got about 80 minutes of sleep. Not the best idea we had.

Race Day: Regardless of the lack of sleep, I was up and at'em on time. Start time was 9:00am, so I needed to be at the field around 8:ooam. It was pretty organized. Step up in the line that your last name starts with, present your photo I.D., pick up your packet. Pretty cut and dry if you ask me. Next, I wanted to check out everything that was at the start/finish lines. So, I walked around a little. I couldn't see the entire course from where we were standing, but I could see the mud pit, the fire and the cargo net climb. All three looked exactly like they had online, so I was relieved. I bought a Warrior Dash bandanna, wrist band and car decal from the shop. The girls and I took some "before" pictures and then decided it was time to check our bags in the bag-check. Almost race time!

9:00am: And the flames roared....All 500 of our wave started together at the start line. It was exhilarating. I'm always nervous at the beginning of a race, but this time I wouldn't say I was nervous, but more excited. I set no time expectations for myself. My only goals were to complete ALL obstacles and finish. So, I set off to have some fun!

About the first quarter mile was a slow uphill jog. This was the first obstacle. It was called Hell's Hill. And it totally felt like the altitude changed on me. I was okay though, and I had my girls beside me. When we got to the top of the hill, it went right back down into the most amazing sledding hill. Well, if there was snow on the ground anyway. Everyone was tiptoeing down the hill and then I had the brainiac idea to roll down it. You know when you're little and you log roll down a hill? Well, that's what I decided to do. And it was great! One of my friends even told me later that a lady in front of us turned around to take a picture of me log rolling down the hill!

The second obstacle was the Barricade Breakdown. We had to hurdle over the Barricade walls and then crawl under the barbed wire. It was simple. Most likely The Red Frog guys wanted to take it easy on us to start with. It was fun and lots of people were hooting and hollering.

Knee High Hell was the third obstacle. We had to speed through hundreds of tires without falling face first. I enjoyed it a lot. It reminded me of doing P90X, but actually getting to use tires instead of pretending.

Fourth obstacle: Teetering Traverse. This one I loved. I have great balance, so I'd like to think that I traversed it well!

Next up, and number five was the Slithering Swamp. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. No snakes. Although later, as I was running, I was thinking about the movie 'Stand By Me' and mentally decided to check for leeches later. :)

I got a huge cockle burr in my shin somewhere in between obstacle 5 & 6. It took me a few minutes to pull it out, but then I was good to go.

This is also about the time that one friend took off and left the other friend and I to race together. Oh well, to each his own. Other friend and I had a blast together and I'm glad I had someone to enjoy it with. :)

Obstacle six: I couldn't find it on the Warrior Dash website. I think they may have replaced it now with another one that is similar. I thought it was too simple anyway, so probably they got rid of it. Basically it was monkey bars, but with a plank to walk across.

We had a few steep hills to go up and down in order to get to the next obstacle. It was the Rio Dash. Pretty easy, I just got a little wet again. Which was actually refreshing.

The race wasn't hard, but sometimes it was boring. I kept looking for the next obstacle to break up the rough terrain we were running through. And I'm not sure I could even call it running. It was a little too uneven to run. In the woodsy area it felt like my right foot/leg was about 6 inches higher than my left foot/leg.

One of the great things about the course were the volunteers and their music. At the next obstacle there were two girls blasting "Don't Stop Believing" it was just the fun I needed at the time. Obstacle eight was called Dead Man's Drop. After pulling myself up one side of the giant A-framed obstacle, I had about a 4 foot drop to the ground. It wasn't hard, but I was a little worried about getting splinters in my rear. I chose to slide backwards for the drop. Some of the 9:30 wave time participants were passing us at this time and I observed them sliding this way. So, I figured I should to. No splinters. Yay!

Obstacle nine was Chaotic Crossover. I liked it. I had to climb up about 6 feet and then spider walk across the cargo nets to the other side. A third of the way across there was a plank so I could re-grip the net. Then two-thirds of the way across another plank.

After number nine, It was quite a distance to the next obstacle. Pretty uneven, rough terrain again. I couldn't run all the time. People were slipping and sliding. I saw quite a few people wipe out. They were having a good time though and none of them got hurt, thank goodness.

Obstacle ten was Hay Fever. Hay was stacked up like a pyramid and had large belts securing it in formation. As I climbed up the first side, a lady started climbing next to me. She used the strap to pull herself up the hay. It caught my abdomen and almost knocked me straight back into the air. Thank goodness I caught myself.

The terrain had changed again and I was back on the field. No more rocky, muddy, uneven ground. Wahoo! Homestretch baby!

Obstacle eleven was Cargo Climb. I had to maneuver up and over the cargo nets. It was pretty simple, getting up on the first rung was the hardest part. And it wasn't even hard.

The Well anticipated Warrior Roast was second to last. I had been looking forward to this one all day. My friend and I ran and lept through it together. It was fun and I even felt the heat a little. The camera man told me "nice leap!" after I finished it. I have to say years of leaping in baton twirling helped out. :)

The final obstacle: Muddy Mayhem. It was awesome. A huge mud pit that I had to jump into and then scramble beneath barbed wire to the finish. Let me tell you, mud never felt so good. I now know why pigs roll in the mud all day. It is actually cool and refreshing. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My friend and I got out of the mud, which by the way is the only place throughout the race where I slipped. And mostly that was because I was trying to grab a handful of mud and straw to through at my friend! Which I accomplished.

Finish time 10:22am.

Yes, it took me and my friend one hour and twenty-two minutes to finish a 3.1 mile course. But it was waaayyy more fun than just a 3 mile course. I made memories to keep my entire lifetime.

After, getting my Warrior Dash finisher medal and a few cups of cold water, I went to see another friend take off in the 10:30am wave. Then, it was time to get my bag out of bag check, grab my camera and snap some "after" shots.

The Fire Department hosed everyone down, and I donated my shoes to be recycled. My chip timer attached to my shoe was my ticket for my free beer. After drinking my beer and consuming a turkey leg, it was time to head back to the hotel for a "real" shower.

When all three of us were all cleaned up, we decided to hit Zona ROsa again for some food and shopping. I got to go to Marshall's (my favorite) and also Barnes and Noble. One friend returned to the hotel early because she wasn't feeling well, and the other friend and I weren't too far behind her. We had plans to stay out late and enjoy being kidless, but between the 80 minutes of sleep the previous night and the Days events, we were worn out! I was tucked into my hotel bed by 8:30pm and sleeping by 10:00pm

Sunday morning, we went to breakfast at The Cracker Barrel and then hit the road back home!

An eventful weekend. A fun weekend. A weekend I will never forget. Thanks for the memories Warrior Dash!

And if you think a Warrior Dash may be in your future.....Here's the website:
warriordash.com

Days 20-30

So....Where to begin, I don't know, I guess with day 20 since that's where I left off.

Day 20 was a run day. Not too bad either. I did a 5K in 31 minutes. Impressive for me. Actually very impressive!

Day 21 was a bike day. Not only was I extremely sore from pushing out a fast 5K for me, but I also had a good book to read and I can only read on the recumbent bike. Hey, what can I say....reading is a priority too!

Days 22, 23 & 24 were rest days. Not really resting, but not putting on workout clothes and going to beat myself up at the gym! And actually on day 24, I put on my swimsuit and did some high diving board moves at the public pool. You know cannon balls, toe touches, can openers and yes of course belly flops and back busters! Hey, can't let the kids show me up!

Day 25 started an extremely busy week for me & the kids. We had VBS every morning, then my work every afternoon. So on Monday the 25thI had an awesome workout. I did 20 minutes on the grey and yellow elliptical machines (none of us, my friends or I, really know what it is called, so we just call it the grey and yellow thing) and then 10 minutes on the bike, and finished with a 10 minute mile! Yay for me, awesome workout!

Day 26-29 However the rest of the week was not so great. I was just so busy with VBS and work and Husband was extremely busy at work, that I didn't get to workout at all! I was a little worried that I would totally suck at the Warrior Dash, but then again, the goal was to finish, not win.

All-in-all I have to be happy with my 30 days of fitness. Yes, I know technically it wasn't 30 days, but I knew going into it, with our busy lives, it would be a challenge. And it was! I enjoyed having the challenge too.

Next post....Warrior Dash!