...with her Mom

My Mother paid us a visit this past weekend. For the first time she looked at me in the eye and said "I am exhausted! I'm going to bed! You tired me out!"

My mother is XX years old and is in great shape. I hope I look and feel a good as her when I am XX years old. She has always been the one nudging me about going out for a walk, or doing some gardening or being healthier than I am. She loves me, but she knows me and nudging was all i would tolerate for a long time. The woman has patience I tell you.

So this is the first visit she has taken with us here in the city since last fall, long before my step off into my life-in-health. We started off yesterday morning with a large breakfast of eggs and bacon (the usual Sunday fare on my 'relax day') but instead of just sitting around digesting, I hustled my daughter and mother into snow pants and we went to Green's Creek for some sledding. If you didn't poke your head out of the house yesterday, you missed a rare sunny beautiful winter day after a snowstorm so sledding was perfect!

I should not have taken the road well traveled. It was bumpy and I got a new appreciation of a 'spinal compression'. But it wasn't the down so much as the 'up' that I was interested in. Greens Creek is a HUGE steep hill thta is a good 3-5 minute walk/hike for every 30 seconds of 'WHEEEEE' all the way down. After no less than 4 runs, Emma was done and so was I. My Mother did a little run down but wasn't too keen on taking a header and I don't really blame her. After all she is XX years old...

After that, Mother, my DD and DH went skating while I stayed home and did some necessary year end paperwork. I don't skate. I swim and sled, but I don't skate. My feet don't like it so just don't ask. So an hour later, they came home and my mother was soon napping. I just smiled. Then I napped. Hey it was Sunday...

Today was a whole new day of firsts.

I wanted to work out so told my mother in advance. Now she regularly works out at her local gym/pool so she was ready but had no shoes. Since my shoes were hanging on by - literally - a lace and prayer, we went shoe shopping and instead of pumps it was cross trainers (a first!) and we were stepping pretty high in our New Balance CT's for me and Wilson CT's for her. Off to the gym!

One hour class of a Cardio and Weight Combo later we were flat on our back stretching. I kept up! (A first) and I was able to do a special stretch I couldn't do before (another first!) . I would have gotten more out of the class only if I were more coordinated but that will come I am told. Mom did awesome! She had done thsi before after all.

New shoes made a HUGE difference and my feet and body are doing very well. Then we ran around doing errands for the rest of the day. Then we came home and after a snack went back to the Y (she couldn't believe I wanted to go out in the crap weather again) to take Emma for the family swim. In all honesty we didn't swim. Emma frolicked around in the heated shallow pool and we sat in the hot tub end of the heated pool and got our sore muscles blasted by the jets like two potatoes being stewed. Followed by a sauna. Feeling AWESOME all the way home. Had dinner and now I am thinking of going to bed myself. She went down an hour ago.

Oh and an update on my running - I went last Friday and did a combo of 30 minutes of treadmill followed by 30 mins of weights. It was a good work out but the best part - the absolute BEST part is that I paced myself so much better than when i ran mad. I was about to jog at a 1% incline and 3.8 speed (in miles) for 20 mins straight out of the 30. And I wasn't exhausted. I could have kept going. I was kinda freaking out - but on the inside.

Now I am entertaining thoughts of signing up for a 5k marathon.

Eep!

Jenn