The other week I was talking with a few
co-worker about my progress as a runner – I had made it to 5 weeks of running
and up to a 5 mph mile. We started talking about the upcoming 5K and I got
caught up in the excitement and said I would do the 5K. (Note: For those not on
the metric system, a 5K is approx. 3.1 miles.)
A little background on running and me, I
have never really run. OK, actually I was one of those people who said, “I don’t
do running.” I mean I was one of those kids that when the PE teacher was not
looking I was walking the mile.
So, why are you running a 5K, you ask? To
challenge myself.
I took up running July 26 to shape up and
have actually started to look forward to my run on the treadmill. Now I have
added all sorts of stuff to my training - outdoor running and walking, ballet
class, pilates and belly dancing. However, I digress, we are talking about
running.
We live at the bottom of the big hill that
is part of the 5K course. So for my warm-up I walk up that hill then I run
around the top and back down to home. It was 5:30 in the morning so the sun
wasn’t out yet to attack me with her heat, but the humidity was there ready to
strangle me as I ascended the hill that is dreaded by all who run this
particular 5K. I had to walk twice during the running portion of the exercise –
but not for too long. I did complete 2 miles running though and that is an
improvement from Sunday when I could only do 1.5 miles and that was broken up
even more with walking.
My next run is tomorrow morning before
ballet class – which is 30 min of ballet before
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers rehearsal. I am to run 2.75 miles again,
which will be on a treadmill and hopefully watching the
Newlyweds.
Oh Happy Day!
Omar has been moved to day shift! Starting
last week my dear hubby got moved from the “over-worked/under-appreciated” swing
shift to the “still working but at least not 12 hour shifts everyday” day shift.
The transformation from grumpy shift worker to happy-go-lucky Omar only took two
days. Imagine if you will grumpy Omar – definitely not as bad as grumpy
Heather…ok does not even come close to grumpy Heather – with no energy and
sleeping all the time he’s not working his butt off. Not the Omar we all know
and love. Omar - The Energetic - that can keep up with Thomas and Kimberly (our
cousins), and STILL have energy to watch movies, and not fall asleep.
For all of you who might not know what he
does for a living let me give you a summery. Omar works as a crew chief of the
F-15 fighter planes for the Air Force. In layman’s terms: if his F-15 has a
problem he has to fix it. I found out the other day that these guys have no
power tools to do this. Imagine if you will a heavy panel of a plane that you
have to hold up while you manually screw in 12 or more screws into it. Not only
that but you have to get them in exactly right with the right amount of tork
(meaning not too tight not too loose) or else there will be problems. Since
February, he has been working the Swing shift, which is 3:30 pm until they are
done. Most of the time these guys are working 12 hours shifts with little or no
time to eat dinner or lunch. They work their butts off, get little sleep and
don’t get to see much of their families because weekends are the only time they
can see them and many of these guys get stuck with weekend duty at least once a
month.
Now he is on day shift – which swing shift
call “slackers” – which in a way they are compared to the swing shift because
they only work between 8 – 10 hours a day (on a normal week) and most of the
heavy maintenance is done at night when the planes are not flying. God bless
you swing shift workers and your families!!!
With this change in his schedule, not only
does he have more energy but also he can go back to doing theatre with POPS,
which he has missed. He also has time to play on the brand new piano we bought.
I cannot tell you how great it is to hear him playing on the piano again.
So, let us all rejoice on this happy
occasion of the return of Omar – The Energetic.
Posted by Heather at 12:30pm
