Biking, Running, and Scarlet Fever (you know, just normal stuff)

I went for a bike ride today!  I haven't gone bike riding since high school.  I haven't had a bike.  I felt so fast.  I wanted to raise my hands on a downhill part and shout, "I'm the queen of the world!"  I'm pretty sure I would have wiped out.  That would have been the end of rekindling my love affair with bikes for sure.  I was afraid that after the ride, I wouldn't want to run but no worries.  I still can't believe I say stuff like that.  "I want to go running."  What's even cooler is that I actually convince myself to do it. 

I remember seeing people running or hearing about a person signing up for a race and thinking "Gosh, if only I were athletic," or "That might be nice to do," but never feeling like it was something I could do.  I've done yoga and every Jillian Michael's DVD I can get my hands on but for some reason running never crossed my mind.  And now I'm running in 90 degree heat!  It has taken some getting used to.  All that stuff that I wore in the winter that I thought I could maybe use some of it for the summer.  I had no idea.  I read somewhere that your body warms up to 20 degrees or so higher than the actual temp while running.  It may take some convincing to believe it's only 20 degrees though. 

My biggest challenge now is to keep going.  To go farther.  To not get bored or quit mentally before I quit physically.  I've tried listening to music but honestly it throws off my rhythm.  Also, I usually listen to Pandora and they always throw me a slow song.  I even tried the work out channels but I don't really like them.  And my ears are so small that even with small ear buds, I'm constantly putting them back in and trying to listen for traffic.  I'm thinking about getting an audio book or two but I love giving the characters a voice and reading it myself.  I'm kinda running out of ideas.  The thing that works the best so far is a running buddy.  I've run the farthest when I'm with someone.  We have a great chat and the miles stack up behind us as we talk about life.  It's pretty stinking awesome but not very helpful for running alone!  Anyone got any ideas?  What do you think about during long distance run?  What do you do when the ADD sets in?  I may just have to get tougher.  Hmmm.

In other news, my middle kiddo has scarlet fever.  Did you freak out at those words?  I certainly did when the doctor came back with that diagnosis!  Anyone that has read any "Little House" books already knows what I'm talking about.  Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of these semi-autobiographical books, has a sister named Mary.  Mary comes down with scarlet fever, gets rheumatic fever, goes blind.  Yeah, I freaked out a little but thank God we live in a time with antibiotics.  I almost didn't take him to the doctor though.  Coen has sensitive skin.  He had eczema when he was younger and I think he's getting seasonal allergies too.  It's not uncommon for his skin to do weird things.  We've been putting new sunscreen on and he's been out in the heat.  Even when I looked through lists of images of rashes for kids, scarlet fever was there but I never let the possibility enter my mind, I think because I how "old" I thought the disease was.  It's just another form of strep but I was right next to polio in my mind.  Needless to say, if your child breaks out in a sandpaper rash that won't clear up no matter how cool you keep him or how many oatmeal baths he takes, get it checked out!  I feel so bad because I exposed his Sunday school class to it too.  Guh.  Poor little man.  No one is going to go blind though.  Unless they look at my legs for too long but that's a different story.