While I have been home I have been helping my boyfriend out with some home renovations. It's been slow going and we take breaks in between projects but so far it's been mostly painting rooms and throwing away items that have been hanging out in his house from past roommates. This weekend we finally decided to start on a big project that has been long overdue. 

In the hallway, someone decided to go ahead and PAINT over the wallpaper. And it is old wallpaper from the 1970s. The trouble with this is that the paint has made it impossible to get through to the wallpaper and in some places you can see the wallpaper coming through if you look in the right places. After months of talking about it and then deciding to just go for it, we got a steamer (rented) and supplies to start scrapping it off. First of course we used the scoring tool and put little holes in the paint and then started to steam away. 

The first thing that happened was that the paint was not coming off. It was basically making us having to work 10 times harder to get even to the wallpaper. After some trial and error, I figured out a way to get the paint off. We needed it to bubble and then peel the top layer and then steam the paper and then it comes off like a dream. The issue though is that it was taking a million years just to get the paint off. It became apparent that we were in some trouble with time here. 

So we decided to try some other things to see if maybe we can get the paint to come off faster. What we discovered (and keep this in mind folks if you run into this issue.) is you take paint thinner put a layer on the paint and then leave it overnight to dry it creates a glue-like consistency. Leave it overnight and then come in with the steamer and steam a section. When you do that you then create a small hole in the paint and start to peel chunks away to get to the wallpaper too then scrap it off. It's a process that we found by accident and while it's not ideal it is faster than how we were doing it before. Of course that doesn't make it any easier for us and we are still struggling with anger issues and trying our best to hold back our fists but hey, we will get there. 

So this is your friendly reminder to NOT paint over wallpaper...ever...or you may be stabbed multiple times.. just saying. 

In a little less than two weeks we are finally returning to one of the best events that my father and I have attended when it comes to pinball. We are going back to the VPS show and I am so pumped to go back. It's a three-day event where you pay one price to play over 500 machines. My boyfriend will also be attending with us and I am ready to watch him become overwhelmed by the number of choices that he will have to choose from as well as dive him into more of what I grew up with. It's been years since Dad and I first went and I have a video of that experience here for you guys to rewatch from my YouTube channel. 

At that time it was "pre- covid" and after what happened in Michigan (Which I'm sure you're familiar with) we decided to stay away from this event. Now that the masks and vaccines bs is over we have finally decided to go back and enjoy ourselves in this immersive experience once again. This year my bf and I are staying at a state park for the weekend (which I have never been to) and will be enjoying the fresh air while Dad stays at a hotel. Of course, I'm hoping to video more of this event and share it with you all just as I did with the one from pre-coid. I can't wait to see what machines they have and to play them all to my heart's content. 

White Water and Fun House here I come. I'm ready to play

Recently I started going to see a MMT. I decided this year to give massages a try to see if it would help with long-term relief after I did lots of exercise during the week. It started to become apparent that I needed some help when my foot got injured and I was having trouble with heel striking. When I moved back over to the five-finger shoes it gave me some relief but I noticed that the impact from the Lems shoes I used was more intense than I realized so I got a massage a few months back to see if that would maybe help my muscles. The first one I got was normal, nothing fancy really and I felt the relief instantly but after my first run prior to the massage, I felt the strain back on my foot and muscles. 

So I turned to a different approach. Deep Tissue Massage. I've never had one done and this guy I met walked me through the process. He would use cups to help get my muscles back into place. The idea is that the cup brings up the muscle, you constrict the muscle and then relax it and it makes the muscle go back to where it's supposed to. It's an interesting and intense process. Turns out my right side is super wound up and the muscles in my foot need more work than I thought. He let me know that it's not fractured and its not a bruised bone but it could be due to muscle weakness since it usually is sore after I do Long runs. I just got my second session done this past weekend and I feel much better than I have in a long while. 

I've never invested in this sort of therapy before so I didn't know what to expect but to find some long-term relief is exciting and really gives me hope that I can improve my running, climbing, and just general health. I want to feel good while running and I want to find a way to give myself relief from my foot. I certainly don't want that to be long-term and cause more injury while I run the half marathon in September. 

Have any of you done massage therapy? What did you think? Let me know your thoughts. 

Currently, I am working on a half marathon in September. In September I will be running the Smokey Mountain half marathon as well as the 5k the night before. So in total, we are looking to have run 16 - 17 miles in two days. I'm not sure what to think about that but I am staying positive as I move along. so far running a 10k hasn't been an issue and I've been able to run 6.2 in under an hour (right around 58 minutes total) which is great. I'm hoping that for this race I may be able to push to being sub 2 but its unclear how it will feel out on the route. 

The good news about that is the route is not too far from where we live. I can swing by there once a month to run the route with Lylah and get a feel for the ups and downs in the path and where to push and where to slow down. The other halves I have done I didn't have the access to it (except the one in Florida) so I'm sure this will make a huge difference in my training. Im excited and happy that I'm feeling so good while running these longer distances because not too long ago I was dying with the longer runs. Im hopeful and pushing as much as I can for this one. 

Are you working towards any running goals? Any races planned?

Were back from the snowboarding trip 

Now that we are back I am back in the full swing of my half marathon training. I took roughly a week and a half off from running for a few reasons. One was because my foot has been hurting a bit since I got back from the Grand Canyon trail that we did back in September/October with my Dad. It was an on-and-off pain since then but it progressed due to a pair of shoes that I had been wearing running in. I learned over time in running in them that I was heel striking and I think it caused a bruised bone to form. Which is the worst because you can't do anything about it and you have to take it easy for it to heal. So this time I took off has helped a lot. I didn't do much, just walked, snowboarded, and took the time from running to take off the pressure from the heel. Along with taking the time off I also switched back to five-finger shoes which I had used for a very long time before trying other brands and my posture, running form, and overall feel changed immediately. The pressure was no longer there and it helped a lot to stop using the shoes that were causing problems. 

Now that we're back and im rested I did my first 4-mile run and it wasn't great, felt off, but I managed to do the 4 miles without stopping which I think is a good sign, along with my foot no longer hurting/feeling numb from time to time. Im hoping to get into the full swing and push more and more for this half marathon training. I would love to get into the swing of doing a 10 k with a 9-minute average pace and push myself hard from there to try and see if I can get sub 2. Of course, I have no idea if that will happen but it has been a goal for a long while. 

We shall see if I can make that happen this year. I think that would be a big accomplishment for me to finally have that ticked off on my list of things to accomplish as a runner. 

If you are a runner here is a question for you. What kind of shoes do you wear? Is there a brand you absolutely love or hate? Let me know.