Discouraged

Lately, it seems as though as soon as I blog about something, it turns to shit.

Take, for instance, my valiant effort at taking up some good exercise--and attempting to learn to love running in the process--with my foray into a C25K program. I posted this after running Week 2, Day 2, and I was doing well. I was getting through the workouts fairly easily. I was *gasp* actually enjoying myself a bit. I felt good.

But in the days after, I noticed that my knees were doing a little bit of screaming as I tried to do simple things. You know, like run up the stairs, squat, or... walk. I dismissed it as a bit of soreness since I've never been a runner. I decided to soldier on, but during that Week 2, Day 3 run, I was hurting pretty badly. I questioned whether I could make it through, but I did. Then I waited a few days (with still sore knees), and completed Week 3, Day 1.

My knees were not happy with me.

I reached out to some friends who are runners and asked if this was normal, if it was a sign of my poor knees being out of shape. They all pointed to my sneakers, asking if I had good ones (I don't). They also advised that I NOT run through the pain, as I would likely just make it worse.

So, I stopped. My (old, unsupportive) sneakers have been neglected for the past few weeks as I try to let my knees heal before starting back up again. I've been shopping--visited a Fleet Feet to get fitted for good sneakers, even--and found out that like a lot of people, my arch collapses under the pressure of my body weight, so I need a more supportive sneaker to help absorb the shock of running. I haven't made the commitment and bought a pair yet--I'm still gawking a little over the $100 price tags (I'm more the "find-$40-sneakers-on-clearance" type of girl).

Before I give up on running completely, I do want to give it another try--so it sounds like I'll have to bite the bullet for some good sneakers. Otherwise, I guess it'll be strictly walking for me, and we'll eventually get an elliptical machine for our basement. I have a hard time believing it is my knees, even though they have given me a few issues throughout my life. I used to do kickboxing and step aerobics (hard on your knees!) classes twice a week and my instructor was the master of jumping lunges, so it's not like my knees have never taken any abuse.

Let's hope new sneakers do the trick.

On a completely separate but equally suck-tastic note, I posted last week about my adventures in square foot gardening. I had been working hard for over a month on this venture, watering, watching, waiting, anticipating. I was so proud and happy to show off my bountiful plants, and all of my baby tomatoes and peppers.

Yeah, well, apparently rabbits and/or squirrels read my blog, because they found my bounty and they STOLE IT ALL. I'm serious, I do not have a single baby ANYTHING on my plants any longer. These rodents PICKED.IT.CLEAN.

I very nearly cried, I'm not going to lie.

So, I don't know what to do. I think the tomato plants will keep producing--they have a number of flower buds left on them at this point--and my zucchini and cucumbers have yet to produce anything yet anyway. My zucchini plants seem to have grown so tall that they are keeling over under their own weight (two of them are now lying on their sides), but I'm hoping that this is normal?

Whoever the culprit is has also been munching on my broccoli leaves, but I guess we'll see what happens there because I'm still not seeing anything resembling actual broccoli coming from them. But my red pepper plant? There is basically nothing left on that guy. He was only producing one pepper anyway, and now he has nothing. Not even any flower buds or shoots that look like they will result in buds. Nothing.

I wonder: what can be done at this point? I am contemplating replanting a few things, but it's mid-July, will they have time to produce before it's too late into the fall? Also, it's clear that I need to build some sort of fence around this thing, but I'm struggling with what exactly to use that will keep both rabbits AND squirrels out--AND give me access to the beds if I need. Until I figure that out, I've been sprinkling everything with cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and/or cayenne pepper to try to deter the little f-ers.

I also put out a pie plate full of water, which sounds ludicrous, but I read that during particularly dry weather--which we've been experiencing, we haven't even mowed our lawn in 2+ weeks!--the rabbits and squirrels will actually steal veggies not because they are hungry, but because they are thirsty. On one of the gardening forums I came across, they suggested that if you provide water, they might be so inclined to leave the veggies alone. Here's hoping. It seems to make sense, since I went so long without them bothering anything, and now they raid the garden like its their job.

So these are my two latest failures in life. I'm trying not to let them get me down! Hopefully I will emerge victorious--with both a completed 5K and a boatload of homegrown vegetables--by fall.