Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thanksgiving Virtual 5k
Today I exercised for the first time in almost 2 weeks. I walked a 5k. It was only walking but I proved my arm will survive. Next up, half marathon on Sunday?
I look like a slob...that's what happens when you don't care about what you look like for 2 weeks...but look, no split!! It's back on now because it was painful when I took it off :(
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Surgery Tomorrow
I chose mommy over the half marathon. So I've spent the last 4 days cleaning my house little by little before work every day. Mommy is on her way. I got sent home from work early. So what do I do when I get stressed and bored? Why, I bake, of course...
These are the ultimate comfort food for me. They are my grandmother's chocolate chip cookie recipe. I know I'm going to want them tomorrow so I made them tonight to enjoy a little treat before midnight and have them for after the surgery tomorrow :)
Monday, November 14, 2011
Choices
Remember nipple elbow? You know, the supposed staph infection? Well it's been 5 weeks and it still hasn't healed despite weeks and weeks of (weak) antibiotics. I finally got to see a doctor who can do something about it today. She said it will require surgery. At the time of the appointment it didn't seem like a big deal...it sounded like she would numb up my arm, cut it up, pick out the junk that's in there, and sew me back up. She said I'd probably miss about a week of work because of the pain and the immobilization of my arm but it wasn't a big deal. In fact, she was so unworried about it that she said it could wait until after Thanksgiving (ugh, another 2 weeks of antibiotics!).
When the surgical coordinator called she gave me a hosipital that I was going to have to go to and told me to stop taking vitamins and not to eat past midnight the night before. Somewhat confused by this request I went on to ask if I needed to arrange a ride to and from the hospital and received a somewhat annoyed response of "of course you won't be able to drive, you're going to be put under." Umm...excuse me? WTF kind of surgery is this that I have to be put under anesthesia! This was very upsetting to me because I was really looking forward to being able to watch someone poke around in my arm and not feel a thing. Maybe I got a little more emotionally distressed that anesthesia meant that I was gonna have pay for an anesthegiologist (spelling?) in addition to some nurses and the OR and blahblahblah. The things you have to think about when you're a big kid and you lost the best health insurance known to man.
When I was at the appointment I asked the doc if she could just open me up right there and get it over with but her schedule was too full to do so so she gave me 2 options which break down as follows:
Option 1: Surgery this Friday. This means that I will probably be out of work through Thanksgiving weekend (work that I'm scheduled to be at every day until next Tuesday...), have a painful Thanksgiving and miss the half marathon (that was supposed to be a full marathon), and probably have to keep low on Black Friday (can't be hitting the elbow!). The plus side of this option would be that I'd get a babysitter from the time I fly home until I come back up north the week after. (and a recently added bonus of my mom coming up this Friday since she'll already be close by for work). If momma comes up I have 3 days to clean my house...which is pretty much an insurmountable task with work this week...
Option 2 (since my surgeon is also the othro I saw for my foot a few months back): Wait until after the race and I get back to have the surgery. The downside of this is that it's kind of an important week at work (not that this week and next week aren't...). But I get to enjoy my trip home for Thanksgiving and doing all of the fun stuff I had planned and I get to run in my race. The downside is that I won't have a personal maid post surgery...
I know the obvious answer is mommy but for some reason I'm having real issues giving up the half marathon. This was supposed to be a huge day for me. It was going to be my first marathon before the foot issue, and it was going to be a family race (my dad is even going to walk it!). If I do the surgery this week the doc said she wouldn't approve me to bend my elbow (a key ingredient to running) for at least a week AND until she saw me. Since a week from Friday is Black Friday, I won't be seeing the doctor until at least the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (and the race!). We all paid a lot of $$ to enter the race, and for the hotel rooms, and I really liked running the race last year and I've been looking forward to going back all year!!!
What's a girl to do?
When the surgical coordinator called she gave me a hosipital that I was going to have to go to and told me to stop taking vitamins and not to eat past midnight the night before. Somewhat confused by this request I went on to ask if I needed to arrange a ride to and from the hospital and received a somewhat annoyed response of "of course you won't be able to drive, you're going to be put under." Umm...excuse me? WTF kind of surgery is this that I have to be put under anesthesia! This was very upsetting to me because I was really looking forward to being able to watch someone poke around in my arm and not feel a thing. Maybe I got a little more emotionally distressed that anesthesia meant that I was gonna have pay for an anesthegiologist (spelling?) in addition to some nurses and the OR and blahblahblah. The things you have to think about when you're a big kid and you lost the best health insurance known to man.
When I was at the appointment I asked the doc if she could just open me up right there and get it over with but her schedule was too full to do so so she gave me 2 options which break down as follows:
Option 1: Surgery this Friday. This means that I will probably be out of work through Thanksgiving weekend (work that I'm scheduled to be at every day until next Tuesday...), have a painful Thanksgiving and miss the half marathon (that was supposed to be a full marathon), and probably have to keep low on Black Friday (can't be hitting the elbow!). The plus side of this option would be that I'd get a babysitter from the time I fly home until I come back up north the week after. (and a recently added bonus of my mom coming up this Friday since she'll already be close by for work). If momma comes up I have 3 days to clean my house...which is pretty much an insurmountable task with work this week...
Option 2 (since my surgeon is also the othro I saw for my foot a few months back): Wait until after the race and I get back to have the surgery. The downside of this is that it's kind of an important week at work (not that this week and next week aren't...). But I get to enjoy my trip home for Thanksgiving and doing all of the fun stuff I had planned and I get to run in my race. The downside is that I won't have a personal maid post surgery...
I know the obvious answer is mommy but for some reason I'm having real issues giving up the half marathon. This was supposed to be a huge day for me. It was going to be my first marathon before the foot issue, and it was going to be a family race (my dad is even going to walk it!). If I do the surgery this week the doc said she wouldn't approve me to bend my elbow (a key ingredient to running) for at least a week AND until she saw me. Since a week from Friday is Black Friday, I won't be seeing the doctor until at least the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (and the race!). We all paid a lot of $$ to enter the race, and for the hotel rooms, and I really liked running the race last year and I've been looking forward to going back all year!!!
What's a girl to do?
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Long Runs and ICE Information
Since I've been having motivation issues with my long runs lately I decided to get mine done today by running in 2 races that would total the length of my long run. I know that long runs are supposed to be slow so I decided I was running more for the motivation to finish and not to actually win the race. I didn't realize how much 2nd shift would affect my sleeping (despite going to bed at 2am I still get up before 8!!). So when my alarm went off at 8am this morning for race #1 I decided to snooze it an extra hour or so and just do race 2, which was the longer one, and the only I prepaid to compete in. Since I still needed 9 miles I got to the 2nd race a little early and ran 3 miles, which turned out to be a good thing because it helped me decided what I needed to wear for the race.
I had just enough time to get my 3 miles in at a slow pace, run to the bathrooms, and get back to the start line with 3 minutes to spare! The problem with running races for long runs is that no matter how hard you try to go slow you still start off waay to fast!! My first mile was about a minute faster than I wanted and even though I tried to slow down I didn't slow down much. Most of the race was a trail run and the trails are pretty beat up from the storm we had a few weeks ago.
About 1.5 miles in I passed a girl who looked like she was in pain but trying to keep running. I ran past her and thought to myself "I should say something encouraging or ask if she's ok" but I never know if people would be offended if I try to talk to them so I kept my mouth shut and kept running. A few minutes later I decided to take a little trip and faceplanted. A nice lady stopped and made sure I was ok and helped me up before getting back to her race. I decided that I was going to have to walk the rest of the way because my elbows and knees were in a lot of pain. It turns out the faceplant was a blessing in disguise because a few minutes later the girl I ran past earlier caught up to me and really wasn't looking so great. This time I asked her if she was ok and since I had decided that I was going to walk for at least a little while I offered to walk the rest of the race with her. She started talking in a way that reminded me of of how people moments before having a seizure and sure enough a few seconds later she collapsed and I caught her just as she was about to fall down a 20 foot drop into a ditch. I guess the faceplant was God's way of telling me that I shouldn't have ignored my instincts earlier and he was giving me a second chance to help the girl.
When she mentally started recovering from the incident a race official had showed up and asked her if there was someone in the race that she knew or someone we could call. She couldn't remember her mom's cell phone number. This whole thing brought back memories of when I was in middle school and had a seizure. When you come out of it you are totally unaware of your surroundings and I have no memory of the 2 hours after it happened. All of this made me realize that I really need to run with emergency contact information on me. I ran with my ID today but I hardly ever do that and even if something did happen it wouldn't really help since that address is wrong (thanks to my state not replacing drivers licenses when you move...) and there isn't a phone # of who to call if someone finds me lying on the side of the road.
My mom told me a few months ago that she would order me a Road ID if I told her what I wanted on it. I guess this is my motivation for getting that info together for her now...
I had just enough time to get my 3 miles in at a slow pace, run to the bathrooms, and get back to the start line with 3 minutes to spare! The problem with running races for long runs is that no matter how hard you try to go slow you still start off waay to fast!! My first mile was about a minute faster than I wanted and even though I tried to slow down I didn't slow down much. Most of the race was a trail run and the trails are pretty beat up from the storm we had a few weeks ago.
About 1.5 miles in I passed a girl who looked like she was in pain but trying to keep running. I ran past her and thought to myself "I should say something encouraging or ask if she's ok" but I never know if people would be offended if I try to talk to them so I kept my mouth shut and kept running. A few minutes later I decided to take a little trip and faceplanted. A nice lady stopped and made sure I was ok and helped me up before getting back to her race. I decided that I was going to have to walk the rest of the way because my elbows and knees were in a lot of pain. It turns out the faceplant was a blessing in disguise because a few minutes later the girl I ran past earlier caught up to me and really wasn't looking so great. This time I asked her if she was ok and since I had decided that I was going to walk for at least a little while I offered to walk the rest of the race with her. She started talking in a way that reminded me of of how people moments before having a seizure and sure enough a few seconds later she collapsed and I caught her just as she was about to fall down a 20 foot drop into a ditch. I guess the faceplant was God's way of telling me that I shouldn't have ignored my instincts earlier and he was giving me a second chance to help the girl.
When she mentally started recovering from the incident a race official had showed up and asked her if there was someone in the race that she knew or someone we could call. She couldn't remember her mom's cell phone number. This whole thing brought back memories of when I was in middle school and had a seizure. When you come out of it you are totally unaware of your surroundings and I have no memory of the 2 hours after it happened. All of this made me realize that I really need to run with emergency contact information on me. I ran with my ID today but I hardly ever do that and even if something did happen it wouldn't really help since that address is wrong (thanks to my state not replacing drivers licenses when you move...) and there isn't a phone # of who to call if someone finds me lying on the side of the road.
My mom told me a few months ago that she would order me a Road ID if I told her what I wanted on it. I guess this is my motivation for getting that info together for her now...
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Training Update
Soooooo...I'm running a half marathon in 18 days...eek! I should be more nervous than I am but I managed to run almost a half marathon after 0 training and 8 weeks in a walking boot and that one was hilly. My next half is totally flat so I'm having trouble getting motivated to get back on track with the training plan.
Since I goofed off for so long I picked up the half marathon training plan in week 8 of 12 (probably not the best idea but it's the best I had). Two weeks ago I was supposed to run 8 miles for my long run and last weekend would have been a 10k. Since I ran a 10k 2 weeks ago I decided to run 8 over the weekend. I only made it to 7.5 because I ate a horrible pre-run lunch. By horrible I mean super tasty and rich Indian food which is not what you should be eating before a long run! I was convinced that the rice and naan would be great for fueling a run but the chicken tikka masala sauce was a very bad idea. Note to self, in the future eat Indian food as a reward for a long run, not as a motivator!!!
This week calls for a 9 mile run (and the next week is 10 miles which leaves me 3 miles short of a half marathon but that's what the plan says!). Lucky for me there was a huge snow storm 2 weeks ago and the 10k that was supposed to be held in my town was postponed to this weekend. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why I care about a 10k when that's about 3 miles short of my goal. Well here's the other lucky thing. There is a 5k that was already scheduled for the same day, in the same park, just a few hours earlier! So I will be running a 5k race followed shortly by a 10k race to get to my 9 miles. How genius is that?! I live for races and I can't stand running long distances by myself, which is why I end up running them on a treadmill most of the time because at least I have TV to entertain me.
What do you all think of my plan? Have you ever run 2 races in 1 day?
Since I goofed off for so long I picked up the half marathon training plan in week 8 of 12 (probably not the best idea but it's the best I had). Two weeks ago I was supposed to run 8 miles for my long run and last weekend would have been a 10k. Since I ran a 10k 2 weeks ago I decided to run 8 over the weekend. I only made it to 7.5 because I ate a horrible pre-run lunch. By horrible I mean super tasty and rich Indian food which is not what you should be eating before a long run! I was convinced that the rice and naan would be great for fueling a run but the chicken tikka masala sauce was a very bad idea. Note to self, in the future eat Indian food as a reward for a long run, not as a motivator!!!
This week calls for a 9 mile run (and the next week is 10 miles which leaves me 3 miles short of a half marathon but that's what the plan says!). Lucky for me there was a huge snow storm 2 weeks ago and the 10k that was supposed to be held in my town was postponed to this weekend. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why I care about a 10k when that's about 3 miles short of my goal. Well here's the other lucky thing. There is a 5k that was already scheduled for the same day, in the same park, just a few hours earlier! So I will be running a 5k race followed shortly by a 10k race to get to my 9 miles. How genius is that?! I live for races and I can't stand running long distances by myself, which is why I end up running them on a treadmill most of the time because at least I have TV to entertain me.
What do you all think of my plan? Have you ever run 2 races in 1 day?
Week 5 Weigh In
The mid challenge weigh in for my work weightloss challenge is tomorrow. According to my scale I've lost maybe 2 pounds since I started 5 weeks ago. One could argue that it's better than gaining weight but I still feel like a failure given that I'm supposed to have the goal of losing 10% of my body weight in 10 weeks. 2 pounds is not even 2% for me :(
I signed up for the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge for added motivation to get to the gym during cookie season! Hopefully that will help with weeks 6-10 on the work weight loss challenge!
I won't let this derail my goals. I might not make it to 10% by the end of the 10 weeks but I won't give up because I have no hope! I started working off shift hours at work this wee and I have to say that, in the winter, off shift hours might be the best thing ever. Screw daylight savings time, we need to either shift time by 8 hours or work evenings instead of days! I love waking up with the sun, putzing around the house for a bit, getting outside for a little exercise while it is sunny and warm, and then heading into work just as it gets dark.
I think I am somewhat affected by SADD, but I think everyone, to some level is. People just get grumpy in the winter up north with the short days and snow. I know some people living for skiing but that can't totally make up for the crappy weather and lack of daylight! Working at night solves this problem but it creates the problem of never being able to see people because the rest of the world works during the day still. Maybe I'll start a petition to move work hours to the evening during the winter. I think everyone would be happier that way. All of those ski people can get their skiing in before work when it's still light out. And the rest of us can just bask in the glory of the sun year round!
I even got a super long work out in today! I normally have to struggle to do 30 min of something at the gym on weekdays but today I was there for almost an hour and a half (yeah, yeah, I know I just talked about the awesomeness of daylight and then I go and talk about the gym...today called for weights and bike so I couldn't help it). I am super excited about running outside tomorrow! And I did stay out for longer than planned yesterday when I ran! It helps that the weather has been unseasonably warm. I wore a tank and shorts today!
Does the winter suck your will to workout? Do you hate getting out of work after the sun sets?
I signed up for the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge for added motivation to get to the gym during cookie season! Hopefully that will help with weeks 6-10 on the work weight loss challenge!
I won't let this derail my goals. I might not make it to 10% by the end of the 10 weeks but I won't give up because I have no hope! I started working off shift hours at work this wee and I have to say that, in the winter, off shift hours might be the best thing ever. Screw daylight savings time, we need to either shift time by 8 hours or work evenings instead of days! I love waking up with the sun, putzing around the house for a bit, getting outside for a little exercise while it is sunny and warm, and then heading into work just as it gets dark.
I think I am somewhat affected by SADD, but I think everyone, to some level is. People just get grumpy in the winter up north with the short days and snow. I know some people living for skiing but that can't totally make up for the crappy weather and lack of daylight! Working at night solves this problem but it creates the problem of never being able to see people because the rest of the world works during the day still. Maybe I'll start a petition to move work hours to the evening during the winter. I think everyone would be happier that way. All of those ski people can get their skiing in before work when it's still light out. And the rest of us can just bask in the glory of the sun year round!
I even got a super long work out in today! I normally have to struggle to do 30 min of something at the gym on weekdays but today I was there for almost an hour and a half (yeah, yeah, I know I just talked about the awesomeness of daylight and then I go and talk about the gym...today called for weights and bike so I couldn't help it). I am super excited about running outside tomorrow! And I did stay out for longer than planned yesterday when I ran! It helps that the weather has been unseasonably warm. I wore a tank and shorts today!
Does the winter suck your will to workout? Do you hate getting out of work after the sun sets?
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Looking for motivation
Most days it has been hard for me to talk myself into the gym. I'm enrolled in a weight loss competition at work but I've lost maybe 2 pounds in the past 4 weeks, which, I suppose is better than weight gain but it's really nothing to write home about. I've gone back and forth between being good at the gym and being good with eating and they've rarely overlapped for more than a day or two.
I have 3 weeks until Thanksgiving (and the half marathon), and it looks like work won't be super stressful so I need to stay on track with food AND the gym...starting today! Yesterday I may or may not have eaten an entire cake from the grocery store (it was a tiny cake! barely more than the equivalent of 2 cupcakes!!).
Since winter is setting in and training for a big race solely on a treadmill isn't a super smart idea I need to come up with new motivation to keep myself entertained at the gym. For the next two months I think my goal will be to run/bike/swim a total of 200 miles to make my total mileage for the year a nice, even 1,000 miles.
What do you do to stay motivated and get yourself to the gym when you'd rather curl up under a pile of blankets in the winter?
I have 3 weeks until Thanksgiving (and the half marathon), and it looks like work won't be super stressful so I need to stay on track with food AND the gym...starting today! Yesterday I may or may not have eaten an entire cake from the grocery store (it was a tiny cake! barely more than the equivalent of 2 cupcakes!!).
Since winter is setting in and training for a big race solely on a treadmill isn't a super smart idea I need to come up with new motivation to keep myself entertained at the gym. For the next two months I think my goal will be to run/bike/swim a total of 200 miles to make my total mileage for the year a nice, even 1,000 miles.
What do you do to stay motivated and get yourself to the gym when you'd rather curl up under a pile of blankets in the winter?
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