I am back!

I have now put 7 miles under my belt for the week so far and I feel great! The last two weeks kicked my butt and for once I actually listened to my body! I made it to the treadmill yesterday and got 3 miles in, today I managed to get 4 in on the elliptical machine; I was very careful not to use the handle things!
I have seventy odd days until race weekend and I am now thinking about what to wear! I have fallen madly in love with my CW-X tights, no matter what I wear I always have them on underneath! Since this will be a race weekend (not just a one race thing) I will be making sure my legs get all the support possible! With that said, the question is what to wear over the top! Trust me, me in just running tights – not a pretty site (I did do that once, and yea, never again!). I am a fan of running skirts, sadly SkirtSports’ skirts don’t work right on me (if they fit my thighs, the waste falls down!). I have been considering giving Running Skirts a shot (I love their purple plaid skirt). I have found a few shirts I will probably get for that weekend. I would love some input on Running Skirts products.
Tonight I go pick up my car from the garage (it died last night while I was trying to leave work!), then off to class and then home zzzzzzzz!

Waiting and Training and Waiting and...

At this point in time I am only get tidbits of information. I went to PT and luckily he needed my x-rays so I was able to get the results from him and it is a good thing he is as cute as he is otherwise I would have thrown something at him! My x-rays looked good, bones are good, spacing of my vertebra are all good. In the same breath he said he didn’t expect to see anything with just an x-ray. Then why waste my insurance on them? Talk about frustrating! But I am happy with those results, that means no arthritis!
I spent the majority of the weekend, again, sleeping in and taking everything slow and not even really looking at my running shoes. I did think about the fact I was laying in bed being completely lazy while the Denver marathon was off and going, then I fell asleep again! I did find out that lupus flair ups are even worse one week prior to that time of month, which would explain a lot! This morning when I got out of bed I felt so much better! I have energy, I still have a little bit of pain, but it is manageable without the happy pills.
I finally got a call from the doc’s office telling me I need to start taking Vitamin D right now! I am as low as I can go without falling out of the healthy range. Rest of my results the doctor will discuss with me when I go in next week. I don’t like that, but I can live with it. Today is the first day in a while I actually feel like climbing on the treadmill. I will be smart and walk more than run (taking it nice and easy), depending on how this week goes, I might have to pull my training from Intermediate II down to Intermediate I . Or even scrap that and go to Runner’s World and create a 12 week program and kind start at square one again. After looking at the two schedules, I am pretty sure at a minimum I will go from the Intermediate II to a modified Intermediate I

I have to say, this whole Lupus thing has, for the first time ever, got me to slow down and listen to my body. I have to know when I truly don’t feel well vs. just not wanting to do something. The past two weeks I have felt like crap and instead of trying to tell myself ‘you are fine, just push through it’ I am now able to look forward and keep my excitement about my upcoming race. I am still tender but I am not landing myself on the bench! Oh! And PT on Friday – wonderful! He took it nice and gentle and the grinding in my neck has decreased, my constant headache is just annoying now and not painful!

Self Assessment

I am still waiting for answers, this sucks. I know they had my x-rays back on Wednesday, and the lab said most of the results are less than a 24 hour turn around. I have an appointment on the 27th but that is over a week and a half away (and if it is anything other than ‘you are perfectly healthy’ I don’t want to hear it on my birthday!). “The results are sitting on the doctor’s desk and blah, blah, blah” Get them off the doctor’s desk and tell me what the hell is going on! Sorry, this is really getting to me! I will know my x-ray results this afternoon because I told the doc’s office that my PT wants a copy (well, he does!) luckily I see him this afternoon.
I am going to try to head out for some miles this weekend. If I was the whole way, fine! I plan on taking it nice and easy, if I can run a little bit without hurting I will do so. I just have to get out and get moving, the stationary bike SUCKS! According to my training schedule I have 7 miles on Saturday and 10 miles on Sunday. I will do what I can and not worry about the rest, if I need to down grade my training plan I will. I am not going to kill myself just to get my miles in. If need be I will train to WALK the races. It is all about having fun.
On a sort of unrelated note, it is Self Assessment time at work. One of my greatest qualities is my attitude/personality. I am always happy go lucky and willing to help anyone and everyone. This past year, Jose has been in the ER twice, urgent care twice, a ton of other things going on. Cuervo has been to urgent care once, had a run in with the cops/paramedics/firemen. My grandfather passed away. I found out there is a very good chance I have lupus, my back went nuts (right in the middle of trying to get a proposal out), my baby girl (canine) died… The list goes on and on, yet somehow I have managed to keep my happy go lucky façade at work even though all I really want to do is break down and cry or scream or tell certain individuals where to shove it! My supervisor (officially she has no right being a supervisor, but my official supervisor has put her in that position) didn’t even realize I was even in any pain when my back went out until I called her and told her I had been put on bed rest until further notice (most of my co-workers saw/commented how stiff I was). I do have to say, this woman is very oblivious about what is going on unless it directly affects her. I understand that is how some people are, I am just not that way. I also have the ability of getting stuff done fast because I have gotten to know people and they are more often than not more than happy to help me. My work signature block quote says Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle ~James M. Barrie you also never know when you might need their help! Plus it is just plain better to be nice to people!

The waiting game

My shoulder was feeling a little bit better yesterday, that was until I went for my one stop shopping at x-ray and the lab! They took somewhere around 20 shots of my neck, back and shoulder. I got called back, I was told to undress from the waste up and put the gown on opening to the back (you gotta love hospital gowns!), I went in and she started positioning me, moved my hair and told me I had to remove my earrings! Mind you, my ears have a ton of piercings in them but I do not wear earrings in my lower holes. I have an industrial, my helix, tragus and daith all done! I wanted my rook done, but I have to many blood veins so it can’t be done! Then I told her when she does my shoulder I will have one more to remove, I thought the poor woman was going to have a heart attack! I went in there in my work clothes (professional), ok I did have my flip flops on (I rarely wear my work shoes outside of work). When she came to take a x-ray of the top of my spine she asked if I had my tongue pierced, I used to! Yes, I am a little bit of a wild child! I have five tattoos and I plan on getting a few more! For the record though, one of them is Betty Boop on a 1940 style bicycle, wearing a 1940 style swimsuit and running shoes!!!! I got her for my triathlons and when I have earned my M dot tattoo, she gets one too! All of my tattoos are covered (for the most part) when I am at work. While I am doing all this Jose is walking from school (it is only one big block away). I get back into the dressing room and I shoot Jose a text letting him know I am getting dressed and he replies he is outside. I walk out of the dressing room and there he is sitting quietly and patiently! We go a few feet to the lab and he starts helping me put all the jewelry back into my ears (I took care of the other one all by myself, thank you very much!), I get called back just as we were trying to put one in. They stole four tubes of blood from me! Don’t they know I need that blood too? The nice lab lady said most of the labs will be done that night. I really hope I get good news. Ok, I hope they figure out what is going on and it is good news; I know, I am picky. It feels like today will be another bike day (maybe a walk), but that is ok. I am training for a fun race! I WILL listen to my body this time around and I will cross the finish line without being in tears from pain.


Hourglass image obtained from http://api.ning.com/files/yesER6QmymDkMh9yNC1SWWXeDaMxbty2QY-XZ1vOOUvwPcXA4OX3-b6IEThAXM8dglKJ5MrMfFHthPhm5vWGVVXcepnY3jHm/hourglass1.jpg

A Beauty Weekend

Believe it or not I took everyone’s advice and did not even look at my running shoes this weekend. I did however get my nails and hair done!
Saturday was Pawtober Fest 5K, I had planned on running it but instead I slept until 10 am! I got up, went and got my nails done, started on my hair (I color my own hair). While I was still putting the primary color in I get a call from my parents letting me know that they are back in town with my boys, but they are having car problems. They stopped to get something to eat so they don’t need my help for about an hour. Perfect! I finish with the first step, grab my sister and away we went (with our little portable battery charger). We get to where our parents and my children are, my dad hooks up the charger to the battery (I have an thing about electricity), and my mom starts the car with no issue. As good children, we follow my parents to their mechanic, just in case! We get there, my mom asks for help backing into a parking spot (which translates to ‘someone else back my car into the parking spot’), so I hop in and park. I shut off the car, get out and try to lock it, guess again! It is dead again! I vote it is the alternator or crap in the gas tank, but what do I know. After spending another few hours driving them everywhere they needed to go to get everything taken care of so they could leave the car with the mechanic I was finally able to go home!
Sunday, my sister and I were good children again and saved my parents $90 an hour for a plumber and replaced their kitchen faucet for them. Ok, when I got home I had to take a vicatin and then a flexural, but my mom is happy she loves her new (working) faucet!
Today I did 10 miles on the bike, I might go for a walk during soccer practice, but then again, I might not! Taking it slow!

Headed in the right direction?

Yesterday afternoon I went for my annual checkup with my primary doc. She has finally got me on meds for the lupus(?), I will be getting an x-ray of my back to see “how much arthritis” I have in my back, I really wished she had said “if” instead of “how much” cause quite frankly I am too young to have arthritis! Since she is pretty sure she won’t see what all is needed in the x-ray the next step will be an MRI. She is sure I have a connective tissue disease/auto-immune disease, she is still leaning towards lupus, but she wants to run more tests and I go back on the 27th at which point I will ask to see a rheumatologist. She was happy to hear that I backed out of New York (I am still upset about that one), but she thinks as long as I take it gently I will be ok to do my next race.
On the subject of races, I will not be doing Pawtober Fest this weekend, my shoulder has been to mad at me. While at physical therapy the PT doc asked what I was planning for this weekend and I told him a 7-milers and a 14-miler. He asked me to please take it easy this weekend. As much as I am sitting here grumbling about it, I think I will take Saturday off and see about a short easy run on Sunday (ok, might hit the incline go up slowly and come back down the trail slowly) – depending on how I feel! This week will be chalked up to a recovery week and I will start again on Monday.

To Cool!

I follow a number of blogs, primary running/triathlon. Heather posted a giveaway blog about medal hangers (yes, I actually mead medal, as in racing medals!). I don’t know about everyone else, but I have medals everywhere! I have eight hanging up in my cubical at work and a whole much more in my underwear drawer at home because I have no idea where to put them! I tried to remind my sister that my birthday is coming up at the end of the month! But who knows! Anyway, you might want to check out the giveaway and if I don’t win, hopefully one of you are lucky enough to win one!

I survived another visit to PT!

Well, PT went better than expected! I was not told to get on the hand bike, I was not lectured, I was not tortured (to much). My PT doc is a little worried about this slip back and the fact that when he tested my strength I was half of what I was when I started! I told him it was because I went swimming yesterday! I am sticking to that one! He asked about RA and I reminded him my doc was thinking more like lupus; either way, not good!
I found a website about marathon cross training. I am hoping my shoulder starts liking me again soon, but I am not going to sit still until it does! I think I will be looking at the cycling idea for a few days and see where I am at. Obviously, I will not be getting anywhere near the areo position!

Marathon cross training is a great way to stay in shape should you need to take time off from running due to an overuse injury or if the weather does not allow you to run. If the weather is bad and you have access to a treadmill, then you should run on the treadmill. Following are some great marathon or half marathon cross training exercise for marathon training. Remember though, running is by far the most beneficial exercise when training for a marathon. You should not expect to be able to finish a marathon by just cross training.
The big difference is these exercises eliminate the constant pounding your legs experience by running. Just use these exercises as needed due to injury or bad weather. Marathon cross training is a great way to maintain conditioning during injury recovery.
• Cycling
Cycling is great because it works your legs and cardiovascular system while taking away the constant pounding your legs experience while running. This is a great exercise to use if you experience shin splints and need to take time off from running. To determine how long you need to cycle, multiply the estimated running time for the day’s training by 1.5 and cycle for that amount of time in place of the run. Stretch after the exercise just as you would after a run.
http://www.marathonrookie.com/marathon-cross-training.html


I go back to my normal doc later this week and then back to PT on Friday! Hopefully I am headed back in the right direction!

Oops!

I think I am going to get in some serious trouble when I go to PT today! Yesterday I did three miles on the elliptical machine and my shoulder ended up a little pissy, but nothing major. So I went for my weekly swim after work… I was ok until I was about half way done. Breathing to the right was really aggravating it (I alternate left only, right only, both), but did I listen? NOPE! I thought maybe I could stretch it out. I did try breaststroke, that lasted for all of three strokes – there was NO question about the aggravation level on that one! I got home, took Tylenol and put on a heating pad (thank you Therma Care!) ate dinner and called it a night. This morning I am still hurting so I took a look at what was on the books for the week.
On the books ************Planned *************might have to do
Monday – X training******3 + 1500y swim*********3 + 1500y swim
Tuesday – 3***************** 7 ************************Rest
Wednesday – 7 **************3 *************************3
Thursday – 3 ****************7 *************************7
Friday – 0 *******************0 *************************7
Saturday – 7 *****************3.1 (Pawtober Fest 5K) *****3.1
Sunday – 14 ******************14 ***********************14

We shall see!

Finished Week 4!!!!

I had a great ‘race report’ and ‘race review’ write up, but my computer ate it! I will try again!
I am going to see if I can find it, but if I can’t then I will retype the whole thing! I can say I PR’d (but then again, this was only my second 10K and it was a pretty flat course!) I will say, without a shadow of a doubt, this was an awesome race!
This entire weekend seemed to by my bad luck with electronics weekend. Saturday (at the race) my Nike+ sensor decided it didn’t now want to work (no big deal). Right before Mile 6 I looked down at my Garmin and saw a blank screen. ARE YOU SERIOUS??? When I started the race I had a 56% charge, which should have been fine! When I got home I plugged it in and it said I had a 34% charge, then why the hell did you die on me? Sunday, I got up, got to my long run start, again, my Nike+ sensor decided it didn’t want to work, my watch was fully charge and I was ready to go. Mile 9.something I iPod went nuts on me. So I finished off the remainder of my 13 miles with no music (for my long runs right now I run a song, walk a song). I finished my run, but I was a little miffed!
I have now completed a month of training; I completed 95% of the training miles. I only have 3 more months to go! Yes, I am overly excited!
I went to my pain and torture appointment on Friday and I told the doc that my shoulder blade has been pissy, so after my neck massage (ok, it isn’t a neck massage, he is trying to get my spine to loosen up and sometimes it does hurt!) I told me to roll on my side and started messing with my shoulder blade. As soon as he started on my shoulder he started making noises. You know, it is never a good thing when a PT (doc or therapist) make those types of sounds! I asked him if I had a really bad knot back there or something and he told me that my scapula is stuck! WHAT? He explained that he should be able to put his fingers under my scapula (he won’t use shoulder blade cause it isn’t the correct term!) but he can’t do it on that side. So he messed with it for a while. Luckily there was a fish tank within my line of sight otherwise I am sure I would have been in tears. That hurts, I know he was trying to be gentle, but ouch! Part of my would like an x-ray of my back just so I know what the hell is going on back there, but right about now I really don’t want to hear more bad medical news. I can only take one bad thing per year. The thing is, I can swim just fine. I can run fine, so I think ignorance is bliss right now!

September

I didn’t want to post this until I could post a full report. So here is my report!
My 30-day challenge had some issues along the way…
30 Day Challenge:
Sodas out – FAIL!
Completed at least 90% of training mileage – YES! GOT IT! (got 100%!!!)
Miss no more than two P90X workouts – FAIL! But in my defense PT and marathon training in addition to P90X plus issues with children not the greatest combination!

More importantly…
I lost a whole 3 pounds this month which for the record I blame my trip to Taco Bell!!! (I lost nothing this week but my total weight loss to date is 12.4 pounds)
Mileage for September is 91.26 – goal mileage for the month… 91 miles (mind you, not all of the miles are truly pounding the pavement, enough of them are elliptical machine miles – my doctor begged me to keep the pounding down as much as possible so I have traded a run or two mid-week runs in for elliptical machine workouts)

Next month goals:
Keep up the weight loss (no matter how slow it may be)
Books show 164 miles for October… school starts for me again on Tuesday so I am shooting for the at least 90% again.
Track everything I eat!
Swim at least once a week

Oh! And it turns out I am racing tomorrow! Hey, I have a 6 miler (pace) on the books, this is a 10K for a good cause, so why not!