Felt like a marathon training week

This week was a complete success. I had some 'failures' if you will or I'd like to call them areas for improvement ;-)
I started off the week with a run at the park. I picked a random training run for my upcoming marathon-although training doesn't officially start until February. It was a 2 mile warm up, @ mile 7:30 pace, and a 2 mile cool down. I didn't exactly hit my 7:30 target which was surprising to me since I'm close to that with my 5k pace, welps I'll just have to try that again.

One birthday down

One birthday down and one to go! We have two December babies, then Christmas. Typically I didn't get the Christmas tree until after Allison's birthday which is the 17th in order to keep the two separate, but that puts way too much pressure on me to get everything done in just a week. Combine that with my work and running schedule = high anxiety. I am a perfectionist overall.

So this year we changed it up and I'm very happy with the results. 

Staying focused

Even on our Florida trip I was on point. I ate really well and was able to get a few short runs in. I was actually under my calorie goals on Thanksgiving day!! Running in the am is like cheating My fitness Pal into giving you more food for the day.  Unfortunately the following day I went over, mostly due to movie popcorn and some fajitas...totally worth it! Being in the car all day gave me a lot of time to think about my goals. I cant even imagine running  marathon right now let alone at Boston qualifying speed. These thoughts are not allowed in my head. I choose to acknowledge them and move on.
I didn't quite accomplish my November goals, so I decided to make a small adjustment.

Holiday week

What a great holiday week we had!
I'm so sad around the holidays most years that I'm so far away from my family. I'm extra greatful this year we were able to load up my household and join the clan in Florida.It really is very hard dealing with divorce and two seperate households when it comes to the kids but sometimes things just work out and I am super lucky for that.

We went to Legoland and had a blast riding all the coasters and hanging with the cousins.

This certainly primed us  up for Disney Land next summer!

20 hours trapped

We are brave… or stupid? I think I’ll go with brave. 

We like a challenge. So here we go! 

From Syracuse, NY to Lakeland, Florida with two little ones in the back seat.

Week-recap

So last post was my 40th!! My husband recognized it as a mile stone right away and made this:

In the shape of a shoe!

What's the point?

Lets get back to the purpose of this blog...insert long pause. As I contemplate the meaning of that sentence, I realize everything that I've written about so far is EXACTLY the purpose of this blog. My intentions were to write about running and strength training and the journey to fitness. The struggles of greatness. I feel like so far I've been more focused on my injury, then my illness, rather than my running success. As I write this, I realize if the path was easy than everyone would do it.

I think my success is: not ever giving up; even better I never even thought of giving up.I've always thought how can I get past this and get back to running? How can I optimize my schedule to get more out of my day, my week, my month? What else can I read? Who can I talk to about running? (it turns out EVERYONE) What can I do to be the best?

So I think it's time to reflect on my successes over the year despite these setbacks:

Fastest 5k

24:28 7:46/mile

The devil in my stomach and its set backs

I've had a rough couple of weeks. My stomach issues are becoming more prominent and unrelenting. I guess it all started back in August when I felt the need to indulge in a little fried food. You know the late night hunger devil, cheese sticks, onion ring kinda sampler. Well, I paid for it by awakening with some cold sweats, angry stomach pains and ending with vomiting up all the deliciousness. This happened again the following night, although I don't really remember what I ate. This does happen sometimes, I do have a sensitive stomach when it comes some things and I consider myself a decent puker...this certainly doesn't make it any better. Well it happened again a couple weeks later, this time burger king, again I don't typically eat that type of food and am definitely paying for it. Lesson learned.
Hmmmm, more and more 2am is the witching hour and its really getting annoying. I like my sleep, who doesn't? My breaking point was the night before the Niagara Falls Marathon. This time I ate salad with a piece of grilled salmon on top. Certainly not anything bad. Jeepers, 2am strikes again! This time I didn't get up I didn't want to waist my precious food energy, for I have a race in the am. After about a 1/2 hour of pain I finally fell back asleep. This was followed by daily vague nausea with the occasional right upper abdominal fist sized pain under my ribs. I called my GI doc and got in right away. He says he thinks its my gall bladder and order up some tests. Unfortunately these weren't going to be completed til 3 weeks later. In the meantime I might wither away and die (super dramatic, I know). I complained to my medical director at the hospital and he got me in at the end of the week. Sometimes who you know DOES make a huge difference. The right upper quadrant ultrasound was normal and the Hida scan which tests function was also normal. Not the gall ladder = no surgery which makes me relieved. So now what? I'm not eating right. I'm sticking to the food groups of soup, tea, bread, and veggies.

This blurry week

Now that I'm getting back into the running scene, I'm learning to ease back in. I was pretty sore after that half marathon so I called Sarah right away for a massage. By Wednesday I felt ready to run again. I'm very fearful that I'll  re-injure myself so I held off. I met with Brent and he worked on strengthening my hips some more. He gave me some homework and I'm ready for the challenge. My plan is to work up 20 miles/week and start training for my training...I get so excited.

I met up with my friend Tracie who is an awesome long distance runner. We caught up while we ran 8 miles with an over all 8:40 pace.

Birthday-Marathon weekend!

What a weekend.
I took a couple days off of work just prior to my planned marathon. Since I dropped to the 1/2, I felt as if I won the lottery. I didn't really need the days of rest prior to a 1/2 but I enjoyed every minute. Allison had a surprise half day on Thursday which was very stressful timing wise. I schedule each day to the precise minute. This was the plan: wake up, make breakfast for the the girls, clothes, hair, make lunch,double check backpacks. Oh yes and coffee for me. Walk Allison to school then come home and play with Laureate. Drive her to school, head across town to work out with Brent. Speed back to pick up Laureate then Allison....Then the half day creeps in and wham-How do I juggle that? First I thought it must be a mistake. I have all the days off and half days in the calendar so how'd this one get missed? So I called the school...yup 1/2 day. Dismissal is at 12:10. What are the options?Cancel with Brent? Nope-can't with less than 24hr notice. Have someone else pick up Allison? Nope-husbands out of town, sitter has an appointment. Well I made magic happen and picked up Allison from school a 1/2 hr early to make it to Brents on time, and just then he calls and slides me into a 5:15pm spot. All that chaos and it seemed to have worked out. So Allison and I have a couple free hours alone-this is a precious rarity.

Marathon Obsessing

We have arrived...Its marathon weekend. Its something I've looked forward too all summer. The training, the not training, the thought of never running again, the running again, the honor and privileged to be able to downgrade to the half, the sadness of not running with my two favorite partners, the happiness that they can still be together. The panic when Julie says she wont be able to go, the sadness of all her training being wasted. the joy of having Phil run with me again. Its been a process of up and down emotions.

Since none of us were able to run a marathon this year, we are eager to sign up for another.After obsessing over the perfect marathon to sign up for, I have made the decision…Its so exciting huh?

I was debating, for exactly a month, between the Rock n Roll D.C Marathon,

 

Just another day

I'm well taken care of even when my husbands out of town!

It was Julie's and Christians Anniversary, so I offered up my babysitting skills so they could have dinner alone. Without a second thought they took me up on it. I got home from work on time for once and had some alone time with laureate-I swear she soaks up every minute. We headed to the school to pick up Allison and had a lovely walk home.

 Even though she is 7 going on 13 she still holds my hand every so often. I'm never letting go. 

My two favorite transformers

I had my third visit with Dr. Gomez, and confessed my ambitious running over the past 5 days. I showed him where the pain was and he could feel the hard bulge right away. I laid face down in the usual fashion and closed my eyes. It's so relaxing after a long day of work, to just be. He began rubbing my shoulders finding all the sore spots along the way and then up my neck. "Have you been having headaches?", he asks. "Nope, I mutter as I’m totally relaxed." "Well your neck is out," and snap, he pops it right back in. Ooooh that’s much looser, I had no idea. He works his way down my back with a million snaps along the way. Now onto that darn leg. He finds the spot right away and I wince. He rubs it with strong long strokes and then says, I’m going to do this 3 times. I held my breath and my eyes filled with tears…Ouch. #1 done and onto #2, I’m not ready but here we go I brace myself and take a deep breathe in. For the love of god is he trying to break it? And before I could process more than that we are on #3. He’s done I’m in shock and he rubs the whole calf fast and it becomes all warm and happy again. 

The next day the typical pain is gone but definitely sore to touch. I’m sure I’ll have a bruise. He says I'm doing great and can only come back on an as needed basis.

Starting off too fast?

I absolutely love that I'm able to run again! Just two weeks til my marathon, well my downgraded 1/2 Marathon!! Its so exciting that I get to run at all. I did ten miles at an easy 10 min pace with my favorite running partner Julie.

Perspective

I've been so consumed by my own schedule and my injury and trying to solve my problem that I haven't been in touch with my favorite blogger that I follow. So after a month or so hiatus, I checked up on her. I know she has a marathon coming up and her goal was to hit a sub 3hr marathon....super amazing right?! I'm sure she's getting excited.
I had a free moment and logged on. Oooh nooo!! I found out she's sick. She had some GI issues, bad enough to prevent her from running. All that training all that hard work and just like that she's out of the race. My heart broke. My eyes welled up and my breathing quivered. I continued to read and she's all positive thoughts, full of inspirational optimism . Her training wasn't a waste because there's another race, at another time, that she will run, after she's healed and better.
I immediately thought of myself and my shin problems. The roller coaster of emotions I have felt throughout this process came to light. My goals and aspirations were put on hold, and although it has been quite frustrating, it has been even more enlightening. My leg is healed and it's time to start training again. I found the problem and am able to fix it. And she will too.

Finally this injury is paying off...and Fall is the best.

Annnd this is why I absolutely love fall:
Finally we have a weekend free. We had an impromptu fire at our house last night. Set up an open invitation for any and everyone to come join us. This ended up being our favorite family of 8, The Johnson's and  3 other groups of friends. The kids played hide and go seek in the dark, glow sticks made it extra fun. Had caramel dipped apples, and of course s'mores! Besides the caramel covered windows and door handles, I call this a success.
We woke up with Saturday morning snuggles and I knew the day would be great. After breakfast we started a new chore routine, we'll see how it works. I put the various chores in a bowl and had everyone pick. Allison picked vacuum, Laureate picked laundry (lucky for her it was already washed and folded-she just had to put it away), Phil picked bathrooms, and I got dusting! I feel like I won that transaction. In about 45mins the house was beautiful. Hopefully next week will be just as easy.
I have fond Saturday morning memories cleaning the house while my mom danced around to blasting music.

Since we are being spontaneous, how about a trip to the apple orchard?

Crack me up

My journey with Brent continues...
On our first visit he gave me the name of a Chiropractor that he works closely with and suggested I see Dr. Gomez right away!
I don't think I have to remind you that finding time is difficult for me. As with a lot of things I don't necessarily want to do, I tend to procrastinate. Then I get a very direct text from Brent...

So I did. I try and squeeze in appointments without the girls in tow, because life is so much easier when you don't have to be 'on mommy duty' in a doctors office. However, this time I had no choice. If I wanna continue down this path towards success then I must listen and do as I'm told, for once in my life. (It only took 34ish years mom!)
Per my normal routine, I ran out of the hospital to grab the kiddos from school and headed straight to Dr. Gomez. There was lots of complaining in the backseat, What appointment? How long is it going to take? Why cant we just stay home? (Alone? not a chance). Clearly my choices to better myself have terrible effects on my kids.
So I did what any good mother does, I whipped out the secret weapon (Nabi, and Nabi Jr) to appease the incessant whining. Just to seal the deal I followed it up with, if you're good we can go out to dinner. YaaaaY!!! One picked McDonald's, she always does, and the other picked Applebees,  which completed our transaction.

Dr. Gomez was all smiles, clearly he has kids because he wasn't phased by the girls shenanigans...the Nabies didn't work this time. They were much more interested in spinning in the cool Dr.s chair or using the foot massage or getting water from the water cooler. Lets just say we got through it.

Stolen pic from internet!

It's as exciting as Christmas!

The past couple of mornings have been good for my soul. Super cool, clear skies, invigorating scent. Fall is happening. It's a shame I only get a few moments to enjoy it while walking up the hill to the Hospital. This is my favorite time of year!! You literally get to choose between cool running mornings or hot running days because it easily fluctuates between 60-80.
I just looked up the weather for the Adirondack Ragnar this weekend and felt the chill...low of 39 at night?! Get real.

Random thoughts on a Sunday

Why you should ALWAYS carry a knife!

Do what Brent says...

As I've outlined in Gah!
I've turned to Brent for all my healing needs. He discovered my issue right away with my functional movement assessment. This is what he had to say:

You need to build your strength. You're training program isn't progressing through using a traditional training approach. Training stress (volume and intensity) were not appropriately following a progression curve supported by your structured strength program in order to prepare your body to handle the demands of subsequent training. MTSS is a repetitive stress disorder - the stress is originating from three very probable sources:

1) Biomechanical deficiencies due to sub optimal muscle strength and imbalances in core stability and function (see below (oblique slings) 

2) Inadequate recovery from training bouts and life 

3) Less than optimal programming - need to periodize the training better (translation - poor training habits) 

You must exhibit functional fundamental movement and realize that entry level strength is imperative to the goals of your training program. Strength is the master quality.
 If you want to run fast and pain free then be strong.

Laureate Eiffel

I've been at my dads for a long weekend. I drop my big sister off to school and scoot on over to mom's house! She's waiting out front for me, and greets me with a big hug and a bunch of kisses all over my face...she does this a lot. I grab my favorite stuffie bag and march into the house. I bring my blankie-freshly washed and smelling good, up to my bed and am greeted with this:

A much deserved long weekend.

We hopped in the car and made the 12hr trek to Wilmington NC. 

Happy Anniversary

It all started at a race. I met my future husband at a trail run with our friend Kevin...Thanks Kev! He was fast, energetic and super nice. I didn't know then that that day would change both our lives. It wasn't that specific day in December but many months later that we grew closer. 

We were training for the Tough Mudder in May of 2012.

Back to school

This was a super busy week for us. The hubby and I are going out of town for a long weekend, this means we have to cram a weeks worth of stuff in three days, also SCHOOL STARTS!

It's Fair time!

Summer is officially coming to an end.... How do I know? The New York State Fair!

This is annual tradition for us. We get the 'ride all day' wrist bands and go to town. Laureate has grown so much in the past year that she is able to go on most of the big rides that Allison enjoys.

We cant get enough of this crazy mouse.

Gah!

How can you be so frustrated when this is your view??!

Be creative

When you don't have 'time' to train...Be creative! I rushed home from work to spend the last 45 mins with my girls before they left for dads for the next two days. We did some playing and cleaning and with a blink of the eye they were off.

I changed out of my scrubs into my running gear and blasted the music from my shuffle.

Lets talk food

We aren't always great at sticking to our diets, but when you have the support I do, It makes it really easy...

This is what I come downstairs to in the morning.

Become a Warrior

If your bored of the traditional 5K, looking for a new challenge, something to test more of your strength and fitness. Or are you just a big kid longing for an adult jungle gym covered in mud...then this is for you! 

We signed up for the warrior Dash with The Spagnola's. The closest one to us was about 3hrs away in Pennsylvania, but I didn't mind the drive. 

We planned this adventure before my injury, so I was a little nervous about how my leg would hold up throughout the obstacle courses. I came prepared with Ibuprofen (I know its almost like cheating) and my awesome compression socks. My belly gets super nervous before any race, I'm not sure why, but it happens every time. I need to find the closest bathroom 15mins beforehand-which is typically a set of porta potties and runners in their various matching outfits. 

The pre race photo is a must.

oh and this one

Groups of people go out in waves, so that the course doesn't get too crowded. The music is loud, it definitely pumps you up! People are cheering and dancing and high fiving before we even start. The announcer comes over the loud speaker to count us down-the crowd joins in, 3,2,1 ...and we are off in a fire blasting start...more cheering, more screaming, super exciting. There are different fitness levels of the participants which makes the trails not very crowded, some are super fast and incredibly fit and some are walking and totally in it for the obstacle challenge... we were on the high end of the spectrum. The trails became muddier as we progressed through and the choice of to get muddy or to follow the crowd around the edge of the trail? This is what we came here for right? Plow right through the mud, I say! I bent down and grabbed a handful. As I began to throw it, I was caught....Phil gave me that look as if to say "You better be prepared for what you are starting" which would equal an all out wrestling match in the middle of the coarse...I was not prepared, I gently tossed it his way and got the back of his shirt a tad muddy and we moved on. We climbed over several wooden structures, scaled walls, trudged through mud mountains and pits, army crawled under barbed wire, walked the tight rope with cold water pouring in our faces, and finally climbed high to the largest wet slid EVER....that resulted in a mud bath (I forgot to plug my nose-blah!)...Then the fire jumping finally and a congratulatory beer.

 I chose PUMPKIN!!

 

They had a DJ on stage playing the latest and greatest, so we weren't surprised when a dance party ensued.

 

 

Lunch time!

All  in all a great Saturday.

My leg felt good and I was feeling pretty accomplished this week, so of course I wanted more...3 more miles! This time with my music and my watch. I've only been naked running since the injury (no electronics) to really give me a chance to listen to my body. I went out fast and kept up a decent pace, by 2.5 miles my leg started to ache and I realized I didnt have my compression sock on-they were way to muddy. I decided to end at 3 and walk home. I thought I made a huge mistake because my silly leg began to ache, my insides began to cry. As soon as I got home I iced it and wrapped it with an ace wrap-super tight. Took more Ibuprofen and prayed I didnt do too much.

Do you think my neighbors noticed all the mud in my hair?

How was your weekend?

Where are you at in your training?

Do you have any lingering injuries?

Friday funnzies

I've been working more 12hr shifts at the hospital. Since I'm in charge of the Np's and Pa's in the ICU, I'm supposed to be working 6am-2:30pm Monday-Friday. However, since we are short staffed and are expanding the ICU's, I've felt obligated to pitch in a ton more. I typically pick up an odd weekend or a slew of night shifts. With that being said, I've been able to take an odd weekday off here and there and be home with my kidos during the summer. This proves to be one of those days.

If you can catch a spin class with Laura at the north area YMCA on Fridays at 9:30 its a must!

I'm new at this blogging thing, so taking a photo of complete strangers-however amazing of a photo op it was-seemed creepy to me, so you'll have to deal with an obscure random set of bikes! But, it's definitely something to look forward too!

Since the kidos were so well behaved and didn't complain about "wasting time" in primetime at the Y, we headed to the playground...since when is a 4 yr old and 7 yr old's time so precious?

Why are kids so drawn to sand?...Eh-gives me time to read this months runners magazine before the month is actually over!!

 

Next up, our favorite lunch spot

Annnd you can't forget, its back to school time...My baby starts pre-school this year-I'll cry that day, a lot!

Since it is back to school time you simply mustn't go school clothes shopping until you've cleaned out your closets of all the clothes that have accumulated over the years. This took an hour and a half of "Are we done yet?" trying on outfit after outfit and surrendering them to charity.

I really do hate when the girls go to their dads, I know they miss him, but I miss them when they are gone. So I deal with this with a soul cleansing run, at one of our (mine and Phil's) favorite spots!
We met here and got engaged here..See the proposal video Now!

It's beautiful huh?

I look faster than I am, haha!

Where is your favorite place to run??

Have you been to spin class?