Patience is a virtue....

that I definitely do NOT possess.  Is being stubborn a virtue?  I have that in spades!

Foot surgery Dec 6th, half marathon January 26th...does that sound like a good idea to ANYONE?!?!  I went to the podiatrist on the 23rd for  my last post op check up and I said, "soooo can I run a race this weekend?"  My doctor who is on to my sneaky ways said, "How far is it?"  We played a little cat and mouse briefly until I finally muttered under my breath, "a half marathon" and he looked at me as though I had 4 heads.  After a lecture about scar tissue, not pushing too hard and patience I was told under no circumstances was I to run the race.

I was pretty devastated.  Not being able to run has not only been frustrating for me but also depressing.  Running is my release, it channels all my frustrations, stresses and helps me think through problems.  I'm addicted, I need it and when I don't have it I just feel off balance.  I guess if I was going to be addicted to something it is a good thing, but still really an addiction and this forced break has been very difficult for me.  I was crushed at the prospect of not running that race because I felt I NEEDED it.  I am doing the 9 plus 1, for those not in NYC that means run 9 New York Road Runner Races and volunteer once to qualify for the NYC 2015 marathon.  So I needed the race for my 9, I also had signed up with the intention of getting redemption from last year.

Saturday before I met up with J and after our sushi dinner we had some drinks, I had red wine and I must say all my great ideas come over a couple glasses of Pinot Noir these days.  We did the math and figured out exactly how fast I needed to walk to finish the race by the cut off and I can not even explain the high I got from deciding to do the race.  It was going to be freezing cold and I had the perfect excuse to sit home in my nice warm bed and here I was scheming ways to get out there and do 13.1 miles in 18 degree weather.  Who am I?  I'm not sure most people I grew up with would recognize me these days, I definitely do not look much different but athlete was never a word to describe me, more like scrawny :)  I think I may have even impressed my own little brother which let me tell you means more to me than most of my race medals (not the marathon medal I mean let's be real here!).

Sunday morning I got up, gave my foot a pep talk and then put on compression socks covered by wool socks and my running shoes.  I feel calm just putting on the shoes, relief washes over me and I feel as though I can conquer the world.  Several layers of under armour later I bounced out the door to Central Park.  It was cold but I swear I didn't even feel it at first I was just too excited and happy to be out there, adrenaline is a beautiful thing when used properly!  I gave J a fist bump and told her to kill it and then set out to "run" my race.  I lightly jogged the first mile, walked the second and kept that pattern for the first 8 miles.  This was an exercise in self discipline, keeping to a plan and not running myself into the ground.  I did not take any pain medicine pre-run because I wanted to feel the foot and know if I should stop.  About 8.5 miles in I ran into a woman who was limping and after talking to her it turned out she had hurt her IT band during the race.  We walked and talked, she called me an angel and said she was debating just quitting until she saw me.  In reality she was likely MY angel because I needed someone to slow me down a little and bring me back to my situation.   We ran across that finish line at 3 hours and 5 minutes.  Definitely not my best time, not my goal for that race at all but a powerful learning lesson, I felt so proud of myself and instantly more centered.  My foot was not impressed and required icing and elevation the rest of the day but I still didn't take any pain medicine so a win in my book!


Running: 20 miles
Biking:  2 hours
Swimming: 2400 m
Strength Training: 6 sessions

Surgery recovery Runs

The treadmill my arch nemesis helped me come up with a blog post today.  I normally always have a very active ongoing random thought trail going on during runs and today was no different.   I wanted to do an hour which should have gotten me a solid 6 miles but my foot had other plans.  About 20 minutes in it started to bother me but I wanted to see if I could push through for at least another mile/10 minutes.   I knew I was in pain and probably making faces but I wanted to see if it got worse or maintained.  

After I hit 3 miles I slowed to a walk to cool down and see if my foot could put up with a few more minutes.  It become pretty apparent that it just wasn't going to happen for me today so I gave up and did my stretching.  At that point a guy who had been helping a woman use weights came over, he was pretty clearly a trainer.  He asked me what injury I was rehabing and I am sure I gave him quite a look because he goes, "Well I could see your face in the mirror when you pushed out that last mile and you looked so determined but in pain."  I laughed and explained about my foot surgery and hope to do a half marathon next weekend.  At that point the woman on the treadmill next to me goes, "that explains it, I was confused why someone who looked like they were in such good shape wasn't doing an incline or going longer than 30 minutes."

Why do we as women feel the need to always judge each other and put down accomplishments of others.  When you are at the gym and see someone working out don't judge their distance or how much weight they are lifting, instead offer some encouragement maybe even just a smile that you know what they are going through.  Everyone is doing their own work out, bettering themselves it isn't for you to judge.  Don't judge their clothes or shoes or hairstyle, you have no idea their situation and what they had to go through to get to the gym that day.   It takes so much energy to be negative and way less to be encouraging and supportive.  We as women need to do.better, we should be proud of all the moms out there who take time for themselves, we should encourage the women who are trying to lose weight, we should never put down someone else's accomplishments. 

I'll get off my soap box now.  

Run: 10 miles

Swim: 2000 meters

Bike:

Strenth training: 4 sessions

Let's talk about FOOD, baby!

This is a blog topic I NEVER in a million years thought I would address.  In fact my first day with my trainer last year I said, "I will NEVER change my food, don't want to talk about it."  Luckily Rachel realized I was 1) super stubborn, 2) addicted to lucky charms and cherry coke and 3) dedicated and smart.   After my marathon I started thinking about nutrition and got a couple books including the Runner's World Cookbook and also a Nutrition for Triathletes book.  I don't eat terribly and I don't like to think about what I eat but I felt that my stomach/digestive system really failed me during the marathon and I wanted to start looking into it.  

My goal for the New Year was to start making an effort to change and be smarter about what I was eating in order to fuel my training properly.  Prior to the January I quit my cherry coke habit, only giving myself treats at the movies or once a week.  Wow was that hard, and apparently I am the only one in my building drinking it because they took it out of the soda machine!  My vacation to DR was the last time I had caffeinated soda until today, oh today.  My vendor took me out to lunch and we went to BRGR to get burgers and sweet potato fries and a Barqs root beer.  That's right after making such an effort to eat better today I decided sure I deserve a treat, hey a burger is protein and that is what I'm working to increase anyway.  Rationalization, it is a beautiful thing my friends.

Flash forward to 2 hours later and I was tired not not tired, EXHAUSTED, sluggish, miserable.  I did not equate it back to lunch I just figured it was a result of my late night up crafting my sister's shower invites.  I headed to the gym for my training session after downing a bag of peanuts for some protein/ kick in the butt, ok and my bag of skinny pop ( I LOVE IT).  After two rounds of a TOUGH work out I started feeling super nauseous as though I could throw up right there, even light headed and very over heated.  I had to cancel my planned swim because I felt I was so tired/feeling off I felt the swim wouldn't be beneficial.

Talking with Rachel I realized the only thing that was different today was my lunch, my juicy yummy burger, french fries and my root beer.  It was NOT worth it my friends and it screwed up my entire workout plan.  Now the work out I did today was really hard but I should have done better and been able to move straight to swimming.  No more jumping off the better eating bandwagon, especially on a planned double work out day.   When I say better eating I'm not talking a fad diet, clean eating, paleo, carb free, or any of the million other options.  I mean just thinking, taking a minute to plan more fresh fruits and vegetables, adding in protein more often and just making better choices, oh and still having my snack pack pudding for dessert at lunch!

Some Recipe Ideas:

Make Ahead Eggs (I have two of these for breakfast every morning)
PreHeat oven to 350 degrees and spray baking spray in all the cups of a muffin tray
-Crack an egg into each of the cups and add other ingredients as desired, bake for 15 minutes
(I have added ground beefs, green peppers, cheddar cheese, spinach...get creative! I recommend large eggs so they fill the cups but have enough space for add ins)
-Store in a tupperware for about a week or until they smell weird.

Quick N Creamy Chicken Lasagna Makes 12 servings  Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
15 Oven Ready rippled styled lasagna noodles (two 8oz boxes)
4 cups shredded cooked chicken       1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
12 oz cream cheese softended             1/2 cup chicken broth
4 cups marinara sauce (I used an entire jar of meat pasta sauce)    4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Adjust oven rack to the lower middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Put 2 quarts of hot tap water in a 13"x9" baking dish and add noodles soaking for 10 minutes or until soft.  Drain and put the noodles aside.

Combine the shredded chicken with basil, 8 ounces of cream cheese and 1/4 cup of broth.  In a small bowl, mix the remaining 4 oz of cream cheese with the rest of the 3/4 cup of broth.

To assemble, smear 1/4 cup of the sauce on the bottom of the baking dish, then assemble 4 layers in the following order: 3 lassagna noodles, pasta sauce, 1 cup of chicken filling, 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese, and 2 tablespoons Parmesan Cheese.  Once assembled, top the lassagna with remaining three noodles, the cream cheese broth mixture, 3/4 cup of mozarella and 1/4 cup parmesan.

Cover the lasagna with foil coated with cooking spray.  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until bubbly throughout.  Leaving the lasagna on the same rack, turn the oven to broil.  Remove the foil and broil for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the lasagna is spotty brown.  Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes then cut into squares.

Less than 5 months to Eagleman!!

The thought occurred to me this past week that the 5 month mark to June 8th had passed rather unceremoniously as I was sick and super busy at work this week.   If I am going to be completely honest with myself I am no where near where I planned or wanted to be but I think my expectations were unrealistic.   Recovery from surgery is taking longer than I anticipated and I need to step up the dedication after the holidays.   The goal is to swim four days a week, that needs to move from being a goal to a reality.  I need to be doing at least one spin class a week and hopefully getting some runs in addition to my two strength training work outs a week.  

I had foot surgery at the start of December which really threw off any work out plans for that month, essentially I am not that far behind as I intended to start training a month post surgery on January 6th.  My post op visit on Friday made the doctor happy and it continued to make me sad.  Turned out the cyst as not just on the tendon sheath but inside the tendon sheath so they had to go in and cut that sheath causing some extra recovery.  I am cleared to try running on the treadmill which I plan to attempt tomorrow.  If my foot swells at all I'm supposed to stop running but all I can think about is my half marathon scheduled at the end of the month.   Luckily it does seem that my work outs with Rachel are not really causing swelling at all although I need to get some new gym shoes as my current ones are a little worse for the wear.

Let's talk swimming!  Swimming is my weakest sport and it is extremely frustrating to me.  Today I went to a swim session at Riverbank State Park which has a very nice 50 meter pool facility.  Perhaps I have told you about my last experience at a 50 meter pool and if I have you get to hear it again.  Normally I swim in 25 meter pools but one morning Rachel and I got feisty and went to Chelsea which has a nice 50 meter pool and it was packed for lap swim.  Both slow lanes were FULL, the medium lanes were crowded but the fast lane only had two people in it.  After a vote of confidence from Rachel that I could do the fast lane I jumped right in with my goggles up on my swim cap and about three stokes down had a meltdown while trying to put my goggles on but did manage to swim all the way to the end where I got out quickly.   After that no more 50 meter pools for me, until today.  It does feel good to accomplish something that make me nervous before although accomplish might be a strong word.  I think I need to set smaller swimming goals and realize it is difficult for me and smaller goals will be more easily tangible to show success.  I am pretty sure that I never made it all the way down without at least pausing but I did do a ton of laps, I really need to break out my garmin and use it next time.  I rested between every single 50 meter swim, sometimes for a little while and most times just a few minutes.

I tried my hardest to breathe out while in the water, my brain has major issues with that but I think I did it better job today.  I got two AWFUL cramps, at different times in both calves.  I will be working to drink even more water and maybe even wake up early to foam roll before swim instead of the night before.  I just have no endurance at all when it comes to swimming and it is extremely frustrating but I was in awe today of women who actually have fears of the water getting in and swimming.  It is amazing to watch people overcome their fears and work to better themselves!   I'm so proud of each and everyone of them!

Only thing to do at this point is to get my butt to the pool and put in the time and effort to get better, no more whining about it only actions!


Running:
Biking:
Swimming: 1600 meters
Strength Training Workouts: 2

Hello 2014!

Welcome to 2014 the year of Ironman 70.3 training, learning to swim, learning to bike, improving my running times and eating better!

This post is a little late due to my fabulous trip to the Dominican Republic to kick off the New Year with my friend Shawna.  We had a rough 2013 and decided months ago that we wanted to start off 2014 in a big, happy, WARM way so we booked a few days at an all inclusive in Punta Cana.  It was amazing aside from the bugs and the whole having to leave part!

2014 is going to be a pretty big year for me, I can feel it and no that isn't just the spinning and weight lifting I did today.  My schedule is daunting, in fact so daunting that I am FREAKING out man!  I'm excited to accomplish not one but two Ironman 70.3 distance races this year but the level of training is going to be much more than I had for the marathon, mostly because biking and swimming are not strong sports for me even in the slightest.   J had always wanted to do a 70.3 and it took her a LONG time to convince me to do one, in fact she had given up and said I just had to come watch and cheer for her.

While pondering traveling and sitting on the sidelines for a race I started to recap 2013 in my head.  2013 was a pretty big year for me physically but more so personally.  I got divorced, I don't really talk about that much on social media and in fact I'm pretty sure while I have alluded to it I have never written out the word on Facebook or any other website.  Divorce is not a very easy topic to talk about and I feel it is super personal but I thought it important to mention in reference to why I've made some of the decisions I've made.   Running and working out at the gym gave me strength and became my own personal therapy to discover what I could accomplish and how much I could push myself beyond my limits.   Working out centered me while I sold my house, got an apartment in the city, moved and took my name back.  Getting divorced is never easy and everyone has to cope in their own way and just because working out was therapy for me does not mean that would work for everyone.

Phew, ok now we can move on, which is coincidentally is the theme of this year I guess!  I sat there and thought to myself, you NEVER thought you would get divorced or be able to handle it but look at you, you did.  To be clear, I have never been a swimmer, I clearly have never drown but I have never swam laps or really any distance.  The last time I rode a bike I crashed and had a HUGE bruise on my chin.  Knowing all those facts I decided to believe in myself and my dedication to learning and growing as a person and athlete and sign up for not one but TWO 70.3 Distances.

Now that you know how we got to this point can't wait to bring you along for the journey.

Total Distance: 0
Swim: 0
Bike: 0
Run: 0

*spin class is not counting toward bike totals
**Running will likely stay 0 until after my post surgical follow up Friday and it stresses me out but that is another post for another time

Turkey done? A Thanksgiving Turkey Trot Recap

My last race of the year was a five mile Turkey Trot in Brooklyn's prospect Park on November 28th.   JM and I did it together with a bunch of the BGR ladies and it was COLD, colder than FREEZING actually.

 All bundled up!

I didn't really have a goal for this race as it was less than 2 weeks post marathon and I hadn't done much running in this days.  I knew I should be able to do it in under 50 minutes based off my short distance pace so I thought ok let's try for that.  I knew that Prospect Park hill would be hard but I wasn't expecting a short 5 mile race to be an uphill battle the whole time.  As I said it was cold, I don't think I felt my toes until mile 2 and that did not help with my foot strike at all.  My legs felt like lead and my feet solid blocks of ice, I just felt heavy.   I ended up walking a lot, my foot was killing me, my IT band hurt and I felt like a complete frustrated failure.   After a stern talking to, if you haven't noticed I talk to my self A LOT while running I pulled it together and did some controlled walking.  

I actually did manage to finish in under 50 minutes because when I realized I was close enough to sprint and I had a chance I kicked in those after burners and sprinted like the wind.  I'm actually getting better at sprinting!

the very first race where my GPS watch didn't say I ran further than the race distance!

Turkey BLING!

I made myself a liar- A MARATHON race recap November 2013

You might recall after my very first half marathon several people said I should do a full and I stuck with several comments, the first being "I'm only half crazy."  The second, "No way, I'm NEVER doing a full marathon."  The third, "HAHAHAHAHA."

That all changed in March when my lovely best friend S decided that we should run the Richmond Marathon together for our 20 year friendship anniversary.  Due to personal reasons S ended up not being able to run the race, you can check her out on her blog, http://www.runshivyrun.com/.  My lovely friend in exercise and crazy ideas, J decided that even though she had just completed her first marathon 5 weeks before she was going to run Richmond with me and boy was I HAPPY.

The weather was pretty mild for November and we got up super early because S was running the 8K which started earlier.  As we were walking from the car it started raining and all I could think about was my wet socks.  I had brought a trash bag to wear as a little jacket to keep body heat in and it worked very well to keep the rain off at least part of me.  I was sadly very not prepared for rain, there was only a 10% chance of rain, I should have played the lottery!

Rocking my trash bag!

I was SO nervous at that point, all that I could think of was my wet socks and how I was going to definitely get blisters after 26 miles.  S's husband J came and I used his Ironman coat for a little while which definitely helped me warm up.   He left to go watch S cross the finish line and took back his warm coat and I was back to freaking out until J and M arrived to help calm me down.  We did our standard pee immediately before the did the start of the race and we were off.  We had a plan, a really good plan, we were going to rock this race.  The ground was wet and the manhole covers were a bit slippery and it was difficult to dodge the puddles but we had a good solid start.  The plan was the first 16 miles at 11:00 pace, then dropping to 10:30 for the end to get a nice negative split.  I kept repeating in my head the whole time, "run your own race, it doesn't matter that these people are passing you."

It rained a little at the beginning of the race but all in all the weather did improve and we had fun as evidenced by the professional pictures. 

Things were going really well in fact we had to really keep ourselves to pace because we would drift faster but we kept things to the plan.   My friend B and her daughter were off to the side before we crossed to the other side of the river and it was a great time to see a friend and throw my arm warmers at her, LOL.   I was feeling really strong and happy with our progress, the under part of the river was BEAUTIFUL but a little boring with not many people cheering.   Then we saw J and S and her sister right before we hit 16 and I fell apart completely.   I don't even know how it really happened but I took a GU and then got nauseous which happens to me frequently, throwing up while running is pretty automatic for me but I have gotten so much better.   It manifested itself into all kinds of GI issues and I started to literally have a complete and total meltdown.  We lost our fabulous consistent pace and I walked a little, then went to a porta potty but couldnt do anything, I tried to pull it together in there and I had told J to run ahead so I was able to catch up with her.  At the washcloth station I had mine on my forehead, J put hers on the back of my neck and I was so hot but had goosebumps, I'm telling COMPLETE meltdown.  THEN came the puking, three times over the course of about a mile or so.   I was so disappointed in myself and angry that I screwed up our plan.  

By mile 20 I was feeling better and we saw my family with all their signs, yay!  

Mom and my nephew with mom's sign!

At that point it was painfully clear that my goal of under 5 hours was likely not happening unless the last 10K was done in under an hour which as you know was my previous PR for JUST a 10K so the chances of that happening were zero.  We struggled with some IT band issues, both of us had trouble with the left leg I think due to the fact many of the streets were very slanted.  Over all that last part of the race was awesome cheering wise but pretty much all I could think in my head was how I had screwed up our goal.  It was a tough 6 miles mentally and physically but we did it.  Coming up towards the end everyone kept saying oh it is all down hill, in fact one guy said it even though a hill was RIGHT in front of us.  J yelled at him :)  In an absolutely amazing turn of events we actually saw S right before the actual all downhill finish.  I almost cried when I saw her I was so happy, it was perfect timing.  The finish was completely downhill and lined with people and the prevailing thought (after OMG I am finishing a marathon) was don't fall down the hill, don't fall down the hill.  I tell you running down hill is HARD and especially so on extremely tired legs.

As we ran down toward the finish I looked to the right and I saw my family and my mom was crying.  It was so amazing to have them see me run the race and get to the finish.   I have never been more proud or excited in my life. 

We DID it!!

The course was really great and it is called America's Friendliest Marathon for a reason.   The wall that I hit was worse than ANY other wall that I encountered in my training.  I was upset with my time from the very first glance at my watch because I know I trained to be better than 5:06.  It is truly a marathon not a sprint and it is an accomplishment to say I even finished but I want a redemption race.  Right now a redemption will be on the back burner due to Half Iron Man training and foot surgery recovery.