Category: Health

2013

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…is over.  And after the last month+ being mostly gray and gross, the first day of 2014 was pretty glorious by January in Kentucky standards.  Clear clear skies and mild wind.  Wintery glory.

And so, a day or three behind every other blogger out there (because that is how I roll), a brief 2013 recap:

Races:

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I did exactly one: the NYC ING half marathon in April.  Kind of a sad list considering the past few years, but this trip to New York was awesome and so was the run.

Chickens:

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…died.  And/or were killed by us (as humanely as possible) or wild animals.  Or at least two of them were.  One of them went to live on a big farm where she can run free and play with other chickens all day long.  No, seriously, she did.

Babies:

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Had one.  Was a little miffed that, although I delivered in August, in Kentucky, I was never offered a sufferin’ towel.

Garden:

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Pretty successful, if relatively uneventful, year for the garden.  Never found a better solution for turnips than mashing them up and serving with butter.

Kentucky:

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Still here.  Still kickin ass.  (Proof: here.)

To cap it all off, I celebrated NYE with Spike, Nerlens, and HH at home (Paul is still traveling for residency interviews) and took exactly two pictures to commemorate the occasion.

IMG_20140101_202854Nerlens making it really difficult for me to take advantage of some quiet time with my book

IMG_20140101_202744…and HH totally enthralled by Frances Ha.

Wow.  With all of these monumental events it’s a wonder this blog doesn’t have more traffic.

In summary, 2013 was a pretty great year for me on a personal level.  Looking forward to the next one, though.  Think it might be even better.

Happy 2014.

100 x 100

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In high school, the hardest swim practices of the year were always on Thanksgiving Day and New Years Eve.  These were the kinds of practices that you (or, at least, I) dreaded all year, the practices where I spent the entire night before tossing and turning in bed because I knew that 3-4 hours of god-awful torture awaited me on the other side of that alarm clock.

And being the empathetic coach that I am, I wanted to share that experience with my adult masters team.

Sundays, at 2 hours, are our longest workouts of the week (early morning practices are only 90 minutes).  So I generally use Sunday mornings to get in a little extra yardage, usually somewhere between 5000-5500 yds (weekday mornings usually hover around 4K).

Earlier this year, as a throwback to the club swimming years, I thought it would be a great idea to shoot for a challenge set towards the end of the year.  I had planned to gradually build yardage on Sundays throughout the fall until, at the last workout before the holiday break, we’d reach the pinnacle set of 100 x 100s–for a total of 10K (math skillzzz)–and everybody would enter the holiday season in a wild blaze of glory.  Great plan.

Well.  Turns out this negligent coach hasn’t coached at all since September.  Which means that the masters team has not been building up yardage as originally planned.  In fact, I don’t even know if they’ve been doing the full 5,000 on Sundays.

But I had mentioned the set to the head coach and Allison a while ago, and both of them loved the idea.  And so, despite the lack of preparation, we got the OK to use the pool for an extra hour and decided to push ahead and do the set.

The set (this version largely stolen from Hillary Biscay, with a few minor adjustments):
*b = your base, so if your base is 1:30/100, b+5 is 1:35, b-5 is 1:25

Warm up
3 x 100 @ b+15
3 x 100 kick/drill by 25 @ b+20
2 x 100 @ b +10
2 x 100 @ b

8 x 100 swim @ b+30
25 sprint/25 stroke easy/50 easy

7x:
2 x 100 @ b+5
2 x 100 @ b
2 x 100 @ b-5

2 minute break to regroup, drink some water, etc

6x:
5 x 100 pull or swim (your choice) @ b+5, descend 1-5
# 5 on these should be FAST

5 x 100 @ b+20
25 sprint/25 stroke easy/50 free easy

5 x 100
50 kick/50 easy swim @ b+30

So this past Sunday we went for it.  And by “we” I mean Allison and one other swimmer finished the whole set.  (I, personally, had not been in the water in over 2 months and jumped in on the 7 x (6 x 100s) on a base of 1:25 and did *most* of that sub-set.  I had to make a few of the 100s 50s when I started losing feeling in my arms.)

Even though most swimmers didn’t finish the whole set, a huge number stuck through 6, 7, 8K of the workout said that it was the longest swim they had ever done in their lives.  So…success.

I was actually pretty bummed I couldn’t do the whole set.  Might have to give this another try in the spring.

Squirrels Gone Wild

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Flying Squirrel 1

A few days ago I was booking it home on the final stretch of a run (Paul was starving and wanted to make something called Meatball Nirvana) when something very large fell from the sky and landed on the sidewalk about a foot in front of me, causing me to scream and throw myself onto a nearby lawn.

When I was in high school we were standing on the deck of the pool one afternoon when a dead seagull fell out of the sky and landed right next to my sister. Honest to god. It was one of the weirder things I’ve ever seen happen in my life.

What almost landed on me during my run was not a seagull.  Obviously.

You know how squirrels make those death-defying leaps between trees 20 feet up and somehow always seem to make it?  Well, this one didn’t.  I have never seen that happen before.  Amazingly, it was fine.  It stood there stunned for a second, looked at me, then turned in a few frantic circles before it scampered back up the tree to probably do exactly the same thing.  Because squirrels are stupid.

I spent the rest of the run wondering if squirrels carry rabies and what would have happened if I were a faster runner and the squirrel had landed on my head.  I’ve had a bird attack my head before while running (true story, ask Paul, he was there) but never a mammal.  The perils of running.

P.S. Picture via here…a website called News for Squirrels.  Really.  How much news can there be.

Twice the fun

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IMG_20131106_112028I went for my run a little later than usual this morning, and the crossing guards for the local elementary schools were out.  They guarded me when I was crossing, which I thought was hilarious (because I’m not 3 feet tall) but also made my day.  It’s the little things.

The trees are out in full force.

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And leaves rain down on you.

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Paul is interviewing for residencies right now, and there’s a chance we’ll be back out in CA next year.  I think about that on these runs.  If we do move, I will miss running here this time of year.  A lot.

IMG_20131106_111259Speaking of running in the bluegrass, Margaret just sent me an email and let me know that she has registered…

Run the Bluegrass

…for Run the Bluegrass at the end of March!  Guess that means two races for me this spring.  I AM SO EXCITED!

Dark ‘n’ Stormy

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IMG_20131031_113953“Watching” the World Series.  

We all hit a pretty big wall about mid-week.  Except for a tiny someone.  Going back to work is taking its toll.

Today is super dark and stormy.  Appropriate for Halloween, right?  Or so you’d think.  Turns out it can be TOO dark and stormy.

Trick or treating has been cancelled tonight.  Seriously. The mayor made the announcement this morning.  I had no idea that mayors had that power to re-assign holidays.  Apparently they do.

I’ve decided to celebrate anyway by spending some quality time in the lactation station freaking myself out.  I have a short run on the docket for after work, but with the storm outside it probably means a treadmill run.  So the odds of that happening are…slim to none.

So on this dark and stormy night  I will probably go home and watch Donnie Darko.  And maybe dress HH up in the 4-sizes-too-big pea pod costume that Marsha got her at the baby consignment store for a dollar.  Because I don’t have enough energy to do much else.

Happy Halloween.

Update: Peapod costume fits!  Trick or treat success.

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Someone just said it looks like Paul is holding a stuffed animal.

Back on the Horse

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SLO half

Sticking with my MO, my longest run in the past 8 months has been 5 miles (and I’ve since backed off because of pain), I still haven’t figured out how to fit a normally scheduled workout into my workday when I’m not sleeping more than 3 hours at a time, and I live in Kentucky.  But am I going to let that stop me from signing up for a 13 mile race in California?  HECK NO.

All registered and ready to roll.

Week 2

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IMG_20131003_134335I took this picture on our front stoop as I headed out on my run on Friday.  Should I be surprised that I got caught in a torrential downpour?  (I actually really like running in the rain, except it does a number on your shoes and any electronics you might be carrying…which is why I almost always run with a dog poop bag for my phone.  Also comes in handy for other types of emergencies.)

SO!  Week 2 of exercise is in the books.  Unfortunately, after my last run (“run”), which was 5 miles, I started to have a little bit of that old shin pain that has plagued me for years.  God…

And so, last night I decided it was time for a change, I was going to take advantage of this clean slate and be responsible about these injuries and stop them before they start.

First: Even though it’s not a crazy distance, a friend of mine made a good point that jumping from 3 to 5 miles in 2 weeks is a significant increase in mileage (percentage-wise).  I think she’s right.  So I am waiting a few days until I feel no pain at all before running again, and when I do start up we’re going back to shorter distances.  Build slower.

Second: I realized that my shoes, even though I didn’t run much the past 6 months, have quite a few miles on them.  Time for a new pair.  Ordered them on Zappos (but the older model…so much cheaper).

With those two decisions made i was feeling pretty productive.  So my new super-proactive self decided the next step would be to establish a cross training/strengthening routine to prevent further injury.  I have some exercises I’ve done in the past, but it was time for something new.

So I Googled “shin pain from running”, compiled info from different sites (mostly from Dr Jordan Metzl’s videos from Runners World), and put together a routine of butt/hip/core strengthening exercises.

With my list written out, I changed into my living room exercise outfit (booty shorts that no longer fit, a tank top with coffee stains that I can’t wear in public, and my slippers) and proceeded to do a modified (it was, after all, my first day) version of the exercises, including plyometric (that soon turned into non-plyometric) squats and lunges.  I did about 1/3 of the squats suggested with less reps and more rest.

ANDDD!  …today I can’t walk.  My legs kept randomly giving out on me as I made the bed this morning.  I didn’t eat lunch until 4 because the baby was in “I’m going to scream if you put me down” mode and was worried that I would fall over with her in my arms squatting to get something out of the fridge.  And forget sitting down.  Paul heard me fall onto the toilet in the other room and thought something horrible had happened.

So, yeah.

And we’re back…?

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First post-baby run, in numbers:

  • Miles: 3
  • Time: ~30 min
  • Distance I got before I stopped in pain, turned around, and went back home to put on a second sports bra: 1 driveway
  • Turds taken by Spike: 2
  • Turds I kept willing Spike to take during the run so I would have an excuse to stop: 15
  • Gallons of sweat I had to wash off my body when I was done: 8 (aprox)
  • Leg cramps: 4
  • Times I considered stopping and walking: one million
  • Level of wanting to die due to both physical and psychological distress, on a scale of 1-10: 12

In my defense, it was really humid out.

Human Buoy

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I haven’t taken a picture of myself in the water yet, so we’re going to pretend that the above picture is me and not a stock photo off Getty Images, and that I look this graceful when I swim now.

It is kind of amazing, you really do ride super high in the water when you have this much fat on you.  And since people have been constantly asking me what I can and can’t do in the water now that I am this shape and size…

Things I can do:

  • Freestyle
  • Flipturns (harder to do when wearing a pull buoy)
  • Backstroke

Things I cannot do:

  • Breastroke kick
  • Butterfly
  • Get out of the pool without using the ladder (this was a painful, embarrassing lesson to learn)

In addition to the swimming part, I have taken it upon myself to very conspicuously waddle back and forth in front of the tan, skinny, bikini-clad 15 year olds flirting with the teenage pool guards at least 2x per pool trip and soak in the looks of combined fascination/horror, selflessly serving as cautionary tale for what can happen when you make certain life choices.

My work here is done.