The day I made 500 miles

500

Saturday July 24th I met my goal of 500 miles so far in 2010. 500 was a big goal of mine because it seems to reflect how hard I’ve been training this year. I never in a million years guessed I could have ran that much in 7 months. I’m the type of person who does better when I track my progress and have specific goals so for me tracking my mileage has really kept me accountable. Plus I enjoy seeing how much I’ve ran each week. I’m so glad that I started counting my miles from the beginning. It’s nice to know how far I’ve come. I would love to run 1000 miles in one year. I think that would be really neat but I don’t think this is the year since I only have 5 months left and I’m not going to push myself too hard to meet a silly personal goal. Someday...

Summertime Top 10

Training in the Summer is hard. In fact I’ve debated which is worse, training in the Winter or training in the Summer. And those of you who know me, know I hate the cold! So I should like training in the Summer right? Wrong. I’m going to try my best to put a positive spin on this.


Top 10 benefits of training during the Summer

10. At least you aren’t crawling out of bed in the morning to run in negative degree weather. There’s nothing worse than getting out of bed when it’s cold!
9. You sweat out all the negative stuff; pain, stress, last night’s glass of wine, whatever you want your sweat to represent.
8. Since you sweat so much, you lose weight! Even if it’s just for a couple of hours.
7. You get a nice little runner’s glow from being out in the sun.
6. Gatorade and water taste exceptionally good.
5. You can stop more often, because you MUST take a water break for those necessary fluids/electrolytes.
4. You don’t have to see people running in pants that are skin tight, although this might be the one time a year we’re all skinny enough to wear them.
3. If you’re smart, you run early enough in the morning that you can go the rest of the day without thinking I still have to run.
2. Cross training or anything indoors seems like a treat.
1. When it turns to Fall, you’ll finally realize it was the weather that was making you feel out of shape.

ER

Well yesterday was interesting to say the least. I woke up with horrible cramps, nausea and lower back pain. I went ahead and went into work but not long into my day I realized that I had to go home. So I went home and tried to rest but I found it difficult to even sleep. I was very uncomfortable. So I decided this isn’t normal, I’m heading to the urgent care to find out what’s wrong. I went in and waited forever. I finally got to see the Dr and he decided to take a urine and blood test. I waited forever again for the results. When he came back he said well it’s not a UTI and you’re not pregnant (duh!) but your white blood cell count is high. So he referred me to the emergency room. He told me not to be alarmed but I needed to have more tests done. (Not be alarmed… right!) So he printed out my blood test results and called the ER to tell them I was on my way. He warned me that my wait might be long but he didn’t warn me it would be an eternity! While I was waiting they take your vitals, I guess they want to make sure that you aren’t about to keel over right there. If you are, you get right in but if you aren’t, you WAIT. I waited for close to 2 hours before I ever got in to see a Dr. Don’t get me wrong, I’m SO glad this wasn’t a true emergency. During my wait I saw thugs galore and even a guy in handcuffs. Awesome, the criminal got in before me. Little did I know that St. Johns had so much action on a Wednesday afternoon. So anyway back to the cute guy who took my vitals. While I was sitting there hooked up to the blood pressure monitor he asked do you smoke? I said no and he said I didn’t think so, you have the heart rate of an athlete. So I told him that I ran and he said I can tell. This was the highlight of my long, drawn out, stressful day. I may have been in the ER but dangit I had a strong heartbeat!  :)  It really was cool to see that running had played a positive impact on my health. It made a noticeable difference on my vitals and I think that’s awesome. So that you aren’t left wondering what’s wrong with me, I finally got into a hospital room. They hooked me up to an IV and took my blood again. From there I went and got a CT scan. After much more waiting, the Dr came in and said everything is fine. To cut to the chase, I had spent a total of 5 hours trying to find out what was wrong to hear we aren’t quite sure. It’s kind of unsettling to not know why you are having a pain or why my white blood cell count was high but most importantly all of my tests came back normal so I guess I won’t worry too much. I got a shot for the pain which helped tremendously and I’m currently on a non-narcotic pain killer. What a day!

Freedom Run Finish Line

Freedom Run

I recently completed my second 10k. I had planned on going to see my mom in KC 4th of July weekend. The day before I left, I thought I wonder if they have any runs that weekend. I told myself before, no more Summer runs because it’s just too hot but it was an unusually nice week for Oklahoma so I thought why not. With it being a holiday, there is typically a run somewhere. Oddly enough I found one in Lenexa where my mom lives literally 2 minutes away from her house. The 32nd annual Lenexa Freedom Run was Saturday morning at 7am. I got to KC late Friday night and woke up early Saturday morning to go register for the run. This was the first run I’ve done completely on my own. My mom wasn’t able to come watch because she was at the Lake of the Ozarks until that afternoon. I must say it was kind of liberating to be in a new city, at a new run by myself. I didn’t know what to expect but it all went really smoothly. There were about 1500 competitors. The 5k and the 10k started at the same time. This made for kind of a hectic start. Everyone started out so fast here. I was like dang how long are we going to run like this??! Ha-ha! Eventually people started to slow down but I was surprised at how little walkers there were. After the 5k portion was almost over, you could keep running and do the 10k or veer off to the side to complete the 5k. I must say that I thought about ending my run but I knew I should do the 10k so I went ahead and finished. It was tough. I’m still amazed at how hard every run is. I keep telling myself this one shouldn’t be so bad but I’m always surprised that it is continuously challenging. I was pleased with my time. My first 10k I finished in 1:03 at the Remember the 10 run in Stillwater but granted we weren’t really running for time plus it was rainy that day. But regardless this time I finished in 56:11. It feels good any time you beat your PR. Once again when I was done, I almost threw up on the lady cutting off my time chip. I don’t know what my deal is with this. Maybe I’m pushing myself too hard, maybe it’s just how I feel after a hard run, I don’t know. But I told her I needed a couple seconds. Of course it felt like minutes but eventually I told her I was ready and in no time I felt normal again. Like every race I went to get my after run snack, I got a banana and this time they had some yummy homemade granola. I also noticed a bunch of people in a long line and thought what in the heck is this for?! Then I noticed that it was to get your official time and place, etc. So I thought well I might as well. I stood in line and ate my granola. I got to overhear some pretty interesting conversations while in line. The funniest one was a trainer talking to 2 larger ladies that had just walked the 5k. He said well the good news is, if you haven’t had a heart attack yet today, it doesn’t look like you will. Ha-ha! I thought this is so true… for all of us. Luckily the line went pretty fast and when I got to the front, a guy scanned my bib and a receipt printed out with my time information. It was pretty cool. After the run, I drove back to my mom’s and crashed. Another run completed. My dad brought to my attention that I had now ran a race in 3 states Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas. I’ve completed 2 10ks and 2 half marathons in 2010. Considering that I just began running in December, I feel pretty good about where I am.

Lenexa Freedom Run