A 5k and an update.

This C diff has really messed me up. I swear I have yet another ear infection.

I had to stop twice on a THREE mile run today.

And I'm almost alway in some sorta pain/cramping.

Oh yes. And I am still bleeding.

I hate really hate I.B.D.

So right now, I have two options. Diet. or Steriods.

And i know it may sound selfish and conceited, but I am finally below the pre-prednisone weight from over a year ago - I DONT want to go back on steriods.

So that leaves diet. And I have no self control.

Team Challenge ran their first 5k's over the weekend. There was a huge alumni precence at the Attleboro race. Kind of made me sad I missed it. But I decided it was the perfect week to take the Friday night to hang out with my bestie and catch up. Of course that included wine and martinis (remember the lack of self control from earlier?)

Cheesy Burger Pasta

Holy.Sore.Muscles.

Yesterday I was hurting. I'm still hurting today. I guess I wasn't ready for the 60+ lunges I did Sunday morning. So yesterday since Shira was resting her foot (inflammation in her big toe) I decided to hit the elliptical for 40 min then do some core work.

It also reminded what I love (hot guys/good sights/good people watching) and hate (only one elliptical free and no room on the mats) about the gym. But the sights were definatley worth it ;)

Last night I woke up at midnight with a migraine. I was able to take some meds and I was back asleep within an hour. But this morning I woke up with more then a soar throat. It just got worse. All afternoon I was sucking on peppermints in my office because it just hurt. Then my ear started throbbing (I'm probably the only adult who still gets ear infections) As soon as I left work I hit up CVS for soar throat drops and some nyquil.

Tonight I made one of my fav. dinners - Cheeseburger Pasta. Yummy :) I enjoyed Hamburger Helper as a kid, but as an adult I like to recreate meals like hamburger helperbut make them better for me and my body.

Cheeseburger Pasta

Serves: 2 or 3

1/2 lb Ground Turkey

1-8 oz can Diced Tomatoes

1/2 C Diced onion

1 tsp minced garlic

salt & pepper to taste

2 or 3 Cups Whole Wheat Pasta (Rigatoni)

1/4 C Kethcup

1/8 C Mustard

1/4 C Relish

1/2 C Mexican Blend Cheese

Cook pasta per instructions

Saute onion in Olive Oil for approx 5 min

Add ground turkey, garlic, salt and pepper

Cook until no longer pink

Add diced tomatoes and juice

Add ketchup, mustard & relish (amounts are estimated - make to taste preferences)

bring sauce to boil the reduce heat to simmer

simmer for about 5 min then add cheese

stir until cheese melted

add cooked pasta, stir to completely coat pasta

serve&enjoy.

(I chose to serve mine over spinach - i also saved about 1/3 of the pre-cheesed mix of turkey, tomatoes and condiments for tomorrow's dinner - cheeseburger pizza!)



Now, I could have sworn I wrote another blog post sometime this week besides Monday. I must be dreaming that. Well, maybe its because nothing really exciting happened. Tuesday I ran errands. Wednesday I ran a 3.1 mile loop. Had trouble with my Garmin not locating a satellite so I didn't even bother with it. Thursday was a 4 mile run in 39:53. My faster 4 mile. Seriously.

Saturday was another amazing run at Carson Beach. This week we did 6 miles around the baseball field and Castle Island. As usual, I hit the potty at L Street Community Center so I wound up running with my teammate Gianna this week. We finished the 6.1 miles in 64 min.. Averaging about a 10:30 min/mile. A little slower than I have been running lately, but I wanted to run slowly this week (I may of had  a little too much wine at Momma Alice's the night before!) and I wanted to meet a new teammate. I was also happy because Gianna said when she runs by herself at home its about a 12 minute mile, where with me she was running much faster. The perks of group running! I was so proud. I also won a raffle for setting up a fundraising event - and got some lovely TC gear.

Today I hit the gym for a much needed strength session. One thing I always say about half training, I always slack on my strength training. I maintain my weight, but my body fat goes up, and I don't like that one bit. So I hit the weights today. Followed by my Sunday routine - coupons, shopping, open houses, catching up on the paper and my maggies. I love my Sundays.

Soy Milk - after my workout.

Lunch - egg & cheese on a whole wheat bagel before two open houses and grocery shopping/walmart run.

Dinner - roasted beet and goat cheese salad with chicken.

That's what I love about Sundays... :)

SPEEDemon

Holy cow! Today Shira and I went for a four mile run up behind her house where there is a fairly decent sized hill that I wanted to tackle. Last week we only went part-way up and  I know I was soar the next day. This week i told her I wanted to go all the way up it. It was so hard. And we didn't slow down our pace that much either - which I'm not too sure if its a good or a bad thing. Here is our splits:

Lap 1 - 1 mile - 10:04
Lap 2 - 1 mile - 10:06
Lap 3 - 1 mile - 10:20
Lap 4 - 1 mile - 10:20

Funny how the major hill I talked about was the last part of mile 2. But I'm not going to complain. 40:50 in total and it was awesome.

Saturday's training run was 5.22 miles at Carson Beach again. LOVE Carson Beach. I ran with Super Dave and Will. I tried running with Amanda, but I couldn't keep up. She is fast. Although Dave wasn't going as hard as he normally does, I know I was totally going faster than I normally would. My legs were feeling it yesterday. My legs will be feeling it again tomorrow.

Following our training session we had a short yoga session taught by Coach Jenny. I love yoga, and love the stretch. But it was freezing. We totally needed it though.

 (Please note Shira in the right hand corner slacking off).

Miss (Lack Of) Motivation

Its kind of ironic that today we get an email from Coach Jenny about motiviation and giving yourself a break from all the stressors of life be going out for a run. And I haven't run since Monday. There are many reasons why I should or shouldn't run. And I know I need to get into that running schedule especially once we start tacking on the miles, I just haven't had the motivation this week. Yesterday spur of the moment I decided to take Nana Helen to dinner. Maybe it was the start of Lent, maybe its that I haven't seen her, i don't know but as I got off the highway last night I decided to see if she would want to go to dinner, and of course she did.

Today I had to leave work early and go see my G.I. after all that happend last week with the C. Diff Colitis. I knew it was serious and that I was predisposed to it because of the IBD but I did not realize the severity of the situation. I will have to be careful for the next year if I'm ever put on antibiotics. C diff can be deadly if not treated properly. I can understand because last week I thought I was going to die. When that was over (after waiting over 30 mins for my doctor) it was 530 pm and my doctor just so happens to be right around the corner from one of my favorite places:

Trader Joes. My Love. Got a bunch of goodies. Seriously where else can you get such quality, good for you food for (semi-)cheap. whole foods - no way. That size bag from whole Foods would have cost me nearly $20 more than what I paid at TJs. But whole foods is a lot bigger than this store. The goods:

Random. I know. And worst of all I didn't eat any of it tonight (well, maybe I had one of those pistachio covered toffee). Although I can't wait to crack the green juice tomorrow. I know. So gross. But so good. Maybe I should invest in a juicer.

Dinner:

Yum. Chicken. Brown Rice. Salad. Yum. I eat like this 95% of the time (hey, I don't claim to be perfect) but funny, I remain forty pounds overweight. I hate you steriods.

Health Update & Pacing

Saturday after our team training I had to head over to the Deaconess Glover Hospital for some lab work. My GI was on vacation last week, so my primary care physician called in some lab work to check out whether I had a bacteria or virus or something like that causing the diarrhea and cramping I was experiencing all last week. When he calls you back on a Sunday you know something is wrong. I have C Diff Colitis caused by the antibiotics I took two weeks ago. Good thing people with UC and Crohn's are predisposed to that (says so right on the website when I googled it). C Diff comes either mild or severe -  I'll let you guess what I had. But that means another 10-day round of antibiotics.

Okay. That's where things are with me.

One of the things I like about my Garmin is it shows me how well (or how poorly) I pace myself. Now granted things like hills and stuff totally affect my speed, but the picture above was from Saturday at Carson beach which is rather flat. You cansee right around the halfway mark where we turned around, but other wise these are a few ups and downs that worry me. Jacy and I pretty much stayed together the entire time and I know we slowed to talk to some people, but I was really surprised to see the fluctuations.

When I run by myself (in daylight) I can focus on my pace (I've actually learned to look at just pace and not time or distance anymore) but when I'm running with friends I totally forget about my garmin and just go.

Oh well. I guess thats one more thing to work on. I just got my new kindle, as my other one froze - and I think I may of had withdrawals. Good night :)

Team JACEface

I have a home! :) As a TC Alum I don't get a mentor which the newbiew get. Last year my mentor, Bethanne< was simply fabulous. She connected with me while I was out to sea, answered all my "am I going to be able to do this?" questions and was just really motivating. I love her and miss her terribly. But as everyone has been connecting with their mentor I just hang out with fellow alums and introduce myself to their mentees (I'm still trying to learn everyone's name!). But I just placed on my friend JACY's team (aka Team JACEface) and I now have a home. SUPER EXCITED About that.

(A portion of us refueling after our run)

Yesterday we took training to Carson Beach in Southie. Maybe one of my favorite places to run, especially when the weather gets better and everyone is out running there. But we had a huge showing of teammates there which was amazing and we set out for a 5 mile run. It took us 50 min to run (with two bathroom stops) but it totally flew by. Jacy of course waited for me whenver I needed to take a pit stop, but we would shortly catch back up with everyone.

After our run a group of us got together and headed to Mul's Diner in Southie for some breakfast.

Commence stuffing Face. LOOOOVVVVEEEEE! So good to get to know some new teammates and catch up with some old friends. Of course we had to ask Coach Chris for no judgment prior to commencement. Just kidding. Sorta. I did scarf down a bacon egg & cheese on and English and split a stack of pancakes with teammate Jacquiline. Yes, a food coma was to follow.



Week 3 Recap.

Week 3 has come and gone. How can we already be on week 4 of training? This is going by WAY too fast for me. Like I had mentioned before Team Challenge is a 16 week training and fundraising program. So far I have raised $1,500. almost halfway to my goal of $3,500. Of course I am oh so grateful to all those who donate and I try to immediately send out a thank you.

A few weeks back I had some time on a plane ride home from business so I wrote out all my thank-yous that flight. I wish I could say I have received donations since, but unfortunately that is not true. I've pre-planned a March Madness Fundraiser which should bring in some donations, but I'm going to have to get creative here pretty soon.

As far as training has been going, I'm loving every minute of it. This past Saturday we had a cold, snow and slippery run at D.W. Field Park in Brockton. Of course, we were supposed to do 25 min out and 25 min back, but Jacy Jen and I wanted to see if the path we were on looped around and we actually finished 4 miles in 42 min. Whoops. We were close to the 50 min!

Damn we look good. I love team photos. The Monday (last) night, my teammate Shira and I ran together around Norwood since she lives here too! We did a nice 3.75 mile loop through the center of town. I totally didn't even start my garmin the first mile. And of course didn't set the laps so I would have an average of my mile times. But for the time I did have the garmin going we averaged 10:55 min/mile. Not bad considering we were talking, going uphill and dodging rush hour traffic and puddles. A successful run if I do say so myself.

So far all I have had is good news. So onto the bad I guess. Well it may not be bad. I don't know yet. I'm pretty much praying I have some sorta virus right now, otherwise I am having a horrible flare with symptoms that aren't normal to me. Like I have stated before I tend to see blood when I am flaring. I'm actually using a suppository right now for that fact. Last night though I started getting major stomach cramps and the runs. It lasted all day at work. I was actually afraid I wasn't going to make it to the bathroom once. These are symptoms of IBD, just not mine. So I am hoping it is a virus or a bug and I'll be over it quick. For now, its time to finish my book and get some rest for tomorrow. Goodnight all!