Day on the road

Took me 12 hours to get to Colorado Springs.  It's a 9ish hour drive.  I may or may not have stopped at an Outlet store and a mall.

Today - in photos.

7am on the road.

Rock star in Evanston.  Stopped at Little America - saw one of my medics.  

Decided to post a picture of how many miles I've done in hundreds.  

One, Two, Three and Four hundred miles.

Things were getting serious by 500 miles and I didn't even take a picture at 600 miles.  Mostly because it was dark and frankly I wanted to punch someone because of traffic. 

Then I ran across this little bad boy:

That's right folks.  Car Fire.  

Car Fire number THREE in the last 2 months.  

Boom.

OK, I stopped twice.  First at the Outlet mall.

My purse is looking dirty and old so I bought a new one.  It's so nicely wrapped that all you get is a picture of the bag.  I had to send pictures of the ones I liked to my friend Tera and she helped me pick one out.  It's just too difficult of a decision to do alone.

I did go alone to the mall, and to Lululemon.

I trust myself only because I have been with Tera to the store in SLC a couple of times.  Plus we will get on the phone and look at the website together/apart.  It's a friendship that adjusts to our travel schedules!

FINALLY I made it!

This little kid is a delight!  He hasn't quite warmed up to me yet, but I did buy him an "angry birds" hat and it goes stunningly with his Toy Story jammies.  

The next week I'll be here, catching up with my great friend Chris and being mom to Lyndsi and Grandma to Matthew and soon to be Xander.  Hopefully I won't be too big of a pain in the ass for Brent.  (Lyndsi's hubby)

Oh, and in 9 days I'm running a half marathon.  

Classic.

Blog on................

Things that can ruin your day.

Tonight was a lesson in not loosing it.  A cascade of events today lead up to me being in the wound up state of - I'm going to punch someone in the neck!

To make things even better.  It was a family dinner downtown tonight.  We get together once a year as just siblings and spouses with my parents and talk about what my mom and dad have and how we should enjoy it because the inheritance taxes are going suck up anything they have worked so hard to give us and we'll probably end up with an invoice.  I try to understand and help, because I see how it stresses out my dad, but I never planned on cash from my parents when they died.  That's just morbid.  

But, I digress.  Lets start early - around 3pm.

1.  Being Tired.  I just can't catch up. I feel like I could nap for 3 days straight.

2. Having lots of things to do.  Trying to get all the things done that I need to before I leave in the morning.  Packing.  Packing for Moab too.  

3. Taking a nap but having to get up earlier then you are ready because you have to get ready to go somewhere that involves:

4. Washing my hair.  Which means I have to dry and curl it.  MAN!!

5. Getting dressed up.  Hello Mormon family.  I don't go to church, I don't have church clothes.  I have a pair of black slacks, some garanimal shirts (Tshirt sewn to the sweater) and a couple of skirts that will make you blush.  Every dress up day is a stressful day.  Come to find out my slacks are too big now.  I was grateful they didn't fall down.  Oh LORDY!

6. a Fly in the bathroom while your trying to get ready.  I was more late then I should have been because I was intent on killing that damn fly.  Probably the most irritating thing ever.

7. No one there to feed the dogs and I am running late and my big dog won't take his medicine and can manage to eat a slice of lunch meat and carefully spit out the pills.  This begs the questions - where are my kids and why aren't they doing their chores?  Yeah - that can be Ruin day 7.5.  

8. Having to park downtown in an area that has changed dramatically since visiting there last.  So I went around the block and of course I have no idea where the parking is so I drive right past it, twice.

9.  Getting into a parking garage that is as crowded as Times Square on a Saturday night (when they allowed traffic).  I finally found a parking spot and hit the wall.  No damage to the car.  I was seconds away from driving home.

10.  Walking, Walking, walking into a building that is completely dedicated to the founder of the Mormon church and having dinner at their special restaurant buffet that serves water and juice.  Maybe they served soda, but soda is not my thing.  There was tons of desserts.  Luckily they had prime rib, and lots of it.  

It was .25 mg of Ativan worthy.  

It's not that I don't love my family - I do, I really do. But I really don't like being dipped into the culture.  If I did, I would still be Mormon.  

I'm sure that if I was there and it was a totally Lutheran/Baptist/Jewish building and restaurant then it would be fascinating.  I love learning about new stuff.  But I did the Mormon thing, I know the plan, there isn't 
any big secret that is going to fascinate me.

But what does a family do in this case?  My parents are just the nicest people ever and when they picked it I'm sure they thought how nice it would be to be in a private room, with delicious food and a great view of Salt Lake City.  This is why I really try to smile and be nice.  

It just is what it is.  I'm sure all families have those that have a difference in opinion.  I feel a little lonely about it sometimes, but it is my choice and I feel great about that.  

My Sis-n-law didn't even give me too many dagger looks.  I didn't hold her baby though, so I think that helped.  Keep the sinner away from the child!!   (I wish I was a sinner, my live has been way too mellow lately!)

Great news of the day!!
I was able to have brunch with my old friend Mic.  Known him for about 14 years now and still love the ole man!

Here is a montage of my family.  I was trying to be sneaky and I didn't get everyone in and I apologize for that.  Pretty close though!

Top corner is my brother Joe and my sister Caroline then the next picture was my dad then mom and my oldest brother Brad.  On the bottom row is my brother Dave and Mark (he's chuggin the sparkly water - lush!) and his wife Christie.  Oh and me. 

I didn't get my brothers wives in the pics, Melissa, Cathryn and Marie.  Sorry, my sneaky pics didn't turn out that great.  

The view of the Joseph Smith statue from the street.  This was on my first time around.  

Overall I had a great morning and OK afternoon and thank goodness for my family it wasn't a bad night!  

Who ran today?  I skipped the Tempo run.  Icing the foot right now.  Guess I'll play it by ear for now.   My friend Missy thinks I need to go get an MRI and I know she is right.  I'll have the next 10 days to think about it!!

Blog on................

I'm not a doctor....

Tendocalcaneal bursitis - no, no, no.  I think it's Nerve Entrapment.  Could it be??

Everything you want to know about heel pain - (warning there are surgery pictures)

The Diagnosis and Treatment of Heel Pain.

My new heel pain is driving me crazy!!  It's has became worse with my new shoes.  Not the pink ones, the yellow Saucony Hurricane's.  Is it caused by them, probably not. I still think the low heel drop is bugging me a bit, but overall I think it's more global then that.  After spending a couple of days on Google I think I have an idea what the problem is.  

The pain is different then plantar fasciitis and it's not surprising that I've probably extended the injury a little.  The pain is like a painful electric shock in my heel.  It's not at the achilles tendon, but lower. It has been driving me crazy, mostly not knowing what it is.  I could be wrong, but I'm crazy and had to look up the symptoms.

Calcaneal Nerve Entrapment

Calcaneal Nerve Entrapment is a medical problem that can result in heel pain. There is a specific nerve known as the calcaneal nerve that runs under the inside of the heel. Sometimes this nerve can become entrapped and cause a burning pain on the underside of the heel. This pain is similar to the pain experienced by a plantar fasciitis sufferer, though heel pain from nerve entrapment will not get worse in the morning.

Causes

It seems odd that this nerve would become trapped under the inside of the heel, however it happens. It is most common among those that over pronate while walking or running. In addition, excess pressure from shoes can cause the nerve to become entrapped, resulting in serious heel pain. For this reason, this injury is common among athletes.

Symptoms

Diagnosing your foot problems may be difficult given the similarity of many of conditions. However, heel pain resulting from nerve entrapment does have specific symptoms. In particular, the pain from nerve entrapment is a burning sensation. It is usually worse at night. And individuals will notice that it is extremely tender where the nerve has become entrapped.

I do get the burning sensations once in a while, especially after icing and having it up.  Then, just occasionally it burns.  The worst is when I'm going downhill, down the stairs, up hill, up the stairs.  The electric shock pain is annoying and painful!!  On my long run I had 3 incidents of severe severe shocky pain that I walked through and then it went away.

Nerve entrapment:
Heel pain that is described as electrical or shooting is more likely to be from nerves.  There are nerves in the heel that can become entrapped or pinched as they cross muscles and fascia.  This pain can mimic plantar fasciitis, but when I press along the side of your heel  and run my finger over the nerve you will have the pain.  The low back is a common area to have pinched nerves that send pain to the heel.  If you tell me you also have pain in your low back I will test your spine to see if the heel pain occurs with stress.

I know mine has nothing to do with my back, but just the local nerves.

What does that mean for me?  
Nothing.
Jack.

It means that it needs the same healing time and love that plantar fasciitis needs.  SO...the half marathon in a 10 days will be for the medal and not the time.  Luckily my next three races have low mileage.  There will be resting, ice, compression and ibuprofen in between and on a daily basis.  

I'm sure my new pink shoes will help it feel better too!!


Plantar Fasciitis - owie owie


                                                

Posterior Tibial Nerve??  It could be.  

I could be totally full of crap too.
Hard to tell.

Blog on..................

Working reward

The last three days have been interesting!  I'm really glad I got in my 14 mile long run on Sunday because the half marathon is about 10 days away and I haven't ran since.  I should do a tempo run tomorrow but I'm feeling "off" and hoping I can get out for at least a short run before I drive to Colorado Springs.  But more about that later.

Monday I went to work at the Rock.  I was feeling pretty tired when I got there so we did our usual plane check, equipment check, med check etc and then I laid down to read.  I was SOUND asleep in about 5 minutes.  Luckily I laid down when I did because about 90 minutes later the phone rang for a call.  I was excited because that is what I like to do.  When I called for report the patient seemed pretty sick and I was even more excited.  I don't wish for people to be sick, but that is what I'm trained on and work hard to keep my skills up for.  Transporting a sick ICU patients is one of my favorite.  

Unfortunately this patient was REALLY sick.  My first glance terrified me and I was sure he was too unstable to transport.  After some discussion with Medical Control and the receiving doctor it looked like we were on our way.  I had a great medic that is super smart and meticulous (and hot! - well that's unprofessional!  haha).  We spent a good hour at the hospital getting the patients meds on our pumps, assessing, taping and moving.  Let's just say this patient was over 300 lbs.  Very difficult to care for someone that large.  Very difficult to move patients that large.  I know that obesity is a complicated subject and if it was as easy as "calories in" and "calories out" then most people would be thin.  It's so much more complicated then that.  When I meet a critically ill patient that is obese, I don't know them.  I usually can't have a conversation with them because they have a breathing tube and I don't know the circumstances of their lives.  I do know that no matter what the reason is for their condition, it's almost impossible to care for them how I would like to and for their bodies to fight a good battle because of the extra stress on everything!  Sometimes, all the problems that my patients have (and this is not specific to any patient) that include obesity it's apparent that they aren't taking care of themselves.  That is frustrating.  Your body can only give as good as it's given.  

Luckily for us, we were able to transport the patient slowly and safely to a hospital equipped to to take care of the issues without any severe instability.  It took about 9 hours because of the care we had to take with moving and making sure the patient was safe and so were we.  The bad news is:  It totally kicked my ass.  The adrenaline that gets pumping and the physical work along with flying is a recipe for exhausted!  I LOVE my job!  But now I can't seem to get enough napping in.  I did make one mistake after the flight and I didn't have my EmergenC that I usually have after every flight with 2 bottles of water.  I could tell the next day I was dehydrated.     

At the airport we saw this Air Crane.  How cool is it???  It is for fighting fires. I watched some You Tube videos about them and they are impressive.

On the flight to SLC we saw a fire that was burning just south of Bear Lake.  It's pretty amazing to see it from the air.

Tuesday my son had to take our dog to the vet.

I hate it when something goes wrong when I'm out of town.  Matt left the same day I did and we were both a little worried about our dog, Ted.  He had been moping around, not eating well, puking and a little diarrhea.  The kids left at home watched him closely and then on Tuesday my son, Daniel, called me and said he was worried and wanted to take him to the vet.  We have the best Veterinarian ever - I called and he was able to take him right in.  After stool and blood tests they confirmed some sort of intestinal virus that Ted probably picked up from a long walk and drinking some water or something.  I guess there is a pretty big outbreak of it and the Vet had seen about 6 dogs in a week with it.  Ted was given some meds and sent home. Today when I got home I noticed he was a little more lazy then usual.  I love it when he lays like this, with his paws crossed.  He's a great dog!

My favorite part of the day!

Opening these!!

I work - I get a reward.  OR - my husband works, gets a bonus and I get new shoes!

YEAH, new shoes!!!

AGAIN?  I probably need an intervention but when Road Runner had a 25% off sale on shoes for VIP's AND they had the new Asics in PINK in men's - it was kismet.  The planets aligned and it had to happen.  I have the perfect outfit for them too.  Hahaha.  I will run in them!  They are stable enough and maybe I'll find they are the combination that will help my foot heal.  Who knows??  

Before I knew that I would feel sorta crappy today I signed up for an Athletic Conditioning class with the famous "ass kicking" Christian.  I napped most of the afternoon so I decided to go.  If you've never done Reformer Pilates then here is a pic of how they are:

Usually I just take a Pilates class but the studio 9th & 9th has other classes on the reformers too.  About 45 minutes into the class I thought I was going to vomit.  It was HARD!  Then we ended on 100 push ups   Doesn't he know I can only do about 10 push ups that are OK.  I tried though and by the time I finished and got in the car I could hardly hold up my arms.  Talking on the phone was painful. I just hope I can wash my hair tomorrow!

About Colorado Springs.  

My great friend Chris has a daughter Lyndsi.  (there will be a quiz later..haha) I have known Lyndsi since she was 7.  I met her the same weekend I met Chris up camping.  Chris and I have been good friends since.  When he lived in town we spent many weekends camping with other single parents and kids and had the best time ever.  He is truly a great man with a huge heart!

Lyndsi is now married and is having her second child.  She really doesn't have contact with her biological mom, so I have wormed my way in as pseudo mom.  I was there for the birth of her first boy and I'm hoping to be there for the second.  She has been pretty miserable and having labor pains, but I'll be there by Friday night.  I love this girl and think the world of her.  I'll be in Colorado at least a week, then I drive to Moab for my race.  I'll get some runs in before the race.  I hope.  One thing is for sure - there is going to be a lot of baby holding and sniffing.  My blog may temporarily transform itself into a baby blog.

Long post....lots of rambling!  Welcome to my head!

Do you ever just have a few days when you are exhausted???

Is there anyone in your circle of friends that you consider family?

How do you think the health care system should handle the ever increasing obese population?  

Blog on...............

Check out SUAR website!  She is giving away Yurbuds and they look pretty sweet!

Long Slow Run

Probably not my best idea.  

It's my last long run before the Other Half in Moab in a couple of weeks.  I figured I would do this run and then keep all my long runs just a mile over what my next race/relay will be.  I'm trying to run smarter and not harder to get through January and then I'm taking a break to heal up this foot.  For the most part it feels pretty OK  especially when I ice, massage and tape it everyday.  Today started out the same except around mile 5 that sorta ripping feeling (almost like an electric shock with pain) in the back of my heal started for about 1/4 of a mile but then stopped.  My husband asked if I stopped running because of the pain......oh no my sweetheart, that would make sense!
  

This morning I had some coffee and some Paleo Pancakes with butter and sugar free syrup...num num!!  Paleo Pancakes are just a banana/dollop of almond butter and an egg - all munched up with a fork and cooked in coconut oil.  Since I wasted hours laying around looking at funny websites I ate and it was almost 2 hours before I left for my run.  I had a couple of energy chews in the car.  I also had a serving of NoXplode - which is a preworkout drink with lots of caffeine and shtuff....it does give me a bunch of energy!  

I ran the Jordan River Parkway today.  It really is nice and meanders from Provo to North Salt Lake, then turns into the Legacy something or other.  There have been a few attacks, stabbing and dumping of bodies along the route which has given it a bad name.  Personally, if I'm there for the right reasons and during daylight hours it is wonderful.  Today it was busy with ton's of families, bikers, joggers and dog walkers that I was never truly alone.  

I parked my car so I could get back to it at around 6.5 miles.  It's not hot so I wasn't worried about cold water as much as refueling and peeing.  I didn't pee in my car, or around my car, but I did park at a park that had bathrooms and a water fountain.  

I started out with the first miserable mile, like usual, but after that I did OK.   Kept my pace down to around 10.5 min/miles and walked for one minute every 5 that I ran.  Like I said, around 5 miles I felt some extraordinary ripping in the back of my heel.  I stopped for a minute and then took off again trying to slowly adjust my foot strike so it didn't hurt.  It went away and I figured I ripped whatever scar tissues was there and I was golden!  (sick person I am)

I got back to the car and had another salt stick (I had one before I started), an apple/banana crusher and refilled my water.  You can get crushers from Trader Joe's and they are just like applesauce/fruit stuff that is packaged like this:

   That is not my hand, I took the picture off the Internet, but they are really good and I like the idea of those better then all the GU stuff.  

I peed and then ran north.  I was at 6.22 miles and I wanted to run to 9.5 miles then turn around, pass my car and then double back again.  I changed my plans.  I ran all the way to 4800 south which is about as north as I've ever gone.  That put me at 9.2 miles and I was OK with that.  I had a Honey Stinger Goo with me so I took that, filled up my water bottle at the water fountain, being very careful not to touch anything (ew) and started back.  But I must stop here for a minute.  At about 9 miles the ripping pain started again.  Mostly because there was some slight rolling hills, which usually feel good to my foot, but not so much today.  I walked it off and got to the next park - no, I did not stop running.  (gah!)

After I Goo'd and watered I decided to run to a park that was about halfway between me and my car.  This park has an awesome path around the grass that is about .40 miles.  OF course in my head it was at least a mile and I figured I would run around twice then head to my car.  This way I would get to 14 miles before the car.  Well, I ended up going around FOUR times, which was fine, there were lots of families there looking at me like I was crazy and I'm OK with that.  After that I was at about 12.6 miles and I took off for my car.  I miscalculated a little and ended up walking over half a mile.  That hurt like a bitch! (excuse my language)  My foot was no longer happy and I felt like my bra was cutting me in half.  I was done with a capital D.  Once I got to the car my plans for having another crusher and a salt tab were dismissed.  I felt like I was going to puke.  I tried drinking some water with NUUN in it, which never bothers me, but my stomach wasn't having it.  Luckily I had a frozen bottle of water in the car that had melted a little over half way and that was just what the tummy ordered.  

I finally figured out the GARMIN online thingy.  How cool!  I don't have to manually type it in!

My totals for the 14 miles were:
14 miles in 2:35:45  11.07 ave

Here are my splits.  Surprisingly appropriate for a long slow run.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	2:45:15.0	14.54	11:22
1	11:16.7	1.00	11:17
2	11:09.3	1.00	11:09
3	11:05.7	1.00	11:06
4	10:57.0	1.00	10:57
5	11:02.0	1.00	11:02
6	10:27.6	1.00	10:28
7	11:05.1	1.00	11:05
8	11:04.2	1.00	11:04
9	11:01.6	1.00	11:02
10	11:45.9	1.00	11:46
11	11:14.1	1.00	11:14
12	11:19.8	1.00	11:20
13	11:11.4	1.00	11:12
14	10:58.6	1.00	10:59
15	9:36.2	0.54	17:38

It looks like there is a booger on the last lap pace, but I swear it's not!

I burned over 1600 calories!!  BOOM.  I thought I would come right home and have this baby that I had in the fridge.  I feel so happy.

But no, it tasted nasty.  So I had water and a bag of popcorn while my SWEET husband defrosted and cooked steaks and some shrimpy thing and fed me while I sat on the couch icing my foot.  He also included a half of an avocado which is the perfect post run food!  

Capri's and compression socks!   Call me for your style questions!

I settled for a little glass of RumChata.  It's like Horchata with rum.  

I have no idea why I thought I needed some booze after my run, but I'm obviously a crappy drinker.  Water is really my go-to.  Shhhhhhh, don't tell anyone!

Since I figured out my Garmin Connect, I decided to add Daily Mile to my blog.  The only thing I don't like it that it doesn't add my years mileage up correctly.  After today's run, I have run 458 miles this year and that is only the outside miles, no treadmill runs included!!  

I'm not very good at keeping track of miles and I finally found an app for my iPhone that I can keep track of my shoes and their mileage. 

It's called Shoedometer.  I take a cute pic of my shoes and then I can keep track of them better then finding a stock picture.  

 I'm not even good at that.  It's a miracle this blog is going along so well!  

So after icing my foot and taking a shower I'm walking on it just fine.  I'm sure it will be tender in the morning.  It's a crazy foot, I can't figure it out!!

Do you keep track of your miles??

When you feel a twinge of an injury do you stop, collaborate and ice? (heehee)

I obviously don't!

Blog on................