A picture recap. Del Sol Relay.

That picture I posted of those toes are really gross.  Every time I see it I want to pop all the blisters.  And it makes me a little nauseated.  SO it has forced me to write another post.  

Spending some time at the SL Hangar for work so until we get a fixed wing call I'll do a little rambling.  

LAME PICTURE RECAP

I didn't take very many

Stayed at Heathers house.  It's huge!  I got some serious steps going from my room to the kitchen.  She also has 3 dogs. 

And they are awesome!

The Van/Night before

We removed one seat out of the FishBowl and it was perfect!  

Love these guys!

Showing them how to do a selfie with a nice camera

John and Jeffrey hanging out while John hooks the van up

HOOKED!

TEAM 55

The Young and the Rest of Us

 Race Start

Beautiful morning

Ragnar

Jeffrey may or may not have been in the crapper when the rest of the 7am's left.  Better late then never!!

My arms look cool in this selfie.  I was using my new camera I bought for Bali

Happy to be running!!  teehee

John and I

After sending John off for the last leg.

We are all done!  Well, except for John.

Another selfie.  Just to bug the boys and show off the awesome headband that Heather let me borrow.  It was a lifesaver

Dang it's night.  

Now its day!!  I think this is before Ken's run or after.  I don't know.  I think he's hopped up on the GU.

The Fishtanks

"We are in the white van over here"

Never gets old.

John and I

Waiting for someone

Steps I took that day......BAM

 The MEDAL!!

As soon as we share all our pics I'll post some team pics.  It was a great time and I've already started planning for my marathon.  I have a lot of ideas and plans to increase my miles and speed. (Thanks Heather!)  I think the last two years of stress have really taken a hit on my body.  I'm feeling so much better I think it's time to start fueling my body better and improving my training.  

AKA.....I'm going to do my best!!

Marathon 5/16/2015

Any training help would be most appreciated!!

Blog on.........

Thoughts.

Post Relay day one thoughts.

\

Of course mine was an Ultra Relay...not the relay where you run the 33.3 miles all at once.  I took breaks..in a van...sitting, without sleep  ;)

Did I train?

I seriously got my ass kicked on the last leg.  My legs did not want to go.  I was exhausted.  Not sure how to train for the heat but the hills were killer too.  I needed another month of intense speed and hill training. 

Things I've considered:

Becoming a non-runner

Applying for disability

Checking into an assisted living facility

Laying in bed for a couple of days.


My body rebelled.  

I'm swollen from head to toe.  Uncomfortably so.
Still exhausted.
Headache. 
The last leg was so hot and there was so much walking and uphills that I ended up trashing a couple of toe nails.  BIG blisters.  Reminded me of my feet after Ragnar Napa.  Not as bad but close.  Painful trip home.  My running around shoes were a little tight on my swollen feet.  

NOT MY FEET

But a couple of toes had blisters under the nail.  I made that one mistake where you don't trim your nails for a long time.   Yep.  This picture makes me feel better.  So does a 22 G sterile needle.  

All pretty normal for me after such a stressful run.  I will give my body rest.  

Fat wings.  Those things on your arms.  I had to glide the shit out of them and I still have a rash.  I wore shorts the last leg...yeah...see above.  I used Glide and Ruby's lube so no rash there.  

I felt pretty.

I can't complain.  Jeffrey ran farther and bigger legs then I and he has MS.  He is an animal!

Heather is here helping Jeffrey cool down.  When he stops running he can have seizure like movements.  Scares the shit out of the people around us but someone is always there to catch him and get him cooled down.  

He's amazing

There was nausea, paleness, exhaustion.  My poor team all had some challenges.  We used a lot of Zofran.  Tons of water, ibuprofen and attempted to get in as many good calories as possible.  The exception was Heather.  She is marathon trained and was our beacon of health and badassery.

So I'm not going to stop running (well, maybe for a week) and the things I learned are immense.  We are all pretty sick of Ragnar's and this race was exponentially worse then it was the last time we ran it. (4 bathrooms at the exchanges?)  The saddest thing about that is I can't figure out how to get my favorite people in a van for a couple days and have a blast.  Need to come up with some sort of adventure.  

I didn't take too many pictures with my phone but I'll download the pics I took with my new camera and collect some pics from my friends and do a proper race recap.  

In the meantime I'm watching "My 600 lb life" with a patient that is non compliant and blames everyone else.  In the meantime she lays in bed and bosses everyone around and cries.  I'm not 600 lbs but I'm doing a great impression.  "Daniel, can you buy me ice cream?".  

Gifts are accepted.  

Don't stare at my medal.  

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

Wait...you already ran today!

In my last post about fuel I mentioned I was in the middle of my first "two a day" training runs.  8 miles in the morning and 8 miles at night.

I was so nervous about getting sick or being so tired I was miserable that I was meticulous about my day and the night before.  So detailed that I wrote everything down in my exercise journal.  (NERD ALERT! - it fulfills my need to check things off.)

Not included in the details are my night/day before prep.  Drank LOTS of water.  I ate pretty healthy all day and had some potatoes (my carb load choice) with some salt and butter with a 16 oz Nuun the night before.  A decent amount of sleep also.  

Here are the deets:

I always wake up early so I can have a cup of coffee...poop (if needed) and eat. 
(yes I said poop.  Good poop before a long run is THE runners dream)

Eat:    Banana with Justins chocolate hazelnut butter, half a cup of coffee and some water.

Temp: 27 degrees at 8:30 am

Wore:
   Headband (thick so it covers the ears)
   Gray bra
   Lululemon tank
   arm warmers
   Lululemon gloves  
   Yellow Athleta long sleeve
   Lululemon crops with pockets
   Calf compression sleeves
   Feetures socks
   Hoka Clifton 

I do a lot of identifying with brand because I have more then one type.  Example:  I identify my Lulu gloves because they are very lightweight and great for when it's cold now but will be warming up.  Plus they are soft and I can wipe my nose without it getting raw.  True Story.

Temp at end: 36 degrees

Fuel used:  
   Lemon ricotta rice ball 
   20 oz water

After:
   Drank more water and had 8 oz of dark chocolate almond milk with 1/2 scoop protein powder.  
   An hour after that I ate ham and some potatoes with butter and salt.  

I didn't have any ROLO's because Ted is an asshole and ate them.

In between my runs I rested, ate the second rice ball, drank water and nuun, iced my leg and took one ibuprofen.  Oh and I ate 3 pickle spears and they were AMAZING! 

Second run at 4:30 PM.

I was actually super excited to get going.  That was weird.  

Temp was 45 degrees.  

I wore the same outfit with my arm warmers rolled down.  Thought I might need them later in the run but I didn't.

Early on in my night run.  It got really dark at the end.  I added a reflective vest with blinky light in the back and my new headlamp that can really light the way.  I love it!

I was able to eat 1 1/2 rice balls by taking a bite about every 15 minutes.  They are much easier to eat and swallow when running.  Not sticky.

Drank 24 ounces of water

Finish temp was 37 degrees

Ate same way after.  


Stats:

Night run 2 a day Running Wed, Jan 7, 2015 4:32 PM

Morning run 2 a day Running Wed, Jan 7, 2015 8:41 AM

Summary

Distance	8.00 mi	8.01 mi
Time	1:29:00	1:30:48
Avg Speed	5.4 mph	5.3 mph
Avg Pace	11:07 min/mi	11:20 min/mi
Calories	916 C	903 C

More Detail

Laps

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
1	10:60	1.00	11:00	11:11	1.00	11:11
2	11:19	1.00	11:20	11:28	1.00	11:28
3	11:35	1.00	11:36	11:59	1.00	11:59
4	12:04	1.00	12:04	12:37	1.00	12:37
5	10:18	1.00	10:18	10:46	1.00	10:46
6	10:37	1.00	10:37	10:04	1.00	10:05
7	11:06	1.00	11:06	11:30	1.00	11:30
8	10:59	1.00	10:59	11:08	1.00	11:09
9	0:02	0.00	9:32	0:04	0.01	7:44

Around 4 miles is when I'm at the peak of my hill climb and it really slows me down.  I'm not worried about it during long runs.  It's suppose to be slow.  I nailed the slow part!!

I have to say I felt better during the night run.  I felt faster.  I wasn't so much but I felt it.  

So whats on the agenda now?

Well, I have my mile totals for the race and I'm concentrating more on training my body to run more then once a day then running a long distance.  Next week I'll do a long run of 12 miles, which is a little more then my longest run.  The next 2 weeks I do long split runs of 7-8 miles.  At the peak of my training I'll do a day of 2 runs, 9 miles each and then get up the next morning and do a 9 mile run.  That is at the end of January.  After that its taper.  I have a couple more ideas about fueling but I'm finally starting to feel confident about being able to do this race without feeling like or actually dying!

Woot Woot!

Do you plan your long runs carefully?


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

Long runs and feeling crappy.

This last training plan has been very interesting and I've learned lots of things.   I'm training for an ultra relay in February.  I was never worried that I couldn't do it (although slow) I was worried that I would do it and feel super crappy because I didn't train correctly.  One of the issues I knew I had to address was fueling.  I'm running 32.9 miles in around 30 hours.  11.3, 11.4 and 10.2 miles. It's actually not too bad.  I was really lucky and I'm running with some badass's that let me do a moderately hard set of legs.  

Only because I LOVE Bob's Burgers.

Very important when running so much.  Fuel.  How do you fuel?  I picked the brains of lots of runners.  Some take a GU every 3 miles, some every 45 minutes and some just have a smidgen every 15 minutes.  Most of my running career I have run while subscribing to the Primal lifestyle (no grains, dairy and sugar) and because of that I used minimal amount of the packaged runners fuel.  I ate real food before and after and if my run was really long I would have one GU.  Never really any issues.  

This felt different.  I knew that if I didn't properly fuel on the first run then I would be starting behind in the second run.  SO....I picked up some Honey Stinger GELS.  The first 9-10 mile run I felt OK and fueled about every 35 minutes.  I could feel the energy difference too.  Then something just went wrong.  My body screamed NO MORE. 

After my 15 mile run I felt so crappy.  It was AFTER, but it was still crappy.  I felt nauseated and a bad headache.  It almost felt like a hangover.   I considered everything I ate and took (ibuprofen before run...salt tabs).  I did have 5 gels during the run.  I felt better by morning and just figured maybe I was a little dehydrated, but not sure.  After that I was nauseated after almost any run over 5 or any run I took a gel.  

The last straw was for me last Saturday.  I set out to do 6 miles with 5-30 second strides at the end.   It was cold but I overdressed.  I was hydrated well but I knew I needed some fuel to give the strides my best.  Well I took the gel and a good 8 oz of water.  2 miles later I was SICK.  I felt nauseated and weak and the worst was dizzy, like I was going to pass out.  No bueno. I actually had my son Daniel pick me up.  That has never happened.

  

Of course I googled it.  I've always had sort of an iron stomach when it came to eating and running and this change disturbed me.  The fuel in gels is very concentrated and needs water in order for the body to digest properly.  That is why the packets are always saying take with water.  I always took with water but I think I just stopped tolerating them.  

This story is long.  Sheesh.  

My brother told me about a book, Feed Zone Portables.  He's an ultra runner and long distance biker.  It's about eating real food for energy.  A lot of the recipes use rice, which I know my body tolerates well.  So I made the Lemon Ricotta baked rice balls.  Ingredients include: Calrose sticky rice, lemon, lemon zest, ricotta cheese, egg and sugar (I used coconut sugar).  I made 8 of them out of the recipe and decided to take two.  

That would total:   448 calories and 87 carbs.  A little high on the calories and carbs are adequate.  

SO FAR SUCCESS!!  I ran, felt great and no nausea!!!  

One lesson learned.  I can't eat one very fast.  They are actually about 4 bites each.  Having one bite about every 15 minutes is my plan for tonight.  I am looking at making something a little bit smaller with the same benefits.  I was very careful about drinking water.  I'm a sipper so I ended up drinking about 20 oz's.  They are also a little bulkier then gels but I was able to fit 2 in my belt.  I'm going to have to figure out something when I run longer next week.  

It was actually an amazing run!  Left at 8:30 and it was about 27 degrees.  I just got this shirt from Athleta.  20% off sale.  BAM.    It was awesome!  I did have arm warmers under but they got a little hot when the temp was 36 degrees when I finished.  

Athleta; Running Wild Taped Crew in LONG

On sale 39.99

Now for food and rest and running 8 miles again tonight at 4:30.

Yikes!

Who's done an Ultra Relay?  Any hints?

Your fuel during long runs?

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

It's a new year!!

Happy New Year!

I brought in the new year the best way possible.  Exhausted from flying around in a helicopter transporting those patients having a really bad day.   I had an awesome pilot and a kick ass medic.  Together we had a pretty great time despite being in the air for over 5 hours.  

But what about everything else?  

I finally have a few minutes to think about it.  If anything I am the master of putting things off.  Even thinking about the new year.  More then resolutions I love to reflect.  I have a lot to reflect on.

2014 - Reflections of a Year Indescribed.

Last year I felt shitty.  Physically I was good but mentally I was a huge mess. (See here) I considered therapy many times but just didn't want to do it.  What I really wanted is just to "let it go" so to say.  The smartest thing I did was allow me to feel.  It is OK when I'm mad or sad or even just depressed.  I did lots and lots of reading and research.  Watched all the documentaries I could find.  Then I was super pissed because MY personal experience with someone who is first a lying sack of shit and second a Transgender gave me negative feelings towards all transpersons and that is not what I'm about.  Being aware is the most important.  I had some bad days where I thought I would be depressed forever. But mostly I was just stuck.  I think I am still, but just a tiny bit.  It's a slow process.  

I bring it up first because I'm waiting for at least one day when I don't think about it.  I did make a great step when I went to his friends house to return his guitar to him through them.  They had moved.  Wow. Weird.  The guitar is in the basement.  Done worrying about it.  I don't know how I'll get it back to him and I'm not caring about it today.  

And ENOUGH about that!  I move forward and I feel SO much better as this year starts and I'm excited about that!

Running - It was an OK year.  Lots of problems with my left leg and lots of visits to my Physical Therapist and Massage Therapist.  Ton's of core work and even lots of running.  I think I found the right shoes and my feet don't hurt at all.  Still working on the leg.  I have 2 HUGE goals for this year.  Ragnar Del Sol Ultra  Relay Race in February and the Ogden Marathon in May.  I've committed to decrease my OT and work more on my running.  Weather and some crazy work days have interfered a bit but overall I think I'll make it!!!  ::Fingers crossed:::

My last run of the year!

Family -   All kids - all amazing.  Sami moved back in to go to nursing schools so for 1 week out of 3 I have 3 kids at home.  It's good.  They are awesome and I love them.  They are working hard and they are such great people.  My parents are suffering the effects of old age and I hate that but they are still doing great.  

My kids are top notch!

My nephew Charlie hanging with me on Christmas Eve.

Work - It's great.  Then it's not.  I'm a little burned out with the ICU but I know it will pass.  Flying is amazing but then I have long weeks of not flying.  Then I have another amazing day of transporting and BOOM!  Love it.  I think that's what a career is about.  The ups and downs.  Helps keep you appreciate of the great days.  

Taking a kid for a bucket list ride.  

Stupid Cancer.

Thumbs up for a great time!

Work fun times and great new friends!

After my last flights of the year I played the game - who got what med.  Then I ate Oreos and I was able to properly think.  

Friends - Have them, love them and without them I would be a huge huge mess!!

My favorite pic with so many great friends!!  

LOVE LOVE LOVE

All the other silly things I love.  My house is still a mess but the office is somewhat done and the basement is in chaos.  It's clean but cluttered.  My house looks like we are in a constant remodel/rearrangement.  We lost Zoe this year but we still have Ted.  He's old and amazing! 


2015

YEAH BUDDY!

I'm excited, really excited!!  A little chunky but I won't let that get me down. 

I don't have any real resolutions.  Just plans.

*Stay on my running schedule

*Try not to get hurt
*Work and get better at what I do
*Organize my house and PURGE all the stupid shit
*Work to stay close to my friends
*Enjoy my new friends
*Watch Breaking Bad from beginning to end
*Ultra Relay
*First Marathon
*BALI in September
*Finish getting shit paid off 
*Go on a date without immediately thinking about ways to keep them separate from my life.  i.e. trust
*Botox - heaven in a needle

Is that enough?  Will it keep me busy until September?  

ANYTHING can happen this year!!!!  ANYTHING!  My options are endless!  I love it and I love the way things are moving along. 

 Classy Attitude.  

hehe

Love my new tattoos

Now the big question.
What am I going to do with this blog?

I don't know.  

Does that help?    

I love writing and I love updating my blog.  I've been doing some amazing things with running and trying new products and I love sharing that.  I've found the best information from my favorite running bloggers.  My heart wants me to write and write often.  To share the failures and even the success's!  Ive had some opportunities to try new products and interact with other bloggers and it just hasn't happened.   That last picture of the dog with the PBR cans was amazing and every time I went to update I saw that pic and thought to myself, "that's awesome" and didn't update.  SO I'll limp it along for a while until I make a real not so half ass commitment.  If anything it will be sort of a diary and I'll have a place to put some of my more complicated thoughts.  

What are some of your most exciting memories of last year?

Whats on the plan for this year?

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