My commitment to making Saturdays run the worst!

Before I get started on my whine fest.  Check out how awesome my phone is. 

Tells me how long it would take for me to get home.  How cool is that?  Yeah, I've had my iPhone for almost 3 years now.  I may be technologically challenged but I get there sooner or later.

I ran Saturday.  It was more then awful.  It's almost like the week leading to the run was planned out to sabotage it.  Of course when your a runner and there is a run on the calendar then you run.  I started out with good enough intentions but in the end my commitment to make it horrid was too much for even my running spirit to overcome.

WIND - I understand I don't control the weather.  I do know that my 8 miler earlier in the week on the same running path was pretty darn windy.  Somehow it forgot to click in my head how windy the Jordan Parkway can be this time of year.  Saturday the wind managed to be head on BOTH ways.  Magic wind I tell you!

LATE - I set my alarm for 8 and planned to be running by 9:30.  Not too bad for a Saturday.  It's getting cooler and I don't have to get up at O dark 30.  Night shift on Thursday night messed me up a little and I woke up at 3am ready to party.  Finally fell back to sleep at 5am and did not wake up until 1045.  YES.  I slept through a double alarm.  That, my friends, is talent.  Take note.  I started my run at 1:30pm.

PRE-WORKOUT - huh.  who knew?  I just perused the book 80/20 and decided to try the longer slower miles.  In order to make sure I'm going slow enough then it's good to monitor heart rate.  I bought a new pre-workout for when I start running really long miles and for some reason thought SATURDAY was the day to try it.  It works!  I couldn't even understand my thoughts my body was racing so fast.  My heart rate?  Don't ask.  For a little while I would have had to lie down in the grass to get it within my training range.  

PREPARATION - Usually I have all my clothes and gear out the night before a relatively early run.  I didn't do that.  It didn't slow me down too much but usually if it's out I don't procrastinate as much.  I also didn't tape my knee the night before which I usually do.

BREAKFAST - I wanted a good breakfast and had planned to make banana pancakes.  I did make them.  I made them for me and my son and added some bacon.  Really took my time.  But not very fast because I was on my feet within an hour of such a delicious meal that wasn't quite ready to run on.  

CORE WORK - I did some core work at PT on Friday but I didn't do all of it.  That is the secret to pain free running right now.  Really strengthen those glutes and hammies.  SO I did about 20 minutes of it just before I left for my run.  

Speaking of physical therapy.  These are the torture tools that are keeping me running.  "Hurts so good", Tera Schatz.

AND THE GRAND FINALE!!!
   I was on day 14 of the 21 day Primal challenge with my daily carbohydrate intake under 100 g.  (My big push to try and loose that 10 lbs before Ragnar Vegas)  I had ZERO energy.  I know the carb flu well and it was almost peaked on this day. I don't know if I could have changed this by eating a few more carbs or carbs the night before and that morning.  I just didn't feel well.  

Felt just like that only I was thinking....have I hit 14 min miles yet?

I had planned to run 8 miles.  The first 2 miles were not bad.  Pretty slow but I still felt like I could move forward.  The next 2 were awful and no good.  I tried having a GU (salted caramel) and I could barely choke down half of it.  Then I tried running 3 minutes and walking 2.  Finally at 4 miles I decided to turn back to my car that was 2 miles away.  I ran a little here and there but at 4.5 miles I walked and didn't run any more.  I don't remember having this bad of a run in a very long time.  My average pace was over 12 min/miles so I was barely scooting long.  I'm going to scratch that up to lesson learned and somedays runs are just bad.  I did take some pics to take up some time.

Lots of bikers

No selfie.  I was cranky.  Just a taped knee and the most awesome shoes EVER!!

Go Hokas!

Utah.  It's really beautiful.  Those mountains will soon be covered in snow!

Bug. 

Great running path!

No matter what I do know this!

TeeHee

Tell me about your worst run.  I mean, how bad can it be??

Blog on........

Wasatch Back Ragnar

Not a complete post.  And with my luck there will never be one.  I'm lazy, kinda.  But I was tired of pulling up my blog to read my blog friends and seeing my sad 50 year old face.  ;)

This year for Wasatch Back Ragnar we put together a work team from AirMed.  It was awesome.  I got to know some people really really well!  They were the best ever and everyone was involved with everyone that was running!  We had Flight coordinators, flight nurses, flight medics, friends, family and a helicopter mechanic.  We were set.  We were the van you wanted to drive by if you got hurt.  Well, not really.  Unless you were REALLY hurt.  If you were just sorta hurt we would have told you to rub dirt in it.  Except Joe.  He's the one from our van with the highest moral value.  Hahaha

Joe, Roxanne, Ron, Marcie (Captain!), Jay, Kari, Brandon, Eric

Emmaline, Erica, Deb and me.  

My last run!  I can't remember the girls name that ran in with me, but if it wasn't for her that last mile would have sucked.  It was a 9.8 miler that was a steep downhill, with steep uphills and a steep trail downhill with rocks.  Pretty much a deal breaker for me.  So sick of hills.  PTSD from Top of Zion Relay.  Although if I can run the Top of Zion Relay......I can do/run/say ANYTHING!

Next race

Hobbler Half in a week

Guess who's not really ready for that? 

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

Stress. Is it a fracture, condition or mental tension

Good news.  I have my Ragnar post down to 30 pics!  It's the best to tell a story via picture anyway.   Unfortunately this is not that post.  

*************insert excuses because I work way too much**************

Even I'm getting sick of hearing about it.  It's true, we know it, we live with it.

Today was what I believe culminated into one of the most stressful days I've had in a very long time.  When I say it culminated I'm saying that the past 3 weeks have been interesting at best and have seem to have come with a POP of new stress for me.  I will address them in the coming weeks. Sensitivity (although I'm struggling with it) and that intention makes the timing not my own but someone else.  

ALSO

There is no secret that flight nursing can be stressful.  On my drive home from my meetings today I decided that my body has a comfort level with certain baseline of stress/adrenaline.  It would have to.  Most health care workers that work in a critical environment with lots of death, dismemberment and heartbreak have to have a resistance to some stress or we would all have break downs.  My job takes me from "I'm so bored I'm gonna die (drama queen!)" to "eff me! eff me! eff me running with a chainsaw!"  

That doesn't mean I'm saying that out loud or even faux swearing.  I believe in going big or going home and unfortunately for some around me that means I talk like a sailor when I'm stressed.  When I'm on a scene call or in an outside facility setting that sailor uses it's inside voice.   This whole ramble about my inside and outside voices was just to accentuate what happens on some calls.  Granted most of my calls are pretty straightforward and we have wonderful policies and procedures in place that my experience as an ICU nurse and flight nurse kick in and I'm good.  I'm on task and using my big girl brain cells to do my job.  

Then there is the once in a while flight that you get that makes you reconsider every decision you have ever made since you were born.  Every patient is different and there is no way to cover every possible scenario.  But when I have life's stress that have nothing to do with my job then go to work and end up sticking my fingers in someones chest or working with my medic to make decisions that can mean life or death then it adds up.  It also adds some distraction, excitement and almost giddiness to actually doing it and doing it successfully.  

So with all this vague crap that I can't go into, which is annoying to me too, and a few weird and stressful experiences at work and then my yearly "hey, your heart sucks" **echo then I was feeling a little DONE. 

BUT YET!  I am not done.  Today I had to present a very difficult flight to my team.  Stand up in front of everyone and tell them what I did right and wrong and lessons learned.  I had the best medic ever, Matt Black - and he was a rock star and came to help out.  (He was on the flight)  

By the time they got to us I had napped, laughed, cried and slipped into a short coma.  The presentation went well.  I have a great team and I really feel that they weren't criticizing at all, but we all learn by asking questions and from other peoples experiences.  The presentation felt great but for the love of God I was glad it was over!   

The ride home was filled with thoughts about decreasing my stress and handling this little blip in my life. Luckily I made a very good choice.  I decided that for all my hard work I will reward myself with a nap and some hydration.  (water!  nerd.)

Funny thing.  I came home and jumped in my jammies, had a snack and made the nap a reality.  

My bed in nap mode.  I always nap in my favorite blanket on top of the bed. 

Later, when I woke up, I washed my face, ate and went back to bed but this time for the night.

I can't be the only one that does this.  If I am then I like to think I'm a trend setter.  

Physical exercises helps a lot.  But I would love to tag a pinata once in a while.  The only downfall would be the fact that there has to be a stick/bat available to hit it. Things could go wrong.....very wrong.

On the most positive!  

New glasses are on order!  Any day now!  The sunglasses are RayBan and they will be prescription.  The other glasses are a flexible titanium (KACHING!) but will be great for wearing while I work and under helmets and head phones.  

Dealing with stress is very individual.  I've tried desperately to not be eating my feelings as much as I really want to.   Running is amazing and being physically exhausted in a good way is relaxing.  I'm so very grateful for my kids, my friends and I am so lucky to have a beautiful warm house to live in. I'm in no way on the slippery slope of a breakdown.  I'm just blowing off some steam and giving myself a little leeway.  A little pampering and concentrating on staying healthy.  

Other tips for stress relief:   I look at silly things on Tumblr and youtube.  

Tumblr kills me it's so hilarious!  Gifs of Cats slapping the crap out of various people, animals and things or riding on Roomba's are keeping me sane!

Tee hee

**long standing condition, but I took video and pics this time!  I'll explain later...I know, I know.   I don't mean to be a tease...or do I??  

Do you have any special ways of handling stress?

Napping - in the covers or outside?

Avoiding stress eating?  Is there a special technique?

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

Did you see that truck?

I feel like the cat.....and that the truck is bigger.

link

I have to confess.  Tumblr and Gif's are my favorite source of entertainment.  If I could, I would spend my entire day watching cats do funny stuff like riding a Roomba vacuum, slapping and knocking stuff off. 

RUNNING

After my awesome hill and long run I made sure and stretched my hip out and went for an easy run at a local parkway.  The weather was cool and beautiful!

I choose the parkway so that I wasn't on the road and the way I'm always running on a slope.  I made it about 4 steps and my hip went "OUCH!".  WTH??   I stopped and stretched, checked my form and then finished the run.  My hip was sore for most of the time.  I was so bummed.  If not for my hip the run felt amazing!  I could run forever!  It wasn't the fastest run but I finally feel like I'm in touch with my form and breathing.  

SO...I am taking a break.  I am doing my PT exercises as much as I can between work.  I've iced it and I've rolled it, over and over again.  I tried to see what it could be and it hurts on the outside so they say it's bursitis?  Really?  another itis?  Can't I just get a stress fracture?  I didn't mean that!

Because I've been working so hard I haven't been keeping my core as strong as I usually do.  Plus my diet has been one awful choice after another.  I think that goes with working a lot too.  So last week I increased the amount of time I spend on my core and this week I'm blasting back to my Paleo lifestyle.

While I was eating Paleo I had a lot less aches, pains and GI issues.  Last year when I was eating Paleo and doing some sort of core class at least twice a week I was in the best shape ever.  I want to feel that way again.  I've got to figure out a way to work as much as I need to and balance it with exercise.  It always helps to look through my recipes and books and get some fresh ideas for meals on the go.

Speaking of a well deserved treat:

I got this after a long long flight.  Seriously it was worth it.  A treat once in a while, but I can think of healthier choices.  Yesterday I made a vanilla protein smoothie with vanilla protein powder, frozen mango, almond milk, vanilla extract and ice.  After it was nice and smooth I added a few chips of dark chocolate and pulsed a couple of time.  It was a pretty good treat! 

WORK

Oh work.  I love my job like you wouldn't believe.  I'm the happiest, saddest, maddest and most frustrated that I ever get when I'm there.  I have the greatest experiences mixed with scary and sad.  What more can you ask for?  

Filming with the U's PR department.  My patient is awfully smiley and he didn't even get drugs.  It was fun, not very realistic, but fun.  Usually when we are unloading a patient and walking toward the elevator I'm juggling papers, meds and equipment.  

Last Fridays shift I decided to get stuff out to practice.  Most of my job is practice, practice, practice in hopes that you will be able to think clearly and methodically on scene.  We did some video intubation's and manual.  I dug out the infant head to practice since I've had a few critical pediatric flights in the last few months.  Our NICU flight nurse Julie joined us for some teaching and oh boy did she teach me a lot!  Big thanks to her help!  I can now tape a pediatric ET tube and it isn't going ANYWHERE!  She also gave some tips on packaging, safety with infants and general care. 

My next two flights that day were pediatric.  

BOOM.  I didn't throw up or anything!

After 2 flights in the first 12 hours of a 24 hour shift I decided to relax and watch a movie with the team.  Well, the OB/Neonate team left on a flight so I watched it while my medic worked.  Hehe 

I finally went to bed.  Now lets keep in mind that I already tried to take two safety naps that day and each time I just got to sleep we got a call.  No different here.  I fell asleep and next thing I know that pilot was banging on the door...."let's go, we got a flight"!  

Seriously?

Flight was done, then I charted.  When I laid down I couldn't sleep.  I finally napped about 2 hours.  

(I'm setting up "why I feel like I was run over by a truck")

Still dark at 6:30am when I went up to get my stuff out.  Look at that full moon.  Now it all makes sense. 

I went home and I had signed up to volunteer at the Antelope Island 50K/100K.  So I packed up my car and headed out!  I thought it would only take about 45 minutes to get there, but it turned out to be about 90 minutes.  Lesson learned:  Don't ask a helicopter pilot how long it takes to get anywhere.  

When I got out there I ran into this guy!

My brother Joe.

He came in FIRST in the 50K!  I missed it by about 30 minutes and I only knew by overhearing someone else say it.  WOW!  Animal!  This was only his second 50K.  That's crazy.

I spent a few hours talking to him and helping with blisters and questions.  Then things slowed down and I sat in my camping chair just cheering everyone in.  After sitting in the sun for about 6 hours (even though it was cool)  I had to leave.  I was up 36 hours and I was worried about getting home.  

 

These guys are HUGE!  My brother told me that a buffalo ran onto the trail and ran in front of him and another guy running for a while.  He said, "the buffalo paced us".  So true, you do what the buffalo wants you to do.  

I've never been to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. It was beautiful.  It would be a blast to run out there.  Thinking.......

I took all these pics from the car.  Lazy.  Tired. 

That's my week in a nutshell.  I slept good last night and I've spent the day so far in bed.  YES!  Trying to rehydrate and rest so I can work another shift tomorrow!

How long have you ever stayed awake?

Unfortunately, as a nurse this isn't the first time I've been awake over 36 hours at a time. After about 40 hours the body gets all sassy and decides that you are up for a while longer.  It's an interesting feeling.  I try not to do it very often anymore.

Any ultra lovers?

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

Trust Fall

Last night after I wrote this post, I still couldn't sleep.  I was at work in Rock Springs and since I couldn't sleep I naturally gave myself a mani-pedi at 2am. Just as I was settling back into bed and starting to get sleepy we got a call.  Unfortunately for my team, I was wide awake and wired.  My body is so crazy. Well it turned out to be the longest transport/return of my career. 

This is what the plane looked like by my side in my frustrated hustle for some patient care. I may or may not have tossed a few things to the side.  

Pointing out that although my job sounds glamorous and looks bad ass, there are some moments where everything seems to be going wrong that a few (hundred) cuss words may pass my lips.  

After we delivered the patient safely to a tertiary facility (big word = big hospital) we took a cab back to the hanger and we were told that the plane was covered in ice and we would have to let it thaw in the hangar for an hour and it might be 2 hours before we took off.  I was at about the 24 hour mark of wearing the same clothes and only had a 2 hour nap in those 24 hours.  I grabbed a blanket and tried to get some sleep on our sweet pleather couch.  

A couple of hours later and the ice on the runway was still bad and before we knew it they closed the ENTIRE airport because of ice conditions.  That put my pilot in time out and we were stuck.  Pilots are only allowed so many hours on duty and then need a set number of hours of rest before they can be on duty again.  The FAA is very strict and our pilots follow those rules and the rules of Air Methods to a tee.  Safety First!

In the end, we hung out with the Salt Lake crew at the Hangar until the airport opened back up and our SLC based plane took us (including our pilot) back to Rock Springs and picked up our other Rock Springs pilot to go get the plane. They were on their way to a transport so although it isn't like dropping off a friend, they did get us back around 3ish.  TWELVE HOURS! 

Before we left I was walking out of the SLC hangar when I saw three of the big snow removal machines go by.  They are pretty darn awesome.

The main International airport is just behind our planes. Crazy foggy/yucky.

 Looks like there is snow on the ground, huh?  NO no no.  Ice.  

Never trust an airplane hangar to catch you in a trust fall.  It was more like a violent slam to the ground.  Phone, helmet bag and work laptop (in a well padded bag) all went flying.  Luckily only the 3 pilots, 2 medics and multiple mechanics saw me.  One of the mechanics checked on me and the other guys just yelled from the plane.  It was so icy and SLIPPERY that they couldn't hurry to me without falling. Either that or they were too busy laughing.   

I brushed off and made it to the plane.  

I can't decide if I'm feeling crappy because of my "hard landing" or the fact I've been up around 40 hours.  I feel really lucky that I didn't hurt myself.  I am sure I would have had I not spent the last year working on a strong core.  TRX/Pilates ROCK!  I do know that my body wouldn't tolerate much of that.  

We had to take off over at one of the big runways.  The SLC team was on the way to pick up a patient so we were one of the first to take off.  Medical transport can get priority.  Bye bye horrible weather and ice.

Of course then I had to drive home. 

Guess I should get some sleep!  I have more painting to do and a post showing all my progress!

Watching the news it was clear that many many people fell today.  Utah doesn't do ice storms and we were running amok.  It was like a snowstorm in Georgia...what do we do?  what do we do?

Have you ever turfed it hard in front of a crowd??

PS. Not much about running right now. This long, hard to heal injury is just killing me!  

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

The Ragnar Experience

If you haven't run a relay then it is definitely worth trying.  All levels of runners can participate and it can be so much fun!  Saying that, I have seen teams that fall apart, bitching, moaning and attitudes that I don't understand.   So if you tend to enjoy meeting people, having fun and pushing yourself then you will LOVE this!

The team captain (not always the best job) puts together 12 people, including themselves that together can run a less then 11 minute/mile average.  There are two vans and for the entire race someone from each team is running.  

This was my fourth Ragnar Relay and I was pretty exciting to run in Napa.  I had ran here before when Matt and I were on vacation last year and I loved it.  Plus the race started in San Francisco and went across the Golden Gate bridge and that is breathtaking! 

Once we got into San Francisco and got the van parked, all the runners that were in town met for dinner.  Sean and Charene didn't know anyone and it was a great way to do introductions. 

We stayed at the Travelodge on Lombard overnight and started the race early in the am.  Van 2 joined Van 1 to see them off and see David work the crowd.  It was awesome!

 Steve played his accordion and sang a Ragnar song.  All of David's entourage wore pink wigs and sang along.  It was pretty great.

Check out this You Tube video that Ragnar put on their website of Steve singing and playing the accordion at the start line.

They also passed out these water bottles.

Steve was a great support and did some driving and all around organizing.

He was hilarious too!

START!

Coylette was our first runner and this was her first Ragnar.  The runners are sent out in waves by time.  We were the 730am wave.  

After she took off, we decorated a little, then Van 1 took off to the next exchange.  

Our van took a little longer, but we had a few hours before we had to be to exchange 6, where we would start our runner.

From there it was a chaos of runners.  Each runner ran three legs and we just kept going and going.  When we could we would get water for the runner or just drive by cheering.  

Van one at check in.

VAN 1 (thank you Charene for the pics!  Good job!)  They aren't in any order, but you get the idea, we do a lot of running and having fun

 Coylette

 Pass off Liz to Charene

 Anne and Sean shenanigans

 Anne to Sean handoff

 Sheanine making it look easy!

 We are the 12 deadly zins.  Boom.

 Over the bridge

 Sean passed to Jen J.  

VAN ONE!  The end.

VAN 2

I was there.  It was fun.  In no particular order - ish.

Nicole to Jen

 Ashley and Jen waiting for Nicole to pass off

 David to Jen J

It was usually Jen to David but on the last leg Jen J was having some GI issues, which is always a surprise to runners (not.) and David took her leg so she could "recover".

 My hand off to Nicole.  Look at that form!  I love this picture.  It's really hard to get a good hand off pic but JenQ did a great job.  

 Jen J to Ashley on the last leg.

Night time get up.  Safety first plus a little bling.  Head light, butt light and approved running night vest required!

Check out those socks.  Bam!

 Nicole coming in for an exchange to JenQ

 Jen Q is off!

Between our second and third leg we hung out in the parking lot waiting for Van 1 and napping.  Jen J, Jen Q and I of course wandered around trying to get into trouble.  The young gals slept in the van.  

The gold sparkly visor was a gift from David and Steve!  I love it! It says, BAM - I am your leader!

WORD

I was teased about my constant posting to social media.  I'm a social media whore.  I posted this in honor of JenJ and I posted it on ALL the social media I had my hands on.

Duck lips and all.  

Speaking of shameless hussy.  Be careful what you ask me to do.

More shenanigans.  Another picture of the guy that Jen wanted a picture of.  I did one up.  I asked for a picture WITH him and he was very gracious.  He was my race boyfriend, Ethan.  I broke up with him on the last leg for being so aloof and not staying in touch.  (teehee)

Unfortunately I didn't get a full Van 1 pic, but I did grab one at Trader Joe's later.

Two buck chuck!

FINISH LINE:

We ran a couple of hours later then projected time.  Heat has done that to my team twice.  I ran the hottest and longest leg and I understand that you can't keep the pace up in those conditions.  We kept in touch with Van 1 and they patiently waiting for us while sipping a little champagne and watching Sean spoon his Gold Medal.  He loves his gold medal.  The Gold Medal was a special medal given to the runners that finished SoCal and Napa.  Jen Q, Sean, Ashley and I all received one.

Chilling while waiting for the last runner.

 Yoga for stretching

Wondering if I'll be able to stand up now that I've sat.

Waiting for Jen at the finish.

JenQ running in!   yeah!!

 The finish line party!

Running in to the song, "Brick House".  It was awesome, we were dancing.

The team and the fans

The Team

Nom nom nom.  Love our double medals!!

Thank you to everyone on the team and everyone that helped our team.  All that work that seemed to take hours was totally worth it.  The experience was another success in running.  What great people I was surrounded by and I enjoyed it all!!  OK,  maybe not the hot part where I thought I was going to die, but the rest was AWESOME!!

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