Feeling Better

HEALTH

I want to thank everyone for the kind words and suggestions on my health update post.  As of the past (almost) week now, I've been feeling much better. My pain had gone down from 50-90% to a 10% and is now about 5%. So not much at all and rare.

For about 3 weeks, I did nothing but walking or resting. My walking might have been anywhere from 1-3 miles depending on how I felt that day and it wasn't fast walking since that aggravated my ailment a bit. And 3 miles was usually just verging on the "a bit too much" side of things so I didn't do that often.

RUNNING

Last Thursday I decided to try my first hand at running again. Between being sick and resting a full week and then this ailment, I've had close to a month off of running. But I know my cardio is low because I couldn't really do any cross training either. Walking was it.  But Thursday at my run group, I decided to do run/ walk intervals (1 minute running/3 minutes walking), just to ease into it and see how the incision would feel after running. Lucky me, I have an awesome run group and everyone decided to run/walk with me! It was a lot of fun with me yelling "RUN!" and "WALK!" lol. My watch was set to the intervals but not everyone can hear my watch.  But the run felt really good so I was happy!

A bit rainy but a good looking group!

I also did a run/walk interval on Sunday with Jill. I was still afraid to push the running too much and I'm still more focused on healing completely, and so with my incision still not fully healed, I kept my run interval at 1 minute. I shortened the walk interval to 2 minutes though.  We did a bit over 3 miles (3.37 miles according to my garmin) and my incision felt great. I have to check it out again (I only look at it every couple days), but I'd like to see how much more healed it is now!

In other (related) news, I did drop down from the full marathon to the half marathon in Iowa in June. I'm ok with that decision. It's the smartest thing. I also had to skip another half marathon this past weekend but I bought it on a groupon so it was cheap and I'm not upset to have missed it.

CYCLING

I'm also kind of excited for cycling season! I bought clips for the shoes to "clip in" but I haven't been able to try them yet since I haven't been able to ride. I'm excited to try them...but not excited to possibly kill myself! lol. Have I told you of my love of cycling?!  I also have 2 months to train now for my international distance triathlon! Yikes!!  :)

VENUS DE MILES

Don't forget that I'm an ambassador for Venus De Miles this year. The fee will increase next week so make sure to register before then if you want to save money! And to save more money, don't forget to sign up with my discount code "GetToGoal" to save $10! Good for either bike distance or the 5k run! Hope to see you there!

St. Jude Runs Chicago to Peoria

This year I will be participating in the St. Jude Runs Chicago to Peoria.

It's a relay style run similar to Ragnar Relay. Participants will be running from Chicago to Peoria which raises money to help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital find cures and save children battling childhood cancer and other deadly diseases.

My fiance's sister has a team that I will be running with. We will be running approximately 160 miles in relay form all day and night on July 31st to August 1st.  I'm really excited to participate this year. I've wanted to participate for the last couple years but have always  had prior commitments. This year I was going to do it.

I have committed to raising $1,250. I can't do this alone. I need your help. This is a great cause and every donation, no matter the amount, helps. I hope that you will be able to donate to my cause. I listed the link below. Please feel free to share with anyone that you think might be interested in donating.

Link to my personal fundraising page:

http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/PeoriaRuns/PeoriaRuns?px=2681861&pg=personal&fr_id=39061

In addition, we are having an awesome fundraising event that I am selling tickets.

The tickets are $40 each and the event is June 6th in New Lenox, IL. You have the opportunity to win a round trip ticket to Las Vegas. There will be unlimited food, non-alcoholic drinks (cash bar) and several bands lined up. There will also be raffles with some great items!  If you are interested in purchasing a ticket, please let me know. I would love to see you there and remember, this supports a great cause! 

Thanks for any support you provide!

Marathon and Health Update

I haven't been talking about it much but I had previously won an entry to the Marion Rotary Marathon for Shoes in Iowa in June from Too Tall Fritz. I was able to choose either the full marathon or half marathon. After leaving it to a facebook vote (for fun...that's fun right?), it was decided that I was going to do the full marathon because my friends love to torture me! You guys are so sweet.  I also knew that Amanda (Too Tall Fritz) would be doing the full and my friend Julie was also deciding to run it and do the full. So I would have company. Can't beat a free full marathon! (Or half really, anything free is nice!)

Come training season, I've been having a hard time. Not just training for the marathon, but training for my halves and just running in general. I never really recovered from getting burnt out from all the racing/races I did last year. By December 2014, I was just done.

I know with running, there are always ups and downs. I'm in a "down" slump right now but an "up" could be right around the corner. I have my friends, my run club, and my Thursday run group. I also have the upcoming nice weather, which I just love running in! So I was just trying to hang in there. Get through the running, enjoy the good run days when I have them, and be thankful I am able to be out there running!

Thinking about the full marathon in June was starting to really stress me out. I'm just really struggling to run. While running, sometimes I'm struggling just to breathe. I don't have allergies (that I know of). I did get checked by a doctor last year and my iron levels were fine (I struggled with anemia in recent past). So I'm not sure why I was having such a hard time. I'm still not sure. And it's just definitely frustrating at times. My long runs were hard. Friends made them easier to get through. I even got up to a 15 mile run recently. 

Then I got sick/a bad cold. The day of my 15 miler (maybe that's why I struggled that day?)  I really wanted to try to recover quickly so I decided to take a few days off. I was pretty sick and actually took a full week off of running and all working out. One week of no running won't hurt me and will be better in the long run when I'm recovered.

After a week, I ran a slow and easy 3 miler. It was a gorgeous day. I actually enjoyed the run. It wasn't easy but it was peaceful.

Then I got a pain in the butt. Literally. Ok, "near" the butt. I haven't talked about it much because the location is a bit strange and awkward. You just don't mention your butt. Unless you talk about it on your blog. Everything is fair game on your blog, right? The day after I noticed the pain, I felt a large lump. Lumps scare me. (Spoiler - I'm ok.) They aren't normal and generally shouldn't be where ever it is they are. After 2 days and the pain becoming more severe, I decided I should get checked out by a doctor. When I got checked out by the doctor, she said it was an abscess (infection) and scheduled me for a surgeon the next day.

I was relieved it wasn't anything serious. I was scared to be going to a surgeon. The lump already hurt. It hurt to sit down, it hurt to walk, and it hurt to turn over in bed. And it hurt bad. I was glad to be seeing a doctor and possibly just having it removed because I wanted the pain to end. But I knew that having it removed would also be painful. So I prepared myself to be in pain. That way I wouldn't be surprised.

Friday, I went to the doctor and they took me to the procedure room. The surgeon told me it would hurt. She said they would give me a numbing shot but she wasn't going to lie, the numbing shot would hurt like hell.  And hurt like hell it did. I feel like I've had a lot of painful health things this year. I'm super thankful none of them have been serious. But they have all been painful. And just when I think that this is the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life, something that feels a million times more painful comes along. The numbing shot process felt like years and it was excruciating. And all I could do was say "Ow! Ow! Owww!!!!" and bear it. When she finished, my legs were shaking and tears started rolling down my eyes. I didn't think I could take this anymore. And I'm not being dramatic. I'm being completely serious. This "pain in the butt" was becoming way too literal for me!  When she cut into the abscess, she realized it was much deeper and larger than she thought (by the way, I wasn't all the way numb yet so that hurt too). Then she had to give me another numbing shot deeper. I was dreading it. It hurt but since the original numbing was kicking in, it only maybe hurt half as much.

Then I was pretty numb. The surgeon was doing her thing. She was telling me that I was actually doing really well. I laughed with relief that I was not hurting much anymore and told her I was feeling a bit better now. She said if I could see what she was doing, I would "jump off the table". I told her ignorance is bliss.

Mind you... I have never had a baby or given birth. So don't tell me how painful that is. If I ever get a chance to experience it, I'll let you know what was more painful. Lol.

I also didn't mean to give you this full medical update. It just sort of spilled out. And if I can't trust my blog readers, who can I trust!?  :) You complete me! Ha!

So what does all this mean now that my abscess was removed? It means that I have an open wound that I need to heal. It means that until it heals, I really am not supposed to run. Due to the location, running could cause a lot of friction in that area and it could take longer to heal or get worse. So since my 15 miler on April 19th, I've run one 3 miler. I had to skip my half in the beginning of May too since I had just had the surgery.  Lately, I have just been walking. And sometimes walking hurts it due to the location. I don't want to push it and have it take longer to heal. So I've been laying pretty low.

What does this mean for my marathon in June? I don't know. Before this, I was considering switching it to the half anyway because I was struggling so much. But I decided to just keep trying to push through it for the time being "just in case". Now with being sick and then having this surgery thing, it's just becoming A LOT  of time off of running (and any high impact cardio). So I'm now seriously considering dropping to the half. I could probably do a walk/run interval and "just get through" the marathon, but do I want to? That's what I'm really trying to decide. I also entered the lottery for Chicago (which I wasn't originally planning on running) and got in. So I signed up for the Chicago Marathon (more on that another post). So I could scrap this one and run that one.

That's what I'm deciding. That's where I'm at in my running and health life right now. One day at a time, one run at a time (when I can run again). Again, I'm just super thankful to have my health and all my "issues" are not severe.

Happy running my friends! If you go for a run, run a mile for me, ok?

Exciting New Thing!

I know it's been a while since I last posted. I have several things to mention but first I want to mention the most exciting one!

I have been selected to be a Venus De Miles Ambassador this year! This year, the ride (and run) will be July 25, 2015 in Lake Forest, Illinois.

If you will remember, I participated in the event last year in 2014. Melanie from See Mommy Race was an ambassador last year and I used her code for a discount when I registered (she's also a fellow ambassador with me this year too!). And Derek participated as well as one of the "men in drag" support crew... and the best looking one there if you ask me!

Melanie and I at Venus De Miles 2014

My "man" and I at Venus De Miles 2014

So what does this mean for you? 

1. You can sign up using my discount code GetToGoal and receive $10 off your registration (regular registration only).

2. Not only do they still have the great cycling distances of 25 miles and 62 miles, but they added a 5k run as well. So if you are not a cyclist but would love to join me, you can do a 5k run!  I love that they have 2 distances for the bike event in case you are not a high distance cyclist...or you just want to get to the after party sooner! (Hey, that makes complete sense to me!)

3. You will get to learn more about the Greenhouse Scholars, which is the charity Venus De Miles supports!  Greenhouse Scholars helps high performing underprivileged kids go to college. I heard one young man speak at the event last year about how important Greenhouse Scholars was to him and it is moving. Your money will go to a great cause.

4. There are so many fun things associated with this race. I will have to go into it more another time, another post, BUT...the after party was amazing! So much food, beer, fun wine drinks... There were mani's and pedi's.... So. Much. Fun. Stuff. The rest areas have food. They also have anything women might need. There is sunscreen, hair ties, feminine products, lotions...the list goes on and on.

So you should all definitely join me. Sorry men, it's a ladies ride and run. There will be an opportunity for any of my male friend cyclists to apply to be a "men-in-drag" support crew but I will let you know when that opens up if my men friends are interested.

I'm riding the 62 mile ride. I hope some of you will join me for that distance but there is also the 25 mile ride available for you! Use code GetToGoal and receive $10 off!

Happy running and happy cycling. Remember to have fun and be safe!