February 5, 2010

An Update!

Well, well, well! Seems as if I haven't had a blog entry for the past couple days. How does this happen? How do the days go by so fast? How is it February already? (all questions, I'm sure nobody can answer)

ANYWAY - my big news is that I ran on Wednesday AND this morning (relatively) pain free! Can I get a big WOO-HOO for that one? On Wednesday I ran a whopping 16 minutes (on the track). Don't overdo it right? :) And then this morning I ran 30 minutes (31 actually - oops!) on the roads. Other than a bit of tenderness after today's jaunt, I felt very little to no pain and wasn't sore after the fact. Yeah for progress! I don't think I'll be doing long runs any time soon but it does feel VERY good to run again. And it's also nice to have something to do other than ride my bike! :) (although I did get stretch cords to work my swim stroke some and WOW, those things are hard!)

In other news, tonight and into tomorrow we are supposed to get 10,342,543,543 inches of snow. Or at least that's what the weather people make it sound like. Despite the fact that we live in a place where it snows all the time, year in and year out, the news of snow still seems to get people in quite a tizzy. Buy your bread! Stock up on toilet paper! Don't forget the milk! :) Nevertheless, on our way home from work today (Oscar should be picking me up soon) we have agreed to stop for some of our favorite cookies as we are currently out of stock. And I can obviously not live without my favorite cookies.

So tomorrow we will likely be staying inside which was my plan anyway. Four hour trainer ride on tap and I have my Netflix movie, some DVRed tv shows (and possibly a Law and Order or two) ready and waiting!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Posted by beth at 4:22 PM | Comments (10)

February 2, 2010

More Lists

(What can I say? I like lists!)

Some thoughts:

1) I've never once watched Lost so it's hard for me to understand why people are so darn excited for this final season and the show tonight! But wow! I guess I missed the boat on this one. Could potentially be trainer entertainment in winters to come. :)

2) I never did like that groundhog Phil anyway. Did you see how fat he is? I mean what does he care if there are 6 more weeks of winter? He has all that fat and fur to keep him warm! He ALWAYS sees his shadow. Like every single year. So really I don't think Phil knows what's going on. :) Happy Groundhog Day!

3) Vitamin D has been interesting me lately. It all started when my favorite doctor (who I saw again today) recommended that I supplement with vitamin D despite the fact that I take a multivitamin and get more than adequate calcium/vit D from my diet. (although getting out in the sun right now (so that my body can make some vit D) is a challenge because (a) the sun is rarely out and (b) when I am outside and there is actually sun, my skin is usually all covered up because it's COLD!). Anyway, again today he was on me about the vitamin D, wanting me to supplement with some pretty high doses. This time though, I was armed with questions. Well turns out we've BOTH been doing our research and he now has me convinced. I'm going to try it. Vitamin D, as you all likely know, plays a major role in calcium absorption (among other jobs) and has recently been in the news because pretty much everyone is being found to have low vit D levels (I'm exaggerating, but they are starting to consider that our RDI is too low). Anyway, pretty much EVERYONE (again exaggerating but the percentage is high) athlete wise that I work with does not take in adequate vit D. So drink your milk and eat your salmon. Okay? :) In case you want to learn a little more, an article from the New York Times yesterday about vit D, the new wonder-drug. :)

4) I went to a dark place this morning on my trainer. Ouch. I find it very, very difficult to ride really hard and to get my HR up high when riding OUTSIDE (in training that is...in racing I don't seem to have this problem :). There are just too many "outside" factors (haha!) when riding outside - traffic and road conditions and downhills that make my HR plummet. But inside on the trainer? Wow. There is complete and utter focus on the task at hand and no outside concerns. So you can push the pedals until your head, heart or legs explode. Or all three. Add to this the fact that I have no other outlet for my energy right now (not running/swimming yet) and I was HUMMING this morning during my hard trainer workout! (I only get one hard one a week, I have to make the most use of it I can!) And no rib pain! Yip yip!

5) And I am going to try some running tomorrow! 15 minutes on the track. (or less if it hurts before that) YEAH! But rest assured, although it appears as such, I AM NOT getting my hopes up. Must remain optimistic yet realistic. Will report back. :)

6) Yesterday I worked at the hospital and saw a patient that had attempted suicide by shooting themself in the face. Now this, in and of itself, isn't entirely surprising. I've worked on the trauma units for 7+ years and have seen multiple suicide attempts over the years (often shooting). HOWEVER, what still surprises me to this day is how someone could be so utterly and desperately hopeless to feel as if there was no other solution. Please don't take this as judgement on my part. I am making NO judgement on these patients as I very clearly haven't been in their shoes. I just really don't understand that type of desperation and honestly am glad I don't. I suppose I am truly blessed to have never in my life felt anything even remotely close to this type of hopelessness. And I know mental illness sometimes plays a part, as does severe depression, as does alcohol and drugs. Still, like I said, it always surprises me. And honestly the families are often very unaware how desperate of a situation it was. Scary.

7) Happier topic! I need to make an "addendum" to my last blog entry. Instead of just "10 things that make me happy", I need to add "in no particular order". This, because Oscar questioned why he was all the way down at #5 and Roxy was #1. Hehehehehe. :)

8) I'm a competitive person, as I would assume most athletes are. I mean that's what athletics is right? Competition? Anyway, over the years I've learned how to temper my competitiveness, how to turn it off at times and how to turn it inward (competitive against myself vs other people) so that I have at least one or two friends left by the time I'm old and gray. :) But still, my competitiveness shows up at odd times, when least expected. Like this morning. I was waiting at a stop light (first in line) and there was a Ford Taurus next to me. Our light was red (obviously) but I could see the Taurus slowly inching up as we waited. So I inched up. And the Taurus inched up. So I inched up some more. Then I got my car into first gear and was SERIOUSLY read to rumble when that light turned green. HAHA!! I caught myself and laughed. But still tried to out-run that darn Taurus once our light did change. I seriously need to get back into training and racing ASAP! :)

The end.

No more thoughts. :)

Have a great day everyone!

Posted by beth at 12:31 PM | Comments (11)