See the Doctor

Happy New Year everyone! I'm not going to blog about my 2010 goals/resolutions now because I haven't made my list yet. haha. Yes I know, I'm behind but I'll get to it eventually.

I will let you know that I went to the Mariah Carey concert this past weekend and it was AMAZING!!! I love MC and have been a fan since I was in middle school (more so of her older songs than the newer ones). My husband bought the tickets as part of my Christmas gift...probably one of the best gifts he has ever bought me. We were 19 rows away from the stage!!! I swear she smiled and winked at me, although I'm sure my husband thinks she was smiling and winking at him!

Annnnyyyways, I wanted to write about the importance of seeing your doctor. As athletes, we sometimes forget to go to the doctor for a regular checkup. We feel fine when we run/swim/bike so what's the use in seeing the doctor right? WRONG!

Just because you can exercise, does not necessarily mean that you are 100% healthy. I experienced this first hand three years ago. I started experiencing terrible cramps after I would run over three miles (back then the most I was running at a time was probably 4-5 miles). I told my father, who is a doctor, about my problem and he told me "Stop running". This was NOT a possibility for me, so my mother, who is a nurse, told me to go see a doctor. The doctor checked me out and thought I had a hernia. This turned out to be wrong (I saw a specialist who verified that I did not have a hernia- thank goodness). My after-running cramps turned out to be caused by the foods I was eating and thus resulting in runner's trots :-( Anyways, during my checkup with my doctor, he also noticed that I had a slight murmur in my heart. And so I went to see a cardiologist.

Heart problems run in my family, especially my mother's side, and the types of problems are those that are hereditary. I never thought I needed to have my heart checked out. I was young, in good shape, ate healthy and always had good cholesterol levels. I was totally wrong. After doing multiple tests and wearing a heart monitor for a day, it was determined that I had mitral valve prolapse. Thank goodness it was not serious and my murmur was a slight one. However, I have to monitor it and check in with the cardiologist once a year to make sure its not getting worse (and hopefully getting better).

Before training for MCM, I made sure to make appointments with my regular physician and cardiologist. Once I got the okay from both of them, I knew I was healthy enough to start training. Before any of us decide to take on a new physical challenge, whether it be a 5k, marathon, triathalon, ultra, etc., we should go see the doctor. There is a reason why (for those of us that are fortunate) have health insurance, so make sure you use it. Also, I don't want to get into politics or healthcare reform talks here but millions of Americans do not have health care coverage. Don't take yours for granted and waste it. Use it. An hour long visit at the doctor could save your running career or even better, your life.

Peace, Love and Healthy Running!
~Michelle

Christmas Re-cap

I’m glad it’s over. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Christmas this year but I was exhausted. So exhausted that I slept for 12+ hours on Saturday. I passed out at 10:30pm Saturday evening and woke up at 11:00am the next morning. I haven’t done this in a while.

Christmas Eve was spent at my parents’ house with over 30 family members and 4 dogs (Side note: I am the oldest of 20 grandchildren on my mother’s side. 10 boys and 10 girls, the youngest being 1 year old). Every year my mother’s side of the family seems to grow, with both people and animals. This year one of my aunt’s decided to give my Nana and my mother a framed picture of me. It was an official MCM photo of me running by Capitol Hill and trying my best to smile. My husband and my siblings joked that I reminded them of Michelle Obama in the picture because my necked looked “jacked”. I explained that I was straining it to keep my head up and back straight at mile 18 haha. My aunt showed the whole family my picture and said “We must celebrate our first marathon runner in the family”. I was truly touched and flattered. I spent the holiday eating, drinking and talking running. I think I may have even convinced some cousins to take up running or at least give it a try. My mother even wants a treadmill now.

Christmas Day, I gave my husband his special gift, the Garmin Forerunner 405. He loved it. It was just what he wanted. He hasn’t used it yet but when he does, I will be sure to blog about his review. I wish I could use it and review it myself but I’m on run-rest for now. After our gift exchange, we headed up to my in-laws in Connecticut for a traditional German Christmas dinner. We stayed up late into the night enjoying quality time with family and friends. It was a wonderful Christmas.

I must admit that I feel like a fat slob after this long weekend. I didn’t do much in terms of exercise. I lacked serious motivation. It was so much easier when I was able to run. I would just lace up my shoes and head out the door. Now, I have to go to the gym to do anything somewhat productive. Today I was back at the gym getting in my elliptical/weight/swim/pool running workout. I always finish it up with a relaxing 10-15 minutes in the sauna. It’s a nice reward for a good workout. I’m trying to look forward to another run-less week.

Pool Running

My PT told me last night that I have to lay off the running for a little while because my knee is still tightening up at the 15-20 minute mark. She said I can do pretty much everything else but run (since this is the only exercise that seems to bother my knee). Last night, I worked out on the elliptical machine for 20 mins, stretched for 15 mins and then into the pool I went for 30 mins. I tried something new in the pool. I had read about and watched on television injured athletes using the pool to help them stay fit while trying to heal properly. I had seen aquatic treadmills and how they helped injured runners. Since my pool does not have one of these nifty treadmills in it, I thought “why don’t I just try running laps in the pool?”. My pool is 24 meters long so I figured a few times running back and forth would be good. After I swam a couple of laps, I took my goggles off and proceeded to run to the other end of the pool. At first I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere. The resistance from the water is pretty strong. I also started in the deeper end of the pool which made it harder. Once I got the hang of it, I began to feel the workout. It was pretty neat. I barely felt any impact on my knee but I could feel the muscles in my legs burn as I ran laps. My arms got an amazing workout because I had to really pump them through the water. I made sure to really use my arms in these runs because I knew the water resistance would make them work. I noticed how much more I was focusing on my posture. My running posture is terrible. I always try to relax my shoulders and keep my back straight but then I forget and before I know it, I’m hunched over, which makes for awful looking race photos! In the pool, I kept my back straight and shoulders relaxed. After a couple of pool running laps, I felt the fatigue which meant my muscles were working. I switched up the pool workout and alternated between swimming and running. I did not have any knee pain (thanks to the lack of pounding). My PT said I can pool run as long as it does not give me pain so I’m definitely going to incorporate pool runs into my workouts. Oh how I love trying something new.


Funny story: A couple of days ago, I was home running on my treadmill (this was before the PT cut me off from running). My cat, Duvel (aka “Duvey” who is named after the Belgian beer), likes to hang around when I’m on the treadmill. He usually lays in front staring up at me with his tail going back and forth slapping the ground. I didn’t realize that he had gotten up during my run and walked to the side of the treadmill. All of a sudden, I heard a couple of “thumps” and then a nail scratching sound and then a “smack”. Then I saw Duvey bolt across the room. The poor kitty had tried to get up on the treadmill with me and didn’t realize it was moving, so off he was thrown into the wall behind me. I think he was shaking up a little after that because he laid far from the treadmill afterwards and began to groom himself. He was cleaning himself up after his nasty fall. In the end, he was completely fine. Cats really do have nine lives…maybe more.


Well I hope everyone has a happy holiday full of good food, good wine and good cheer! I’m off to make some eggplant rolatini and tiramisu cake..yummmm. (I know I don’t look it, but I’m a quarter Italian)

Surreal

I know I ran a marathon (my first) about two months ago but it still feels surreal. A few days ago I went out to happy hour after work and was speaking to my colleague who also happened to be my marathon training partner. I told him about how I still could not believe that I had actually run all 26.2 miles of MCM '09. We reminisced about some of our training runs, like the first time I ran 10 miles (or double digit miles) or the time I ran the actual 13.1 miles just to make sure I would be able to do it for my first half back in March. I said to him "Remember when I could barely run three miles???". He said "I know. You were such a pathetic runner". We both laughed hysterically. I talked about MCM and how amazed I was at how the miles just flew by. I mentioned how I couldn't remember all of the miles but I remember miles 1-2, 6, 8, 11-13.1, 18, 20, and 23-26.2. He ran MCM '09 too so when discussing the miles, he could relate. I talked about all of this with a huge smile on my face.

My running buddy said something very important to me that night. He said that back in March when I told him that I had signed up for MCM, I impressed him. He couldn't believe that I had actually taken that first step on my own. He told me that I should be very proud of my marathon accomplishment. I followed through and reached my goal. He said that running a marathon is something no one could ever take away from me. He's right.

Running a marathon was a dream that I never thought possible for myself. I just couldn't imagine myself being able to do it. It did not seem like it was something in the cards for me. I'm so glad it was. It was a dream that I made my reality. I realized that if you put your mind to something, dreams really do come true. I rode the train home that night thinking of my father's favorite song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Isreal Kamakawiwo'ole. Watch and listen to it here.

My yoga instructor always says "The future is not a promise. Live for today. Be in this moment". I love these words. I'm going to try to live in all of my running moments in the new year. I hope there are lots of them.

PS: I ran for 20 minutes pain free this past Saturday :-)

Feeling Intimidated

I recently started going to a different gym. My job requires me to move around a bit so I’m very grateful for NYSC and the passport membership. I love this gym because it’s new, fairly large and has a pool that is always empty. Yesterday, my workout consisted of a 15 min run = 1.5 miles (going easy on the knee and still having pain at the 15 min mark ughhh), 15 min stretching session, 30 mins lifting and 30 mins swimming. During my lifting session, I felt intimidated. The male to female ratio in the weights section was about 10:1. Okay maybe I’m exaggerating but it felt like that. Why do I feel intimidated? I guess I feel like they are all looking at me like “what is this girl doing here” and I don’t like that feeling. I tried to zone out the feeling because I did not want it to affect my workout. Well I was not very good at it. Whenever I hit the gym, I always attempt to do a couple of chin ups. I know the only way I will be able to do more is by practicing. Yesterday, I dilly dallied around the weights section until I finally got the courage to go over to the chin up bar. It’s not that I was afraid of the chin ups; I was afraid of all the meatheads looking at me. I picked the bar that was in the back of the gym so no one could really see me. I pulled myself up three times and then I was done. (Yes I can only do three chin ups, which isn’t much but a couple of months ago I could barely do one on my own. I’m trying to get to four.) I walked back to the locker room, put on my swimsuit and hit the pool. I love the pool because it really helps to clear my head. When I’m in the water and my ears are submerged, all I can hear is my breathing. It’s wonderful. As I was swimming, I thought about my moment in the weight room and laughed to myself. I am so silly sometimes. I shouldn’t be intimidated. I shouldn’t care if they all looked at me and laughed at my 3 chin ups or little weights. I should be proud. Most people can’t even do one chin up. I found myself laughing more about the incident today when discussing it with a friend and how ridiculous it was that it took me a while to get myself to the chin up bar. It’s funny how I think when I’m at the gym. I wonder what guys actually think about. Do they get intimidated when surrounded by a bunch of women on treadmills or ellipticals? What about those few guys who take the Total Body Conditioning class and have to shake their hips with a classroom full of girls? (PS: I always find this hilarious and have to hold myself back from busting out laughing. I know I know it’s mean but come on, it’s funny).

The Running Buddy That Wasn’t

….and then was. Okay so Laminator’s comment about having a dog to run with prompted this blog. Calleigh was supposed to be my running buddy. She was supposed to be the dog that would accompany me on my runs. I would get my miles in and she would get her well needed exercise. I would also have a less hyper and destructive pup. This all never happened until today.

I tried training Calleigh to run with me at a young age but being the Bully that she is, she was too stubborn to run in any direction that wasn’t in the direction of the dog park. She has a better memory than myself sometimes. Rather than spending my precious running time talking to my dog and trying to persuade her to run the course I had planned for us, I opted to leave her home on runs. I accepted that she was just not meant to be a running dog.

That all changed today (well maybe a couple of days ago when Lam posted his comment). The comment got me thinking about how I could make Calleigh my running dog. On our last walk through our new off-leash park, we were walking through some trails and I thought how it would be nice to run through them. BINGO! What if I ran through the park with Calleigh off leash? I know she would follow me so that was not a problem and the park was fairly large enough that after a couple of loops I could probably get in some miles. And so it began.

This morning I ran my first run with my new running buddy. We only had about 20 minutes (since I had to get home and get ready for work) but at least it was something. We headed out at sunrise in the 20 degree weather (although the wind chill made it feel 10 degrees cooler). I was all bundled up and wearing my new Mizunos (love love love them so far). I froze my a** off but was happy to hit the pavement. It was my first time in weeks. Of course, I started off too fast and had to slow myself down. And of course, my garmin could not find it’s satellite (wahhh) so I could not calculate my distance or pace. I ran for 20 minutes and felt good. However, I had to stop because Calleigh found a friend and then when I started up again the knee felt tight. Well, with that, I stretched myself out a little bit and then we headed home. I’m heading to hot yoga tonight to get more stretching and sweating in. Tomorrow morning I will be back in the PT’s office and will let her know about my run. I have been doing my prescribed stretches, electric stimulation, icing the knee and massages. Does tendonitis really take this long to heal or get rid of? It’s starting to get to me. Ughh. The good news: I figured how to run with my dog.

Calleigh after our run

Habits

My running mind started thinking the other day about all the habits running has helped me change from bad to good. I was going to blog about all of them but felt that each one probably deserved its own posting. For now, I will start with SMOKING.

Running helped me to quit. In combination with chewing gum and an anxiety med, I was able to giving up the nasty habit.

I began smoking when I was in high school. Like most teenagers, I did it because I thought it was cool. That coolness quickly turned into a terrible addiction that I would battle with for years. At the time, I didn’t care about the health consequences. I smoked Parliament 100s (the super long cigarettes) in my last year of high school and pretty much all through college. At some points, I was smoking a pack a day. I loved to smoke whenever I was drinking. Alcohol and cigarettes just seemed to go hand in hand. I thought smoking was sexy. I remember a guy once telling me that I looked sooo sexy smoking a cigarette after I had taken a drag. HA I must have looked so TRASHY!!!

After college, I smoked less because I was working. I wanted to make a good impression at my first job so I didn’t smoke during work hours. Instead, I would light up a cigarette when I got home or whenever I went out for happy hour. I also became sick more frequently with all kinds of tonsil/throat infections. I knew I had to give up the dirty habit for health reasons but it was very difficult. Sometime in 2004, I began to hit the gym more often. I also began taking an anxiety medication because I was seriously terrified of my boss (God rest her soul because she dropped dead a couple of years later). I also think my anxiety was a result of the drastic changes in my life- going from college straight to the work force, working 9 hours a day/5 days a week, commuting, missing my college roommates, etc. I was overwhelmed and did not know how to handle it. Little did I know at the time that anxiety meds have helped people quit smoking. I only stayed on the meds for about 6 months because of working out and running. Physical exercise helped me to gain control of my life. I also quit smoking heavily, however I still smoked socially (meaning I only had a cigarette if I drank or was with friends which was a couple of times a week). It was tough to give it up fully but at least at this point, I was no longer as addicted.

The last time I had a cigarette was Christmas Day of last year. In about two and a half weeks I will officially have my 1 year anniversary of quitting smoking. I truly believe that I have not smoked a cigarette this entire year because of running. I embarked on my long distance running journey in January of this year. I was focused and determined in racing the half and full marathon. The urge for a cigarette vanished quickly. I wanted to run far and fast so why would I jeopardize all of my running progress by smoking a cigarette? This is why I quit entirely. I traded cigarettes for a pair of Asics. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

There are a million and one reasons to give up smoking. However, it is not easy to quit. I know I smoked because I was bored. Running was my relief from that boredom. Although I was able to run when I did smoke, I did not run as well as I do now. Being a smoke-free runner makes my runs much more enjoyable. I’m no longer gasping for air after running a mile. If you are a smoker and want to quit, try finding something you love to do that will help get rid of your boredom. I know running is not for everyone, but you should give it a try. It worked for me.