Tara Cuslidge – Page 15 – …and she runs.

January 23, 2013January 24, 2013

Guess who got cleared to run?

That would be ME!

Today marked two things: I was released from medical leave, thereby could officially end my employment. I’m relieved. I felt like I was waiting to bury someone. Those of you who know what it’s like between a death and the funeral know what I mean.

And I was told I can resume all normal athletic or exercise activities, which means I’m going to be busting my butt for the next three weeks to train for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Pasadena Half Marathon.

To be fair, I’ve run nine miles in the past two days, but always slow and always against medical advice. Now that I know I’ve “healed nicely” I can beat my little legs into the ground again. Words cannot describe how incredibly excited I am to run again.

Stupid gallbladder removal. No more delaying my training.

January 18, 2013January 19, 2013

Introducing ‘The Great Clothes Fast’

I have a confession: I have more running clothes than I absolutely need. It’s a bit of a nasty habit of mine, to purchase more running clothes each time I get paid. Or to covet something on the Lululemon website for weeks until I finally buckle and buy it.

With the absence of one job, I’ve decided that it’s time to put a halt on buying running clothes.

I need to live more simply. Simple is not nearly 15 pairs of running capris. Or 30-plus tops. Or more long sleeves than I even wear. Add on numerous pairs of shots, which I rarely wear even during the summer and my closest is kind of complete for now.

So I’m not buying any running clothes for at least six months.

That’s right. Starting today, no new running clothes, with a couple exceptions, for six months.

That’s all the way until July 18. That’s after two marathons and a series of other races.

Ask my husband, for me that’s a lot of time. It means I won’t be jumping on any awesome Nike sales, so trying to find a coupon code that doesn’t exist for Lululemon (seriously, they never have codes or anything that would make the clothes less expensive.)

I am putting some rules on this experiment, though:

Shoes are not considered “clothing” objects and can, therefore, be purchased as they are now (three times a year)
Shirts that are part of race fees do not count, because I’ve already paid for them
Pre-existing clothes can be altered and fixed in order to make it through the six months
Socks can be purchased as needed, if only to avoid foot chafing
If I’m running a race for the first time, I can browse for one new object and potentially buy, but only if I have cash on hand and am not using a credit card
Expos, where much money can be spent, will now have a budget based on how much money I have in savings, again avoiding frivolous use of credits cards
After the six months is over, I will not buy new running clothes until something wears out, splits a seam or has a hole

Those are my rules. My husband has helped me develop them, if only because he knows how weak I am when it comes to Lululemon. But I also know I have a closet so full of clothes (all clothes, not just running clothes) that I have no space for my workout gear. It sits on the floor right inside of the sliding door.

But I’m facing it: I have a lot of clothes.

That’s part of my pile of short-sleeve shirts inside the closet. I have nearly every color you can thing of. I even own a running skirt, which I love in theory but my fat little legs don’t necessary like it too much.

I’m not as crazy as replacing my accessories. My iFitness band is getting more worn than I’d like, but I love it. Since last summer, when I switched to Nike LunarEclipses, I’ve held on to my shoes until they are falling apart. In fact, I run on my treadmill with my original pair of the LunarEclipses. They still feel good, so I’m not getting rid of them. (I also wear them as my regular, every day shoes.)

So this begins “The Great Clothes Fast” where I give up my obsession with purchasing every pair of capris I love in a store and every shirt that looks nice on the model, even if it won’t look nice on me.

I’m planning on updating my progress on this, as I put together outfits from my stock of gear. I’m crossing my fingers than I can do this. If anything, at least my husband will hold my accountable.

January 16, 2013January 16, 2013

Lessons in anatomy and physiology

Do you know how hard it is to find a picture of a gallbladder on Wikimedia Commons? They are all ultrasound images. All kind of lame. I found a nice anatomy/physiology class look at the whole body, though, that seems to fit the purpose.

Let’s talk gallbladders.

There are three organs deemed “non existential” to the maintaining of life. We’ve all heard horror stories of people having their appendixes removed, usually with dramatic stories about it happening before high school graduation or grad night or, this one is real, I know someone who had her appendix removed a week before her wedding. She always says that’s the only reason she could fit into her dress.

Then there’s the spleen. The only people I know who have had theirs removed are people who have been in serious accidents.

Until last week, I wasn’t even aware my gallbladder could be what was causing me so many intestinal problems.

Now it makes sense.

Let’s backtrack.

The pain I’d been experiencing had been diagnosed as everything from “female troubles” to kidney stones to a “physical manifestation of stress.” I nearly kicked the doctor who diagnosed the latter of the three. Wow. If only stress could manifest as a removal appendage instead and we could just remove it from our lives.

In the last four months, as other craziness was going on in my life, it became considerably worse. I scaled back my food intake to get a little control over it. But I still had bowel issues (sorry, TMI, but necessary) and couldn’t drop a single pound on the scale. Something was up. Now that I look back at it, as my pain increased over the past couple years, the pounds stacked back on.

And I wasn’t eating bad. My husband joked that on paper, he is healthier than me. But what people don’t see is that I run 30-plus miles a week, eat healthy and take incredibly good care of myself. When I have pain, I know whether it’s expected or weird.

I’m still a little set back by the fact that my gallbladder was removed just a week ago.

But I’m learning to work within a new reality. Why? Because you can live without a gallbladder, but it does serve a vital body function.

The gallbladder holds bile. It rests under the liver. When we eat, it releases bile to the intestines to help with the moving of food and absorption. That’s why doctors introduce a liquid diet initially. Lots of Jello. Lots of broth. I’ve been gradually increasing my food intake.

It started out with lots of soup. This is a homemade chicken bow-tie soup that I made the other night. My husband says that he’ll eat anything I put on the table, so this was the first of a series of challenges I’m putting him up to. It passed. All he added was pepper. I can’t handle a lot of salt and pepper.

The problem is that a week after surgery, I’m still lacking an appetite. I’m eating. But not much. And everything I am eating is as much as I was before. My husband and I talked about my diet last night, as we realized a couple things:

– I haven’t started taking any of the medication I was on prior to surgery (and I mean ALL medication outside of the pain meds)

– I’ve stopped drinking Diet Coke for the time being because I was told my stomach probably couldn’t handle the carbonation.

– I’ve prepared nearly every meal or had soup since leaving the hospital

– I haven’t ran all but a mile, and it was slightly disastrous and I nearly threw up doing it

Today, I weighed myself and I’m six pounds less than I did before surgery. I’m not sure if that’s because of surgery and a hospital stay, which usually happens. But my calorie consumption has gone down too.

I’ve been trying out new recipes that are low-fat or no fat based.

I made a simple pizza, sans sauce. I used a French-bread crust, spread it out. I used low-fat mozzarella cheese, no fat cooking spray, sliced tomatoes and a little bit of basil. I also used some low-fat Parmesan cheese for taste. My husband loved it and it only took 20 minutes from prep to table.

I have some leftovers I’m planning on warming up today, in the oven instead of the microwave. It will be nice to have a little crunch. I haven’t gone as far as figuring out the calories for something like this, but it treated my stomach well. I had a couple little slices (it’s not a big pizza).

And so far my stomach is handling things decently. I think over the next couple weeks it will be really a “try and see” thing. Because my gallbladder isn’t stockpiling bile, sometimes too much fat is released. Then I have some stomach cramps and other issues that may or may not involve me running to the bathroom.

Another new addition to my diet is soy-based products.

I bought Boca chicken burgers. which have been relatively easy on my stomach as well.

Except I eat them as sandwiches, with low-fat cheese. And it tastes so good. This is one new food item my husband won’t be partaking in. I went to Berkeley for graduate school. I own Birkenstocks. He already tells me I’m a hippie. Eating anything Boca related doesn’t help, believe me.

So a week out, I’m relearning how to eat. I’m also dealing with very little appetite and other issues.

On a running note, I finally sent the email to the race director admitting I probably wouldn’t be able to run in the 10K next week. I figured I’d be feeling a lot better by now, but I’m still dozing off in the afternoon when my head starts to hurt. If I try to do too much, I end up having moments where I’m dizzy. If I want to drive, I can’t take my pain pills. So I’m kind of a mess still.

But my running buddy Sam scolded me for even thinking about running. She reminded me that we had a trip to Pasadena planned for next month. And it should likely now be my first race for 2013.

January 15, 2013January 16, 2013

Today, in video

I’ve quoted this song before, probably more than I think on the blog. Today it’s more relevant. More personal.

“Regrets collect like old friends

Here to relive your darkest moments

I can see no way, I can see no way

And all of the ghouls come out to play

And every demon wants his pound of flesh

But I like to keep some things to myself…”

Today the news was bad, what I am hoping is the end of four months of bad. All bad.

Today, I’m not letting it ruin me. I’m dancing again. A little lighter.

The crying is hopefully over. The worry is gone.

“I am done with my graceless heart

So tonight I’m gonna cut it out and then restart…“

And that’s exactly what I’m going to do tonight. With one less job. With more hope. And a semester’s worth of planning for my class derailed by the missing gallbladder to do.

Today, I’m smiling for the first time in a long time. Because even bad news bring new possibility.

January 13, 2013January 14, 2013

Getting through the post-operative fog

The past couple days, when I try to take photos, they mostly look like the image above. Actually, a lot of things look like the image above.

I’ve been doing something fancy Google searching only to find out about all the post-operative side effects that come along with having general anesthesia.

Because this isn’t pain induced. I’m kind of past the pain today. Or at least I haven’t been taking my medications that leave me even more tired and loopy than I am right now. Though this morning was pretty epic when I congratulated myself for finally being able to wear real clothes (hello jeans! hello actual shirt!), then promptly fell asleep on my couch for what is like the umpteenth time.

So lame.

The good news is that I’ve been able to wear real clothes all day without pain.

The bad news is that I’m still suffering the side effects of being put under, much worse than the last time I had surgery in 2010.

I stand up and have dizzy spells. I can’t stay awake for more than four or five hours at a time. Then, for some reason, it takes me forever to fall asleep. Then I’m stuck in this great semi-somnia where I feel awake and can sense everything around me, but feel kind of paralyzed. Weird stuff is going on up in this body.

It may surprise then that when I woke up this morning I said “oh hey, maybe since I’m not in horrible pain anymore, I can actually run on the treadmill.” Then I stood up and realized the room was spinning. And my ears were doing this weird throbbing thing.

I’m pretty sure I’d be a disaster in my running shoes right now.

But I can’t help but feel a great need to get back to running as soon as possible. I haven’t even sent an email to the race director of the upcoming race because I keep thinking that maybe, just maybe, I can run the 10K. It will be alright, yes?

I’m probably so wrong.

I’m barely eating solid foods.

But I’m taking down a lot of soup. My mother in law made the bowl above. She actually made enough for two, but I made my husband eat his fatty chicken strips from the night before. (That’s what he gets for eating in front of me. The chicken smelled so good I wanted to grab the strip right from his hand.)

Since I can’t drive until I am done with my pain pills, I asked him if he could take me to the store yesterday. I had to throw away most of what was in our pantry because it’s not exactly considering healthy or low fat by any means.

“We need food,” I said.

He gave me this look that bordered between sympathy and annoyance.

But he took me. Since I had a $10 off $50 coupon at Winco, he went there. Speaking of coupons, when I got to the register the clerk nearly freaked out when she saw I had about 10 other coupons to use.

She actually said “Oh Lord!” like I was one of those crazy coupon ladies who was going to get my grocery bill down to $1.50 or something like that. Yeah, we only saved $14.40.

We spent an hour in the store, picking up lots of fruits and vegetables (my snack staples). We also grabbed chicken and pork chops, to supplement the ground beef and stew meat we already have. We made a pact: no grocery shopping for two weeks. Instead, we need to eat everything in our pantry and refrigerator. The only thing I’d buy is fruits. Those seem to go pretty quickly.

My husband and I haven’t shopped together in a long time. The last time was probably before I started working two jobs. It was nice, if only because I’m not supposed to push the cart.

But the fog followed me to the store too, where the lights seemed to be screaming at me. I nearly fell over a couple times. If it hadn’t been for the shopping cart, I probably would have fallen in an aisle and had cans all over me.

Our mission to get low-fat and non-fat foods was a success, though.

We came home with a lot of good food and a meal plan.

So as much as I think I’m feeling better, I’m still realizing that this whole gallbladder episode was bigger than even I could imagine. I still have sterile-strips across the four holes in my abdomen. I’m supposed to wait until they “fall off” in the shower. I’m also supposed to call Monday and make a follow-up appointment with my surgeon to make sure everything is healing okay.

And yet, all I can think about is putting my Nikes back on and hitting the road.

January 12, 2013

My (somewhat) daily diet

First thing: I’m very grateful for the thoughts, sentiments and such I’ve received through email. This hasn’t exactly been the easiest week of my life. And I think it’s awesome that people I don’t even know personally choose to reach out.

Second: I’ve been asked about what my diet is typically like on a day-to-day basis.

It’s a good question, especially considering that the gallstone my doctor found was incredibly huge.

So what does a typical, not splurging at Boudin day, look like for me? It’s pretty basic.

Breakfast

– Banana

– 100 calorie Grek yogurt

Lunch

– Weight Watchers or Lean Cuisine meal

– Or a peanut butter sandwich on wheat bread

– Or a quick, small salad

Snack options (Usually two or three during the day)

– Simply Fruit Rolls or sticks

– Granola bar

– Banana

– Golden Delicious apple

– Wheat thins

– Sugar Free Jello

– Another Greek yogurt

Dinner

If I’m alone…

– Progresso Light Soup

– Sushi (Because my husband hates sushi, so if I’m alone this is the only time I can actually eat sushi)

– Weight Watchers or Lean Cuisine meal

If my husband is around…

– Chicken breast

– Side vegetable, usually corn, but sometimes zucchini

– Potatoes, pasta or some other starch

Doesn’t seem too bad, right?

My problem is overeating. If I make potatoes au gratin, I’m only really supposed to eat about a cup full. But, unfortunately, I have to eat more than that. I usually go back for seconds and thirds without hesitation.

Or when I eat chips, I grab more than the handful I am supposed to. I can’t seem to control it very well.

Is that what let to the gallstone and gallbladder issues? Maybe. Who knows. I’ve been dealing with these pains since a long time before I gained a ton of weight. The first time I can remember having this pain, I was in high school. At that point, I was only 135 pounds.

But my issue has always been the overeating. I eat a lot of good stuff.

In fact, when my husband brought me home from the hospital he started searching around for the things I could eat. He found sugar free Jello and the soup and a bunch of low-fat foods. He didn’t need to go buy much at all.

So if I had been eating this stuff all along, why has my stomach hurt so bad lately?

I don’t know. But I went back and looked at recent posts where I complained about abdomen issues while running, I can say that it was likely the result of the gallbladder issues getting really, really severe. Two emergency room visits in two weeks? Yes, that should tell me something.

But now my diet is definitely more exclusive than inclusive.

So I’m cutting back even more so. But my diet will likely stay very, very similar. Now, though, it’s much more important to stay within portion limits and not overdo the fat.

January 10, 2013January 11, 2013

A new emergency, complete with surgery

That whole post about bad luck? It just keeps getting worse.

The culmination of it all was an emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder (yes, the whole freaking thing) and a gallstone the size of a quarter from my body on Wednesday morning.

Let me go back to Jan. 1.

That emergency room trip where the CT scan showed nothing? Where blood tests were inconclusive?

I was sent home, that night, after being loaded up with painkillers. The good painkillers, not the ones that make me feel like I’m on fire (looking at you Morphine). I was also prescribed a bottle of Vicodin and some anti-nausea medication. Good thing too, because I had to keep taking it.

I can’t even begin to describe the pain I feel when it happens. It starts dull, then radiates throughout my abdomen. Then my stomach seems to get bloated. Last week, I couldn’t wear my jeans. It was that bad. And when all is said and done, it passes. Like nothing. It usually only lasts a night or so, then I’m back at it.

But this time, the pain stuck around. I noticed it when I was shooting a video on Thursday of last week. As I sat on the floor, something I usually do when shooting video. I all of the sudden had a sharp pain in my side. Then I felt a little sick. I was able to finish the video without any other incident.

On Saturday, it felt like it was kicking up again. By Monday, I was harboring a dull pain as I went throughout my day. I’ve been dealing with this since graduate school. Doctors first diagnosed me with an ulcer. That was a lucky guess … because I ended up having a pretty gnarly ulcer. My husband rushed me to the ER the year we got married after I could barely stand up. Then doctors said it was kidney stones. In 2010, I had surgery to look for “lady problems” that could be causing the pain.

Another doctor told me I needed to lose some weight. I proceeded forward with that. Thirty-pounds lighter, the pain came back.

And it kept coming, until Tuesday when, at another video assignment, it was full blown. Just crazy bad. Tuesday ended for me in a way that I should have predicted a few weeks ago when I decided to go back to work, except in the real-life version I was called self absorbed. (Not for this post.)

I came home upset Tuesday night. I took a Xanax to calm down. I fell asleep fast.

By midnight, I was wide awake trying to get the pain to pass again. I tried to go to the bathroom. I drank water, a ton of water. I used the heating pad. I took a shower. I did everything.

Then I started throwing up. Everything. Nothing stayed down. (Even that $10, super delicious Togo’s sandwich. Damn.)

So at 4 a.m., I woke my husband up by collapsing on our bedroom floor.

“I’m dying,” I cried.

“You’re not dying,” he said.

But he couldn’t deny I was in pain.

It took them an hour to get me painkillers. I hadn’t even had time, since the previous visit, to check in with my regular physician. This time, the emergency room doctor (a really young looking guy), ordered up a CT with contrast.

Less than 30 minutes later, he was back in my ER bay telling me by gallbladder looked inflamed. He brought in an ultrasound machine. He felt around. He said he wanted to consult the surgeon.

By 9 a.m. I was being wheeled into the surgery room to have my gallbladder removed.

I woke up in recovery, still dazed about all that had transpired in less than 12 hours.

And greeted by a clear liquid diet.

Chicken broth. Jello. Yum. I also got juice. No carbonated beverages, though. Apparently, I may not be able to drink carbonated beverages for a while now.

Oh, and new holes all over my abdomen. I felt like a human pincushion.

That’s what I look like after having a organ removed. And being put under general anesthesia. And being hooked up to a major massive IV delivering more painkillers.

So I’m sans gallbladder. My husband was right: I wasn’t dying.

But I’m not supposed to lift anything more than 15 pounds for the next month. I have an awesome sheet full of lots of fun doctor orders. No this. No that. No running. For at least two weeks.

So that 10K I was so jazzed about? Not happening, according to my husband. It’s only 16 days away. He wants me to contact the race company and transfer my entry to another event. I’ll get around to it, when I have a moment of clarity without the pain medication. (Like right now, when I’m not nearly as groggy as I thought I’d be.)

I’m trying not to be iffy about my half marathon in February, but you never know about these things. I’m in a lot of pain right now. I can barely stay awake for more than three hours, apparently a result of being put under.

That was my view for the day/night. The night was ridiculous. There was no way I could get a good night’s rest. I had nurses coming in every two hours to check my vitals and make sure I was still alive. If they hadn’t have kept giving me pain medication, I probably wouldn’t have gone back to sleep.

One of the orderlys was really nice, though. She saw I was having trouble navigating something simple like opening up a sugar packet, for my tea, and she offered to make it for me.

I nearly cried when she left. Lately I’ve been greeted with questioning looks and doubtful smiles. This woman was genuinely nice to me. She even opened up my napkin and put it on my lap. Why can’t more people be like that? (I may sound cheesy right now, but I’m had a hellish three weeks that has made me question nearly everything I knew about friendship and proper decorum.)

I kept getting zonked out with the IV painkillers.

That little bag was both my friend and my enemy. They had to remove the original IV from my right hand and move it to my left late last night because the original one had saturated my arm. Every time my nurse “flushed” the line, it burned.

This morning, my husband came and bailed me out. We only live right down the street from the hospital, but the trip felt long. I really just wanted to go home and crawl into bed. When I finally did, I fell fast asleep.

I’m a little hunched over when I walk now. And the pain is still radiating, but this time I know it’s from the holes, not the gigantic gallstone.

I keep asking myself: Why is all this happening? What is it setting me up for?

One of my favorite songs says “it’s always darkest before the dawn.” I keep hoping that’s true. I keep thinking positively. It will all mean something, anything, eventually. But what matters right now, what I know matters, is that I am home, And safe. And my husband is taking care of me. And a friend who mattered came to see me. And my mom showed up without hesitation when she was called.

I know I’m loved, even if everything is falling apart all around me.

January 5, 2013January 6, 2013

If I didn’t have bad luck …

I wouldn’t have any. Or so the saying goes.

The first hours of 2013 were great. No problems. I just hung out on my couch. I decided not to go for a run because my left IT band was still bothering me. My left big toenail (the one that is becoming increasingly black), also started hurting a little bit more.

Then, at about 4 p.m. my abdomen started hurting.

It wasn’t just as little pain, it was a horrible stabbing pain. I tried heat. I tried an ice pack. I took a bath. I took some pain relievers. I did everything. But 8 p.m. I was so sick and disoriented that I could barely stand up. Every time I moved it hurt.

I kept thinking it would get better. It didn’t.

Finally, fearing that my appendix was exploding or some other extreme malady was occurring, my husband high-tailed me to the hospital.

I think the fact that I threw up, pretty significantly, in triage got me in quicker than I imagined I would. I was keeling over in pain. I could barely get into the hospital gown. But they loaded me up with Dilaudid, a pain reliever that’s not morphine (I’m allergic to morphine), and I suddenly felt so much better.

I had an x-ray done. They found nothing.

No explanation. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. It’s not that I wanted my appendix to be exploding. Not at all. That would have set my running back months (I had a surgery in July 2010 and couldn’t run for four weeks, longest four weeks of my life). But I wanted something to be happening so I could have a diagnosis and get work on making it better.

Instead, they told me to visit a gastrointestinal doctor.

Let’s me real: I’ve seen a lot of doctors lately. The thought of another one just bums me out.

So I started this year bummed out, doped up on pain relievers in an emergency room bed. After two months on leave, I didn’t have the heart to call in sick to work the next day. I was tired, and the pain still resonated, but I made it through.

On Thursday, I headed out to my car to go to work and noticed a strange scratch on the door.

It didn’t look right. I opened the door and found something much, much worse inside.

You’ve got to be kidding me?

No. Way.

Someone tried to break into my car. The only place I’d been? Work.

My car is in the garage when I’m at home. I sent my husband an email when I got to work.

“I think someone tried to break into the Jeep,” it said. He had me send photos. When he received them, he was livid.

I mentioned it to the security guard at work. He told me that someone else’s car was broken into earlier in the week, but no one was in the lot last night, etc.

My husband was firm: The only place it could have happened was in the lot at work.

The damage is fairly significant, especially on a new car.

I filed a police report. We’re turning it into insurance. My typically mild-mannered husband was cursing and upset when I got home and showed him. I told him I impressed by the Jeep’s durability. The bad guys didn’t get in. Nothing was stolen. And it’s not like they can steal the car anyway, since a proximity chip is needed to start it.

Then on Friday, after all of this happens during the week, the cracks in the facade start to show a little in my anxiety. It turned into a bad day.

One bad day after another.

But … my IT band isn’t in as much pain as it was a couple days ago. I’ve been stretching it every night and rolling it out with my Grid roller. I’ve also been using my TriggerPoint ball to massage the ends of my IT band.

I ran six miles yesterday. I ran five miles today.

I’m hoping to run eight to 10 tomorrow morning.

The running is going well. I’m hopeful that I’ll be ready to tackle that trail 1oK on Jan. 26. (And start upping the ante for the half marathon in February.) So I guess there is good luck too in all this.

Since I keep having issues with that particular IT band, I’m considering investing in one of those physical therapy-style rubber straps to use to get some more mobility in that leg. I’m already rolling it out everyday. I’m stretching it out as much as possible. But the problem keeps coming back.

I suppose it’s better than having constant knee issues, but still. We’ll see if I can figure out a plan of attack on the IT band from hell.

January 1, 2013January 1, 2013

Ringing in the new year

I love getting surprises in the mail, even when I know they are coming.

It’s always cool to come home to something awesome. On Monday, I came home to an answer package from T-Rex Runner. I’ve been reading her blog for a couple months now and I love, love, love it. When I saw she had shirts made, I knew that I had to get one.

Except I don’t have a PayPal account. So I had my husband order one for me.

I was so excited to open the package.

I have to admit, I had a moment when I opened it. The awesome T-Rex on the back, wearing running shoes and with pretty eyelashes, was exactly how I imagined it would be. Under the image is the URL to the blog.

I’ve purchased shirts before from my favorite bloggers. Why? I think it supports what we do, even if only a little. It’s easy to get a website on WordPress and just use that to blog.

It takes more, though, when you actually buy the space, design the blog, maintain the site, etc. It’s a lot of work to blog, even if it doesn’t seem like it on our end. (A side note, yes, I’ve been blogging about non-running things lately. As much as I want to say “it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to, I know that’s now what people come here for. I won’t promise it won’t happen again, but I start my training plan for my next half marathon this week.)

That’s the front of the shirt. I was so excited to get it that I put it on and ran four miles on the treadmill.

T-Rex Runner even sent along a nice card thanking my husband and I for the supporting. It was adorable.

That four miles was significant, though, for two reasons.

The first is that it got me to 100 miles for the month of December, which only hours before when I had a terrible headache at work I thought wouldn’t happen. I had planned to hit the treadmill in the morning, but was just too tired.

I need two miles to get to 100.

I needed four to get to 1,250 miles for the year.

I’m not sure why I wanted a “nice round number” to cap off 2012, but I did. So I ran, watching the beginning of Downton Abbey (not sure I’ll pick that show up).

My IT band on the left side is still in pain, though. I have to take it slow under my legs warm up.

During my run, I got a text canceling our plans for New Year’s Eve. My husband and I decided to go get take-and-bake pizza anyway, as we had planned to do with friends, and stay home with wine, beer and champagne.

I never changed out of my running clothes.

We had pizza and bread sticks. Then we headed into our office to brush the dogs while my husband talked on the phone with a friend who later came over. When Beau, our male dog, was done, he headed back out to the kitchen.

Beau has a tendency to steal food. It’s less tendency, more of a problem.

Case in point:

To be fair, we set him up on that one. But he takes food off the counters, literally. We have to hide stuff from him. “No!” doesn’t even cut it with him. He is always hungry. My husband calls him “hungry monster.”

When I came back into the kitchen, Beau was staring up at me eating 10 slices of pizza. Only two were left, still on the take-and-bake plate. He devoured more than half the pizza.

Well. I wanted to start my new year on a good diet anyway…so I guess him eating the pizza was not that big of a deal.

Plus, this is the face I get:

I should put him on Dog Shaming.

We spent the rest of the night hanging out with friends at home waiting for midnight. It was a nice, low key celebration.

Today we’re staying at home, hanging out and watching Netflix. I may hop on the treadmill later and knock out a run after we eat dinner. (Starting of the year right is a theme, yes?)

I did something I’d been putting off for awhile today: I signed up for the San Luis Obispo Marathon that’s happening in less than 100 days. I’m hoping to try and achieve what I was for California International Marathon, without the rain hopefully.

So 2013 is starting off on a good note. After the last couple months of 2012, I’m glad of it.

December 30, 2012December 31, 2012

The new plan

I’ve decided I need a new plan. A new approach to training. And a new approach to eating, all bundled together.

In the past couple weeks, I’ve started running longer again only to have sharp pains running through my left knee. I figured it was overuse from the marathon. I figured it would get better.

So I backed off my knee. I set my treadmill on the highest padding level. I didn’t increase speed, but kept increasing incline instead.

The knee still seemed to be stiff. I rolled my leg out and it still didn’t get better.

I was really starting to think I did something really wrong to it.

Then, today, I went to get my monthly massage. My therapist is a miracle worker. She’s really good at spending time in the areas where I need it most, which means she focuses on my legs quite a bit. Today, she worked my right leg without any problems. She applied pressure in just the right areas. While it hurt, it wasn’t too bad.

Then she got to my left leg. I told her about the knee pain.

And she found the spot, immediately. When I realized what it was, I should have known.

My IT band, which has given me problem after problem in the past year, had flared up again. I didn’t notice that was it specifically because I hadn’t been running as long or hard as I had been previously.

When she got to the beginning and end of the bad, though, there was a considerable amount of pain. I felt as if I had been punched. My therapist applies the right amount of pressure too. It was just so tender that I wasn’t expecting it to hurt so bad.

But there it was. My IT band is inflamed again.

So I’m making some new plans. I have a 10K in late January. I ran eight on the treadmill yesterday and felt OK, but I know I’ll need to be stronger than I am now.

In January, I’m going to focus on:

– Giving my IT band the recovery time it needs

– Eating better by religiously following Weight Watchers

– Running faster as I focus on weight loss

Why the big focus on weight loss? I’m starting to feel as if the reason my IT band is acting up is because I’m carrying too much weight around on my body. Three years ago, I started Weight Watchers on New Year’s Day and by April had lost about 30 pounds. I’m not nearly as big as I was then, but I’m hoping to get back down to 155.

I’m also hoping that the better eating will help some gastrointestinal problems I’ve been having lately which have made running difficult in many ways.

I usually don’t make New Year’s resolutions because my resolutions involve just continuing to run and be healthy. This year, I’m actually spending some time trying to make healthy even more healthy.

I’m starting with my IT band. And limiting the amount of food you see above (though, it was good and it was also work related, so I had to do it, kind of).

Now I’m going to go spend some time rolling out my IT band a little bit more. It’s really, really aching right now. I think that’s good, because it means I now know where the problem is. But it also hurts, which sucks, because now I’m having issues walking up my stairs. I hope this is the beginning of recovery … and not another setback.

I’ll be blogging my training plans for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in the next few days. I have some definite ideas to make the experience more pleasurable than last time, so I can forget about that 2:48 finish last year.