Archive for March, 2012

Guest Post! Couch to 5K!

Friday, March 30th, 2012

Finally I found a minute to get online! Thankfully my girl Kim at RunnerNurse has sent me an awesome guest post for me to share with you! Check out her blog and love her as much as I do!  

Hello Ready, Set, Feast readers! It was super nice of the lovely Kelsey (I am her friend, I have to be nice to her) to ask me to do a guest post. I’m Kim from RunnerNurse.com, and I blog about running, being in nursing school, and eating red velvet cupcakes – oh, and drinking wine. The weather here in Chicago is warming up quite a bit lately, so I thought I would do a post for all the people out there who want to start running – but have no idea where to begin. I, like many of you, was not a good runner. Actually, I’m still not “good” – but I am at a completely different place now than I was pretty much exactly one year ago. I decided to sign up for my first 5k in 2011 after finishing up my 20+ years as a figure skater. After numerous attempts at running and enjoying some fantastic shin splints and sore ankles, I knew I needed a training plan. At that time, the Couch to 5k plan entered my life.

It is a FREE 9-week plan that takes you from not running at all to being able to run for 30 minutes/2-3 miles without stopping. Without injuries. Running 3 times a week. It is super cool. I followed it, and couldn’t believe how much I had improved by the end. I ran my first 5k in May of 2011 having only run a little over 2 miles the entire program – and didn’t have to stop once. I had signed up for a really relaxed 5k at a local zoo, and slowly ran the entire thing listening to my ipod – I can’t tell you how proud I felt crossing that finish line.

I then signed up for another 5k that fall, the Hot Chocolate 5k in Chicago. Then I signed up for my first 8k this past Sunday at the Shamrock Shuffle! Now, I use running to help me get rid of all the stress I experience while in nursing school.

Basically, here is what I have learned about running that might help YOU start.  First, some runs suck. Your legs feel like heavy rocks attached to your body and you want to die – this feeling goes away after about 1-2 miles for me. Just do the BEST you can – it is ok to take a walking break. Second, I NEED my music. Creating a new bomb.com playlist goes a long way for me. Here are a few of my favs right now..

Third, GET a running application. There are some awesome FREE ones available for many phones other than the iPhone. Once I realized I could run wherever I wanted outdoors and my phone would track my mileage and time, I enjoyed running even more. Now I can’t stand the treadmill. Once I knew I was going to stick with running, I also invested in some new running clothes that I found on sale at Sports Authority. Having a sweet outfit to sweat it out in made me look forward to heading outdoors. Lastly, and possibly the most important, invest in some good running shoes and purchase them from a running store where people know what will keep you from personally from getting injured.

I hope that someone out there found this helpful, and I’d love to hear of anyone else who has enjoyed the Couch to 5k program! Good luck and thanks for reading!!

PS. Seriously, how cute is Kim? I just want put her in my pocket and carry her around with my all day.  Also can you tell we are friends….she listens to J.Bieb too!

Exhausted. In a Good Way.

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Do you see that? 9:39pm. I just got back from the gym. That’s 11:39 my time.

Exhausted. Do you ever workout super late?? That’s all the nonsense I have for now!

Ps. Sorry for the lack of post I’ve been so busy! Know that I miss you! 

Injury Update

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

Good morning! I’m writing to you from Midway Airport.  I apologize for this post being late but I assumed Midway (like 99% of all airports) had wifi.  No such luck so I’m stuck with blogging without the Internet-which doesn’t really work now does it?

As I mentioned yesterday, I had my follow up appointment at the Running Institute.  Eventhough I hate the outcome, I straight up love that place.  This time I was there for about 1.5 hours and I had two doctors work with me.  Pretty awesome right?

What’s not so awesome is what they said.  Basically, my bone chip isn’t any better and the inflammation around it isn’t any better either. Dr. Chin prescribed another 2 weeks off of running.  I explained to him about the Women’s Half Marathon and how I was in the ad and most importantly how I would feel like a jerk if I didn’t run it. Especially being coined as “The Rookie” and being the only one who has yet to run a half and whoopsies I didn’t run this one either!

After arguring, Dr. Chin said I had 2 options.

1. Get cortisone or laser treatments that is considered a ‘band-aid’ type fix but the pain will come back since I didn’t let the injury properly heel.
2. Let it heal and take care of myself.

I was intrigued by the first option until he told me that if I do this band-aide type fix the pain will come back and the extra bone will most likely dislodge and float around in the ole ankle.  Which would 100% result in surgical removal.  AKA it would be my fault because I didn’t follow directions.  I really don’t want surgery.

After talking some more, the two doctors had me walk, lunge, run and everything else in between and noticed how  I overcorrect on my right side.   Over correcting with my bone issue is most likely causing my tendons to stretch to the right side making it even worse.  Dr. Chin used a very high-tech strategy and cut a piece of felt and taped it underneath my insole. He then had me walk, lunge and run some more and defitintely saw an improvement with the added support.

So what now?  We are doing an ‘experiment.”  I was told to run 1.5 miles last night, with a 1 minute walking break inbetween.  Ice, and cross-train on Wednesday and repeat the 1.5 mile run on Thursday.  Depending on how it feels, Dr. Chin will either let me run 2 miles twice next week or come in for laser treatment as he thinks with the extra support, rest, icing it could actually start to heal.

Overall, it looks like the Chicago marathon is not my 2012 race calendar anymore.  I’m hoping the Chicago Women’s Half is but he told me not to have my heart absolutely set on it.

So basically, this all sucks. I’m mad/frustrated/upset/devastated. Bad timing no?  But as a runner, I have to remember injuries happen.  A lot, and to everyone.  It doesn’t mean I’m no longer a runner, it just means that I need to spend some time to take care of myself. I’m gonna listen to the Doc on this one!

That’s all the nonsense I have for now!

A Number of Things

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

Today is Tuesday which means a number of things.

1. It has officially been 2 weeks since my doctors appointment at the Running Institute and my follow-up appointment is tonight! Send good vibes my way please!

2.  In order to save the muscles I have gained from running, I have been lifting a lot more these past two weeks.  Last night however, I decided to go hard.  Normally I do enough to break a sweat and tone but nothing major. Last night, I was one of those grunting people at the weight machine-without all the weight.  I think my 12lbs I lifted justified all the grunts that came out of my mouth.

3.  I am finally going to see the Hunger Games today! I have been avoiding every website on the Internet that is talking about it. Which is basically every website on the Internet ( I just spend 99% of my time on my site. Don’t judge me ok?).

3. I leave for California for a work conference tomorrow through Sunday evening.  I’m going to work my hardest to post but as my days will be filled with workyness and my evenings with workyness I won’t promise anything.  Good news is I have a few guest posts lined up for you!  Other good news, I get to see my friend Daniela! Here’s a picture of her- as you can see, she dresses a little weird, but whatever.

4. I finally got to watch the premiere of MAD MEN! Omg. Thank you TV for bringing Don Draper into my life.

AND Thank heavens I have friends I can force into spending their free time photo-shopping my head onto pictures.  Also, did anyone else die when Roger was imitating the french dance Megan did? I seriously was on the floor laughing.  Love Roger Sterling.

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What’s your workout tonight??  That’s all the nonsense I have for now!