Tagged: Teal Edition

Ok, so Betsy over at The EverydayWarrior tagged us in this 11 Random Things about yourself and answer 11 questions she came up with.  We are going to be rebellious and only answer and then nothing past that…AND to keep you from reading forever we are breaking it up into two posts! Look for Beth’s post next week.

1. Which of your race medals is your favorite? Why?

New Year’s Double Medal because it is amazing. It is the largest medal I have, it’s in TEAL, and the race was the most fun I think you can have running back to back half marathons over New Year’s Eve and Day when most are drinking and partying, just a good way to end and start and a badass medal to go along. 

2. It’s a leap year! What are you going to do with your extra day on February 29th?

I wish I could say sleep but that won’t happen and since it’s a Wednesday I’ll be working both of my jobs that day… BOOOO!

3. What food can you not live without?

Really I can live without anything… I love goldfish and french-fries but I usually avoid both. No real “addictions” or “must haves”

4. What race is your dream race? Why?

Haha um really it would be Boston but I would NEVER qualify. I really want to run and overseas race but I don’t know which one- Italy, Greece??

5. What cartoon character are you most like? Why?

don’t know so I took a test and it said Jasmine, but I always wanted to be Ariel! Does that help??

6. Does each pair of sock have a “left” sock and a “right” sock?

NOPE! I hate socks and shoes for that matter, most of the time my socks don’t even match and I totally don’t care what foot they end up on.

7. What is your favorite way to cross train?

Spin but I am learning to swim and I think once I actually get the hang of it I will seriously enjoy it.

8. What is your favorite race shirt?

White Rock Marathon Finisher Shirt- not the best “looking” but my fav for the obvious reason!

9. Do you have a bucket list?

No but I really need to write one! I’ve actually thought about that for a while and kind of sealed the deal when the lady this weekend said she was crossing the finish line at 3M to fulfill a part of her bucket list at 62. I want one!

10. Do you have a certain song that you always put at the beginning of your playlists?

I have always, at least since the start of running long distance, have had “Right Now” by Van Halen- its on every playlist so I guess I’ll go with that!

11. Do you think I am crazy for signing up for the Tough Mudder?

Yep!! Certifiable in fact!  I once ran the Mud Run which was the worst thing ever! I hated every minute and then was hosed off in the freezing cold by a fire hose, had mud in my ears and things for a week, and even got a blister that had mud in it. You have fun with that one crazy lady.

11 Random Things:

  1. I am 100% in love with Jimmy Fallon – he is my number 1 on my “celebrities I would marry list.” Hot and funny
  2. I  don’t like watching movies
  3. I don’t like shoes or socks and only wear them because the world basically makes you
  4. I still have to use my hands to determine my right from my left- I always get it wrong. Something must be missing between my brain and my hands
  5. I can name all the members of the WuTang clan
  6. In the 3rd grade I memorized the Gettysburg Address- The entire freaking thing and was able to recite it to my class. I can still recite parts of it (mostly the 1st section)
  7. I am a rule follower – makes me very anxious to not follow the rules and many times this annoys me
  8. Pumping gas is one of my least favorite things to do and I typically test the limits of my car’s ability to run on empty all the time.
  9. I have never broken a single bone in my body and hope to keep it that way
  10. I’m learning to swim- right now I look like a dying fish but that’s ok!
  11. I’m actually very, very shy.

 

*Jimmy Fallon picture from Glamour

Teal’s Foot Update

Ok so I finally bucked up and went to the doctor about this stupid foot and it turns out I was right all along. Here is a reenactment of our convo since you guys couldn’t be there with me 😉

Dr: “ You know you have Plantar Fasciitis right?”

me “Yep, that is what I thought, but was in denial”

Dr. “ Well great, how much running have you been doing since the pain?”

me: “ Well, ummmmm, well sooo… I ran the White Rock Marathon, and then the New Year’s Double and a couple of other shorter runs in between when I could walk”

Dr: “Well I bet that hurt.”

(source)

The bad news is I have a “classic” case of Plantar Fasciitis, but the good news is there is not a stress fracture or joint damage. He said that because I have had this problem for such a short period of time (about 6 weeks) that I should be able to get it under control. You guys might have seen that I followed a bunch of the things on this post from right after the race and things have been going well. The doctor, as a matter of fact, said that that was EXACTLY what I was supposed to be doing. High five for me – operation stop stubbornness really has paid off a little.

I love this doctor so much. He is also the one that looks at my knees in case you were curious. He said that I CAN keep running but it will be painful at times. He said that PF is mechanical and therefore (on me at least) he said that it is not “dangerous” pain and he stated that as long as I keep it “in check” that I will be ok to keep running.

By “in check” he means a couple of things:

1– ice immediately after exercise especially longer runs for at least 15 mins

2– stretch like crazy, the calves, Achilles, and then arch

3– ibuprofen

4– cross train when the pain is above a 5 on a scale of 1-10.

All doable!

My worry was that I would run myself into a heel spur, which to me looks nasty and he said that my chances of that were veeeerrrry slim! I love him because he said you can run and tells me exactly what to do to be able to continue to do that without beating around the bush and is 100% honest.

He brought in his physical therapist guy who was also AMAZING. He showed me some stretches that I hadn’t seen or done before which was very helpful. After taking me through the stretches he was like – What the heck have you been doing? Your foot is as stiff as a board? He came in and moved my foot around a ton and was like – if I would have seen you before the marathon or before your double I would have told you NO WAY. Whoops?

He gave me this fancy boot that I get to wear to bed at night. SEXY I tell ya, and I’m a little worried that it might scare my dog, but nevertheless I will wear that bad boy until this foot feels better and I will attend the physical therapy. They said I would only need to go once or twice because the real work is done at home and with consistency. I have a follow up in a month so I’ll keep you posted but I am excited for the semi-good news and glad that it is solvable and manageable.

I have learned the importance of stretching! I think I learned it very late but I am sooooo going to get better at this stretching flexibility thing. Yoga will help this too. Oh and on a side note, I was in yoga the other day and just looking around (totally not what you should be doing) but there was this HUGE, I mean HUGE, musclely firefighter dude in the back who he was completely not flexible at all. He couldn’t even do some of the basic moves and I thought to myself that yoga really puts the whole idea of strength and flexibility into perspective and exactly why we need BALANCE! Yoga made him look like a complete weenie. I’ll keep this in mind the next time I want to skip stretching.