Meals and Musings
Yep, it’s getting old. I know.. things could be worse! I’m lucky to have a pool. I also could be blind, or paralyzed. I know I’m one of the lucky ones. Still… I’d like to be running again. On land. Not in the pool. (By the way, shouldn’t pool running be illegal on Global Running Day? Grr….) Anyway! Moving right along! Today I’m doing something different- a “What I Ate Wednesday” post. Remember those? Except that these are Tuesday’s eats, posted on Wednesday. I’ll be showing my meals and sharing some of my struggles. Let’s get started! Oatmeal and tea. Steel cut oats with half a banana (already mixed in while cooking,) cinnamon and nutmeg. Since I don’t eat sugar I used a little of my monk fruit-sweetened “maple syrup” for some extra flavor and sweetness. Yum! I couldn’t get this lunch picture to look appetizing, no matter what I did. It’s a multigrain bagel with hummus and cucumber. AND… this: This was INSANELY GOOD. Run as quickly as you can to the closest Trader Joes and buy several bags before they’re gone! I’m stuck in a lunch rut. On days I work I have very little time for lunch, so I bring along a multigrain bagel and either peanut butter or almond butter. On days I don’t work I try to branch out a little with hummus and a vegetable. My body is tired of bagels. What’s deeper than a rut? Whatever that word is, that’s what I’m in when it comes to dinner. Tuesdays are usually pretty good days because we have tacos. This is a good dinner that everyone likes, but I’m already exhausted from the prep and cleanup. The thought that I have to cook again tomorrow is overwhelming. Some nights we have veggie burgers with fries, or roasted vegetables. Some nights my husband will cook for himself and the kids and I’ll just have a salad, or a baked potato, or whatever leftovers I can scrounge up. I have nights where, if the option existed to just take a pill that would give me all the appropriate nutrients, I would gladly take it instead of making dinner. Those were my meals, except that not pictured is the watermelon I ate after my pool run, before breakfast, while I was making the kids’ breakfasts. Also the pretzels I ate while making dinner because… crunch and salt, yum. I would love to hear how other people have solved the dinner dilemma! – I’m thinking next year, when my son is gone and there are fewer people to take into consideration, I’ll try batch cooking for the week. Something needs to change! Anyone have any other food issues to share? – Now that I stopped eating sugar, I’m addicted to salty, crunchy things. I was eating so many corn chips that I had to limit them to one day a week (Fridays, when I get my Chipotle takeout!)
Weekly Rundown- Soggy Edition
Hello! I hope everyone had a great week! Mine was filled with…. lots of water. I’m linking up with Kim and Deborah for the Weekly Rundown! Let’s dive right in (get it… DIVE… oh wait… that’ll make more sense in just a minute.) Monday Day off, and I was really worried about my hip flexor. It had been a week since I hurt it and five days since I last ran. It hurt SO MUCH. I was on my feet all day at work, and by the evening I was limping. Every single worst case scenario went through my mind. Tuesday Started the day with pull-ups, and then a 40 minute pool run. While I’m not happy about this situation, I realize how lucky I am to have a pool in my backyard (it’s a Florida thing) so pool running is a convenient option for me. I use a flotation device and run in the deep end, and my feet don’t touch the bottom. Later in the day I went to the doctor, which I discussed here. He dismissed all of my worst fears, adjusted my low back, loosened my hip flexor, told me to continue to rest it and take some anti-inflammatories. He also said the bike might stress it too much, so I knew I had a week of pool running ahead of me. Wednesday Another pool run, of course! 45 minutes this time. I followed this with Amanda’s Stability Ball Core Workout. WOW. This was hard! I thought my core was strong after all the plank gauntlet workouts I’ve been doing, but no. Just goes to show, you have to switch up your workouts. My body was good at the planks, but horrible at balancing with the stability ball. Thursday I stuck to my usual Thursday schedule, which is lower body weights. My hip was still really sore, and I had another busy day at work. I took my doctor’s advice and started pounding the Advil. Not to make light of a very serious problem, but I can see why people get addicted to drugs. Two Advils and an hour later, I was a new person. NOTHING hurt! As a matter of fact my whole body felt amazing. A few hours later, when I started to feel a slight pain in my hip, I took two more magic pills. Friday Back to pool running! For this one, I did a guided run from Tina Muir’s podcast. She guides you through a warmup, workout, and then a cool down. She has a 30 minute option and 45 minute option- I did the 45 minute, because the only thing better than pool running is MORE pool running, right??? Ha ha. Just kidding. Obviously. I went down to one Advil every four hours on this day, and still felt great. Since I didn’t want to OD on it, I switched to turmeric both Thursday and Friday nights. I just mix a teaspoon of turmeric in some water and drink it down. Not only is turmeric an anti-inflammatory, it can also help relieve pain. Maybe not quite as effective as Advil, but it still took the edge off. Saturday Yet another pool run. I relieved the monotony of this run by creating my own little workout- I “run” in circles around the deep end of my pool, so I did two fast laps, then one lap with legs only (which makes it way harder) and then one recovery lap. I repeated this… oh I don’t know, about nine thousand times, to make a 40 minute workout. Later in the day I did Amanda’s stability ball workout again, and some more lower body. I only took one Advil all day today, and my hip felt pretty good! Sunday Unfortunately no fun adventures for this Sunday, unless you count the hour I spent running in circles in the pool (no? I didn’t think so.) I did another guided run for this one, with Kelly Roberts from Run, Selfie, Repeat. I didn’t like this one as much as Tina Muir’s. It wasn’t bad, but I liked how Tina really kept the focus on running, whereas Kelly meandered from topic to topic- all good topics, but I found it to be distracting during the workout portion. I had to tune her out in order to focus on moving fast. Her warmup and workout took 30 minutes and then I switched to music for the second 30 minutes. Done! Moving forward, I’m hoping to run somewhere other than the pool this week. We will see! Anyone have big plans for this weekend? – I work tomorrow during the day, but I think my husband is going to grill up some Impossible Burgers for dinner. What’s your favorite type of cross training if you’re inured and can’t run?
Olympic Controversy, Fight or Flight, and a Guided Run
Happy Friday, everyone! I’ve been listening to some interesting podcasts while pool running (sigh) and here are some of the highlights! If you like podcasts, some of these may interest you. If you don’t like them, no worries! I’m giving the interesting takeaways so you can get the facts without having to listen. Burn It All Down- Episode 206: 2020/2021 Olympics: So Many Questions, So Few Answers In this episode, the hosts discuss the controversy surrounding the Tokyo Olympics. Although the IOC and the Japanese government have stated the Olympics will go forward as planned, the majority of the Japanese population is opposed to hosting the games. Japan is in the middle of a huge Covid surge and- get ready for this- only about 2% of the population is currently vaccinated. How is that even possible? Which part of this was a surprise- that there’s a pandemic, or that they’re hosting the Olympics in two months? How could they be so far behind the U.S., for example, where 50% of adults are currently vaccinated? The answer, of course, is complicated. As the title of the podcast suggests, there are no great answers here, but it was an interesting discussion. Training for Ultra Podcast- Episode 166: Former CIA Spy Talks About Pain and Endurance In this episode, Andrew Bustamante talks about his CIA training and how it relates to ultrarunning. I found one of his ideas in particular to be fascinating:: Andrew contends that running triggers a primal response in our brains, and the reason some people hate running is that it makes them feel as if they’re fleeing. In other words, It triggers the “flight” part of “fight of flight” for them. I always thought people who hate running are crazy. JUST KIDDING. Honestly, I thought people who say they hate running just haven’t given it enough of a chance. Interesting to think that there could be a real, biological reason for someone to dislike it. Together Run 6 With Tina In this episode of the Running for Real podcast, Tina muir leads a guided run with a workout. You have the option to do a 30 or 45 minute run, with 5x I minute for the 30 minutes, and an additional 2x 1 minute for the 45. There’s one minute of slow jogging (or walking) between each fast minute, and she also leads you through a warm up and cool down. I did the 45 minute run for my pool run this morning, and I loved it! It really made the time pass quicker. It was a simple way to get in a workout, because she guides you through it time-wise, you so never have to look at your watch. It would also be a great option if you normally like to run with other people but find yourself running alone. Since this was #6 in the series, I may check out some of her other ones. The only downside for me was that it made me wish I were actually running, and not running in the pool. But I would have wished that anyway! Overall it was a great way to get that pool run done. That’s it! I hope everyone has an amazing day! Do you think the Olympics should happen or not? Ever do a guided run like this?
Three Good Things About Being Injured
Started off the day with an early morning pool run! It’s been nine days since I hurt my hip, and (as one does) I’ve been imagining all the worst-cast scenarios. Such as… 1) I have a stress fracture. 2) It’s a labral tear. 3) I’ll need surgery. 4) How am I going to do the laundry when I’m on crutches? Luckily, I was able to see my doctor today and he does NOT think I have to worry about any of those things. He described my hip as being “jammed up” and showed me how my low back and hip flexor on the right side are super tight. He adjusted my low back, and worked to soften up the iliopsoas (the hip flexor muscle.) He did some diagnostic tests to determine that my hip is still moving well in the socket (yay!) and doesn’t think it’s a bone injury. Hopefully the work he did, along with some Advil to reduce the inflammation, will get me back to running sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I present three upsides to this mess. 1. New running shoes will not wear out as quickly. 2. More time spent with cat. 3. Taking time off for hip to heal might finally, FINALLY give my foot a chance to heal as well. Because… This is the same doctor who treated my plantar fasciitis, and when I told him it was still there but I was running anyway, he suggested that perhaps I’ve been overcompensating for the foot in a way that jammed up my hip. Yep, already thought of that. I’ve basically been playing a game of “chicken” with my foot. It refuses to stop hurting, and I refuse to stop running. Standoffs like this rarely end well. Now that I’m forced to take a break anyway, I have the opportunity to finally heal my foot. The problem is, I’ve already taken time off. I’ve had shockwave treatments. I’m stretched and strengthened it. There’s an answer here somewhere- I just have to find it. In the meantime, my doctor said to be careful with cycling because of the amount of hip flexion involved. He said to stick with pool running for now, which works out perfectly because I LOVE pool running. Just kidding. I hate it. But it will build mental toughness… right? I know I’ve already asked, but has anyone heard of any unusual treatments for plantar fasciitis? – I feel like I’ve already tried the usual ones. Any other silver linings to being injured?