Back to my running roots

Static Stats:

Running: unknown distance and time

Sugar consumption: just ate two cookies for a total of 6!!

Weight: you guess

Tonight I ran for the very reason I first fell in love with running.  I needed to clear my head.  It was awesome.  My run had no agenda just the shear joy and need to run drove me to lace up my running shoes.  It was the first time I can remember this happening in recent history.  I ran fast, I ran to think, I ran past a boy who of course tried to speed up when he saw a girl pass him, I ran until I didn't want to any more.  That's just one of many annoying every run occurrences when running in CP.  But today even that guy didn't piss me off.  The run was just what I needed!

21 degree windchill = no bike ride with the girls

Static Stats:
Running: too early and too cold for march
Sugar consumption: so far only in my coffee :)
Weight: who cares

Just taking a moment to vent. The weather forecast said it would be sunny and 50 today. I hate the weather forecasters. Why I continue to even check the weather aside from the current moment is beyond me. Anyone else do this? The weather for any future date is not valid. In fact you can't even trust the current weather on weather.com or on NY1. I've logged on to weather.com to have them tell me its raining, then proceeded to look out the window and see sunshine. I've turned on NY1 to have them tell me the forecast for the day where they say the low temperature for the day is 34 and yet the temperature that is displayed in the lower left hand corner says 29. Can't they at least update the current prediction to match the actual?

Anyhow, I guess my real anger here isn't with the weather forecasters its with the weather. The windchill is 21!!!!! Its March 31st! We have had above average temperatures all year and now that its "spring" we are below average. When am I going to be able to get back on my bike and actually be able to feel my hands so I can break and shift gears? Last year when I finally had had it with the cold weather I went out on my bike only to have to walk it back home due to lack of ability to do anything with my frozen fingers. I may have to try again before it gets warm. At least this year I have hand and toe warmers to test out. But for now I'll chicken out and stick with running. :(

But I needed a break...

Static Stats:

Running: 7 miles

Sugar consumption: low so far

Weight: going back up

After what I deemed a much needed break off from running I ran again today.  I've been steadily running since October and I just needed a break this week.  I know what your thinking.  How can she take a break when she has a 1/2 marathon coming up? Well its not like I've really been training since the ski trip.  Now your asking then why does she need a break?  I just needed a break OKAY get off my back.  I did more working out then you did last week even with a week off from working out.  Can you hear my guilt?  Its causing me to lash out at my reader.  Sorry reader, I promise not to lash out any more...I need you.  

Maybe it was the seven hour hike on Easter Sunday that validated a week off.  Yes that's right a 7 hour hike.  My girlfriends and I got a little lost.  It was awesome.  Just to let you know about the "hike" my lats where the most sore as its was a total rock scramble.  Thanks to S and J I had a great great Easter.

Okay back to running.  Today's run validated my time off from running this week.  I think I should start planning a week off every 5 months or so.  This morning I headed out to CP around 8am.  It was the perfect time to start running on a cold cold March morning.  No one was out yet (except the crazy cyclists who had already finished their bike race).  I guess my run was motivated by fear as I do have the 1/2 in 4 weeks  My longest run so far has been 8 miles which was two weeks ago.  All I have to do is double the distance of today's run by 4/26.  It can't be that hard.  I wonder how many times I've ran that distance or longer since I've been running?  Anyhow I'm sure its at least a dozen or more times so I can do this!

The Princess, the pea, and the Cracker

Static Stats:

Running: yesterday on concrete!!!  5 miles

Sugar: 2 magnolia cupcakes in one night! I'm in a sugar coma

Weight: well it was going down, but not after a cheat day!

As a little girl I loved the story of the Princess and the Pea.  I deep down knew that I too was a princess. If only I could find a stack of mattresses to place on top of a pea I could prove to the world that I in fact was a princess.  Well I did find a husband with the last name Prince and I'm beyond normal about my inability to sleep away from home.  Perhaps its true...I am a princess (otherwise know as a pain in the ass)?  Anyhow, I'm a little cursed by my "Princess and the Pea Syndrome."  I can't sleep anywhere but home on my perfectly soft mattress.  On any other bed I toss and turn, my back hurts, and I get no sleep.   

By now your wondering what a Cracker has to do with this.  When I say Cracker I'm not referring to a saltine or Ritz, I'm referring to my new favorite complimentary health care practitioner: my chiropractor.  He's great!  My back, hamstring and psoas are feeling much better.  Its been a great experience overall and worth the money.

Upon my first visit with Cracker he asked me about my sleeping habits since the "injury" (okay, I don't think its an injury but I don't know what else to call it).  I told him that since this issue had occurred I have trouble sleeping as I sleep on my stomach and I can no longer due that because it causes back pain.  Cracker quickly explained that no one should be sleeping on their stomach.  He instructed me to repeat the following mantra out loud 10 times before going to bed at night "I will not sleep on my stomach."  He said it worked for him and it would work for me.  I love getting health advice from someone.  Its been a real treat to be on the receiving end for a change.  For the record I have done everything he has told me to do.  Five nights in a row I dutifully repeated the mantra.  Five nights in a row, I would wake up just after falling asleep from being uncomfortable start to turn over and then the mantra would take over.  I laid in bed flipping from side to side, tried sleeping on my back, but not once did I turn over on my stomach.  Sleep was elusive.  By 3AM each morning I gave up.  The Cracker's mantra worked.  I didn't flip over on my stomach once until the 5th night.  I had had it!  I hadn't slept at all!  Needless to say I was super exhausted all week.  

When went I for my second visit with the Cracker I told him about following his orders.  He said "oh yea, you should try it a few nights in a row and then give your self a break, otherwise you won't get any sleep."  Thanks, Cracker, you should have mentioned that.

Cracked by a Quack

Static Stats:

Running: every other day due to back

Sugar consumption: my new average of moderately low

Weight: bloated

Yes, one reader that's right I was cracked by a quack this week.  If you have been following along you know by now that I had a small back injury a few weeks back.  The injury seems to be getting better, but other symptoms occur every few days.  Being as L has been on the injured list for a year now from not doing something about his injury I decided I would see a doctor.  I mean seriously I would be curled up in a dark room in a severe state of depression if I was out of commission for an entire year.  I found an orthopedic surgeon who takes my insurance and is on my block!  Woo hoo!  People have been telling me to see a chiropractor.  I personally think they are quacks.  I wanted to see a doctor first to make sure there wasn't anything really wrong with me. (note I've never been to a doctor for an injury apart from when I was in High School)  He said I was fine and that I needed to see one of his other doctors there for some stretching as I wasn't effective doing it on my own.  I thought this is GREAT, I love being stretched.  What he meant to say was "I'm going to feed you to one of the jerk - head chiropractors here in my office so he can be rude to you and crack your back so that you can come here forever to have your back cracked and spend lots of money so we can afford to hang out in the Hamptons all summer and drive nice cars." 

I promptly called a chiropractor who a friend had recommended.  He spoke with me over the phone for 15 minutes and I felt like we connected.  He seemed understanding and knowledgeable.  The only problem is the expense.  He is out of network!  And EXPENSIVE.  I called his office to say that I can't afford him since my insurance won't pay, so I wouldn't be able to come.  The receptionist called to say he would knock one hundred dollars off the price so that I could come in.  Let's just say that the appointment was GREAT!  Now I just have to wait and see if everything works.  I am going back, so hopefully all this stuff will work so I don't have to keep spending so much money!

That being said I am going to do everything he says including not running the 9 mile race I was planning to run Sunday.  As I have been instructed not to run on pavement. :( 

Bacon & Cheese Crick-ettes

Static Stats:
Running: 7.5 miles
Sugar consumption: two early to have evaluate
Weight: going down


The highlight of today's run includes bacon and cheese flavored crickets. When exiting Central Park today I saw a man handing out something. Being as it looked like it was a food product I decided to snap out of rude ny'er mode and kindly accept whatever he was handing out. Being the picky vegetarian eater I am, I figured I would give the product to L. Little did I know it would be edible cricketts! They even contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil. I guess they get that stuff in everything. Anyhow its a part of marketing for the t.v. show Bizarre Foods on the travel show.

Getting free crickets made the run worth while even if my back suffers. Another reason I love running...edible crickets.