Week 12 Training

Happy Memorial Day everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful day and had the chance to thank a soldier for their service to our country today?  I was honored to give a great big hug to my Grandpa, a World War 2 vet and one of the greatest men I know.  He and I are going to buy stock in Band Aids because we use so many of them… he is always bumping into things and me… well I'm just trying to prevent those darn blisters! 

This was an interesting training week that started out strong but had some challenges. Exhaustion was one of them, a pop-up thunderstorm was another!  Wednesday’s walk was pretty much a rain-out once that storm hit and we had to take shelter at a school to avoid the lightning… but not until we were totally soaked!  We were only about halfway through our route when it hit and we ended up calling my dad to rescue us from the lacrosse fields concession stand because it wasn’t letting up and we were soaked and cranky from the water squishing in our shoes.  We did see a HUGE rainbow though and I thought the whole ordeal was pretty hilarious! 

So on to the good stuff…

Week 12 Training (scheduled/actual):
Mon: rest/7 miles
Tues: 3 miles/ 5 miles
Wed: 15 min cross train/ 2.5miles (before the storm)
Thurs: 5 miles/ none
Fri: 30 min cross train/ none
Sat: 10 miles/ 10 miles 
Sun: 6 miles/ none
Total: 24 miles/ 24.5 miles – let’s just call it 24 miles because we ran about a half mile on the rainy day!

Overall, not too bad!  I need to focus on getting in the miles AND doing more cross training this upcoming week.  Its looking to be a bit of a challenge because they are predicting a lot of rain ~ I may have to do some inside walking this week! Week 11 is only 20 miles so I should be good to go!

101 Things You Should Know (69-75)

75.  Under NO circumstances should you use duct tape to  cover blisters, wrap feet or legs to prevent swelling… you can rip your skin off when trying to remove the tape.  Use athletic tape instead!

74.  Stashing away an extra snack or two from the day might be just what the doctor ordered at 9pm when no more food is being served.

73.  STOP the pedicures now! You need the calluses you will develop during training to protect you from blisters!

72.  "I am convinced that only the most amazing people sign up to participate in the 3-Day. Ordinary people don't commit themselves to walking 60 miles, or raising thousands of dollars, or giving so much of themselves for one great cause... extraordinary people do." -3day coach

71.  Do not pop your blisters! If it is too large, have the Medical Crew cleanse and drain it – they have the tools to prevent infection.

70.  Bring sunglasses, and a rain poncho and a winter hat!

69.  Remember to stretch 5 minutes for every 60 minutes of walking.

Keep Calm. Carry On.

I recently heard this slogan at a leadership conference and it couldn’t be more perfect for my life at the moment. 

Its actually a slogan that was printed on propaganda posters by the British in 1939 just as World War 2 was starting.  While the slogan wasn’t widely distributed at the time because it was supposed to be a last resort if the Nazis had taken over Britain, the slogan was leaked and is popular as ever today. (like my history lesson?  thank you wikipedia!) 

I think I might just use this as my personal mantra for a while…

Take the Good with the Bad…

I had my appointment this morning to discuss the results of my recent CT scan.  If you are just joining the party, the CT was done to figure out why the heck my parotid glands swell up cutting off the salivary flow to my mouth as pictured <====here.  No that’s not something stuffed in my cheek that’s how much my face blew up this past Sunday.  It hurts. A lot. And it hurts worse as you eat because your salivary gland tries to work but nothing comes out so it just fills it up and sits there. Notice my facial expression?  Yeah I'm not too happy!

Anywho, back to the point of this post.  The report said that there was no evidence of a thyroid gland indicative of prior thyroidectomy (excellent news since i’ve had 2 surgeries to remove that puppy), no abnormal looking lymph nodes (excellent news to any cancer survivor), no mass, cyst or abscess found in the salivary glands (more good news, no more surgery needed)… the scan was grossly within normal limits as the docs like to say.

Sounds like wonderful, fantastical news right?

Well if you have been following along the past week or so, you know that the differential diagnosis if nothing anatomically wrong showed up is Sjogren’s Syndrome an autoimmune disease somewhat similar to Lupus or MS.  Well nothing was anatomically wrong so now I get to see a new doctor who will run new tests to figure out if I truly do have it. More waiting… fantastic.

So I guess I will take the good with the bad even though its a halfhearted victory cheer.  It is definitely a relief to hear there is no evidence of cancer spreading in my neck.  It is just difficult to think about taking on this possible new diagnosis. 

For now, I'm reading up on symptoms, tests, treatments and trying to be patient as I become a patient yet again.

Week 13 Training

I was a big slacker this last week on the training front. You probably read my confession but here are the down and dirty details of just how much of a slacker I have been!

Week 13 Training (scheduled/actual):
Mon: none/6 miles
Tues: 3 miles/none (ct appt)
Wed: 15 min crosstrain/none (girls night out)
Thurs: 5 miles/none (team mtg)
Fri: 30 min crosstrain/ none (just lazy!)
Sat: 8 miles/ none (Shop for the Cure)
Sun: 6 miles/ none - UGH
Total: 22 miles/ 6 miles… only 16 miles off the mark. 

Planning on making up for it this week so stay tuned!