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November 2017 training recap & pre-CIM thoughts

November 2017 training recap & pre-CIM thoughts

Well, that month came and went rather quickly. Between all the usual obligations and general “life stuff” that peppered the month of November — in addition to Thanksgiving break (a week long! An entire WEEK!); conference week (a week+ of shortened school days to allow the teachers to meet with parents in the early afternoon hours); and other one-off events — this month came and went, I ran a couple races, I finished the thick of my CIM training, and now we’re just a couple days out from The Big Day.

Admittedly, as I talked about in previous months’ entries, this quarter has been pretty tough. Fortunately, by the time November came (and went), a lot of the stressors began to diminish a bit: namely, my husband continued to recover from surgery, and the dust at school from A’s teacher quitting began to settle. I had mentioned in my October recap that I had felt pretty knackered but had basically attributed it to life and everything that was going on. Well, long story short, the “extreme fatigue” seemed to be sticking around. A call to my endocrinologist (whom I see yearly for a diagnosed thyroid issue) about it led to testing my TSH — all normal — which made her suggest that I take a pregnancy test. I’ve been pregnant twice, and I know pregnancy tired, and I knew this wasn’t that (plus those minor my husband just had abdominal surgery and I have a semi-permanent birth control details).

a super fancy Thanksgiving morning picture post-run

At any rate — long story short — a routine test as part of my annual physical with my GP revealed that my liver was, as we say, seemingly fucked. My liver enzyme levels were through-the-roof horrible (like, 5 times what they should have been); it looked like there was something — some thing — on my liver; and if I were a) obese and/or b) a heavy drinker, all of this would make sense … but I’m not … so it didn’t. (For reference: the last alcoholic drink I had was a single mimosa. In October. Of last year).

Fast forward through the month of November, which included:

  • another set of bloodwork;
  • going off my colitis medicine (with the thinking that it might be contributing to the liver inflammation/enlargement and other stuff) but then
    • subsequently having to deal with the fun realities that come when you have colitis but aren’t medicated for it (read: lots of QT with my bathroom and/or the great outdoors, in emergency situations, mid-run, which is always a great experience and a fantastic way to meet strangers (mortified beyond mortified));
  • an ultrasound;
  • a CT scan;
  • more bloodwork;
  • and an MRI.

I’m still waiting for the final diagnosis (diagnoses? maybe?) to put all this to bed — and did I mention we’re switching insurance in the new year, and I’ll have to find a new GI to help manage this mess? — but it seems like we’re almost out of the woods with all of this stuff. I can’t do a happy dance quite yet, but I feel like I can at least get into position. I didn’t dare Google anything that my doctor said or what the radiologists’ reports indicated because I’d surely learn that my death was imminent, but let me assure you: all of this stuff was scary shit. I am so grateful to a) have insurance; b) have a doctor who listens to my concerns; c) have gotten a physical that caught this in the first place (moral: get your yearly physical, people! And when something seems “off,” listen to your body and call a real-life professional instead of trying to fix it yourself with remedies that aren’t scientific and are deleterious to your health, at best); and d) that my sister is a real-life medical professional who talked me off the ledge and helped me make sense of everything.

sister sister. she’s the best.

I’m not a medical professional, but here’s a quick and dirty lesson about your liver. It’s important. When it’s not working as it should, that’s a problem.

All of that said, there for a while, I wasn’t even sure that CIM would come to fruition. A lot of my runs this training cycle have been okay, meh, or kinda flat, and the fatigue was pretty killer; one of the liver’s many functions is to do the detoxing in your body — the real kind, not the “I’m gonna go on a juice cleanse to detoxify my body” kind. (Sidenote: again, another quick and dirty biology lesson. Your liver and your kidneys are your built-in detoxing buddies. If you hear that you need to “cleanse” or “detox” for some reason [barring something that’d actually warrant detoxing, like drug abuse], assume that the person doling out that advice just wants your money, and do yourself a favor and go set your money on fire. Either one suffices because they achieve the same end result. There’s no scientific merit to the idea of “detoxing” diets, cleanses, anything, unless — of course — you’ve been abusing drugs. Huge pet peeve of mine. Anyway).  My GP and GI both seemed to think that all that crazy fatigue I had been feeling could be attributable to my liver’s subpar status in that it was incapable of fully or adequately doing its job. It was even as late as the Clarksburg half — mid-November — that I was fairly torn about whether running, much less trying to race, CIM was a good idea (and conversations with my doctor informed me that me running or training wouldn’t exacerbate anything; provided I wanted to run and wasn’t having horrible unmedicated colitis-related issues, I could run my little heart out).

Clarksburg-ing. (PC: Lisa)

 

As we rolled through November and the final handful of weeks of training — running Clarksburg and XC Champs, doing the last hard workouts, getting race ready with more GMP-focused stuff, and running a little lower mileage than usual (about 190 for the month, my lowest all year) but with specific and deliberate intensity —  eventually — fortunately — things have seemed to begin to turn around. As of a few days ago, anyway, my labs on my liver seem to be indicating the same.

XC champs-ing (PC: Wolfpack Running Club)

A note about CIM training, generally speaking: when I first decided that I’d race CIM, I had just come off racing the SF Marathon in late July and then pacing the 3:33 group at Santa Rosa a month later, so I knew I didn’t need to start from scratch with my training. I decided to try something new and enlisted the help of Lisa — gracious and humble human being; devoted Wolfpack wonder leader extraordinaire; and badass and fast runner — to coach me. I hadn’t been coached since I did this stuff for the first time, back in 2007 with Team in Training in Chicago, so it has been a lot of fun to work under someone for once and not be the one calling all the shots all the time. Working with a coach this time around has meant “doing running” differently — different workouts, different mileage volume and intensity, different everything — and honestly, it has been great. I have hesitated to work with a coach because my running is so varied all the time — between running with my kids; pushing a stroller more often than not; run-commuting 1.5 miles, four times a day, four days a week, most weeks; racing fairly frequently, be it roads or XC; or needing/wanting to have the freedom to mix in trails with roads basically whenever I want — that I have more or less thought of myself as fairly uncoachable at this time in my life. I’m super fortunate to have had the opportunity to work under Lisa because she gets it in the broad sense, and more specifically, she understands my running and how it can (or can’t) look right now for me. It’s a relationship that I plan to continue, and I’m grateful that Lisa has gotten me to the starting line on Sunday ready to rumble (bizarre liver issues be damned).

she’s great. (PC: who knows)

I’m totally stoked and honored to toe the line at my 31st marathon on Sunday morning. Marathons are tough as hell, obviously, and I could have a fantastic day, a horrible day, or something in between, regardless of what time I end up posting.

Spoiler: it will be fantastic.

from Sunday morning with Janet and Saurabh in Alum Rock. That sky!!! (PC: Janet)

—-

 

Reading: You Are a Badass (eh) for Lindsey’s podcast’s book club; Kevin Hart’s Book (I Can’t Make This Up), also eh but actually fairly funny and moderately inspiring; and I’m partially through Elizabeth Warren’s book and Hillary Clinton’s book (both very good and highly recommended, especially HRC’s). Oh, and this is a great CIM-related read. Hat-tip to Mario for sharing that gem.

Listening, Watching: I should just omit this stuff because I’m a horrible consumer of entertainment and am basically eons behind the rest of humanity. How awesome was the NYC Marathon though?!!?!

Enjoying: So much in November, including our ten-year wedding anniversary, my birthday, and my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. Oh, and this tea. (Not an affiliate link or anything; I had it for the first time on the Hoka trip and have been hooked ever since. I asked for some for my birthday because I’m weird and ask for tea for my birthday every single year).  

 

It’s CIM time, baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

October 2017 training recap

October 2017 training recap

Hard to believe we’re staring down the final couple months of 2017, but alas, here we are. It always seems to happen this way, doesn’t it?

Post-pacing at SRM in August, I ran and “raced” (more workout-during-a-race than actual race racing) a bunch in September before rolling into the thick of CIM. Included in September’s mix, as I mentioned in last month’s recap, was my husband having surgery and my eldest’s teacher unexpectedly quitting less than a month into the school-year, so suffice it to say that there was a fair bit of “life stress” saturating, well, just about everything in September and into October.

how funny is this? my friend Becky ran the Portland (OR) Marathon in October, and apparently co-pacer Simon and I made the SRM promo materials for the 2018 race. #modelz (PC: Becky)

Fortunately, life seemed to calm ever-so-slightly in October — my husband continued to recover from surgery, and my eldest got a new permanent teacher as of about 10 days ago (praise the lord) — so I’ve kinda begun to feel like that once-super-distant light at the end of the tunnel was beginning to flicker a little more prominently, even with all the other seemingly-countless stuff — good stuff, not complaining! — on my plate right now. I don’t like being busy for the sake of being busy, but I appreciate knowing that I’m using my talents and my resources in meaningful ways. I’m happy to say that I think I’m doing that/have been doing that so far this school-year, better than I have in the past, and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon. It’s gratifying.

Anyway, the proverbial light came at a pretty fantastic time, too, because October began CIM training in earnest. Granted, I have felt tired as hell throughout most of September and October, but with everything going on, I’d honestly be more concerned if I weren’t tired; that’s just part of the marathon training game. It’s a constant battle of how much fatigue can you handle before breaking.

not a great picture, but the view at the track on a Saturday morning isn’t a bad one

October wasn’t going to include much racing in the first place, save for maybe a couple XC races and a half marathon up in Humboldt, but nothing materialized. Ultimately, my coach and I decided to forego the XC in favor of getting in some proper long runs for CIM training, and the horrible fires up in Napa and Santa Rosa basically made running Humboldt unwise: not because the fires were affecting that part of the state but because of the potential resource drain, since there were talks that some emergency personnel from Humboldt were heading over to the fires to assist. Plus, logistically speaking, the PA USATF folks took it off the racing docket last minute anyway, so even if folks did go run it — and some did — they wouldn’t be accruing any points or money for their teams. It was going to be a 5-hour drive from SJ, and one wherein none of my female teammates were participating (and only a couple guys), so I just decided to eat the registration costs and bag it. I’m definitely looking forward to racing this in the future though because I’ve heard it’s a really awesome and pretty course.

not from the Humboldt half course, but also not a bad view, either

 

also not a shabby view for a long run (Baylands at Alviso)

Arguably the best thing for my running in October was participating in Hoka One One’s Women Who Fly long-weekend retreat, getaway, adventure thing — I’m still at a loss of words to describe it — and it was seriously pretty game-changing. I’ve been working on recapping the weekend, but I’m already at a point where I know that anything I try to say to describe it will be fairly sub-par: a pretty frustrating problem for a writer who’s committed to finding just the right words, all the time, but from a “human experience” point of view, I’ll admit that it’s a cool problem to have. The Cliff’s Notes version is that it was an incredible weekend and one that helped me shift my views on my running or, more broadly, on myself. I got so stupidly lucky in being selected to participate in this opportunity, and being able to participate in the company of such badass, genuine, and impressive women left me feeling just super invigorated. It was challenging to leave “the Hoka house” when everything was said and done, and I still don’t quite know how to describe the experience. More to come about the Hoka weekend soon (I hope). 

trying not to eat shit in Romero Canyon (SB) (PC: Maggie)

 

at Lucky Penny in SB with the Women Who Fly, including Steph Bruce and a handful of awesome Hoka staff. So excited to watch Steph blaze at NYC this weekend!

 

with the Women Who Fly (swoon!)

 

I give my eldest flack for not looking where she’s going when she’s riding; wonder whom she gets it from…

Otherwise, October was a pretty solid month of running. I finished with just under 230 miles for the month (227.5, says Garmin), with a fair bit of what I’m calling “put hair on your chest” workouts in prep for CIM in December. Admittedly, my confidence was wavering a bit in my ability to execute on prescribed paces in workouts — and I’ve definitely had workouts that didn’t go over as beautifully as I would have liked — but I think I’ve been doing this stuff long enough to know that that’s pretty normal and that trusting in the magical (and scientific) process that is marathon training is key. Day at a time, mile at a time — patience, grasshopper.

’tis the season for many a stroller flat; beware the “little fuckers” that are EVERYWHERE. these things spell imminent death for stroller tires.

 

Reading: I read American Fire while the wildfires were burning in earnest in Santa Rosa — which made me feel weirdly dirty — but the book was really interesting. I don’t know anything about arson or arsonists, so it was really eye-opening to read the backstory to a series of arsons in Virginia a few years back. This shit’s weird as hell. I won’t spoil it.

Listening: Nothing new in podcasts and really, not much new in music, either. My family and I remain totally enamored with Bad Lip Reading, and at any given time, you’re all but assured to hear “Morning Dew” or “Carl Poppa” around here. Pretty sure my six year-old knows the lyrics to both, and even the little one asks for Carl Poppa.

Enjoying: 25 hours in Las Vegas for my sister’s birthday! She had never been before, so for her birthday, she and her husband, plus a bunch of my BIL’s cousins, and one of my sister’s co-workers, and I all met up in Vegas for a quick overnight trip. It was a blast! I don’t gamble, nor do I drink, but just being with my sis — even for a short period of time — made it all worth it. I felt pretty guilty when I got home because my husband had had a rough go with the kids and wasn’t feeling well — the shitty thing about recovery is that it seems like it’s very unpredictable and recursive, very one step forward, five steps backward —  but I’m glad they were all ok for the 25 hours I was gone.

sister sister

Writing: a ton last month. It’s completely random, but I’ve been ghostwriting on a bunch of running websites for a guy in Denmark (told you it was random!) for the past year-plus, and I had more writings opps in October than I’ve ever had before, which was pretty great; unfortunately, it just means the “fun writing” wasn’t as present as usual. I did a few quick pieces/was featured for/on other sites though, like she.is.beautiful (featured here) or the Berkeley half marathon blog (here, here, or here). By the way, if you want to run Berkeley this year, ERIN or ERIN5k will save you a little cash.

Loving: Halloween with a six year-old and a two year-old. We had a fun time. It’s so funny how different their experiences are than mine growing up; most of the time for Halloween, we had to wear costumes under our winter coats because it was freezing and snowing outside by the end of October. 

the silly face is always a winner

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!