charlatan psychic

so since i last posted, i've had some level of migraine pain every day. migraines make me depressed, and i'm pretty sure depression gives me migraines. So i've set myself somewhat of a schedule, a routine for working out. Tuesday, thursday and Saturday are crossfit. Wednesdays are training runs, whether i do an easy run, intervals, whatever. Fridays are cardio of whatever variety I can do. Sundays are long runs, which right now is about 3 miles. Mondays are rest, which can include yoga and dog walking. it felt good to get to workout today, but i had to take it slow and scale back. i'll try to get out and run tomorrow morning. so that's my goal this week, to workout every day till Monday. and to take my meds every day because i often forget, especially when i'm migrainy or depressed, which is what these meds are supposed to fucking help. it's what misty would call the merry-go-round of knives. if i can get into a routine and schedule, i think it will...

I've followed the first 2 weeks with Sasha , and after a binge-induced weight gain of 2 pounds at the very beginning, I got down to 159 for the end. So while I put those 2 pounds on, I managed to take them and another pound off. I also lost an inch or so on my waist and hips. Let's analyze. The workouts: I enjoyed the workouts, and found myself motived to keep going. I even managed to get a good workout in with a migraine, just fewer reps and moved slower. For this new set, I have 2 longer days and 2 shorter days. On the short days, like today, I can do a half hour of cardio before doing the workout. Today, I ran the 3 mile track with pup, then did a core workout in the grass. On the longer days, I'll warm up with some cardio and then try to get in beast mode. Friday went well, working on my upper body. I was nice and sore for my bike ride Saturday. I'm still putting long rides in on the weekend. Only 2 weeks until the Hotter'N Hell Hundred . I signed up fo...

Today was the last test at the Army Wellness Center. I did my VO2 Max. You walk/run on a treadmill for 6-11 minutes, wearing the silly mask and a heart rate monitor, until you reach 85% of your maximum heart rate. This is an accurate estimate – that is, not exact science, but better than other methods of guessing. Your results are your cardio-respiratory fitness number. I got a 37.6 this time, but had a 41.5 last time. So my cardio healthy has gone down a bit. I also weigh more, and haven’t been doing as steady of a cardio workout. Excuses aside, I can get this back up there. 38.6 is the dividing line between “good” and “excellent.” I want to be excellent. Let’s work on that. I also did some simple tests for strength and flexibility. First was the hang strength. You just squeeze this large device that measures your force applied. For back strength, you stand on a square that looks like a scale, hold a handle in both hands, and pull up. And flexibility is the dreaded sit-and-r...

I'm a dork. I'm playing a little bit of catch-up here to get ready for a big news post. Before we left El Paso, I participated in the Bataan Memorial Death March, for the second time. I tackled the training much like my marathon training. I loaded up my small camel bak backpack and started walking. The first time I did the Bataan, I took forever and had horrid blisters. This time, I was wearing the same pair of shoes (broken in now) and had much better results. I came in at just under 8 hours, chip time (8.5 hours gun time). I only had a couple blisters, and the worst happened just in the last mile. I felt it, but could feel such fatigue in my legs that I didn't dare stop to bandage it. I am quite proud of myself this year. I felt much stronger and faster. I even ran a bit! Once you pass halfway, you start some downhill. It was easier on my legs to do a slow run on the downhill portions. Running and walking work the muscles differently, so running a bit made it easie...

We have all figured out by now that some of J’s crazy has been rubbing off on me lately. Well, it turns out that the El Paso Marathon was scheduled for one month after the MOM . I decided, a week before the race, that I was going to do it. J did, too. I hadn’t done any real long runs since returning from Maui, but felt pretty good. Once again we were getting up super early so we could ride a school bus to the marathon start. This time, we started at the highest point, the top of Transmountain. The sun was on it’s way up when we started, and I was glad to have my sun glasses. The first 6 miles were downhill, and I probably went faster than I should have. It flattened out after that and stayed mostly flat the rest of the race. It was hot and sunny. I had to carry fuel with me since the water stations weren’t supplied with food stuffs (some volunteers supplied their own food for us). There weren’t many highlights for this race. Before the halfway point, I was running a very...

My husband has become a much better blogger than me. This is a good thing, since he is making a move in his job that requires writing skills, so he’s getting his practice in. This afternoon I’m filling in at the Harvest Box pick-up location, which is the perfect time to force myself to get some writing done. I am behind. Waaaaaaaaaay behind. So in January, J and I went to the island of Maui, Hawaii. We had been to Hawaii 7 years ago with J’s family, staying on Oahu. This time was just us. We stayed in the little town of Lahaina at a gorgeous little B&B, the Garden GateBed & Breakfast . They served breakfasts of baked goods, fresh fruit, yogurt with local granola, coffee and POG (pineapple, orange, guava) juice. We knew it was time to go down to eat when IZ would play on the garden speakers. Yes, we ate in the garden. It is the Garden Gate B&B, after all. The resident pets greeted us most every time we came back to our room. the view We had a view of th...

The last few months of 2013 flew by. Holy crap. Next thing I new, it was Christmas, then the in-laws visited, and then it was New Year's. Now it's 2014. I did some resolutioning for the Jewish new year, and actually somewhat accomplished one. My brother and I are talking again. It's good to have him back. We keep in touch online quite well, and talk on the phone from time to time. However, I did make the mistake of taking my husband on the Tour of Homes here. It's where some senior Officers and NCOs decorate their homes and allow us to tour them. And we pay for it. Yeah. But we went, and we had fun, and J was inspired. Apparently, it's time for us to step it up a notch. So we are starting the process of cleaning out our house. We'll go through our home, a section at a time, and sort through everything we have. Clean out things we no longer need or want, reorganize what we keep. We want to minimize what is left out. That means making sure things have a pla...

I'm older now. 33. That's not very old. I'm really ok with my age. Since my last post, I discovered my toe is not broken, just badly bruised. I let it rest for 48 hours, then ran again and did just fine. The new shoes are also doing great. I wear them whenever I run on the road or for longer than a loop around the track. I still have my vivo trail shoes and I love them, but I'm careful to not run too far in them or on the road. I'm a little behind on my marathon training. Oops! But I did run 15.7 miles last weekend. And I'll see how far I can go this weekend. Weight loss has been a no go. I found my resting metabolic rate, I changed the way I was eating, and then I stopped tracking. I put 10 pounds back on and haven't gotten it back off. J and I have talked about it a bit, my sister and I talked about it, and this morning I just made up my mind. I have a bottle and a half of the amp'd up that I took to lose this 10 pounds, so I'm trying it a...

It's a quiet day in my house today. The TV is on, the cat is curled up on a newspaper article (sent from my MIL), and the dog is napping on the floor. I am sitting with my foot propped up on my giant stuffed white reindeer (Whitey) with an ice pack. What? Why am I doing this? What did I do? I did something stupid. This morning the pup and I went for a run. It was a good run. We stopped at the dog park as always. I sometimes tip the cement water bowls up on their edge and clean out all the debris that builds up in them.  I did that this morning, but instead of gently lowering it down, I let it fall. And it fell. ON. MY. TOE. The corner of the square cement bowl hit the big toe of my right foot. My first thought was that I had broken it. I went ahead and filled the water bowl so Remy could get a drink, then we went home. I limped the whole way. It was pretty damn painful. I put ice on it right away and called mom, like a good kid. I was able to shower and get dressed, ...

About my head, that is. I saw the wonderful Dr. Cobo on Friday. She looked at my migraine journal, agreed that I was still having too much pain, and went into action. I'm trying a new drug, Fioricet , but she said this is the last of the standard drugs to try. So she is also setting up some referrals for me. I had an MRI done back in, oh, 2004 I think, with no results. They actually said my brain was normal. My migraines have changed quite a bit since then, so she figured it's time for another one. Also, I have a referral for a Neurologist. And Optometry, mostly because it's been so long since I've had a full eye exam. Now, being on TRICARE, I get to wait for them to contact me about the referrals, which sucks. But, I don't have to pay for it, so I'm not complaining too much. I haven't had to use the fioricet yet, so I don't know if I get any of the side effects. I'll update more as I get the referral appointments done. I also talked to her ab...

Ok, so it's been a month since I posted. It's been a busy month. J has been crazy with work. I have just been crazy, but that's nothing new. So, updates: Weight: sucks. I'm back up to 155. But I also haven't been tracking calories. I've adjusted myfitnesspal to 1500 calories. I will log calories burned as well and remember to maintain a deficit on days I workout. 1500 is my minimum for rest days. We'll see how that goes before talking to the girls at the Wellness Center about it. Fitness: Ran a half marathon yesterday in 2 hours 26 minutes. Not my greatest, not my slowest. I really felt like I could go faster for most of the race, but I was watching my heart rate and trying to not get it too high. J had the same issue with heart rate - going at the speed that felt right pushed the heart rate up "too high." Marathon training is going well. I had one week that set me back, thanks to a weather migraine and some super craziness with Rear D Lif...

I'm on Week 4 of my 18 week marathon plan. This time, like the last time I used a training program, I'm adapting it to fit my schedule. Last week, I woke up on Wednesday after not sleeping all that well and did NOT want to run. So I did yoga instead. I pushed my 4 mile run to Thursday and my second 3 miler to Friday. Over the weekend we went biking up in Cloudcroft, NM (which is a story all on it's own) and I did my 5 mile run. Yesterday, I took Remy to the dog park. That was about it. I hadn't slept well and was tired all day. But a decent sleep last night made it better and Rem and I had a great run this morning. I'm pushing my next 2 runs back a day each again this week, because tomorrow is a bike ride with the Brigade Commander. It's a fun group to ride with, and biking is great cross training. I think it's going well. We have a long weekend coming up, and I have a 9 mile run scheduled. I have to make J come with me, or he won't be up to the mar...

J and I did the Iron Soldier Sprint Tri again this year. You might remember that last year was our first ever tri . We missed out on the spring tri (and tons of ever things) because we made a trip to KS to visit J's family. No regrets, and hey, we ran a half marathon that weekend. So, Saturday, September 28, we got up early to make smoothies and load up. We had packed most everything the night before, so there wasn't much to get done in the morning. Which is good because I'm still not much of a morning person. We parked and headed to set up in the transition area. The tri was at the new aquatic center this year, so a different area for us. And it was cold. Like, I should have put on warm-up pants cold. We went back to the Jeep to eat our smoothies while the sun came up and started to warm things up. There were many more people doing the tri this year, so I was number 216. The pool didn't seem as bunched up as last year either, maybe some people learned their l...

I haven't blogged in 4 weeks. Oops. I had my follow-up with the new Doc today. Still loving her. The blood work she did was all satisfactory, so we're going to continue with the medicine she gave me last time and hope to see continued improvement. Because, yes, I did see improvement. I'm not napping as much. I'm not feeling constantly overwhelmed by little things. I think my road rage is even improving. A little. Maybe. However, she didn't like how often I was having head pain. So we've added a new drug, called Elavil. I'll take it at night since it should make me sleepy. Like I might not wake up to roll over at night, but just sleep through. So we'll follow up again in 3 months, which would be December. In other boring news, I have been cycling a lot more lately. I really love Honey and have fun riding her.  I actually did my longest ride on Sunday with J. We did a full 100 Kilometers (62 miles). Of course that had a stop halfway at the Bean in...

***warning to my friends with deployed husbands - I'm gonna get mushy about mine. I have been married for 8 years. Today is my 8 year anniversary. It's crazy. It doesn't feel like it's been that long. aw, so sweet So where were we 8 years ago? I was still at my insurance education editor job. J was a substitute teacher, and I don't remember if he was still at the gas station or not. I think I'd made him quit by then. That job made him angry. Anywho, we lived in a small 2 bedroom apartment. We somehow managed to pick what would be the hottest day of the year to get married on. Family and friends came to Kansas to celebrate with us. It was pretty damn cool. We were married July 23, then J left for Basic Training on August 19. I adopted Duke on August 24. That was the start of our family. Then I look at us now. I used to have plans to add some color accents to my simple wedding dress and wear it as a formal for military balls. NOPE! I lost weight a...

When I get sick, I really get sick. Especially if it's anything to do with my sinuses. I thought I was getting a cold last week, but by Friday I was having a horrible cough, no voice, and gunk in my eye. I ended up going to the Quick Care Clinic on Saturday morning. That means it was bad. I don't like seeing doctors. The PA I saw was awesome. She listened to all my symptoms, listened to my breathing (and coughing), and it all was quick and painless. She said there weren't any signs of infection, i.e. sinus infection, but it was probably a viral upper respiratory infection. So I got a breathing treatment, then picked up an inhaler of the same stuff and some decongestant. And headed home. The inhaler made the cough worse at first, but it started get better rather quickly. The gunk was moving through and not making me lose my voice. By Sunday I felt good enough to take the dog for a walk. We even tried a very slow run for a block and a half, but that left me winded and ...

Ok, almost caught up with all my blogging! Time to talk about our summer vacation. J and I spent a week and a half in Durango, CO and the surrounding area. We went there last summer and loved it, but really decided to go back this year when J signed up for the Death Ride Tour . We headed up to Durango on a Monday, checked in to hotel downtown, and headed out for dinner and a walk. Now, if you know either one of us, you know that we love Colorado. We both have family there and we plan to settle down there, someday. We don't know where yet, but somewhere in Colorado will be our home. So of course heading to the mountains around Durango was exciting for us. Also exciting was finally convincing my husband that our vacations don't have to be planned out to the last detail. Some of the details surrounding the Death Ride we couldn't plan, because we didn't know, but the rest of it I left pretty open, too. J needed to ride and acclimate, and I wanted to relax. We managed...