I Don’t Have a Stress Fracture!

Holy Stress! My first project of the semester was due last week and that meant two very late nights completing everything and a subsequent lack of sleep. That post about stress I wrote a little while ago. I’ve been utilizing it a lot plus wine.

So much writing!

 

I got an MRI done, which confirmed that I do not have a stress fracture (YAY) however my muscles and tendons? They’re inflamed, extremely inflamed.

When I went back to the doctor he told me I could run the half, I wouldn’t mess anything up, but I would be in extreme pain afterwards. After going back and forth for a few days, and getting the side eye from every non-runner I know for even considering going forward with the half, I ultimately decided to defer.

Which sucks, and to say I’m disappointed would be an understatement. However, I’m just trying to take this one step at a time and remain positive. I managed to run nine miles, my longest distance, something I definitely wouldn’t have thought possible two years ago, and that’s something to be proud of.

That same doctor who said I shouldn’t run the half, also made it quite clear he didn’t think I should be running any longer. I can handle being told to lay off the running long enough for my foot to heal, but I’m not going to agree to stop running permanently.

So I found a physical therapy office near my house who specialize in runners. My first appointment was Tuesday and I was so impressed! All I did was stand up barefoot and immediately my physical therapist pinpointed everything that was wrong with my posture and how I was probably running and why I got injured. The crazy thing is everything she said was spot on and she didn’t even have to watch me run on a treadmill first.

So what are my issues? Well I’m all out of alignment. My feet are flat, my tibial tendon is inflamed, my hips are too tight and weak. My body is trying to correct my running form with my feet, which is ultimately why I got injured. At the end of the day it was only a matter of time before this happened. She said I needed to get custom inserts which I’m really excited about, and then gave me a ton of exercises to do every day that are supposed to strengthen my calves and open up and strengthen my hips.

I’ve been doing those every night as well as making it to the gym when I’m not bombarded with homework to do some cardio that doesn’t involve the treadmill. I’m biking, and reading at the same time, multitasking for the win.

And then to switch things up I’m using the rowing machine.

And playing fun fishy games while I do that.

My next physical therapy appointment is this Friday and I’m hoping that I’ll be told I can start running again!

What’s your favorite exercise to do that isn’t running?

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My Longest Run, and Foot Pain

Saturday was supposed to be a great day. I woke up early, to go for what would be my longest run ever. Nine miles. I was nervous since my eight mile run the previous week had been so tough. However, focusing on strength training and yoga this past week meant that I felt great for pretty much the entire nine miles, and feeling plenty confident for my fast approaching half marathon.

Then I got home and quickly hopped in the shower so I could get ready to go to the renaissance festival with my boyfriend and some friends. I don’t know why it happened then but all of a sudden my foot started hurting. Mildly at first and then getting progressively worse.

At first I reasoned it was just the same pain I always get in my flat feet, and I could just walk it off and stretch it a little while blow drying my hair. If I wore some old running shoes to Renn Fest I’d probably be fine. However, it became clear, very quickly that I was not going to be fine. I could barely put my whole body weight on my foot. So what did I do?

I freaked out and began obsessively googling stress fractures, convinced that was what I had.

Logical.

My boyfriend was able to get me in to see his physical therapist for an emergency appointment at which point he confirmed my fears in saying it was either a stress fracture or plantar fasciitis, and ordered an MRI and no running until at least Wednesday.

I spent the rest of the day watching TV icing my foot and imagining all the ways my running career is over.

I can be a bit overdramatic.

The next day my foot felt so much better and it’s just been feeling better ever since, which makes me think this isn’t a stress fracture, I got the MRI done yesterday and have a follow up appointment on Thursday to get my results, and in the meantime I’m taking a break from running, with lots of rest, icing, foam rolling, and praying I’ll still be able to run the Baltimore Half Marathon.

Fall Weather and Hill Running

Monday I found out that summer is officially over and fall has begun when I woke up for my morning run at 6 am only to find that the sun was not out yet and it was a cool 45 degrees outside.

Let me repeat that, 45 degrees.

I know, that someone (probably most of you) are saying that’s not that bad, and it’s not bad running weather, but as we can see from this post from last year. I detest the cold, and any indication that this little corner of the earth is starting to move towards winter upsets me. I am a weird person that would prefer running in extremely hot temperatures over anything less than 50 degrees.

Ultimately, instead of taking advantage of waking up early successfully and going for the run anyways, I stayed on my couch wrapped in a blanket, because I did not want to go outside and risk being cold.

I am weak.

So I made up for it yesterday morning by waking up (a little bit later this time) seeing it was 50 degrees, which was only just bearable, and actually going for my run. Since I’m running the very hilly Baltimore half marathon in October I decided it was the perfect opportunity for some hill training.

I ran the third leg of the Baltimore relay last year so I’m aware of how hilly the course can be but my training really hasn’t reflected that. Unfortunately, where I run near my house is mostly all flat. My boyfriend’s house, however, has a lot of hills, and I’ve decided I really need to start taking full advantage of what he has while I’m at his place.

I found a steep, and particularly windy hill to run up and down and it was overall a great workout! I definitely think I’ll be returning to this hill before my half marathon in October for more hill intervals.

At the end of all my running. And yes, there was a fallen tree in the middle of the path, just made things more interesting.

 

Now, if only I could get my warm weather back…

Five things that help me combat stress!

I’m linking up with the Mar, Cynthia and Courtney for the Friday Five for the first time in a while. This week is a free day so I’ve decided that my topic is going to be stress, specifically the five things I do to ensure that I combat stress!

It’s the start of a new semester and while I don’t think that things will be as crazy as they were in the spring (Saturday classes about did me in), I know things will definitely get stressful. I feel like I’m currently in the calm before the storm right now, and I honestly think this weekend is going to be my last weekend where I don’t feel like I have something looming over my head. The projects are about to start!

So with that in mind, I know I need to keep my sanity!

Crafting
I love crafting, mainly crocheting and jewelry making, but I dabble in so many other things as well, and during the school year there are few things more relaxing than crocheting for a few minutes during a study break. I’m able to turn my brain off and focus on the stitches, plus I
end up making something really cool!

Coloring
This is a new one for me, but I recently dove into the world of adult coloring! I saw an article about it and immediately went to Amazon to buy Enchanted Forest and Secret Garden by Johanna Bassford. The pictures are so beautiful, and it’s the great way to end a stressful day.

Running
This wouldn’t be a proper list if I didn’t include running on here. I always make sure to make time to go for a run, especially if I feel things are starting to get crazy. Running outside and enjoying the nature and just being in my head allows me to feel at peace. It’s a good thing this one is on my list because I’ll be running a lot more as my half marathon approaches, eek!

Sleep!
I didn’t do the best job of prioritizing this last semester. While I didn’t pull any all nighters I definitely stayed up later than I should have a few times. One of my biggest goals for this semester is to aim for at least 7 ½ hours of sleep a night, hopefully I can work my way up to 8 hours eventually. I always just feel better when I have a full night’s rest.

My boyfriend
I can hear the “awws” now! However, he is so incredibly supportive of everything I do from going to grad school, which I know takes up more of my free time than he’s happy with, and all the running I do. I always know I can rely on him to keep me steady if I feel that things are getting out of control.

Sometimes were a bit crazy…

Hopefully, I’ll be able to use all of this for this coming semester.

What are some things that help to keep you calm?

 

 

It’s time for a new goal!

I’m not sure if the iron supplements have started working or not but I’ve been running and going to the gym again! I ran twice last week, and have managed to go to the gym every evening this week for either Body Pump, Body Combat, or Body Flow (and sometimes two in one night).

 It’s still a struggle to wake up in the morning, and more often than not I’m losing that battle, so it’s been a lot of evening runs and gym visits. I miss my morning workouts, and getting home earlier than 7:30 or 8 pm, but I’m optimistic I’ll be able to get back to it once everything with my iron deficiency evens out.

Anyways I’ve been so focused on getting back into some sort of routine that I haven’t had the chance to write any posts. However, I am excited that I’ve started to find my motivation that I decided it was time to celebrate, by signing up for the Baltimore Half Marathon.

And I am so excited!! And nervous, and intimidated, but mostly excited. It’s hard to believe that a little over two years ago completing the 3.1 miles required for the Baltimore Women’s Classic was such a challenge and now I’m thinking about adding 10 miles to that distance.

 CRAZY!

Also I can’t believe how tired I looked!

 Last year after completing the third leg of the relay (which I didn’t realize until race week was the hardest leg, lucky me!) and not feeling like I was going to die, I knew it was time to start pushing myself and go for the half next year. The original plan was to run the Zooma half marathon, but grad classes got in the way and so plans had to be adjusted.

So October it is! This race is going to bring about a lot of firsts for me. I’ve never used any sort of training plan for any races, but I know I’m going to need to for this. I’ll be working on what that looks like in the next week or so, including cross training. Which is another first for me. I’m loving the Les Mills classes I’m taking at the gym and fully plan to incorporate in my half marathon training as I go along. I’ve always wanted to focus on cross training more, and I’ve improved over the last few months, but I want to make it important part of my half marathon training.

Moral of the story? I can’t wait for October!

 Do you have any races that you’re looking forward to?

Evidently I have an Iron Deficiency…

The past few months have consisted of sleep, more sleep, a little eating, talking about how tired I am, more sleep, and sometimes running, sometimes, but mostly sleeping. Notice a pattern here? My boyfriend definitely did, and he kept making comments about how tired I seemed, and was concerned that everything was okay.

I did not notice a pattern, assured him everything was okay, and then proceeded to take a nap (okay, okay, it probably wasn’t THAT bad). Still, I honestly didn’t think anything was wrong. I had just finished a semester of grad school where I took two classes for the first time, in addition to working full time, and one of those classes was on a Saturday morning. It’s only natural that I would be a little tired, especially after a stressful couple of weeks preparing for and taking finals. A little exhaustion now and then isn’t abnormal.

During the semester, I ran pretty regularly until the end when I would forgo running in the morning to sleep an extra hour. Again, though, that was easy to justify, I needed my sleep to do well in classes, and a few weeks off wouldn’t kill anything, but then it continued, and continued. Until, eventually I was a month out of classes, and I was still choosing to sleep an extra hour instead of running because I was so freaking exhausted!

I tried everything short of going to bed with my running shoes on and nothing worked. To be honest, I learned quickly that wouldn’t have worked either, after I came home from work one evening, put on all my running gear and shoes and then proceeded to collapse on my bed and wake up two or three hours later feeling incredibly groggy.

This says nothing of my appetite, which has been nonexistent. My lunches consisted of a little chicken, with a tomato and cucumber salad, and MAYBE if the thought of food didn’t disgust me I would eat dinner later. I knew I wasn’t getting enough calories, but I just wasn’t hungry. I figured, I’m not running as much so my body must not need as many calories, nothing unusual to see here!

Then I went to the doctor for my annual check-up and got my blood drawn. The next day I get a call that I have iron deficiency anemia and I need to start taking iron supplements. Did you know iron deficiency anemia can make you really, really tired? It can also make you lose your appetite, and make you feel weak, which may explain why I felt like I couldn’t run for as long or as fast as I used to be able to.

So I’m taking ferrous sulfate supplements once a day now. I finally got to a store to purchase them and have started them a couple days ago. Hopefully I’ll be less tired, and be able to get myself out of bed in the morning like I used to!

Have you ever experienced an iron deficiency? Did it make you as tired as I am?

It’s been a year!

So, last Tuesday was my blogiversary, and if you visited this blog, you probably assumed I had abandoned it. Fear not! I am still here, and I am rested! I took a break because, finals, and final projects, and SLEEP. Then when that was over, I took another week off because the thought of staring at a computer and writing anything that wasn’t for work sounded miserable. Plus what better way to celebrate a blogiversary than stress free week off from everything, except work, but that’s only because they pay me.

I seriously cannot believe that it’s only been a year since threw away my scale and started this blog. In that time the only time I’ve stepped on a scale has been when I’ve gone to the doctor, and I try not to look at the number when I’m there (although I haven’t been perfect). I can honestly say right now, for the first time in my life, I don’t know how much I weigh, and that knowledge, or lack of knowledge, is so incredibly freeing.

RIP Scale

So much of my self-esteem used to be wrapped up in how much I weigh. If someone had told me that the key for me getting healthier would be to stop paying attention to my weight, and my BMI I would have told them they were crazy! In this past year I have learned that, that number has so little to do with a person’s actual health.

For years, I struggled with my weight, I would fluctuate within twenty pounds and it didn’t matter what I would do. Calorie counting, made me obsessive and caused me to adopt very unhealthy habits, plus when I added any kind of physical activity with it I felt like I could never eat enough food, which would lead to over eating, or eating unhealthy things. I would get discouraged, and give up, until the next time I decided that I wanted to start again.

Still through all of this, even when I would lose weight I would see, at best, minimal changes in the way I looked. My clothes may have fit slightly better, but I still wasn’t happy. Something clearly wasn’t working. This past year has been so different. I don’t know if I’ve actually lost any weight, I’m actually kind of doubtful, but I feel SO DIFFERENT! For the first time that I can honestly remember, a size small fits me better than a medium. I had to get most of my work clothes altered so that they would stop falling off of me when I did things like walk. Letting go of my weight, helped me to start listening to my body and feel better.

In this past year, I started this blog, ran my first 10k, started graduate school, and moved to a new house, and city. While it may not sound like a lot written down, there was a time, not too long ago, where all of those things would have caused me to spiral back into unhealthy habits. Which isn’t to say this past year has been perfect, however, I also never intended it to be. Stress has gotten the better thing, I’ve prioritized many things over this blog and running, but never over my health and my attitude. That’s the difference, and that, I feel, is pivotal.

Putting myself out there, starting this blog, and telling people about it forced me to step WAY outside of my comfort zone. Every time I post even a minor status on Facebook I get so much anxiety, so the idea of writing entire posts on my life and opening myself up to the blogosphere is terrifying. I am so glad that I made the decision to start this blog and take that step. I know that my updates can be sporadic at best sometimes, but it’s provided a way for me to keep my sanity, and perspective throughout this past year. This blog is simply my little corner of the internet, and I feel lucky, surprised even, when other people happen to read it, and even better, respond.

I am so excited about what is to come! I want to keep growing this blog, finish my second year of grad school, and train for and run a half marathon, and to anything else I haven’t anticipated, I say BRING IT ON!

I said it earlier and I’ll say it again, throwing away that scale was the best thing I could have done for myself a year ago. Starting this blog, was the second best thing. Even if no one reads this ever again, I’ll continue to write, and I’ll stay off the scale. Thank you to everyone who has visited, commented, and reached out to me, the support has meant a lot! Here’s to more blogging and running!

What I Did This Weekend Easter Edition!

Is anyone else loving this recent weather as much as I am? Minus of course the rain we’re experiencing today, but hey, at least it’s not snow!

Despite all the homework and projects I have coming up I was able to enjoy some time outside this weekend and celebrate my favorite holiday, Easter, with my family!

Friday I got off work early and made another flower arrangement, this time for my parents. I like the way it turned out, maybe I should become a professional florist…

Friday night was Easter and then Saturday after class my boyfriend and I braved all the crazy crowds and went into DC to enjoy the cherry blossoms.

Despite living near DC all my life I’ve never seen the cherry blossoms during the actual festival, I’ve always waited until the weekend after or later. I can understand why I waited now!

After midnight service on Saturday we celebrated Easter with my family on Sunday. My parents loved the flowers and we even got to take some nice Easter pictures outside. Did I mention I’m loving this weather?

I’ll be squeezing in some runs and maybe a body pump class this week in between classes and projects.

What did you do this weekend? Have you ever gone to the Cherry Blossom Festival?

Ipsy Glam Bag Review – March 2015

I am not usually one for those box subscription services. The thought of spending what little disposable income I have on surprise items I may or may not like every month isn’t really my thing. But then I found Ipsy and I got hooked.

I love make up, I find it fun to apply and I love learning about new products. The problem is even when I find products I may like I can rarely justify purchasing it.

That’s where Ipsy comes in. For just $10 a month (hey I can afford that!) I get a super cute glam bag sent to my door with 5 make up products for me to try each month. After scouring through what items were included in the previous glam bags and deciding that I would have loved to try about 90% of the items I saw I took the plunge and joined the waitlist.

When you join you have to fill out a quiz that asks you about your skin tone, hair and eye color, your style and what kind of beauty products you enjoy using. This is so they can customize your glam bag to your preferences every month. After filling this out, you wait.

I was on the waitlist for two months, because I wasn’t willing to spam my friends via Facebook begging them to click my link and join Ipsy as well. Finally in February they had a skip the waitlist event that didn’t require you to spam friends, which I immediately jumped on and I got my first glam bag in March!

Each month your products arrive in a bright pink envelope holding your make up bag containing all your fun products. I was so excited to try my March items!

Every bag has a theme and March’s theme was Floral Fantasy. To start with the bag is super cute, although I’m pretty sure that after a couple more glam bags I am not going to want any more make up bags in my house!

The first item I got was NYX Butter Lipstick in Little Susie. I don’t often wear lipstick, so this item was a bit of a dud for me. Still I’ve worn it a couple times since receiving it and I have to admit that I love the way it applies and the color isn’t bad for my complexion, if only I actually wore lipstick with any regularity.

Next was Crown Brush Infinity Shadow/Crease Duet Brush. I was super excited about this product, and it did not disappoint. I’ve been wanting to try new make-up brushes for a while. The bristles on this one are so soft and they apply eyeshadow really well, plus I love that it’s double ended.

Pixi by Petra, Mesmerizing Mineral Duo eyeshadow was another win in my bag. I love eye shadow and the natural colors in this duo are perfect for the office. I’ve been wearing this almost every day.

The fourth item was pūr~lisse beauty gentle soymilk cleanser & makeup remover. I’ve used this a few times since receiving it. I love the smell and it manages to remove all my make up at the end of the day without leaving any raccoon eyes.

Last was LeeAnni Eco 3 in 1 Revolution Light. It’s a toner, serum and moisturizer all in one. I’ve been using this and I haven’t noticed any improvements in my skin but it also hasn’t made it any worse, so it’s just sort of meh…smells nice though.

Overall, I loved my first bag, I don’t know if I would recommend this to everyone, but if you like make up and enjoy trying new products and things then this is perfect.

Have you ever joined a subscription box?

I was not compensated to write this review. I paid for the glam bag and I wanted to share how much I loved it !

Flowers, Breakfast and Other Things I Did This Weekend

I took a week off last week from basically everything other than work so I could catch up on all my schoolwork. I’m nearing the end of the semester which means projects, projects and more projects, and oh yeah those things called finals.

I made a lot of progress though, and this weekend was finally able to enjoy the beautiful weather we finally have in Maryland!

Friday morning started with a catered awards breakfast at my lunch. Absolutely delicious! I had vegetarian eggs benedict with asparagus instead of ham, tater tot casserole, nuttella crepes and a brown rice and quinoa oatmeal type of thing that I’ve never had before, but was delicious.

I was too excited to eat that I forgot to take a picture of my food before I started eating it!

And I ate it all:

After work on Friday I had just enough time to go shopping for flowers and design this spring flower basket for my boyfriend’s parents for Easter. Then I posted it on Facebook and I’m pretty sure everyone thought it was from my boyfriend and no one thought I designed it. Clearly I am not good at Facebook.

Saturday morning I had class and then so much walking! My boyfriend and I went to downtown Annapolis where I got a crepe for lunch, from Sofi’s Crepes and then when we got bored of Annapolis we drove up to Baltimore to walk around Federal Hill park to enjoy the view.

Then I decided to quit my day job and become a captain. Not really….but I think I’d look good doing it!

Sunday I went to church for Palm Sunday, Greek Easter is next week, and then celebrated not Greek Easter with my boyfriend’s family that evening. Now I’m sad that it’s Monday.

What did you do this weekend? Is anyone else loving this weather as much as I am?