Tough Decision

I really haven't been around much here for multiple reasons. After my big half marathon race at the beginning of the month of May, I stayed away from blogging for a little while. Maybe I just needed a break. The night after that race, I had some severe pain right above my pubic bone. I had experienced this same pain after each of my training runs that were longer than eight miles. I figured it was just an overuse injury and that I could get passed just like all my other random aches from when I started running. This was different. It just kept getting worse the longer the mileage got. When I was asked to rate this pain by the doctor, I put it up at about an 8. It was very very painful. She diagnosed it as a problem with my Sacroiliac Joint (SI) in my lower back.


She gave me a referral to PT and asked that I make an appointment and told me not to run until my appointment. I listened to her for the most part except I wasn't have any pain anymore. So the day before my PT appointment, I did run, only four miles but I did run and I did have pain. Well, there wasn't really pain while I was running but more of an overall weakness. When I met with the physical therapist, she measured and looked at my hips and my back. She literally pulled on my left leg. She moved and stretched me and pulled my leg again. I felt like bliss when I walked out of there. She agreed with my primary. My left hip sits a little higher than my right hip which causes the misalignment in my back which causes the pain over my pubic bone.  She wants to see me for 8 weekly appointments. She doesn't want me to do any exercising that hurts and recommends I don't do any long running for the first four to six weeks of our appointments. This made me really have to think about my marathon training.

From today, I am 16 weeks out from the race. This is plenty of time to train for a marathon. If I take out the six weeks maximum she said it would take to fix me with various exercises and strengthening, that puts me at 10 weeks but with minimal running over the next six weeks.

Over the past two weeks, my hubby and I have been road tripping all over the Rockies and west. I've had a lot of time to think about things and really more about this marathon in October. I figured out that I am not doing this marathon for myself. I find it very hard to write this because I feel like I am letting other people down. I really can't be afraid of my readers judging me. This is something I need to do for myself at this time. I've talked to everyone close to me about my dilemma and they are all supportive of my decision to not run the Twin Cities marathon this fall. I feel like I have strayed too far away from my original goals.

There was a reason I started running and that was to lose weight. I've been running and I haven't been losing weight. Sure, I've gotten more toned and I actually look thinner, but all that weight is still pounding on my bones each time my feet hit the pavement. I am changing my goals for the near future. I am still going to be running, just not focusing on the training for a marathon. I hope to push that off just a year and do the race next fall instead.

So what do I do now? I get my hips fixed, track my food, eat healthy and whole, run shorter distances faster. I plan on training for the Minneapolis Duathlon. I am looking at doing the Iron Girl Duathlon again. There are so many more women I know doing it this year. And I will definitely be at the Twin Cities marathon to cheer on my friends that will be completing it this year without me. I appreciate everyone's support over the past many months of training. I plan on doing another half marathon possibly in the late fall if it is OK with my doctor.

I'll be posting in the future about my weight loss, eating whole, various recipes, and still running.

Shortage of Potassium

I've known since before my race that potassium is an important nutrient to keep stored in my body to avoid muscle cramps and to keep my body energized. I ran, literally, into a problem of not having enough potassium during the second run loop of my race and my legs were starting to cramp just out of the transition area. My sister asked me if I had enough electrolytes and I thought the food I had been eating had electrolytes and it didn't! She encouraged me to keep going until we got to the first mile mark to get some Gatorade. It took a while but definitely helped. I need to consume foods that have a high amount of potassium to help me with my electrolytes. I discovered a couple of years ago an allergy to bananas which is disappointing because I love bananas. So I need to find an alternative.

When I ask people about what foods are high in potassium, the only thing that pops in their heads are bananas. Well, like I said, that wasn't going to work for me. So I finally looked it up today.  Here are the top ten foods for Potassium:

Dried Apricots

1. Dried Herbs (Dried Chervil contains the most potassium with 4.7g (135% RDA) per 100g serving)
2. Avocados (100 grams will provide 485mg of potassium or 14% of the RDA)
3. Paprika and Dried Chili Powder (Paprika provides the most potassium with 2.3g (67% RDA) per 100 gram serving)
4. Cocoa Powder and Chocolate (Pure cocoa powder without any fat, milk, or sugar, provides the most potassium with 1.5 grams (44% RDA) in a 100g serving)
5. Dried Apricots ( apricots provide 1.9g (53%RDA) of potassium per 100g serving (about 20 dried apricots)
6. Pistachios (100 grams (~3/4cup) will provide 1g (30% RDA) of potassium)
7. Seeds (pumpkin and squash seeds contain about 919mg (26% RDA) of potassium per 100g serving)
8. Fish (Salmon provides 534mg (15% RDA) per 3 ounce serving)
9. Beans (White beans provide the most potassium with 561mg (16% RDA) per 100 gram serving
10. Dates (dates provide 696mg (20% RDA) per 100 gram)

Some of these foods I already like and already knew I needed to incorporate more of them into my diet because of the other health benefits. I think the easiest things for me to eat would be the apricots for a snack a few hours before a run and eat more fish. Dried herbs are definitely a plus because they do made food taste that much better. And who doesn't like chocolate but I've never had pure chocolate!

Get Out, Get Out, Get Out!

A few weeks ago, our good friend Jay from the PriorFatPack, took a digger on his bike and his head hit the pavement pretty hard. His helmet saved him from a head injury and maybe something much worse!

I tell my husband "All the cool kids are doing it" when it comes to wearing a bike helmet and they are! If you look at all the professional racers, they all wear one. Sure, almost every bike race requires them but still everyone wears them when they train. It was not cool to wear a helmet when I was growing up. I would find every opportunity, which were few, to not wear my helmet. I would usually get caught and would be grounded by my dad, so I usually just kept it on. I laugh a little and shake my head now when I see families that are enjoying the weather on two wheels where all the kids have helmets on but not a single parent is protected! What is the child going to do when the parent has a brain injury?

Another thing that really bothers me is how people wear their helmets. If you really want to protect your brain, wear that helmet correctly.  See the following image if you need some help.

Kinda outdated but it works!

The title of this entry...I needed a ride after work.  It was really stressful today and I just need to get my legs pumping hard and get the blood flowing. The path by our house is lined with wild flowers so it's not uncommon to have various bugs hit my legs and arms as I ride. I had a few of those before a big bee decided it would like to fly into my helmet and insert itself in my hair. Well, it decided it didn't like it there very much and decided to stick it's stinger in my scalp. I had a great time trying to get my helmet off at 18mph and break at the same time! I was riding with the helmet strap in my teeth while my fingers were working their way through my hair, just trying to get the damn bee out of my hair and away from my scalp. I don't remember the last time I was stung by a bee and had no idea if I would have a severe allergy reaction to it. I also forgot how much it hurts! I relaxed for a bit after I realized the bug was gone and hopefully dead. No reaction happened so I popped my helmet back on and kept riding. The spot stung for most of my ride and is throbbing now. It is a painful reminder of an otherwise great ride.

So even though helmets can be great traps for bees, they will save your head from damage! They aren't badly priced at $35 for a good helmet!