Wounded Warrior Half Marathon Training: Week 8 Complete

Last week's workouts:
Sun: Yoga Sculpt
Mon: Short run (2-3 mi) easy 2.5 mi intervals
Tues: Lululemon yoga
Wed: Short run (2-3 mi) easy 2.25 mi intervals
Thurs: Rest
Fri: Yoga
Sat: 9 8.5 miles easy

Saturday I ran with my friend Jen, I was glad to have company but it was still a tough run. Jen was only planning on doing 5 miles (I distracted her and she did 6 with me, hehe) and then I finished the rest of the miles on my own. It was so hot and humid, I am really getting nervous about racing in two weeks! This heat is no joke. I did my shorter runs on the treadmill, even doing intervals I kept things pretty slow.

This week's plans:
Sun: Yoga for Runners podcast
Mon: Short run (2-3 mi) easy
Tues: Lululemon yoga
Wed: Short run (2-3 mi) with intervals
Thurs: Rest
Fri: Short run or yoga
Sat: Long run (10 mi)


Hope everybody has a happy and healthy Memorial Day weekend and rest of the week!

Wounded Warrior Half Marathon Training: Can I count this as Week 7 complete?

I have been feeling great this week! Doctor's orders said to take things easy as far as workouts go, so I tried to do that. I got my stitches taken out on Thursday and have to wear something like Steri Strips to keep everything flat while it's healing.

So here's what I ended up doing for workouts:
Sun: Rest
Mon: Walked 2.5 miles
Tues: Walked 2.5 miles
Wed: Walked 2 miles
Thurs: Rest
Fri: Yoga for Runners podcast
Sat: 7 miles easy run (with lots of walk breaks)

I was worried about trying for a long-ish run on Saturday having been off for 2 weeks, but I felt pretty good! I made sure to take a lot of walking breaks and keep my pace very slow to not get my heart rate up too high. (The plastic surgeon doesn't want to risk me bursting a blood vessel where my skin is trying to heal).

I'm not sure what kind of goal to set for myself since my race is only 3 weeks away. So I guess my only goal will be to finish and if I need to do a run/walk half marathon, then that's what I'll do.

Here are my plans for this week:
Sun: Yoga Sculpt
Mon: Short run (2-3 mi) easy
Tues: Lululemon yoga
Wed: Short run (2-3 mi) easy
Thurs: Rest
Fri: Yoga
Sat: 9 miles easy

Still resting...

Monday I went in for Moh's surgery. The procedure was quick and pretty painless. They gave me a local anesthesia on the site where they would be working, so I didn't feel a thing. Then they bandaged me up with a pressure bandage and told me to leave the bandage on for 48 hours. If they got the results back and not all the cancer was gone, they would have me come back on Wednesday and do more work. If the results showed that they got all the cancer, I would be able to go to the plastic surgeon on Thursday to have repair work done.

So Tuesday and Wednesday I got to go to work with this lovely thing on my head.



Pretty hot, amirite?

I took that picture right before I took the bandage off (Wednesday evening, after it had been 48 hours). I don't know what I was expecting, but I almost passed out when I saw what was under there. I finally had to get my husband to change the bandage for me. I'm not normally squeamish, but I totally wimped out.

Thursday I was supposed to get to the surgery center at 12:30pm and couldn't eat or drink after 6:30am. So I set my alarm for 6:00 so I could have a little breakfast. Well, I woke up with the worst migraine I've had in years, I tried to drink water and threw it up. I'll spare you the details but I spent most of the morning throwing up before I finally called the surgery center to see what I should do. They suggested I take my normal migraine meds (even though they contain asprin) to try to get the migraine under control, but I just threw that up as well. Then they told me to just go ahead and come in and they would start my IV meds early.

I was relieved they still wanted me to come in, I was afraid they would say they couldn't do the operation. Everyone at the Texas Institute for Surgery was so nice and understanding. The nurses went out of their way to make sure I was comfortable, knowing how bad I felt. Once they started my IV, I felt so much better. The plastic surgeon and the anesthesiologist were very nice and explained what all was going to happen. They let Michael stay with me all the way up until they wheeled me into the operating room. I remember them moving me onto the operating table and after that I was out cold.

After surgery, they took me to a nice recovery area (lots of other patients, but we were all seperated by curtains so it felt somewhat private). They brought me water and graham crackers and Michael got to come sit with me. The plastic surgeon came over and showed me before and after pictures he had taken of the site. I have a line of stitches running from my hairline down to my eyebrow. Still kinda gross, but not nearly as gross as before!

Anyway, I've spent the weekend just resting. I haven't had too much pain, I've been taking prescription pain killers every 4 hours to keep it that way. On Thursday I get my stitches out and I'll see what the doctor says about activity and so forth after that.

I'm not going to lie, I've been a little antsy about not being able to work out. Plus the weather has been beautiful, there is nothing I want more than to go for a run! I hope by next weekend I'll be able to.

Hope everyone has a happy and healthy week!

Unplanned Rest

Last week's workouts:
Sun: Rest
Mon: Short run easy 2.9 miles intervals
Tues: Lululemon yoga
Wed: Short run intervals 2.5 miles easy
Thurs: Short run easy Walked to work, but otherwise a rest day
Fri: Yoga 2.5 miles easy
Sat: 8 miles easy

Saturday's run was a little under 8 miles but we're going to round it up. I got caught in some sort of walk-a-thon raising money for kidney disease so I was weaving in and out of people the whole last half of my run.

This week I really have no plans. I had a mole biopsied last week and it came back positive for melanoma in situ. What this means is that there is melanoma but only in the very top layer of skin. Should be easy to take care of, which is lucky. So Monday I'm having a procedure to remove the area around the mole, then Thursday I am having a second surgery to do some repair work. Because of the mole's location (on my forehead, near my hairline), they can't just put a bandage on it and call it a day.

So between Monday and Thursday I'll have to keep the bandaged area clean and dry: i.e. no sweating. And I'm not sure exactly what recovery will be like from Thursday's surgery. So this week is going to be mostly a rest week!

Don't let this happen to you! Wear sunblock, do self skin checks and get regularly checked by a dermatologist.

Hope everyone has a happy and healthy week!

Wounded Warrior Half Marathon training: Week 4 complete

Last week's workouts:
Sun: Rest Yoga for Runners podcast
Mon: Short run 2.6 mile intervals
Tues: Lululemon yoga
Wed: Short run 2.37 mi easy
Thurs: Short run w/ intervals Body by Bethenny Yoga
Fri: Yoga 2mi easy
Sat: 8 mile run

I am usually a solo runner, but Saturday I ran with my friend Jen. We started out to do 9 miles, but her hip was bothering her and while she wanted to cut it short at 7 miles, I convinced her to go for 8 miles. I was nervous about running with someone else, but we chatted almost the whole time and 8 miles flew by really quickly! It was humid and by the time we finished, the skies looked ominous. No rain, though.

This week's plans:
Sun: Rest
Mon: Short run easy
Tues: Lululemon yoga
Wed: Short run intervals
Thurs: Short run easy
Fri: Yoga
Sat: 8 miles easy

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Wounded Warrior Half Marathon training: Week 3 complete

Last week's plans:
Sun: Rest
Mon: Short run 2 mi + pushups, crunches, lunges
Tues: Power yoga - I was hoping to make it to class at Lululemon but it was storming and I didn't feel like leaving the house. So I did Yoga Sculpt from ExerciseTV.
Wed: Short run w/ intervals easy 2.6 mi
Thurs: Short run easy Rest
Fri: Yoga Interval run 2.45 mi
Sat: 7 mile run

Saturday's run was tough. My legs were feeling great, but it was so hot and humid that the rest of me couldn't keep up. I stopped several times for walk breaks. I start my long runs between 8:00 and 8:30am and have debated getting up earlier to avoid the heat of the day. Since my half marathon starts at 8:00 I wonder if that would be a good idea since I would be running in the heat on race day.

Thoughts?

This week's plans:
Sun: Rest
Mon: Short run
Tues: Lululemon yoga
Wed: Short run
Thurs: Short run w/ intervals
Fri: Yoga
Sat: 8 mile run

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

I got this recipe from Cooking Light and made a few minor changes. It turned out delicious! It was a little time consuming but I took a few shortcuts.

Ingredients
Cooking spray
4 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned (I used boneless skinless chicken breasts)
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1/3 cup (3 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups chopped onion, divided
6 garlic cloves, minced and divided
1 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
2/3 cup salsa verde
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeño pepper (I used fresh jalapeno, about 1.5 peppers chopped)
9 (6-inch) corn tortillas
1/4 cup (1 ounce) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; sauté 4 minutes on each side. Place skillet in oven; bake at 425° for 10 minutes or until done. Remove chicken from pan; let stand 15 minutes. Remove meat from bones; shred. Discard bones. (I skipped this multi-step process and just boiled the chicken breasts in water before shredding.) Place chicken in a medium bowl. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons cilantro, corn, and next 5 ingredients (through black pepper) to chicken; toss to combine.
3. Return pan to medium-high heat. Add 1/2 cup onion; sauté 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 3 garlic cloves; sauté 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add onion mixture to chicken mixture; stir to combine.
4. Combine remaining 1 1/2 cups onion, remaining 3 garlic cloves, broth, salsa, 1/4 cup water, and jalapeño in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; let stand 10 minutes. Carefully pour mixture into a blender; add 2 tablespoons cilantro. Process until smooth. (I didn't blend the salsa mixture)
5. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 tortillas; cook 1 1/2 minutes on each side. Remove tortillas from pan; repeat procedure with remaining tortillas. Cut tortillas into quarters.
6. Spread 1/2 cup salsa mixture in the bottom of an 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 12 tortilla quarters over salsa mixture. Spoon half of chicken mixture over tortillas. Repeat layers, ending with tortillas. Pour remaining salsa mixture over tortillas; sprinkle evenly with cheddar cheese. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned. Top with remaining cilantro.
Julianna Grimes, Cooking Light
MARCH 2011

YIELD: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 3/4 cups) We got more like 6 servings out of this