Monthly Archives:

July 2016

Exercise, Running, Training, Triathlon, Weight loss

Summer Running and Sunsets

I don’t know how some people are able to find the energy to go running after a long day at work. It’s a mental battle just to get out the door when I’m tired and my body feels sluggish. On Tuesday, I texted my sister and told her she had to bug me until I’d gone for a run. She did a great job of being obnoxious and eventually I went just before sunset.

Usually, my general routine for running is to warm up for around 5 minutes, walk/run for 20 or so minutes and cool down for a few. This will get me to around 2 miles or a little more. I really need to start getting more distance in but I know I can’t run a few miles straight up. So my aim for the day was to walk 1 full mile, then run with a strong effort til I hit my threshold, and hit around three miles.

I finished with 2.97 miles + at least another .3 because I my watch took a while to connect to GPS and I stopped it as soon as I finished running.

My Running Splits:

1.03 mi @ 16:34 min/mi
.52 mi @ 10:40 min/mi
.24 mi @ 16:03 min/mi
.42 mi @ 11:06 min/mi
.11 mi @ 17:43 min/mi
.63 mi @ 11:36 min/mi

Overall Distance – 2.97 mi

Overall Time – 41:06 min

Overall Average Pace – 13:50 min/mi

Running Distance – 1.57 miles

Running Average – 11:12 min/mi

I stopped for a minute during the run to quickly snap this picture. I loooove sunsets and it’s usually my favorite time of day to run because I get to enjoy more than if I was inside doing something else. I came back exhausted with wobbly legs especially after the large hill I had to walk up at the very end to get to the house. It was also very humid outside so I felt like I was swimming in sweat. I tried the NUUN tablets that I’d bought last week for the first time. I don’t think it’s supposed to make you feel different but it’s to help restore electrolyte balance. Whatever the case, it has barely any calories, no sugar and makes my water taste better. So win-win.

July 14, 2016 by meaganleanne

Back Pain, Swimming

Dealing with chronic lower back pain

One week from today, Brady and I will be celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary. My brain is having a hard time comprehending how so much time could have passed us by already, but here we are almost 2 years wed. I’ll share our wedding story next week, but today is a different anniversary to remember. Today marks 2 years since I herniated my L5-S1 disk in my lower back.

The story of how my back betrayed me…

It was set up to be the perfect beach day. Family had come from around the country and from the other side of the world to help me get ready. Some of the family staying with us had gone up to NYC for a couple days, so I planned out for the rest of us to head out to the beach for the day because we needed a break from everything wedding. I put together a noodle salad, some snacks and drinks, grabbed the beach toys and boogie boards and the caravan was off. I can’t say the pain came out of nowhere, because I had been dealing with a bulged disk in my back for about 4 months but I had been mostly fine for a few weeks.

By the time we got to the Rehoboth Beach after a 2.5 hour drive, I was so, so, so uncomfortable. I was determined to have a good day and hoped that floating in the water for a little while would bring some relief. I love body surfing and boogie boarding but I was only able to do it a few times since it felt like the pain in my lower back was growing with each minute that passed.

We had come to the beach with my cousin Mark and his family including his 5 year-old daughter, Sianna, who was going to be my flower girl. I hadn’t seen them all in almost 5 years and it was so fun being able to spend time with them. I was trying to treasure the time I was getting to spend with them because I knew it would probably be a long time before I was able to see them again. Later in the day I was down by the water lifting Sianna over the waves and playing with her which wasn’t helping my pains but a really special moment for me.

July 13, 2016 by meaganleanne

Back Pain, Life

Life is Hard – Working on a Positive Attitude

Sometimes life is hard.

Sometimes a little therapy is needed to get the negative thoughts out and start working towards a positive attitude. It’s something that I struggle with. So here’s what going on…

I feel tired all the time. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I think a lot of it comes with where I am in my life right now. Brady is currently on his last internship which ends next week while spending any free time studying for his boards which is also next week. In the 2 years we’ve been married, we’ve lived in 4 different homes, currently with my in-laws which is the first time we haven’t been living on our own. We’re probably moving (again) within a month after his graduation which is something to look forward to and dread at the same time.

I’m in a temporary job which is it’s own kind of draining.

Meanwhile, my dad’s gearing up to sell our family home of 14 years, which is emotionally difficult because there are many memories there. It’s the only home I’ve known since moving to the US and the last place where mom lived so this has been hard.

I’m pretty much always in some level of constant pain because of my back. My sleep is the most affected by this because I can never get comfortable.

I think I’ve been dealing with another small bout of depression lately, which makes living a lot more tiring and training a lot harder. It’s probably due to a combination of the aforementioned things but it makes it hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m trying to have a brighter outlook on life so here are some POSITIVE things going on in my life…

July 12, 2016 by Meagan Leanne

Back Pain, Running, Swimming, Training

Training with Back Pain

Happy Monday!

It’s always sad to say goodbye to a lovely weekend and hello to another work-week… but here we are again. I try not to live for the weekends, but it’s hard not to when my energy dies so quickly during the week. This weekend was a battle between pain and training because I woke up on Saturday morning barely able to walk. I’m hoping it’s a phase and that I can stretch and strengthen my way out of it. Usually, if I lay down for a little while, I “re-align” and it helps a lot but even that wasn’t working. I try not to take my pain meds unless I really, really need them and I suffered through training and the weekend without them. I went to the pool yesterday which is probably why I’m surviving so far today.

Since I’d been having a rough day on Saturday, I was only going go for a walk that evening, but my sister was running and I really wanted to as well. I feel like I keep falling behind in training. I started walking and felt a lot of the tightness ease up after walking for around 10 minutes so I did a light 11:00 min/mi for 8 minutes. I ended up walking for like 30 minutes in the glowy sunset light. I finished off the evening by having a movie night with my siblings and watching National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

July 11, 2016 by meaganleanne

Exercise, Life, Running, Swimming, Weight loss

Morning vs. Nighttime Running

Hello! Short week is almost done! It’s been taking me half the day to wake up because I’m working again this week and getting dropped off by my husband just before 7 am so that he can make it to work on time. I am not a morning person. I used to be. I was the person at sleepovers who would wake up by at least 7:30 no matter the bedtime the night before. Nowadays, getting up around 6 is not fun. My body is rebelling against this new schedule. Sigh.

So today was my first run in about a week and a half because of the pains I’ve been dealing with in my left leg. It went better than I had expected. I didn’t push to go too far because I’m not sure where my knee is at, but we ran about 1.25 miles and walked another .6 in horrible humidity. It didn’t feel like Florida or anything but seeing as how we ran at 8:45 pm after the sun had set, it was pretty bad. My average pace for the running portion was like 12:02 min/mi BUT that included 2 minutes of walking so according to my eyeing of the pace chart, it was closer to 10:30 min/mi which is pretty decent for me. It was so hot that when we came back that I was drenched in sweat. Excuse me, I meant glistening. My sister claims she never sweats and she only “glistens”. Whatever. I read an interesting article in one of my magazines about working out in the morning VS at night and I’m going to continue that discussion below.

Tuesday was swim day. Lately I feel like it’s taking me much longer to warm up and fall into my swimming rhythm. I think part of it is that I’m (unintentionally) starting out at my fastest swim pace which is kind of weird because the first 100m feels like I’m swimming through molasses. It takes me around 300-500m to fall into a rhythm where it doesn’t feel like I’m fully out of breath every 50m that I swim. I’m not 100% sure what to do about this when I comes to the race because I don’t really want to wait until halfway through my swim to get it together. Is this why people run around a bit before they start? That’s the only thing I can think of to do at this point that might help. If that doesn’t work then I’ll have to do some more research into this. I ended up a little short of my planned distance by swimming only 900m because one of my earplugs broke its seal and it didn’t feel comfortable. My average pace, not including stops, was 2:02/100m.

Swimming was followed by a summer corn chowder bread bowl at Panera which is one of my favorite soups. I haven’t gone for a bread bowl in so long because it’s too much food but it’s rough because I really like sourdough, especially with this soup. I couldn’t eat it all but it was delish.

July 7, 2016 by meaganleanne

Exercise, Goals

July Goals

So June flew by quick and here we are already 5 days into July! I can’t believe we’re already halfway through a “new” year! I think time starts to pass by faster and faster the older I get and I don’t really know why.

Last month saw an up kick in physical fitness and more towards training though I’m not where I wish I was because of my chronic pain. Running is my weakest discipline and the one that I’ve done the least of because it causes the most problems with my back. The past week I’ve been dealing with issues in my left leg which is funny because my right leg is the one with the nerve issues.

My goals for July are primarily to get me ready for the Iron Girl which is on August 7th. It’s going to be a busy month because we head to Michigan for the whole last week of July for Brady’s final week of PT school and his graduation. I’m determined to reach at least my B goals for this race because I think at this point, it would be a miracle to hit my initial A goal.

July Goals

Get a consistent running pace close to or around 10:00 min/mi. Depending on how my body agrees, I’m hoping to reach this goal by the end of the month because if I run at a consistent pace, it usually averages to between 12:00-13:00 min/mi but when I do intervals, I can run 2-3 minutes or so at an 8:30/9:00 min/mi.
Focus on improving swim form and get closer to a consistent 2:00-2:10/100m pace. I think my best time doing 1,000m is just under 23:00 and I’d really like to get it closer to 20:00 for the race.
Hill climbing and overall body strength. I’ve been working on getting a collection of exercises to work out my full body but doesn’t overly strain my back like a lot of exercises can. I especially need to work on my leg strength because my muscular endurance was lacking during last year’s race even though my cardio was great. I’d really like to push up those hills better on the bike and running.
Drink more water. A few weeks ago, I was on a ride with my hubby on a 95 degree day in the early afternoon. I started to feel pretty sick and lightheaded and I knew right away it was because I hadn’t really had anything to drink the whole day and I was probably pretty dehydrated even though we’d only been out around 20-25 minutes. It took me a while before I felt OK to continue but it was a huge reminder that I need to more consistent with taking care of myself. So hydrate better!
Final goal for the month (lots of things to work on!) is eating better. I’ve probably been eating alright the last month, but I’d like to focus on better fueling for my body and give it food that nourishes rather than empty calories or foods that make me feel bloated or nauseous. So that means focusing on the basics! Lots of vegetable centered meals, whole grains, fruits, and things. It’s probably a good idea after this weekend seeing as how I over ate pretty much every meal! I love picnic food.

Race Goals

My A goal that I made at the beginning of the year was to finish the Iron Girl in under 2 hours. Kind of crazy considering that would take 45 minutes off of last year’s time, but it wasn’t unreachable. So my goal now is to beat 2:15 by as much as possible. Getting as close as I can to 2:00. Here are my general goal times:

Swim (1000m): 22:00
T1: 3:00
Bike (16 miles): 1:05:00
T2: 1:30
Run (3.4 miles): 35:00
Overall 2:11:30

We’ll have to see how training continues over the next few weeks, but I have high hopes and I’ll continue to push myself as much as I’m able.

So we had a very drizzly, dreary 4th of July over here but I suppose we were lucky because it didn’t start until later in the day. I joined my family for the parade in the morning in River Hill. There were lots of creative costumes and LOTS of candy. We were scrambling for all the tootsie pops and rolls that were being thrown out because those are the best! I got a couple Chil-Fil-A cards for a small treat so that will be a fun date 🙂

July 5, 2016 by meaganleanne

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