Pain!

Don't worry, I'm not in pain! 

It's just sometimes I get ideas for random blog post topics. And you know me- I like to go rando sometimes. I kind of have to since I post every day! 

Today's topic is talking about the most physically painful things I have ever experienced!

This is not meant to be a depressing post. You have my permission to be entertained by my pain. Just make sure you leave a message in the comments about the most physical pain you have ever experienced!

I'm actually going to put these painful events in order. Let's do a countdown, shall we!!??

The 3rd most physically painful thing I have experienced...

ART on my Plantar Fascia

I seriously should have vlogged my last chiro appointment. By the time he is done working on my foot, I am drenched with sweat and my heart is racing. It's practically a workout!

Active Release Technique is a patented, state of the art soft tissue/movement based massage technique that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, and nerves.

So imagine you have plantar fasciitis and the bottom of your foot hurts really bad. Then imagine flexing your foot and having someone rub this tool along your plantar fascia REALLY FREAKING HARD...

Are you cringing? Sorry!

Also, that picture makes it look like the foot is being tickled by the tool.

Imagine a user that is 50x more aggressive!

But runners will agree with me, if a technique works and it gets us heeled up and running sooner, we will endure the pain!

The 2nd most physically painful thing I have experienced...

Unpacking and packing gauze in my mouth after wisdom teeth extraction

I believe I was about 27 when I got my wisdom teeth out, which is "old" in wisdom teeth standards. My biggest error in this whole fiasco was not keeping on top of the initial pain with Vicodin. I felt fine right after surgery, so Paul and I decided to go over to Penndot to renew my car registration. I know what you're thinking- STUPID, STUPID DECISION!!! Who the hell can handle Penndot let alone Penndot right after wisdom teeth extraction? But in my defense, the pain medication from the surgery was still working, so in my hazy brain, we'd just pop in Penndot, get the registration, and pop back out.

Well, by the time we pulled into Penndot, the medication wore off and I was in a lot of pain. I couldn't talk because not only was my mouth full of gauze, but it hurt A LOT. By the time we got home, I was bleeding through the gauze and it was dripping onto the floor. Uh oh. Time to change the gauze. Enter, Paul.

Poor Paul. I laid on the couch and wriggled, screamed, and cried until he was done shoving the gauze into the gaping holes in my mouth. It just had to be done because once it was packed in, it felt a lot better than when it was empty and the nerve was exposed. I really can't accurately describe how much this hurt other than saying it REALLY EFFING HURT!

Oh, a couple days later I got dry socket, which also hurt a lot but not as much as the actual act of unpacking and packing my mouth.

And now, the moment you have all been waiting for! 

THE NUMBER ONE MOST PAINFUL THING I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SCRATCHED CORNEA!!!

I wrote about this horrible incident when it happened two years ago. I urge you to read that post if you missed it because the pain was still raw at that point and I think I did a good job at describing everything!

But the short story is that a tomato plant scratched my cornea while I was working in the garden. The initial scratch hurt, but then it felt fine. The next day I went to the doctor because my eye was red and it felt like something was stuck in it. I was diagnosed with a scratched cornea and given eye drops to put in every three hours.

About 16 hours after the initial scratch is when shit hit the fan. My eyes wouldn't stop watering and light of any kind hurt. I sat in my bedroom with the shades drawn and sunglasses on. I was so tired and exhausted but all I could do about the pain was grown because crying hurt. I couldn't even close my eyes to sleep because closing my eyes hurt so bad.

I basically felt like I was continuously being stabbed in the eye and I will admit I went a little crazy that night. The pain was making me loopy.

But I survived!

Ow.

Day #3, feeling a lot better.

Tell me the most painful thing you ever experienced!

Warning: Runner Ramblings inside...

Like the title says, this post is going to be a bit disjointed and ramble-y. I feel very overwhelmed about getting all of my thoughts "out there". So rather than holding myself to some high standard of writing, I'm just going to go for it and throw up everything into this post! I'll go back and edit once or twice, but beyond that, this is just going to be a BLOB OF MY THOUGHTS!

You've been warned!

Over the past couple weeks, as I have been recovering from some Rip Roarin' Plantar Fasciitis (RRPF) and easing back into marathon training, I have had so many thoughts and feels going through my head... and most of them are not very positive or nice...

Why does this keep happening to me???

I'm too old for this shit!

I will never PR again!

Is this the right plan for me?

Can my body really endure marathon training?

Why do I set lofty goals when I am just going to fail?

Even though I am technically not injured anymore, I am not having fun. The UNKNOWN is what prevents me from feeling strong, happy, and excited about my training. If I don't feel happy, excited, and strong, then I am not having fun.

My feet don't hurt now (knock on wood) but I am afraid they will start to hurt. I am afraid simply because I typed the words "my feet don't hurt" that they will begin to hurt, as if the universe is mocking me. I am afraid to STAND UP AND WALK after sitting down for any length of time because I have PTSD from when I had PF. That shit physically hurt and made me emotionally downtrodden! I do not want that feeling ever again. It is silly, but I am legit scared to stand up and walk so I gingerly move around like I am on eggshells. This is no way to live, people!!!!

Nataliedee is freaking awesome.

Of course I wonder why. Whyyyyy did I get PF? Is it Hansons? Is it too much running? Is it going to come back as soon as I hit 45 miles a week again?? (Which is only about 2-5 miles more per week than what I was doing when I was training for my most recent 10 miler and half marathon.) 

My friend who is a trainer and knows all about my running ups and downs looked at the plan I am using and she thought that the change in running pace had more to do with it than anything. I went from running most of my runs at an 8:10-8:30 pace to running them all a good 45 seconds per mile slower. That can change my gait and body mechanics and who the hell knows what else. It could be a combo of things. Or maybe I was just going to get PF no matter what. I don't know and will likely never know.

One thing I am not ready to do is throw this plan out. I am definitely open to altering it, but I am not throwing it out completely because the truth is, I wouldn't know what other plan to use. I NEVER USED A FORMAL PLAN WHEN TRAINING FOR A MARATHON!

Maybe that was my secret??? I trained via intuition!!!

HOPEFULLY the hard part is behind me. HOPEFULLY my feet continue to do well and I can do the training Hansons has prescribed for me. If (and that is a huge IF because I don't count anything as a given) my feet continue to feel good, Week 8 (this week) is going to be following the plan but cutting off a couple miles here and there. It says I should have 49 for the week but I am thinking anywhere between 30-35 pain free would be a good bump up from last week's 23 pain free miles. I'll cross the Week 9 bridge when I get to it. One week at a time.

Okay, that is me being all anxiety ridden and spastic! If you read all that, THANK YOU! I am sure as runners you understand everything I am feeling right now!!

And yes, if you have advice for me, I'd be happy to hear it. But only if (and I am sorry if this comes across as rude) you are familiar with me, my training, and what I have been doing these past couple months. If this is your first Meg Go Run post you ever read I really don't need you commenting and asking if I am sticking to the prescribed paces. (Because if you read my blog, you would know I pretty much follow them to a T!) Wow, I may regret typing out this paragraph because I suppose it makes me sound a little defensive, but the truth is it's how I'm feeling right now!

Speaking of being defensive, I got pissed off at Paul the other day. I haven't told him much about my feet or how I have been altering my training because honestly it is just exhausting to think about all day let alone relay to someone else. But he did know they were feeling better and that I was being extra cautious with my running. So the other morning I was trying to decide whether to run or not and he gave me some unsolicited advice... and that advice was to NOT RUN. Well, if anyone knows me, you know that something like that would PISS ME OFF, so I grabbed my Garmin and said "See ya!" Like I'm going to let him tell me what to do, right? So as I was running (pain free by the way) and starting to feel the effects of the endorphins, I realized that I must be in a really bad place if just a friendly, well meaning piece of (unsolicited) advice from Paul would make me mad, even if I was only mad about it for a couple minutes.

Also, I realize this whole post is first world problems as I am sure many people wish the current biggest stress of their life is a bout of PF during marathon training. Believe me, I wake up every morning and kiss Paul and the kitties and feel thankful they are happy and healthy. If anything happened to them, I'd be wishing my problem was PF!

ONE MORE THING! And this is good news! I did a speed workout on Tuesday for the first time since Week 4! I did 4x1200 with 400 recovery. I did a 1 mile warm up and cool down. (Hansons says do a 1.5 mile warm up and cool down but I wanted to shave some mileage off, and not from the speed portion.) Let me tell you, the 1200s were HARD!! 400 recovery was enough for the first interval, but it wasn't near enough for the rest. In fact, I was not technically recovered. I did them though! According to my plan, my speed workouts should be between 6:51-7:10. My first interval was 7:00 because it ended on a hill. My last three were all 6:52. I was very pleased.

I guess that is all I wanted to say. I am sure I will think of more, but for now, thanks for listening!

No questions, I feel like I have too many that once I got started I wouldn't be able to stop!

I suppose... comment at your own risk? Just kidding. I need to take a chill pill.

Via Marathon Training: Week Seven

It do doesn't even feel like Week 7. I missed all of Week 5 due to PF and spent Week 6 and a lot of Week 7 getting my legs and endurance back while still be cautious to make sure my PF didn't come back... I am really not feeling confident, guys. This whole PF fiasco has my training really lacking...

I don't feel prepared at ALL. For the first 7 weeks of training, I only had 4 solid weeks of actually doing what I was supposed to do.

This sucks. Not sure where to go from here. Expect a blog post about it soon.

Monday- One last day of NO RUNNING before jumping back into Hansons Training after a rip roaring case of PF. Guys, I am soooo ready to get back at it!

Band Asst. Wide Grip Pull Ups- 5x6
Asst. Neutral Grip Pull Ups- 5x8x16lb asst.
Inverted Row- 5x10
Cable Row- 5x10x50lb
Lat Pull Down- 5x10x70lb
Bicep Curl- 5x10x15lb
Bicycle Crunches- 5x40
Capt. Chair- 5x20
Stability Ball Knee Tuck- 5x15
Stability Ball Sit Ups- 5x20x15lb
Donkey Kicks- 5x20
Hydrants- 5x20
Kick Backs- 5x20

TONS OF STRETCHING!!!

Tuesday- 7 miles. I wanted to do 8, but I felt good after 7, so I figured I better not push my luck. The road will be there for me tomorrow. My feet felt good all day.

Wednesday- 6 miles. I felt very sludgy. My feet felt great, and had I not felt like my legs weighed 400lbs, I would have aimed for 8 miles. I spent most of this run wondering why after a week off of running, I feel so tired. Could it be the weather? Ever since I got back from vay-cay, all of my runs have been done in temperatures around 80+ degrees and direct sunlight...

Thursday- 6 miles, 3 @ race pace. I was supposed to do 10 miles with 7 @ race pace. But I'm not ready for that. I fear the PF will come back if I go balls to the wall! But I wanted to do something to get my fast twitch muscle fibers going. 3 miles at race pace seemed just perfect. So I managed 3 miles around a 7:49 pace. I can't imagine running like that for 3 more hours!!!! That evening, we did some walking around Knoebel'S Grove amusement park, and when I got home I felt a little pressure in my heel...

Friday- Lifting chest @ home. I woke up with a tiny feeling of strain in my foot and it freaked me out! NO RUNNING. Hell no. I don't want PF again. N to the O to the NO! I walked so cautiously the rest of the day that I couldn't even tell what my feet felt like. Does that make sense??? It was like this heightened sense of awareness in my feet all day that I convinced myself the PF was coming back.

Chest Press- 5x10x25lb
Shoulder Press- 5x10x20lb
Push Ups- 5x15
Tricep Dips- 5x15
Bicylces- 5x40
Situps on stability ball- 5x15x15lb
Stability ball knee tuck- 5x15
Planks- 3x60 seconds
Stretching
Hip/Glute Stuff

Saturday- Lifting back @ Planet Fitness. Again, woke up with a strainy feeling in my foot. It was gone by the time we headed to the gym but I was still scared. We went to a wedding that night and I wore my squishy sandals. I wasn't about to put on high heels, even though I wanted to! Feet felt great the entire day.

Asst. Wide Grip Pull Ups- 5x6x16lb asst.
Neutral Grip Pull Ups- 5x8x16lb asst.
Inverted Row- 5x10
Cable Row- 5x10x50lb
Lat Pull Down- 5x10x70lb
Bicep Curl- 5x10x15lb
Bicycle Crunches- 5x40
Capt. Chair- 5x20
Stability Ball Knee Tuck- 5x15
Donkey Kicks- 5x20
Hydrants- 5x20

Kick Backs- 5x20

Lots of stretching!

When I was done with all my lifting, I did one more set of each lift. I did the same amount of reps but lowered the weight. I definitely went to fatigue!

Sunday- 4 miles. My feet had that tiny strainy feeling again but I realized, okay, maybe I will just have that in the mornings and then it will go away? I mean, that's what happened the past couple days. So I ran 4 miles in the scorching heat. My feet didn't hurt at all when running. In fact, they have never hurt while running except the day I got PF. So that is good. Feet felt great the rest of the day. Woot.

Okay, I ran 23 miles this week... almost double what I did last week but only HALF as much as my training plan said I should have run. This is not good, guys.

Training Goals:

1. Rest days = complete rest!
2. Walk 1 min per mile run.
3. Stretch after each run.
4. Foam roll when needed.
5. Glute/hip exercises 5 days per week.
6. Stick to the prescribed paces.
7. Practice proper hydration and fueling. Read as much as I can on the topic.
8. Alter training if I feel potential for injury.

I'm not even going to grade myself on my training goals this week as it doesn't even feel like I am training right now!!!!! :(

How were your workouts this week?

Weekend Wrap Up!

Family was the theme for this weekend! I love my family, and I am so thankful I got to spend to with so many people I don't get to see very often!

The highlight of my Friday was spending the evening at my parent's house with family. We ate, we talked, we laughed, and it was glorious!

SIL Debby, Me, Mom, Brother Julian, Dad, Paul

Nieces Ellie & Clementine, Brother Tyler, Grandma

My brothers and I with Cousin Nick and Grandma

Paul and I tore up Planet Fitness. Seriously. It was in shambles by the time we left. (That's my overly dramatic way of saying we had a great lifting workout!) Some guy even stopped to say to me, "You workout HARD!" HA! Like, did he mean I workout hard FOR A GIRL? Would he have stopped a GUY to tell him he worked out hard? No, probably not. YES I AM HIGH HORSEY ABOUT THIS.

The rest of the day was spent celebrating LOVE at my cousin's wedding! My cousin Jordan married his long time girlfriend, Kristy. It was a beautiful evening! I had a great time hanging out with my family!

My cousin Jordan and our beautiful "new" cousin Kristy

 The Michael/Reed/Martino Conglomerate

Cousins Ken and Steph

Mom and Dad

Siblings!!!

Dad, Auntie Eileen, Uncle David (groom's dad), Aunt Patti

Cousins Nick & Alex

Alex just ran the BOSTON MARATHON!!!!

Paul, Cousins Brian & Alex

Uncle Randy, Cousins Alex, Ken & Brian

Me and Paul

Dad, Mom, Me, Paul

I was in a really bad mood today. My foot felt fine, so I went for a 4 miler. It went well. But even a run wasn't enough to boost my grumpy mood. The only thing productive I did was do some major grocery shopping...

Zero makeup, zero bra, zero fucks.

I cuddled my kitties a lot because I figured that would make me feel better. Most of the day was spent on the couch being entertained by TV, puzzles, or the internet. What a blah day.

Then it was all put into perspective. I found out via Facebook that a former high school life skills student of mine (I taught him music) died. I ugly cried, screamed "WHY?", and wondered what the hell the meaning of life is and why it is so cruel and why it sucks so bad. I can't think of anything else to say except I just wish with all my heart that this hadn't happened. Life fucking sucks sometimes. And it's not fair.

How do you try to cheer yourself up when you're in a bad mood?

Teachers, how do you cope when you hear devastating news about a student?

Tell me something fun you did this weekend!

Colorado: Day 5 & 6 (Peak to Peak, Disc Golf, and READY TO GO HOME!)

We didn't take a lot of pictures of this day so I will probably make most of this recap of our last day of vacation short and sweet!

If you have been following my recap, you will remember that we vacation hard, so by Day 5, we were exhausted and homesick. Luckily this was our last day, and it would be a sort of short day because we would be spending the night in a hotel near the airport and would aim to get to bed at a decent hour because we had a 1:00am wake up call to catch our 5:25am flight!

We slept until 9:00am and it was glorious. Then we hopped in the car and headed for the Ghost Town disc golf course near Idaho Springs. We got to take the Peak to Peak scenic byway to get to the course. Honestly, after all the beauty we already saw, the Peak to Peak was just more of the same. I hate to say that by Day 5 we were sort of immune to the beauty, but we kind of were! By this point it was like, "Well duh, everywhere in Colorado is beautiful!"

One thing that put a little bit of a damper on the day was that they were calling for really bad thunderstorms. Hail, damaging winds, and even tornadoes were in the forecast! Did you know that I am terrified of storms like that!? I am. I nervously watched the sky the whole way to the disc golf course.

By the time we got to the course, it looked as though at least the first storm would pass us. I chilled in the car and read my book while Paul played disc golf through a LEGIT GHOST TOWN from during the early gold mining days. How cool is that?

After disc golf, the plan was to hang out with Paul's cousins, who live in Denver, but we were worried about all the storms that were supposed to continue into the evening. We decided it was better to just head straight to our hotel (near the airport) and hunker down for the night. I was homesick and I didn't want anything to derail me from getting on that plane and flying home to my baby boys!

We got situated in hotel and it was really our first chance to watch the coverage of the Orlando nightclub shooting. I am sure most of you felt as enraged as we did to hear about another sick person with access to a powerful weapon causing so much death, destruction, and pain. We watched Anderson Cooper's moving tribute to the victims and I ended up crumbling into a hiccuping ugly cry. I remembered last year we were on vacation when another young gunman opened fire on a bible study group in Charleston. "Why do mass shootings always happen when we are on vacation?" I wondered. Then I remembered... "Oh yeah, mass shootings happen all the time." I'M FUCKING SICK OF IT!!!!

Changing gears now...

We ate dinner at a diner that was a short drive across the parking lot. They served wine at this diner! SCORE! They also had some interesting music playing, including this song, which I am now completely in love with...

Then we went back to our hotel. Paul cuddled up for the night and fell asleep. I wasn't tired at all. I ended up staying up all night until our alarm went off at 1:00. What was I doing? Oh, all kinds of stuff, including writing my state representatives about my support for common sense gun legislation. I'm not sure what else to do but voice my opinion by contacting my representatives, and of course, VOTING.

We left the hotel at 1:30 and began the long, stressful process called FLYING. We had to fill the car up with gas and it of at the rental place. Of course there was a line. At 1:50 in the morning. Then we had to take the shuttle to the airport. Then we had to get in line at the Southwestern counter, except it didn't open until 3:00 and it was only 2:15. By this point, fatigue hit me and I was crashing... hard. Finally we were able to check in, but of course since all the check ins opened at the same time, the TSA lines got kind of long (at 3:15 in the morning) so we had to wait for that.

At last, we were at our gate. Glory, glory, hallelujah!!! I was starving but nothing was open. I saw the workers preparing for the day at the Einstein Brothers bagel place. I asked them what time they opened and they said 4:00. That's wasn't so bad. I closed my eyes for a little while and at 4:00 I walked over to the bagel place.

There were 34 people in line. 

I kid you not. 

I almost cried. I get very teary eyed when I am tired. Instead I ate some Reeses Pieces I found in my purse...

An hour later we were boarding the plane. Apparently this was the nursery flight. Lots of infants and toddlers aboard. We tried our best not to sit near any kids but it was unavoidable. "We're flyyyyyying!!!!!" a child yelled as we took off. Even in my Ativan haze it bothered me.

My mom picked us up in Baltimore and drove us home because she is the best mom in the world! I barely remember driving home. I was still tired and deep in my Ativan haze!

We had a blast in Colorado, but we were so happy to be home!!!!

Thanks for following along on our vacation recaps! We hope to do some day trips and sneak away to the beach for a few days before the summer is over. Although I never get the urge to go to the beach until later in the summer. Right now, I have no desire to go at all! We'll see.

Mice. (No graphic pictures.)

Do not worry, there are no graphic pictures in this post! After Jelly left me a "present" the morning of my last day of school, it got me thinking about all of the kitty's encounters with rodents. I can think of four, but I bet there are many more that I just don't know about!

1. Chrissy's first blood was when he killed a vole outside. We used to take the kitties out to "play" in the back yard. Well, of course Chrissy found a little vole to mess with. I made Paul deal with the situation.

2. Years ago, I heard the cats going nuts in the bedroom. I also heard something scurrying and squeaking. I shut the bedroom door and yelled for Paul to come take care of it. I still don't know what happened and I don't want to! I am assuming a little mouse lost it's life! (Can you see a pattern? I keep making Paul deal with these things!)

3. The BIGGEST rodent issue we ever experienced can be read about in my Domestic Forensics post. Let's just say I woke up to some major blood spatter evidence but no body. A few days later, one of the cats shed a claw that was bloody and had little grey hairs stuck to it. You can see the picture here if you want. I assume they massacred a little rodent. I looked all over the house and still don't know what happened to the body.

4. Last Monday, I woke up feeling extremely happy. It was the last day of school for the summer and everything was magical... until I saw Jelly laying on the rug by the back door. I went over to pet him and when he got up to run away, I saw it. A dead mouse on the rug. I gasped and tried to figure out what to do. Paul was sleeping so I picked up the rug, threw the mouse outside (without touching it), and left the rug by our trash cans. Paul could figure out what to do with it later. I did not find any more evidence until later in the day. Jelly had dried blood on his front legs! Then the next morning when I woke up, I found some little blood droplets on the floor that I missed the day before.

Fun fact: The day Jelly left that little mouse as a present, an HVAC guy from SECCO came to check out our air conditioning unit. It was making a lot of noise. It turned out to be MOUSE BONES in the unit! Ugh!!!

The moral of the story is, our house has become a kill zone for unsuspecting mice.

Can you believe these two babies could hurt a fly!?

Any stories you want to share? Nothing too sad or gross, please!!!