Gouda

This is a picture of the cheese theme for this year's Wisconsin "Cheezy" Marathon. This will be on our Technical T's and this will be the form of our finish line medal. This Blues Brother hunk of Gouda cheese is what made us decide to do this race for a second year. Last fall as we began plotting our 2013 race season, we had 4 races on the docket. Late in the year, a flyer arrived from the Wisconsin Marathon that gave a preview of the 2013 emblem and we instantly decided we would be doing 5 half marathons☺

Tomorrow we begin our week of tapering, kicking the morning off with a little 6-miler. We've fared very well in the past 3 weeks since the South Shore Half Marathon. It seems our plan to not run that race too hard, to take just one recovery week, and then ramp right back up, was the correct plan of action. Bodies are feeling strong, fit and loose. My sleep has been excellent (I'm getting FitBit readings of 95-100% efficiency each night), which indicates I am not overtrained, and I'm ticking off Aaron's difficult training sessions like a pro. This makes me hopeful that we will perform well on May 4th.

Sunday we pick up our race packets, and favorable bib numbers will only reinforce the vibe that this will be a gooooood race. If my race number isn't initially appealing, I will find a way to break it down until it equals a number that feels auspicious! Or maybe I won't need that kind of luck ... at the packet pick-up, there will be an option to donate any monetary amount to the One Fund Boston (money for the families of those injured or killed in the Boston Marathon bombings). In return we will be given a blue ribbon to wear on race day (solidarity amongst runners!) and good karma. With good karma, who needs luck?

“Thank You For Making My Job Easy”

Those were Dr. Diehr’s parting words at the conclusion of my annual physical. I love my annual physicals. Especially since I only need a pap smear every 5 years. On these “off” years, Dr. Diehr and I just chat. We take 30-40 minutes to review medical recommendations for a woman of my age, and since I’m meeting and surpassing all of those recommendations (healthy weight, perfect labs, ideal diet, physically fit, non-smoker, non-drinker, I get enough Calcium and Vitamin D,  I get a mammogram, etc.), our conversations turn to more interesting topics, such as running, travels, photography, India, the state of health care, etc. As a skilled physician, she can carry on these fun conversations while checking my vitals (BP= 109/68, Pulse = 72, Respiration's = 11, Temp = 98.5°), as well as the quick check of the eyes, ears nose and throat. Things got exciting however, when she listened to my heart. She exclaimed, “You have the heart of a teen athlete!”  She explained that in healthy people, there are two normal heart sounds often described as a lub (S1)  and a dub (S2), that occur in sequence with each heartbeat. In children and athletic teens, there is an audible split between these two beats that is not often heard in adults. BUT, she heard it in me! This was a great ego stroke for all my efforts with running, but better yet, it validates my efforts to avoid my family’s strong history of heart disease, which keeps me feeling more in control of my future. There was however, one piece of bad news from my physical that is seemingly out of my control. I am shrinking. 

When my height was measured the nurse told me I was ¼” shorter. I told her that was crazy talk. Not for a moment did I believe it was true. I resolved to have nurse Julie at work measure me correctly! And that didn’t turn out so well either. It’s been confirmed. I am now 5’3 ¾”. Anything under 5’4” is short in my book. One time, someone errantly measured me as 5’4 ½”. I knew it was wrong, cause I was always 5’4”, BUT  I held onto that half inch until I had myself believing I was 5’5” -  cause you know with height you round up from the nearest half inch (with weight, you round down by the pound, right? So if you’re 132 pounds, it’s basically the same as being 130# J).  Eventually the lie of thinking I was 5’5” became fact rather than a fiction. So now to go from 5”5” to 5’3 ¾” is a major blow. I did some research and found that women between the ages of 30-80, on average, lose about 3 inches. Men, by contrast, only lose about 1 inch. So not fair. My only solace is after my co-worker measured me, I asked her if she’s lost height (she’s 50). She didn’t know so we measured her and she is down 3/4 of an inch from her original height! So there you have it. Aging will sneak up and find ways to get you. Stealthy little bugger!

G-Free

Yippee! The Boys no longr have Giardia!

Round 2



Blister one day after the race.
Today, 5 days later, it's almost gone.

Our “recovery” week is winding down. My nasty blister (pictured above) from Sunday’s race is nearly healed (I’m a super healer) in time for tomorrow’s 8-miler – funny how perspectives shift over time in training, as we now say, “thank god we only have an 8-miler”, while someone else out there who runs ultramarathons is saying, “thank god I only have a 30-miler.” Typical recovery from a half marathon spans 2 weeks with reduced mileage, reduced weight training and no speed work. Since we didn’t run the South Shore full bore, we aren’t as banged up and don’t require (at least this is the premise we’re operating under!) a traditional 2-week recovery. We were both running within 2 days of the race, and yesterday I trained with Aaron. What he deemed a “recovery work-out” would likely do the average person in. It felt easy and doable at the time – only squatting 55# instead of 105# was a gift – but this morning I found walking and running quite challenging. It’s a good thing I see Angie Man Hands for my post-race sports massage today. This is how Aaron took it “easy” on me yesterday:

·  Bulgarian Squats with TRX,  3 x 12/side

·  Box Jumps (basic 24” box), 3 x 8

·  Walking Lunges w/ 25# dumbbells, 3 sets length of gym

·  Deep Squats for ROM (range of motion),  3 x 12 @ 55#

·  Bosu Push-ups (hands on black side), 3 x 12

·  Barbell Snatches, 3 x 6 @ 45#

·  Body Weighted Rows on Smith Press (like a pull up, hands overhand), 3 x 12

·  Arnold Presses, 3 x 10

·  Eccentric Hamstring Resistance with Aaron, 3 x 7/side

Monday we launch into our next round of amped up training for the Wisconsin Cheezy Half Marathon (the race is actually called the Wisconsin Marathon), which is only 3 weeks away. In fact, next week will be our maxed out week with the most mileage and longest long run before we start to taper. The week is meant to re-affirm our running fitness with a refresher on speed and power to prepare us for a course PR in Kenosha on May 4^th.  Last year when we ran the Cheezy, we both had knee issues with IT Band Syndrome. We both had to walk small portions of the race, which slowed our finishing times. The course is a scenic, fast & flat route through regal residential neighborhoods, before hugging the shore of Lake Michigan. We want to re-write last year’s memories and performance with a bang up job. We can afford to run full bore this time, as we’ll have 6 weeks to recover and build up for the Rock-n-Sole Half Marathon in June.

And......Go!

The 2013 race season has officially begun. We completed half marathon #1 of 5 this morning - The South Shore Half Marathon. The game plan was to use this race as a training run - treat it as we would any long run, because to run all out would not give our bodies enough time to recover for the Wisconsin Cheesy Half Marathon held in Kenosha less than 4 weeks from now. All week long we reminded ourselves to take it easy on race day, and while we didn't push too hard, we came away with course records - Joe @ 1:40, me @ 2:22. Of course those words are impressive semantics  - this was Joe's first running of the South Shore (his 10th half, my 11th) - so by default he would set his own course record, and though I ran this course in 2010, I bonked big time and had a lackluster finishing time.

I awoke feeling well rested after an unprecedented night of 95% sleep efficiency (FitBit, how I love you!). Dark clouds, a strong wind and temps hovering around 40° were on deck for the race, and varied little in the 2+ hours I was out there. We wore shorts, long sleeved tops, & windbreakers, which felt perfect, though the wind could be brutal at times - especially when it thwarted efforts to gain speed on the downhills. The race began at 9a.m. at the South Shore Park Pavilion, following the Oak Leaf bike trail through a series of county parks along lake Michigan to it's turn-around point in Grant Park - a scenic, undulating out-and-back course with many views of the churned up lake, hosting a mesmerizing deep green-blue hue inside the breakwater. It was as challenging as I remembered - up and down, up and down. Near the 7 mile point, the trail was submerged in melt water, so we all (foolishly) trampled into the grass only to meet a soggy boggy muddy waterhole instead. My feet were soaked, resulting in the creation of a painful quarter sized blister smack dab on the bottom of my right foot.

Home, showered, blister popped and bandaged (oh does it hurt to walk!), I still have plenty of energy for the day. FitBit tells me I've taken over 28,000 steps, and because I've never reached 30,000 in a day, I'm gonna have to stay on my blistered foot for a while, walking about the house, until I cross that milestone. I've earned my post-race dinner tonight for sure (FitBit tells me that I've already burned 2200 calories, and it's only 2p.m.) - Joe's homemade pizza, and my homemade chocolate-peanut butter ice cream. Tomorrow is a day off, so sleeping in and chillaxing have been scheduled☺

Giardia

Diarrhea. It began with wretched smelling yellow diarrhea in the litter box on a Friday night. It continued throughout a weekend, with an added round of deadly feline flatulence. Monday I called the vet. Tuesday she called me back. Wednesday a stool sample resembling a pancake was dropped off at the Waukesha Small Animal Hospital. Thursday the results came back: Giardia. My responses in this precise order.

1. WTF? How do indoor cats get Giardia?
2. Great. Just great. Their butts have likely touched every surface in the house.
3. How could this put Joe at risk for Giardia with his suppressed immune system?
4. Dammit. I don't have time for this - the house is in utter disarray in preparation for carpet installation tomorrow & Saturday.
5. How much is this going to cost?

As I've shared this story with others, I've been shocked to learn that most people do not know what Giardia is. If you're among them, don't feel bad, know that you're in the norm. Giardia is a parasite that lives in water, such as streams, rivers and lakes. It causes disruptions to the functioning of the GI tract, leading to diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, and eventually dehydration, malnutrition and even death. Chaco and Denali have no opportunity to encounter untreated water (i.e., dogs could lick a puddle outside that has Giardia), nor have they eaten any animals infected with Giardia, so how'd this happen? No one knows, but from my research I've learned that this infection is most common in pets under the age of 3 years, and amongst animals living in shelters. One can be a carrier of Giardia without having clinical symptoms of it, and what suddenly activates it, is also unknown. I speculate that the boys were exposed to Giardia at the animal sanctuary we got them from.

Giardia is spread easily in places where lots of animals live - it's picked up from fecal matter ( lotsa butt licking in the animal kingdom) and can live easily in cold wet places for months, warmer dry places for days. Giardia is detected in fecal matter by searching for "oocysts" or shed spores. The thing is, these spores aren't shed in every single bowel movement, so it can be missed for many testing rounds. My boys have their stool analyzed annually - it's part of the standard physical exam, so it's possible that as carriers, they just weren't shedding oocysts at the time of each exam.

Treatment takes 5 days with two different meds. One is a bitter powder that I sprinkle into their wet food once per day, and try to further camouflage with an extra treat of tuna juice drizzled over the top. The other medicine is a honking pill that is administered by mouth twice daily. This pill is uber bitter, and needs to be coated in Cheeze Whiz, margarine or something palatable, to help it go down. Ten days after the end of the meds have been taken, I drop off another stool sample. Cost of this all? $180. This figure doesn't include the time factor. Everyday until they're given the all clear, I need to clean the litter boxes with bleach (this is usually done weekly), and scrub food (dry food bowls too) and water bowls with hot soapy water. When the meds are gone, I need to scrub their butts to get any clinging oocysts away. All of this treatment is a literal and figurative pain in the ass.

As far as whether or not humans can get Giardia from non-humans, the research is unclear, so the recommendation is to be cautious. Luckily, Joe doesn't handle the litter boxes and should be fine with extra care to hand washing.

Right now we're three days into the treatment, and the diarrhea is subsiding. The chaos of home has also subsided. Our new carpeting looks great - giving the house a brand new feel. Friday-Sunday was nothing but physical labor. We spent more than 5 hours each day just moving furniture to and fro, cleaning, reallocating, etc. That is on top of getting our runs and chores done.  Oh - the meds the boys are taking can cause vomiting, and wouldn't you know it? ... our new carpet was about 10 hours old when Denali upchucked a quarter sized dollop of yellow foam. Talk about stress! Fortunately it came out right away and there has been no further emesis.

The moving and carpeting are done, the Giardia is hopefully coming under control, but life is not slowing down yet. We have our race on Sunday, need to get taxes done, research radon treatment systems .....