Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Update 1
Update # 1
Thanks everyone for your concern. Dad is doing fine, recovering nicely. The first thing he asked his doctor when he started coming out of his drug induced sleep was how soon before he could start running again ! That’s my Dad (
The nurses were impressed that he was very agile after the surgery even helping lift himself up onto his recovery bed from the transport gurney. They said it was because of his athleticism that he is recovering faster than the other heart patients.
I am picking up the kids from preschool after work and we will drive to Saint John Regional Hospital to visit him. Mom and my sister and 1 year old nephew have been there with Dad the whole time. I moved all my patients tomorrow onto Friday so we will get to spend much of tomorrow with him. The kids will stay in Saint John until Monday while I come home tomorrow night. This will leave us kidless for the Half on Sunday. Much Easier. Whew. I’m mot sure they could hang around for 2-2 ½ hours waiting for Mom to cross the finish line.
More updates to follow later. Again thanks for the best wishes. I’m so glag to have the RBF (
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Thanks everyone for your concern. Dad is doing fine, recovering nicely. The first thing he asked his doctor when he started coming out of his drug induced sleep was how soon before he could start running again ! That’s my Dad (
The nurses were impressed that he was very agile after the surgery even helping lift himself up onto his recovery bed from the transport gurney. They said it was because of his athleticism that he is recovering faster than the other heart patients.
I am picking up the kids from preschool after work and we will drive to Saint John Regional Hospital to visit him. Mom and my sister and 1 year old nephew have been there with Dad the whole time. I moved all my patients tomorrow onto Friday so we will get to spend much of tomorrow with him. The kids will stay in Saint John until Monday while I come home tomorrow night. This will leave us kidless for the Half on Sunday. Much Easier. Whew. I’m mot sure they could hang around for 2-2 ½ hours waiting for Mom to cross the finish line.
More updates to follow later. Again thanks for the best wishes. I’m so glag to have the RBF (
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Heart Surgery
My dad, the marathoner, is undergoing a heart bypass as we speak. He got a call on Friday to say that his surgery would be today. Because Canadians have a free health care system, all surgeries are on an as needed/urgency basis. Surgeons are capped at how many surgeries they can do so patients end up waiting on a wait list for a very long time. My Dad was told in April he would need his bypass and finally is having it now.
He will be in critical care drugged up for the next 48 hours then he will be transferred to ICU for another 48 hours before going up to a recovery room. Family is NOT allowed to visit him during the first 48 hours. I am skipping my running schedule this week to drive 3 hours up north to visit Dad on Fri/Sat then back down 5 hours to Portland to pick up the race pack for the Half on Sunday.
Those who pay sky-high monthly insurance premiums should be thankful that the for-profit insurance companies allow you to have any surgery you need/want almost immediately. I just wish that there could be a happy medium.
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He will be in critical care drugged up for the next 48 hours then he will be transferred to ICU for another 48 hours before going up to a recovery room. Family is NOT allowed to visit him during the first 48 hours. I am skipping my running schedule this week to drive 3 hours up north to visit Dad on Fri/Sat then back down 5 hours to Portland to pick up the race pack for the Half on Sunday.
Those who pay sky-high monthly insurance premiums should be thankful that the for-profit insurance companies allow you to have any surgery you need/want almost immediately. I just wish that there could be a happy medium.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
10 Miles - DONE !
Well I did it, I knocked out 10 miles today ! That's the farthest I have run in my whole life ! Can you tell I'm pretty proud of myself? *giggle* Oh yeah, the time you ask?
A ROCKIN' 1:42:37 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kicked ass on that run :)
This run was in Fredericton so my dad rode his bike next to me while I ran on the walking/jogging trails and maybe him being beside me was enough to keep me on pace or something but man did that feel good. The cyclometer thing on his bike was able to give us the distance and pace and I swear I thought it was wrong until I saw the signs on the trails marking the distance and realized that the fancy gizmo was calibrated right.
Miles 1 and 2 : Came out much too fast -9 min pace, Dad slowed and indicated the 2 mile mark and when I looked at my watch it said 18 min (which is why I thought his calibration was off) but the trail sign also said 2 miles. I realized very quickly that that pace would need to be slowed otherwise I wouldn't make it to mile 10.
Miles 3 and 4: Still running pretty fast-10 min pace, but was honestly feeling pretty darn good so far so decided to try and keep that pace.
Mile 5 : half a GU pack (Expresso) and Gatorade from Fuel Belt. I LOVE the Expresso! I am going to go back to Triathlete Sports on Monday and trade my Triberry for more Expresso. Until now the whole way had a pretty strong headwind.
Miles 1-5 = 49:54 = 9:59 min/mile
Mile 6 : Thank heavens for the tailwind! quarter pack GU and Gatorade.
Mile 7: Seemed to have slowed a little so picked up the pace and pushed harder for ...
Miles 8 and 9: rest of GU pack and little bit more Gatorade.
Mile 10: Uphill but I pushed really hard and ran as fast as I could the last half mile. Paid off handsomely !
Miles 6-10 = 52:43 = 10:32 min/mile
Overall pace = 10:15 min/mile
Started with 4 full bottles in the Fuel Belt and ended with 2 full bottles so for the half will use 2 bottles and then the water/gatorade tables.
My Dad's butt (on the bike) was more sore than I was! I have been grinning to myself all afternoon about my times. I had told my husband last week that after the half next week I was going to spend the winter concentrating on shaving some time off my pace in prep for the spring. I have been fantasizing about someday (maybe even next year) trying a marathon but again finding the time to train is the hard part. So many obligations, so little time. Something has to suffer...I just don't want it to be my kids. On that note...
*Warning : selfish comments follow*
We have been in negotiations lately about having another child. I am more than willing but...after "S" was born I bounced back very quickly. Back to my old self in 6 months. I'm not bragging - the fact that I was so stressed out because he didn't follow any of the rules in the book and nursed every 2 hours at night until he was 11 months old had a huge role in it. That kid defied logic, he would be sound asleep but the minute I would bring a sandwich to my lips he would wake up screaming. Needless to say I didn't get to eat as much as I would have liked.
Baby "N" was a much calmer baby, followed all the preset rules (nursed well and slept like a log at 2 wks of age), and was much more predictable. And no, it was not because it's easier the second time around but because that's just his personality-he's still calm and "S" is still higher strung.
The problem was that when we moved to Maine from San Antonio I had a harder time losing the baby weight due to lack of activity.
I am scared s***less that it will happen again. There I said it for all blogworld to read. I am afraid I will have a hard time losing the baby weight again. I like my nice lean self. When I was heavier I just felt horrible because none of my clothes would fit right. My post-nursing boobs always walked into a room first, my a** always seemed like it was 2 minutes behind, and I was always sucking in to hide the baby roll (which BTW is harder to get rid of the second time). The roll is gone and so are the boobs and a** but hell that was very hard work. The third time I will be past mid thirty and I imagine that much more harder. I know I will have another child but I don't want to have to wait another 2-3 years to get to great shape to train for a marathon.
Would love to hear from anyone (both men/women) that were trying to train for something with very small children.
Hope everyone else had great weekend runs/races :)
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A ROCKIN' 1:42:37 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kicked ass on that run :)
This run was in Fredericton so my dad rode his bike next to me while I ran on the walking/jogging trails and maybe him being beside me was enough to keep me on pace or something but man did that feel good. The cyclometer thing on his bike was able to give us the distance and pace and I swear I thought it was wrong until I saw the signs on the trails marking the distance and realized that the fancy gizmo was calibrated right.
Miles 1 and 2 : Came out much too fast -9 min pace, Dad slowed and indicated the 2 mile mark and when I looked at my watch it said 18 min (which is why I thought his calibration was off) but the trail sign also said 2 miles. I realized very quickly that that pace would need to be slowed otherwise I wouldn't make it to mile 10.
Miles 3 and 4: Still running pretty fast-10 min pace, but was honestly feeling pretty darn good so far so decided to try and keep that pace.
Mile 5 : half a GU pack (Expresso) and Gatorade from Fuel Belt. I LOVE the Expresso! I am going to go back to Triathlete Sports on Monday and trade my Triberry for more Expresso. Until now the whole way had a pretty strong headwind.
Miles 1-5 = 49:54 = 9:59 min/mile
Mile 6 : Thank heavens for the tailwind! quarter pack GU and Gatorade.
Mile 7: Seemed to have slowed a little so picked up the pace and pushed harder for ...
Miles 8 and 9: rest of GU pack and little bit more Gatorade.
Mile 10: Uphill but I pushed really hard and ran as fast as I could the last half mile. Paid off handsomely !
Miles 6-10 = 52:43 = 10:32 min/mile
Overall pace = 10:15 min/mile
Started with 4 full bottles in the Fuel Belt and ended with 2 full bottles so for the half will use 2 bottles and then the water/gatorade tables.
My Dad's butt (on the bike) was more sore than I was! I have been grinning to myself all afternoon about my times. I had told my husband last week that after the half next week I was going to spend the winter concentrating on shaving some time off my pace in prep for the spring. I have been fantasizing about someday (maybe even next year) trying a marathon but again finding the time to train is the hard part. So many obligations, so little time. Something has to suffer...I just don't want it to be my kids. On that note...
*Warning : selfish comments follow*
We have been in negotiations lately about having another child. I am more than willing but...after "S" was born I bounced back very quickly. Back to my old self in 6 months. I'm not bragging - the fact that I was so stressed out because he didn't follow any of the rules in the book and nursed every 2 hours at night until he was 11 months old had a huge role in it. That kid defied logic, he would be sound asleep but the minute I would bring a sandwich to my lips he would wake up screaming. Needless to say I didn't get to eat as much as I would have liked.
Baby "N" was a much calmer baby, followed all the preset rules (nursed well and slept like a log at 2 wks of age), and was much more predictable. And no, it was not because it's easier the second time around but because that's just his personality-he's still calm and "S" is still higher strung.
The problem was that when we moved to Maine from San Antonio I had a harder time losing the baby weight due to lack of activity.
I am scared s***less that it will happen again. There I said it for all blogworld to read. I am afraid I will have a hard time losing the baby weight again. I like my nice lean self. When I was heavier I just felt horrible because none of my clothes would fit right. My post-nursing boobs always walked into a room first, my a** always seemed like it was 2 minutes behind, and I was always sucking in to hide the baby roll (which BTW is harder to get rid of the second time). The roll is gone and so are the boobs and a** but hell that was very hard work. The third time I will be past mid thirty and I imagine that much more harder. I know I will have another child but I don't want to have to wait another 2-3 years to get to great shape to train for a marathon.
Would love to hear from anyone (both men/women) that were trying to train for something with very small children.
Hope everyone else had great weekend runs/races :)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Oops!
Well I have solved the mystery of the mysterious pain under my left rib cage ... digestive cramps from overeating *sheepish grin*. I know what you're thinking, how much food must little Kiran have eaten to cause that kind of cramping. Before you rush to judgement let me tell you that this past weekend we went to my parent's house and I just could not resist my Mom's cooking. I tried very hard to stick to my normally small sized portions but Mom had made some of my favorite Indian dishes. YUM!
That's what led to a wee bit more food on my plate (at every meal for 2 days). My GI system was in overdrive mode trying to process the food which eventually manifested itself as a cramp. The interesting thing was that I didn't feel like I overate-I did not eat until I was stuffed or uncomfortable, I just ate a bit more than usual.
I try to cook at home whenever I can but, hey, I'm a fulltime working mom and sometimes(OK a lot of times) we have prepackaged food for dinner like frozen lasagna etc. So when there is a couple of days that I don't have to cook, or reheat, and get to eat yummy food made by someone else I end up eating a tad bit much *giggle*.
Funny how our bodies are used to a certain way of doing thins and when you change it, it rebels. There have been times in the past when I have truly overeaten until I felt like a stuffed turkey (don't look at me like that-you have done it too) and never had such cramps. *sigh* another thing to chalk up to aging-crap!
The cramp disappeared yesterday along with the sunny weather so I ran for 4.5 miles on the tradmill instead of running in the mist.
Tonight I will attempt to remove the ivy wallpaper in the kitchen I have been complaining about since we moved in last year. The kids are at my parents for the week so this is the best time to start this project. Next month when they go to stay with my in-laws for a couple of days I will paint the walls. Wish me luck.
P.S. I'm trying something new- I'm using Haloscan for comments instead of blogger comments.
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That's what led to a wee bit more food on my plate (at every meal for 2 days). My GI system was in overdrive mode trying to process the food which eventually manifested itself as a cramp. The interesting thing was that I didn't feel like I overate-I did not eat until I was stuffed or uncomfortable, I just ate a bit more than usual.
I try to cook at home whenever I can but, hey, I'm a fulltime working mom and sometimes(OK a lot of times) we have prepackaged food for dinner like frozen lasagna etc. So when there is a couple of days that I don't have to cook, or reheat, and get to eat yummy food made by someone else I end up eating a tad bit much *giggle*.
Funny how our bodies are used to a certain way of doing thins and when you change it, it rebels. There have been times in the past when I have truly overeaten until I felt like a stuffed turkey (don't look at me like that-you have done it too) and never had such cramps. *sigh* another thing to chalk up to aging-crap!
The cramp disappeared yesterday along with the sunny weather so I ran for 4.5 miles on the tradmill instead of running in the mist.
Tonight I will attempt to remove the ivy wallpaper in the kitchen I have been complaining about since we moved in last year. The kids are at my parents for the week so this is the best time to start this project. Next month when they go to stay with my in-laws for a couple of days I will paint the walls. Wish me luck.
P.S. I'm trying something new- I'm using Haloscan for comments instead of blogger comments.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Weekend
Well, the weekend was a wash...the remnants of Ophelia wreaked havoc with the Terry Fox 10K Run this past weekend. It rained from Friday to Monday (the run was Sunday). The kids were not cool with walking and strolling in the pouring rain and we were a little hesitant to subject them to the weather lest they get sick.
So we turned around and came home. My make-up run tonight was not good either, I got a cramp on my left side under my rib cage. I have never had one of these running before and it's been a long time since I had a cramp, period (no pun intended-haven't had one of those in a while either). I almost want to say it was a little like a digestion cramp that I read about online, so my intended 4 miler turned into 1 mile.
Has anyone had one of these before?
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So we turned around and came home. My make-up run tonight was not good either, I got a cramp on my left side under my rib cage. I have never had one of these running before and it's been a long time since I had a cramp, period (no pun intended-haven't had one of those in a while either). I almost want to say it was a little like a digestion cramp that I read about online, so my intended 4 miler turned into 1 mile.
Has anyone had one of these before?
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Fabulous Baby!
As the venerable Austin Powers would say. He would also say "She's got her mojo back, Baby" I have had the most fabulous runs lately.
My long run on Sunday was 9 miles and 1:41:18. That is the longest I have ever run in my life. Yeah for me!
This morning's 5.4 miles was a nice and easy 60 min. For both days I took a different route than my regular one, the new route has quite a few rolling hills to prepare me for the Half in 3 weeks.
Mentally, I am out of my slump which has made running much more enjoyable. I think I was getting a bit scared about whether I really could do 13.1 but getting up to 9 has me pumped.
Sunday's long run was very steady, no sucking (or breaking) wind :) Beautiful sunny weather of mid 70s at 10am, Fuel belt 2 bottles of Gatorade full, Gummis in holder and off I went. I never felt stressed, strained or like I was pushing too hard. I just ran. I left a bottle of Gatorade in my neighbor's mailbox Sunday and this AM so after my run I had instant hydration on the 1/2 mile cooldown walk up the hill to my house.
Hope everybody else is out having a blast running!
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My long run on Sunday was 9 miles and 1:41:18. That is the longest I have ever run in my life. Yeah for me!
This morning's 5.4 miles was a nice and easy 60 min. For both days I took a different route than my regular one, the new route has quite a few rolling hills to prepare me for the Half in 3 weeks.
Mentally, I am out of my slump which has made running much more enjoyable. I think I was getting a bit scared about whether I really could do 13.1 but getting up to 9 has me pumped.
Sunday's long run was very steady, no sucking (or breaking) wind :) Beautiful sunny weather of mid 70s at 10am, Fuel belt 2 bottles of Gatorade full, Gummis in holder and off I went. I never felt stressed, strained or like I was pushing too hard. I just ran. I left a bottle of Gatorade in my neighbor's mailbox Sunday and this AM so after my run I had instant hydration on the 1/2 mile cooldown walk up the hill to my house.
Hope everybody else is out having a blast running!
Saturday, September 10, 2005
A crapload of pictures
I had an absolutely fabulous run yesterday morning. It was 4.5 miles but even though the weather was cool, mentally it felt real good. I came up with a plan to stuff my long sleeve in my neighbour's mailbox at the end of our road after my brisk warm up walk (we have old fashioned roadside boxes with those red flags that lift up). That way I don't have to run with it tied around my waist again and since it is 6am they probably won't be checking their box. After my run, I realized that I should put a bottle of Gatorade there too so I can drink it on my cool-down walk. Someday maybe I'll knock on their door and ask them if it's OK :)
Tomorrow is my long run, since I passed on last week's 8 miler I will try 8.5 this week and not make the full jump to 9.
Next week has a 10K race scheduled and we will be going to Fredericton to run the Terry Fox 10K run. For those of you who remember, in 1980, Terry Fox was a young man from British Columbia who ran 26 miles a day, every day, across Canada starting at the most Eastern point in Newfoundland for his "Marathon of Hope" to raise money for Cancer reasearch. What's so remarkable about this? Terry had lost his leg to bone cancer and ran with a prosthetic leg. Now stop and think about that...it's hard enough to run a marathon, let alone a marathon every day, let alone with a prosthetic leg that makes you hobble when you run. Unfortunately Terry only made it to Thunder Bay Ontario when he starting feeling sick. He was diagnosed with cancer again only this time he wasn't so lucky, he died shortly afterwards. Every Canadian remembers Terry Fox and what he was trying to accomplish. You can read more about him here. I personally will never forget how all the schoolkids, myself incuded, would walk to elementary school imitating his hobbled run not in jest but in praise because he was a hero to many kids.
Here are a bunch of pics from last weekend at our new cottage. Enjoy :)
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Tomorrow is my long run, since I passed on last week's 8 miler I will try 8.5 this week and not make the full jump to 9.
Next week has a 10K race scheduled and we will be going to Fredericton to run the Terry Fox 10K run. For those of you who remember, in 1980, Terry Fox was a young man from British Columbia who ran 26 miles a day, every day, across Canada starting at the most Eastern point in Newfoundland for his "Marathon of Hope" to raise money for Cancer reasearch. What's so remarkable about this? Terry had lost his leg to bone cancer and ran with a prosthetic leg. Now stop and think about that...it's hard enough to run a marathon, let alone a marathon every day, let alone with a prosthetic leg that makes you hobble when you run. Unfortunately Terry only made it to Thunder Bay Ontario when he starting feeling sick. He was diagnosed with cancer again only this time he wasn't so lucky, he died shortly afterwards. Every Canadian remembers Terry Fox and what he was trying to accomplish. You can read more about him here. I personally will never forget how all the schoolkids, myself incuded, would walk to elementary school imitating his hobbled run not in jest but in praise because he was a hero to many kids.
Here are a bunch of pics from last weekend at our new cottage. Enjoy :)
Mama and "S" head for some kayaking while... 
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"N" waits patiently for his Dada to stop taking pictures.
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"S" and Dada
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Me with a napping "N"
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Faster Dada
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Pooped out :)
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View from deck
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Lake view from the deck without the tiki torch in the way :)
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Cottage from the road
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View of our sandy beach from the west end of it.
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Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Aaaahhhh!
Hope all the RBFers had a nice relaxing labor day weekend. We had a beautiful weekend out at our new cottage at the lake. It is small and the baseboard heaters and the hearth aren't working yet which made for good snuggling but otherwise we had so much fun. The kids, ages almost 2 and 3 1/2, learned to kayak while sitting in front of us and played around on the 10 ft x 110 ft sandy beach that is ours. I am so glad we decided to buy this property even though it might mean peanut butter sandwiches for a while (which I love but you get my point). I'll post some pictures later.
Meanwhile in running news, I'm sure y'all read about the little slump I was having. Does anyone else ever feel this way? Rather than stress about it, I decided to relax and skip the long run on Sunday and start fresh again this week.
This morning at 6am the thermometer read 42F for my 4 miler = 42 minutes. I picked the pace back up to normal (for me) speed again so it came in at 10:30 min/mile. It was chilly so I wore a long sleeve Dri-fit shirt over my running shirt then after 2 miles I warmed up enough that I could tie it around my waist. I have not run in cold weather yet so I'm wondering how I will make out for the rest of the month until the half-marathon. Speaking of, it starts at 7:45 am so in another month it will be downright penquin weather.
Another question - I bought a 4 bottle Fuel Belt and fill just 2 bottles with Gatorade on my long runs and only really use them at the end during my cooldown. Do I wear it for the Half or just use the water/Aid stations? Any thoughts out there?
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Meanwhile in running news, I'm sure y'all read about the little slump I was having. Does anyone else ever feel this way? Rather than stress about it, I decided to relax and skip the long run on Sunday and start fresh again this week.
This morning at 6am the thermometer read 42F for my 4 miler = 42 minutes. I picked the pace back up to normal (for me) speed again so it came in at 10:30 min/mile. It was chilly so I wore a long sleeve Dri-fit shirt over my running shirt then after 2 miles I warmed up enough that I could tie it around my waist. I have not run in cold weather yet so I'm wondering how I will make out for the rest of the month until the half-marathon. Speaking of, it starts at 7:45 am so in another month it will be downright penquin weather.
Another question - I bought a 4 bottle Fuel Belt and fill just 2 bottles with Gatorade on my long runs and only really use them at the end during my cooldown. Do I wear it for the Half or just use the water/Aid stations? Any thoughts out there?
