I live in a city where allergies are really prevalent. We’ve got Loblolly Pines, we’ve got oaks, we’ve got all this green stuff that just makes your life really mis in the spring. And there’s not a whole lot you can do about it…
Or is there?! ::plays mysterious music::
So, I’m no doctor, but I’ve been dealing with allergies for long enough that I’ve found ways to effectively deal with the issue.
1. Just because you’re outside all the time (especially my walkers/runners), doesn’t mean you have to shut yourself inside. But after you come it, make a beeline (GET IT?! Bees?! Pollen!) for the shower, and rinse any of that stuff off of yourself.
2. Wear contacts? Change them OFTEN. I wear those dailies, and I (admittedly) do not always change them as often as I should. But this is the season for you (and me!) to be taking those contacts out at the recommended intervals. If you are a glasses wearer, it’s a good time to flush your eyes (and the glass) with a drop. I’ve used both OTC, and something my eye doctor prescribed to me.
3. It’s time to get your neti pot out. I know it seems disgusting, but it feels great for a few reasons.
For one, you kind of rinse the physical dust, dirt, and pollen from your sinuses.
For two, I feel like it helps reduce some of the inflammation in your sinuses.
And for three, it feels AMAZING on a sore throat if you can get the angle right and get some of the warm water to come through the throat.
4. Figure out an allergy medication that works for you. For me, it’s Zyrtec. Which is expensive, but it doesn’t make me drowsy, and it handles my itchy eyeballs, sore throat, sinus swelling, and general foggy feeling. Start taking those meds EARLY. BEFORE you notice everything blooming.
5. It’s warm. It’s tempting to drive around with the windows open and leave all the windows in the house open. But if you’re suffering, it’s time to seal those suckers shut until the stuff stops blooming.
Those are my tippies for a more comfortable spring experience.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a post like this, but I think these posts are really good because they give you an accurate picture of what goes on inside my brain. Which is a LOT. And I don’t necessarily mean in the MENSA way, I mean in the ADD, pass the Adderall kind of way.
Onto the random things!
1. I wanted to run long on Thursday morning, but I fell asleep with a pretty severe headache and a touch of a sore throat. I almost NEVER get sick so it was sort of alarming. I woke up yesterday morning after some pretty fitful dreams, with an even bigger headache, and I spent most of the morning on the couch answering some emails and chugging coffee and water to try and get the headache to go away/flush some of that nasty stuff out of my body.
2. I noticed some people who ran Tobacco Road had posted some of their times and photos from the race. Check out this proof!
So I ran 13.1 miles after arriving at a race late, and since I was late I could not check a bag. this means I had my jacket (that was wayyyy too expensive for me to ditch), my water, and my phone, all with me. Oh well, race ended well despite some residual soreness from having to fight my way up from the back of the pack during the race. Check out that lobster red face!
3. I think I found some tickets in a really good section of Stevie Wonder in Newark in April to surprise my dad with. For the most part I don’t think my dad reads this blog super often. If he happens to be reading today my surprise is ruined. Also, is there a reason why ticket scalpers need to make all of our lives extremely difficult by buying up all the tickets? A lot of times they have to drop the price down in the final days before the concert. That has to be stressful. Is that worth it? Can’t they be normal people and get a second job that requires not gumming up Ticketmaster for the rest of us?
4.
I drink out of this thing on the regs. All sorts of watery beverages. Water, sparkling water. You know, I get pretty crazy. Well I happened to be looking at the bite valve on this thing last week, and it was full of mold. Which is kind of terrifying. But also explains why ::knock on wood:: that I’ve not been really sick in a long time. Like I don’t count a little sore throat that I’m dealing with now. But I’ve been ingesting all sorts of disgustingness while I’ve been trying to stay hydrated for some time. Gross. Also intriguing.
5. My performance appraisal is next week. Eep. I hope it goes well. It kind of makes my stomach hurt to think about it. I’ve done a good job at my job, and I love my job, but I know there are things I can improve on. And I want to take the time between this PA and next years to kill it even harder.
This has absolutely 0 to do with running, my insatiable appetite for sweets or reality television, or my job (that I’m obsessed with). But I’ll be absolutely damned if I didn’t share this with you.
I’m 6 months into my marriage and I’m madly, madly in love with my husband, and In love with being married. It’s a blast having my partner here. And at least daily, I get the chance to relive our wedding day because of the prints I had made of our wedding photos, plastered over ever surface in my office.
I will not spoil the fun for you and post the photos here. Instead, let me tell you a bit about our photographer and his team that documented our day. Then I’m gonna send you to Cole’s blog to check out the photos.
Austin and I weren’t going to do engagement photos. When we got engaged, we had a lot going on. My mother was sick, my grandmother died shortly after we got engaged which wrecked me, and as a result, engagement photos were something I felt like I wouldn’t have time to do. But after I saw a beautiful couple I went to school with who’d gotten their engagement photos done, I decided, last-minute, to schedule us a session which occurred about one month before we nupped it up. Oops. Cole was a good sport, and came and met us in the park where we got engaged to snap some gorgeous pictures.
Here they are. Make sure you scroll all the way through and check out the photos of us dancing in the park.
Now, these wedding photos. I don’t have many words, which is pretty shocking because ya girl always has words, but all I can say is that I look through these photos at least once a week, and relive our wedding day, which still, to this day, feels like a perfect dream.
I’m sitting on my couch, nursing a beer, and alternately foam rolling my hips (which ALWAYS like to act up when I run long). I’m just smiling when I think back on today.
So I sort of sprang it on you guys last minute, that I was running the Tobacco Road Half Marathon. Quite honestly, I knew I wanted to (and needed to run), but I didn’t even sign up until the very last minute – in part due to the fact that I’m being tight-fisted with cash (I just bought a new car cash), and part because I was just nervous.
So Saturday night, after working most of the day at Fleet Feet Raleigh (which is so damned nice once in a while), I went home, watched TV, and made dinner, fully prepped to take it easy the night before the half. Since Austin wasn’t at home, I did my usual, and started to fall asleep on the couch to a movie, then moved to to boudoir when I woke up around 11:30 or so on the couch.
[Side note: I finally watched Think Like a Lady, Act Like a Man. It was not horrid as I assumed it would be. It was kinda cute, even though that title is problamatic.]
I set my alarm(s) for 4:15, 4:20, 4:30, and 4:40 am, in order to jump in the shower, put a little mascara on, and make sure I had everything I needed together for the race. I figured that wasn’t overkill, and went to sleep, only waking up to say hey to my boo when he got home, and then again when I got a phone call from some friends who were out for St. Patrick’s Day, drinking green beer.
What happened next is straight out of a dark comedy.
I don’t remember my alarms going off. All I know is that I woke up around 5:40, a text came from one of my girls at 5:43ish, and that the race was supposed to start at 7am. This meant I had about 20 minutes to jump in my car, get on the shuttle, get to the start line. My husband, the calming force that he is, remained so sweet.
“Do you want me to drive you? Do I need to get dressed now?”
I was determined. I hopped in the Kia, drove to parking (which I was so late that I didn’t have to pay for), and managed to make it onto the shuttle with two other late people, and do the start line with a few minutes to spare before the start.
I didn’t want to be rude, so though I started way in the back, I only managed to make it up to the 2:30 half marathon pace group, and decided to stay put so I didn’t push folks who’d actually gotten there on time. It wasn’t their fault I was running late, so it’s me who needed to suck it up and expend the extra energy once we started running, to make my way to be up with my group. The weather was nice enough that I only needed a light half-zip, and I noted that this was one of the first races that I didn’t feel like I was dying of hypothermia and shivering at the start.
Off we went!
I trotted along, slowly making my way up, up, up, closer to my pace of about 2 hours. The race was relatively flat, and as I trotted along, listening to my playlist, I saw a few people that I knew. I was feeling good! Still, I worked my way up, and started to settle into an about 9-minute/mile pace.
As you’ll remember, I’ve had stomach issues, so I was a little worried about what that would mean for the day, but some of the girls at work let me try some Huma gel, a gel infused with Chia seeds for natural energy, and I popped one at about 4 miles, and again around 8 or 9, and I felt great – no stomach issues before, during, or even after the race, which has never happened to me.
I cruised along the flat trail pretty issue-free, until about mile 9, where I started to feel like I was getting over it, and I felt a little fatigue set in, and really had to push through for the next mile or so until I got back into the right headspace.
I finished, a few minutes later at about 2:03. Not a poor showing for the first race in a long time!
Here are some of the girls I met up with! I work with them all at Fleet Feet.
Actor, Sean Astin, Lord of the Rings.
So my assessment of Tobacco Road was that it was awesome. The course was flat, weather was beautiful, and I would honestly not change anything about it. I would do the race again to see if I could improve my time (which I’m hoping to do with some speed work), and if I had some friends doing it with me again.
What did you do to enjoy the gorgeous weather this weekend?
I ran a half marathon and kissed on my hubby a lot 🙂
Want to hear something that really made me laugh hard yesterday?
This is so so rude, but I was at home sort of in the middle of the day because I’m on duty Thursday nights, and I was sending some emails and such, and listening to E! in the background, when I realized that they were playing all the episodes of KUWTK involving Kris Humphries in Bora Bora. Now the reason why this is so good and so rude is because clearly, Kim is no longer married to Kris (they only made it 72 days, which Austin and I celebrated as our “Kardashian Anniversary”), and Kimmy was the biggest asshole she’s ever been during the Kris era.
Exhibit A:
Now this particular scenario was really exquisite because Kris tosses Kim into the ocean…
Causing her head to slam against the ocean’s surface and her to lose her $75k diamond earrings. Instead of being a logical human, Kim begins to whimper, then cry, as she runs to and fro on the dock. When she tells Kourtney whats happening, Kourtney responds by telling her…
It must also be noted that the earrings were insured, so the tears were just extra.
The Kris era also ushered in this gem.
Now, I won’t bore you all day with the wonderful things that KUWTK has brought to my life, but suffice it to say, that I was entertained for a full at least 5 minutes.
I’m terrified.
I haven’t talked about it much here because of my fear of looking like a complete idiot, but I’m racing for the first time in a while on and it scares the piss out of me. Here are my thoughts before a half marathon.
Water?I should hydrate. Yes, hydrate. Water. Now. Water, some tea, some seltzer, more water.
Speaking of water, I should prep my water plan for tomorrow. Where’s my hydration backpack?
I’m not sure what they’re gonna have on the course, let me make sure that I pack some gels. But gel makes my stomach hurt. Maybe I should ask the chicks at Fleet Feet when I work what I should do.
What shoes am I going to wear? I don’t think the Glycerin is doing it for me anymore.
What do I eat for dinner with only a smidgen of fiber so I don’t poo my pants tomorrow.
Speaking of pants, what am I going to wear? I should lay that out.
Do I have any Coke around for after the race? Shit. Shit.
Also, what am I going to eat for breakfast tomorrow?
And then, I commence to not sleeping, or sleeping fitfully all night whilst dreaming that I’ve overslept and missed my race.
How was your weekend? What do you worry about before a big race/event?
First, please allow me to thank all of you who sent your kind thoughts and prayers my way for my dad and his heart. My father is feeling much better, and the stents are doing their job – he has been able to sleep through the night (for the first time in a long time) without chest pain. Thank you, thank you!
“Yoga Porn”
I’m starting to question why I ever started to follow Yoganonymous on social media.
Admittedly, I’m not as regular with my yoga practice as I should be – I really enjoy getting some quality time with my yoga mat, but often times, when I’m trying to quickly squeeze in a workout between teaching classes and scheduling for the following month, my first thought is to jump on the treadmill really quickly rather than to get down to the mat (that I purchased from Craigslist when I was too poor to afford one a few years back).
But at any rate, I feel that yoga, like many forms of exercise, prayer, or meditation, is an important and valuable practice that does a lot of good for a lot of people. So why this hate?
There was this a while back, I Don’t Do Yoga and It’s Because of You. And then this, End Yoga Porn: Focus on “Real People and Stop the Selfies.
[Please allow me to point out that that quotation mark in the second title was part of the title, and not a typo on my part. I think it was for emphasis?]
So, let me break it down for you. “Yoga Porn” refers to those photos that you’ll often see on Instagram and Facebook, the ones of your healthy friends and sometimes your fitness inspiration in various yoga poses. Sometimes the women are professionals, long-haired lithe beauties like Laura Sykora, and sometimes, it’s some chick with a lot of tattoos from Cary in a bikini. Either way, typically I look, will watch videos, check out their alignment (which is not always perfect, but I’m certainly down to learn something,) and move along. Sometimes, if I’m being honest, I’ll check the yogi in question out, and take mental notes on how great her (usually) body is, and remark to myself, that though I certainly don’t look like this when I do yoga, I hope that I look like this some day. And that’s the extent of my feeling.
But these articles that Yogaonymous is guilty of circulating on more than one occasion are, for lack of a better word, silly. To succinctly sum up their arguments, the authors assert that:
Yoga selfies are indicative of an ego issue (the person in the selfie has a big fat head). The selfier (stay with me, I had to make that word up), only cares about looking good.
Yoga selfies are discouraging to folks who want to do yoga because of…
The beautiful people that they feature.
The beautiful people that they feature wearing bikinis.
Yoga selfies aren’t “real” yoga.
Yoga selfies are a competition to see who can outdo whom.
And the most troubling and sad assertion, that “I don’t do Yoga and it’s because of you [selfier]”
::deep breath::
Typically, you won’t catch me posting a ton of yoga selfies (or selfies in particular) because I’m awkward, and I don’t practice a ton of yoga. However, I snap pics of my running shoes, trails I’m running on, and foodstuffs I create. Not because I have an ego problem, or because I feel like I’m in competition with anyone else, but because these are the things that I do on the daily. And I’m willing to bet the perps of this “porn” are doing the same. They spend a lot of time with their mats, and if they happen to be in bikinis? Guess what, they probably spend a lot of time in bikinis as well.
To the authors of these articles, or to people who see these yoga selfies and snarl, please don’t try to get into the yogis head and parse out what their intention is. Take the selfie for what it is. A FRICKIN SELFIE! And not something that should have the power to make you feel bad about yourself, discourage you from practicing, feel “less than” about your body or your form of exercise, critical of whether it is “real” yoga or not, or in any way, impact your mood or well-being. In fact, I might even suggest that you look at it, and perhaps feel inspired. Heck, I can appreciate a pretty girl in a bikini with some decent alignment in a downward dog, and pray, that one day too, I might not look like a lost bison in my yoga classes.
As an aside, I will say, the one area of merit that came from one of the authors was when she mentioned poor alignment in a lot of selfies, which can be concerning, especially for someone who is a yoga pro, like she is. I would caution folks who like to scroll through yogsperation on IG not to try to imitate those poses or recreate them without first warming up or asking your yoga teacher for appropriate cues – it’s a good way to end up hurt.
So, fitness friends, tell me. What do you think of yoga porn?
Spoiler alert: I kinda like it. Who doesn’t appreciate beautiful people doing beautiful things, right?
My boss told me that he wanted me to take Friday off – that I’d been working a ton and that I could use it.
“When was the last day you didn’t do something for the Y?”
I couldn’t really answer that. Now, I love my job, and I find it incredibly rewarding, so work doesn’t always feel like work, and sometimes I think I let it get away from me and I overdo it sometimes. Plus my husband works out at the Y, so a lot of times, if I stay late, I get to see him for a while before we both head home to do dinner.
Ok, so at any rate, Friday started like most random days off. I got up, chugged some club soda, filled up the Kia, grabbed a donut from a local shop, and fell asleep on the couch while watching The View. I remembered my dad had a stress test scheduled for that day, which fueled a little bit of anxiety for me, but I tried to push it out of my mind and convince myself that it would come back clean.
Had to…I drove my Kia down 40 to the donut shop with a little bit of sunroof action.
A little history on my anxiety about my father’s heart.
This is going to sound really silly, but I’ve had recurring nightmares about my father suffering a massive heart attack since I was really young. The first one I remember, I may have been in fourth grade, and I dreamed that my father had suffered a heart attack and I was the one responsible for taking him to the hospital. The hospital where I was taking him was uptown, and in the dream, I remember getting lost, and not being able to find the hospital as my dream-dad was dying. The dream freaked me out so badly, it’s stuck with me for the better part of a decade, and I think I’ve had similar dreams since. So when my dad, months ago, started describing chest pain a few months ago, I was completely filled with dread.
So, I was asleep on the couch when my sister texted about my father’s stress test. The text was accompanied by a photo of my father in a hospital bed, shooting the thumbs-up at the camera.
During the stress-test, which involves a treadmill and some electrodes thingies, the tech saw something ominous in the reading, and got on the phone with the doctor immediately and rattled off some medical jargon to the doctor which my dad said he didn’t understand. My dad said at that point, he wasn’t really worried because although his chest was hurting, he’d been experiencing it, and he assured the tech not to worry, that it would pass. The tech seemed worried.
My dad said that the tech seemed to be masking some panic, and that when the doctor came, the doctor seemed to be masking some panic as he explained to my parents that my father had a 99% blockage in one of his arteries in two spots, and that they would be shooting him up with some dye, shooting a camera into the artery, and then placing some stents in the artery to open it up. Right then. Now. Today. Happening immediately.
Without having applied a single shred of deodorant, I hopped off the couch, brushed my teeth, threw on a sweatshirt, and started the drive down to Charlotte, all the while making calls to get my classes covered and make sure that everything was continuing to run smoothly at work. I arrived to the hospital, navigated the building, and found my father’s room where he was resting with the rest of my family.
He looked good for having been in surgery, and seemed to be in a decent mood. I ended up spending the night in the room with him, where I discovered that if you’re looking to get rest, the hospital is NOT the place to do it. Literally, there was someone in the room every hour or so. We went to bed around 10:30 on Friday night. A tech came in around midnight. The nurse came in at 2 to unhook my dad from his IV. Around 4 or 5, a nurse with an Eastern European accent came in to take my dad’s blood for blood work. Around 7, a nurse with no inside voice came in, shrieking and laughing. And that was that for the night. I ended the day of too much excitement by having to speak in a strong voice to the nurse who was trying not to feed my dad breakfast.
I think at the end of this episode, I’m a little freaked out. If anything, this surgery is a great reminder to get checked out regularly. Though my dad suffers with diabetes, he maintains a healthy weight, eats well, and the doctor told us that the blockage most likely started when he was a teen. Scary.
I mean, I give him everything he could ever possibly need. Food. Shelter. He gets to play in the bathtub when he wants to. But still, this little bastard has the nerve, gall, and the audacity to consistently have a bad attitude. It’s like housing a surly teen. At least with the dogs, they actually act like they’re grateful, and look sorry when they act up and you catch them. But this cat…
Also, it’s supposed to be 77 degrees in North Carolina today. Keep in mind we were all looking like a bunch of fools with this, and there is still snow on the ground at the national park, to the point that they canceled the Umstead Marathon this weekend. 😦 I feel bad for all the people who signed up – but hoping they’re all able to defer and do it next year. Global warming is not a joke evidently…
Moving right along.
So I need advice. Phone advice.
I currently own the iPhone 4s, which is starting to grind to a halt. I’ve gone all over – I went to the device service center, who sent me to the Apple store, who told me to go to AT&T. When I got there, the gentleman explained that they didn’t have the 4s any longer in the store (which I totally understand because the phone was released like 4 years ago), and that I would have to to upgrade through their Next program. I researched a bit, and essentially, instead of buying the phone outright, you lease it over a 24-30 month period.
I guess my issues with this is the world “lease”. So I don’t own the phone. I make these payments, and at the end, I don’t get to keep the phone. If the phone makes it that long…I don’t beat my phones up and keep them in a case at all times, and I’ve never had a phone last much longer than 2 years. Plus there are some pretty caustic responses to the plan, so I’m at a loss for what to do.
I’ve already explored the insurance route – with insurance, they would replace my phone with another 4s. Which is fine, but how long before this phone grinds to a halt?
Which brings me to this question. I use my phone for EVERYTHING, including a lot of the classes I teach. I used to use my iPod a ton, but that thing crapped out on me a few weeks ago, so I’m solely reliant on my phone for a lot of my music needs and things.
All of that said, what is my best option? I’m reading all of this stuff and it doesn’t make sense. Do I do the insurance and just get the 4s? How long before the 4s isn’t supported by anything?
Or is there?! ::plays mysterious music::
Overactive Blogger 