Sooooo Frustrating!!!

I was pretty sore last Monday after the half marathon on Sunday. So, I got out my bike, put it on the trainer, and rode a half hour while watching a tape of "Ed" on Monday. Dave had a "guys night" last Monday so after my ride I fixed myself a bowl of macaroni and cheese and a hot dog (sorry Andrea). I watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and then went to bed. At 2:45 on Tuesday I was awakened by extreme stomach pains. By 3:30 I thought I was going to be sick. And lo and behold...I got sick. And continued to get sick right into midday. Although I did not throw up, I continued to be sick the rest of the week. I only started feeling better Saturday after the doctor gave me medicine to keep me from feeling nauseous. Unfortunately, I haven't run since the half marathon over a week ago. I tried running on Thursday and made it a half mile before I thought I was going to fall over from being dizzy and lightheaded. Today is a new day and I'm going to try to get my mileage over 30 miles this week. I'm also hoping to get back to spinning twice a week and start including swimming again this week. Now if only I could figure out how to raise the seat on my bike?

Last Chance for Boston 1/2 Marathon

Yesterday I ran the Last Chance for Boston 1/2 Marathon. I wasn't planning on going really hard or even enjoying the race, but I did really well. From reading Andrea's blog, I knew she wanted to PR and her PR was already two minutes faster than mine, so I knew I was going to have to work hard. And work hard we did. We started the race off fast and never let up. We were averaging in the 7:45-7:50 range but threw in a 7:38 in the middle to mix it up. I feel bad because I was on the inside, but Andrea did ask to move to the inside and I let her because it was fair, but she moved right back to the outside. The last lap I picked it up to a 7:18 and finished in 1:41:50, which is a new PR and I was first in my age group. I'm pretty sore today, but I'm not planning on doing anything athletic today unless grocery shopping counts as aerobic.


I know you are totally not supposed to rip people's work off like this, but, you know, I'm savvy and who cares? 


This is a pretty good picture of Andrea and I kicking some butt! 

It's been a rough couple of days

I used my eye surgery last Friday as an excuse to splurge and eat poorly. Unfortunately, I've used this excuse for the whole week. I've been eating ice cream, brownies, cookies, candy bars, hamburgers, pizza, and greesy subs. I feel like I weigh 200 pounds! So yesterday my plan was to run 7.6 miles at Sharon Woods. I made it 4 miles and I just couldn't do anymore. I think the poor eating has caught up with me. Even worse, I haven't had time to go to the grocery so the cycle continues. Today I had McDonald's for breakfast and I didn't pack a lunch so I'm sure it will just be more crap for lunch. In addition, I'm just beat down from my lifestyle. I don't think most people could live a day in the life of Meredith. I work 6:00-2:30 (work is a strong word...I sit at a desk and occupy space), I coach track from 3:00-5:00, I run everyday, I take spinning classes twice week, I have Bible study on Wednesdays. I'm more overscheduled than a teenage girl. And I'm just exhausted. I need a day off just to clean the house, do laudry, wash the dishes, go to the grocery store, and catch up on my sleep. Unfortunately, I would probably need more than a day off to do all that! I'm seriously thinking about going home today to get a head start, but I have tickets to OSU's women's game tonight and of course it's with coworkers so how bad would that look if I wasn't at work today. I'm trying to hold out until Monday because my boss is taking that day off and I might play hookie just because I know he's not going to be there. I just really need to physically and mentally reload!

Oh what a beautiful morning..oh what a beautiful day

It was like spring yesterday and it made me really hungry for track season. I had a record numbers at track conditioning yesterday-7. We had a great three mile run. All the school's sports teams were out on the track and it just felt wonderful. Of course today it's supposed to snow, but such is life in central Ohio. I really don't have much more to say. I just thought I'd mention how wonderful it is to run when it's nice outside.

My Eye Surgery

A few people have asked about my eye surgery, so I'm going to give the full version even though it doesn't have anything to do with running.

WARNING! THIS IS GOING TO BE GRAPHIC!

I had my Lasik surgery on Friday. The whole day on Friday I was scared out of my mind. You can ask Dave, my hands were blocks of ice and I was seriously considering backing out of it. But once I got into the doctor's office, I started feeling better. The first thing that happened was that the optometrist took me back and checked my prescription one more time. He answered my remaining questions and reassured me that everything was going to be okay. Then the nurse took me back, had me sign my consent forms, and then gave me my valium. I'm not sure that Valium made a whole lot of difference. Then the nurse put two different sets of eye drops in. The first was a numbing drop and the second was one to fight infections. Then they took Dave and I to a waiting room while they prepped the operating room. There was a television in there where they told Dave he would be able to view the surgery. Then they called me in and laid me on a table and stuck a pillow underneath my knees (like I was going in for an MRI). Then they gave me a teddy bear to hold on to and instructed me not to move my hands or feet during the surgery. The nurse used iodine to clean both my eyes. Then they moved me under the laser machine. A shield was put over my left eye and I was told to keep my left eye open and blink normally. My right eye's eyelashes were taped down and a speculum was put in to hold my eye open. Dr. Beran then put in a million drops and kept touching my eye to make sure I was good and numb. I could feel when he touched around the edges of my eye but I didn't know if I should say anything, so I didn't. Next a ring was placed over my eye that created suction and I lost my vision at that point. Another apparatus was attached to the suction ring that made the flap cut. I don't remember, because it felt like I had a million things in my eye at this point, but Dave said they removed these after the flap was cut. Then the flap was lifted and moved to the side. Dave said this was the scariest part to watch. I guess then, again I don't remember seeing this, a piece of paper or something was laid across the rest of my eye except for the hole the flap created. I was told to stare at the blinking green light and the laser started. The smell was awful. And to think it was the smell of my burning eyeball was totally gross. The nurse would literally yell 25% complete, 50% complete, 75% complete and then a long time seemed to pass before they said it was over. The flap was repositioned and smoothed out and irrigated and monitored for what seemed like forever. Once the right eye was done, then the whole process was started over on my left eye. The left eye hurt a little more. The speculum felt tighter (probably because I was a little more tense) and the vacuum ring seemed to squeeze the heck out of my eyeball. The last part of the surgery was to put eyeshields on that I was instructed to not take off until my appointment the following day. After the procedure was over they escorted me to a room where they examined my eyes and sent Dave and I on our way.

When I got home I crawled immediately into bed and took a nap. Dave went out and got some soda and then my mom came over. Dave came and woke me up around 4:30 and told me my mom was there. It was then that I had really burning pain in my left eye and found it a little hard to open them. I left them closed. My mom came in and sat with me while my dad picked up the pizzas. Then I shuffled my way to the living room and ate some pizza. Dad didn't stay long because he had a basketball game but my mom stayed about another hour and just talked to me. Dave let me listen to the national news, Jeopardy, and Family Feud and then I decided to go to bed.

The next morning I woke up and had another doctor's appointment. They checked my vision and said it was 20/20 and that I was cleared to drive and said I was doing above average for the day after surgery. I went to a bridal shower and went out with friends that night. Now my eyes are just dry and staring at this computer screen takes a lot of effort. I have about a million drops I have to put in my eyes everyday and I have to wear the eye shields for a week when I sleep. My night vision isn't bad either, just a little hazy. I bought a really great pair of Oakley sunglasses because they told me I have to wear them when I'm outside for the next 6 months and I wasn't going to wear the ugly ones they provided me. So, to sum it all up, I'm completely satisfied and excited. I would highly recommend Lasik and my doctor was the best. I'm so glad I decided to go through with it.

Last Night's Spinning Class

There starting a new thing at Lifetime Fitness that's going to be used for the next quarter. Everything is going to be centered around anaerobic threshold and training on heart rate in the different zones. This is all fine and very effective, however, I'm going to say that 99% of people don't have or wear a heart rate monitor nor are they at that level of training where they should even care what their anaerobic threshold is. They're also focusing on burning fat and that means riding at 190 rpm. So, the whole class last night was at the same speed no matter if we were standing, climbing, or in the saddle. It sucked. I didn't like it. The instructor said it would be good for me, but I told him that I take spinning to replace my sprinting workouts and I'm already in great aerobic shape. I run in zone 2-3 where I do the most fat burning. I was just really bored by the class last night and I hope it doesn't continue.

In other news, my eye surgery is this afternoon. I have mixed emotions between completely scared and completely confident. I think I'll feel better once the procedure gets started and once I take that Valium. :)

Columbus Winter Run

Yesterday was the Columbus Winter Run 15-miler. Except, it wasn't really a winter run. It was in the high 30s at the start and a lot of people were wearing shorts and/or T-shirts. Not me; still too cold. Since I moved into the 25-29 year old age bracket, this has been the only race in which I've placed. Not this year. Actually, I ran a really good race. I did all 15 miles without stopping and ran a negative split for the second half of the race. I finished with a 2:01:18, which is a very respectable time but finished 9th in my age group. Freakin' 9th!!! There were some fast chicks out there. I'm going to try to post some pictures of the race, but I have no idea what I'm doing.


This is me at the 5 mile mark.


This is the group. From left: Big Jelly, Dad, me, Andrea, Doug, Doug's son, and Andy. 

Fight! Fight!

Yesterday was a double dose of workouts: 4 miles of running and 45 minutes of spinning class. An interesting thing happened at the spinning class. This class is always full and last night was no exception. We were there 25 minutes early and we weren't even the first people in line. There are groups of people who attend this class together and hold bikes for each other, which kind of ticks me off but I would expect Dave to do that for me and vice versa. Anyway, this girl was saving a bike for a guy and another guy came up and sat on the bike. Well, the guy who was supposed to have the bike told him it was his bike and then you will not believe what happened! They started shouting at each other over a stupid aerobics class! Then one of the guys made some remark about the girl and she started yelling at the guy. The best part about this whole thing was that the instructor is a huge guy who could kick both their butts and escorted the guy who didn't belong to the bike out of the class. Very entertaining!

Those F@$&ing Drivers

GRRRR!!!!! What is so hard about moving over to share the road with a runner??? Yesterday I ran a route close to the high school that I usually do on sidewalks. The sidewalks are still covered in snow and I didn't feel like running in snow. So I took my run to the roads and did what I was supposed to--ran against traffic. I was almost hit so many times!!! And one time I tripped on a piece of compacted ice and snow and almost fell into traffic because traffic had not moved over. I'm going to start a rotation of shirts. One is going to say, "Hang Up Your Cell Phone and Pay Attention." And the other is going to say, "Move Over!" This just backs my theory even more, and I swear I'm going to take this to legislation, that every four years when you go to get your license renewed you should be mandated to take the written test over again. I would bet not a lot of people could pass it. Or at least, that's the way it seems from observation.