Capability

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the incredible things our bodies are capable of.  When we push ourselves we are capable of so much.  Reading about people who have completed marathons in just over two hours and watching shows about what people are willing to endure just to survive makes me think a lot about what my body is capable of.  I think part of the reason I want to run this marathon is to test those limits.  I see a lot of people who just sit around watching TV eating crappy foods never doing anything and I don’t understand that mentality.  Many of them are fortunate enough to be capable of getting out and pushing themselves but they don’t.  As someone who has challenges (asthma, arthritis, severe allergies), I have to push myself that much harder and to see people get into this rut of excuses not to do anything it makes me sad for them.  I hope I always live an active life, constantly finding new adventures.    

Wednesday I went for a 45 minute trail run.  It was cold and raining and I had to run through mud and puddles but I have to say I’ve never felt more alive.  What an amazing run.  I felt very connected with myself and nature at the same time and I pushed myself harder than I ever had.  If only all runs could be this great.

Rain & Run

It’s raining here.  The rain always coerces me to become contemplative.  I find myself staring out the window at the lush greens and deep hues of the trees and begin reflecting.  Usually, I like to listen to some music while staring at the slowly building puddles.  Today, I’ve been listening to the new ohGr a lot.  I feel like I’m in a good place.  I feel like I have direction.  The rain also brings me pain.  My knees have been very achy.  I’m not sure if it is from the rain or from running or from the combination of the two. 

Yesterday I found my 30 minute run to be somewhat easier.  I paced myself and by the time the 30 minutes were up it was a much easier run than Monday’s run.  I find myself enjoying the runs more and afterwards I feel great, I feel like I can do anything but I’m still waiting to feel that runner’s high during the run.  I also hopped on the elliptical for 30 minutes and went on a walk in the park with a friend.  I got to play in the playground which made me feel like a kid again.  I never want to fully grow up. 

Today I am adding the final touches to my new Mango Lassi tea.  It smells wonderful and fills the kitchen with a creamy mango scent.  I used a rooibos base and added some cardamom for a touch of spice and some calendula shreds, mango pieces, and natural flavoring.  Right now, it’s perfect for my mood and this rainy weather.  I love the warm sweet and spicy flavor right now.  Yesterday I got a call from a library that would like me to do several tea presentations at different libraries.  This could be a great way to gain more exposure.    

First Goal Accomplished!

Yay!  Yesterday I made it to 30 minutes of trail running.  Now that I am able to do 30 minutes, I’d like to stay at 30 minutes for a week or two until it gets to be a real comfortable run, then I will aim for 45 minutes.  While running, I was focusing on the mantra that the mind will give out before the body so that I could push myself harder and it really worked.  Unfortunately, I was slacking off a bit and did not get around to running until midday and that was a problem because it happened to be super hot and humid out.  Near the end of my run my body got real cold and I got goose bumps which has only happened a few times in my life and it’s generally not a good sign.  I also noticed that my heart rate was up way high.  It’s important to be careful when running in the heat and I was definitely not.  I should know better since I don’t do well in the heat and part of that probably has to do with my medications. 

After the run I went to see my allergist to get shots but I also discussed my medications with him.  My doctor is taking me off the nasal spray I’m using because it might be the reason why I’m in the beginning stages of glaucoma.  Instead he wants me to use the neti pot once a day in the morning.  It’s not too often that a doctor prescribes a homeopathic remedy.  In fact, my other allergist completely disagrees on the validity of the neti pot.  The neti pot did cure a sinus infection that I had, so I tend to believe that it is quite useful.  For the last 2-3 weeks I have been waking up with horrible sinus pains.  The nose spray was not helping.  Today I used the neti pot and it did relive about 70% of the pressure.  I’ll need to see how it works out in the long run.  So, now I am down to 2 regular medications and 2 emergency medications.  This makes me feel a little better.  I hate being on medications.          

Today's Run & Food Talk

Today I woke up an hour and a half later than usual and for the rest of the morning I was sluggish and exhausted.  The outdoor temperature was in the 30s or 40s and I just didn’t want to run but I sucked it up, put on my snowboarding Under Armour, and ran in the park anyways.  I am so glad I did because I had an amazing run.  I ran a challenging trail and finished running up a steep hill.  I made it to 28 minutes today.  I must confess I did have one mishap.  While running a trail I didn’t see tree roots that were covered by leaves and I fell, well more like flew.  I hit my shoulder pretty bad but didn’t notice any pain until mid way through my cool down.  It was a pretty awesome fall though; first thing I did when I brushed myself off was check around to see if anyone saw.  Luckily I was in the middle of relatively unused trail and no one was around, so I dusted myself off and got right back into running.  Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about running and there seems to be one concept that keeps reoccurring and lately it’s been helping me to understand my own behavior.  The concept is that your mind will quit before your body does so it’s very important to train your mind as well as your body.  I love this idea and I find it to be very true for me.

 

Since I haven’t talked about food too much, I thought I’d talk a little bit about a few dishes I made this week.  Highlights of the week are Potato Tikka Masala with white rice and Naan, Chocolate Mango Sorbet with Coconut Flakes and Almond Slices, and Spicy Veggie & Tofu Stir Fry.  

A really easy desert to make is Chocolate Mango Sorbet with Coconut Flakes and Almond Slices.  I learned this desert from my days of raw food experimenting.  First, any fruit can be made into a yummy sorbet.  It’s very simple.  I like using mango but you can use any fruit.  Just slice it into chunks and put them on lightly oiled tinfoil and stick it in the freezer for a few hours.  Next place the frozen fruit in a food processor with half a banana and some agave if you would like to add some sweetness.  For chocolaty flavor add some raw cacao powder and top with whatever you like.  If you add cacao powder you will need to add a bit of sugar or it will be pretty bitter.

 

This week we also had a spicy stir fry.  Every time I make stir fry it’s different.  I like to experiment and try new things.  For the stir fry in the picture I used spaghetti, tofu, carrots, broccoli, orange peppers, garlic, broccoli, sesame seeds, green beans, onions, and baby portabella mushrooms.  This time I used a spicy stir fry sauce but my favorite sauce is Annie Chung’s Teriyaki.  Just as an FYI, I emailed Annie Chung’s to make sure its vegan.  It has an awesome sweetness to it.  My secrets to a good stir fry are to use high heat, stir constantly, and add in ingredients as I go so that the ingredients needing the longest cooking go in first. 

Another meal we had was the Potato Tikka Masala and white rice with Naan.  My husband love Chicken Tikka Masala and I was really trying hard to make something similar but vegan at home.  The meat substitutes never really worked for him, so I decided on using potato.  This led me to just modify an Aloo Mutter recipe.  Essentially, I just used that recipe as a base but added more tomato and water and at the end I used a ton of coconut yogurt and some vegan butter to give it a creamy consistency and taste.  It turned out pretty well.  The naan recipe I got from The Asian Vegan Kitchen.  It’s such an easy recipe that I use it every time, though I will say I usually end up adding a lot more soda water to the recipe. 

Failures and Victories

 Monday was a very defeating day for me.  I started out the day excited to run.  From the beginning I noticed my breathing was very labored then shortly into the run I began struggling for air.  After only 10 minutes I had to stop.  I could barely breathe and my throat felt like it was still closing in.  My eyes were blurred to the point where I could hardly see.  I was wondering why but when I looked around I noticed almost every lawn had weeds and every flower seemed to be blooming.  I am extremely allergic to weeds, flowers, and grass and had really forgotten about them being a problem.  As I was walking home I thought maybe I just won’t be able to run outdoors.    

Today I decided I would give running another shot.  Instead of running through my boring neighborhood, I drove to Veterans Park which is only 5 minutes from my house.  It was a beautiful run and I was back up to running 21 minutes even though there are a lot of hills and it was pretty hot out.  I ran the trails to make it even a little more challenging.  This time I took a puff of my inhaler right before the run.  A few years ago, I took some pictures from the park while I was walking so I thought I would post them.    

Run Amuck!

This week I started running outside and wow was I in for a shock.  On Monday I could only run about 10 minutes straight.  I thought since I was using the elliptical for 40 minutes a few times a week I shouldn’t have a problem but I guess the elliptical is way different than outside running.  After a few runs I am now comfortably up to 20 minutes of running.  I really want to do this the safe way so I have decided that running every other day is the safest way for me to train.  That should give my body enough rest time.  Motivation is very important to me and I like to have a lot of goals, so I found something that I could work towards that looks like a lot of fun.  It’s the Run Amuck Mud and Music Fest.  Essentially, it’s a challenging 5K run with hills, mud, water, and obstacles.  So, this gives me a little over a month to train for the course.  I’d like to be comfortably running 4 miles in time for this challenge.  Now, I just need to convince my husband that he wants to do this too, so far I’ve already recruited a few friends.  I’ll definitely be posting some pictures of the craziness.  Here’s a link to the site:  http://runamuckfestival.com/