Day ein, uno, un, 1!

And away I go! Day 1 of my 13 week 1/2 Iron Man Training is under way. I'm traveling all week and weekend so my schedule is a little jacked up. I get to babysit my too cool nieces this week so I am super pumped! To make sure I stay on track I'm bringing my bike out to GR with me so I can get in some cool west Michigan ride.

 Today's workout was a 2 hour ride. Alarm went cray at 5:45am, I turn on the coffee, slugged down some chocolate coconut water and hit the streets by 6:05am. Today's ride was probably my favorite of the season. My road bike is now adjusted just right, the temps were perfect, there was no wind and I felt great. I tried to stay at the 17mph'ish range the whole time. I also worked on not mashing but instead staying consistent with a higher cadence. Felt great and no aches and pains the whole way! 31.5 miles at 1 hour and 59 minutes was just fine for me!

Nutriton is always something I struggle with on the bike, I tend to overeat, bonk or my blood sugar drops real low. Last week I was able to reach out to Sage Rountree (see below for more info on her) and she supplied me with tons of tips and great nutrition advice. So today I tried this method out: GU and water at 30 minutes in and then every 30 after. I had 1 water bottle and 1 with G2 with a ton of added salt that I sipped throughout. Remember, CF patients lose a shit ton of salt when we sweat so I have to be careful with endurance exercise, especially in the heat. 1/2 of a peanut butter PowerBar was my last intake on the bike and everything seemed to work very well. No bonk, constant energy and no feeling of dehydration at all. This equation seems like it may work though I may add on something more "real" to eat around mile 40 or so to get me through the 56 mile part of the race...oh and then something in the transition area to get me set for the run.

So in January I took a Yoga for Athletes workshop taught by Sage Rountree. Sage is an internationally recognized authority in yoga for athletes and an endurance sports coach. The author of many books on yoga for athletes, Sage writes on sports for Yoga Journal and on yoga for publications including Runner's World, Lava Magazine, USA Triathlon Life, and Endurance Magazine. She co-owns the Carrboro Yoga Company in central North Carolina. Read more about Sage and her practice. I learned a lot from her at the workshop and remembered that she is a great coach. She graciously hooked me up and I really appreciate it!

My favorite quote of the day "I don't train hard enough to taper...", came from an older man in my last 30 minutes of riding today. We rode together for a bit and he told me he was training for a sprint tri in Chicago. Very cool to run into cool people on the road!

Happy Monday!

You Know...Iron Man and Rock CF!

Meet me at the Battleship!

Super exciting news to report! I was officially asked by PPD to be one of their Heroes for the Beach to Battleship Iron Man in Wilmington, North Carolina ..

Click the Battleship to see recent Heroes!

So here is the scoop:

Who is PPD? They are the title sponsor of this Iron Man and are leaders in the clinical trials world.


How did they find me? When I was the keynote speaker at the Partnerships Clinical Trials conference in March in Orlando, someone who works for them mentioned the race to me after they heard me speak. It definitely sounded sweet!


What do I do as a hero? Well....I will be doing something that I do best, talk!  I will telling my story with CF, exercise, good nutrition and of course how participating in clinical trials has changed my life at a few speaking gigs around town the week of the race.

Also I will be participating in the Half Iron Man!! My goal is the bike and run it and have someone join my relay team to swim...I do not swim....at all! `Unless there is a raft floating portion of the race I will not be getting wet. Just ask my friends who were at the pool with me last week. I was almost a goner, in the 4'10 area.


How long is the race? I will be biking 56 miles and then running 13.1 miles. When I complete this I will be 2/3 of a Half Iron Lady!

Beach to Battleship was voted the #2 Iron Man in the USA and #5 worldwide. I am completely honored to be a part of this race and to represent PPD. The race is October 20 so I will have plenty of time to train smart and make sure I am ready!

Don't you worry...I will publish training reports so you can keep up with my long bike rides, runs,  yoga and what I am eating during this whole shebang! It will be a lot.. oh and lots of extra salt with be consumed for sure as well.

I'll be looking for friends to run and bike with...or definitely eat with. So let me know if you are in it to win it with me, or at least finish!

Rock N Roll!
Em

Bad to the, uh...bone

Bones are overrated...well that's how I feel right now at least. My femur bones and I have had a rough relationship the past year or so. Twice I've had bilateral stress reactions/fractures in the shaft of both femurs. How did this happen and who does this happen to? Well me and my stupid overtraining and weak ass brittle bones.

A few years ago I was diagnosed with osteopenia, which is like the beginning stages of osteoporosis and very common in CF..especillay us old ass patients. You've seen Sally Field talk about her once a month Boniva..well I was on a bone pill for a few years and still developed fractures. After some research it turns out that these pills actually CAUSE stress fractures in the femurs. BRILLIANT! Not making this shit up, NYTimes.com did a story about it. My really awesome CF doc and I decided to take a holiday from the pill to see if I could maintain my bone density while off of it and still be able to run well. I added more vitamin D into my diet and do as much as I can nutritionally to make sure I'm eating all the good bone food. Who knew celery was good for your bones? I hate it but eat it and juice it all the time now..

Well.....I think my bones are mad at me again. Just last week I started to get that really deep ache in my groins, aka my loins were ablaze. When this deep ache first happened  a few years we thought it was hip flexor stuff but after it getting much worse and me physically not being able to run, the MRI's showed stress fractures. It got to the point where I could not run, not that I just didn't feel like it and it hurt..no, I could not move my legs to run.

Now I do a hell of a lot of yoga, like 4-5 times and week and I know for certain my hips are o-p-e-n. Don't get excited....

The aches came last week a couple hours after a 7 mile run. I could barely walk from my car to inside the Ren Cen..my legs were just weak. Climbing my stairs to my apartment is tiring and riding my bike is not going well. I did a 36 mile ride around Old Mission on Saturday and just couldn't dig. I cruised at 17 mph most of the time but when I needed to dig up a hill or into the wind my legs just couldn't do it. I never do this but I had to stop half way up 2 hills. My breathing was so loud it sounded like I was being chased by a pack of dingos after I took their baby! This am I tried to catch a ride but that only lasted 30 minutes..freaking rain and lightning cut it short but really pedaling was a chore, averaging 15 mph felt like work. Frustrating? Nooooooooo...

For now I'll just self diagnose and cut my running way back, cycle on low gears and yoga it out. Hopefully this resolved quickly and the pain doesn't develop into true stress fractures again..that would be super duper uber laaaaame! I have raced coming up in August and September and I better be able to run them.

The perfect cereal?

You know I love my cereal and have tried just about every one out there. The "healthy" cereal section is where I tend to shop because these usually have more fiber, more protein and no high fructose corn syrup or other creepy non important ingredients. 

I've been eyeing Uncle Sam cereal for a while now and finally took the plunge this weekend. I think I have found an almost perfect food for CF'ers, high protein, high calorie, and in my case high fiber diet. This is also great for anyone else who can tolerate wheat too, we all need some more health in our lives!

Here's my breakdown:

• It is high in calories (which is good for the CF crowd). 3/4 Cup = 190 calories..who is actually eating a 3/4 cup serving? 
• It has 10 grams of fiber! (Digestive help, yes!! Anything I can do to avoid golytely..which I'll be drinking later today)
• 7 Grams of Protein per 3/4 cup. 
• Less than 1 gram of sugar! Won't spike your blood sugar.
• Annnnd only 4 ingredients: Whole wheat kernels, whole flaxseed, salt, barley malt.
• Flaxseed's provide Omega 3 Fatty Acids.

So after a 7 mile run this am I popped open a Fage 2% Greek Yogurt, topped that with sliced banana, raspberries, a little honey, almonds and then topped that with some Uncle Sam...delicious!

I'm definitely going to be adding Uncle Sam's cereal into my rotation..and definitely on July 4th.
America.

Wait, wait...no way..!

This world is something crazy that makes me stop sometimes and say "how the hell did that happen?!" Or, "are you kidding?"Sometimes I'll be thinking about my friend Glo who passed away a couple years ago and then on the radio pops Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd or a song by the The Who, her favorites. Or if you scroll way back on this blog to my story about waking up singing the yodel song from The Sound of Music and then 45 min later I'm on a run and coincidentally a coffee shop was blasting that very song as I ran by. Stuff like this happens all the time and today was one of the coolest experiences yet.

So I joined a community garden a couple months ago that has something like 20 families and a lot of beautiful produce that will feed me all summer and fall. My first day at the garden I met a very cool guy and gal who were super easy to mess with and have a good time while tickling the roots of the veggie plants. A few weeks after that I ran into them at Trader Joe's. Last week I dropped into Green Dot Stables in Detroit for some veggie sliders and sure enough this cool couple was sitting in the booth behind us. Yesterday I thought saw them amount the 700 runners at the River Days Festival 5K but wasn't too sure. In just a few weeks I have run into these guys a lot..and it's always fun.

Today I woke up debating the 7am and the 4pm garden shifts but dragged my ass to the 7am slot. As I strolled up to the garden the cool couple was there. I immediately asked them if they did the 5K yesterday and sure enough, it was them that I saw. Cool.

We all got started in the garden and 'cool girl' asked me what I do. I gave her the usual run down, run Rock CF, race direct the Rock CF Half marathon and speak all over about CF. She stopped and said "You run the Rock CF race? You started Rock CF??!!" "I gotta tell him (leaving out names). We are passionate about the cause and really wanted to do the race this year." We chatted a little more about it and then went back to pulling weeds. I was just super excited that she know about the Rivers race!

As we were wrapping up in the garden 'cool guy' came up and said something like, "I hear you run Rock CF?...............................I have CF." What? Stop. Are you kidding? Shocked I respond with "Shut up!" We have some back and forths, "No way!" "Seriously." "Shut up." "No, really." "Wow, this is why we have been running into each other all over dude!" He told me that he and his bro both have CF and then all the details. For sake of privacy I won't go into details about his health, but I have to say that I honestly have never seen a CF person present with his symptoms. Just when I thought I had seen it all....! He is a tall guy and pretty solid so definitely not your typical squirt and his voice has just a slight rasp to it that of course I noticed. His overall CF health seems great which is super cool. We exchanged numbers and me and the "cools" will definitely be getting together soon to talk...and eat of course.

Things do happen for a reason.

Hello..My name is..

So I'm a huge Broadway nerd and one of my recent faves is The Book of Mormon. Take the fact that I have a slight obsession with the whole Mormon situation, and add that into a musical written by the South Park dudes and you have one happy gal. In October I was lucky enough to win lottery rush front row tickets (1 of 11 winners out of hundreds of entries). Now I was sick as hell and was toughing out my lowest PFT's ever, but this show made me forget that I couldn't breathe for shit and was coughing like a fool. Since seeing the show I've listened to the cast recording a cool 5 times a week? One of the most all around amazing shows that I have ever seen.

My bro is also obsessed and luckily he was on the trip with me in October and got to see the show too. He may be a little crazier about the show as he listens to it, uhmmmm...probably multiple times a day, possibly even in his police cruiser while on duty.

So, my little niece K, his daughter, has been listening to it just as much because she is stuck in the backseat as he blasts the soundtrack while singing along..he does all the parts btw and even more than one and once. It sure is a sight, and sound.

I'm proud to say that K knows and loves the BOM too. Well maybe she just knows it and sings it because it's embedded in her brain BUT now she is singing it right on cue. HELLO is the opening number in the show, it's when all the Mormon Elders introduce themselves.."hello, my name is Elder Price..Elder Grant..Elder Cuttingham etc..." The finale of the show revisits HELLO once more, but this is after the Ugandan people have become Elders themselves. The Book of Arnold...

Listen below as K sings the HELLO number from The Book of Mormon. As you can see she is painting in this pic, but my favorite part here is that apparently she started singing this while House Hunters on the HGTV network was on in the background. If you know that show, you know that a Doorbell rings quite often when they show someone a new house. Well, in BOM HELLO starts off with a doorbell (and many more) and K now sings HELLO when she hears a doorbell..LOVELY!



Also toward the end she says "No....my name is sister Kimber.." Sister Kimbe is one of the Uganda Elders at the end of the show.

Nothing makes this nerdy Broadway auntie happier. I have a star in the works here!