Archive for November 25, 2009

The Triathlon Rx | November 25, 2009
5 comments

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know I promised VOLUME II, but I didn’t say it would be the next post I put up!

Ahhh.. home from the gym, showered & cleaned up. Came home and checked my emails. I believe my face looked a little like this while reading a particular message:

Photo 26

Said message was sent via facebook, and was a response to my “hey, sorry… who is this?” question. It went something like so:

i am a very nice man to get a long grate with todd.

Well at least he managed a period at the end of the sentence. I don’t know if he’s trying to tell me he has a long grate, or he wants to go get that long grate with a man named todd. Bahahahha!! This is what you get when you accept a friend that you “can’t figure out where you know them from”… only to find you really don’t know them at all. Unfriend. (Word of the year for the Oxford dictionary!) Do you ever get random azz friend requests/creeper messages? Or overhear people completely eff up the english language? (Non-native english speakers don’t count.. I know I make up tons of my own phrases in Spanish!) Another favorite of mine is actually from some chick, and it was in a text conversation that my buddy showed me. She was trying pretty hard.. and apparently she just learned the phrase “Granted….” as in “Granted.. I rarely attend class…” or whatever example you want to insert. I say she must have just learned it because she used it about 5 times in a 5 minute text conversation. And I say she must have just learned it because she thought the phrase was “Granite….” Mmm yep.. girls can be dumb too.

While I was getting photoboothhappy, I decided to show you two of my favorite items of clothing that I happened to be wearing today. Exhibit a) my Tin Fish (the restaurant where I work) hoodie, which I felt the need to embellish with Mr. Rainbow Fish:

Photo 27

Annnd Exhibit b) my very favorite ever track zip up. I think I got this my freshman year of high school, and it’s still crispy clean because I’m OTT protective of it I take good care. ;) If you can’t tell what the design is.. think starting blocks and Usain Bolt.

Photo 28

Aright aright. Done with that! Do you have a one-most-favorite-ever item of clothing? I don’t know that this jacket is IT for me.. but it’s near the top of my list!

MOVING ON…

We are on the eve of Thanksgiving, and I just wanted to take the moment to say I am super thankful for all of YOU! I finally figured out my Google Analyticator, and am so happy to see the new readers I have coming to the site, as well as the readers that keep coming back time and time again. I also wanted to pass along this lil’ message from my my man Emerson:

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thought it rather fitting.. don’t you? :) Well I have a BIG day tomorrow – 6:30 am spin + run, over to my mom’s to help cook cook cook, the WHOLE FAM coming over!! and fooootball with gramps. A very good day if I do say so myself. Do you have big Thanksgiving plans? Or if you don’t get to this until after you are stuffed of turkey and pie, What is your favorite part about Turkey day? Mine is definitely all the family time. IIII love them to the end of the world and back! And hey – you guys too!

Have a lovely night, and hopefully a LONG weekend!

-E

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: ,
The Triathlon Rx | November 23, 2009
8 comments

A lil’ ventilation, + preview of VOLUME II: CYCLING

[Fair warning.. redheaded mini rant ahead:]

Aright… advice for my fellas (I know for a fact I have at least three, hahah so you three can share this with your amigos): I would strongly advise you NOT to come at a girl – especially a girl you have intentions of scoring a date with – and tell her,

“Hey, do you want a biking buddy? I can even slow down so you can keep up. :) ”

  1. Seriously? Dog… strap on some Asics. I’d smoke your ass.
  2. You are the guy who time and time again prefaces a workout of any sort with, “well I’m not going to be fast today because ______.” (I lifted hard yesterday. I just ate Chipotle. I have a sliver.) Cry me a river homeboy..  you’re just not fast period.
  3. Your little smiley face does not make up for your cockiness. Confident ≠ cocky.

And then when I respond to your cute little offer to slow down with letter 1) above, and you come back at me with,

“Don’t kid yourself. :) ”

expect retaliation. Or better yet… expect nothing. Nothing at all.. because you señor D. Bag are not worth my time, much less a date or any of my precious QT with the Roo. Time to rework your game buddy.

[End rant]

In general I think of myself as a nice, compassionate person. But redheads are known to be feisty for a reason. Remember when someone stole my bike?

LOL and if you think I’m being hard on the guy.. I guess just know that he is a repeat offender and I just don’t play that game.

Glad to hear some people might have a new motivation to jumpin in the pool this week! I definitely had to remind myself of the 5 second ultimatum this morning, but it was a great workout! If you have continuing questions, feel free to leave comments on the Train On Top: Volume One – SWIMMING post (I’ll still be notified even if it’s an older post), or leave any questions in a comment on the Train On Top page! And of course, you can feel free to shoot an email to RunDogMpls at gmail dot com.

The next venture in this series will be regarding CYCLING/SPINNING, and I believe I’ll be calling in some expert testimony here since biking/cycling is my least strong of the athletic trifecta. (And I am aware that that is entirely an incorrect use of the word trifecta, but I like the way it sounds, and that’s just my style. ;) )

DSCN4217

(p.s. That’s absolutely the photo my mom wanted to use as my picture on our xmas card this year. Alright with me!!)  Alllright. Feeling much better now that that’s out… and I should head over to Gold Country – doin’ a little early birthday shopping for myself! Haha sometimes the only way to get what you REALLY want is when you are the one to buy it!

Till next time amigos,

-E

[edit: p.s. Lizzy got the golden beans, and she's sharing!]

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , ,
The Triathlon Rx | November 22, 2009
11 comments

Train on top – Volume 1: SWIMMING

Fiiiinally, right? Here we go:

MY BEGINNING:

First, I think it’s good to tell you a little bit about my swimming history. That way if you’re just flapping around in the pool and swallow too much chlorine if anything goes wrong, hey – it’s not my fault. ;) I can’t even remember how old I was when I first got in the pool, but I know by age 4 I was taking lessons at the YWCA, so I assume my parents tossed me in some time before that. I LOVED swimming. My favorite day in lessons was the day the instructor brought out the canoe, and we would to a “practice tip” (because all of us 5 year olds so often find is in an unstable canoe, and therefore should be prepared). Once we were tipped out of the boat, we would all swim underneath the upside down canoe and stick our heads up in the air pocket it made.. haha my sister has the recollection of this being the most scary part of lessons.. but I was definitely loving every minute. It’s like parachute day in gym class… c’mon – you know you loved that too. :)

looked a little somethin like this...

looked a little somethin' like this...

Anyways, I kept up my swimming throughout my childhood. I swam for the Uptown Otters YWCA swim team from 5th grade through 8th, and then swam for my high school my freshman year. 9th grade is when I hit all the problems with my coach and competition and whatnot,  but that’s either a story you’ve already heard, or one for a different time.

MOVING ON.. I didn’t swim a ton from 10th grade through my freshman year in college. In fact, maybe “not a ton” is even overstating it. I swam at the beach Lake Calhoun and Harriet. I swam from the boat to the tube up at the cabin. And… nope. That’s it. Running was definitely my priority, and high school + my freshman year I was really not cross training aside from my trusty Arc Trainer. Then came my sophomore year – I found out I had a fractured hip, which = no running. The coach obviously had experience with injured girls, because that is when I was introduced to POOL RUNNING. <- (Click for a blast from the past regarding everything and anything THAT from 2008). I pool ran pre-surgery, post-surgery, and honestly it would probably be a good idea to keep it up now, but now that I can swim again…

Yep – “real” swimming. As in laps. And lots of them. Pool running was great, but let’s be honest here – it’s about as fun as watching your ice fishing hole freeze shut. Swimming (IMO) isn’t a whole lot better, but the more skilled you become at it, the more you’ll find you can zone out and still work hard. Sounds kinda like going on a nice long run, right? Hahah, no? Ok.. but it’s good for you.

After I had surgery, I knew I was kissing track goodbye for the spring. So… I joined the club swim team at Northeastern. If you can’t beat em, join em. At first I was nervous about going to practice since it had been SO long since I had actually even attempted “real swimming”, but I just sucked it up, hopped in LANE ONE (aka the sloww lane) and gave it my best. I was so surprised at how fast everything came back to me.. even flip turns! It helped that my roommate of the time was on the varsity swim team, so she was always there to give me good workouts and advice when I needed it. I remember the first time I swam 2,000 yards again and I thought it was such a huge accomplishment. Now, my practices are no less than 4,000 yards! That is one of the reasons I love individual sports.. and it’s so type A of me, but I’m OK with that: the rate at which you improve, your success, your goals, it’s all ON YOU. No one else is responsible for your triumphs, your let downs, or the effort you put in, besides YOU. If you put your mind to do something, and find yourself having fears or reservations, make sure you ask yourself – what’s really stopping you?

The #1 reason I hear from runners about why they don’t want to swim?

IT’S TOO EFFING COLD!!

Haha.. that my friends, is something you might not get over. Honestly… pretty much every single M/W/F on the bus on the way to practice, my train of thought looks something like this….

The water’s gonna be cold today. I realllly don’t like being cold. Or being wet. Or being cold and wet. Ohhh and they lowered the temp for this weekends meet. And I’m cold already!! Why am I swimming again?

And then I get to the pool and am standing at my lane.. just looking at the seconds on the clock go by but not making any move closer to getting in. It could take forever. Somewhere along the lines I realized how dumb this was because its not like I was going to go home without swimming.. I was already in my suit, goggles and cap on, ready to go. I implemented a 5-second-rule, meaning that I would finally look at the clock and say you have no other option but to be in that water and kicking in 5 second. I can’t say that really made it easier.. but it for sure helps if you dive in.

THE BASICS:

To have a successful swim or pool running workout, here is what you need to get started:

  • A swim suit
  • goggles (if swimswimming)
  • a pool belt (if pool running)

That’s it! Of course there are other things you can use once you get yourself comfortable in the pool, but if you’re a newb to the water.. you don’t really need to get fancy. I think it’s important to have a good swim suit, and especially if you’re planning on making swimming a routine part of your training. Look at how many swimsuits I’ve gone through just since December:

mime-attachment

Minus the [once] blue/orange/white one on the left.. that is my freshman-year-high-school competition suit. Hahha it’s definitely reserved just for drag purposes now, since it’s basically see through. As you can see (or maybe not.. not a huge picture) I’ve worn Nike, TYR, and Speedo. I have found I go between TYR and Speedo suits, and they are usually pretty durable. I like wearing Nike for running, but that 2 piece trainer you see there… I think I wore through that in about 6 weeks – no joke. You’ll decide for yourself based on comfort/feel/how cool it looks. I definitely picked based on LOOKS on my last purchase – it was an early birthday present for myself.. haha it matches my swim  cap, and it makes me feel fast:

mime-attachment

hangin on my locker like the cool kids do ;)

Down the line, here are some things you may find useful to have with you:

  • A pull buoy
  • A kick board
  • Flippys
  • a PLAN!
  • h2o, and not the large amount that is in the pool. Preferably not chlorinated. ;)

I stress having a plan because howww long did I just go to the pool and swim for time… and howww bored was I?! I would look at the clock pretty much every lap just wanting the hour to be over (even though I was swimming every lap at basically the same speed…). Having a workout lets you change it up and definitely helps the time pass more quickly. That goes the same while pool running. Here are my essentials:

mime-attachment_3

So.. my #1 piece of advice if you are just a begging swimmer is – YOU ARE A BEGINNING SWIMMER! And that is great because you have to start SOMEWHERE, and you’re taking the first step! Don’t set your expectations too high in terms of distance or time. Don’t expect it to be super easy. Just give it your best!

And my #2 piece of advice to ALL swimmers is – you’re not going to heat up the water by glaring at it. Just get in already!

If you are REALLY REALLY a beginner – ie never swam a day in my life kind of beginner – I’d recommend checking out Beginner Triathlete’s website, maybe taking lessons to get yourself familiar with different strokes and proper breathing. I would imagine it wouldn’t be to pleasant to have to doggy paddle out to the buoy and back.

WORKOUTS:

If you’re training for a TRI, know that sprints are anywhere from 1/4 mile to 1/2 a mile (yeah… I like the continuity there guys..) so you will want to know that you can at least swim that far (in OPEN WATER much less!!) before race day. If you are swimming in a standard pool.. the [U.S.] length is 25 yards. However, if you’re a dork like me you might not realize your pool is in meters, and then you’ll get super happy when you realize you’re swimming just that much farther. :) There are obviously lots of great tips and workouts out there online, but I will just give you a) my favorite, b) my standby (when I feel like I don’t have any creativity or motivation in me whatsoever. It happens.) and c) what I started out with. I will also leave you with my old favorite pool running workout in case that’s what you’re looking for!!

MY FAVORITE: “THE JENN”

WARMUP
200 swim / 200 kick / 200 pull
8×50 descending by 25s
300 kick (flutter/dolphin by 25s)

SET 1 (2x through)
4×100 free descending 1-4
2×100 IM
2×50  free descending 1-2

SET 2 (4x through)
75 BD / 50 BU / 25 EZ
(BD = build down, BU = build up, EZ = easy! The 75/50/25 is meant to be continuous – don’t stop until you’ve completed that whole set, and then repeat 3 more times!)

SET 3
16×25 IM
(For those who don’t know… IM = fly/back/breast/free)

WARM DOWN
100 swim / 100 kick / 100 swim

TOTAL: 4,000 yards

THE ZERO CREATIVITY WORKOUT: “THE STANDBY”

WARMUP
1000 SKIPS

SET 1
5×200
(200 free / 200 IM / 200 kick / 200 free / 200 IM)

SET 2
10×100
(100 free / 100 IM / 100 kick / 100 free / 100 IM / 100 free / 100 IM / 100 kick / 100  free / 100 IM)

WARM DOWN
1000 SKIPS

THE OLD OLD STANDBY: “GENISIS”

4 x 1000 SKIPS

S = 200 swim
K = 200 kick
I = 200 IM
P = 200 pull
S = 200 swim

(and then you do it all again. And again. And again. BORING! But it is sometimes good when I need to work hard but not really focus… like when I’m trying to write my research paper in my head before class.)

ALL TIME FAVORITE POOL WORKOUT EVER: THE LADDER

This is based on time, and T = 60 minutes. Listo? Lets go:

1-15: 15 min. warm up – steady state – enough to feel like you’re working, but not gasping for air. you can think of it as a “conversational pace”
15-16: 1 min. hard. some say “5K” pace.. but lets face it. You’re likely doing this because your injured. You’re not running. Just do work!
16-17: 1 min. steady state
17-19: 2 min. hard
19-20: 1 min. steady state
20-23: 3 min. hard
23-24: 1 min. steady state
24-28: 4 min. hard
28-29: 1 min. steady state
29-34: 5 min. hard
34-35: 1 min. steady state
35-39: 4 min. hard
39-40: 1 min. steady state
40-43: 3 min hard
43-44: 1 min. steady state
44-46: 2 min. hard
46-47: 1 min. steady state
47-48: 1 min hard – last one.. really make it count!
48 – 60: 12 min. cool down

That looks like a helluva lot of numbers now that I write that.. but it’s really simple. Maybe better written like this:

15 min. warm up
1 min. hard / 1 min. easy
2 min. hard / 1 min. easy
3 min. hard / 1 min. easy
4 min. hard / 1 min. easy
5 min. hard /  1 min. easy
4 min. hard / 1 min. easy
3 min. hard / 1 min. easy
2 min. hard / 1 min. easy
1 min. hard / 1 min. easy
12 min. cool down

Advice on pool running – the more you do it, the easier it is to actually get a WORKOUT from it. At first you will feel awkward and  you will always be wondering “am I doing this right?” but you can get to the point where you’re actually working up a sweat. And yes.. the water will still be cold when you get in, but you’ll be thankful when you’re going all out for 5 minutes!

I hope this was a good intro post to swimming as either cross training (for my solely-runners) or just training (for my triathletes)! If you have any other questions.. please let me know! I also have a good bloggy friend who was/is a very accomplished swimmer herself, and I think she might be down for giving some pointers too! Please note, this post, and all future “VOLUMES” will be accessible through the Train On Top page to make them easier to find! I also threw in the link to the post on pool running!

Have a happy SUNDAY! Im off to get hot n sweaty my boys – the Vikes, and my love – the xRunner, from my spot at the gym. I have been doing some REAL running lately too! Haha my blinding white legs are proof that I had to miss the last final weeks of sunshiney running:

DSCN5275

I can’t complain though – running is running! And at this time of year especially, I am THANKFUL! Hasta luego mis amigos!
-E

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , ,
The Triathlon Rx | November 19, 2009
5 comments

Popchips Giveaway WINNER!

[[EDIT** Ummm p.s. My Dear Popchips Fam: I have yet to see/find/try these "hit of butter", "wasabi", and "salsa" chips. WHAT?!]]

I know you’re excited.. maybe even as much as I am! In collaboration with Random.org we were able to fairly choose a winner for this poplicious giveaway. So without delay, the lucky lady is…

HOLLY!

One of my favorite should-be-Minnesota-mamis ;) (hahha gross.. is that something I got off of b.96?) If you haven’t check out this lady’s blog.. go hit it up and look around. She is super creative and all about good food, and I know she’ll put these bad boys to good use! Congratulations to youu my love!! Please email me at RunDogMpls at gmail dot come with your mailing address so I can get it over to the folks at at the Popchips HQ  and they can get the chippers off to YOU asap!

Reading all your suggestions gave me lots of new ideas for dressing em’ up, but Susan definitely came in with my favorite/most common use for these crunchy bites of gold – taco salad. My taco salads are RIDIC. As in I eat them out of a 2 quart serving bowl, and they are often still overflowing. You don’t wanna come between me and my tactac ensalada.. I promise you, it would get ugly. My taco salads are made for bowls of the following proportions:

click for photo credit!

click for photo credit!

Aright chickadees… here’s what’s coming in the near future at Dr.TriRunner:

A post regarding everything and anything SWIMMING. I got a great email from a reader and fellow injured runner asking about swimming as a cross training option. Here is what she said:

Hey! Ive been reading your blog for a while now, and was just wondering if you could help me with a little advice. I just recently was diagnosed with stress fractures of my femoral head and pelvis, as well as a torn hip labrum, so clearly no more running for me for a while (gahhhh hardest thing ever!). I know this is sort of similar to what you had expereienced, just a lot less intense and serious, but the doctors have told me I can begin to start swimming and thats basically all I can do for exercise.

Now Ive never really used swimming as a form of exercise, and Im curious if you have any helpful tips for me.. what you did, or how you started and knew what you were doing? I know its kind of a vague question but anything you can help me with Id really appreciate!

Thanks so much, and so happy your back to running :)

It was the kick in the butt I needed to finally WRITE this post, because it has been on my “to-do” list for… forever. In turn, I will also follow up (eventually ;) ) with a post on cycling and spinning as cross training options! After all.. this is Dr.TRIRunner!!

If YOU have any burning questions regarding swimming – it can be anything from getting started to specific workout ideas to what can I eat that won’t upset my stomach before getting in the pool to POOL RUNNING (because we all know I’m a pro at that) – please send them to me! You can either leave a comment on this post, or shoot me an email at RunDotMpls at gmail dot com. Looking forward to hearing from you!!

Peace out homefritos,

-E

Category: Uncategorized | Tags:
The Triathlon Rx | November 15, 2009
6 comments

Its the mooost wonderful day.. of the weeek (sing it!)

ITS SUNDAYYY MY LOVES!!

Happiest time of the year

(Grrr.. haven’t figured out how to embed video with new self hosted. Help?) Just change the words up a lil bit and you’re good to go. :) Hah – I think I’ve probably blogged about 5 different times about how much I love Sundays. Not going to lie though… I am getting excited for christmas songs to start playing on the radio.. christmas lights going up.. the HOLLIDAZZLE!! Can’t wait! Haha no one shoot me for saying that. I was going through photos on my phone… I took this the DAY after Halloween:

mime-attachment_7

Yikes! I was just checking to see if there were any cute halloweeny coffee mugs on sale, and then tripped over a reindeer and faceplanted into a pile of gingerbread christmas cookies. (Kidding! Although that wouldn’t be such a bad thing to faceplant into….) Let’s get through Thanksgiving first, but then please believe, I will be going alllll out.

p.s. (and then I promise, I’m moving on) did you know Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE 2nd FAVORITE holiday? (Favorite has always gone to Easter, and that’s not changing any time soon!) I loveeee Thanksgiving because

  1. it’s smack dab between my mom’s birthday and mine
  2. at least in our family, it is such a WARM get together. all of us gathered at one house (we’re hosting this year.. I don’t know the official count but I know it’s over 20!) , no stress of presents, just family, food, and loove <3
  3. it’s in FALL! Although being that I live in MN, there have been many a snowy thanksgiving day
  4. puuumpkin :D
  5. the family walk. which happens at just about every holiday we celebrate as a family that involves a rather large meal (thanksgiving.. christmas.. easter.. birthdays.. reunions.. haha basically every get together involves a large meal)

Good things. Moving on!

GIVEAWAY

So glad to see the entries coming in on my POPCHIPS GIVEAWAY! You still have until Wednesday night, so fret not my friends, but I would say go do it NOW because we all know how it goes when you say “Oh, I’ll come back and do it later” and then you check my blog on Thursday saying “wasn’t there something SWEET going on at Dr.TriRunner last week?” and then comes the compulsory smack to the forehead when you see that YOU were not the winner because indeed YOU didn’t enter! Let’s avoid that, shall we? GO ENTER NOW!

RUNNING NEWS:

And that would FINALLY include some real running.. not just on the dang xRunner and all this RSC business. As of Monday, I have had THREE successful lovely half hour runs, as prescribed. I will fess up (since there were no Friday Confessionals this week.. my bad) that I ran outside one of the days instead of on the treadmill (shhhhh) BUT I ran on the grass/dirt on the side of the path. I always run on that anyways! Here is my train of thought – tell me if this makes sense:

So I understand that the treadmill is a softer surface to run on then cement or pavement. Obvio. But softer than grass or dirt? Maybe once Minnesota hits our frozen tundra/arctic phase come December or January, but we’re not there yet. The grass is pretty darn forgiving, and in fact, according to the RunnersWorld staff over in good ol’ BritLand (that one’s for YOU my love!), it’s “better”. There are some cons associated with running on grass (instability), but I would consider myself a “seasoned grass-runner” being that for at least 70% of my runs I hop down on the dirt trail. Plus… do I need to even mention the entertainment factor? Look at the Runnin’ It page, and see reasons Why I Run. Even back in 2008 (haha how’s that for a throw back post? That egg plant parm looks good!!) I was b!tchin about the treadmill. Nooo thanks.

Anyways, long story short – I ran outside on Friday. And it was WONDERFUL.

I have properly inserted my temporary orthotics. Thank you Dr. Scholls.

P1000054

One in each

P1000055

I did get an actual scrip for real orthotics, but I need to see first if my insurance will cover it. In the mean time, I have had good success with using a heal lift in my left shoe, so that’s what you see here.

CHECKIN OUT

Time for me to get a move on. I apologize for the lack of blogging this week, but I have been entirely robbed of any social life by this:

P1000057

P1000058

Wasn’t I just blogging about my last anatomy exam? Oh wait. Yes.. Yes I was. Test on Monday tomorrow!! Eeep!

And last item before I leave – I have to toot my own horn here for a sec. I’ve gotten to be quite the fried rice connoisseur:

P1000051

All ready for some sriracha lovin. And yes, I am using a plastic bin full of sweatshirts as a table. Look at that goodness:

P1000052

Crappy lighting. Not at all crappy food! I go on little kicks with foods, as many of us do, and fried rice (or just asian in general) has definitely been the theme of the week.

Questions for you!

  1. What’s your current food craze?
  2. What’s your favorite holiday? Do you go all out? What are your traditions?
  3. Are you a treadmill runner? I know my girl F.I.T.C. is a champ at knocking out the 6, 7, 10 milers on the dreaddy no problem. I don’t know how she does it?
  4. Have you entered my giveaway yet? Hahah.. no? GO DO IT!

Happy Sunday!

-E

p.s. I’m not the only one havin’ a giveaway!

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , ,
The Triathlon Rx | November 11, 2009
15 comments

Get it poppin!

After all the teasing and dangling it in front of your face, it’s here as promised – the

POPCHIPS GIVEAWAY!!

click for photo credit!

click for photo credit!

My chica-in-action Corrine over at popchips knows how much of a fanatic I am, and asked me if I’d be interested in hosting a giveaway on my blog. Um… YES!?! Haha, can I enter it?! ;)

You are competing (because this is a competition my friends.. don’t take this lightly) for a 24-mixed-case of 8 oz. bags! TWENTY FOUR!!!

Here’s how to enter:

Mozy your way on over to Popchip’s website and tell me what flavor you’re most excited to try. MY favorite is definitely the multigrain golden cheddar, as I mentioned on my popchips review. What gets you poppin’? :D

For additional entries, you can:

  1. Post a link to this giveaway on your blog, and leave a comment telling me you did so!
  2. Follow me on twitter (just click on the “Recently Tweeted” link to the right, and then click FOLLOW!) and tweet about the giveaway! Make sure you mention @SperlyTriRunner and include a link to http://drtrirunner.com Lemme’ know with a comment!
  3. As you know, I can never leave a good thing alone. I Loooove my popchips plain, but many times I end up making this big towering mess of popliciousness (popnachos, poppizzabake, you get the picture). What is your favorite way to doctor up these bad boys, or if you have never tried them, what crazy concoction are you dreaming about right now? Yeah, wipe that drool off your face!

There you have it my friends – four easy peasy ways to win yourself a box full of love! The giveaway will end on Wednesday, November 18th at midnight (CENTRAL time, cause that’s the way I roll!), but I recommend you waste no time and go enter in every way possible. Now!

Ready… set… GO!!!

-E

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: ,
The Triathlon Rx | November 10, 2009
5 comments

CLEARED!!

Wow – yesterday morning I did not think that the title of this post would be anything ending with an exclamation. I probably slept all of four hours Sunday night. All of Monday until 3:00 was sad faced, super unoptimistic, mind going 20 miles a minute. Why, you ask? Why the stress? Why the turmoil? And why until 3:00?

The doctor’s appointment of doooom.

At least that’s what I was making it out to be! I was SO thankful to have my mom accompanying me for this visit. In my opinion, it’s ALWAYS helpful to have an extra set of ears at a doctor’s appointment. How many times have you left the doctor’s office and thought “oh crap – I forgot to ask about _____!” Or “Damn.. I wish I would have thought to ask about ______.” I’m sure you’ve been there. My madre came prepared with a list of her own questions, but she was great in letting me be the one in charge. As many of you know, I’ve been pretty much in charge of my own injuries/treatment plan since I was like 16. Of course when it came to surgery, that was a joint decision made by the whole team – my doctors, surgeons, myself, and my family. The doctor reiterated though how important it is to be in control of your own health, and more importantly,  to be educated about it.

BACK ON TRACK – I had for sure thought that I wasn’t going to be cleared to run, because there had been no x-rays scheduled.. no MRIs, no bone scans, no CT scans.. none of the tests I had to go through six weeks ago to prove I even had the fracture in the first place. Without doing the tests again, there’d be no way to know if the fracture healed. When I saw the doctor yesterday (and I should add this is a NEW DOCTOR to my treatment team: a guy who specializes in solely femoral neck fractures) he said no tests! No more xrays, no more injections, no more radiation for my poor little ovaries! If any of you have been reading long enough to remember.. I was definitely worried about this before, since having kids is something I definitely want (or at least to have the option to do so) in the future! Think of the mini-speedy-Sperlies running around :) Awwww

DSCN0906_2

(E y la madre, after regions sophomore year) (p.s. be prepared for plenty of throwback photos!)

Ahem.. returning to the appointment, once again. Sorry. So, no more tests. He pulled and bended me and asked me about my “pain”.. which if I haven’t mentioned it before (or you don’t remember) there really isn’t any. That’s not a good indicator of anything though, as there wasn’t any pain when my femoral neck was fractured two thirds of the way through either. But there is a noticeable change in the “sensations” I have in that left groin area now compared to six weeks ago: I’m not limping. I don’t feel like the muscle is trying to resist forward movement. I can stand and balance on my left leg. I can single leg squat on my left leg equally as well as I can on my right. I can run down stairs, I can run up stairs, it feels basically equal to my right hip. All good things!! Based on my symptoms (or lack there of), my new-favorite-femoral-neck-fanatic gave me the GO AHEAD to resume running!!

And as of yesterday night, I am 3 miles closer to having my life back. Aaaaamen.

Erika 9_2

In terms of a plan on how to return, as in how much, how often, how fast, how hard (TWSS. Jeeez…), he was more lenient than I expected for sure. And maybe “lenient” isn’t the right word – it’s not like I had to beg him to let me do X amount. But he was real with me and his allotments for my mileage were very much to my liking. I’m trying to avoid specific numbers here because I don’t need anyone trying to copy a recovery/rehab plan that isn’t made for them. Even given what he’s “allowing” me to do, I cut that down. My physical therapist thinks this is a good idea. If any of you want to know more about the rehab or specifics, just message me and we can talk. :)

Erika-MillerRelays@LkNokomis CC'07 - 2_2

(throw back to high school XC days – I was so carefree then!)

I’m sure that many of you who have come back from a rather lengthy/serous injury before know this feeling: as happy as you are to be able to run again, and as great as it feels, it doesn’t stop you from being paranoid with every step you take. Am I right? I just feel like I am so thankful to have this back in my life, but at the same time its something so precious and delicate. If you needed to get your one year old downstairs to your hubby, you wouldn’t just throw your her over the stair railing to get her there faster. That’s how I feel about my running. (Haha.. they didn’t call me “Extreme Erika” for nothing!) Take it slow, be conscious, be careful. All good. It is my every intention to still race, but for now, I need to put that aside and just focus on being strong and healthy!

Erika at 6AA Regions GaleWoods CC'07 - 1

(regions – sophomore year? can you find me?! ;) )

Once again, I feel like I need to thank all of you SO much! Your support, advice, your own stories, and your inspiration have been so helpful in keeping me positive throughout this whole ordeal – this time around, the first time around, and always! And also to those of you who comment on facebook every time that status changes.. to know that other people are rooting for you and keeping you in your prayers doe so much in staying positive. THANK YOU!

OK – so where the jell is this giveaway she keeps talking about, right? Set your timers my friends: tomorrow we’re gonna get it poppin‘. :D And I’m not just talkin a bag or two – the chips are stacked high here! Puns fully intended.. get pumped popped!

I will of course continue to update on the situation with running, as well as the biking, swimming, XT, and PT, because none of those are stopping now that I can run again. As a matter of fact, I need to get changed right now to bike to physical therapy! Hope you all have a lovvely day!

-E

p.s. How many times can I say it.. I LOVE writing/working while I’m on the bus! Definitely couldn’t be blogging while driving. p.p.s. look what’s coming to Minneapolis: I. Want. To. Go.

mime-attachment_6

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , ,
The Triathlon Rx | November 8, 2009
2 comments

Welcome!

And WE’RE OFF! It’s obviously not 100% up and running, as you’ll find several of the “pages” are still under construction, but I couldn’t wait one more day! Please update your blogrolls, your google readers, your feeds, your bookmarks, tell your mom, tell your sister, RunRoamRecycle has moved, and Dr. TriRunner is a go!

www.drtrirunner.com

Glad you made it here!

And make sure you stay tuned, because for the grand opening of this training camp/sports med clinic/good food cafe, we’re throwing a popilicious giveaway, starting at snack-o-clock. You don’t want to miss it!!

Switching to self hosting was a move I’ve wanted to make for a long time, and I’m so glad its finally here! Know that things will be changing left and right, being edited, updated, deleted, oh-crap-control-Z’ed, and moved around. If there is anything you would really like to see here on Dr.TriRunner – a page, a link list, resources, workouts, recipes, you name it – make sure to let me know!!

Come back soon to hang out with me, explore the new page, and to get popped!
-E

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: ,
The Triathlon Rx | November 5, 2009
5 comments

Cha cha changes…!

Thursday already? How did that happen?!

Last night something came over me, and apparently the roomie too. For whatever reason it was absolutely necessary that we stay up and watch Scrubs until 1:00am. On a WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

Whoooo does that?

Because of my mandatory-8-hour rule, and because my first class isn’t until 11:15, I skipped the gym, turned off the alarm, had a super random dream, but woke up feeling much better than I think I would have had I dragged myself to go do cardio. (RSC to be specific ;) ) However, as “refreshed” as I may have been, apparently my mind was still running a little behind. Hence this tragedy happened to my morning coffee:

P1000037

My morning cup of black gold turned into a morning cup of black NaCl onion garlic paprika cup of NASTY. I realized it the second I sprinkled it on and did my best to skim the spices off the top, but no amount of skimming could remedy this catastrophe, and down the drain it went.

Despite the absence of caffeine this morning that would usually leave me dragging, I was feeling just fine. In large part I’ll attribute that to the SUN that finally decided to reappear over our lovely city of Mini-apple. Splendid. I had a really fun first class.. we broke into three groups based on our personality types (A, B, C) and the got in little groups and just talked about how we act in different situations. I’ve mentioned before, I’m type A to the max.. probably type A+, but it was hilarious  to talk to the guys in my group about what we do when we’re waiting for someone who’s late.. have a slow car pull out in front of us.. or even just how extreme we take playing a board game (Grandma.. you’re goin DOWN). The class is called Lifetime Health & Wellness, and it’s through my major department (Kinesiology)… definitely my favorite!

Anywho my kiddies.. I will keep this brief because I need to meet the kids for SPIN soon! Tomorrow is TEAM MOVIE NIGHT and I’m hosting, so I have to hit Target on the way home to pick up some movie snacks! I mostly just didn’t want to go too long without posting, but also, I wanted to make sure I’m keeping alla YOU in the loop! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled, because there are some big exciting things coming to RunRoamRecycle! Some will be happening sooner rather than later, but in short, I’m pumped. And you should be too!

Until soon mis amigos!
-E

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , ,