On the Mend

Mike Place, 100 mile finisher, gives us
(and himself) the thumbs up.  Two days before
the race he was down with the flu.

So, it's been a week and a half since the initial hip injury (skiing) and a week since I last ran.  Oh, this last week has been a difficult one.  After having a locked up lower back (muscle strain, having run on the injured hip too soon after the injury) on Monday, I really was not able to do much besides walk the dogs on the leash down the block and back and lay on a heating pad in bed, so I started getting really bummed out and frustrated.  On Thursday, I was lucky enough to get a massage appointment with my "friendly muscle therapist" James, and by Friday morning was walking noticeably better (my friends at work told me so).

Maybe I was feeling a little too good on Friday, because on Saturday morning, at o'dark-thirty, I woke up to go out to Antelope Island and volunteer at the Buffalo Run races.  My hip was spasming right from the get go.  It spasmed most of the morning at the race, and I really felt like I was not very useful and wished I could have helped people out more than I did.

I did get sent on an errand in to Syracuse, Utah (the closest town to the race) to pick up more ice as the day was the warmest one we have had so far this spring, and runners were really starting to suffer.  Muscle cramps was the trend of the day, with a few cases of heat-exhaustion, IT band syndrome, and vomiting as well.  On my trip into town, I put the seat heater on high and was thankful to be off my feet for an hour and a half, even if a half an hour was spent in a line of cars trying to get through the toll booth back onto the island.  I had half a mind to pass all of those cars with my load of ice that was much needed by the runners (we went through close to 20 bags of ice at our aid station alone), but I reigned in my frustration and decided that we were all in this together (waiting) after all.

Great Salt Lake sunrise, from the causeway to Antelope
Island ~ headed to meet the night-time crew with
breakfast burritos from El Rancherito in Syracuse, UT
(highly recommended).

The rest of the crew was happy to see me when I got back to the aid station, as they were on their last bag of ice as I pulled into the Lower Frary lot.  Each runner (there were probably 200 through our aid station) got a minimum of 20 ounces of ice in their bottles or hydration pack, and I really fell like if it hadn't been for us (the previous station, the Ranch had run out of ice long ago) there would have been more medical incidents and more DNFs.  We were like an oasis in the desert and you could see the relief in people's faces when we offered them some ice for their drinks (in addition to cheese quesadillas, oranges, bananas, PB&Js, grilled cheese sandwiches, and other snacking items).  We seriously got a huge thumbs up from the participants.

So my hip was pretty worked at the end of the day, but a very slow dog walk this morning and a half an hour of home physical therapy, and it's starting to feel a bit better.  My back muscles are nearly normal after the massage from Thursday, so that is a huge plus.  I talked with one of the Sports Medicine residents yesterday at the race about my hip, and she kind of freaked me out talking about possible apophysitis and warned me against running or even swimming too soon after the injury.  I may be clear to start some biking by the end of next week, but I'm thinking about going to a Sports Med appointment and possibly starting some formal physical therapy if I'm not making a remarkable improvement by the end of the week.  Time will tell.  For now, I seem to be on the mend.

Hurtin' for certain

Nurse Franklin looking after me.

Well, I've taken another step backwards, instead of forwards towards healing.  After injuring my right hip while skiing last Tuesday, I was feeling good enough on the weekend to start running again.  I did my 5 mile interval run in the park on Saturday and another 5 mile easy run on Sunday.  By Monday, when I got to work, my lower back was feeling a bit stiff.  I decided to go out on my lunch hour and walk around a bit, to loosen it up, and returned to work in the afternoon with back spasms and pain that had me lying on the floor of my office with my knees to my chest.

By the time I got to the last couple of patients of the day, I couldn't even sit on the rolling exam stool in the exam rooms.  A couple of patients asked me if I was ok.  My nurse and medical assistant also asked if I was ok, as I had taken on quite a green hue in my face, I am quite sure because of the amount of pain I was in.  I was not ok, but I smiled and told my patients I would be fine.  I got a prescription for a muscle relaxant from a coworker and could barely stand at the pharmacy counter to pick it up.

What a mess I have become.  I don't remember ever being in this much pain, except for when I had my ACL surgery 5 years ago.  I wonder what has happened to my connective tissue and why it is all of a sudden turning into steel cable.

First day of Spring.

I remember about 14 years ago when I was working as a ski instructor and I had taken an awful fall.  A day or so later, I was complaining about how stiff I was and that I wasn't bouncing back like I used to (I was about 26 at the time).  All of the other instructors just looked at me and smirked, "Just wait a few more years.  It only gets worse."

And they were right.  I mustered the strength to take the dogs for a 30 minute walk today.  I felt as if I was barely shuffling along in the park.  I kept the dogs off-leash, because I didn't want them to yank me and disturb my already irritable back.  The consequence was that they both decided to go swimming with the ducks in the pond.  I didn't have the heart or the energy to yell at them to leave the ducks alone (no ducks were harmed).

Oh, gosh.  I just want to feel better.  I missed arguably the best powder day of the year this year and couldn't go skiing.  It's hard for me not to feel a bit sorry for myself.  Hopefully if I rest the next few days, I will be able to fully partake in the volunteering that I am signed up for at the 50- and 100-mile events out at Antelope Island this weekend.  I really want to be able to enjoy it and not be in a lot of pain out there, or have to go home early.  I was actually hoping to get a short run in while I was there.

Too much "fun having" and feeling it.

The last three weeks have been a little frustrating for me as far as losing weight.  The first week and a half I dropped some weight pretty fast, and now I seem to be hovering within 2 pounds up or down.  Still about 10 pounds away from where I want to be.  I haven't been able to exercise as much as I had planned, due to several unforeseen "incident" injuries (first the bruised heels from my ski touring incident, then a stiff neck for 5 days from a stressful Friday at work which was thankfully relieved by a couple of acupuncture sessions with Master Lu, then a skiing injury where I probably should have fallen but thankfully did not, because I probably would have either broken my nose or torn my shoulder).  Thankfully my injuries due to incidents are because I am so active and having what some might say is a little "too much" fun.

my dad (left) and his brother, ca. 1946.

family resemblance ~ I think I am definitely a "Berkel".

I "nearly fell" skiing last Tuesday, and really couldn't do much of anything for the next couple of days.  I was skiing groomed runs pretty fast and got one ski caught up in the heavy, wet snow.  I got twisted around to one direction, then corrected to the other direction (all while standing on one foot) and pulled all of the muscles in one hip and across my lower back.  Well, when I say as a result that I couldn't do much of anything, I still took the dogs for short walks in the neighborhood, and I still went to Girls on the Run on Thursday; I just wasn't as active as I would have liked to have been.  My hip and back were just hurting me so much, and then my stomach started hurting because I was eating so much Ibuprofen.  By Friday, I was able to go on a short hike with the dogs, and gained some elevation, but not really able to run the downhill.  On Saturday I did an interval run in Liberty Park which was tough (the first interval workout of the season is always a tough one) and my speeds were a lot faster than I would have anticipated.  They were right on par with where I was about 5 months ago after Wasatch 100.

My hip and back were definitely sore come Saturday evening.  So today (Sunday) I did an easy 5 mile run in the neighborhood with the dogs just to try and stay loose and burn a few calories.  Artie definitely doesn't like running on a leash on the pavement.  About 51 minutes into the run I was nearly dragging her down the sidewalk by her leash.  The last few minutes of the run were a struggle for her.  Both dogs are napping happily now.

My back is still a bit stiff, but feeling a little better day to day.  Hopefully with the next few weeks I can get back on track and exercise a bit more and drop these last few pounds.  Until the injuries happened, I was actually feeling quite a lot fitter and healthier.  Hopefully I can get back to losing 2 pounds per week like I had planned.

This Friday was also my dad's birthday (RIP).  He would have been 73.  It's hard for me to believe that 10 years ago we were up at Soldier Hollow watching the Olympic Nordic Skiing races, and at Park City watching the men's Giant Slalom, and also at the Olympic Park watching the men's Skeleton competitions. The nordic skiing was a highlight, because we befriended some German fans who turned out to be the dads of some of the girls racing, and they gave us their tickets into the stadium (we had general admission tickets to the course) and we got to watch the women's skate relay sprint finish.  My dad was in his element when we were watching those events.  What a great memory.  Bittersweet.

week 2 weigh in

Ok, so here's the deal.  After playing around with how many calories per day would keep me fueled enough to keep me from passing out, yet cutting enough (and increasing my exercise) to keep me losing some weight, I've settled on 1700 calories per day.  That's what my app on my iPhone says, anyway.  I plugged a couple of days worth of meals into a different app, and got approximately the same calorie count, so it should be pretty accurate.  I've gotten to like one app better than the other though, because I think the one is a little easier to manage, and the app that I'm not fond of told me that in order to lose the weight I wanted to I was going to have to starve myself at 1200 calories per day.  No way.  I would not survive that.  My friends and coworkers probably would not survive that either.

I've also kept pretty good about not eating sweets, although there is a chocolate-covered praline candy from IKEA that I'm really fond of, and last Friday after a sort-of rough week, I ate 5 of them while watching a movie.  Still, only 30 calories apiece, so not a total failure.

After losing about 3 1/2 pounds in week one and feeling half-starved, I've lost another 2 1/2 pounds this week (feeling less-starved) and am actually feeling really good.  Probably the fact that I did not cut out my daily coffee consumption has helped my attitude a bunch too.

Actually when I am exercising, I'm feeling "lighter" and things are feeling easier.  I felt really strong skiing powder on Thursday, even though it was kind of an emotional day for me (which I don't want to get into ~ and it doesn't matter anyway because things are pretty much resolved now) and felt super-strong ski touring on Saturday.  Skate skiing yesterday was super-easy, although I picked a route with nearly zero vertical gain (the Rail Trail in Park City) but did 10 miles in an hour and 20 minutes, which felt leisurely the whole time.  Then today, trail running after work I felt like it was super easy, peasy (although a little muddy).  I'm starting to think that 6 pounds lighter really does make things a lot easier on my body!

I'm also starting to think that I could get down to a goal weight that I haven't seen in nearly 10 years.  There's no way I'm losing muscle throughout this process, because I kept my mileage up this week and squeaked out about 15 hours of exercise.

So I'm going to keep at it, calorie counting, exercising about the same amount each week (around 15 hours, between skiing, ski touring, walking, and running) and I might even try to get a run-interval workout in this week.  I'm keeping in mind that the more I lose, the more difficult it may become to lose, so I may have to continue to re-evaluate the daily calorie allowance.  3 pounds per week is feeling pretty do-able and I really haven't felt this good in a long time.  I keep wondering how much easier my 50k run last month would have been if I'd started this process a couple of months ago.  Oh well.  At least I can look forward to racing a little easier this summer.

Photos this week are from ski tour Saturday with Brendan, Brett, and Kate, and skate skiing the Rail Trail in Park City with Franklin, Vernon, and Artemis.

feeling strong on the first of three ascents

Kate, Brett, and Brendan

Kate rippin' it Grizzly Gulch style

Kate and Brett ~ sandwich time

good dogs on the Loipe ~ Franklin, Vernon, and Artemis

me ~ happy on the Loipe in the sunshine

Vernon ~ tuckered out after 10 miles

move it, and lose it.

I know what you're going to say to me, "You're in great shape, you don't need to lose any weight."  or possibly, "Well, if you want to lose weight, that shouldn't be a problem for you, because you exercise so much."

But the truth is, I've been at least ten pounds over the weight that I would rather be for several months now and I've been watching the scale creep up to an undesired weight, despite the fact that I've been exercising most days of the week.  I went for too long after the Wasatch 100 last fall eating whatever I wanted, while my weekly mileage started to dwindle...  Drinking a beer or two each night was no longer a reward but rather my standard practice.  Can you say, "empty calories"?  And eating cookies became my go-to comfort food.  This might be all well and good if I were still running like I was last summer.  But I haven't been.  The 50k at Pemberton a few weeks ago was a personal (fast) record for me, but honestly?  I felt like the chubbiest runner there.

So, when Lent started this past Wednesday, I decided to do what I usually do each year... give up the sweets.  Cookies, candy, chocolate, and the like.  I do it for a couple of reasons:  although I'm not Catholic, my dad and cousins were and are, and I think it's good to sacrifice something that you really like once in a while.  See how it feels to live without that little bit of comfort that you usually turn to.  Try to find other ways to cope with your stress.  It's tough, but it's rewarding in the end.  The other reason is because when I give up sweets for the period from Ash Wednesday to Easter (six and a half weeks), I typically lose at least 5 pounds, or even 10.  Gives you an idea of how much sweet stuff I'm really eating when you know that.

After talking with my running friend, Sue, I also decided to cut out the empty alcohol calories.  Well, most of them anyway.  Mid-week beer is gone, sadly.  And weekend beer is going to be limited.  I'm trying for 4 drinks on the weekend.

Another thing that I've done is to re-establish my part-time job of exercising.  For the past few months, my exercise has ranged anywhere from 5 hours to 12 hours per week.  That might seem like a lot to some people, but for me it's really not that much.  I'm used to exercising at least 15 to 20 hours per week when I'm running in the summer, or if I'm out skiing in the winter, which I haven't been doing that much of because our winter has been so sparse this year.  This week I got nearly 20 hours of exercise.  Today I went skate skiing with the dogs for an hour and a quarter.  I felt a little woozie.

One reason I may have felt light-headed was that I have been counting (and have decreased) my calories for the last week.  I downloaded an app on my iPhone to help me out, and there's also an on-line link that I can update my caloric intake and exercise each day.  I was actually pretty shocked when I plugged in a couple of days at the beginning of the week, and found that I was easily consuming 2000 to 2200 calories per day.  There's no way I can lose any weight with that amount of food intake!  So I set my limit at a more realistic (weight-loss) intake of 1650.  It was 1625 for a couple of days, and I felt like absolute garbage, so I bumped it up just a little bit.  On the days that I've been skiing or ski touring all day, I allowed myself to eat closer to 2000 calories, because on those days I am burning upwards of 3000, but for the most part I've stayed right between 1600 and 1700.

The results, you might ask?  After a week of meal planning and increased exercise, I have lost 3 pounds.  Maybe 4 if you take my weight this morning when I was completely dehydrated after drinking a pot of coffee and before eating any breakfast (which is another think I'm trying to do-- eat breakfast.  At least 200 to 300 calories before 10am.  It's tough.  I've never really liked eating breakfast).

So now I'm thinking, maybe I should try to lose a little more than 10 pounds?  You all probably think I'm crazy.  But I just think that running will be so much easier if I'm leaner, especially around the mid-section.  I'll keep you informed.  If you'd like to encourage me, I would love to hear it.  If you would like to criticize me, kindly keep your words to yourself.  And no, there will be no before and after swimsuit photos.

At this point in my life, I'm choosing to move it, and lose it.

weekend touring

It was a great holiday weekend of ski touring this weekend.  Got out with my touring partner from last winter for a quiet day in Silver Fork.  The first run was a bit crusty, but supportable crust.  Met a handful of other folks up there, but it seems the majority of crowds were in areas further down-canyon.  The second and third runs we got into some pretty soft snow, surprisingly so, and after a good second lap decided to shoot for a third.  The sun made a short appearance through the clouds for the third run, and we were happy that we stayed.

Touring was followed by nachos, beer, pizza, more beer with some out-of-town friends, storytelling... a great day in all.

Day two of touring was an early start:  the alarm went off at 5:25am.  Thankfully, the Cuisinart coffee maker did not disappoint, and after setting the timer for 5:15 the night before, coffee was ready as I stumbled out of bed.  Even had pizza from the night before as my touring lunch (although the temps were so cold, it was frozen in the top of my pack.  Ice crystals.  But still delicious).

The sun was out all day on day 2, upper Grizzly Gulch, and Brendan took lots of photos of neighbor Kate, whom he is making a video about after surviving breast cancer 2 years ago.  She had a great ski season last year post-chemo, until she tore her ACL that is, and had to get reconstructive surgery on that.  So this year is the year to really kick all that into the past.  She is skiing strong.  We were out for 6 hours, and had some rubber-legs by the end of the day.  The sun heated up the slopes as we exited Emma Ridge and we kicked off some good size sluff-avalances.  Super-slow motion slides that were really fun to watch morph down the hill.

There were a lot more people out on day 2, probably because the sun was out too.  It was cold and clear up top, with great views of the slopes I had skied the day before.  Today is gray and dreary in the City of Salt, and no new snow overnight, although I talked with my brother and he said that they have gotten 7 inches in southeastern Idaho, and it's still snowing.  I think I'll spend today stocking up on supplies, and wait for next weekend to get out again.  Might ski one day this week, but the dogs might have my hide if I neglect them like I did this weekend.  They already dismantled my work-bag that I left in the living room out of frustration while I was out touring on day 2.  I can't say that I blame them.  If I were left at home on such a beautiful couple of days, I would have been a little upset too!

Day 1 ~ Silver Fork Meadows

Day 1 ~ great view of Flannigan's Chute.

Persistence pays off ~ finding soft snow in Silver Fork.

Day 2 ~ Superior Sunrise

Day 2 ~ Kate and Brendan on the early-morning approach up Grizzly Gulch.

Sweet rime frost in upper Grizzly.

Girl Power ~ Kate.

After everything that has happened in the last two years, this quote
is even more meaningful, "When you realize how perfect everything is,
you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky."

Kate and Brendan approach Emma Ridge,
East Bowl of Silver Fork in the hinterground.

Slough avalanche with mid-day heating ~ Emma Ridge.

In Brendan's words ~ Kate schralps down Emma Ridge.

if you can't laugh [at yourself and your dogs] they you shouldn't be out there...

Lori throws down some decent turns through the sugar.

Today was an attempt at ski touring with the fluffy dogs.  Simply stated ~ my dogs will never be avalanche rescue dogs.  Maybe nursing home therapy animals, but mountain powder masters, they are not.  My friend Lori and I headed up to Daniel's Summit, out Highway 40 from Heber.  It was a beautiful sunny morning, with temps in the 40s.  The snow was knee-deep and rotten today, and the dogs were wallowing pretty badly.  (Except for Ofer, Lori's little 40 pound Springer Spaniel, who seemed to be floating on top of the snow pack compared to my 75+ pound fluffies.)

Dogs figure out it is easier to walk in the skin-
track than wallow in the deep snow.

Needless to say, the dogs are sleeping soundly after all of their hard work now that we are home.  They gave us some good laughs while we were out.  Bounding up the trail initially, then slogging through the deep snow (still smiles on their faces), then we skied down and thankfully they figured out to stay in our tracks to make the going a little easier.  Then Ofer stole my glove and wouldn't give it back.  Lori put it best, "We are like a doggie junk-show out here!"  Dogs stepping on skis, laying on skis, kicking snow on skins, attempting to render them useless.  Man, was it fun.  And lots of laughs.  And as if I couldn't laugh enough at our cute dogs, look at the picture Lori captured of me.  Yeah, I'm a dork.  I have my skins stuffed down my pants and the front of my jacket so that I wouldn't have to tour our 150 foot hill with my pack on (lazy... ).  The turns on our low-angle hill were surprisingly sugary and good.

We did three laps on our little hill (my dogs did the third lap leashed to a tree.  They only barked until I was about half-way up the hill, then settled down.  Panic ensued when I got back to them and "couldn't get the leash off of them fast enough" in their opinion, I'm sure).

Yup, I'm a dork. 

A great morning ~ stretching the legs in the fresh air.  It was no epic ski day, but it sure was entertaining.  If you can't laugh [at yourself and your dogs] then you shouldn't be out there, in my opinion.