Occular Migraine

Saturday morning I got up early and hung out with the kids for a few hours while the hubby slept in (I'm an early bird this totally works for us). When he got up I suited up and headed out for my long run. My training plan called for 12.4miles (20k). I got out and was moseying along at about 9 mins miles 

At about mile 6 I was still averaging just over 9 mins miles when my running buddy texted his run report. He had just completed 11miles at 8:15...it really motivated me to pick up the pace so I started really pushing myself.  Suddenly my phone rang and it was my 6 year old calling from my mom's and she was really excited to tell me she had just lost another tooth :) So I'm huffing and puffing along at just over 8 mins miles trying to listening and respond enthusiastically to her tale of its removal..lol. I ended up averaging about 8:30 for the last 6miles bringing my average down to a respectable 8:46! 

(done and done!)

Reward for getting my long run done was a trip to the salon to get a much needed haircut!

(a bit shorter and less volume for the summer!)

Sunday was actually a pretty rough day. I felt absolutely exhausted and the kids were being terrors. My husband and I argued all day which is really unusual for us and I felt miserable. Tired, cranky and not myself. I put the kids to bed and thought a quick run might perk me up. I put on some good tunes and headed out. My legs were so tired though. I kept tripping over the tips of my feet and I was pulling in 11 mins miles which for me is pretty unheard of. I turned around after just over 2 miles and went back home. It was enough calories burned to keep me under my MFP goal for the day but it didnt really help my mood. 

Monday I woke up still pissy. I went to work and ran at lunch with my running buddy, we just took it easy and I explained to him how I was feeling so blah. Not sick just tired and unhappy. It was decent run though especially for 30degree(C) weather. I also realized I need to wash my arm band more often in this heat...it is really starting to smell!

I went back to work and at about 3 oclock I was looking at my computer when all of a sudden there was a circle in my left eye where I couldnt read my screen. The letters were all jumbled and distorted. I looked around and everything I looked at was messed up in that one spot of my vision field and it looked almost shimmery. I got up and walked to the bathroom to see if I could see anything in my eye. As I walked around the office it got worse and expanded so that it felt like I was looking through a kaleidoscope. I started losing my shit at that point trying to decide I was having a stroke. I walked over to a co-worker and said "I'm freaking out because I cant see out of part of my eye and its making me panicky" (I used to suffer from panic attacks before I ran).  I was trying to google what it could be but I could only read the phone out of the side of my right eye so he started helping me. When I closed my eyes the lights/pattern continued on the inside of my eyelids and it was like colorful shooting triangles. When we realized it was both eyes we landed via google pretty quickly on "occular migraine" which as we read on sounded exactly like what was happening. It said no medical treatment necessary and while frightening usually only lasts 20-30mins before disappearing completely. 

I walked outside as that helps my panic and I called a friend who had told me just a few months ago about a similar experience. When she described what had happened to her it was exactly what I was going through, then as we talked it completely snapped off and was done. I think maybe 20 mins start to finish. No pain at all, no warning, no history of migraines...it was seriously messed up! I called my Dr. and explained what just happened and he backed up what I thought and said to come in in the morning for a check-up. I took an IB Profen and drove home.  A headache settled in about 30 mins later but it was not bad and totally manageable. I felt tired physically and mentally though and was glad to get to bed that night. 

I talked to the Dr. this morning and he said the tiredness and irritability I felt the 2 days before were probably a condition called "prodome" which can come on before an attack. He said no one knows why these happen or what for sure triggers them. My blood pressure was totally normal. Could be stress or hormones or anything really. He suspected it would recur although the two other people I have talked to who had them only ever had 1 (my uncle had 1 twelve years ago and none since) so I'll keep my fingers crossed there. At least now I know what it is so it should be less scary as I wont be wondering if I'm going blind or dying! He said to pull over immediately if I'm driving as they can come on quickly.   So yeah...thats that...fun times!

I realized today was really the only day I had available to do a speed drill this week so despite the fact that I was tired, hungry and it was stupidly hot out I checked my training schedule to see what was called for. It was an "out and back run" where you warm up run out for 10 mins and then run back for 10 mins trying to cover more distance ie. go faster on the last 10. The goal was to aim for around 7:15 on the way out and 7:05 on the way back, then cool down for 15 mins.  

It was super hot at noon and the path I was running was concrete with no shade. But I told myself to try my hardest and be happy with whatever time I made as long as I pushed myself. It was definitely a mental battle of a run. Not even some Ludacris "Move Bitch" could get me running any faster ;) But I was really pleased when I finished to see I hit 7:24 on the way out and 7:07 on the way back. 

Then I returned to work and sweaty red mess!

Last week my tummy was upset and my appetite dropped significantly. This week it is back up and I'm doing my best to maintain my loss from last week and not overeat to compensate. So far so good. I have been under my MFP goal every day and the scale is being kind. I am done work tomorrow and off on annual leave for 11 days. I know I will gain some on vacation but the lower I can get ahead of that the less I will have to lose when I get back home ;)

Weekly Weigh-In: Goal!

Lots to catch up on as I've been a slacker blogger. Work has been insane and the last two nights I've put the kids to bed and gone right to sleep myself. Out like a light by 8:30...lol!

Wednesday was an easy trail run at lunch. I realized then that I didnt plan my running schedule that well this week. Thursday was supposed to be speed drill day and it was day 6 in a row of running and I could tell my legs were already beat. So I took Wednesday as easy as possible in hopes to save my legs a bit. My nausea was totally gone but my appetite was still down a little. 

 

Then Wednesday evening I could not sleep. I laid awake till midnight which is super late for me. I woke up Thursday morning tired, it was dark grey and windy and rainy out and my legs were so tired! I was a whiny mess and absolutely did not want to do speed day. My running buddy was equally interested in cancelling the speed run and we spent most of the morning waffling on whether we cancel or not. At about 11:30 though I found the resolve and said lets just suck it up and do it. I knew I was weighing in the next day and I suspected a good loss so I wanted to do whatever I could to ensure that. The plan was to do 10mins warm-up, 20 mins at sub 7:15mins/mile and then 15 mins cool-down.

It was raining and windy and my running buddy spent the first 10 mins calling me an "inflexible, impossible, slavedriver"...lol. The speed portion was tough. It was on an out and back portion where the back part is uphill. So hard on tired legs.  But we killed it! The 20 mins fast portion we ended up averaging 7:08min/mile. Then I got that runners high rush. Like "fuck yeah, we were tired, it was raining, we did it anyways, we rock!!" :-) 

We ended up averaging 8:20 for the entire run with the warm-up and cool-down included. 

My legs were absolutely dead and my office is up on the 3rd floor, I swear I almost gave up and sat down on the second floor stairs..lol! Here is a pic from when I made it back to my office, wet hair from the rain, red face, sweaty...my poor co-workers! 

I went to bed that night at 8:30 and slept through till 5:30 :) Friday I woke up and weighed in at 134.6!!!! Down 1.6 from last week and super pumped about that!!! The lowest I have been was 134.0 sometime last summer and I'm pretty sure that was a weigh-in after a run. This is the lowest I have been in 2016. I busted my butt with runs this week and kept my calories low and it totally paid off. 

I averaged 1906 calories consumed (which is very low for me) and 658 burned with exercise. So net calories 1248, no wonder I lost!! The only issue being I had 4 days near the end of the week where my net calories were 500-600 and I dont think thats healthy. It was a combination of a bit of an upset tummy and going to bed early and missing my evening snack. So we'll see next week when my eating evens out a bit whether those lbs return or not. 

Friday was my rest day but I didnt want to do nothing as I was still feeling pretty pleased about seeing those numbers. So I thought I would go for a walk at lunch on the trails nearby. I'm lucky to have awesome trails near both my offices. Hard to resist a quick trip down trails like these...

I walked down to the creek and took a selfie on the bridge :) I figure I post so many sweaty post run pics I might as well put a normal one up!

(happy Jess at goal weight)

The interesting thing about goal weight is its never the magic cure you expect it to be. I remember when I was overweight I saw a girl who was really fit at the gym and I watched her punch 135 into the machine under weight. I remember thinking that that is the perfect weight! But while I'm pretty happy with my body these days I still have my problem areas even at 135. So while I've made my arbitrarily selected goal weight I'm not about to switch to maintenance. I'm going to keep working at improving my fitness with weight training, working on my running and paces and that probably means dropping a few more lbs. But I'm going to enjoy this accomplishment while I do so! :)

Party, Fathers Day, fever and of course running!

Saturday the birthday party went really well. I love this picture of my daughter looking so happy about her Peppa Pig cupcakes :) Makes it all worth while!!

The day was crazy though and I did not get out for a run. Ate well all day and then crashed in an exhausted heap when everyone left and ate "an amount" of pizza, chips and cupcakes ;) Sunday was Father's Day and I didnt feel right about ditching my hubby in the morning to go running! So we hung out with him until it was time to go meet my dad for lunch and a trip to the car show. I made good food choices all day...a salad at lunch and ate none of the mini-donuts that my kids got! I also got a lot of walking in at the car show, most of it carrying my 24lb child!

I got home and got the kids to bed and it was about 7:40. I was feeling a bit out of sorts and decided (uncharacteristically for me) that I would get out for an evening run. I'm an early to bed type so I figured I would just run till 9pm and not worry about distance or pace. I downloaded some new tunes and set off. The first mile was great and I got all these ideas about doing 10miles. Then I dont know what happened, but my feet got sore, my shins got sore and every mile I felt like turning around. Its rare that I have a bad run and dont get that good runners high feeling but this was one of them! I got home and told my husband that that was not a run but a plod! But oh well...shake it off and count it as a calorie burn!

Monday I woke up excited to realize I had a regular work week with no travel. I could do all my regular runs, get some speed drills in and catch up on office work. I started getting ready in the morning and really my tummy felt quite upset. I got to the office and it got worse and I thought I might puke. I also got the chills really bad and was shivering even though it was 24 degrees out. I felt bad because I hadnt run with my running buddy in a while and so I told him I would give it a shot. But I couldnt complete the run as I felt too sick. We still made it a fair ways, but slow and not as far as normal and I was having a rough go. 

 By the time I got back to the office I was in bad shape. I realized I was too sick to work and its an hour commute home. I drove home and was actually shivering so bad my bach was aching. Got home and took my temperature and I was up to 102!! I curled up in bed and took some tylenol. I was pretty bummed as I thought I was going to be out for the count for days and I had so much I wanted to do this week. About an hour later the fever broke and I went from freezing cold to "oh my god get all these blankets and clothes off of me!" I had no appetite and I didnt even hit 1000 calories for the day. At 6:45pm I crawled into bed and slept through till 5:30 this morning!  

I woke up this morning and cautiously got out of bed. No upset tummy, no fever, no headache.  I couldnt believe it, I felt totally normal. What the heck was that all about? My back was a little sore from the shivering yesterday but that was it. Which was such a relief as I was meeting a contractor to walk a trail this morning and I didnt want to have to bail. Also I took this picture as a perfect description of life with a toddler...6 muffin tops gone...grrrr! lol

So I got out and did my trail walk which was a nice way to spend the morning!

Then I felt good enough to get out with my running buddy at lunch and do a 6 mile trail run. I was almost euphoric feeling like perhaps the week is not ruined after all! 

My appetite is not completely back and there was one or two moments throughout the day where my stomach did a couple flip flops, but no fever and nothing like the day before. My fingers are crossed everything has resolved itself by tomorrow!

Weekly weigh-In and cupcakes!

Thursday was a ridiculously long day. Up and on the road for 4:45am, home at 9:45pm...ugh. Lots of travelling and most of it to take a course. So drive, drive, drive and then sit! I drank too much coffee and then had a hard time falling asleep because I was too wound up. Not only that when I got home I had forgotten to turn off the 4:15 alarm...oops!

(sitting in the office wishing I was outside!)

Yesterday I took as a flex day though which was much needed! I did my official weigh in and I'm at 136.2 so down 0.4 from last week. Which is actually kinda surprising as I averaged 2500 calories and with the celebration of life and travel day I missed my long run so I only earned 400 exercise calories per day. So to lose a bit of a weight on 2100 calories per day is nice. 

I had a huge to-do list to conquer as today is my daughters 3rd birthday.  I thought there was no way I could squeeze a run in as well!

(a little daunting!)

But at about noon I needed a break and thought I would allow myself an hour :) It felt good to get out and de-stress a bit. I ran at a decent pace as I was trying to get 7miles in. The last mile was a bit tough as it got quite hot and I had a cramp. But I kept telling myself if I got 750 calories that was enough that I could enjoy a cider tonight while doing all my party prep ;) 

I got it done and felt a lot better for it! I need to download some new music though...my current playlist is definitely getting stale!

Next up I made cupcakes and party food. The theme is Peppa Pig and these are the cupcakes I made :) Without consuming a single bite! I made it through a busy Friday night with all this junk food around and stayed within my calories. 

The party is 2-4 today...once again not sure if I will get a run in with the craziness of party prep. We'll just see how the day goes!

Car crashes and speed drills!

Yesterday I had meetings all day from 10-3:30, with only a 30 mins lunch. My hope was that I would get out in time that I could get home and sneak in a run before I had to do the daycare pick up. I finished the mtg and it was pouring rain. I was cold, hungry, tired and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed. It had been a long day sitting in hard chairs and I knew that I would feel better though if I got out. I was texting with a friend my stream of conscience thoughts...lol

  

As soon as I got changed and got outside the rain started to lighten up. I took a dorky picture of me all proud of myself for getting out and running regardless of the lack of energy :) 

I decided to do about 7 miles and time it so that I got to my daughter's after school care right around 5pm and then her and I could walk home together. It felt good to get out and I was going at a pretty decent pace. I ended up getting just over 7 miles in and then it was another 0.8mile walk home with T. So not a bad calorie burn for a day where I wasnt sure I was even going to get out. 

Then today had a very crazy start to the day. I was driving in to work and came around a corner and saw a car had gone off the road and in to the ditch. There wasnt anyone else around and it looked like it had just happened. I pulled over and ran over to check on the passengers. A woman got out and yelled at me that there was another car that went off the road on the other side and to go check on them. I crossed the road and could see the car was about 10ft down in a ditch, upside down and the whole front end smashed in. I took off my high heels and climbed down the embankment in my socks trying to prepare myself that they could be in really bad shape (or dead!). 

Another guy showed up and came down as well and told me he was a level 3 first aider...phew! When we got to the car there was only one passenger and she was trying to get out.  We helped her out and slowly laid her on the ground. I stabilized her head and neck while he did vitals. She had some chest and neck pain but was doing surprisingly well especially after getting some oxygen (he had some with him!). I ended up staying crouched in the dirt for almost 15mins keeping her neck and head still while we waited for the ambulance. I thought when the fire crew arrived they might swap me out but they asked me if I was ok staying there until the paramedics arrived.  I stayed until we got her loaded on a spine board and then into the ambulance. I was covered in dirt and shaking with adrenaline and had to rush in to work for a meeting. I got there and had a phone call from my client that he was going to be late and letting me know there was an accident on the highway. I had to laugh and say oh believe me I know!    

I knew a run would help me calm down a little so I figured it was good that it was a speed day! I set up the following interval run: 5 sets of 1min fast (5k pace), with 1 mins recovery jog and 5 sets of 2 mins fast with 3 mins recovery jog. With the speed portions at no slower than 7 mins/mile. 

My running buddy was complaining that that was too fast and that it wasnt fair that he has to run at my 5k pace. He thought 7min/mile was "sick" and what was I thinking...lol  Well we started out and I was getting really discouraged because at the end of each interval it was telling me our pace was between 7-8.5mins/mile. So I kept trying to run faster and was wondering if maybe my legs were just tired from the longer run the day before. It was also a hillier route so I thought maybe that was the issue. I kept trying to pick up the pace but I couldnt get them down below 7 and I was kinda bummed by the end of the last interval. We were both commenting on how tough of a speed drill that was...

Then I got back to the office and looked at my intervals. I realized the pace it was telling me was the combined fast part and recovery jog pace together...oops. Our pace on our speed portions was actually as follows... 

So really we kicked ass, no wonder it felt hard!! I had to send him a screenshot of our times with a "dont kill me but...." lol. I have done well sticking to my calorie goal so far this week as well. Tomorrow is a rest day as I am working from 4:45am-9:15pm...yuck!! lots of travel and field time. I have my snacks and food all packed though. 

Making time to run!

I knew Saturday was going to be a crazy busy day. I had to take Tegan to gymnastics, both girls to a birthday party and then head up to my moms for the night. I figured the only time I could get a run in would be during T's gymnastics class. I dropped her off and set up my phone so that I would run for 55mins that way I would get back just as her class was finishing. I included 5mins of warm-up and planned an out and back route. I set the announcements to let me know when I hit the half-way mark time-wise so I could turn around and come back.  

The first half-mile I was aware of my sore foot and could feel I was favoring my other leg. But by the time my warm-up was done it had gone away. I was in such a running mood. The weather was great, just misting slightly and not too hot or cold. I picked a flat course and was on such a high listening to my tunes and pushing myself a bit speed-wise. My goal was to get 7 miles done in the 55mins and I got just over that :)

I ended up doing an average pace of 7:36min/mile after the warm-up which felt good. 

I got back right as the class was finishing and was pleased to have snuck in a good run on a busy day! 

(feeling pleased!)

My little one was so excited to go to the birthday party she was waiting with her bag packed and shoes on, but still in her pajamas! I told her she couldnt put her party dress on till after she had eaten lunch :)

(I love her cheesy grin!)

I took the girls to the party and packed my own salad to bring. I managed to avoid all party temptations (chips, cake, pizza, etc...). They had a great face painter at the party and I love that Hanna chose to be a green puppy in amongst all the purple and pink princesses :)

Tegan was thrilled that the woman painted blue eye-shadow on her as she felt like she had make-up on. Ahh...my girly-girl...I dont know where you got it from :)

The rest of the weekend was spent at my mom's as my step-dad's celebration of life was on Sunday. It was a really sweet celebration of who he was, the things he loved and being together with family. I ate more than I should but such is life at these things. I didnt go into that event expecting not too.

I got back late last night and got right back on track today. Ate well today and even though work was crazy I snuck out for a short trail run on some trails beside my office. They are quite technical so its a watch your footing and go slow type of run, but a beautiful spot. I also got my weights done and had to up my push-ups to 25. I got home and did some meal planning and groceries for the week. I'm in meetings for most of tomorrow but hoping to finish around 3 and sneak a run in before I need to pick up T from daycare. 

Weekly Weigh-In

Today was my weekly weigh-in and I was pleased to be back at 136.6. I feel much happier with my weight below 137.  

I ate well for most of the week and got lots of exercise in. That my highest daily calories burned and lowest daily average calories. Which is great...

I am still trying to take it easy on my foot to make sure that I dont do any further damage to it. So today at lunch I did a short, easy trail run.  I didnt feel much tenderness at all so I think tomorrow I will run again and this time with some more speed but on a fairly flat spot. 

I also took the chance to stop at Save-On foods and take my body fat and blood pressure. Down a tiny bit on body fat and a bit lower on BP too. I'm pleased with the low pulse rate. 

So just over here fighting the good fight and trying to figure out what works and what doesnt :)

Injured or false alarm?

Wednesday I had a field day for work. I had to inspect a couple trails and rec sites and give my new staff member a tour. Normally if I was working solo I would just plan to run during my lunch or on one of the trails. But I couldnt really ditch the new guy for an hour! I was kinda bummed because I had taken Tuesday as a rest day and 2 rest days in a row is just blasphemy :) But I figured at least we would be outside and doing some walking/hiking and maybe we could finish early. 

So we started our day and it was raining off and on. We walked a couple short trails and toured the sites we needed to. I packed all my own food and managed to avoid the lure of Tim Hortons advertising that their Nutella donuts are back...

I realized near the end of the day we were ahead of schedule. I figured once I got back to town I would have time to put in an hour long run. I was pumped! We had done a decent amount of walking throughout the day and there was no pain from my heel. So I whipped home, got my running gear on and set up my app to do an hour at 8:20 mins/mile or less. I headed out and made it maybe 100m and had this sharp shooting pain along the outside of my left foot. Right from below my ankle bone to about half way down my foot (across from my arch). This was not a maybe you need to loosen up type of pain, this was a stop right now something is wrong... 

I was mad...my plans were foiled. I was so in the mood to run and I couldnt. I actually drove to the gym instead as I still had 45mins before I had to pick up the kids from daycare and I wanted to get some physical activity in. I worked on my upper body and core, but my heart just wasnt into it. I think I spent half the time texting people how distraught I was. By the time I got the kids and got home I was a disaster...I love running with a passion and when I cant do it I am miserable. My husband looked almost scared when I told him and was saying he was going to have to mentally prepare for the coming days of "Grumpy Jess"...lol. 

 I did a lot of googling on the pain I was having and the spot that hurt sounded like my peroneal tendon. Of course everything said to stay off of it and ice it...

It wasnt bothering me when I walked around so I decided to go to the grocery store to pick up a few things. Well I wore my flip-flops and I didnt realize till I got there that trying to walk in them made the pain so much worse! I was hobbling around the store and leaning on the cart just to get around! I got home and got set up in bed with an ice pack and took an anti-inflammatory. 

I woke up this morning and it felt ok to walk on. But it hadnt bugged me to walk on the morning before either so I didnt know if that really meant anything. I told my running buddy that there was about a 90% chance I wouldnt be running today. That I would do a test jog at about 10am and if there was any pain I was cancelling our run. I continued to ice my foot off and on throughout the morning and took more ibuprofen. At 10 I went for a quick jog to see how it felt. I was a little aware of the spot that had hurt before but there was no shooting pain at all. You know there's that voice that tells you the smart thing to do is to just stay off it totally. Then there's than running addict devil on your other shoulder telling you, you've already taken two days off and you'll go real slow and you need your fix... well you can imagine who won that mental battle :) 

So I told my running buddy we were on but I was going to go slow and I reserved the right to bail at any time. So we headed out and our route is 2.5miles out with rolling uphills and then turn around and come back down. On the flatter sections I felt good and there was no pain. On a couple of the steeper hill sections I could feel a bit of tenderness, no sharp pain but once again I was aware of that spot. Once we hit the flat top and turned around to head back down there was zero pain or tenderness at all for the whole run back. I was pretty happy!!  Slow run...but I dont care, beats the scenarios I had playing out in my head!

I'm assuming the extra long run I did on Sunday with the 2400ft of ascent must have inflamed that tendon...that'll teach me! Too big of a jump in distance going from 24 to 30k.  I'm feeling cautiously optimistic though and hoping that if I reduce my mileage and pace for the next week or so the tenderness will go away. For now I'm continuing with the RICE formula...although yes I suck at the "rest" part!!