Third Person Memory: Race for The Rose's

Today's WEGO blog challenge was to write about a memory in third person. So, no usage of "I" or "me" when describing the memory.

The memory is of one not too long ago.

In September 2011, she was hospitalized to treat a complication from Cystic Fibrosis, pulmonary hemoptysis. After being released from the hospital she worked slowly to regain lost lung function. Her method was to be mindful and methodical about each exercise as to not cause further damage to her tender lungs. Over the months she battled a few bouts of the common cold, each time making sure to increase her nebulizers by adding one additional treatment per day as well as modifying her workouts. She could have given up. She could have said I have to much on my plate as it is. She could have placed her running shoes in the junk closet. To be honest, most people would not have blamed her. Most would have thought she was still strong. But she didn't though, she never threw her hands in the air gesturing submission. Giving into CF was not an option; no way, no how.

She continued to push on. Taking two steps forward and not letting the one step back detour her. As time went on she gained much strength and stamina. Her lungs were finally able to withstand a little hard work. She finally was able to run 2 miles none stop. As weeks pasted she built upon those 2 miles, adding a tenth to a quarter mile each week.

On April 1st, as she waited with the thousands at the start line at the Race for The Rose's, tears weld up in her blue eyes and trickled down her freckled face. Tears of jubilation. Tears for all those who have lost their battle with CF. Tears of recognition of how blessed she is to be standing at the start line about to run for the next for 35-40 minutes.

Running the 5k was more about her raw determination than anything else. Her ability to dig deep mustering what little strength the CF left her to complete her goal rather than a goal place upon her because of the CF. As her foot touch the finished she looked over at her husband beaming with pride. No feat is too large. At least in that moment.

~Doodlin'

Secret to Finishing a 5k: Playing the Winning Card

As April 1st quickly, a bit too quickly I might add, rolls upon us so does my goal of running another 5k. The Race for the Roses 5K is fairly flat and straight. The flat part I am beyond grateful for but the straight part has me a bit uneasy.

When running in a straight line or path its really easy to see just how slow your moving. You can see each and every mental marker. The way I run is that I see something, like a stop sign and think to myself, okay just make it to that, then once I have accomplished getting to the stop sign (or whatever) I pick a new mental marker. With each marker I pass I gain confidence and stamina. But the straight line leaves you watching that marker for what seems like all eternity. Thus leaving you to play the mind vs willpower game. Which to be honest is not a game I usually win. However, I have a winning card up my sleeve for just this kind of emergency.

My card is B, who will be running in front of me and let me just say, a 6'2" man does not naturally run at the same pace as a 5'4" gal. His stride is much larger than mine, which places is pace far ahead of me and when he slows down his pace it throws off his mental game, allows more wear & tear on the joints and is just as difficult as keeping a pace that is too fast. He has graciously obliged to run the slow pace because he loves me and because he knows how difficult this goal really is for me. The plan is that he will be running just far enough ahead of me for me to watch his feet. To see the momentum of forward motion, to allow my eyes to feed my brain the motion of running so that willpower to simply stop and walk does not take over.

I have been training so I don't expect to be using my winning card until mile 2.5-3. I have had to make a few changes to my training schedule because of not feeling well, aching joints (arthritis) and the weather. So I haven't gotten to the point in my training that I had hoped. I am not going to let this drag me down though. I am going to run the race and I don't care what my time is. My goal is to simply run the entire 5k.

I have always told myself that there is no failure in making adjustments to my training schedule. It would be a failure to completely give up; which I don't do.

Here's to hoping my secret to finishing is playing my winning card, after all, the card is pretty darn amazing!

~Doodlin'

Sit-Ups and The Battle Between Lots and Little

SIT-UPS~

Upon setting my goal to run the Race for The Roses (kinda fitting given the name of this blog) 5K on April 1st, I have been following a training schedule. This schedule is different than the one I followed when I was in the beginning stage last year of learning to become a runner and getting my body in shape. For the most part, I have maintained a basic level of fitness, thus requiring an elevated training schedule.

This new schedule incorporates doing sit-ups, lunges, squats, wall-sits and the such to help build the long and short muscles to help prevent common injuries that comes with repetitive running stress to the knees, ankles, pelvis, etc. My issue is the darn sit-ups. I don't have excess belly-fat that is hindering the process but rather my muscles have been severed on both sides from a gal-bladder removal (the old fashion cut-you-wide-open method) and my still functioning g-tube. I can only do 5 sit-ups without my abdomen hurting. I have been searching for modified sit-ups but can't find anything that works. Not sure if I should continue with 5 each day and see if any muscle memory develops or what.

I want to be very clear I don't want to lose weight and am not shooting to develop a flat stomach, I am small enough as it is, hence the g-tube. I want to develop these muscles as it helps tremendously with breathing and posture. I need all the good breathing help I can get to fuel my muscles during exercise.

Any ideas?

BATTLE BETWEEN LOTS & LITTLE~

In this house we have what we call the lots and little. I need lots of calories and B needs little. This makes meal planning and grocery shopping a challenge. I need in the upwards of 3500-4000 calories per day and B needs the 1500-2000 per day depending on activity level. I get approximately 2500 calories thru the g-tube but I must then supplement the remaining thru my meals and snacks. Its recommended that I use heavy cream, half & half and real butter, etc, etc. Problem is that B ends up on the heavier end of the recommended weight scale for his gender and age, which of course could lead to him developing health issues. NOT GOOD!!!

Ways that I have separated the two needs are things like making plain mash potatoes then adding my supplements separately or when making our superfood shakes I add powdered supplements to my glass. But we need to cut back on the $$$ we spend on food as health care costs are rising. How do we purchase two sets of food; high calorie and low fat without breaking the bank?

~Doodlin'

I'm Back... I Think

Took an unofficial hiatus for a few weeks. Every time I sat down to compose a post the words would elude me, not sure why, so I took it as a sign to step away for a bit.

I honestly don't have a theme or topic for this post, which is typically the only way I write. I develop a draft in my head that is generally very specific at addressing a topic or theme. Maybe I need to step out of that comfort zone and just let the words do as they will. Who knows!?

Today was CF Clinic, thus I spent the better part of a day under the same roof as all my wonderful doctors and nurses. No matter what the outcome of CF Clinic, I am always overjoyed to walk outside and take a deep breath of fresh air. Today's outcome was good. Not great but good.

My weight is stable at around 124 lbs, O2 was 98% on room air, and my PFT's were average. There were no changes made to any of my medications or regimens. Thank goodness! Rather uneventful to be honest.

In reviewing my stats, I came across some that were REALLY awesome ones from back in April 2011. For the life of me I can't remember what I was doing that caused them to be so good. The one thing I do know is that April was around the time I began running, really running.

I have been needing something to kick my behind back into gear. Well, I got it. I need to start training and pushing these raggedy ole lungs. Tomorrow B and I begin our 5K training program to run the Race for the Rose's on April 1st.

Feels good to have a goal again!

~Doodlin'

Encouragement Anyone?

With my limited experience of running long distance, okay not so long, but I am making great strides in upping my mileage beyond a 5K, I am thinking about how amazing this man must feel. How grateful he must be to have been able to accomplish running the NYC Marathon with CF. This brought me to tears, it gives me hope of what the future can hold. It shows me anything is possible. It encourages me to carry on another day.

Watch this short video.*Warning* you might feel inspired afterwards!!

NYC Marathon Runner w/ CF

Thank you for the encouragement today. Thank you for running for all of us and giving us hope for tomorrow.

~Doodlin'

Starlight Run

In March I embarked on a huge goal; to run a 5K. I trained for 10 weeks. Starting out running 1 mile 3 times a week and adding .25 miles each week until I was able to run the 3 miles.

That sounds easy enough, right? Well, maybe for those of you who have nice pretty pink healthy lunge tissue. For me, my gosh it was a struggle. It's the kinda of struggle that pushed me to do more, to continue on with my goal and most importantly taught me I could do it if I worked hard and prepared enough.

The biggest struggle was coughing while running. I would be sure not to drink lots of water right before I went for a run, but I am telling you as soon as I coughed while running I would not be able to hold my pee. As you can imagine running while the mucus in your lungs is rattling (weezing) causing you to cough uncontrollably and peeing your pants is a ridiculously saddening feeling for a grow adult. However, as I continued to fight thru the embarrasment, pain of burning lungs, sore abs from coughing and of course sore legs from all the running I gained confidence. I also started to not care about peeing pants. Who was going to know? And if they did why did I care what they thought? They don't know me or my situation to appreciate the fact that I was still attempting to reach for the stars. But I did learn to run in black pants rather than bright colors or gray!

On June 4th I ran the 5K Starlight Fun run in Portland Oregon. On June 4th I dug deeper into my mental and physical depths of strength than ever before. On June 4th I crossed the finish line holding my husbands hand and greeted my mom on the other side.

~Doodlin'