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My Health Journey

Sheesh, it's been months since I wrote last.  I'm trying to remember exactly where I left off. My previous post was " How Not to Train for a 50k ".  And, shockingly, I did not do a 50k last year.  I didn't even do the 25k, but I did do the 10 mile version of McDowell Mountain Frenzy.  It started out kind of rough, but I pushed through long enough to finish.  I kind of enjoyed it. Not long after, I started working with a functional medicine doctor to try and determine what exactly I was dealing with health-wise.  I took the entire month of December off from running because I wasn't sure what my body really needed to heal and/or lose a few pounds. That is the cliffnotes version to get us to today.  I have worms .  Ugh.   I actually have a bunch of other stuff wrong with me.  My gut is a mess, my microbiome is all out of whack, and there's all sorts of bacterial presence in my system.  My thyroid doesn't work like it's supposed to, but
Recent posts

How Not to Train for a 50k

I've been spending a lot of time obsessing over the numbers these past few days:  the numbers associated with my 50k training, or lack thereof.  I'm trying to decide if I should just push through and DO IT, despite my lack of training, or if I should drop to the 25k distance on race day and do a race that's a little bit more "my speed".  (If anyone reading this has advice either way, I would love to hear it!!!) A little bit about my plan If you've trained for a marathon before, or looked into it, you probably came across one or more Hal Higdon training plans, among others.  For the 4 marathons I've done, I used his "Novice Supreme" training plan, available here .  It's free and available on the internet, pretty much my requirements for a training plan. When it came to 50k training, I had some trouble finding a plan that was - what I considered to be - my level.  Lots of them include strength training, or hill repeats, or timed runs, or w

My Long-Overdue Recap of Grand Canyon Rim-to-River

I have been meaning to write this up for a long time.  A looooong time, like several months have passed since I went on this adventure.  I briefly mentioned it in my last post, about my hopes to do a separate write-up, but life got in the way and I haven't been able to just sit and write this out from start to finish.  I am having to piece this together over several days and hopefully it doesn't come out too disjointed - but since it was such an amazing trip, and since it's possible I may never do it again, I wanted to make sure I got it down forever on the internet. I don't remember exactly when we decided that we - Kelli and I - would do this, but I believe it was the summer of 2017, and we were both in a running rut.  It's hot as heck here during the summer and it's hard not to be in a rut if you do anything outdoors; plus, that summer I was still trying to figure out what was wrong with my thyroid, so I was just kind of depressed about my weight and genera

The Year of the Dog

Long time, no see!  I changed my "About Me" profile to reflect that I am the occasional blogger, because let's face it:  I am terrible about updating this on a regular basis.  At least if you see a new post you can probably assume I have news to report (although admittedly there's no guarantee of that either).  I just want to get through a couple of quick updates!  If you've looked at my blog in the past then you may notice that I changed the layout and theme.  I have never really found a format that I love, within my knowledge and skills of Blogger, but I do like this one a lot better than the previous version. I've been experimenting with my eating regimen since I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's late last year - I have been gluten free since September and dairy free since the day after Christmas.  Although I haven't lost any weight yet - ugh - I do feel so much better than I did before my diagnosis.  My energy levels are back and probably better

Countdown to Ragnar McDowell Mountain

If I had to sum up how my training went this summer, it would be...  "Hrmph." Or, insert your own onomatopoeia of disgust. If you know me in real life, or read any of my other recent posts, you know that my running has gone downhill (pun intended); not only in my actual ability but in my love of doing it. I don't know if I can use it as my sole excuse, but I did find out I was hypothyroid back in July and was diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis in September.  I do think these new-to-me medical issues have played a big part in my weight gain, my inability to "run it off", my feelings of lethargy and my discouragement with any type of physical activity.  As of right now I am still working on how to live well with this, but I haven't found a solution that makes me feel great yet.  There are far worse things I could be dealing with, but it's hard to be patient with your own health. As for that dreaded physical activity I was talking about, I ha

Summer Blues

It occurred to me when I threw up my quick post about Phoenix Comicon that I never did update the blog with my last two attempts at the sub-2 hour half marathon. Attempt #3 was the 2017 Phoenix Women's Half Marathon in January, which I finished in 2:25 - even slower than the previous two tries.  Attempt #4 would have been the IMS/Sun Health Half Marathon in February, but I convinced some other lovely ladies to drop from the half and do the four-person marathon relay with me instead.  Our team name was Half Kidding.  Thankfully they all seemed pretty willing and I ended up having a pretty fun time. Since then, I've given up the goal of breaking the 2-hour half marathon, at least for a while.  It'll be too hot for me to set any records until winter, even assuming I wasn't completely discouraged by running altogether! In March I did the Vistancia Sprint Triathlon, to try and "step up" my triathlon game.  I was convinced late last year that I would be sign