An awesome Tempo run and a haircut

Posted on March 26, 2018 by flowerjovia

Good morning. I’m a little late with my post here due to the fact that I was cooking breakfast.

you're kidding right

No, really, I was. And it was very good too, if I do say so myself, and I do.

Remember a week or two ago when I said I needed a new hairstyle? Well thanks to my friend Nicole, I have one.

I love it! She even used the Tyme iron and styled it for me but as awesome as she is at cutting hair she’s an even better makeup artist. I’m gonna have her do my makeup next.

I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to style it myself because I’m not really good at that sort of thing on my own hair but I think I nailed it.

Tyme style

What do you think? Did I nail it?

So, the new hairstyle was my big news for the weekend. I also went to a few garage sales and worked on a project that I’m going to share with you later in the week. The biggest news however was running.

I had a 10 mile mid-tempo run on my calendar for Saturday. I’m not going to lie, I was worried. I knew I could plow through 10 miles but I didn’t think I could hold a pace in the mid 9’s.

Saturday long run

I did it! I was most proud of the fact that I kept a steady pace throughout the entire run because that’s what makes a tempo run so hard.

In a tempo run you have to run at a comfortably hard pace, or about 30 seconds slower than your race pace for the entire run. Since my half marathon race pace is around 9 minutes a mile, I was shooting for a 10 mile run at a 9:30 pace and I finished with an average pace of 9:32.

Tempo runs help increase your lactate threshold but I love them because they help give me the confidence that I can hold a certain pace for a prolonged period of time and that confidence always comes in handy when race day comes!

After such an awesome run on Saturday, I took it easy on Sunday and ran 6 miles at a comfortable pace around the neighborhood. I love feeling like I’m improving but what I’m really looking forward to is racing again….more on that soon.

Do you incorporate tempo runs into your training?

Do you have any races coming up?

When is the last time you changed your hairstyle?

Puzzle piece number two, a mineral, no really.

Posted on February 27, 2018 by flowerjovia

Late last year I went to a new doctor and had my thyroid medicine switched from synthetic to natural. It has helped me immensely but not as much as adding one little mineral to my daily routine has.

The doctor and I talked about my daily routine, how much I work, how much I exercise, how much stress is in my life and then she did some blood work. She noticed, as I always have, that my calcium tends to run on the higher side. It’s not too high but it’s in the upper limit and it always is.

She then explained to me that having a higher calcium level means that your magnesium is probably low.

Except it wasn’t obvious to me because no one ever mentioned it to me before. She suggested that I take a magnesium supplement daily and then she explained why.

Most of us do not get enough magnesium from our foods but we get too much calcium because it is added to our dairy products, dairy alternatives, processed foods, and sometimes orange juice! When your calcium levels become high, magnesium levels can fall. And you can have a whole host of issues if you are deficient in magnesium, such as anxiety and depression, muscle spasms and cramps, high blood pressure, calcification of the arteries, low energy, problems sleeping and it even affects your bone health.

So, I was like, give me all the magnesium!

For my age my body needs 320MG of Magnesium daily so the doctor suggested I take a supplement which provides 250MG daily via two pills because magnesium is found in some foods and you don’t want to take too much. Then you could have issues related to too much magnesium, (like diarrhea). The key is balance.

She did however suggest that if I had a day when I binge on sweets or on days when I do a long run I should take one additional pill which would mean taking 375MG for that day. The reason is because sugar depletes magnesium and also there have been some studies that show that magnesium supplementation has helped patients who suffer from migraine headaches. I was skeptical but I started taking the magnesium as she instructed.

OMG, it worked!

Guess what? Yep, I was able to run long without migraines. And if I was unsure whether or not the magnesium had anything to do with it, I got my answer a few weeks ago.

When the kid was in town we were really busy going to the cabin and to the other house and I was trying to stay on top of work so that I could spend all my time with him and I got lax with my medications and especially my magnesium. I didn’t take it for almost a week.

That Saturday when I ran 12 miles, I got a hellacious migraine and the only thing I could attribute it to was magnesium. I started taking it again and the next few weeks I ran 13.1 and 15.25 miles with no migraines.

If you are curious about how much magnesium you need or the symptoms caused by the lack of it, the NIH has a great article here.

That was the second piece of the puzzle in helping me run headache free and so far it’s been working.

Do you take any supplements?

What and why?

My longest run yet with no migraine and a Hank update

Posted on February 26, 2018 by flowerjovia

Happy Monday to you. I’m a little behind with work and my blog and life in general due to all the trips to the vet and such so this post might be all over the place and full of typos and grammatical errors so, bear with me.

Hank is doing really well after his last surgery. The wound is open so we have to use a special type of bandage which unfortunately tends to shift. To help it stay in place the vet suggested doggie pajamas. When she started to tell me where I could find them I had to stop her. Hank already has many pairs but now I have a legit excuse to put them on him.

It’s been a little on the hot side here lately so I haven’t been able to put him in my favorite ones yet, however, it’s supposed to cool down later in the week and once it does, he will get to wear these:

Right? I mean, those pajamas are everything.

On Saturday morning I had to take Hank in for a bandage change and I asked them to give him a shot to help with the itching and 60 bucks and an hour later the bandage was on the living room floor so the pajamas are on until this thing is completely healed.

For those of you who are following along, here is what the wound looks like currently. Click on it to enlarge it but be warned, it’s really gruesome.

There is one little area that looks a little dark to us but I don’t want to have any more skin removed. Instead I ordered this kit and I’ve read really good things about it so MacGyver and I began using it this weekend.

Now, let’s talk running because I had a killer weekend of running. On Saturday I set out very early for a long run. I made sure to take lots of powerade and water with me and I stashed some extra bottles along my route because it was hot. I ran the longest I’ve run since I started to getting migraines, 15.25 miles and I did not get a migraine afterwards.

I didn’t look at my garmin or my phone during the run because I wanted to run by feel. I knew there was no way I could run long if I kept looking at my watch so instead I tried to run at a comfortable pace. My comfortable pace is not really pretty. It looks sort of like this.

And during the 7th and 8th mile I felt like I was flying. I was sure I was running an 8 minute mile or faster. I felt like I could beat anyone. And I was positive I looked like this:

I was a little embarrassed when I looked at my splits later and realized I was running in the 10 and half minute range. So much for me running by feel.

No matter, I still managed to run 15.25 miles. I planned on 16 miles but I had to get to the vet with Hank so I had to stop a bit early. On Sunday, I ran 5 more easy miles because again, it was ridiculously warm.

I have some more things to share with you this week about what I’m doing to keep those long runs migraine free. Tomorrow I’ll share another piece with you.

What did you do this weekend?

Any of you run Gasparilla? Did you see Meb?