WENDY’S WORKOUTS MARCH 2ND-MARCH 8TH

Saturday and Sunday: No workouts. The weekends are my biggest challenge. Trying to squeeze in a workout in between the chaos of these two days is something I’ve yet to figure out. Yes, I could wakeup at 5am and do it then, but come on! It’s my weekend too!!

Monday: No workout. I typically hit it hard on Mondays. But today one of my friends ended up in the hospital so I was with her. I started to stress out about not working out 3 days in a row, but you have to always remind yourself, life happens. And being there for a friend is way more important than riding my bike.

Tuesday: I hiked for 50 minutes to the top of rattle snake mountain with my friend who’s diabetic. I’m helping him lose weight and on this day he told me his doctor hopes to have him off insulin in 3 months. YAHOOOOOO! And this is what the top of rattle snake looks like… in case you’ve never been up here.

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Wednsday: I rode my wind trainer for 2 hours. It was snowy and cold in Reno on this day so I was forced inside. However, truth be told, I have a huge crush on Mr. Reese so thankfully I had a few episodes of Person of Interest on my DVR. The time flew by!

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Thursday: I ran for 40 minutes and then hit the pool. I swam 3200 yards (128 laps for all you non swimmers). I swam 2000 straight and timed myself the last half mile. 13 minutes. I’m hoping to get that down to 11. Then I pulled 10X100 on 1:45. 200 cool down. YES I COUNT MY COOL DOWN YARDAGE!! Plus, check out my new cute “Dolphin Ugly” swimsuit. These suits are said to hold their shape way better than other suits. I’ll let you know if I agree! (nice goggle eyes!)

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Friday: No workout. Was hoping to get on the wind trainer for an hour but again, life got in the way. As my coach always has to remind me, the stress of not working out is way worse than simply not working out. Life happens, and that’s ok!

 

 

 

 

WHEN SHOULD YOU STOP RUNNING?

To answer the question about when to stop running, I had to seek out a Sikh.  And look…I found one!  Amazingly, Fauja Singh and I have something in common.   We run to save ourselves. We run because it’s our therapy.  We run because that’s how we deal with pain.  I lost my parents back to back.  He lost his wife and son back to back.  Both of us turned to training to continue living life.  At one point, we both faced a fork in the road.  The path to the left led to depression, saddness, hopelessness.  The path on the right lead to peace, therapy, hope.  Fauja and I CHOSE the right path.  We CHOOSE to stay on that path.  Every day, we all make decisions.  Fauja and I make a conscious decision to live a life where endorfins flow freely through our bodies lifting our spirits, our hearts, our minds and our sights.  I do believe the path of depression would be easier.  But it’s not the right path.  The right path is hard and takes determination and grit.  But if an 89 year old man can choose to stay on that path for more than 10 years, I have a lifetime ahead of me on the right path.  And in the end, running saved Fauja’s life… just like it’s saving mine.  So I guess the answer to the question of when you should stop running is simple.  When you’re 101. 

 

101-year-old vegetarian runner completes his final marathon

, NBC Sports

Feb 25, 2013, 11:00 AM EST

2013 Hong Kong Marathon Getty Images

Fauja Singh, the oldest runner ever to complete a full marathon, finished his final race on Sunday, and now will hang up his competitive running shoes for good. From now on, Singh, who will soon be 102 years old, will run just for fun, “to inspire the masses.”

Singh ran in the 10k division of the Hong Kong Marathon, and completed the 6.25-mile race in 1 hour, 32 minutes, 28 seconds.

The Indian-born runner, nicknamed the Turbaned Torpedo, took up running at the age of 89 to help with his grief when both his wife and son died. A great-grandfather, he unofficially became the oldest man to run a full marathon when he ran in Toronto in 2011, at the age of 100. But he is not recognized by the Guinness Book of the World Records because he doesn’t have a birth certificate. Danged birthers.  “I will remember this day. I will miss it,” Singh said minutes after crossing the finish line.

Singh completed nine full marathons after the age of 89.

IT Band Issues

Do you know what this is?

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It’s a roller. Or as its referred to in my house, a fucking roller. If you’ve never used one you might think I’m being crass. If you’ve used one, you totally understand. I even put Donner in the picture to try and make me like it more. It didn’t work.

If you’re a runner you know about your I-T band. The iliotibial band runs along the outside of your legs from your hips to your knees. They basically hold our upper body and lower body together. I think of them as guitar strings. Each time I run my body is plucking away at them. Now if my legs would just make music as I jogged along. That would be cool!

I-T bands tend to get inflamed. That’s where the fucking roller comes in. You have to roll them out like a baker does a ball of dough. AND IT SUCKS! It hurts more than walking over hot coals. Trust me I know!

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You begin by laying on your right side with your right elbow supporting your upper body and your right leg on the roller. Your left leg can either be bent forward to give you some support or if you’re a masochist you can lay your left leg on top of your right. And then you begin to roll up and down. Eventually you’ll find a hot spot. You are supposed to stop on that spot and hold for 90 seconds. I’ve never gotten past 23. It feels like your leg is going to snap in two.

But what really sucks about the fucking roller? It really works. I recently went to my chiropractor complaining of right hip and left hip flexor pain. She checked my I-T band.  The right one was super tight.  She said go home and roll it and it will take care of both of your complaints. Sure enough, after rolling it just one night much of the pain is gone. Damn! I hate it when the prescription to get better is the fucking roller!

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COLLEGE SPORTS

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Why is it every time I watch the BCS championship football game, I cry? Why is it that even the pre game show makes me fight back tears? Well, it’s because college athletics IS THE GREATEST THING ON EARTH! There is no greater high for a college kid than getting to compete for your school. The be a part of a family that’s roots run generations deep. To be on a team where everyone has the same goal: to win, hopefully with integrity, grace and grit. We get to watch these kids every Saturday during their game. But I know from personal experience what happens when the cameras aren’t there. I swam for the University of Nevada. My teammates and I woke up three mornings a week at 4:30 to be in the pool by 5. We swam every afternoon before heading to night classes. We said “No thank you. We can’t” to weekend social events because our meets often took us on the road. Yes. There were huge sacrifices. But they were all so worth it because we were a part of a team. We were sisters who may not have shared a bloodline but we shared a dedication to that black line at the bottom of the pool. That line was our goal line on the football field. We crossed the T into the wall before our competition enough times to go 31-0 my sophomore year. And I have that championship ring forever. I no longer have the stamina (nor desire!) to swim 7,000 yards a day. But I do miss being a part of a team. And that’s why I cry when I see these 19 and 20 year olds talk about their team. Because there’s nothing that compares to being on a sports team. And that’s why we encourage our kids to compete in sports. To be on a team. To get that feeling that only sports provides. It’s the greatest high we can only hope our kids embrace.

 

BRANDI CHASTAIN

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Brandi Chastain Celebrates after 1999 World Cup Win

Eva and I got to eat dinner with Brandi Chastain. No really! I was the emcee for the Salute to Champions dinner for women’s athletics at the University of Nevada and so they sat us right next to Brandi for dinner. So what?? you ask!! Ok so soccer isn’t exactly America’s favorite pastime and Monday Night Soccer 20121109-112950.jpgwill likely never be aired on a network. But sports heroes, from any sport, are my kind if heroes. And Brandi is one of the all time greatest in her sport. And she’s a really cool chick as well. She fully engaged Eva in conversation, even pulled out her iPhone to show us pictures of her 6 year old son, Jayden. During her speech, she had lessons on competing, celebrating (remember she made celebrating famous for ripping off her shirt after winning the

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 World Cup game against China) and not giving up on people. But the lesson that struck the deepest chord in me was about communication. During one of the World Cup games, Brandi accidentally shot a goal in the wrong goal!! Right after, her teammate Carla came running up to her and said, “Don’t worry about it. We are going to win this game and you are going to be a big part of that win.” Well they did. 3-2. And Brandi ended up scoring the final goal. But her game could have gone horribly wrong had her teammates blamed her for giving the other team a point. Her head could have been hung low by her teammates instead of held up high. Communication is so life changing. We don’t realize how powerful it can be. I think about all the times Eva spilled milk at the dinner table and I got on her case for making a mess. Wouldn’t the situation have been better handled had I said, “Let’s clean up the mess and try again tomorrow night. I believe in you.” How many times do we communicate negatively and gotten nowhere. When we encourage instead of dispirit the only option is improvement. Words may not break our bones but when used wisely they can actually make us stronger. Thank you, Brandi Chastain, for communicating that to me.

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WHERE HAVE I BEEN??

20121107-120012.jpgWhen I started this blog my goal was to write about 4 posts a week. I don’t want you to feel over burdened with updates from WENDY!!! Wendy all the time could get a little taxing… just ask my husband! But I haven’t posted anything in quite awhile. Yes life has been busy. Domi’s football team made it to the Superbowl!! So we’ve been planning for that this weekend. Eva has had cheer competitions and practices to get ready for the Superbowl. And yes there was a little something called20121107-120019.jpg Campaign 2012 that added to my workload. But those really haven’t been the main reasons to not post. I finally figured out what it comes down to is an overwhelming sense of anxiety caused by surviving the first year of holidays without my mom. It’s like I’ve been on a wave for the past year, paddling just to stay afloat, but the wave is growing and becoming monstrous and gigantic and threatening to bury me with an endless shower of tears. Forcing me under where I can’t breathe. Keeping me down in the darkness. I’m afraid of that wave crashing on top of me. But I know it’s coming, I sense it every day in the back of my throat as I gulp back tears. And sadness is not motivating. It makes me want to sit quietly and hope I don’t get noticed. And while I have lots of fun, quirky things to share with all of you from life on the ranch, my training, etc., suddenly it seems uninteresting. My sadness is dulling my sense of humor. And that’s why I’m writing this post. Because I have to get back out there. I needed to explain where I am in the hopes it will shed some layers of depression. I want to write funny posts but have felt like a fraud because deep within me I’m crying. So there it is. My purge. My crashing to the bottom of the ocean. My wave is on top of me… and I’m surviving it. I’ve taken the first small strokes to the surface by writing this post. The next two months will be about my slow swim back to the sunlight from the depths of my holiday sadness. And then I’ll start paddling out to sea in the hopes of catching another wave that I can ride for awhile. I know it too will crash on top of me but that’s ok. I’m surviving this wave and I’ll survive the next one too. Have you felt this way?  Do you know what I’m talking about?  Am I making any sense??  Man, grief messes with your mind!!  And now I’m going to go eat a bowl of ice cream!