Too Much to Say

I am going to make a better effort at staying up to date on my blog. I have been incredibly busy with the new house, training for the marathon, and teaching. The new house is amazing. We have officially completed 5 rooms and a major hallway (which included stairs). Today, we scraped off a ton of popcorn (yep, on the ceiling) in the sunroom and kitchen. The kitchen remodel will begin officially in two weeks, but we are doing some major drywall work before the hole gets cut in the wall and the floor tile gets taken out. Simultaneous to the kitchen and sunroom remodel, there is a half bath that is being gutted and redone. That is more my project and the wallpaper came down yesterday. Fun. Here is a photo of our bedroom "before" and "after".



Marathon training is well on its way. I officially have a 22, 24, and 20 mile long run left. I completed my 20 miler yesterday feeling really good. My last 4 weeks have been 15.5, 17, 18, and then 20 milers. I rest this week, build up a bit more, and then taper. Although I have worked hills to death, they still aren't coming as easy as I had hoped by now. They are on my list for this week AGAIN! My long runs are averaging 8:40ish pace. I have normal long run aches, but really nothing from my hip to even bother mentioning. After I complete this marathon (June 11), I will cut back to half marathon distance and mountain biking and try to find some races that are around that. I have really picked up on mountain biking because of all of the trails by my house.

This school year has been the best ever. My colleagues, as well as my students, have been amazing. I feel privileged to say I work with friends. My students are all a great bunch too. I will miss them when it is time to move in just 5 short weeks. I am in the process of "going for" distinguished within my district. This has added a bit of extra work, but mostly I just have to be ready for a team to come observe me at any given moment. I am excited to go through this experience and will hopefully be a better teacher for it.

There is more...

Where Have I Been?

This time of year always becomes filled up with lesson planning, preparing for CSAP, and then administering the "BIG TEST" in just a few short weeks (four to be exact, but who's counting?). I am looking forward to spring break more than ever this year because we are moving at the end of February, and that week will be well spent.
Our New "Old" House!

Summer can't come fast enough. As much as I love spring, and WILL enjoy it, I am ready for summer. For the first time in my Harrison career, I have had not one snow day, but two. Our high temp for yesterday was -5 and the high for today was suppose to be 2, but I only saw 0 in my car. A big warm-up tomorrow, 40+ degrees!

Marathon training has officially began. (All you hipsters will probably be interested to know how I'm doing 7 months post-op...) I am up to 12 miles on a long run. Glad to report that I am running my long runs just about :15 seconds slower than I was prior to surgery. Around a 9 minute pace. I did my first official tempo run this last Monday - torturious like I remember, and I was able to hold a 7:50 for three solid miles (total distance of run was 7 miles) in wind with temps around 7+. I am extremely happy with my speed and where I am at already. I would be thrilled to just stay here. That being said...my strength, especially on hills, just plain ol' stinks. It is not even so-so, it is miserable. My legs turn to jell-o and my breath gets short. So I am embarking on a few "hill" workouts to try and remedy this situation. I did one today and am already feeling hopeful. My workouts look like this: Saturday - long run, Monday - tempo style run (medium distance), and Thursday -intervals (except for now I am working on hills). I will be doing two to three difficult hilly trail runs a month to work on those hills as well. In March, I will add in a minimum of one day of mountain biking (difficult) a week. Right now I am doing spin at least one day a week and lifting two. Overall, I would say I am pretty much back to normal. So happy with my results.

So happy in every day life, our life!

Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve and Day up in the Colorado mountains, skiing! The time as a family was precious, and we all enjoyed every second. It was Halee and Christian's first time to ski, and they both exceeded our expectations. We even caught Santa taking a break!
And on a side note (at this point), my hip did amazing. I just completed my 6 month post-op questionnaire on my daily activities, including running-for me, and scored a perfect 80 out of 80. What a great Christmas!

This Year!

I'm definately saying "good-bye" to this year and welcoming next! I am finally about 99% pain-free. I can still find the pain occasionally and HAVE to use a pillow to prop my leg up at night, but all in all, I feel completely normal. I am running fairly difficult single-track trail runs now. Marc and I enjoyed a 6 miler yesterday with the dogs. My distance continues to stick around that mark, but I WILL do 7 miles before December ends. I have signed up for a series of races that begins at a 10K distance and 4 races later, ends at a 20K distance - adding 2 miles every two weeks. Marc and I reflected this last weekend on this series last year: we ran it with Halee as training for her half-marathon. Her half-marathon was the last big thing I did before deciding to go to the doctor in last March. So in February, I will be up to 12+ miles and ready to begin marathon training right after.

I am better than I thought I would ever be. I run consistently at a 9-9:15 minute pace. I had hoped for below 10:00, but feared 12:00. I have been working on hills on EVERY run. My uphill is slowly improving while there is not much, nor will there ever be, much success on the down. I have been told to be careful, and my natural fear of getting reinjured makes it impossible to go crazy.

I think I am better than my doctor or PT ever thought I would be. I am just over 5 months post-op (Dec. 8) and back to normal. Dr. White will be doing my 6 month post-op over the phone since everything is going well. I can't wait to tell him how great things are going.

I am looking forward to a fun-filled, relaxing, adventurous 2011!

Crazy Hard

This title is two-fold: I have been working "crazy hard" and when I run, the cardio part is, yes, "crazy hard." I'll start with work. We are getting ready for our mid-year assessment this week. I spent all of thanksgiving break planning a huge review of what the students have learned this year, including many aspects of the test. It is like a mini-CSAP, but just for our district. Since my district is "pay-for-performance," my pay is partly based on these tests, as well as a whole lotta more stuff. Either way, I always promise my students that they will be ready for the test if we all work hard. It gives them comfort to at least know we all are doing our best.

Running. I have been running fairly regularly. My long run yesterday: 6.2 miles (10K-coincidentally). I added in hills last weekend and am slowly adding in distance. I will work up to 7 or 8 through December, with a bunch more hills. Strength is not my specialty, so I figure some hills will help me out. I am lifting and doing spin to work on getting stronger all over. Cardio is my number one struggle. My legs feel like they can go, fairly pain-free although I will admit, I can still feel the injury every day. But my breathing is out of control. I have only ran with others, not alone, but the talking during a run is almost impossible the first mile. On easy hills (for Colorado - or normal hills for everyone else), I am fairly consistent at a 9:15 pace. My hopes: to add miles and difficulty and attempt to maintain somewhere around that pace. I will be thrilled if I run a 9 min pace regularly for several years. It is not where I WAS, but it is reasonable. I am still planning on running the Turkey Track Marathon in Pagosa Springs this June, and that goal is feeling more and more achievable. Just two weeks ago, the thought of a marathon was a tiny bit overwhelming. Building my mileage and difficulty, is building my confidence. Most of all, it's just nice to be able to go for a run on a beautiful Colorado day.

My First Race...Kind Of.

Lots to share. I have been running, kind of, again since the beginning of November, so really only about 3 weeks. With getting back into the swing of things, in that aspect, it has been hard to run more than two times per week. The first few times, were tough. I walked 9 minutes, ran 2, and so on. The next time, ran 3 minutes, and then walked for 8. This process continued for about 4 runs when I started to pay a little attention to my running pace. I can hear you all now, "Why would you even care yet?" or "Are you crazy, just relax, at least you CAN run." However, as I realized this weekend, pace will always matter no matter how much I don't want it to. Last week I got my walk breaks down to 4 minutes, running for 7 minutes in anticipation of my Turkey Trot Predict this last weekend. Left in charge of predicting my finish time, I started talking myself into a 33 minute 5K. (I should say that in my past life, I could run a 5K in about 21 minutes.) Through the process (the week), it went down to a 30 minute 5K. By the time we, Marc and I, started the race, I officially predicted 29:45, in hopes of breaking 30 minutes.

Being a predict, I couldn't wear a watch and decided to take walk breaks at the 2 mile and 3 mile point. With no mile markers, this quickly changed to at the water stops - there ended up being only one. I walked for about 20 seconds. With about a half of a mile to go, and after staring at the back of two girl's heads the entire race, I decided that I needed to pass them. So in my new fashion, probably about an 8 min per mile pace, I kicked it in and passed them. I finished the race and said, "Well, I won't know if I overdid it until Monday." It's Monday, and I feel great. And my finishing time...drumroll...28:06. (9:04 pace)Not too bad. As we walked to the car Marc said, "You will never be able to run just for fun." I quickly pointed out that my pace was 2 min per mile slower than before, and that may be what it is for a while, but it is all good. At least I can run again.

Interesting or Scary?

About a week before my surgery, all the way back at the beginning of July, my right eye got cloudy. Being a contact wearer for about 18 years now, I figured they were old and I needed to change it out. So I did. It remained the same state. So I quickly called the eye Dr. to get in and have them take a quick look before my surgery so I wasn't living with it for months, figured they would adjust my prescription, and send me off with a new contact. After checking my vision, they couldn't correct it with the whole "better or worse" system and decided to run a few scans on it. They checked my peripheral, the shape, the retina, etc. and nothing. I could barely make out the second line, the one just below the big fat "E", on the chart and so my prescription remained -4.0 in my right eye. (My left eye is normal at -5.75 or so, and I see fine with correction.) I left the office with no answers; however, they did give me a bit of advice, "After surgery, wear glasses for a bit and see if it gets any better. It will either get better or worse over time." So I did just that. I wore my glasses for several days, no change, but I could care less since my worries were somewhere else.

Skip ahead 3 months to October, and my regular eye exam. "Is it better, or worse, or the same?" I replied, "It's still blurry." Performing another eye exam, they could still only correct my vision to the same point. He said it had actually gotten a little worse and to stop wearing my contacts. He ran more tests, and nothing. He briefly mentions MS, but says he shouldn't have said anything. So I stopped wearing my contacts and he asked to see me back in two weeks to see what that would do.

Two weeks later. My eye doctor has been consulting with a retina specialist, who is also his friend. He said they have talked several times at length about me and are puzzled. They have never seen ANYTHING like this. So I inquire what EXACTLY is going on. At this visit, he says, "When I give you the exam," (the whole better or worse test) "your eye is now -1.25! IT HAS SELF-CORRECTED!" Your first reaction is to probably say, "Wow, that's amazing. That's a good thing right?" Because that is the one and only response I've gotten when I tell people. However, an eye doesn't just self-correct. And it doesn't do it to that degree. His explanation, along with the retina specialist, "Something has to be pushing on the optic nerve in order for this happen." He again, briefly mentions MS, but again, says it's not likely. Since wearing glasses, they can correct it to 20/25. So I can see now.

Two weeks later. I have now seen the retina specialist. He has examined me, and nothing. Dr. Hampton, my doctor, and Dr. Luu, the retina specialist, feel I should have a CT of my orbits, just to make sure there isn't a tumor - which they feel they would have seen with total dilation. But just to be sure. I'm sitting in the waiting room for my CT and a tech comes out to find out what is going on. She says she needs to talk to her radiologist before they take me back. A few minutes later she returns to tell me that, "The radiologist has NEVER seen anything like this and he really feels that I need an MRI to get a more complete picture." Of course, this has to be reordered by the Dr. Back a few weeks ago, they also got my medical doctor involved, and he is the one that ordered the CT. Yesterday, the MRI was scheduled, I spoke to my medical doctor, I spoke to my eye doctor, and i spoke to the radiologist. All of whom are saying do not worry, but to continue to pursue an answer.

I have googled it, I have asked every doctor that I come in contact with if they have EVER seen this. No. So I decided to blog about it and ask anyone reading, "Have you ever heard of self-corrected vision?"