Casseroles AGAIN?! - lament of a time cruched athlete-wannabe.

Many of my friends ask how I balance my training with my crazy work schedule, and with my "responsibilities" as a wife , (no, I'm not a slave, but the cooking, cleaning, and laundry responsibilities do fall on me).

I don't have multi-tasking down to perfection (D can attest to this).  Although as I write this blog, I am dual-tasking by spending quality time with my dog Fez in my lap (he likes to help when I'm on the computer by pointing to the exact key on the keyboard that I need).  Laundry and cooking is sporadic.  Cleaning, even more so.  Making sure D has underwear and socks falls ahead of mopping and vacuuming.  And thankfully I survive in either nursing scrubs or workout clothes so my wardrobe essentials are pretty minimal.

I'm thankful for the Elmwood Inn or the Otter Lodge to feed us when I don't have time (or just don't have the energy) to cook.  I've been known to have s'mores or a couple bowls of Cap'n Crunch for dinner and nothing else.  D lives off casseroles when I work - and I'm glad he really doesn't mind.

I don't have racing/training down to a science, either.  I'm not particularly fast (a middle-of-the-packer in mid-distance races), so I don't think that anyone looks to my mediocrity as inspiration, or a goal.

Although I "only" work 36 hours a week (three twelve-hour shifts), those shifts alternate between nights (7pm-7am) and days (7am-7pm).  I only have two patients, but as a Trauma and Burn ICU nurse, often those two patients will keep me on my feet all.  Shift.  Long.

For example, one day I had two patients who each had hourly evaluations (other than their vital signs) due to their mechanism of injury.  Add their medications, hourly vital signs assessments, charting, and helping the nurses to my left and right - it can get REALLY busy.  And often my legs feel like dead weight afterwards.

Thankfully I don't have to work a lot of weekends (two weekends out of every six weeks).  But that said, following a prescribed training plan is pretty much impossible.  I don't get to do my "Long Run Saturdays" or "Tempo Thursdays".  It just gets fit in whenever it gets fit in.  I miss out on doing community stuff, like Monroe Milers - something I would really love to do if I had a normal schedule.

I try to work my "three days" back to back, so I get some consecutive days off in between.  So on those working days, I concentrate just on the running.  I've found running tired (especially after a night shift) to be very beneficial.  I don't often have a goal for these runs, but I hardly call them "junk miles".  At times they turn into 5-mile tempo runs and I surprise myself.  Running tired helps you realize what you can push your body to do - something I learned a lot about when I was training for Sehgahunda 2011 (which was by far my worst race in terms of how I fell apart, but one from which I learned from).

On the days I don't work, I often cram in brick workouts (swim/bike or bike/run) or two-a-days.  I don't do specific "speedwork", and only occasionally get in a hill workout.  Over the past year I haven't been running trails as much, although I love running trails in the wintertime the most, so I see this changing over the next few months.  Once or twice a week I hit the pool at UofR.  I don't have a specific triathlon in mind right now, but as my body has responded well to multi-sport disciplines (both in health and my weight), I see this as being my direction go forward (my dream was once do to trail ultras, but as my ankle has been re-damaged annually on trails, I see 26.3 as my max limit on trails).

At times, I feel guilt for not being a better wife - I honestly do try my best.  D is busy too.  And our schedules do not mesh together:  We spend very little time together when you look at how many hours are in a week.  Often I may skip a workout altogether when he gets the rare early night home.  And so be it.

So, there is my (albeit poor) balancing act in a nutshell.  But over the past few months I can't say that it hasn't worked for me:  Since September, I placed third in my age group at a super-sprint duathlon, and I PRd in the half-marathon and 5k (both by over 90 seconds).  I guess these personal triumphs just affirmed to me that quality over quantity will reap decent rewards.  I know that my "success", as others may define it (i.e. consistent AG placing, or winning), will be very limited because I can only dedicate X-hours a week to training - and I refuse to sacrifice family and sanity any more than I have.  But considering that this girl only started running 4.5 years ago, I'm pretty darn happy with how far I've come.

Goals you set to achieve, and the ones that surprise you...

There always seems to be a benchmark for runners to cover at least 1000 miles within a calendar year.  Granted, many do more.  Every year I hope to run 1000 miles and have yet to make it.  This year, though,  I haven't beat myself up over it.

This year, I evolved in other ways.  I became a smarter runner, and learned a lot about what my body tells me.  I learned what limits I can push, what I can't, and what I need to do when I'm not running in order to be a better runner.  Good tools in the toolbox for 2012, when maybe I'll run 1000 miles...or more.

I did accomplish other things that were pretty important, though.   I graduated nursing school, landed a great job (two goals right there), and we are financially in a better place because of it - not that we were in a bad place, but things we needed - or even wanted - came a little bit easier now that we are finally a 2-income household again.  Being the checkbook holder in the family, I cut some unnecessary expenses (ex-naying the Cable, changing car insurance companies) - something I'm proud of.  Once in a while, I have to put my foot down with Dave when he sees a shiny new gun or pickup truck.

Thankfully after pouting for a half day or so, he sees things my way :-)

I'd like to think I'm a better wife now - Army (both my career and Dave's) and nursing school has been competing with that goal against my own intentions pretty much since we got married.

So, it's not all about running.  I always will want to be a better runner.  But as we start thinking about starting a family I am realizing that it needs to be incorporated into other things in life.  Well, actually, I've known that all along but it's only been in the past 6-8 months that I have been *okay* with that realization.  I have a lot of people to look up to for that...local runner Kim R. for one, continues to tackle ultras while working full time and raising three kids.  My godson's father, Pete F. who is a multi-tasker/hunter/gatherer/provider extraordinaire, in my opinion, will never cease to amaze me.

The potentials of being a mom (NO! I am NOT pregnant yet!  Don't start rumors!) are a bit daunting, but are challenges I looking forward to now.

Other things I have cherished over the past year were goals I never set out to accomplish in the first place. I have developed new friendships (bbmhfabgglz) with people who I really cherish today, cut ties with some parasites, and am generally in a happier place that I've ever been because of it.

So, in all, 2011 has been a great year - and I'm excited for 2012!

I'll sleep when I'm dead

For some reason, I drew the short straw when it came to working night shifts during orientation (which is 6 months).  Seems like all I work are nights.  In a way I like the night shift because you don't have dozens of consults, residents, attendings, chiefs etc. asking questions, so you can concentrate on your patients.  But I had a very complicated patient (the other was very stable) this week which took a bit out of me when I don't get enough sleep.



With three back-to-back night shifts I knew fitting in my running was going to be tough, but I got it done. One run was right after I got off work, and ironically was one of my best runs to date...

I had no clue where the mojo came from, but only hoped it would stick around for the race on Saturday, which I inadvertently signed up for not realizing that I worked until 7:30AM (and the race started at 9!)

The orientation program at the Burn-Trauma ICU at Strong Memorial Hospital is 6 months long.  In general, we spend about 16 hours a week in class or doing online education, and 24 hours a week in clinical (some weeks, like this week, we only had one education day).  With our group, though, we have yet to start the formalized ICU education program that will teach us the specific points of working in an ICU environment.  I'm anxious to get to start this, as with some of these complicated patients I feel I can only contribute in very shallow terms since we haven't started the ICU program, and frankly a general nursing education (baccalaureate or otherwise) barely skims the material you need to know.  I'm looking forward to a point where I know what the hell people are talking about.

Nights are hard to get used to, and I really only get about 3-4 hours of sleep in between shifts, despite wearing an eye mask, drinking decaf tea (my nightly ritual before bed) and even taking a melatonin.  So, going into Saturday's race with 12 hours of sleep (over 3 days)...well, it was going to be interesting.

Summerfest 12k was my 4th race in 3 weeks.  So, on top of little sleep and night shifts, my only goal was to finish and not do a face-plant until after the finish line.  Of course, I was hoping that my pace would fall into place as easily as my run on Thursday, but it was not to be.  I started out at about a 9:40-9:50 pace, but the heat (an unseasonably hot 84 degrees with high humidity), and the lack of shade got to me at about mile 3.5 or so.  The hills, not so much...I tackled them with reckless abandon until cramps got in the way.  So, I bagged any sort of pace goal and rolled into the finish with about a 10:30 min/mile.  Meh...I'm good with that.

Can't say it wasn't hot!  (photo courtesy Barb Boutillier)

Wait for it. Waaaaaaait for it...

The past week or so of running for me has been spot-frikkin'-on.  Which is scary.

A quick recap:
1)  The "'Dam' Good Trail Race" on the 21st, while wasn't stellar for me in the finishing order, was a breakthrough for me in trail running.  Speed is getting up there, but I remained upright and felt good the entire race.

2)  The "Time to Sperr" 10k, held annually in honor of NY State Trooper Andrew Sperr, was a PR for me.  I felt good until the last mile (which really wasn't that horrible) and cruised in at 57:26



My trail run for "Salomon Sunday", albeit not a really technical one, felt really good, even after a race day.  But then again I was a back-of-the-packer to make sure we didn't lose anyone.



Speed workout yesterday felt just okay, but I got it done.

So....what could go wrong?  In the three years I've been running, something always gets messed up just then things get good.  But my knees are feeling okay, I'm not having any major aches or pains except for sore arches when I wake in the morning (which don't cause me problems during a run).

I have three days of working nights this week (somehow I drew the "screw you" lottery ticket with that)...which is great for orientation, but I'm not getting savvy to the business of day shift with all the rounding, attendees and chiefs barking questions while you're trying to suction out a tracheostomy, etc.

I have two more runs to get in this week before the Summerfest 12k on Saturday...

Oh yeah, that's where it might go wrong.

I "accidentally" scheduled this race, forgetting that I don't get off work until 7:30AM.  Race is at 9AM.  Let's just hope my face-plant happens after the finish line.  Obviously I'm not expecting anything crazy-wonderful with this race, although I am anxious to see just how my body responds on no sleep.

Stay tuned!