Monday, March 26, 2012

The Shamrock Shuffle 8k

The Shamrock Shuffle 8k (4.97 miles) in downtown Chicago was this weekend.  The Shuffle has been a race held in Chicago for 33 years.  Apparently is the "Rite of Spring", and it's also the largest 8k in held in the WORLD!  The "Rite of Spring" it was, the pollen flying through the air was so dense I sneezed nonstop.



For me it meant something a little different.  I've been looking forward to this event because 2 of my best friends from high school were coming up the city (and out of Southern Illinois) to run/cheer with me.  I've never run this race before, in fact I've only every run 5k races and half marathons-no in between races.  Because I was running with my 12 year old, Megan (this was her longest race) and my besties were coming up to run with, it made this day uber special.

Meg and me

Me, Meg, Jadae

Jadae and me on the train.

Shelley and me

Here we are at Navy Pier at a photobooth, after getting our packets.

I give so much credit to Jadae and Shelley for coming up.  They rode the Amtrak from St. Louis to get here, it took them 5 hours.  Then we took a 1.5 hr train ride to the city to pick up our packets and walked about 3 miles to get to the expo from the train station.  When we took a cab back to the station I thought Shelley would throw the cab driver out of the car and drive herself to the station cause she's just not used to the way cabbies drive downtown (she asked him if he had a valium or whisky...LOL).  Rode the train back to my house, talked a few hours, went to bed at midnight and woke up at 5 am to catch another train back to the city.  

The Race was super fun and so neat to see all the onlookers and cheerleaders in the crowd!  The run club I belong to was amazing!  We had a few finishers at 37 mins!  

Brian and Kevin they both finished in 37:02!  

By Corral.  F'NRC representing!
Corral B
Maggie, Kelly, Amanda

Corral D
Back Row: Dawn, Melissa, Kristin 
2nd: Don, April, Kathy, Amanda, Meg, Cathie, Michelle 
3rd: Julie, Jeni, Lisa

And, of course the after party!
Lisa, Cathie, April, Dawn, Kerry, and Melissa
We had such a great time, and watching Meg finish her first 5 mile run and first 8K was just the best.  Seeing my girls was awesome, even if we were riding the train more often than not.

Here are some other snapshots from the race: 


Julie and Kathy's butts :)
Jenny, Lisa, Cathie

Meg and Susan
Meg, Susan, Nicole, and Kathy
Jadae, Don, and Jeni

The moral of today's story is great friends + great times = great memories.  I'll cherish these!

CHEERS!!

Jeni




Thursday, March 22, 2012

Allergies

I have these horrid allergies.  In the Spring and Fall my eyes, nose, and ears itch.  It seems like my entire head itches.  We have had the warmest March on record in Chicagoland.  It's been so beautiful here, I've even got a tan from working out the in the yard the last few weeks.  I even MOWED THE LAWN! *gasp* in March!?

So I have an albuterol inhaler which I use before my runs, usually.  I have the nasal spray, I take 2 claritin a day, but I am still miserable.  Can you imagine the hell I would be living through without these medications?  I am pretty anti-pharmaceutical, but I tell ya what....I'd be screwed without allergies meds.

I LOVE to grow things, particularly the plant variation of "things".  My darling husband built an awesome greenhouse at my request in one week and it is just FABULOUS!  Tonight he put a door on it, too!

I love this greenhouse!  I have planted Cosmos, Marigolds, cucumbers, beets, watermelon, broccoli, tomato, celery, spinach, basil, musk melon, roma tomatoes, and one other veggie I can't remember.  He is also going to put shelves in it, I've got a small shelf in there now, but when I built in shelves it will be so cool!

 SPINACH
MARIGOLDS

So what do you do for allergies, do you plant veggies or grown your own from seed?  

Happy Spring!  

CHEERS!

Jeni

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Nutrition...again

So who took my challenge and did something different to change their bad habits?  A few weeks ago I went and had some blood drawn to check all my "levels" hormones, iron, cholesterol, A1C, liver enzymes, etc.

I can tell you I am still overweight with a BMI of 26.4, but I'm right on that border. Normal range is 18-25, so I need to lose about 10 pounds to be considered "normal" for my height.  I weigh 136lbs and I am 5'0" inches tall.  I think that's about right.  I think I look healthiest at about 125ish.  I should say my stubby legs are solid muscle, so that should account for something, but I carry weight in my gut, and that's no-so-muscular.

Here's the un-FREAKING-believable news.  My Cholesterol went from 231 in January to a whooping 193 in February.  That is down 38 points in 40 days.  I owe it ALL to nutrition.

Have you ever heard of someone's cholesterol going down 38 points in 40 days?  That's just under 1 point a day.  Oh...and I've lost 5lbs in the last two weeks, too.  Maybe more, but I haven't weighed myself this week.

So, you know I've been juicing 5-7 days a week, and drinking shakeology everyday.  I haven't changed my workout routine at all.  I still walk/run or do turbofire every.single.day.  I've been doing my same routine for years.  walk/run/workout everyday, I rarely take a rest day, it's usually an active rest day.  The only change is my nutrition.  There's proof to what many have been saying for eons.  you can workout everyday, but if you don't change the way you eat, you're just pissing in the wind.