Who doesnt love cupcakes?

Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Lets start off on a fun happy note and talk about this beautiful weekend we just had in Boston! It wasn’t all that warm, but it was really sunny and pretty!

Saturday I worked all morning and then headed home to get Greg before heading into Harvard. We grabbed lunch and then each went our separate ways to get haircuts! I have side bangs now!! Whooo hooo. I love them. I would post a picture but I am currently in the market for a new camera, so as soon as that purchase is made I promise there will be more photos on this blog!

After my hair cut I walked back home. Greg was already home because his hair takes aprox 5 min to cut whereas I was in the salon for about 45 min. On my way home I walked through Harvard yard and ya know what they have in Harvard yard on the weekends?? Food trucks! Kickass cupcakes food trucks to be more specific! I stopped and got 3. A key lime pie, a chocolate chip cookie dough, and a cupcake they called “The town”. I asked what was in “the town” and they told me it was a vanilla cupcake with cream inside flavored with Jack Daniels and then a chocolate Bailys whip cream. I knew I had to get it because I figured my wonderful boyfriend who doesn’t really like sweets would NEVER be able to turn down a cupcake with Jack Daniels in it….well, he kind of did turn it down but I will try again soon to convert him! Regardless, Kickass cupcakes are FANTASTIC!! They are small enough that you don’t feel totally sick after eating one, and their flavor options are great. They have your typical chocolate and vanilla, but also tropical and savory flavors as well. If you are in Harvard, or Davis sq you need to try these cupcakes! Totally worth it!

That evening we met up with an old high school friend and his brother for some thin crust pizza and potential candle pin bowling in Davis sq. The pizza part happened, but the bowling didn’t. It was super busy and we had our names on the “wait list” for about an hour and 45 min before we headed home. It was still a great time, and so nice to catch up! Sometimes even when you live in the same city it can be hard to find time to meet up and it’s always worth it when you do.

Sunday was a lower key day. Greg and I woke up and went and grabbed brunch before heading over to Southie to help a friend move into her new apartment. Its beautiful and she is right on the water in Southie. I foresee many summer days spent over that way!

The rest of the day was spent grocery shopping and doing laundry. Typical Sunday things! I even planted some basil and other herbs my dad bought me when he was here last week. I can’t wait to see the progress of my plants!

That’s all I have for today. I can’t wait to start running again! Hopefully soon! I’ve been looking at races and trying to find some summer/fall fun to register for.

As for the Vermont City Marathon, I really have no idea what I am going to do for it. I thought about doing the walk a mile run a mile thing for the 26.2 but I won’t really know how my body is going to handle getting back into running until the end of this week at the earliest. We shall see.  I am keeping an open mind and trying not to be too bummed out that my running shoes have been neglected for almost 2.5 weeks.

Happy Monday everyone!

I’ll have some Iron with a side of Iron please.

An update.

After I wore a heart holster for a 24 hour period which was supposed to monitor my heart rate and any activity I did I headed back to the doctor yesterday morning. I headed back because my doctor received my blood work back from Monday and found that I was even MORE anemic ( lack of iron in my blood) than in Jan. Back in Jan they found my iron to be low and suggested I take an iron supplement. This decrease in my iron is concerning since I have actually been trying to get more iron and I've been taking the iron supplement. My doc ordered a follow up visit for yesterday morning.

My dad came down yesterday to go to the appointment with me. It was nice to have him. He asked a lot of good questions that I would not have thought to ask, and was very helpful with some information from when I was a baby that I would not have known. ( I was a premie – lots of past medical info) My doctor was pretty surprised that my iron levels had gone down even further, but did say that low iron and anemia can cause heart rate issues. She thought my crazy heart rate was completely related and then told me that the only reason I didn't feel as bad as I should given my numbers was because of my endurance as an athlete.

She wants me to see a blood doctor and perhaps get an iron or blood transfusion to boost my iron levels. She is also going to have me come in for more blood work to check that iron is not getting stored anywhere else in my body ( liver, spleen, kidney) although its doubtful.

I feel fine, tired, but overall I'm good. She said NO RUNNING only walking until I get in to see the hematologist.

I’m bummed about the running, but I also know that running feels pretty crummy right now and I don’t want to stress my system any more before I can be seen by a doctor.

In other happy news, Larabar came out with a new seasonal flavor  “ pineapple upside down cake” and I think its fantastic!! Try one if you see them at your local store. I found them at Whole Foods.

Happy Friday everyone! I am keeping it low key and productive.

Heart Necklace

Hey everyone!

I hope you had a nice weekend. Mine was a busy one, but fun and entertaining.

Lets back up to Friday and then I will get rolling on the adventures of the weekend.

Friday morning I had my doctors appointment. It was my annual physical but I used the opportunity to explain about my heart rate/heart racing symptoms.

I didn’t see my actual doc for the visit but a nurse practitioner who I have seen before. She was very nice and took all of my concerns and questions very seriously.

At the end of my physical she had me do an EKG and told me that she wanted to test for under or overactive thyroid ( a simple blood test) and I go back tomorrow to get fitted for a heart holter which just records my heart for 24-48 hours to look for any changes or abnormalities. I thought this heart holter would be a little necklace of sorts ( don’t ask why I thought that) but it turns out it’s more than that and I might look a little silly around the gym in a tank top for a day or two. I might just keep my long sleeves on.

So, aside from all of this medical business I am still not running, I wont run until later this week once my tests are in and I hopefully have some answers. 

This weekend my friend Britton was back in town. She is moving to Boston this summer from Chicago and was here looking at apartments. Aside from the sticker shock at how much more expensive Boston is than Chicago I think she is happy with the new apartment she will be moving into come June! I cant wait to have her in the city!

We took it easy Friday night and tried out a new Mexican place in Union square. It wasn’t fantastic, but it was good and it was a fun evening with a live band and some great guacamole!

Saturday we headed downtown to check out the deals at Haymarket where I picked up a few veggies and some berries for only a couple dollars! We grabbed an ice cream to hold us over until lunch and then made it back to the apt in anticipation of meeting up with another realtor.

This gets interesting because technically Britton signed on an apt on Friday. She has until tue at 9am to decide if she wants it or not without losing any money so we spent the weekend still looking in case she found something she liked better. We headed over to meet with a realtor who we had talked to in the morning. Upon arriving he let us know that he must have “misspoke” when telling us he could meet and that he was in fact busy and wasn’t able to meet with us. Britton took this as a sign to perhaps just be happy with the apartment she found Friday and move on.

Saturday evening Greg, Matt and our friend Eric went to a concert by the band Fun and Britton and I headed into Harvard to meet up with a friend for dinner. After dinner we came back into Inman and met up with some of my good girlfriends for a drink and girl chatter for the rest of the night. It was a lot of fun!

Sunday was a lazy day, we went to spin in the morning and then grabbed burgers and basically just relaxed at home watching movies and talking.

Overall it was a busy weekend but with a boat load of fun thrown in for good measure.

I’m off to train a client and run a few more errands before meeting up with Gregs sister for lunch!!

Happy Monday!

Marathon Monday

This weekend was a blast. I had a great time with my sister and her boyfriend in CT. It was so nice to hang out and relax and just catch up on life.

Monday was marathon Monday!! Its like my Christmas! I had a few friends running and was so excited to go down and watch them. I made signs and brought my cheering voice in an effort to motivate some of the most inspiring people I will ever know battling through 26.2 miles of sweltering heat.

It was so much fun! Greg, Matt, and I met up with some of our friend around miles 25 and we proceeded to cheer and yell from 10:30am until 2:30pm. I saw some of the fasted runners, hand cyclist, and wheelchair athletes in the world. It was so impressive and just incredible to watch especially given the heat.

I had a client later in the day and then came home to eat a quick dinner before we all went down to get a drink at a local bar. It was still really nice outside and the bar we decided to go to had open garage doors so we could see onto the sidewalk and the breeze could come in.

We all ordered a drink and were happily chatting and sipping until I suddenly didn’t feel good. I was sitting across from Greg so I told him I had to go to the bathroom and got up. My heart was racing ( sound familiar now?) and I started to panic. I turned around and in front of all of our friends I asked Greg if he would come to the bathroom with me. He got up, I’m sure a little confused and followed me to the back of the bar where I proceeded to lay down in an unoccupied booth until I felt better. 

I think it was only a few minutes but Greg had his hand on my wrist taking my pulse the entire time. I began to feel better and headed back to our table. Luckily Matt, and our friend Kathy were there and they both knew about my previous episode of tachycardia so they were able to assure everyone at the table that I was ok and it made it less awkward when I came back. Thank you Matt and Kathy!!

We headed home soon after and I ate some ice cream and went to bed. I was tired and still a little freaked out by my high heart rate.

 Today was fairly uneventful. I am still scared to run so I settled on some stretching and core work at the gym this morning inbetween clients. I’m supposed to get into the doctors tomorrow evening so I hope to have some questions answered.

 

Have a great night everyone!

You make my heart race

Hey everyone!

Its been a while since I have posted a blog, mostly because it has been a while since I have had a solid run. Yup, that’s right… I really haven’t been running much. Not because I don’t have time, or energy, or desire to run, but because running hasn’t felt good for the past few weeks. And if I am honest with you, and myself I could say it hasn’t felt good for the past 2 months. Perfect timing with my marathon training huh?

I have found that lately when I run I have been running around 10:30-11 min miles. What?? I ran 13.1 miles in Oct running 8:40s. What gives? Why suddenly do I have NO SPEED! None. I get winded so fast and extremely fatigued. I shrugged this off for the first little while thinking that perhaps marathon training had slowed me down. I was perfectly fine with this and continued to run and push myself even though I was slower. I figured some speed work would help and I dedicated some extra time during the week to speed in an attempt to build it back up. No dice. I felt like junk no matter what.

I feel slow, my heart rate increases much more than I am comfortable with and I get fatigued extremely quickly. I began to think about this, and talked to a few friends and some family members who suggested perhaps I had a thyroid disorder. Thyroid disorder you say? Overactive? Underactive? Which one? How do I know?

Since I have been experiencing high baseline heart rate lately and I haven’t changed anything else in my training, exercise regimen I was willing to go with the thyroid suggestions.

This all came to light last night. Greg and I headed down to CT to visit my sister and her boyfriend for the weekend. We arrived around 10pm and chatted and snacked a bit. All of the sudden while we were sitting there my heart rate skyrocketed and my face went completely white and my pupils got huge. All I could say was “ I don’t feel good, I don’t feel good”…helpful I know.

It quickly went back down, but I was completely freaked out and had a very hard time calming down. I was awake until around 1am when I finally feel asleep.

I felt better this morning and I emailed the mom of the kids I babysit who is a wonderful cardiologist. I explained my issues and she suggested hyperthyroidism and a few other things that she said seemed less likely.

 Needless to say I have been semi-freaked out for the past day or so. I was going to run today but I am honestly scared to right now. I have a doctors appointment on Fri am to get my thyroid and my iron levels checked. I honestly have no idea what this means for my marathon currently. I will feel much better after my doc apt and I have a few answers. Until then, I am going to try to run what I can when I can, but I think I need to restrain and not push too much until I figure this out.

Anyone else have some suggestions? Have this happen to them before?