Diagnosis and August Recap

Well, I finally broke down.

Two weeks after my original injury and the butt pain still in place, with me limping all over campus, I broke down and took my afternoon off to go to a clinic and get myself checked out. Just like I thought, I have proximal hamstring tendinitis. Basically, I hurt my hamstring right where the tendons connect with it up near my butt. It’s a slow-healing injury, but the doc said that I could probably continue running, just not at the pace that I was going and as long as I really listen to my body and stop immediately if I feel pain. He also prescribed me some anti-inflammatories and filled a referral for a PT just in case those don’t help.

Overall, I’d say this is good news. He didn’t seem too worried about it and had recently begun a walking program himself and lost about 20lbs. so far. So proud of all the Couch to 5K-ers out there!

ALSO, I finally got an appointment to talk to someone about the Honors Option I did for a class way back in the spring semester that was denied. I haven’t given up and hopefully the process can now continue in the right direction.

The apartment is still going fabulously. I really do love my new roommate and we’re pretty much twinsies. While this doesn’t work out some of the time, I’ve found that the more alike I am with someone the better I get along with them. We’re both pretty introverted. We enjoy going out and having a good time, but only on occasion and nothing to the brink of self-destruction like that seen around us every day living on a college campus and mere feet away from several fraternity houses. We prefer to stay in and we prefer to keep to ourselves for the most part. I even got her to try making a Green Monster! If only we were even close to the same major and she could help me with my classes, ha. But, alas, she is a Psychology major and graduating in May and then “jetting” off to Grand Rapids for graduate school. At least she has her shiz together…

Last day of summer picture, with my hair freshly cut for the new semester and a new outfit to power me through the move.

Anyways, classes started on Wednesday and I seriously haven’t even had a chance to breathe since then. I’m only taking 14 credits, and working my usual 10 hours in the scholarships office, but I still feel a bit overwhelmed right now. I’m taking Human Gross Anatomy, Introduction to Biochemistry, Applied Community Nutrition, and Foodservice Operations. I also joined my school’s Running Club and am going to be continuing to be a member of the Food and Nutrition Association as well as my internship over at College Lifestyles (you’ve checked that out, right?).

August Recap:
– What I Ate Wednesday: One and Two and Three
– Guest Post by Amanda from The Beauty Notebooks
– I began my internship at College Lifestyles: Introduction and First Article
– Got injured for the first time since I started running and have essentially stopped since then
– Moved into my new apartment 

September Goals/Plans:
– Write FIVE articles for my internship (one has already been posted for the month)
– Find some way to still be able to participate in my half marathon on the 18th
– Attend FNCE in San Diego the 23-26th
– Get into a routine again
– Start lifting (I’ve got NROLFW coming in the mail)
– Heal from my hamstring injury so that I can start focusing on my next running goal
– Find more time for my boyfriend (2 days into the new semester and I already know this is going to be tough)

There are, of course, many more goals, but I think that these highlight my major ones pretty well.

It’s going to be a crazy month, a crazy semester, a crazy year. No doubt about it. But I wouldn’t go through everything that I do if I didn’t think that it was all worth it in the end.

Now, on to a weekend of reading for classes and making dinner for the boyfriend. See? I’m already making progress on my goals! I’m really trying to not let things that are important to me take a backseat this semester. I’m ready to take the initiative. I blame this new internship. It’s making me really put myself out there and take what I want (without stepping on other people, of course). History does not write about the silent woman. It write about the ones that made a splash. Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart. Just imagine if they had never spoken up…

Change of Scenery

I’m all moved in to my new apartment! It’s beyond glorious. All new furniture. Well, the bed is my mom’s old one, but it’s still new to me, but the desk and bookcase are brand-new from IKEA. The bookcase is the one that I won right after my Solstice 10K race! I love it and it’s huge. All of my stuff didn’t even fill it up so I have room to spare to fill with things that I will accumulate throughout the year.

And look at that closet space! I goes from wall-to-wall. Incredible.

I still have to find things to put on the walls, but once I do I think that this will be my new favorite place in the world.

And, yes, I did make myself a little running “shrine” on my wall. Can’t wait to add more bibs and medals to it throughout the year! Also, I don’t have a window, instead I have a wall dedicated to being a sliding glass door for our patio. Equals tons of natural lighting. Score!

One kind of weird thing about the apartment is that we don’t really have doors. Instead, our rooms are separated from the common area by an accordion-style wall.

It’s really not as awkward as it looks and does quite well to block out light. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well the apartment blocks sound. You practically have to yell to communicate between rooms and I can’t hear any of the other apartments unless they’re hammering into the wall.

And my new place is only a few steps away from my new gym! Literally. They are right next door to each other. I haven’t spent much time there yet, but I went in on Saturday for a long “run” (read: try and run but have to stop so decide to go on the bike instead). Apparently, if you go when they open at 8:00am you get to be with all the preggers ladies and old guys, which I’m perfectly fine with. People my own age didn’t seem to start showing up until 9 at the earliest. Anyways, they have free weights and lots of machines, so this should be good for when I (hopefully) start lifting more seriously next month.

Oh, and first meal cooked at the apartment? Sunday morning pancakes!

Strawberry Shortcake pancakes.

I’ve pretty much just been running all over town trying to get things for the apartment and get myself ready for classes to begin on WEDNESDAY. Luckily I only have work and 1 class, but still, it’s so crazy to think that this is the beginning of my third year already.

But, I’ll ponder that some more a little later, today I want to try out some early-morning yoga at my studio, then I have to go in to work for a few hours, and I want to hit up the gym a bit too and test out my leg. I’m continuing to heal, or at least not getting any worse, but I’m definitely not at a point where I can be running like I used to again… Then it’s time to party! Hey, I am a college student after all.

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Where did you live in college? – Freshman year I was in the dorms, then I lived in an apartment with 3 other girls last year, and now I’m here with 1 other roomie. Next year, I don’t know yet, but I have to start figuring it out soon because leasing starts in October!

What is your favorite kind of pancake? – I can’t believe I’ve never asked this before! I would have to say that those Walnut Brownie pancakes I had a while ago were my most recent favorite, but I’m trying new combinations all the time! I’d love to see your flavor recommendations.

The No-Run Workout and Bad News

Hello my loverly bloggies! I hope you all have been having an awesome week. Most of mine has been spent packing, organizing, and spending time with the boyfrand, who is finally moved back into town for school.

That’s right, classes start in exactly ONE WEEK. Yikes! I haven’t even moved yet and there are still textbooks that I need to get that haven’t even come in to the student bookstores yet.

Pancakes from Pancake Sunday! Don't worry, I use WAY more syrup than that. I'm a drencher.

But I am beyond excited! I get to see so many friends and other people that I haven’t seen for awhile since Welcome Week is when all the parties are. I think that it’s safe to say that I’m going to be a hot mess Thursday night through Tuesday morning.

Put on top of that the fact that I’m going to be rooming with one awesome, fashionable, smart chica and I am one happy camper.

Except for the fact that…

Salad Beast! Spinach, bulgar, hummus, balsamic dressing, black beans, and other veggies.

I’m still injured. At least, I think it’s an injury, I can’t really be sure since I haven’t seen a doc about it. I figure, I’m still able to walk and get around on my own, so there’s no need to try and get an appointment somewhere.

Since my hamstring has kept me from Jillian and running since Friday, I’ve had to get creative with my workouts. Insert oodles of upper body exercises and core work and that’s basically the only thing that has been keeping me sane.

Seriously, WHAT would my blog be without at least one Green Monster?

All I have to say is, thank GOODNESS that I discovered Blogilates in the past week. I would literally have self-combusted without her. Here are a few of the workouts that I’ve been going through:

Upper Body Superset Workout
Inner Thighs
Bikini Ready Abs
Muffin Top Meltdown

But I miss running!…

WaaaaAAAAAaaaaHHHHhhhh!

So, even though I probably shouldn’t have, I decided to test out my leg Tuesday morning. Nothing extreme. I mostly speed-walked and tried jogging (with very, very, short strides) for a few minutes every now and then, giving me a pace of a little over 12-minute-miles, but it felt great. Not my leg of course, the right was raring to go but the left was stiff and, of course, is not 100% yet, but at no time did I ever think that I was in pain. Discomfort? Yes. Agony? NO.

Today will be another test. I skipped work on Monday to give the leg a tiny bit more rest, but I really can’t skip the other 2 days that I work this week since this is my boss’ last week before the new director comes in and takes over. I met the new director briefly last week and she seems really excited for the job, but she has no experience doing anything like this before. It’s like hiring me all over again, except she has so much more that she has to do. I of course am going to do all I can to try and teach her what I know, but since most things were done already by the time I joined last year I’m just nervous for this year’s applicants.

But, I’m going to try and not to worry about that right now, I have other, much more pressing and personally impactful things to worry about.

You may have seen my tweet the other day asking for support and positive thinking. Well, I’m going to come clean about it because I haven’t told anyone and I feel like I really just need to tell someone. My mom is 55, soon to be 56. As many women her age, she gets regular mammograms and had one done earlier this month. The first one was not definitive and so they did a second one early last week. Well, there were some suspicious-looking spots on her scans and  now they need to do a biopsy.

My mother has had to get biopsies done in the past, and they have all come up clean, but she really seems worried about this one. Cancer runs in our family (on both sides for me). She’s been trying to distract herself and not letting herself think about it. Hmm… I wonder where I got THAT trait from. I’m trying to be there for her, but since she doesn’t want to talk or think about it I’m not really sure what to do. Right now all we can do is wait. She hasn’t gotten the biopsy scheduled yet, so I’m not sure when we’ll find out the results.

Sorry to end on such a Debby Downer-sort of note, but the world isn’t all just fuzzy walls that you can stroke and then feel all better!

Do you drench/dunk your pancakes in syrup or eat them dry? – Drench them in mapley sugary goodness!

Don’t forget to read my next College Lifestyles article this Friday. It’s all about veganism! – I’ll be sure to post the link when it goes live!