Chocolate and Knee

So my knee seems to be holding up, a big thanks to Dr. Akrivos! I had another CX race this weekend and I didn't do so hot but had fun. The guys and gal that make up the Iron Cycles Team is so supportive of my slow self, it really makes me want to train hard for next season. Anyway, running. Got in a quick 4 yesterday and the knee feels pretty good. I have the Hot Chocolate 15k this Sunday...maybe. I need to find a sub for my Step class and it isn't looking too good. But fingers crossed I may have one more chance...I'll keep you posted.

Cyclocross and stuff

So last weekend I raced my second cyclocross race (CX), this time I decided to follow the advice of Mike and my Iron Cycle teammates and just have fun...and I did. I am horrible at this sport, I mean really bad, and this is something new to me. I was always one of the best soccer players on my team growing up so I never knew what it was like to be the kid who just played for fun, I played to win. Well I now I know I have no chance at winning. Being on my bike isn't the sanctuary that it is for most cyclists and that is probably because I am not a cyclist, but I like the challenge and I like knowing that I am healthy enough to finally do something that doesn't require me to be two feet from the bathroom. Anyway I finished 21st out of 23 but actually passed two girls and didn't crash on my last two laps. I have to look at the 1/2 marathon the same way, we know I am not going to win, I just have to have fun...and of course try not to crash :)

The knee is getting better, taught Step last night and iced...we shall see how it holds up in the 8mile run this weekend. Fundraising is going well...less then $1000 to go! Ok, I'll be back this weekend.

Gone so long...

Well life got the better of me, aka school started again, and I havent been able to update, but after the people demanded and update (ok really only my cousin Nicole) I knew I couldn't let my fans down.

Running. Well, it was going really well the first few weeks when school strated then I had two weeks of only completing my long runs. Last week was our halfway to Vegas celebration marked by an icy run on Chicago's lakefront. I started out my run with a teamate I had never met before, he is a physician who is on the frontlines of Crohn's and Colitis research. He works with the biological treatments that so many of the patients withe severe IBD have to endure. I was really moved to hear about how he wanted to give back more which is why he is working with Team Challenge. Then aroung mile two I was moved to go to the bathroom. I finished the rest of the run on my own, which lets be honest, is how I run the best. As I approached mile four, I finally hit my stride and the last two miles seemed so much easier. I saw the Team Challenge tent and was happy to see Mike and all the other who had finished before me. According to Mike I only came in fifteen minutes behind him, with a time of 54 minutes and change. I was proud of my six mile run and proud of surviving the cold weather. Here is one of the problems with loosing a whole bunch of weight, you can never get warm, thank god the race is in Vegas because the thought of running in this cold is making me cold.

So, I was feeling renergized after completing my longest outdoor run. Then it was time to teach three fitness classes at the gym, one Saturday and two on Sunday, and then it was time to get injured. When I woke up Monday my right foot and knee were not cooperating but as the day progressed I forgot more and more about it. Tuesday night I laced up for a four mile run to my parents house and made it a quarted mile before my knee gave out and my foot was throbbing so bad I was worried about a stress fracture. Long story short, my awesome friend Staci who is the owner of Lincoln Health and Wellness and a chiropractor took a look and did some therapy and the presciption was stay off until Monday...which I have, kind of.

Yesterday was eight hours of standing, and so worth it. Mike and I had a fundraising day scheduled outside of Jewel to can. Not canning in the scence that we were putting grandma's tomatoes in jars for the season. Canning meaning that we were about to beg total strangers for money to help support the CCFA. We had a cute little road showing our day's progress as well as information to hand out and of course candy. When we arrived it was COLD and to be perfectly honest Mike and I began to believe that we set our expectations way too high. Out goal for the day was $500, after a half our we figured that $250 was probably more realistic. But then the tides changed.

Perhaps it was the quick run to Caraboo Coffee for some cider and tea, but when I came back we worked our butts off. Stopping every person who walked out of the exit we were stationed at. We were on a mission, we tried to split up to cover both exits but quickly learned that where Mike and the table were located was where most of the traffic was and we were much more effective together. And then the stories began...

I know that I have said this before but, when I first got ill about five years ago, it felt like nobody, myself included knew what this illness was, and it most definitly felt like nobody knew what I was going through. Through Team Challenge I have meet so many people, through fundrasing or teamates who know someone or is someone living with IBD. There are three stories that stand out from yesterday.

Prior to leaving on our warm drinks run, I met a woman who donated a couple bucks because her husband is living with Colitis. He just had a J-pouch put in and things still aren't going well. I saw the look in her eyes as we talked. She looked like my mom when she used to talk to people about me when I was really sick, I could tell how much she loved her husband but this disease was taking its toll on everyone. She was tired and frustrated and I all I wanted to say to her was everything will be ok, but I don't know that, with IBD you never know that. A few bucks in the jar and that was that...untill she came back. I had left to get libations and when I returned Mike was so excited to tell me that we had recieved our first $20 donation. That woman had driven all the way back to Jewel to donate more! After she had told her husband that she had donated a couple bucks to the CCFA he made her return with a $20, I'm glad I wasn't there because I would've cried.

Now the next couple did make me tear up. A man and woman approached our table and the man promptly pulled out a $2o bill and the woman began to talk, no prompting needed. They were both gentel people in the way that they carried themselves. The woman began to tell us about her daughter. She has Crohn's. Diagnosed in the prime of her life, she just enrolled in nursing school, she has been through such horrible flares that she has had to withdraw for a semester. Here mother said that the drugs and the illness make it impossible for her to leave the home for long periods of time, and that she was just too tired to get her work done. I can relate. This couple LOVED their daughter, and again I thought about my parents and my sister, who were these people when I was sick, the people who just don't know how to make it all better.

Ok my last story isnt a sad one...in fact this guy totally reminded me of me. He was in his twenties and a total dude, like me. Pulled out a fiver and said, "Hey I have colitis!" and I said, "Me too!" Poor Mike more stories about poop and medication. This guy was great, he was happy and seemingly healthy. His medication regimin was even less then mine and we talked about staying away from our trigger foods and excercising. This guy was great he even was interested in joining Team Challenge for the next go around. I was so glad to end the day with a positive story like him.

That's the thing about IBD, you rarely hear the postive, you rarely hear the negative. Nobody wants to talk about it, it is gross and painful and somtime it is a shock to the system and I am not talking about the patient. The family and friends of someone living with IBD might as well be sick themselves, they are so stressed and even when their loved one gets healthy it is really hard to not worry about when it will return. Remission is a beuatiful things, but it never lasts forever. Wow this was a long one, and it is only 6:30am. Mike and I have a cyclocross race today, I just want to survive and have fun, I will leave the winning up to Mike. Pictures from canning and the race to come soon. Oh and incase you were wondering...we raised $440 dollars yesterday...on the nose (ok I donated 13 cents and Mike donated $1 to round out the number). We killed it! And now we are less then $1,000 away from our goal!

PS I am sure this is riddled with typos and spelling errors but the spell check wasnt working!

Running at home

So I am back from the island and in Chicago. It was great to start training in a totally relaxed, yet perhaps unrealistic setting, so I knew that the real work began today. I made sure to enjoy my Sunday though. It was a really good feeling to come home and have some gluten free pizza delivered and wait for Mike to come home from one of his last mountain biking races of the season. I was really upset that I missed it considering he killed it coming in 6th in his age group even after two hard crashes. Anyway I was so happy to see him and it made me realize that training at home once I go back to work Wednesday may be hard, but I have my two biggest supporters here, Mike and my sister Marina. She keeps telling me that I can do it and I have to believe her, she ran her first 1/2 in the POURING rain last year. It is just good knowing I have them here and will have them in Vegas.

Today started off good, a nice lazy morning, then BAM! Step at the gym, and it was fun but a little brutal. Next I came home and took a long two hour nap before tackling the grocery store. One thing worth mentioning is that I have once again gone hardcore into being gluten free, no cheating and mostly dairy free with the exception of cheese and milk/butter when they are cooked into a product(they don't seem to bother me then). So I took my time and strolled through Whole Paycheck, oops I mean Foods. But I came away with 3 amazing things...
1) Quinoa Pasta; cooks up WAY better then brown rice
2) G-free oatmeal!!!!! YUM
3) All purpose baking mix

So, that leads me into tonight's run. I did not want it. By no reach was I looking forward to it, but then I just went. And I ran, and I am not going to say I was in a zone...I only am in a zone watching marathons of ANTM, but it felt ok. It felt good knowing I was staying on schedule. So I cranked out two miles in under 19 minutes and am writing up a quick post before I bake some g-free biscuits and my first pot of beef vegetable soup of the season, yup...Fall. It is supposed to be 49 degrees tonight time to get the sweaters out...oh wait, its Chicago next week I'm sure it will be 90!

Ouch

Do not run 3 miles two days in a row and then sit in a car for 16 hours over the next 24 hours....more to come but two really good runs to finish my vacation on the island.

A couple more runs and a massage

Tiger Woods runs with me when I run fast. This is what I learned the other day on my easy mile. Whenever I run a new fastest time he says to me via my iPod, "Congratulations, this is Tiger Woods, (duh) you just ran your fastest mile time." It's good to know I have my secret husbands support but now I want to run faster each time, which isn't exactly the point of my training, but I did again yesterday clocking in at 8:58.

I also went for a massage yesterday and boy did my shins thank me. I had been having some shin splints from pounding the pavement and she really worked them out. I think if there was ever a way I would get a massage every week, no joke.

Today is a x-training day and lucky me I worked out a deal here at the gym on the island to teach a Step class tonight, lets just hope I remember the routine and that I don't drop dead...the humidity at this gym is INSANE and every time I go I sweat like a 300 pound man in a sauna wearing wool tights. Alright nothing much else to report.

Timed running..

Did you know that when you have to do a timed run it doesn't matter how fast you run, the time doesn't speed up?

I had an easy 20 minutes nothing to exciting to report, I felt good, but at the end I found myself sprinting, to what? Who knows 20 minutes is still 20 minutes. On the run I thought about the yoga class I took with my dad yesterday. He is a yoga junkie now, he thinks it is improving his golf game, and so do I if not because it clams the mind. Anyway it was a good, hard class but the best part was that we got to do handstands. When I was younger I used to do gymnastics and forgot how much I liked handstands. My upper body is considerably stronger then my lower, but the problem is I have a lot of lower body to hold up. I know yoga is non competitive but it felt really good to be the only one in the class who could do one. I felt strong...small victories, OK...I was the youngest person in the class and half of the participants we men above the age of 50, but whatever.

Got home in time to beat the rain on the island...and to find my old dog sitting in his bowl, I think he was protesting that it was empty and he is always hungry. Maybe a nap today. Imuran makes you sleepy...

It really ISN"T about the bike....

So I woke up yuck today. Belly and body that is. My legs were still sore from lifting on Tuesday and my belly was questioning my decision to have a spinach salad for dinner. So I turned to Lance for a little help. I started reading his first book yesterday, "It's Not About the Bike" to help with the slow days, the yuck days, and the days that I would rather nap. And it's not like I am a cycling enthusiast...no that would be Mike, I just got sucked into the Tour this summer and really started pulling for this guy who had been through so much (despite is poor judgement in relationships). So I read a bit, and before I knew it I was 113 pages in and ready to lace up.

Again, running at noon on Hilton Head = stupid, but it was only a mile and this time no pit stops. Easy pace, one and done in 9:19. My reward and pick me up was a coke from the general store. Perhaps this is a good time to scratch the surface on my diet.

Last February I went Gluten and dairy free to see if it would help ease my IBD symptoms, and of course it did. Which is a double edged sword. On one hand, yea! symptoms are better, on the other here is a short list of what I can't eat: bread, pasta, fried anything, cake, cookies, ice cream, bagels, anything with flour, milk, or uncooked butter (I've found natural and g-free cheese is OK in moderation). On top of all that I also am supposed to abstaining from caffeine and alcohol on most days. So this diet paired with a supplement cocktail of a probiotic, turmeric, vitamin D, iron,a homeopathic Mercury compound, and an aloe and licorice powder coupled with the RX of Imuran (oral immunosuppresors) and Lialda has helped me get better...but it still SUCKS.

Anyway back to my Coke. So I got a small Coke extra ice and walked the mile home in the blistering son enjoying every sip. I listed to Destiny's Child talk about being a survivor and my mind switched back to the book, Lance, and the December 6 (the day of the race). It really isn't about the bike, or the run...it's about everything you do to get there. Each mile you put in and every pill you swallow, every word of encouragement, and every day of discouragement takes me one step closer to getting through it....By the time I reached my doorstep I was ready to take on my first timed run tomorrow, but first a yoga class with Dad to help put my mind in a good place and hopefully ease the pain in my quads...

Running makes you poop

Ok...I jumped the gun. It's shocking really because I, in no way shape or form have an impulsive bone in my body, ha. I hate waiting. I hate waiting for lights to turn green, for the sun to rise and mostly I hate waiting when there is a challenge placed in front of me. Sooooo, I decided to give the legs a test run today. I justified my easy mile run as a way to familiarize myself with the Nike+ chip for my shoe, which I did. Unfortunately, my impulsively led me to running down an asphalt path at 1pm on Hilton Head Island SC, translation HOT and SWEATY. Whatever it was only a mile.

Off I went, a little Robyn playing on the iPod and of course .35 into my mile...poop. Yup, I have IBD and I am gonna tell you, running makes you poop. Thank God for hotels along the way. One pit stop and a few stares from some people checking-in as I ran through a swanky resort lobby dressed in a sports bra and running shorts, oh well nature calls...take two. Nothing to it, one mile 9:17 easy jog and a walk home, I got this right? Nope...when I asked myself can I do this 12 more times, my inner voice didn't even answer it laughed, it actually laughed at me. Awesome.

When I got home I took a bird bath since I knew I would be going to the gym later to lift...my comfort zone. Of course I lifted heavy to prove to myself that I am tough and not scared of a little 13 mile run...my quads are not pleased as I sit here typing, but in the end I know it is the muscle strength that will hopefully drag my butt over the line. The only thing that helped ease my mind was an email I received when I got home from dinner; a very thoughtful boyfriend has been scanning my favorite daily crossword puzzle while I have been away on vacation, at least if my body isn't going to cooperate perhaps my mind will....oh man I am in trouble if I am betting on my mind being the part that doesn't fail me in this endeavor....

Road to Vegas Day 1

Ok....I guess I am blogging. Why? Mostly to keep myself honest in training for the Las Vegas Half Marathon on December 6, 2009. This is my first attempt at something like this and am probably going to stumble quite a few times and thought it would be quite entertaining to read about all the missteps along the way. So first things first...

Why am I running? Well Team Challenge is the training program for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. Crohn's and Colitis (known jointly as Inflamatory Bowel Disease,IBD). Over 1.4 million Americans suffer from IBD and I myself am one of them. Awesome. I was diagnosed about 4 years ago and it has been an interesting road to recovery....at some point along this journey I will fill you, today I'm just trying to get started. Lets just say I am finally at a point where I can be proactive about finding a cure instead of just letting my doctors, family, and friends be the ones to take matters into their own hads.

So...I'm not taking matters into my own hads...I'm taking it to the streets...and ok I'm not doing it alons. My boyfriend and sister will be running along side me and SO many of my friends and family have alread donated to help me reach my fundraising goal, which combined with Mike (the bf) is $5,200. Yikes.

Where does this leave us today? I am begining my training today with a round of strength training. I took a peak for the one hundreth time this morning at the training schedule, and I have to tell you, it looks like a piece of cake...if it wasnt for all the running:( I, by nature am not a runner. That is not to say that I am not active, I teach kickboxing and step aerobics and basically love going to the gym to weight train whenever I get the chance. I also have taken a liking to riding my new Cyclocross bike. But nowhere in that mix does running make a regular apperance except to warm up for weight training. Hmmm. Why couldn't Team Challenge have a kickboxing tourney? Running...well I was a soccer player back in the day begore I got sick , and I was pretty good, I can't lie though I was a goalie, althogh I did dabble in midfield. So if I chased a soccer ball for the whole 13.1 miles would it make the race easier? I don't think so. Running with my sister who is an amazing distance runner, and Mike who just squashed the Chicago Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon with a time of 1:49:57 will help, but in the end these old legs are going to have to carry me across the finish line.

Now...before you start feeling too sorry for me, poor IBD girl doesn't know how to run, I must tell you I am beginning my training from sunny Hilton Head Island S.C. I I am here on my annual family vacation, Mom, Dad, and dog, Gus. Marina (sister) had to stay home and work. So I have been spending my days tracking thr fundraising while I lay by the pool and perseverating over the impending doom of my training. Today I will be off to the island gym, my comfort zone, to lift. But then the fun begins, running. It starts easily enough a mile. I can do a mile, I do a mile all the time to warm up. But then the wheels start turning, 1 mile turns into 3 into 13! One day at a time right?? Wait a minute that was my motto for the last four years dealing with IBD...maybe I'm onto something....

Check out my team Challenge link!

http://www.active.com/donate/lv09illinois/sophiapanos