Rants, Recipes, and Running

I'm stealing this idea from my sister, because I think it's a fun way to wrap up and reflect the week! And sometimes I'm not so creative about blogging ;) The high of my week was attending a going away party to a friend of mine who is moving to Germany Monday. She will be dearly missed. But it was so much fun to celebrate new beginnings. And I got to reconnect with the nurses and doctors from my old job - and I have to say my heart is heavy ! I miss them so much! I've worked with this guys since I started my career in nursing, and they've all played integral parts in who I am - and have become great friends along the way. The low of my week was paying all my bills from the multiple doctor's appointments I had 2 weeks ago! I had a massive sinus infection, so am very pleased I'm feeling better. But I really do not enjoy spending my hard-earned money on that. The book I’m reading is ....... I really don't think I could even say I'm readi...

We are officially "Certified Padi Scuba Divers". This weekend we took a 6 hour drive south to San Carlos, Mexico with another couple, and a local dive shop to get our open-water scuba certification. Let's just say we are now " hooked ". We are already working towards getting our "Advanced " certification, so we can go deeper than 60 feet when we travel to Hawaii in August! There is something so amazing, envigorating, peaceful, breathtaking (literally), and inspiring about exploring a whole new world! I can confidently say that this weekend was probably one of the best weekends I've ever had! And let me tell you...there was not a single dull moment ;) Friday: We were awake at 4:30 am, to get an early start. As we had to complete our 1st dive on Friday, so we were on a race against time! It's a good thing we got an early start, as we were dead-stopped in traffic for 2 hours somewhere north of Hermosillo, Mexico from the worst semi-truc...

What have I been up to in the world of "training" lately? Having fun! I have no races on the horizon, which kind of makes me crazy. This probably won't last long. But I do have to say it's really nice. Especially since for the past couple of years, I've always had something - marathon in January 2014, many half marathons last spring, my half ironman, 3 Ragnars this past year..... My new job gives me a lot of flexibility with my workouts. I only have to be into the office early on Tuesday and Thursday, so other days of the week I don't have to be in until 8:30-9am. I feel like I have so much extra time!  My workout plan changes every week, but I have goals I like to maintain weekly and that is: 2-3 weight training sessions 3 runs (1 speed workout, 1 longer run) 1 cross training day 1 rest day I have been doing this plan since November, and I feel like it's the perfect balance to keep me healthy, injury-free, and engaged! Always changing it up -...

As you may or may not know, I have recently changed jobs. I feel like I've done a complete career change, to be completely honest. I've gone from Case Manager (aka Medicare-guidelines-follower/glorified social worker) to "Nurse Coordinator for Pulmonary and Interstitial Lung Disease". Talk about a mouthful, right?! Actually the term for my position is "Nurse Navigator". But I find that to sound silly. And bring to mind images of this:   So what exactly is a nurse navigator ? I get this question a lot. In fact, while going through "general company orientation", I was asked this a lot by people that work for the organization...and I didn't really have an answer. All I knew upon taking this position was my job was to "better" patient care, and keep patients out of the hospital.   Basically I am clinic coordinator for 3 sub-specialty clinics: Asthma Clinic, COPD clinic, and Interstitial Lung Disease Clinic (which takes up th...

Last Saturday I raced in the Catalina State Park Trail race, which happens to be my favorite race that Tucson holds. It's not a huge race. There are about 300 people total. But it has breath-taking views, great support, and it's quite the challenge! The route is a 10.2 10.5 miles ( according to MY Garmin ) race. There are 2 loops that you complete. Within the loop, there is a 92 stair climb. While running on trail, you're pretty much running on sand the entire time. Which is not easy! You pretty much suck wind the while 10+ miles. The views are just incredible, though! I did this race last year, and happened to place 1st in my age group, so I felt pretty serious about "defending my title". (another perk to a smaller race. Placing!!) I'm not elitist. After I did last year's race, I got motivated to become a better trail runner. So I really started incorporating it into my workout plans. And I definitely beat my time, but didn't do as well ...

Here are my current currently's! Reading : I am currently reading "The Kitchen House", which I am having a very difficult time really enjoying. It's a good book, but it seems to be moving slow. Or I'm just moving slow. One of the two... Thinking : About how amazing my coffee tastes on my 1st free morning in several weeks, where I don't have a workout or work to rush to. These quiet morning are so therapeutic! Frustrated : With the cactus hair-like-thorn lodged in the bottom of my foot from yesterday. And no, it wasn't from my race! It was from cleaning the pool, while walking around our back yard barefoot yesterday afternoon. (Here's your Cactus Thorn 101 for the non-desert dwellers: There are some large thorns that can easily be pulled out. Then there are this little hairs of thorn that hurt 10x worse . Usually a tweezers can't grab them. So if duct tape doesn't pull them out, the cactus thorn removal is self-limiting. You have to be pati...

This recap is a bit late. But better late then never, right? I feel like I cannot keep up lately. The change of the new job, all of the hours of getting scuba certified last week, still adjusting to having a non-human animal living among us (aka puppy Miles), and just meeting my standards of how our house should look. However, it's all positive things in my life - so I need to stop worrying about dust and dirty windows. (as I'm secretly breathing into a brown paper bag in the background....) The 2nd weekend in March, we took a trip to see Ryan's sister and her family. They recently were re-located due to the military, and weren't exactly thrilled about their place relocation. So it was good to get out there and help them discover their new "home", plus we haven't seen them in 2 years! Here are the highlights from that trip: Getting some quality time with our nieces and nephews. We had 3 little shadows all weekend. It always amazes me to see how fa...