My journey with Hashimoto's

I went in for a annual physical last week. They did the normal stuff... checked my weight, height, blood pressure, blood work, etc. A couple days later I get an email saying my blood work results are in. I don't think much of it cause I've never had any problems with anything physically. I've always been the boring patient with nothing to report. I check the results and see

"thyroid is showing low (when the TSH is higher like this is showing, the thyroid is actually low). We need to repeat this and a few other thyroid tests to be sure it is actually low". 

Ok, That's weird... I've never had any problems with blood work before. Everything always come back normal. So, I call them back and see what I need to do to get retested. I go back in and get my blood drawn. Of course while I'm waiting the next few days for results I'm googling everything about low thyroid and what that means. The first few things I read point to Hashimoto's. 

Hashimoto's can be explained HERE and, well, it makes a lot of sense and explains a lot of why I'm tired all the time and lately I've been feeling like I'm about to get sick, but nothing happens. I get the sore tired muscles like I'm sick. I thought it was just the time of year, but no... it was my body. A year or so ago I went in to my OB to get my thyroid levels checked because I was feeling tired and he said it looked normal. 

 We were headed out of town and it just kept nagging at me. I wanted to know what the other results said! 

We get to Oregon and I see that the results are in. 

"this indicates that your body has created antibodies to your thyroid which is why your thyroid is currently on the low side. This indicates your thyroid is slightly low. We should start on low dose replacement,as this may get worse due to the antibodies your body is making against thyroid. We will call in prescription."

Ok, well... I'm in Oregon, a few states away... do I wait until I get home or do I call the Doctor now and find out what this is and what I need to do? He hasn't called me and I'm really wondering. So, I call him up and get the nurse. Ugh... CALL ME BACK!!! I wait and I wait and finally they call me. The doc doesn't sound concerned, says it's Hashimoto's, and makes it sound like I can wait until I get back, but I don't want to wait for the meds. I might as well start them now. I want to have energy again. Yeah, I've been running and training and I feel alright when I do that, but after I'm SOOO drained and before I run it takes everything in me to get out the door and run. 

Well, he ends up sending my prescription to a Target in Oregon and I start my meds right away. The whole time I'm in Oregon I'm noticing every little ache, every tired muscle, every lack of interest in things and I have to tell myself to knock it off. I've lived with this for heaven knows how long and just because I know what it is now doesn't mean that I should let myself become defined by it. 

Jason and Derrick gave me a blessing after I got the official diagnosis and that always helps. It also helped that the friends we were staying, the wife, Missy has something similar and takes the same meds. So, it was really nice to talk to someone about it all. She said the meds would start kicking in around 2 weeks. I can't wait until that happens so I can see if the meds help. 

Another thing that was interesting was how many people came out saying they have thyroid problems when I said I had mine. Why does no one talk about it? Is it that normal? A couple of my cousins have thyroid problems, my aunt, both of my grandmas... I never knew...

So, this is the beginning of my Hashimoto's journey. I'm interested to see how it effects my running and weight loss.

Riverton half

Oh, Riverton.... Such a good race, my first race, but also a pain in the butt race. There are 2 nasty hills on this course. The first at mile 7 and the second at mile 10.5. 

I got to the race about 45 minutes early and NO one was there. The only people were those setting up.

I waited around and ran a little until I found my friend Catherine and then met up with Rendi and London. Rendi was pacing the 2:20 time and London was doing the 2:30. My goal was to stay in front of them the whole time. 

The race started and I kept telling myself that I needed to take it easy the first half so I could push it the second half. The first 4 miles weren't bad. I felt nice and strong then around mile 4.25 we turned and were facing a nasty head wind. I knew I could keep going how I was going even with the headwind, but it was really starting to wear me out and I knew the first big hill was coming up at mile 7. I was determined to run up every hill. 

I saw mile 7 and that big hill. There was this lady with a double stroller who was pushing 2 kids. She tripped me up around mile 3 with the stroller and then I caught up with her at 7. I felt for her having to push the stroller up that hill. It was NOT going to be fun. I pushed up that hill and didn't look up until I reached the top. Hills are tough and I know that I can bust through them if I just don't look. Hahaha! 

You can see the nasty hills and when I stopped to walk for a minute. 

Around mile 8.5 I could feel myself starting to crash so I took a GU that I brought with me and stopped at the aid station and got some Gatorade and water. I was still having a bit of a hard time until this one guy, I don't know who he is, caught up to me at the aid station and stuck with me until the end. I'd walk a little before a hill and then run up it and he'd walk the hills and run after. We cheered each other on to keep going. 

I knew when we got to Redwood road that we were really close. 1.10 miles to go.... or so I thought. After Redwood we used to turn down the main road to the park and be done, but noooooo.... This year they added on some more turns. You run right back that main road, see the finish, and still have to keep going. I ended up going .17 over because of that dumb turn. Talk about getting in your head. I kept wanting to stop, but we were so close and the guy kept saying not to quit. We finally turned onto that main road and I just started booking it. I finished that last .27 fast and strong. 

I was so done and so happy to be out of that headwind. I finished in 2.18.31. (2.17.06 at 13.1) I did good and met my goal of staying in front of Rendi and London and getting a new course PR. I even shaved 30 minutes off last year's time. AND I'm 25 lbs less and a lot stronger. :)

My next race is Salt Lake Half, I'm excited to see how that one goes. One thing for sure is I'm going to drink more. I think I got dehydrated this race. 

Intervals: 3 miles at an 8:48 pace

Today on my training plan I had 10-20 min warm up 3 x 1600 (1 min RI) 10 min cool down. I was really nervous about this run. I've never hit an 8 minute mile unless it was down a canyon or that one time I tried to do it at the lake. At the lake I got it done in 8:51 and that was in July of last year. Today, I was aiming to get each 1600/mile done in 8:48. I didn't know if I could do that 3 times in a row!

Well, the warm up mile was 10:32. Tempo mile 1 was 8:29! Then mile 2 was 8:32 and mile 3 was 8:32!!!! I stopped once for a 5 second breather halfway through mile 2 and 3. But still! How awesome! I am feeling so much stronger. I was hitting that pace without feeling like I was killing myself. I LOVE that I am feeling faster and stronger.

10 miles

Yesterday I got up and was debating on if I should do my 9 miles then or wait until Saturday. I wasn't dreading the run, but I was a littler nervous. The goal was 9 miles at a 10:36 pace. I knew it was doable. I did it once before. But last week I was scheduled to do 10, but only ran 9. So, while talking to my mom I decided to run 10 instead of 9 to make up for last week. 

My mom asked info was going for pace or distance and I said a little of both. So she had the idea to run the first half uphill and the second half down. It sounded like a good plan. 

I had somewhat of an idea of where I was going to go, so I headed out. I figured it wasn't too windy so I'd go with the wind to my back first since I was going up hill. I felt good and strong and around mile 4.5 there was a nice hill. It went down and then had a slight uphill. Not bad... I ran around in a neighborhood until I got to 5 miles and then turned around and went back. 

I don't know if it was the wind or the fact that the hill I ran down was a LOT steeper than it looked, but I was feeling myself starting to drag. 

Miles 5, 6, and 7 were tough. I was supposed to be going down hill but instead I was climbing back up and this time I had the wind in my face. 

Around mile 8 I was back to the lake and I knew how it felt to run around that. I picked my pace back up and finished strong. My slowest mile was mile 7 at 10:51 and my fastest mile was mile 10 at 9:23. 

There were plenty of times I wanted to stop, but I didn't. I kept going. I keep telling myself that I can't stop if I want to run a sub2. Im cheating myself and I'll never learn to run at a consistent pace if I don't train myself to keep going. I gotta work on the mental game. The stopping is all in my head. My body and legs ache, sure, but it's not like they haven't hurt worse. When I want to quit that is when my body/mind is reaching another level and I have to push to get there. Now I just need to be consistent and keep up with my training. 

New Years Revolution Run

This morning I got up at 7 when my alarm went off and headed out to the Olympic Oval to run the Revolution run. I was excited for this one mainly for the fact that last year it took me 3 hours to run it. I knew that I would do better this year, but I also knew that I hadn't run a real race or much running since the Saltair Half in early November. 

I met up with my friend Sonja and started running some laps. After about 3 laps we saw Becca and she started running with us. I felt pretty good for the first 20 laps and then my right thigh started aching. I have this one pair of shoes that are made for over pronating, and I don't over pronate. I think the turning of the track combined with the shoes made my thigh ache. 

I ran with Becca and Sonja for a while and then took a little break. I then ran with Shelley and Meredith for a while. They really helped me get past the mental block of running laps. Meredith was having Shelley run fast and then slow and I just followed along. I took a water break and then finished the 48 laps with Becca. I think with all the stopping and talking I did made my time 2.46. If I would have run/walked the whole thing without  all that I would have been closer to 2.30. 

All in all it was a good race. I felt good even with having not trained. I even beat last year's time. :) My next race isn't until March or April. We'll see. 

NEBO!!

Jason, the kids, and I made this race a little vacation. We went down to Provo and stayed in a hotel over night. The kids thought it was tons of fun. We ordered Pizza and had popcorn. I got up early and headed down to the race. I was planning on staying with Becca the whole time. The goal was a sub2 hour half marathon. We started the race strong. We were on goal to be way under 2 hours.... well, that was until it leveled out around mile 9. UGH! That's when your body says "Hey! wait! Where'd the momentum go??" That's when we started to crash. I ended up running it in 2.05.09! SO close!! I was SO exhausted at the end.

Temple to Temple Steeple Chase

Jason and I got up early and headed over to the church to meet up with my mom. We were about to run the 5 mile temple to temple run. It would be from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to the Jordan River Temple. I ran this one last year with my mom and we kept it at about a 15 min pace the whole time. This year I'd be running with Jason and then catching up with my mom after. 

 When I woke up I got a text from my mom that she was wearing her Return With Honor shirt. I totally forgot about that, so I went through my drawer and found the one I wore last year. Holy cow! It was HUGE on me. I went through the kids drawers and found my 8 yr old's shirt. Haha! It fit!! I was so surprised! Talk about feeling good. 

 We started out and mom said to go ahead without her. This was Jason's first 5 mile race since high school. The goal was just to run and have fun with it. He did awesome! He tends to start out too fast and then slows down towards the end. Around mile 3.5-4 he was saying sorry for slowing down and I told him we could walk if he needed to and he said "Twitchell's don't walk!" He did amazing! We ran the whole way and finished in 52.09 minutes! After we crossed the line he said his knee was bugging him so, we walked around for a minute and then walked to meet up with my mom. She wasn't very far behind us. 

 I was so impressed with her. She ran it with at a 12-13 min pace! I love that woman! She's so amazing. Go mom! Go mom! 

We all got some popsicles at the finish and took a couple pictures by the Jordan River Temple. I love being able to run with my family! I hope to be as awesome as my mom when I grow up. I'm so proud of Jason. I think he's starting to catch the running bug. :) I love it! He's such an amazing man. I'm blessed to have him as mine.