this and that

Item: Calf update: only minor twinges this morning; feeling fine since noon. Guess I could've run this evening, but something tells me not to push it, give it one more day. My weekday evenings are pretty full and I barely get enough sleep as it is. So I'm feeling only a little guilty that I'm putting off my next run 'til tomorrow. I'm hoping to get home a little early tomorrow, too. Or maybe, if I can drag my ass out of bed an hour earlier, do it in the morning...before the rain hits.




Item: Healthy Kidney photos are out. This is the only one of me, but I think it's a good photo. For the first time, I actually look like I'm running - i.e. only one toe on the ground. For some reason, a mid-stride action shot is important to me. The reason it looks like I'm all twisted up is because I'm about to dodge around the girl two steps in front of me. She stopped running at the first mat; I always push it to the second mat. I'm happy with my PR....but I want to be able to start at the back of the pack and still finish before the finish-line clock hits 1:00:00.



Item: Weight gain is a bitch. Its been made clear to me that the best pan-sector indicator of morbidity in Cystic Fibrosis is body weight. The more underweight one is, the higher the probability of more lung infections, more severity during exacerbations, poorer recovery, and poorer prognosis at transplant. Heck, if you don't meet a certain BMI, they won't transplant you. So...I have a very simple goal: get my BMI up to 22. I currently rank a whopping 19.37. (BMI=weight in Kg/height in meters squared.) To get to a 22, I need to weigh 136 pounds. I need to gain 16 pounds. Why am I worried about this at all, when I have hovered five pounds above/below 120 for half my life? Because I lost over seven pounds training for the Cincinatti marathon and I can't afford that again. I need to get my weight up, run enough to turn most of it into muscle (fast muscle I hope), and keep it up throughout training.

Item: Weight gain is a bitch. I purchased a jug of GNC's Weight Gainer 2200. It is supposed to provide 2200 calories per serving. Well, a serving is a whole hell of a lot. I bought a blender and the blender can't quite hold it all. Making 2/3 serving is easier and probably better. I use 2 cups of whole milk, 2/3 serving of Weightgainer, and a banana. After a goodly amount of time at "super annihilation" speed, the mixture is a creamy peanut-butter-banana-chocolate smoothie. And pretty disgusting, though it's far better than other nutrional options. I'm going to try adding in some vanilla icecream and some chocolate sauce as well. I have discovered that the half I save for when I get home at night, after getting very cold in the fridge, is quite good.