The Bionic Babe - Chapter One

Who am I? An existential question, to be sure.
Statistics:
Female
Age 52
135 pounds (need to lose 10 pounds)
Two beautiful daughters (nobody admits to the ugly ones)
Married to my surfer boyfriend for 3 1/2 years
Retired


This blog is going to be more of a tell all journal of what's going on in my life.  Previously, Angela and I, before she started working so much, shared fitness tips and it was all so positive.


Mama told me there would be days like this.


When I was 15, I got a book through the book of the month club which gave detailed instructions along with artists conceptions of yoga postures.  I started practicing the postures in my 90 degree, humid Miami, Florida bedroom every morning.  Sometimes after a few tokes of the good stuff.  It was the 70's.  I was making my own yogurt, reading books like Be Here Now by Ram Dass and going bra less.  I refused, however, to wear Birkenstocks because they're just flat out ugly.


As the years went on, I put the bong away, went into corporate America, became a top salesperson, a mother of two, a step mother of three and have had more husbands than I care to admit.  Okay, three. Most of the time, however, I've lived on my own and became fiercely independent.


Enter ultramarathoning.  I found the perfect sport that combined my love of nature, trail running, God, Goddess, runners high, in short, the perfect stress relief and my church.  It was through the many thousands of hours on the trail that I discovered how independent I can be and at the same time, a wonderful sense of community through my fellow ultra runners.  Even dated a fit body or two.


A year and a half ago, I was diagnosed with a torn meniscus and underwent surgery to correct the issue. The doctor made it sound so routine.  Long story short, I have not run in a year and a half because it's just too darn painful.


Me?  Perfect me, who never had a sick day in her life?  No!!!


After doing all the voodoo stuff, meeting with at least ten doctors, including the specialists at UCLA, I finally found a surgeon, Dr. William Bugbee, who specializes in osteochondral grafts.  In English please?  There's a hole in my knee. We wait for a suitable donor to expire (the next Kobe Bryant)  The graft is harvested and must be used within seven days.  The procedure involves cutting the defective portion of my knee out and replacing it with living bone and cartilage.  The body then gets to work re-stitching and reintegrating the new material as one cohesive whole.  If you were 20 years old, they'd give you a 100% success rate.  At my advanced age of 52, they offer me a 75% success rate.  I've been on the donor waiting list for exactly 21 days now.  It's exactly what it sounds like.  A waiting list.  There's no chance of not waiting - that's the name of the list.


Meanwhile, hormones are going out of control.  I haven't had my period since May.  All the usual symptoms: hot flashes, night sweats, loss of libido, itchy, bitchy, sleepless nights.  I sought relief with my husbands doctor, who specializes in anti-aging and bio-identical hormone replacement therapy.  Evidently, once a person is no longer fertile, the brain signals the body that it's time to be eliminated from the planet, hence all the symptoms of aging.  Once I started researching what happens when hormones start plummeting, OMG, it's not a pretty picture.  Bone loss, heart problems, hair loss, loss of libido, dry skin, the list goes on and I, for one, am not going to take it!!!!!  I'm currently taking bio identical estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA in the form of a cream that gets rubbed onto the skin.  You don't want to mess with taking synthetic hormones.  They're made from horse urine and have been linked to cancer.  I am starting to feel better.  Sex, and sleep, blessed sleep!  It's still a work in progress.  I've decided to take it a step further by going to Dr. Prudence Hall who specializes in "cycling" BHRT.  They vary the dose based on the time of the month, thus tricking your brain into thinking you're 25 again.  Her center also focuses on anti-aging medicine.  How exciting!


I am amazingly grateful for all the great things I can do: Surf (mostly paddling) yoga, mountain biking, but all workouts are accompanied by my good friend, pain.


Being retired at such a young age brings another set of challenges.  Who am I?  What's my purpose?  I love my family, friends, people.  In the past, I visualized that when I finally had the time, I would spend it doing all the athletic endeavors I love.  It seems like life has other plans at the moment.


When Kerry (age 62) and I sat down to our heart healthy glass of red wine last night, I told him "Our life is not going to become about sitting in rocking chairs talking about doctors, insurance coverage, back aches, joint problems and hormone loss" (even though it has)  No!  We've decided to jump out of our rocking chairs!  Just make sure you don't spill the wine when you jump up!


My goal with the blog is to inspire others and help someone who may be going through some of the same stuff I'm dealing with.  I will tell you everything I'm learning, how it's working, answer questions.  Together, we all help each other along this path called life.


P.S. Yes. I do color my hair.

Blog Slacker

Guilty as charged. Writing laziness has set in.

It's been a whirlwind last month and a half. Surfer Boy's daughter got married, family from out of town moved into town, and did we mention that most of these folks to be entertained are WAY under the age of 26? With a ton of enery! It's been surfing, hiking, bowling, yoga, arcades, swimming, movies, shopping, eating, parties, eating, eating and more eating!

Angela's job is crazy busy (the landscape company won several government bids - yay!) so you will soon see some amazing flowers and palm trees being planted around town. Yep folks, your tax dollars hard at work!

Life is amazingly good. We are happy, healthy, well fed and it's finally summer at the beach! We think we will go eat some more............

Harding Hustle Inaugural 30K - NOT!

My favorite training partner, Rico, called me a few days ago to invite me to watch him cross the finish line at the Inaugural Harding Hustle 30K trail run. Since I'm still not back to racing yet, but looking for any opportunity to be on the trail, I jumped at the chance. I figured that I would get there, do a hike on my own, see all the runners and take a photo of Rico crossing the finish line. But it was not to be. Here's where retirement (both Rico & I), dates, geography and time all collide in a place called the Twilight Zone.

Rico and I have spent thousands of hours training on numerous local trails, two of which are the Harding Truck Trail and Blackstar Canyon. For some reason, Rico prefers calling the Harding Truck Trail the bird sanctuary. The fact that there is a bird sanctuary there might have something to do with it. When he told me about the race he specifically said it will be at Blackstar Canyon which is exactly where I went. But NO! The race was actually at The Bird Sanctuary. Are you getting all this? Because I'm not.

I ended up doing a lovely hike at Blackstar Canyon, searching for the start/finish line. They bussed the runners in, so that's why I wasn't surprised that there were just the usual amount of cars there.

I posted some lovely pictures that I took of myself. I understand that they are doing wonderful research over at the Harvard Brain Center with expiring minds. Anyone interested? Rico?

Seeds Of Change

Who out there would like to easily grow your own food in your kitchen for 13 cents per pound? We would! We have decided to break out the sprout jars again.

You may have heard the fact that everything necessary to create a life is contained within a seed. But did you know that when a seed sprouts, an incredible flow of energy is released. Each seed holds vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in reserve, awaiting the suitable environments to begin growing. It is at this stage that the highest abundance of living energy is in the plant, just waiting to be utilized by our miraculous bodies. Sounds like a pretty good deal to us for 13 cents per pound!

Here's how we do it:

Glass jar with lid

Organic seeds (here we used lentils and garbanzo beans)

Filtered water

1 tsp. wheatgrass powder (optional)

Draining rack

Fill the jars about 1/4 full with seeds. Cover with filtered water so that the jar is about half full. Add a little wheatgrass powder to the water if desired; the seeds will soak up the trace minerals and nutrients. Cover the jar with cheesecloth or screening. Allow seeds to soak for 4-6 hours for smaller seeds, and 12 hours for larger seeds and beans. Drain off the water. Put the jar at a 45 degree angle, mouth down, in a place where it can drain freely. Rinse twice a day, then return to draining area. The miracle of sprouting occurs anywhere from 1-6 days depending on the seed. Refrigerate and enjoy your own crop of living food!

We highly recommend Ann Wigmore's wonderful book entitled The Sprouting Book in which she details how to grow, provides nutritional value, recipes, health benefits and history of the life giving, nutritional powerhouse of sprouts.

Once the garbanzo beans are sprouted, we are planning on making home made hummus. We will follow up and provide you with the recipe.

Not only are the spouts easy, fun and delicious, but they make you run faster, be a more flexible yogi, fit into your jeans easier and make you happy! Now, isn't that what life is all about?

Angela Reports

Hey guys! All work and no play. I love my new job though. They put me on full time so it's 8 to 5 every day.

So, this weekend, me and my roommates decided to go on a hike on the trail across from the Candy Store on Ortega Highway. My Mom loves to run on that trail and hopefully one day, I'll be able to run some races out there with her. Here's a picture of one of my roommates on the trail.

Then, when we got home, we found my cat, Baby, curled up around the fish tank. She is out of control and we just hope she never gets a real taste for sushi.

The top picture is me with my sister and a friend. Just remember, with all the bad news you read about every day, there's always someone, somewhere giving someone a kiss. Go out and kiss someone today. After you run the trail that is!

R.I.P. Jason Winn

Saturday was spent at a lovely memorial for the man who started the Laguna Beach Bikram Yoga Studio. He was 44 years old when he passed a few weeks ago.

How else do you think we would choose to remember him? Why a 90 minute hot yoga class, of course. The room must have been at least 110 degrees, but with the added heat of the 50+ bodies, it felt more like summer in the rain forest. Afterwards, we all walked across the street and swam in the refreshing ocean, as that was Jason's favorite routine. Marna, the owner of the studio provided watermelon and we all sat around remembering Jason.

He was a dear, sweet, lovable man who loved life and touched all those who had the pleasure of meeting him. The Laguna Beach studio would not be there if not for Jason.

Life is a precious gift. Go out and run, swim, surf, skydive, mountain climb, breathe fresh air and do a few standing forward bends while you're at it. Then tell someone you love them today. You never know when it may be your last.

Holcomb Valley 33 Mile Race

Just got back from our annual trip to Big Bear for the Holcomb Valley 33 mile / 15 mile race.

Only I didn't participate in it and I miss it like crazy!

Being around all the runners and hanging out at the finish line is amazingly inspiring. It also makes me acutely aware of the fact that I'm not out there doing the sport I love the most, which feeds my soul - trail running - specifically ultrarunning.

It's been one year since the knee surgery and I am now starting to make the rounds of various doctors; old and new test results in hand. One doctor wants to take a section of cadaver bone and jigsaw puzzle style, replace the dead bone area with a new and improved bone.

Enough about that. We had an amazing weekend of laughter, fun, friendship and pictionary (our favorite game). On the morning of the race, Kerry and I did 90 minutes of yoga, a one hour brisk walk around Big Bear, then went and got a massage. We know how to not trail run in style!

You have to admit, we do look happy in the picture and we are. There is so much to be grateful for. When we got home, I walked out onto our deck, took a deep breath of ocean air, and said "Life is Extremely Good" Sometimes folks, we get up in the morning, look in the mirror and we're still there. And sometimes, that's enough.