I need more strength training

I can't believe it's already Thursday! This week is flying, which I consider a good thing. Last night was a pretty good night at work. I was with a new preceptor, and she pretty much just let me do my own thing. While slightly terrifying (what if I mess up??), it's really the only way to learn how to be on your own. She jumped in if I was falling behind (everyone wants pain meds or needs a new bag of IV fluids...ALL AT THE SAME TIME), but in general I felt pretty good about how the night went. I spotted an infiltrated IV and restarted it on the other arm...on my first try! I was a bit worried because it didn't look like the patient had any other veins to try for, so I was hoping I'd get it on the first stick otherwise I'm not sure what we would have done. Afterward, my preceptor confirmed my thoughts! Good thing it went it...I was super nervous.

I have a different preceptor tonight, who I've been cautioned about by multiple nurses. They say she's a good nurse, but very intense, knowledgeable, and in your face. Should be an interesting night! Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to "Arrest Day" where we learn all about codes and such. It's during normal day hours...hopefully we don't get out too late tonight!

I'm heading to Princeton this weekend for my BIRTHDAY! I'll be the big 2-5 on Saturday...even though I still look 17. Oh well. I don't really have many friends out this way, so James is planning something that will hopefully involve some of his friends. :)

I had a good morning! I feel accomplished when I get things done, so I made myself get out of bed before nine. I'm hoping to make 8-8:30 more of my routine, but I'm still adjusting. It's a little drizzly out, which actually made for a really nice run! I was only going to do four, but then I decided on five, and once I got running...six was the magic number!

Thursday, June 18
6.09 miles in 48:57, avg pace of 8:02

I'm hovering right around an eight minute mile, but I still freak out slightly when my garmin says 8:10 or something like that. I've definitely lost a little fitness since marathon training since I haven't been running as much, and I got used to dropping 7:30 miles without noticing. I probably sound like a broken record, but I need to remind myself that I'm base building (of sorts...marathon still yet to be determined!) and the time on the clock doesn't matter that much. I should write that on my hand or something...that would be fun to explain to patients!

As for the title of this post, nursing is a very physical job, in which I lift very large people on a regular basis. I am not a large person, which makes moving people difficult! Good posture and technique only goes so far when the patient is twice your size. Therefore, I really need to work on being consistent with my strength training to help reduce the risk of injurying myself. I kind of feel off the bandwagon when I got my massive allergy attacks, so I hopped back on today, and it felt great! I need to find some exercises to strengthen my back...that would definitely be beneficial as a nurse and as runner for a strong core. Any suggestions??

Still catching up on blogs...hope everyone is having a great week!
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Back to our reguarly scheduled programming

I'm back! I didn't really leave, but my mom has been here for the past week, so I had more exciting things to do than blog. She left yesterday before I headed to work, but we had lots of fun while she was here! On Saturday we did lots of organizing in my room...putting together my bookshelf and unpacking some of the stuff she brought me from home. Then we headed to Ikea and FINALLY bought a comforter for my bed. I'm kind of picky about some things, and I LOVE curling up under a blanket (even in summer), so I had to find the perfect one. Ikea had all sorts of various warmth-ratings for their blankets, so I got one with a rating of 5 (out of 6) and a pretty red flowery duvet cover to go with it. It's super comfy!

After our shopping adventure we headed out to Amish country to have dinner with one of my mom's good friends from high school. We saw buggies driving down the side of the road! I've been to Amish country multiple times, and I even had an Amish pen pal for about six years, but I'm still fascinated when I see them "driving" down the road.

On Sunday, we headed to a Phillies game! They played the Red Sox, so the game was sold out, but I got some awesome not-too-overpriced tickets off of eBay. Outside of the guys behind us yell-talking the entire game, it was really fun! We got the typical game food...Italian sausage, nachos, and peanuts! So good. It was a high scoring game, 11-6 (I think? oops), and the Phillies won so that's always exciting.

Monday was a fun day of shopping and lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (I'm eating leftovers now!!) before heading to work on evening shift. Evening shift is very different than day shift, which I may elaborate on in a later post, but I think I like it so far. It's going to be different adjusting to going to work later in the day, but we'll make it work. :)

My mom left yesterday about an hour before I headed to work. I didn't want her to go!! It was so fun having her here, and she didn't want to leave either because she was having fun going to local quilt shops and being with me! (Of course!!) I think she's planning on coming back in August before she starts school, so I'm looking forward to that already.

In the midst of all this, I hadn't run since Friday! It was fun to get up and have some coffee and breakfast with my mom before heading out to do our activities for the day. She wouldn't have cared if I headed out for a run, but I wanted to spend more time with her so I was okay with skipping a few days of running. I did get out for a run today, after I finally got myself out of bed! It's kind of difficult to force myself to get up "early" when I don't really have to be anywhere! I'll figure it out.

Wednesday, June 17
5.2 miles in 42:13, avg pace of 8:07

It was warmer out than I thought, and I ran the hilly route...combined with not running since Friday, I was dragging a little! (Or I'm just making excuses? Not that I need to, my pace was fine.) Anyway, not the greatest run in the entire world, but I think I had finally adjusted to running in cooler temperatures so it still feels weird to sweat! Just another reason to get up out of bed and hit the road before it gets too warm.

I will be catching up on blogs so I can find out what you've all been up to! I should be figuring out my fall marathon soon, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!
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Home is where Mom is

I've been a little MIA because MY MOM IS HERE!! My parents are the best in the entire world, so of course I'm excited for them to visit! My mom is an elementary school art teacher, so she came out to visit immediately after her school year ended. Only my dad came out with me when I moved here, so my mom didn't know much about where I live! It's been fun having her here. :)

I've had to work while she's been here, but she's good at occupying herself and has been checking out all the local quilt shops since she's big into quilting and sewing and everything. She's made me many quilts, as well as lots for the rest of my family. She's already got some projects lined up for when she goes home. Last night, we tried to register my car (AGAIN), but of course something else was wrong and I had to overnight my title back to Illinois to get it notarized. After fighting with them on the phone today, we got them to overnight it back to us so we should get it tomorrow. What a mess!! After not registering my car, we drove about an hour to have dinner with my mom's friend from when we used to live in Pennsylvania...We moved to Chicago when I was six so I don't remember much about being here! I had a pulled pork sandwich, and the Rocket Scientist met us as well, so it was a fun evening. :)

I got home from work today...EXHAUSTED because in case you didn't know, being a nurse is CRAZY. Especially when you're not good at organizing yourself yet. Because my mom is awesome, when I got home she said, "You can go for a run if you want, it won't bother me!" On my drive home I was thinking I would feel bad if I got home and then went running right away, but it wasn't a problem! I was tired so I only headed out for four miles, but they turned out to be okay:

Friday, June 12
4.03 miles in 32:39, avg pace of 8:06

It was hot today...what else is new? So I was dripping when I got home. My mom made dinner...chicken fajitas! They were yummy and it was really nice to have someone make dinner for me. :) Afterward we headed out for some shopping to get more stuff for my room/kitchen. Full length mirror, bookshelf, toaster, etc. More shopping will be done tomorrow because I still don't have a comforter for my bed! My mom is the only person I like shopping with, so I'm really excited.

As for the title of the post, I once bought a Mother's Day card for the sole reason that it came with a magnet that said "Home is where Mom is." SO TRUE. My mom is planning on staying until Tuesday, so I'm super excited for our weekend that I'm sure will just fly by.
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I need to make friends with Mr. Speedy

Dare I say it...work was actually pretty good today! I only got out about ten minutes later than we're supposed to, which is good compared to the 30-60 minutes I've been averaging. Charting is soooo time consuming and (it's bad but) I sometimes don't get to it until the end of the day. We have at least eight pages of forms to fill out for EACH patient, so it takes awhile. Charting is my least favorite part of nursing (maybe next to bed baths?), but I understand why we need to do it.

On a happy note, I got my first real blood draw on a patient today!! He was kind of a hard stick, but I cheated and went a little above where they had drawn blood earlier in the morning, so I at least knew the vein was good. Flash of blood right after the stick...yay! Luckily the patient was a little out of it so he couldn't see my shaky hands. :)

I headed out for a run when I got home, and I think underestimated the power of humidity because I was DRENCHED when I got home! I thought about going shirtless, but it seemed to be a little on the cooler side, so I threw a tank top on last minute. Bad plan! I headed out for the trail nearby, planning on doing 7-8 miles depending on how I felt, but I wanted to take it slow. For my next (yet to be determined) marathon, I want to train like you're supposed to train...with slower miles included! My mileage hasn't really been much of anything lately, so some slow miles while I build back up are important. I actually succeeded this time!

Tuesday, June 9
8.11 miles in 1:06:07, avg pace of 8:09

I admittedly freaked out a little when I saw a mile split of 8:20, but I calmed down pretty quick. I usually have in my head that "good" miles are sub-8, but that's not true! Gotta change that thinking! It certainly didn't help that Mr. Speedy, who crossed the street at the same time I did. I thought about chatting him up, but the light was changing soon and I'm not the most outgoing person ever. I also saw him right before my turnaround point, still cruising along. He looks so light on his feet, it makes me wonder what I look like when I'm running. Maybe someone should record me sometime?? I'm not sure I want to know!

My mom comes tomorrow!! We've got a jam-packed week ahead of us!

Giveaway!!

If you've been trying to get your hands on some of the Mix My Granola, head over to Emily's blog, The Health Nut, for a Mix My Granola Giveaway! Yum!
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Back to it

Annnnnnnnnd it's Monday again. This is my last week orienting on day shift, which will be good and bad. The bad part is that during day shift, I get to live like a normal person...work during the day, do other stuff at night. The good part about switching to evenings is:

1. I do NOT like waking up at 5:45 in the morning. It is definitely not natural for me.
2. Day shift is busy in a way I don't necessarily like. Report-assessments-meds-food-bath-send people to tests, and suddenly it's 11! This may make me a bad nurse, but I am not a fan of bed baths, and with our limited nursing assistants, we end up doing a lot of them ourselves. They take time! I think evenings will be a different kind of busy that I might like more.
3. I don't really know many people around here, so I spend my evenings running and cooking anyway. Easily done in the morning/early afternoon hours. The only downside is Friday night will be spend at the hospital...boo.
4. I get paid $1.50 more per hour! Yay for shift differentials, which add up over time.

So that's that. I think my allergies are calming down, or the allergy medicine I'm taking is kicking in. I have a weird cough, and I can't figure out where it fits in to everything, but I'm hoping it goes away soon.

I didn't feel like a truck ran me over today, so I went for a run when I got home! Of course, I had forgotten to plug in my garmin, so I had to quick charge it and hope it lasted for the run. I came so close! I planned on six miles, and garmin made it through 5.37 miles before dying.

Monday, June 8
6.06 miles in who knows how long, avg pace of ??
Stats from Garmin: 5.37 miles in 41:38, avg pace of 7:45

I ran on the nearby trail, and I got SMOKED by some tall skinny runner guy who must have been running 6:30's as an easy pace. I rarely get passed by people while running (whether I'm that fast or whether the general population isn't as fast is yet to be determined), so I felt a little defeated when he flew past me. I got over it since I was just happy to be running and not feeling like junk. It started to rain shortly after I headed out, which was actually nice since it cooled down the 80-ish degree weather, but there were TONS of puddles on the trail! I had to dodge some deeper ones to spare my shoes, but I landed in a deep one and my shoes got pretty squishy. Luckily I was close to home so it was actually kind of fun. :) Then I ran past a cop, and he waved to me! Yay for nice people.

My mom is coming on Wednesday, and I'm super excited about that!
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Allergy/Cold Blahness

Sadly not too much is going on here in the land of Nurse on the Run. Whatever sickness/allergies I had last week is not going away, and in fact got worse. My eyes starting oozing gooey stuff on Friday, so I popped out my contacts and the Rocket Scientist and I raided the pharmacy aisle at Target. I got some eye drops and allergy medication. The funny part is that I never really had allergies! I think I'm allergic to the east coast because I used to get crusty-gooey eyes when I was in college at the University of Maryland, but never when I was back home in Chicago. There must be some tree or something around here we don't have in the midwest. Either way, this is miserable! I have a cough too so I'm not sure if it's a cold, but the antihistamine I'm taking seems to be helping the "head in the cloud" feeling. Whatever it is, I hope it goes away...fast!

Lo and behold, this doesn't bode well for running since I'm a bit tired and all.

Friday was fun before the eye gunk showed up, as the Rocket Scientist and I headed to California Tortilla, the BEST burrito place ever. They had one right in College Park (home to my fabulous University of Maryland), but sadly nowhere else close to where we live. However, I moved a mere ten minutes from one! Woohoo! I normally order the Spicy Sunset Salsa Chicken, but since I'm so close and can have it more often, I branched out and ordered the Fajita Burrito...which was good, but not as good as my Sunset! We split an order of chips and queso, so yummy! I highly recommend it if there is one in your area!

Saturday my eye was crusted shut in the morning, but we felt like going for a run and I felt up to it so we did a short four miles. The Rocket Scientist (who LOVES running hills) confirmed that my running route was indeed hilly, so I feel more confident about the fact that I wasn't running wimpy hills or anything. I felt kind of tired during the run, but the stats ended up being okay:

Saturday, June 6 (D-Day!)
4.01 miles in 31:47, avg pace of 7:55

We helped my roommate paint the hallways with the help of her friends, and we had a mini-bbq on our deck. It was a fun summer evening!

The Rocket Scientist left early this morning for a family medical emergency, and I felt terrible this morning so I'm scratching running today. I really wanted to get in a 10-miler, but it's hot and I'm thinking recovery would be a better choice. Instead, I laid out by the pool for about an hour and a half...I love the sun so it was nice to be out there! I multi-tasked by reading Advanced Marathoning, which is the book by Pete Pfitzinger. Many people use his training plans for marathons, and I think I might try it for my fall marathon. Probably his 18/55 plan for a yet to be determined marathon!

Tomorrow starts my last week of orientation on day shift before switching to evening shift...woo! Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!
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Because I like to blog even when I don't run

No running today! I still felt kind of "eh" all day, so I decided to take today as a rest day in hopes that I can power my immune system through rest. I went to bed around 10:30 last night, which meant seven hours of sleep, and it was AMAZING. I need to go to bed "early" more often! Note: All of this will go out the window when I switch to evening shift in a week and a half.

Anyway, I decided to make up for my missed strength training yesterday by doing it today, but all I got through was the hundred push up challenge (week 2, day 2). I was kind of exhausted and just called it a day. Total rest day! Hoping I feel better tomorrow.

The wonderful Mica tagged me last week with this survey:

Post a picture of/tell us a little about where you blog.

Not the best picture, but here is my (bare) desk in my new room! It's actually just a table. My whole room is lacking decorations right now...still getting settled! And yes, my "mouse pad" is a piece of scrap paper. Classy. For the picture, I moved my paper towel that I use as a place mat out of the way. I need to go shopping.

What are you wearing right now?

Green shorts and a tshirt that was actually the Rocket Scientist's dad's race shirt from like twenty years ago.

What’s the last thing you read/what are you currently reading?

I've been reading my medical-surgical nursing textbook when I get home so I have a clue as to what is going on with my patients! It's over 1,000 pages, so there's lots to learn that we never got to in school.

Do you nap a lot?

Rarely. I either have to be sick (like earlier this week) or have woken up ungodly early (like when I used to open at the restaurant and had to be there at 5:30 in the morning...but even then I didn't nap all the time). Otherwise I'm pretty good at staying awake. Maybe something to do with my affection for Diet Pepsi.

Who was the last person you hugged?

Probably the Rocket Scientist? I think one of the nurses at work hugged me this week...maybe.

What’s your current obsession/addiction?

Animal crackers? Trying to figure out life on my own?

What’s for dinner?

I was actually going to make this post food blog-like, but the survey took care of that! I made this orzo with zucchini, tomatoes, and parmesan cheese dish. It's supposed to be made with goat cheese, but I don't like goat cheese so I added extra parm. It was quick and tasty! I had pineapple on the side, and a Diet Pepsi because I like it, and I hadn't had one in a few days. Best part? Leftovers for tomorrow!! (Note the paper towel placemat!)

What was the last thing you bought?

Tylenol...last minute addition to my grocery shopping list.

What are you listening to right now?

I just turned on the TV and the NBA finals are about to start.

If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

To be a morning person. That HAS to be a superpower because I find it mind boggling that someone could wake up at 5:30 in the morning without an alarm.

What is your favorite kind of weather and why?

For running? 50-ish, although I did get used to running in 20 degree weather with my awesome Under Armor. For the rest of life, hot and sunny!!

What time do you usually wake up?

For work? Currently 5:45 in the morning. That will change when I start working 3-11pm! Without an alarm? Around 10-ish. I don't consider it "sleeping in" unless it's in the double digits.

What is your most challenging goal right now?

Life on my own in a land far, far away. Where I know no one.

Favorite pair of shoes you keep going back to over and over again even though you have a zillion others?

Brooks Adrenaline!! I've been running in them for like eight years. That's A LOT of shoes. Otherwise, I'm not that much of a shoe person. (I'm missing that part of the woman gene?)

Name one thing you can’t live without.

I agree with Mica...the internet. Sad, but true. Also, ice cream and M&M's, preferably together. And pineapple and bananas.

What time is bedtime?

Hopefully 10! :) On my own, more around midnight.

If there was one place you could be right now, where would it be?

I will always miss Chicago.

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So excited that tomorrow is Friday!! One of my difficult patients was discharged today (right after change of shift, of course), so maybe tomorrow will be a good one! If not, it's Friday anyway so it has to be good. :)

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Happy National Running Day!!

Like every other running blog on the planet, I'm celebrating National Running Day! I didn't feel so super when I got home from work, so I headed out for short four mile run. Celebrating National Running Day with a not-so-fun isn't the best way to celebrate, but at least I got out there! It rained this afternoon, so it cooled off quite a bit and therefore was pretty good weather-wise. I didn't feel too awesome during the run...I felt sluggish, but my pace was fine.

Wednesday, June 3rd
4.15 miles in 32:43, avg pace of 7:52

I was going to lift weights/do crunches/do the pushup challenge for the day, but I didn't feel good at all post-run. Attempts at push-ups and crunches lasted about twenty seconds until I scratched them for today and ate animal crackers instead. I took some Walgreens brand sudafed, so I'm hoping that will knock this out of me. I'm currently a little drowsy, but I should go to bed early (so hard for me!), so I guess that's not a bad thing.

Nurse!

My preceptor and I took five patients today, which is more than I've ever had before. It's still hard for me to gauge how things are going because my preceptor does a lot for me...feeding patients, giving them baths, helping people to the bathroom, etc. They sometimes (99% of the time) send a nursing assistant home because I'm there (and therefore we're overstaffed), which makes sense for money purposes/in general, but then I don't really get an idea of what I will be doing on a daily basis versus what the aides do and how we communicate and work together. Then again, I'll be on evening shift which is a different kind of busy than morning shift, so who knows.

On an unrelated note...

With summer coming, I've noticed that there aren't really water fountains around where I run. Therefore, I'm thinking about buying a water bottle/fuel belt thing. Does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions? I've never ran with any water/fuel on me, except for pinning gels/chews to my shorts. I might be partial to a water bottle carrier versus a fuel belt with a bunch of smaller bottles, but I'm open at this point. Thanks!
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The power of Tylenol

Oh my goodness WHAT A DAY. It was one of those days at work where I was like...I don't think I can do this. It took forever to do morning medications between getting a late-ish report, only have one nursing assistant for the entire floor (so when all "fall risk" patients, which is 95% of patients because EVERYONE is on fall precautions with a bed alert, decide they have to go to the bathroom, you have to stand there with them), having paper charting (entering orders in takes at least three steps, not to mention the fact that your book with medication lists needs to be taken away in order to enter the orders), and just the general fact that this is only my third week. We got about 15 minutes for lunch (we get half an hour knocked out of our pay), and then I started charting after giving report, so I got out about an hour late. The amount of charting we have to do is obscene!

I'm kind of jealous of people who do twelve hour shifts (which appears to be every nurse that reads this!) because when I had twelve hour shifts in nursing school, I actually felt like I could get everything done. There was usually a little afternoon lull (about where the 3pm shift change occurs!) where I could play catch up. Not to mention the three day work week! I wasn't offered twelve hour shifts, but I would snatch them up if I could.

Around 4pm I felt like I got hit by a truck, and I had a grumpy drive home because the traffic patterns here never cease to amaze me. When I got home, I took some Tylenol and laid down for about 45 minutes. I have NEVER been one to nap, so I have to feel pretty bad/tired to do that. The Tylenol definitely helped and I felt much better when I woke up! I reheated my leftovers for dinner (glorious!), and ended up heading out for a run around 8pm.

Tuesday, June 2
5.20 miles in 40:20, avg pace of 7:45

I did awesome on the hills today! Even my biggest climb was under an eight minute mile. It got up into the low 80's today, but since I headed out kind of late, the warmth from the sun was gone and it was warm, yet cool. It makes sense, I promise! I had wanted to do eight miles today, but I was trying to beat the sunset so I cut it to five. This worked well because I pulled up into the driveway as the sun was going down!

Time to head to bed and do it all again tomorrow!
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Summer summer SUMMER!

June is HERE!! I'm excited about this because:

1) I love summer.
2) SUN. POOL. WARMTH.
3) It's my birthday month.
4) My mom's coming to visit next week!
5) We got cable today! We have Fios with a million channels, and the cable guy (haha) set up my TV in my room even though I wasn't here! Yay!

Nurse...

One of the crazy/fun parts about the unit I work on is that the patients are all completely different. At Rush, there was the ortho unit with all hip/knee replacements. And the transplant unit with all liver/kidney transplants. Where I work, we get pretty much anyone that doesn't need a telemetry monitor (they go to a different floor). This means that the average age of your patients could be 25 or 95! It's very odd for me to walk into a room and look at someone my own age.

I got my first massive questioning by a doctor today over the phone. He kept asking all these questions about what had been ordered and by who...which is fun when you can't read their signatures! :) Luckily he came in later and actually saw the patient instead of continuing to ask me eight million times why another doctor ordered a certain test. He ended up canceling it because neither him nor I could figure out what the purpose of it was. (Not that I'm an expert in test ordering, but I like to think I have a clue!)

Anyway, that was exciting. And I'm terrible at change of shift report. Yikes.

On the run...

Running! Today was BEAUTIFUL, but a little on the warm side. Mid-70's? I was wishing for that all winter when I suited up in twelve layers to run in five degree weather, and now I think it's a little too warm! Give me a couple weeks and I'll love it again. Especially once my legs aren't a terrible shade of white! :)

Monday, June 1
5.13 miles in 39:55, avg pace of 7:47

I ran this route two weeks ago, and I did MUCH better with it today! My overall pace was similar (off by one second!), but I had a much stronger finish and I didn't take any walk breaks. Last time on this route, the hills were draining and I took a couple breaks, but this time I told myself it would get easier if I pushed through...and it did! It's fun to look at my garmin and compare the elevation changes to my splits so I can see where the hills were and what effects they had on my pace. Splits for an example:

Mile 1: 7:43
Mile 2: 7:47
Mile 3: 8:04 (holy uphill!)
Mile 4: 7:36 (holy downhill!)
Mile 5: 7:43
Mile 5.13: 7:32 pace

Crazy what a difference the elevation changes can make. I also did push-ups, crunches, and my weight routine today. Working on the buff factor.

Food!

Not a food blog, but I have to share that I made this tortellini pepperoncini salad for dinner, and it was fantastic! It was quick and easy, and I forgot how much I like tortellini. My only subsitution was a red pepper for the pepperoncini peppers because I couldn't find them at the store. Best part? Leftovers for tomorrow!

Do you guys like hearing about the "nurse" part of "nurse on the run," or should I stick more to the running? I know it's my blog and I can write what I want, but just looking for some feedback! Thanks!
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