Staggering Statistics

So as I recently mentioned, Pancreatic Cancer is one of the most deadliest forms of cancer out there... It's extremely difficult for people to have faith and hold onto hope when they know this fact going in. I firmly believe that a big part of this is lack of funding... as you'll be able to gather from the last two statistics on the list. So what better way to tackle this problem than head on? Donating directly to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network will ensure that funds go directly toward the research specifically for pancreatic cancer. The more we raise, the brighter the future looks.

PANCREATIC CANCER FACTS

An estimated 46,420 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the U.S., and over 39,590 will die from the disease. Pancreatic cancer is one of the few cancers for which survival has not improved substantially over nearly 40 years. Pancreatic cancer is the 4th leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of all major cancers. 94% of pancreatic cancer patients will die within five years of diagnosis – only 6% will survive more than five years. 74% of patients die within the first year of diagnosis. The average life expectancy after diagnosis with metastatic disease is just three to six months. Few risk factors for developing pancreatic cancer are defined. Family history of the disease, smoking, age, and diabetes are risk factors. Pancreatic cancer may cause only vague symptoms that could indicate many different conditions within the abdomen or gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms include pain (usually abdominal or back pain), weight loss, jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes), loss of appetite, nausea, changes in stool, and diabetes. Treatment options for pancreatic cancer are limited. Surgical removal of the tumor is possible in less than 20% of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Chemotherapy or chemotherapy together with radiation is typically offered to patients whose tumors cannot be removed surgically. Pancreatic cancer is a leading cause of cancer death largely because there are no detection tools to diagnose the disease in its early stages when surgical removal of the tumor is still possible. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) spent an estimated $105.3 million on pancreatic cancer research in 2012. This represented a mere 1.8% of the NCI’s approximate $5.8 billion cancer research budget for that year. Source for statistics: American Cancer Society: Cancer Facts & Figures 2014 and NCI Annual Plan & Budget Proposal For Fiscal Year 2012. http://www.pancreatic.org/site/c.htJYJ8MPIwE/b.5050503/k.40C9/Pancreatic_Cancer_Facts.htm

Running for a Cause- check mine out!

Like I've said before, I don't run for me. Yes, it is therapeutic. Yes, it helps me run off whatever current overwhelming emotions or life happenings are occurring. But when I decided to start running big time, I knew I wanted to do if for something bigger. Running my first half marathon to benefit a child who hadn't even been given a shot at life yet was the most rewarding experience I think I have had to date. After that, I knew I wanted to keep running marathons, and moreover, to keep running them for charity.

My latest cause I actually discovered through my running app, MapMyRun. I noticed a while ago that they always have new "challenges" you can participate in. It seemed more like a bit of motivation, so I never participated in one before, until recently I had one catch my eye. It was called I workout beCAUSE, hosted by everydayhero. The motivation behind it? Fundraising for a cause. I knew this was exactly what I needed.

I recently lost one of the most important men in my life to Pancreatic Cancer. It was devastating, rather unexpected, and terribly frustrating. I will never understand why bad things happen to good people. I am so beyond blessed to be able to say I knew him. He played such an important role in my life for 23 years, and sometimes it is still so hard to accept that he is gone. When I went to his service, and even his celebration of life, I couldn't help but be amazed at how many people showed up and to see how many lives he had touched, though I shouldn't be surprised with how amazing of a man he was. I definitely wouldn't be who or where I am today without him.

 While I can't undo what happened, I do know I can continue to make him proud. I had said I was going to run my next half marathon through project purple to raise funds for pancreatic cancer awareness and research, but when I saw this, I thought why wait? I saw what this nasty cancer did to him and everyone that loved him, and I want to do everything in my power to prevent it from happening to others, and at the very least decrease the number. My fundraising will benefit the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. While ya'll may not have known Joseph (Chip) Ferencz personally, I know many of you have experienced loss, especially due to cancer. I encourage you to donate to this wonderful cause, especially given that Pancreatic Cancer is one of the most deadliest cancers out there, and ironically, one of the least funded. Every little bit counts and makes a difference, pay it forward.

https://iworkoutbecause.everydayhero.com/us/chrissy-2

Social Media as Self Validation

I must admit, I myself have been guilty of it, both actively and passively. Posting pictures on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. that, let's be honest, are meant to get attention. Whether it's posts full of bragging asking for a congrats, posts of bad things that happened asking for sympathy, posts for birthdays or holidays as tribute to someone important, posts literally making your life seem picture perfect, whether it's tangible things you have, or relationships you're in. When did our life value become measured by our social media posts? I first started reevaluating things when I noticed all the Mother's Day posts. Pictures posted saying how much they loved their moms and wished them a great day. Since when does it take a picture post on social media to confirm that, yes, you love your mother? and why do you only let the world know that via social media one day a year? So I decided I wasn't going to be like everyone else out there. You want to know what I did? CALLED my mom (yes, what a novel idea), and talked to her on the phone. Asked about her day, caught up, and TOLD her how much I loved her, instead of telling all my friends on social media. Same goes for birthdays. Why post a picture with a friend you haven't actually seen in years, just to make you seem closer than you really are? Why not go SEE that friend, take them to lunch, catch up. Make their big day actually have meaning, instead of making it all superficial via the internet. Using social media to glorify our lives only paints a false picture of what is real, and in a society where we are constantly comparing ourselves to others, it can be an extremely detrimental thing. That's where the passiveness comes in. All the posts of weddings, babies, new jobs and cars... Why must others success be the way of measuring ourselves? Especially because more often than not, those posts are very much inflated. The perfect filter, the ability to revise and edit... endless ways to portray the perfection that doesn't exist. While social media can be a great way to stay in touch and get updates, I firmly believe it has made people extremely lazy and caused them to take advantage of things and lose appreciation. Since when does our self worth have to be measured by how many likes we have?
When I gave social media up for lent, it was the most refreshing 40 days of my life. It was the first time in a long time I had no distractions, and I could finally focus on me time. I was able to focus on bettering myself, without constant comparing myself to everyone else. I was able to reconnect with old friends, rather than just "creeping" on posts to see what they were doing with their lives. When I gave up social media, I was finally free to live my life for the first time in a long time.
After giving it a lot of thought, I am contemplating getting rid of social media, with the exception of Facebook, for the simple fact that I do use it for other purposes other than everything I'm against. It will be a good test to see how many people still connect with me, despite me rebelling against getting sucked into this anti-social world we have become a part of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2V9-3ZwnIU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRl8EIhrQjQ

Pace and time, are they interchangeable?

During the course of my training for my first marathon, I made the mistake of just focusing on time. I was getting frustrated when I plateaued and couldn't decrease my speed anymore, without thinking of why. What I failed to realize is I was using pace and time interchangeably, inevitably leading to my lack of improvement. I've learned now that my time and speed is a component of my pace, along with many other factors, which I failed to address during my training. These factors included stride, cadence, and breathing. In hindsight I realize I did not address cadence or stride at all. I also noticed how difficult they are to change. I have extremely short legs, so my stride length is naturally short, which also makes my cadence more like the "pitter patter" or scurrying of a mouse lol I've been trying to focusing on longer strides, but it's hard to keep a good cadence when I do. I now see why they say to give yourself at least three months to change. Baby steps. It's not three months to get to the 13 miles, but 3 months to get into a groove along the way. This is something that I could only learn by trying, so time to take it to the course and change it for the next one!

Kicking it into high gear

I've decided to make a few changes to my training regimen to help improve my pace. I realized I never really picked it up during my race, and even when I tried, I didn't have much "get up and go." Because of this, I've decided to incorporate sprints into my training. Below you can see what a difference it made too. The bottom 2 miles were ran doing sprint/jog intervals. I split up the sprints during the mile, doing anywhere from 100-400M, trying to push myself further as I went. The second set of 2 miles were done at a slower jog than my race pace (they were done after my sprint-jog intervals, and I lifted legs the day before, so needless to say I was tired). Regardless, you can see what a difference it made. I shaved an entire minute off my time. My goal is to keep adding miles to the intervals, so I can have my "get up and go" during my race. Hoping to see some improvements soon! 

Getting back into it

I haven't updated in awhile, so I decided to back track a bit. Here's my first run after my marathon. I took about a month off to let my body recover. I made the mistake of not doing much cardio on my break.... but surprisingly enough, my time for my first 2 miles was actually faster than my average pace during my marathon. Letting my body heal definitely made all the difference in the world. But then you can see where my stamina dropped off... aka mile 3. It's crazy how fast you de-train. Even though I was frustrated at first, I know it's not that bad considering the break  I took. Now I'm ready to get back into it and start making improvements! 

circuits, suicides, and burpees... what's not to love?

For my "off season" training I've been trying to spice things up so I don't get bored or in a funk. I am a big fan of circuits because they are fast pace and work everything in the body. They make me feel like I'm dying sometimes, but it's totally worth it. I noticed from my first half marathon that I don't have much "get up and go" when I'm trying to pick up the pace to decrease my time, so I've decided to incorporate more sprints into my training regimen. I'll list the latest circuit I've been doing below. It's nice because you don't need a gym membership to do them. I did it in the gym, and sometimes I do it in the gym at the high school I work at when all my teams are done for the day or I have gaps between practices when they don't have school. If you're just doing it somewhere outside, and don't have good stopping points/measurements for the suicides, you can always just do straight ahead sprints. Just enough to get your HR up and incorporate quick running patterns in the circuit.

1 set of suicides
10 push ups
20 mountain climbers
20 lunges
20 air squats
10 burpees
repeat 5 times.

It doesn't seem like much, but it's a good workout. I used to incorporate planks and wall sits, but I took them out to do on their own. I don't want any static exercises in my circuits.

As much as I try to avoid social media, as I feel it is a time eater, pinterest is great for finding new, creative ideas for keeping workouts interesting. Once I get bored with a workout it's game over. Finding things you enjoy keep it fun and keep you wanting to go back for more.