Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Giving Blood


Why You Should Give Blood:


I gave blood today.  Here is why you should consider it:

1.  It saves lives (the most important thing).


2.  There are free cookies afterwards!  (Today we even had Chick-fil-a)!

3. You can figure out your blood type.  For free.  People pay money for that- the Red Cross sends you a card with that info on it- fo' free!

4.  You can justify that piece of Reese's Cheesecake after dinner.  It was soooo good!

5. If you forget to tell them to do it in your non-dominant arm (like I did)- you don't have to do much with that arm for the rest of the day.

(Those were meant to be humorous-- do it to save lives!! The rest are just fun perks!)

Running and Blood Donation

Ok, it is not advisable to do this one week out from a race, but if you do it mid-week, surrounded by easy runs, you will be fine.  Check with the organization you are donating with and they will tell you how it should affect you, when not to exercise, ect.  Runner's World has also written some articles about the best way to cycle it into your training:


Iron

Eat your iron before you go (and in life in general).  They will test you for iron so that your body can healthily regenerate blood cells after you give blood.  This is especially for women athletes (so most of us)- it is possible for our iron to get low- so watch out.

The Process

1. Sign in.
2. Mini Physical- blood pressure, health and travel risks, temperature, ect. (They don't want sick/infectious people donating... obviously).
3. Then they sit you down in the chair with a stress ball.  They clean your arm, give you a Sprite (so you don't pass out), and mark your vein.  Here comes the fun part- the stick.  The lady will say "You will just feel a little poke."  Wrong.  I looked down and the needle was, in the words of my father, "the size of a drinking straw."  Yes, it was VERY large.  I was bit worried, but once it is in, you mostly can't feel it.  The actual "insertion" hurt a little bit, but it was not terrible.  Don't let the big needle deter you.  Honestly, it is not that big of a deal.  Blood will flow out into a bag.  They take the needle out, and put a band-aid and a wrap on your arm when it stops bleeding.

4. The Feast- cookies, pretzels, food so you don't pass out!  Yummy!
5.  Your arm will be a little sore, but it is well worth it.  (Next time, I will ask for it on my left arm, because it made writing, driving, ect. difficult for the first few hours-- which is why I am currently typing).

I don't judge you for not giving blood, but if you are able, please consider donating.



Saturday, October 12, 2013

Race Bucket List

I just looked and I forgot to post last week.  Sorry... This weeks post will surely make up for that!

Race "Bucket List"

1. Downhill at Dawn- this is a downhill (hence the name) half marathon that starts early in the morning: at 6:00.  It runs through the mountains of North Carolina near our mountain house so it would be fun.  All of that downhill running would be painful, I am sure, but better than uphill, right?!


2. Boston Marathon- some people are opposed to having a race that you have to qualify, and I agree that running should be an open sport, but I think that it is kind of cool that you have to qualify.  This might be distant- I am not ready for a marathon, yet, and I definitely have some time work to do, but I really want to do it.   Especially because of what happened this past year.


3. Nike Women's Half-Marathon Washington DC
I love Washington DC and I really really wanted to run this race last year, but it was just too far to go for two days!  I want to run it someday because I have heard Nike puts on a good race and I love DC so of course I want to run this race.


Those are the three for now and I know that they pop into my head all the time, so I will have to do an updated post (or maybe a tab) later!