COACH CYNDEE

The Comrades Marathon in South Africa is a bucket list race for anyone who does ultra marathons.   It’s one of the most iconic ultra marathons in the world.   It has been in existence for over 90 years and was started by a man who wanted to remember his comrades who perished in the war.   It is not only the oldest running ultra marathon in the world but it’s the largest with close to 20,000 runners.   Another unique thing about this race is the very challenging cutoff time of 12 hours to run 54.5 miles.   Running the Comrades was going to be the toughest challenge of my life.   Training for this event was special to me not only because of the iconic race, I was also raising money for the dogs at the Nevada SPCA.   I called my cause Run For Fido and I was hoping to raise $3,000 for the Nevada SPCA.   I do a lot of my training for my events with the dogs at the Nevada SPCA and with my two dogs.     We had a bit of a hiccup travelin...

On the bus before the race I found out Sunday a week before the Revel Marathon that we could sign up for the race since it had sold out.     We were on the wait list for the Revel Full Marathon in Las Vegas and I honestly had forgotten about putting my name on the list.    My boyfriend and I are doing the Comrades Ultra Marathon in South Africa in June and we had to submit a qualifying marathon time before May 2 nd .    When we found out Revel was sold out we signed up for a small marathon in Long Beach.    We really didn’t want to go out of town to race but we didn’t have any other options.    Sunday before the Revel race we got an email that we could sign up so rather than go to Long Beach we decided to sign up for the local race and stay in town.    Revel is a downhill run from the top of Mount Charleston down to North Las Vegas.    This run has a massive elevation drop of over 5,000 feet.    Wh...

I recently fell when I was running and I broke a bone in my hand.   I was one week from an ultra marathon that I had been training for.   I had fully intended to still run the marathon until I went to see the orthopedic doctor on Tuesday.   My race was Saturday and I told the doctor I didn’t want a cast so that I could run the race.   I mean I still had healthy legs and feet…..right?   He quickly brought me to reality when he said that the bone I broke in my hand was the worst bone in the body to break.   Apparently it gets very little blood flow and healing is very slow and running 12 hours was a very bad idea.   He said in fact you shouldn’t be running at all for a while.   He said if the bone The culprit who tripped me Cash! separated more I was looking at surgery, which for this injury is not very successful.   If he was trying to scare me he certainly did because my career as a massage therapist was more important to me than runni...

We all strive to do better when it comes to our food choices.  Something very easy for you to do is to make sure you NEVER buy these foods again and if you do have them at home you should throw them out! Whenever you eat always think about the nutritional value of the food.  Think about how it will benefit your body and these 10 foods will not benefit you in any way! Boxed cereal - even the so-called healthy cereal is usually crap so just avoid this isle in the grocery store.  Most times it contains added sugar and if you examine the label you will probably not understand half of the ingredients.  Most people eat cereal with milk which is another product I would avoid like the plague.  Milk contains so many gross thinks such as antibiotics, hormones, bacteria, and pus.  It is also very hard for many people to digest milk because of the lactose sugar.  Milk can also cause people prone to allergies and asthma to produce too much mucus.  Stick to ...

As race day grew closer I was feeling confident in my effort to run 12-hours and 55-60 miles while raising almost $3,000 for the Nevada SPCA.    A week before the race, while on a training run, I fell and broke a bone in my hand/wrist.    I was upset but figured heck its my hand I can at least still run.    That was until I went to see the orthopedic doctor and he said I broke the worst possible bone in my body and the hardest bone to heal properly because of low blood flow to that area.    He was very adamant that I should not run the 12-hour run this weekend or run at all for about month to prevent further damage to the bone.    If I don’t listen to him I run the risk of needing surgery, which is a very difficult surgery to do and recover from.    Needless to say I am not running this weekend or at all for at least a month.   Run For Fido is not dead since I have a 56-mile run I was planning to do in June. ...

For the most part running is a relatively safe sport, but there can be a few things to be aware of.  If your like me most of your running is done alone.  I am usually running with my dogs but not always another human.  Over the past 20 years of running I can honestly say I have only had a few scary things happen but it only takes one bad situation to put you in danger.  Most of my scary situations involved off leashed dogs rather than people.  In either case carrying a few essentials could save your life or the life of your pet if your dog is running with you.  A few years back I was out early with my dogs and several off leash dogs attacked my dogs.  My dog that wasn't friendly with other dogs (except my other dog, she loved him) fought back and didn't get hurt but my other dog Tigger wasn't a fighter and they attacked him.  I was helpless and couldn't get the dogs off him for what seemed like forever but I'm sure was only seconds.  If I ...

Stress can wreak havoc on your body both mentally and physically.  Stress can lead to a host of medical problems that could potentially lead you to a doctor or hospital visit.  It can cause a host of problems that you don't want. Stress can cause: anxiety rapid heart rate weight gain or weight loss headaches muscle tension ulcers stomach distress heart burn over/under eating poor nutritional choices Take these simple steps to reduce the stress in your life: Try sticking to a schedule and planning your day/week in advance. Get up 15 minutes earlier than normal so you can have some quiet time and aren't rushing to get out the door.  Maybe use this time for meditation or whatever relaxes you. Do something you have always wanted to do but just haven't taken action to do it. If you have been thinking about volunteer work then do it.  If you have wanted to take a class then do it.  Do something for yourself that you want to do. Add de-stressing a...