Five sets of 20 Dips. Three sets of 30 Pushups. Light Shoulder Press and Triceps Kickbacks.
At least I remain partially active and somewhat alive.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
HURTING
I'm hurt again. I can't believe it. I really feel bad and down.
I've had aches and pains since I resumed running. I've worried that could stem from the Cypro-related antibiotic I took for 6 days in late December when my doctor thought I might have walking pneumonia. Such antiobiotics, I understand, can cause a drying out of muscle and tendon fiber that can last for about a month which makes them susceptible to injury. In fact, my right quad really hurt last week, but the pain faded after a day of rest.
So when I went for an easy 5 miler yesterday I wondered how the quad would hold up. Two miles in to the run it was fine and I was becoming more confident that all my parts were in order when my lower left calf began to hurt. As I turned to head for home at the half way mark I assumed the discomfort would fade since I certainly wasn't doing anything vigorous that could cause a calf injury. But the pain didn't go away, so I stopped at the 3 mile mark to stretch it out. I resumed running and so did the pain. A short while later I felt something sharp...had I pulled the muscle?..and I halted the run.
I feel the discomfort a bit now when I walk and more so going down steps. It is very low in the area and that makes me think of the tendon rather than the muscle itself.
Whenever I'm injured I get a very alone feeling and a sense of futility. I have to force myself to not become too depressed and hopeless and to maintain the energy to know that I can still gain something from cross training. I need to struggle against isolating myself with the injury and to reach out to those who can help me. That means setting up an appointment with my sports chiropractors who do deep muscle massage (active muscle release they call it) along with some other healing techniques. I guess I hesitate for a few reasons, both logical and illogical: Calling them is a firm acknowledgement that I really am injured again (I hope it will just go away), sometimes they've not been very helpful (though something they have been) and it's a bit costly. So I struggle.
Feeling depressed this morning I forced myself to call. The doctors are at a seminar and the office is closed! They won't be back till Monday (it's Thursday now). Wow! That wasn't so good for me to hear.
I've had aches and pains since I resumed running. I've worried that could stem from the Cypro-related antibiotic I took for 6 days in late December when my doctor thought I might have walking pneumonia. Such antiobiotics, I understand, can cause a drying out of muscle and tendon fiber that can last for about a month which makes them susceptible to injury. In fact, my right quad really hurt last week, but the pain faded after a day of rest.
So when I went for an easy 5 miler yesterday I wondered how the quad would hold up. Two miles in to the run it was fine and I was becoming more confident that all my parts were in order when my lower left calf began to hurt. As I turned to head for home at the half way mark I assumed the discomfort would fade since I certainly wasn't doing anything vigorous that could cause a calf injury. But the pain didn't go away, so I stopped at the 3 mile mark to stretch it out. I resumed running and so did the pain. A short while later I felt something sharp...had I pulled the muscle?..and I halted the run.
I feel the discomfort a bit now when I walk and more so going down steps. It is very low in the area and that makes me think of the tendon rather than the muscle itself.
Whenever I'm injured I get a very alone feeling and a sense of futility. I have to force myself to not become too depressed and hopeless and to maintain the energy to know that I can still gain something from cross training. I need to struggle against isolating myself with the injury and to reach out to those who can help me. That means setting up an appointment with my sports chiropractors who do deep muscle massage (active muscle release they call it) along with some other healing techniques. I guess I hesitate for a few reasons, both logical and illogical: Calling them is a firm acknowledgement that I really am injured again (I hope it will just go away), sometimes they've not been very helpful (though something they have been) and it's a bit costly. So I struggle.
Feeling depressed this morning I forced myself to call. The doctors are at a seminar and the office is closed! They won't be back till Monday (it's Thursday now). Wow! That wasn't so good for me to hear.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
RUNNING AGAIN
I'm glad to be running again. It was almost a 3 week layoff. I told myself that perhaps it was just like a long taper period following intensive marathon training and that I would be fine once I retook to the roads...provided I didn't make myself sick again!
Well, I've run 5 times in the last 8 days and I haven't relapsed. That's the good news. But everything else has been HARD. My times have been up, my endurance down and my heart rate SO up that I fear my heart might break through my chest. Fortunately that hasn't quite happened. Still, it's a little disconcerting when my heart is beating at its maximum halfway through a not all that fast tempo workout. And tempo runs, of course, are not meant to be all out charges. Obviously I'm running too fast for the state of my current condition, but I find it hard to slow to a speed that seems, well, slow to me!
And my legs have been so sore. Calves, quads, hamstrings, everything hurts. I did some leg curls at the gym the other day for the first time in a long time. I just went to 40 pounds, not alot, for merely 8 reps. My hamstrings have been on fire ever since. This does not exactly fill me with confidence...kind of makes me feel vulnerable and ready to break. Going down steps has become challenging. Just the way I'm walking, I imagine, fails to reflect the athlete I feel inside.
Perhaps I should wear a sign: "Still Recovering From Illness"?
Oh, well. Maybe getting sick and doing almost nothing physically for 19 days is not the same as tapering. How long will it take now?
Well, I've run 5 times in the last 8 days and I haven't relapsed. That's the good news. But everything else has been HARD. My times have been up, my endurance down and my heart rate SO up that I fear my heart might break through my chest. Fortunately that hasn't quite happened. Still, it's a little disconcerting when my heart is beating at its maximum halfway through a not all that fast tempo workout. And tempo runs, of course, are not meant to be all out charges. Obviously I'm running too fast for the state of my current condition, but I find it hard to slow to a speed that seems, well, slow to me!
And my legs have been so sore. Calves, quads, hamstrings, everything hurts. I did some leg curls at the gym the other day for the first time in a long time. I just went to 40 pounds, not alot, for merely 8 reps. My hamstrings have been on fire ever since. This does not exactly fill me with confidence...kind of makes me feel vulnerable and ready to break. Going down steps has become challenging. Just the way I'm walking, I imagine, fails to reflect the athlete I feel inside.
Perhaps I should wear a sign: "Still Recovering From Illness"?
Oh, well. Maybe getting sick and doing almost nothing physically for 19 days is not the same as tapering. How long will it take now?
Saturday, January 13, 2007
MY Disney Marathon
Even by Sunday, Disney Marathon Day, I didn't have enough consistant energy to run the marathon. So I know that I did the right thing by not running. Still....
I woke up 5:58 Sunday morning, 2 minutes before the race began. Damn! I was hoping to sleep completely through it. Instead, I looked at the clock thinking how great it would be to be at the starting line. Then I fell asleep again....
And reawakened just past 7. About when the sun is coming up, I thought, one of my favorite times in the race. The first part is in the dark and that's kind of creepy. Then, at about 6 and a half miles, the sun appears. A quarter of the distance is covered, I've taken my first Gu and I'm rolling along comfortably at my race pace. All things seem possible and the day hopeful, even optimistic. At least, that's what could have been had I not been still in bed....
When I finished my next, brief, doze it was about 7:30. I would've been in the Magic Kingdom, right around Cinderella's Castle, close to mile 11. A few years ago I saw 2 runners stop there to get married. Last year I accidentally took my double caffinated expresso tasting Gu there (I meant to hold on to it till later and take a regular one there) and surged forward for my fastest 3 mile stretch in the race. Now I could only think of how that felt as I surged to the bathroom, then to breakfast....
Breakfast was over at 9...3 hours in. This is the critical time, I thought. About 21 miles, hopefully a bit more, done and now the real race begins. How I do now, how much I slow (because I've always slowed), will determine how good the race will be. It's the moment of truth, the true measure, the, well, you get the idea. Exciting stuff! Except for today. Today, at the moment of truth, I decided to go back to the room and lay down. My friend Janet went off to MGM Studios alone....
The day was already very warm and humid. That would've taken a toll on the road. As the clock moved closer to 10 AM I imagined coming closer and closer to the finish. Would I gobble down the Chocolate Kisses offered at mile 23 and would that energize me or just upset my stomach? Should I take them with water or whenever I felt like a pick-me-up? The clock ticked....
Would it have been 9:45 when I finally finished? That would be Boston Qualifying Time. Would it be 9:51? That would be a Personal Best. Before 10 and under 4 hours for only my second time? Or sometime, anytime, disappointingly later?
At 10:30 I knew my race would have been over. I'd be in the Epcot parking lot, eating if I could, moaning in some pain and nausea and probably vowing never to do this again. I'd be wondering how long it would take till I felt good again. So now, I thought, I could only feel better than if I had run the race. Perhaps things would only get better now!
At 1 PM I watched the Jets Playoff Game and by 4 PM I was thinking that this once seemingly promising athletic day had certainly become a disaster. And again I was feeling fatigued and unable to maintain my energy. Would I ever feel well again?
Janet and I went off to the movies. As we waited for the show to start I began to feel something odd. Strange. Something I'd never felt before. No, actually, it was something I'd almost ALWAYS felt before, just not recently. I felt...myself! My energy was back! I felt good. Not fatigued. I waited for it to go away. It didn't. Nor did it the next day, the day after that or the one after that. I could at least enjoy Disney. I put off running till returning to New York. But at least I could walk all over the parks and not need to take a nap!
Throughout the parks people wore finisher's medals and I talked with some of them about the race. People recognized me as a runner (either because I look like one or because the T Shirts I wore all had the names of races I'd run in New York) and asked me if I'd run. At first I'd tell them no and explain about becoming ill. After a while, that got me down.
So when they asked me if I ran, I told them about last year's race. And if they asked me about the heat I told them what it was like in the heat 2 years ago. Not EXACTLY a lie and it did make me feel better, though it also made me think:
"Of all the words of man and pen, the saddest are these, it might have been."
Well, there's always next year. And till then, I can always talk about last year!
I woke up 5:58 Sunday morning, 2 minutes before the race began. Damn! I was hoping to sleep completely through it. Instead, I looked at the clock thinking how great it would be to be at the starting line. Then I fell asleep again....
And reawakened just past 7. About when the sun is coming up, I thought, one of my favorite times in the race. The first part is in the dark and that's kind of creepy. Then, at about 6 and a half miles, the sun appears. A quarter of the distance is covered, I've taken my first Gu and I'm rolling along comfortably at my race pace. All things seem possible and the day hopeful, even optimistic. At least, that's what could have been had I not been still in bed....
When I finished my next, brief, doze it was about 7:30. I would've been in the Magic Kingdom, right around Cinderella's Castle, close to mile 11. A few years ago I saw 2 runners stop there to get married. Last year I accidentally took my double caffinated expresso tasting Gu there (I meant to hold on to it till later and take a regular one there) and surged forward for my fastest 3 mile stretch in the race. Now I could only think of how that felt as I surged to the bathroom, then to breakfast....
Breakfast was over at 9...3 hours in. This is the critical time, I thought. About 21 miles, hopefully a bit more, done and now the real race begins. How I do now, how much I slow (because I've always slowed), will determine how good the race will be. It's the moment of truth, the true measure, the, well, you get the idea. Exciting stuff! Except for today. Today, at the moment of truth, I decided to go back to the room and lay down. My friend Janet went off to MGM Studios alone....
The day was already very warm and humid. That would've taken a toll on the road. As the clock moved closer to 10 AM I imagined coming closer and closer to the finish. Would I gobble down the Chocolate Kisses offered at mile 23 and would that energize me or just upset my stomach? Should I take them with water or whenever I felt like a pick-me-up? The clock ticked....
Would it have been 9:45 when I finally finished? That would be Boston Qualifying Time. Would it be 9:51? That would be a Personal Best. Before 10 and under 4 hours for only my second time? Or sometime, anytime, disappointingly later?
At 10:30 I knew my race would have been over. I'd be in the Epcot parking lot, eating if I could, moaning in some pain and nausea and probably vowing never to do this again. I'd be wondering how long it would take till I felt good again. So now, I thought, I could only feel better than if I had run the race. Perhaps things would only get better now!
At 1 PM I watched the Jets Playoff Game and by 4 PM I was thinking that this once seemingly promising athletic day had certainly become a disaster. And again I was feeling fatigued and unable to maintain my energy. Would I ever feel well again?
Janet and I went off to the movies. As we waited for the show to start I began to feel something odd. Strange. Something I'd never felt before. No, actually, it was something I'd almost ALWAYS felt before, just not recently. I felt...myself! My energy was back! I felt good. Not fatigued. I waited for it to go away. It didn't. Nor did it the next day, the day after that or the one after that. I could at least enjoy Disney. I put off running till returning to New York. But at least I could walk all over the parks and not need to take a nap!
Throughout the parks people wore finisher's medals and I talked with some of them about the race. People recognized me as a runner (either because I look like one or because the T Shirts I wore all had the names of races I'd run in New York) and asked me if I'd run. At first I'd tell them no and explain about becoming ill. After a while, that got me down.
So when they asked me if I ran, I told them about last year's race. And if they asked me about the heat I told them what it was like in the heat 2 years ago. Not EXACTLY a lie and it did make me feel better, though it also made me think:
"Of all the words of man and pen, the saddest are these, it might have been."
Well, there's always next year. And till then, I can always talk about last year!
Thursday, January 4, 2007
ALL DRESSED UP....
With no place to go! At least that's how it feels (sort of!). It's off to Disney tomorrow, but for a regular, ordinary vacation instead of a SPECIAL vacation built around running the Marathon on Sunday.
And oh what a day Sunday could have been! Up early and to the Starting Line by 6. Then the race thru Disney ending a bit before 9:45 (Boston Qualifying Time!), post race celebration and triumphalness (word?) in the Epcot parking lot where it all ends, then back to the room for recovery, ice, food, laying in bed and Jets Playoff and, hopefully, victory, starting at 1 PM. Then, going off to dinner with my friend Janet, to one of the fun restaurants wearing my Mickey Finishers Medal, impressing the non medalists and basking in the shared admiration of my fellow marathoners. One definition of THE PERFECT SPORTS DAY!!!
Alas, not this time. Yes, I'm mature enough to know that I shouldn't run. I get better each day but even today I'm not fully healthy. I'll do the smart, safe thing and go for a regular old vacation.
:-((
And oh what a day Sunday could have been! Up early and to the Starting Line by 6. Then the race thru Disney ending a bit before 9:45 (Boston Qualifying Time!), post race celebration and triumphalness (word?) in the Epcot parking lot where it all ends, then back to the room for recovery, ice, food, laying in bed and Jets Playoff and, hopefully, victory, starting at 1 PM. Then, going off to dinner with my friend Janet, to one of the fun restaurants wearing my Mickey Finishers Medal, impressing the non medalists and basking in the shared admiration of my fellow marathoners. One definition of THE PERFECT SPORTS DAY!!!
Alas, not this time. Yes, I'm mature enough to know that I shouldn't run. I get better each day but even today I'm not fully healthy. I'll do the smart, safe thing and go for a regular old vacation.
:-((
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
MY DOCTOR SCARES ME
Not that he's a scary guy. Marty (my doctor) is, in fact, an extremely nice man who almost always comes to the phone when I call and answers any question I have. It's just that what he says sometimes scares me.
Now I'm used to hearing good things from my doctors (except dentists). It used to be that I'd go for my physical and hear that my heart beat like a long distance runner, that my lungs had the capacity of someone in their 20s and that my cholesterol was wonderfully low. Come to think of it, Marty told me just those things again last year.
But sometimes, of late, I hear other things. Like certain changes associated with aging. Like screening tests that necessitate a followup. And lab results wildly out of tune with prior years. One lab test, in fact, was a doozie. It showed that my cholesterol was up by 200 points! When we retested 3 weeks later (during which time I was ESPECIALLY careful about my diet) my level was down by 230 points.
So nothing bad has come from any of this. But it always raises my anxiety level each time it happens. That sucks. And I worry that maybe this time....
So that's why my doctor scares me. Who knows what he'll say this time? Who knew, for example, what he'd say when I called for the results of the walking pneumonia blood test. If it was positive I'd have to remain on antibiotics for 2 more weeks.
I was, therefore, nervous when I called this morning. Marty came to the phone and asked how I was. "I'm well," I answered.
"No you're not," he responded. My gosh! What could he have seen in the blood work??
"You're getting better," he went on. "But I can still hear the nasalness in your voice." Oh, okay, I can live with that.
He got to the blood work. Marty doesn't quickly tell you the key results that you're waiting for. Instead he goes over ALL the test results, even the stuff you had no idea that you were being tested for. I learned that I didn't have diabetis, that my kidneys and liver were functioning normally, that my creatine (creatine?) levels were fine and that my glands were all doing what they were supposed to.
This was all good, of course, but I knew it had nothing to do with why my head had been stuffed, I had been coughing up junk and that my lungs were out of sorts. Trying to look at it in the best light I thought that I was building up positive momentum to the pneumonia results. How could that be bad if all the other stuff was good? On the other hand, maybe Marty was just trying to balance the negative with the positive. Sure your lungs are screwed up, so just try to use your other, healthy, vital organs more.
I could hear Marty turn the page. "And the pneumonia results are negative." No pneumonia! No more antibiotics! It was likely viral. I was still not fine, still just getting better, still unable to run Sunday's marathon...
...but at least there was nothing new to worry about!
Now I'm used to hearing good things from my doctors (except dentists). It used to be that I'd go for my physical and hear that my heart beat like a long distance runner, that my lungs had the capacity of someone in their 20s and that my cholesterol was wonderfully low. Come to think of it, Marty told me just those things again last year.
But sometimes, of late, I hear other things. Like certain changes associated with aging. Like screening tests that necessitate a followup. And lab results wildly out of tune with prior years. One lab test, in fact, was a doozie. It showed that my cholesterol was up by 200 points! When we retested 3 weeks later (during which time I was ESPECIALLY careful about my diet) my level was down by 230 points.
So nothing bad has come from any of this. But it always raises my anxiety level each time it happens. That sucks. And I worry that maybe this time....
So that's why my doctor scares me. Who knows what he'll say this time? Who knew, for example, what he'd say when I called for the results of the walking pneumonia blood test. If it was positive I'd have to remain on antibiotics for 2 more weeks.
I was, therefore, nervous when I called this morning. Marty came to the phone and asked how I was. "I'm well," I answered.
"No you're not," he responded. My gosh! What could he have seen in the blood work??
"You're getting better," he went on. "But I can still hear the nasalness in your voice." Oh, okay, I can live with that.
He got to the blood work. Marty doesn't quickly tell you the key results that you're waiting for. Instead he goes over ALL the test results, even the stuff you had no idea that you were being tested for. I learned that I didn't have diabetis, that my kidneys and liver were functioning normally, that my creatine (creatine?) levels were fine and that my glands were all doing what they were supposed to.
This was all good, of course, but I knew it had nothing to do with why my head had been stuffed, I had been coughing up junk and that my lungs were out of sorts. Trying to look at it in the best light I thought that I was building up positive momentum to the pneumonia results. How could that be bad if all the other stuff was good? On the other hand, maybe Marty was just trying to balance the negative with the positive. Sure your lungs are screwed up, so just try to use your other, healthy, vital organs more.
I could hear Marty turn the page. "And the pneumonia results are negative." No pneumonia! No more antibiotics! It was likely viral. I was still not fine, still just getting better, still unable to run Sunday's marathon...
...but at least there was nothing new to worry about!
Monday, January 1, 2007
I FEEL GOOD
I can breathe again!
Well, of course, I could always breathe. I mean FULLY. I can breathe fully without hearing funny noises from my lungs, without feeling a little tickle, without coughing immediately afterwards. I haven't been able to do that for the entire last week of 2006. So I've felt weak and tired and unable to do anything more demanding than an occasional walk to the store.
Wednesday, when I saw him, my doctor said I needed an antibiotic, cough medication, nasal congestion medication, a humidifier, constant liquids and massive amounts of Vitamin C. A blood test, due back tomorrow, would determine whether I have walking pneumonia. Worse, he noted that it would be too dangerous for me to run the Disney World Marathon this coming Sunday.
Each day after my exam I felt a bit better. Slowly I reduced the amount of medication I was taking. Finally, yesterday, I took NO cough medicine, No nasal spray and No other nasal medication. I like the humidifier and I like lots of liquids and all the Vitamin C makes me feel I'm treating myself with the natural approach, so I kept all that up. Of course I'll take the prescribed regiment of antibiotic.
And today I feel good! I can breathe fully! It's a good way to start 2007. A hopeful way.
Well, of course, I could always breathe. I mean FULLY. I can breathe fully without hearing funny noises from my lungs, without feeling a little tickle, without coughing immediately afterwards. I haven't been able to do that for the entire last week of 2006. So I've felt weak and tired and unable to do anything more demanding than an occasional walk to the store.
Wednesday, when I saw him, my doctor said I needed an antibiotic, cough medication, nasal congestion medication, a humidifier, constant liquids and massive amounts of Vitamin C. A blood test, due back tomorrow, would determine whether I have walking pneumonia. Worse, he noted that it would be too dangerous for me to run the Disney World Marathon this coming Sunday.
Each day after my exam I felt a bit better. Slowly I reduced the amount of medication I was taking. Finally, yesterday, I took NO cough medicine, No nasal spray and No other nasal medication. I like the humidifier and I like lots of liquids and all the Vitamin C makes me feel I'm treating myself with the natural approach, so I kept all that up. Of course I'll take the prescribed regiment of antibiotic.
And today I feel good! I can breathe fully! It's a good way to start 2007. A hopeful way.
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