This week - still not improving

I'm not improving. But then again, I haven't rested well. I wanted to, but with the bathroom remodel comes certain obligations, unless I want to spend even more money, and it's already stupid expensive. I took Sunday & Monday as rest days, but I had to paint on Monday & Tuesday (Tuesday was a holiday here, and I'd arranged for the long weekend). I didn't want to, but that was how the timing went with the remodel. I did have some help from Kathryn (church friend) and Calvin, thank goodness, but even with that it was VERY taxing. It's not a small room, and I had to do the ceiling, and I wanted to do a really, really good job since the rest of the room will be a high end remodel thanks to my amazing contractor Jesse. I got it done, but at the cost of my health I'm afraid.

Add in the 10K "race" I was registered for that I did on Tuesday (the Deseret News 10K, which I usually LOVE to do), walking casually with Calvin, and racewalking just 3K (time 1:22), and that put me over the edge. I was really just dead on my feet. 

I went back to work on Wednesday and felt terrible. Definitely no exercising. I intended to just work a few hours and take some sick time, because of how I felt, but I ended up staying for my usual ~7 hours. Same on Thursday, though I felt a bit less terrible and did 20 min elliptical before work. On Friday I actually felt better, and did 30 min elliptical before work.

On Friday I also had an appointment with the hematologist to see what he thought about my anemia. Remember, I have mild anemia with a hemoglobin of 12.3 and hematocrit of 37.5. Normal for women is 13 and 39, minimum. I have a history of at least 7 years of mild anemia and my family doc thought I should get it worked up with my continuing fatigue and my desire to racewalk competitively. Add in a low white count and mild neutropenia (low # of neutrophils, which help fight infection) and it was cause to get a referral. The hematologist was excellent (and in fact, knows my boss in a roundabout manner), and we hit it off well. He looked me over carefully, took a thorough history, and had good news and bad news. The good news is that I don't have a major hematologic disorder (like, say, blood cancer). The bad news is that I have what they call "anemia of chronic disease", which means that my anemia is merely symptomatic of some other disease process, likely chronic inflammation of some type or some autoimmune disorder. Since I've been to rheumatology (the autoimmune specialists) and they didn't find anything, this is more perplexing. There is something wrong, but no one knows what it is. He suggested an immunologist, perhaps, but the direction is a bit unclear from here. I am definitely going to go back to my family medicine doc and sports medicine doc and see if they have further advice.

Meanwhile, something is very, very wrong, and I have no idea what or how to feel better. It's bad enough now that it is affecting my work and personal life, which is worse than just affecting racewalking. It's bad enough that social media is painful because then I see all my racewalker friends' accomplishments and feel worse. On the bright side, I seem to be over the worst of it as far as my antidepressant withdrawal. I'm still pretty emotional, but the nausea, dizziness, headaches, and brain zaps are gone. Still, it will take my body a while to make more serotonin, and I'm likely to feel fairly lousy for a bit because of that, which is definitely not helping things. I'll get through this, but it's not fun.

a new low

I'm feeling very, very bad.

I think it's mostly because of quitting the escitalopram, but this is the worst the problems have been in years. Fatigue, headache (splitting, in the morning - ibuprofen and acetaminophen at max doses calmed it enough so I could get to work on Wednesday & Thursday).

So...

Wednesday and Thursday - rest days. Just felt awful. Made it through work and all the other required activities, but just barely. To be fair, work has been unusually demanding in terms of attention required (many undergrads in lab) and time (just a lot of experiments going on), which is fine, but adds to exhaustion. Plus our bathroom remodel has demanded a fair amount of decision making power, which is a good thing, but adds in to the mix.

Friday - went to the track, which I was supposed to do on Thursday. Warmed up, and my legs were like lead. I feel like I have to do the workouts now though, because of Spain. But as you'll see, a course correction is in the plans now. Anyway, I did the warm-up, then 3x1km @85% effort (though perhaps I gave it a little more - it's hard to hold myself back). I felt really terrible, and was extremely slow - 6:15, 6:18, 6:22 with HR in the low to mid 160s. Not good at all. This is the worst it has been, and my muscles HURT.

Saturday - rest day, because I just have to. My body feels dead and unresponsive, and I am VERY sore - reminiscent of the weird muscle soreness I had back in 2013-2014. Makes me think that it might have to do with the escitalopram, since the time proximity is correlated. But correlation is not causation, and this might just be a random relapse with nothing to do with the medication change. Regardless, I'm doing some VERY easy trim painting today and some light errands, but otherwise have been resting. Got Calvin and Loren to do some necessary yard work :) but I think I also need to do some laundry. Have also been planning for our trip to Spain, getting some accommodations and asking friends who live there (Jill) or are from there (Paula, our kids' former teacher) for advice, so that's coming along.

On the bright side, the bathroom remodel is coming along, and I'm posting pics of the new windows. We are enjoying them even though it's just a big empty room with lots of drywall dust and a lonely toilet right now!

Track Tuesday

Sunday: rest day. I was SO dead after 12k Saturday PLUS helping a friend move for 3 hr PLUS two major shopping excursions (bathroom tile because we're redoing our master bath, and Costco because I promised a friend I'd take him). Oops. I tried to rest a lot on Sunday but I had some social obligations so my rest was more limited than I'd have liked. I did get good sleep Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.

Monday: My body was still tired so I did a 45 min (or so) casual walk with the dogs for exercise. It felt nice to move w/o pushing things at all.

Today: speed work. I was to do a 3K fartlek with the fast segments at 85% effort, 4' rest, 4x500 @85% effort. It's stupid hot outside right now; I woke up later than planned so I couldn't do the outdoor track before work. I slept very poorly because 1) I went to bed too late because I had a meeting re: our hosting for the SL Fellows program next year, 2) there was a massive and loud thunderstorm at 11pm, and 3) Sugar barked on overdrive at something (who knows what? probably a raccoon?) at 2 am. Grim face at left after my workout, at the gym - outdoors was hot behind me (it's only 90F right now or 32.2C, which is not THAT hot for July, but it is no picnic for RW).

I went to work and did a bunch of stuff, then managed to pull myself away for my workout at 11am. I felt dizzy, probably from lack of sleep, but also maybe still a side effect from not taking the escitalopram (my last dose was Sunday the 8th). I had tired, achy glutes before the workout, and I have no idea why - I felt recovered from moving the boxes and from my Saturday workout yesterday. So what the heck is this soreness???

Mentally it was SO hard to stay positive. My inner critic was on overdrive. I tried to shut it up by reminding it that it is not helping me get better. That worked for a bit and then it just kept kicking back in. When I do a workout and am SO MUCH SLOWER than I EVER have been historically, it's so hard to make that voice shut up. It is just painful to do speed work because of it! I swear if there was a good easy way to make it go away, I would. I wonder if the escitalopram helped it quiet down, and that's why it's worse now? Or maybe it's the lack of sleep. It was a most unpleasant workout because of that.

I did keep from doing an all-out effort. I had to keep reminding myself to hold a little back. So...yeah, I was VERY slow.

Converting from the 292.6m track, my fartlek was 19:10.3, with fasts and mediums (585.2m each, converted to 500m times) of 3:02.7, 3:18.2, 3:07.5, 3:18.7, 3:11.5 (!UGH!). My 500m were approximate - I had to make an educated guess based on my lap times where the 500m split was. Assuming I was close, my 500m times were 3:02.3, 3:04.1, 3:06.4, and 3:03.2 (that's similar to outdoors last week, so that's probably about right).

It's hard to shut off the voice that says I'm too slow to go to Spain. It's hard not to compare to where I used to be. It's hard to feel really sick (I'm SO fatigued and dizzy today). I should probably go home early from work and take a sick day but I have stuff to do, and let's face it, work is a higher priority than recreational hobbies like racewalking, because it has to be.

SLC Half Marathon - 2017 edition

Friday: rest day, with some gentle hiking with my friend Lois in Red Butte Garden. Awesome.

Saturday: Salt Lake City Half Marathon!

I woke ready to go and feeling pretty good. Had a banana and grabbed my stuff, but forgot my Garmin. At least I have my fitbit, but I can't do splits on it. Oh well! I didn't mind too much as I was doing this just as a training race. I was excited to get out there and enjoy the camaraderie, and the weather was absolutely perfect. Started off low 40s (~5C) and sunny and calm, and ended at probably 50F (10C).

Took it easy for the first 5 miles (a couple small steep uphills but mostly gentle downhill), and then through mile 6.5 it's a relentless though gentle uphill. That takes a lot out of you, but I took it easy and it was OK. A little more downhill and then one more difficult uphill (hard to racewalk legally near the top) before coasting down to mile 8-9. The kids were supposed to greet me at mile 8.5 but didn't :/ ah well.

I still felt pretty good in miles 8-10; legs got pretty tired around mile 10 but I took a gel and that seemed to revive me a bit (or it was just a coincidence!). Either way, I was able to do the last couple miles pushing it just a little (moderate-moderately hard) and I felt very good - tired, but good. After crossing the finish line I felt fine and recovered well the rest of the day, although it was a bit of a crazy schedule. Church stuff has been super busy with being on the search committee for a new pastor, and we had a lot of stuff to do this weekend, so that made recovery harder, but I am hoping to sleep well tonight.

Oh, and my time? A reasonably respectable 2:21:37 - for out of shape and just enough training to go the distance, I will take that. Fitbit data here. 

I'm definitely sore today, probably from the hills and the extra effort the last couple miles, but it's a good kind of sore. Hoping to hit the gym for some weights this week and do a lot of cross-training. Onward! Need to get ready for Portland to Coast in August, and then still setting my sights on WMA in Malaga, Spain in 2018.

12K

Yesterday: I was supposed to do the 12K yesterday, but I woke up feeling unbelievably tired and decided there was no way it was going to happen. I'd been sleep deprived for a couple days and it wasn't good at all. I don't think it was the mystery fatigue, but I'm watching for that. I've had a few times this week when I felt like I could possibly be getting a touch of the fatigue so I'm watching it. I NEED TO GET MORE SLEEP (yelling at myself). Anyway, by noon I felt better, despite going to Weight Watchers and gaining 6 lb in 2 weeks (yeah, I knew I was eating poorly, but geez!). I'm back at it again, needless to say. Spent the afternoon doing a lot of fairly heavy-ish yard work because we had to --- I was tired and didn't want to, but the problem is that we need to get it done, and it keeps raining on the weekend. This was the first weekend in a bit we've had a chance to work on it, and we wanted to take advantage. A few more good weekends and we should have most of it done, but here in SLC if we don't do it now then it just gets WAY too hot to do it. Spring is unpredictable though, so it's hard to find the right window to do yard work when it's sunny and it's the weekend!

Today: Got up and was a bit sore from the yard work, plus had to prep for having people over for Easter dinner today. Got the ham in the smoker, and made a Jell-O salad, and put candy for the kids in eggs for our Easter egg hunt, and then I had to run off to church to be there at 8:30 for music practice - I love playing for Easter so that was pretty awesome - some great piano and organ stuff. Needless to say, the 12k didn't happen until we got home from church, I made 2 pies, and then we did the Easter egg hunt. Then I could finally go racewalking, and though it was warm outside (not hot, but nicely warm - a bit warm for RW this early in the season for me) at 17.8C (64F) I actually had a decent walk. OK, it was slow, but I did a hilly route AND my legs were tired from yard work AND it was warm outside, so I think given all that I did a really good job. Photo of how GORGEOUS it was outside today above at left - SugarHouse Park was so fabulous.

After getting home I finished making dinner, entertained until 8pm (see photo above with our friends!), cleaned up until 9pm, and now ... I'm TIRED!

6K

yesterday: rest day, complete with nap

today: 6K

I didn't go first thing in the morning 'cause I needed to get to work and get some stuff done. But once at work I was able to carve out 40 min for a racewalk. It's slightly hilly here but I have a flatter-ish course that I can do, and it was much nicer later in the morning than it was earlier. It snowed yesterday and was still a bit cold this morning so late morning was perfect. It was about 0C (32F) when I woke up but it was a balmy 7.8C (46F) when I walked.

I pushed the pace a bit and my HR was in the upper 150s a lot, but I felt good and the sunshine made me happy :). So there.

Garmin data here. 38:14 for 6:22/km with ave HR 154. 

Soul searching

Saturday, after the PT on Friday, my hammy really hurt. A lot. Like 2-3, maybe 4 at times, while racewalking 8k on the Jordan River Parkway. Ugh. It was terrible. I wanted to do 20K, then realized it was gonna be 10-12K, then had to stop at 8K.

Sunday night I picked up the pianist (and his mom, and two teachers) that we are hosting for the Gina Bachauer Junior Competition this week. Things got busier from there. I did take a rest day on Sunday, but it was busy getting ready for our guests.

Monday morning I went out for 6K, and it felt OK. But I was slow, and tired. Every time I pull my hamstring it shortens up my stride because I get paranoid about hurting it, and then I lose my toe-off, and then I'm really slow. I did 6:37/km. Oh yay.

Tuesday I was supposed to do 8K, but I was up late Monday night for the piano competition opening gala, and I was way too tired to get up and walk. So I didn't. I was angry about the hammy and frustrated and tired.

Wednesday I did the 8K, and it went OK; better than Monday but still sluggish. I did 6:32/km. I was talking with friends Wednesday night and journaling some and realizing that something has to give in my life. I'm too busy and it's not good for me or the kids or Loren or work or RW or anything else. But I don't know what to give up.

Today I was to do a 5K fartlek. I woke up tired with a sore throat and just looked in the mirror and said "I don't have to do this any more. Maybe I need to give competitive racewalking a rest." So I went to the gym and did the elliptical and did my PT - including all of the eccentric exercises. It felt OK during, but later, at work, my hammy hurt annoyingly any time I sat more than 15 minutes.

So, right now I'm thinking that I need to consider carefully whether I need a break or not. I'm thinking a break might help my hamstring to recover, though when I e-mailed my PT about that he said he thought I could continue training, albeit at a reduced volume.

I just don't know what to do.

But hey, at the moment I'm enjoying a Chopin Etude, courtesy of my 13-year-old guest prodigy. That's awesome at least.

more problems

First, I should catch up on workouts that I was actually able to do.

Friday: 6K, felt good; 6:25/km with ave HR 147.

Saturday: Was camping with Grace at Wasatch Mountain State Park and did 20K at altitude (1700m instead of my usual 1300m), in heat (started late-ish, and finished at about 10 am...it was 70 and sunny at the end, which I'm not used to), with hills...lots of hills. My legs were toast by 14km and hamstring got very whiny about the hills; 14.5km in I wondered if I should keep going but worked a lot on my posture and the pain didn't increase. Despite all that I managed 6:45/km for 2:15 which seems pretty good for that workout. Had a LOT of muscle soreness afterward - Sunday, and Monday too.

Sunday: rest day.

Monday: was to do 8K with 3x3' at 10K race pace, but my legs were DEAD. So I did 6K and called it good (or terrible, actually). So slow. 6:58/km, with HR only 133, so you can see the problem was my legs. Sigh...

To make matters worse, that afternoon while parking my bike in the garage (biking kids to summer camp these days now that school is out) I tripped over a pile of rocks we had delivered for our backyard, and caught myself poorly, skidding forward on my bad leg. My hamstring screamed in protest, and so did I. It hurt a LOT for 30-45 minutes, despite ice + acetominophen + naproxen. Oh yay.

So, yesterday & today I did elliptical. I did racewalk 3 laps on the indoor track today and it wasn't too awful. It hurt, but not horribly so. My last lap was 1:51 (6:15/km pace) and that felt OK-ish. But sitting at work today has been brutal (had a lot of time on the microscopes, confocal and compound) and I think I need one more day of cross-training. Maybe on Friday I can try 6km again and then Saturday longer assuming the hammy does OK.

I'm really bummed out. I am seriously considering finding a different sport. I have no idea what I'd do but I'm just done with this right now.

rest day; 10K w/3x3' @10K race pace

Yesterday: much needed rest day. My hamstring was pretty sore while playing the piano for church; not sure why - maybe because of the PT on Friday? I might eliminate the one exercise I think is the problem and see if that helps. I was SO tired yesterday. Weirdly tired.

Today: I woke up feeling very rested (!), and ready to do today's workout, which was 10K w/3x3' @10K race pace. The weather was lovely, and much nicer than the rain on Saturday! It was 45F (7.2C) and calm and clear, and very beautiful in Liberty Park. The workout went really well, too! Calvin and the dogs joined me and I felt very good on my fast 500s - I have no idea what 10K race pace is these days, but I just went by effort, and those were great. 2:58, 2:53, 2:57, and they didn't feel too hard. My GPS was very off for the first 500m (by probably 20-30 seconds under - had me at 2:48 for easy pace - ummmmm, NOT!) but otherwise seemed fine. Total time was 1:03:57 for 6:24/km with ave HR 145. I like that! I liked even more that my hamstring had mostly ZERO pain and some 1/10 but only on the fast intervals and only part of the time, not the whole interval. Doing better for sure.

I'm taking anti-inflammatories again to try to get the hammy feeling 100%. Hoping it helps, since it was so sore on the weekend.

15K national championships

As you might expect, given my lack of conditioning, I was slow. But I didn't think I'd be *THIS* slow. I figured I could at least manage 6:25/km. Nope. About 8km in I was hurting, and slow, and chafing, and I started to cry when Karen S (>60yo, very fast, but still...much older than me) passed me...and I couldn't see Marianne M (>65yo, also very fast) either. Neither of them has ever beaten me before. I could hardly breathe for a while because I was crying while walking :(. I mean, I should have known, but it was just hard to see how truly awful I've become.

Coach assures me that with speed work more regularly and longer, that in 3-4 months I'll be better. That's a long time. Not good enough to make plans for Perth WMA, so I'm probably not going. Better to save $ for Spain in 2018 and take the family with me, since the kids are learning Spanish in school (dual immersion program).

The nice thing about the 15K was the girlfriends' weekend (though poor Diane was very, very sick and we had to take her to the ER on the way down; she's doing better now and will be OK), getting away and relaxing, seeing RW friends, and best of all, walking a lap with some very good American racewalkers from the past - Curt Clausen and Susan Armenta. That was pretty fun - I even have pics of me with them. If I'd been in shape I could've kept up with them easily and that would've been even more fun, but as it was, I couldn't hold even that pace.

The other good thing? Hammy and foot didn't bother me much; pain at most 1/10.

My time was about 1:38:12. Ughhhhh. I was 7th overall so didn't even get an open medal (they give them for 1-6). I did get first in my age group, but I was the only one...geez.... :(

***

Monday - rest day after the race; drove all the way home. Hammy didn't like that, but after a night's sleep it recovered.

Tuesday - 6K easy with Calvin and the dogs, in ~39:15 (watch was waaaay off the first 500m so this is a guesstimate) for 6:32/km. Not too bad. Nothing hurt much; hammy a little sore at times, but mostly 0-1/10.

Today - elliptical and PT exercises.

10K

Yesterday: rest day.

Today: 10K. Took Calvin and the dogs and enjoyed a beautiful morning; the streets were wet from last night's rain and it was very humid (foggy in Liberty Park - it was cool - the fog was low to the ground, up to about 3-5 ft high) but comfortable at 11.1C (52F).

It was a pretty routine 10K. I like the sound of that! My hamstring bugged me a little bit, pain 1/10, and my foot didn't hurt at all until the last km when it was a little sore (1/10). My legs were a little tired (not sure why, as I rested a lot yesterday!), but considering that I wasn't too awfully slow. I did 6:34/km for 1:05:47 with ave HR 145.

Afterward I did PT exercises.

5K "race", rest day, 8K, cross-training

Saturday: 5K "race" with Calvin - racewalked over to SugarHouse park for the U of U Burn Camp 5K to raise $ for kids with burns to attend summer camp. Calvin was awesome and set a new 5K PR on this hilly course: 23:39! Fast little dude! I walked the dogs, slowly, stopping to pick up a pile that Powder deposited, and stopping another time because she stopped suddenly causing me to tweak my hamstring (it's fine, but I was scared for a bit). My 5K time was about 32:37-ish (~6:30/km) which for a hilly course isn't bad given my current lack of fitness. My foot was hurting a bit before and during but less during and after...typical for tendonitis. Garmin data here. Total distance ~7.5km, and then we walked (slowly, casual walking) home.

Sunday: took a much-needed rest day.

Monday: 6K easy to test out the foot. It felt much better than Saturday, and was merely warm-ish with a slight bit of pain 1/10. My hamstring was likewise mostly not painful but some 1/10 pain. Things seem to be improving. Did the 6K in 39:30 for 6:35/km despite a ridiculously strong wind.

Today: elliptical, which felt fine. Am taking naproxen again to help with the inflammation. Am hoping to do a fartlek tomorrow.

4x1km @85% effort

I rested Sunday & Monday - long weekend trip, getting older, not bouncing back as well, I guess. Rest days were good :).

Today I opted for the indoor track because of the cold rain (about 6C with steady rainfall - ugh). I warmed up well (5 laps) then did 4x878m @ 85% effort (3 laps each). It went well! I did them in 5:04.7 (5:47.1 for 1km), 5:05.3 (5:47.8/km), 5:06.6 (5:49.3/km), and 5:09.5 (5:52.6/km), at a true 85% effort; comfortably hard. My hamstring did well, hurting 1/10 at most. 

This week we'll do 2 speed sessions :) and that was a good start. Not fast, but hey, starting somewhere.

Garmin data here. 

rest day; 6K

Yesterday: rest day, though I did walk about 5K casually (not RW) to a baby shower and back home (2.5k each way).

Today: 6K with Powder and Sugar; very uneventful. I felt good :) and though my muscles are pretty sore (were more sore yesterday!!!) I did fine, and was even a bit faster than I have been. Weather was lovely at 8C (46F), though quite windy (slowed me down a bit at some points).

38:26 for the 6K for 6:25/km with ave HR 143. Pain level was 0-1/10 :). Hamstring feeling good. Definitely on the mend, as long as I don't do something else stupid to hurt it.

Garmin data here. 

rest day; 10K

Yesterday I took a legit rest day. Did absolutely no exercise, not yoga, nothing. Even took a nap! It felt good. I ate well too :).

Today: 10K with Kelly (OK, she did 6.8 with me, then I did the rest with Sugar!) on the JRP. Gorgeous morning. 48F by my car but Garmin says 54F (12.2C). It was nice :). No wind, dark when we started but light when I finished, and the alpenglow on the mountains was awesome. I love living here (when it's not snowing...).

We started off very slowly (7 min km for the first km) but I felt pretty tired and my legs were definitely heavy - though I rested on Sunday, I had done a LOT of heavy duty yard work on Saturday, including digging 6 very large holes for rosebushes and hauling the dirt around, so I'm not surprised my legs were a bit tired to start. I picked up the pace as I went though, and my hamstring did OK. It was also a little sore to start, sometimes 1, often 2/10 pain level, but by the end of the workout it was running 0-1/10 and wasn't bothering me much at all. Whew.

So the summary is: slow but done. The usual lately. 6:40/km for 1:06:48 with ave HR 144.

Some pictures from my walk and also of my tulips :). Spring is here :)!!! (It'll probably snow again, but I need to enjoy the good weather while I can).

P-DTR, rest day; 3K fartlek

Yesterday: I was just really tired, and a bit down, plus really busy, so I tried to respect my body by giving it a day off except for my PT appointment. My regular PT, Shane at the U Orthopedic Center, had suggested I go see Bonnie who is a PT at the women's clinic, to rule out any pelvic floor dysfunction or problems with muscles in and around that area, given that I was having a hamstring relapse. I agreed, because while I didn't think I was having problems in that area, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get it checked out.

So yesterday afternoon I saw Bonnie and she was very thorough. After examining me she didn't think I had any pelvic floor problems, and thought that basically the problem was my hamstring coupled with some possible lingering dysfunction from my ACL reconstruction 23 years ago. She felt that my popliteus on the left side and some of my back muscles on the left side were a little dysfunctional. I had told Shane last week that I thought I did have some lingering weakness stemming from the ACL surgery, and while I had rehabbed it very well, it wasn't quite the same as the other side. That was all fine and well.

But then Bonnie did something a bit unusual and I'm not 100% sure how I felt about it. On the one hand, I felt that last night it improved my pain level and my functioning quite a bit, but what she did struck me as a bit "woo-woo" and now that I've done some research I can say this much: "P-DTR" or "Proprioceptive Deep Tendon Reflex" therapy is not peer reviewed or evidence-based - YET. Having experienced it and seen some definite short-term benefit (though obviously n=1 and this is anecdotal!), I wouldn't write it off. I thought it was helpful. I'd love it if someone would do some research and show whether it is actually effective or not. Basically, the theory is that some pain results from poor proprioceptor functioning and that using a variety of techniques one can "reset" the mechanosensory feedback that the brain gets.  It seems possible to me that this could have some truth in it; our brains are complex and respond to quite interesting therapies, for example, the mirror box treatment for phantom pain.

Today: 3K fartlek. I went to the gym and did a warm-up on the indoor track. My pain level was a bit better than last week's 5K fartlek, which is good. It wasn't zero, and it was still more painful than before my relapse, with pain 1-2/10, mostly 2/10, and afterward it bothered me quite a bit for maybe 5-10 min before settling down and not hurting any more. I took some naproxen and though I was sitting quite a bit this morning doing injections of zebrafish embryos, it didn't bother me at all, so that was good. Now, at lunch time, it feels pretty much fine, which is an improvement on last week I think.

My fartlek performance was OK, and was about what it has been the past few weeks. Hopefully I can start training more soon and make some real fitness gains. All this waiting is frustrating, but at the same time, I should relax and go with it. My total time for the 2926m was 17:35 which is 18:02 for 3000m. Ave HR was only 157, and my intervals were ~2:55 for the fast and ~3:10 for medium effort. OK I guess. It is what it is...and I feel like I've been saying that for several years now, but what are you going to do, y'know?

Garmin data here. 

decent 8K

Yesterday: Yoga for runners, the hard version, followed by lounging at Seaport Village and Coronado Island. Tough day ;). Flew home last night and managed to get to sleep by 11pm, which isn't too awful, but it was later than I'd have liked.

Today: when the alarm went off at 5:50-ish I wasn't at all ready to get out of bed (darn time zone thing - that is 4:50-ish in San Diego!). But I managed to get up and get out the door for 8K with Calvin and the dogs. That part was awesome. I love having company, and since Kelly isn't training with me much with all her wedding preparations, it is nice to have Calvin along (and we put on the SAME shirt, coincidentally! (our Cold Turkey 2014 shirts)). The weather was great too - warm! 6.1C (43F) and calm and cloudy. My legs were feeling a bit sore in the glutes from the yoga (good!) but it didn't seem to hurt my workout at all. In fact, Calvin noticed I was speedier today, and I was. Not that I was fast, but finally I did 6:30/km again! I did the 8K in 52:04 with ave HR 144; however, the HR would've been higher had I not had to stop FOUR (yes FOUR) times for dog poop pickup. Geez. Stupid dogs! It was like they saved up all weekend for me to come back and take them racewalking or something.

Oh, and some good news: pain level today was frequently ZERO, though it was also 1/10 for a good part of the walk. Still, it's better. I am working hard on technique every time I'm out there.

Garmin data here. 

8K? nope 7K

I basically ran out of time today; that, and pain a bit more than I've been experiencing over the past couple of weeks, and I decided to call it quits at 7km.

I procrastinated getting out of my warm bed. It is back to seasonal February temps in the morning (though right now it's nice and warm at 50F = 10C), and this morning it was 1.1C (34F) which isn't that cold, but it felt chilly because there was a little wind. My iPhone listed the wind chill at 21F.

Anyway, because I got up later than I should have, by the time I got to 4.5K it was a bit later than I wanted, so I turned around and called it at 7K instead of 8K. That wasn't the only reason though - yesterday at PT (which I'll discuss in a minute) I had a little pain while on the treadmill, and I also walked around a lot during the day - including in snowy slippery slush - and I think I aggravated things a bit.

In addition to all that, my Garmin couldn't find the satellites for about 1km of my walk. I stopped and waited for it for a few minutes (that I didn't have) and finally gave up, figuring I roughly know where 8km is anyway. Argh!

Total time was approximately 46:50 for approximately 7km for approximately 6:41/km. Whatever. Close enough.

Garmin data here. 

***

Yesterday: I had my first PT appointment at the run clinic. As usual, they were awesome. I say "as usual" because I saw this PT in 2013 when I had piriformis syndrome and he was really helpful. He actually moved away and then moved back here, and I didn't even know it! He's only been back for 2 weeks, so I was lucky to see him again.

I got on the treadmill for him and he recorded me with video and also used the analysis software on the treadmill, which records a ton of data about your gait. My anterior pelvic tilt is still there but he said it wasn't too bad. He still gave me some home exercises to do related to that. He's also concerned about 1) my stance width - my feet are too close together, though how close we aren't sure until he asks the treadmill people about how they calculate it, and 2) my cadence (too slow). So I have treadmill exercises for 1) with a mirror or video so that I can fix it with visual feedback, and am supposed to work on 2) with a metronome or my watch.

There's probably more I should mention, but I have a nasty cold (again! ugh!) and I'm tired and can't remember anything.

***

Oh, and on Wednesday afternoon I did yoga like I was supposed to :), but yesterday I didn't cross-train --- other than a LOT of walking. I take the bus to work, and then walked to my PT appt which was a good 20-min brisk walk in slushy snow, and then I walked back to the bus stop, which was another 10-15-min walk. I took a lot of steps, so I don't feel bad about sleeping late and not cross-training; my cold made me extra tired so I probably needed the rest.

Elliptical, sick, 5K easy RW at indoor track

Saturday: 50 min elliptical.

Sunday: sick :( didn't walk or do much of anything.

Monday: sick...still...

Today: feeling a bit better. Managed to get to the gym in time to do a short walk. It actually went OK! I did 4974m in 32:20 for 6:30/km with ave HR 147. Pain was 0-2/10. It felt really good after not RW since last Thursday, but of course the minute I started RW again it started to hurt. I was concentrating very hard on technique, which is one advantage of the indoor track: no distractions. Well, not many anyway, compared with outside. My mind wanders less at the track, because there's not much to look at. More boring, but better to maintain good form and not injure myself more. I did my glute activating exercises and I'm sure I had good posture. I can watch myself in the windows as when t's still dark out and the reflection is visible in many places on the track.

I am feeling the usual sick of winter blahs. It's cold and dark in the mornings which is just such a downer for training. But spring is coming soon, so I just have to hang in there. Being sick this week didn't help. But I've been eating a lot better for the most part, despite some home stress and one chocolate binge :(, and I lost 1.6lb last week. Hoping to lose another pound this week.

I still have to schedule in yoga/strength training sessions. I've got the household chores going pretty well with the kids and myself, and have been eating better and sleeping better. I have my diagnosis and have my PT appointment. Now all that's left is the yoga. Planning to do some this afternoon.

Garmin data here. 

not much is up

Haven't blogged much because not much is happening. I've been resting my sore rear end, doing elliptical daily (except Sunday, when I took a day off for the first time in 2 weeks), and hoping that the tenderness would improve. Mostly. On Friday our lab played tennis and went to lunch for our post-holiday holiday party :). The tennis was fun, but I did strain my injury site a bit.

After ART last Tuesday, I think that my hamstring tendon near the top is the pressing issue at the moment. That's bad news because it's hard to heal (not much blood supply) but good news because the ART practitioner says it's a very small spot, about the size of a quarter to half dollar coin. Either way, I needed to rest it, and as of this morning it felt a lot better. Better enough that today I decided to try a little racewalking. I hopped on my treadmill at home (icy outside, and I was worried that the turns on the gym track might be aggravating it - maybe not, but maybe?) and managed 30 min pretty much pain-free. I stopped a couple times to massage just to be safe, but it felt decent.

The rest of the day it didn't bother me much, so I'm going to try to walk outside for 5km or so tomorrow; maybe 6km if the mood strikes. I will probably take the dogs... :). It's going to be cold in the morning, at 21F (-6C) but 5-6km is not so far, so if I dress warmly it'll be no biggie. Here's hoping I can do it!