Run to Lafayette Park

 RUN 4 miles, with some walking along with LA

We didn't run yesterday with our schedule being full, and it was raining!, so on LA's bday we ran four miles. Neither of us up to the runner tradition of running your years.

Great run, relaxing, and I opted out of the out-n-back on Park to stay with him.

My head was a mess in the afternoon, weekends seem to make me crazy. I want to get stuff done that I can't do during the week, and he wants to rest! Different schedules, different approaches. He made a threat (a fair one, to be honest, but ... ) that hurt how I felt, can't go into it here, except to say things need to change. 

NUMERICS 

RUN 12.7 miles

nothing else :(

Dress warm and wear your grippy shoes

 RUN 4.5 miles in 48 mins, in cold and snow and ice    

Just me n BE today, too cold for EW, too early and too cold for LA. Haha, Siberia stayed home. Ok but for real - he has only shorts and not winter clothing. 

We started out, and BE said he's signed up for Quivering Quads! The swag was a long sleeve zip, but for a little extra you get a flannel shirt, and for a little extra more you get a bomber jacket (?) from last year's race. Gosh I miss racing. That was a great race! BE and I remembered at the end of the run that we drove out to it together when we did it, he brought some cornmeal muffins or some cookies and I remember that I couldn't eat them. And JoeM was there, it was the muddy year with the 28-some creek crossings. I think that was 2011 -- 10 YEARS AGO!

The gravel path was crusted over with ice and snow, but the paved trail was mostly cleared. We alternated between the two. My main concern was the banging on the joints that aren't used to it, but everything still feels good a few hours later. 

Great run, and I miss racing. I miss the challenge, the unexpected, the newness, the memorableness of the day.
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Today is a full moon, the Wolf Moon at 1:16pm to be precise. It hung in the northwestern sky over our run, wonderfully bright and tinged a bit yellow. I'll make a separate post on this though, to get these thoughts outta my head. Might be one of those perpetual-draft posts, never posted, just a brain dump. 

Track Run with BE and LA

 RUN 4.25 miles with drills

A longest-run for our Tuesday track sessions. This felt great, I felt strong and good form and very little pain. LA kinda did his own thing while BE and I did circles. 

I don't know how much I want to put in here about my 100 Days challenge? Yesterday (day 100) ended with me overdoing it with stress and dinner, my stomach was upset and bloated all day and I came home with that feeling. Stressed, rushed, hurried, sick. Not a great start. 

It's not about getting back to an old version of yourself...

 ...this is your time to recreate yourself as an athlete. Once I kinda embraced the fact that I'm not getting back to something..." _A Boone.

RUN 5 miles!! in about 54 minutes, Fo Pa with EW

I met with EW for a FoPa run before work. Super sunny, cold, calm, and there was a Frostbite 13.1 race going on. Remember doing that race?! Ages ago. 

The run felt great, refreshing, we talked about the kids and life and her personal trainer and only a little about her job. My topics dominated, thanks EW for listening!

The title is from Amelia 2017 and it connects to my med appointment on Friday (yesterday) with Dr S in endocrine.
....
Ok so now it's Monday and I've had more time to think on this. I've lost some thoughts, and I don't have much time. So this might take a few days to bring my thoughts back together. 

And now it's Tuesday, how far will I get? I'm supposed to be a the mouse house. And writing my boss a message about how to find another job. 

So. Back to Friday. LA attended the appointment with me, thank fully, because otherwise I'm a nervous wreck and I'd say "everything is great" without divulging details. He kept he honest. The resident came in first, as per usual, and I went over the basics -- I stopped the statins, I was sick last March and since I've been tired worn out pained and have the facial paralysis going on. He went to talk to Dr S, who came back and started a great discussion. No berating, no blaming, just discussion.

This will be an out of order jumble of what happened. I wasn't "irrational" (my word used) to stop the statins -- I felt that I needed to make a change and so I ran an experiment. But since I didn't notice any changes after stopping, that wasn't the problem and I need to restart them. Because people like me who take them live longer. He nicely sidestepped this issue of whether or not my cholesterol went back up -- it's not the number on the cholesterol it's just the fact that we'll live longer. Ok. BTW - my LDL did go back up. Dammit! But only to 129 or something like that. 

He examined my face, did a few test like peripheral vision and a facial nerve tap, and said I should contact Avery for an MRI. I did this Monday, waiting on it. 

The chest pains aren't likely to be my heart. I kinda already knew that. But it's good to hear. 

He asked if I made myself throw up. No. He asked if I still have my periods. No - IUD. He suggested menopause, as many of my symptoms overlap. It's true, they do, and the cyclic nature of my symptoms might also be explained by this. I kinda latched onto this idea as an explanation for why my dairy sensitivity seems to come and go and cause similar symptoms, but the tests came back showing not peri-menopausal. No nothing there.

They did a RA test, and ANA, a sed rate, and CRP. All normal and good. The viral infection last March didn't activate any auto-immune issues they tested for. 

OK so blah blah blah and now the real meat of why I'm here. He noted early in the talk that I "used to sort of an elite athlete" and asked how I was doing now. I said, I'm only running 10-15 miles a week and making little progress on speed. How do I feel during the run? I feel feel OK, but like I can't go any faster. How fast am I going? 10 m/m. He thought this was pretty good enough. How did I feel after the run? I said tired, but what he meant was - did I get the feel-good high, was I satisfied?

And there is the Golden Question of the day. No, I didn't feel satisfied. 

I end a run wanting more, but unable due to hip recover limits, muscle weakness, and fatigue. I'm trying to take it slow and careful, but I want more. I miss so much my long runs. The trails. The hills. The schedule, routine, the challenge. 

I used to be like and elite athlete, and now it's gone.

Gone in a mess of persistent hip injury. Gone in the time lost from heart attack. Gone. Just gone. 

I have pictures of me in good health and good condition that remind me of this. I have a douche-shelf cabinet to remind me. My blog header photo reminds me. My old clothes, training gear, shoes, bikes, Garmin. All remind me of Who I Used To Be. 

And Who I'm Not Anymore. And how I may never get back to it again. 

I saw the left hip surgery as a chance to rebuild. I saw the heart attack as a warning to rebuild. I saw the 2019 right hip stress fracture as a dire warning to rebuild and do PT. 2020 was a mess, but I wanted to use it as a down-time to recovery and rebuild. 

And here I am in 2021. What are my goals? I dunno. I'm so lost on this. Too much in my head with moving and new job and new house and changes all across my life. The layer on the medical issues, and I can't find a place to relax in my head. 

But focusing here on this rebuilding. As the title says, I'm making the mistake of getting back to the old version of me. The Original IronBee of back to back irons and 100 mile races. Now, I'm none of that. 

I'm not IronBee. I'm UsedToBee. Ugh. I could cry. 

So I need to regroup and get my head around the recreating of this new Bee. What are my goals? What do I value about this? What do I get from running and training? Think on it. 

13.5 mile week! And a 100 Days Challenge?

No bike or swim, just running and lots of walking. Lookit them Steps!

The mileage feels great, but I have lots of apprehension about the right hip starting up its old pains again. Every niggle just scares me. 

I realized after Friday's appointment that I need to get my life in order (again) and I set a goal of 100 Days of focused work on it. Just by coincidence, 100 days from now is the next Dr S appointment?! Whoa! 

I'm still working on what I mean by all this -- 100 days of....? 

Run with EW in FoPa

 RUN 5 miles in about 50 mins

5 miles!! Woohoo!! The "long" run for now. It felt great, but the right hamstring is getting that same tight pull in the upper butt-crease area again. Why!?

Many times, "I need you to..." can be replaced with "I want you to..."

 RUN 4.5 miles FoPa, 45 mins

Just BE and LA this morning, no word from EW. LA ran out 1.5 miles and turned back, BE and I did a Jewel Box loop. 

At one point in the run, while talking about my moving and "moss-gathering rock" tendencies, and after I explained to BE that LA says "I need to..." do this or do that or whatever". BE said, many times "I need you..." can be replaced with "I want you to..." and this is so true! 

Great run, feeling great with more energy and less input effort required. 

I'm having stress responses again, medical as usual, with the Dr S appointment on Friday, the facial tic thing, my good-bad gut responses, the potential hip injury, and another issue that came up (out? down?) after 'relations' yesterday. Ugh. 

To Do: Decide on new shoes

Saturday: RUN 3.3 miles in FoPa

I bought new running shoes from BRR in October right before my right hip and leg pain forced me to rest again. I'd briefly put the new shoes on, deemed them uncomfortable (they felt rock hard without cushion). I left the box sitting near the bike area until the past few days, when I added "decide on new shoes" to my ToDoist list maker.

I started to wear them for the Thursday run, but they irritated an area on the top of my foot. They were too tight and needed re-lacing, but I just switched back to the old shoes and waited.

Saturday morning during the PFA fix of my plates I had them re-laced and ready to go, and they were great! I can't tell the difference between the old and the new, as I have learned I can expect from these shoes.

The week felt great - 11.1 miles a week is SO LOW still but it's pain-free. WHOOP!

No swim or bike, a few commute miles, so NUMERICS is what you see above.

Track run continues through January

 RUN 4 miles on the track, BE and LA

Up early (LA says too early!) for a track run, to our surprise we've kept the Tuesday run going through the winter instead of ending in the fall. And it's worth it -- I look forward to running outside the neighborhood and socializing.

LA mostly kept to himself, I thought he was studying but haha it might have been something else. He'd come up behind me during the drills on the straightaways, and one point was doing a dance from a Pulp something movie, which BE said was really a Batman thing first.

Oh, the things I learn on these runs :)

Mantissaphobic

 RUN 4.5 miles in about 50 mins, Jewel Box loop

Today we had BE, EW, LA and me for the run. IT sounds busy at work, but wants to join again soon. It was a great, calm morning about 37F. LA in shorts!

It was the first time I'd seen EW since...November?...so I excitedly asked how she's doing -- a NEW career!! We talked about it in the loop, wow what a change -- I'm happy for her and have many questions.

BE said my fear of having extra digits in my run miles is mantissaphobia -- the fear of numbers after the decimal --ha!

The run felt great, I STILL need to to more PT. No pains or anything today, and no post-run knee twinge, but I need to do this the right way.

And can you believe it - my brain is trying to find ways of eating oatmeal again?!

I have to quit oatmeal. Again.

 COMMUTE 9.2 miles

First of the year! A few unseasonably warm days of 50s F in the afternoon and I finally get back on the bike. I enjoy the brief warmth, but don't feel the pull of habit just yet.

Title says it all. Started the food log, started noticing when I felt sick, and started by throwing out the two containers (regular and quick cook) of oats I had. Boo.

And it's not just the oats, it's what goes with the oats -- butter spread, more butter spread, peanut butter, etc. It's the sum total of the parts. And the fact that it's so EASY to replace a real meal with the oats. 

Wasted On You; New Moon

 RUN 3.2 miles at the track with BE

I don't always wake up in the mornin'
Pour myself a strong one
Aw, but when I get lonely I do
Your memory gets burnin'
Lean back on the bourbon
Sure as hell can't keep leanin' on you

Looks like I'm learnin' the hard way again
It's all my fault
Yeah, I dropped the ball
You're gone and I'm gone three sheets to the wind
Thinkin' 'bout all I've wasted on you

All of this time and all of this money
All of the these sorries I don't owe you honey
All of these miles on this Chevy, and prayers in a pew
All them days I spent, wasted on you
Wasted on you

Yeah, I swore this one'd be different
My heart wouldn't listen to my head and these boots on my feet
Looks like I'm learning the hard way again
That's why I've been

Wasted on you
All of this time, and all of this money
And all these sorries I don't owe you, honey
All of these miles on this Chevy and prayers in a pew
All them days I spent, wasted on you
Wasted on you

Like this pile of your stuff that's packed up in the back
Right down to the flame of this match
Wasted on you, wasted on you
Wasted on you, wasted on you
Wasted on you

All of this time, and all of this money
And all these sorries I don't owe you, honey
All of these miles on this Chevy and prayers in a pew
All them days I spent, wasted on you, wasted on you
Wasted on you, wasted on you
Wasted on you, wasted on you

Numerics and a 9.6 mile week!

Saturday RUN 2 miles around the neighborhood, solo

I'm still recovering from M and gut issues, need more time? Or just more excuses.

A zoo loop in FoPa!

 RUN 4.5 miles in 45 mins

Just me and BE today, IT was busy, EW working with a trainer today, and LA still in bed. I forgot my headlight, felt a twinge in my right ankle, and planned on only doing 3 miles today as per plan.

All that said, it all went better than expected. BE had a light but the cloud cover reflected enough light that we barely needed it. My right ankle wasn't even a thought once I got running. And we decided at the first mile that we felt good enough to slow down and try for a zoo loop.

It felt great! But at the end of the run in the parking lot I knelt down to stretch a bit and my right knee twinged on me. Hurt just a little in the stretch. Then later in the day, I'm feeling the same weak feeling I've had with it last year. Like it needs to be stronger. So...do PT!

In other news, I have a televisit scheduled today with Dr A to get a referral to neurology for my face. I don't think I've mentioned the facial spasms and odd feelings I've had since last April here? Anyway, today during the call I might get asked about everything else - and I'll have to admit (do I really *have* to) that I quit taking my Aspirin and statins last October, and that I do feel some chest pains (chest or heart, I don't know), and whatever else I'm in denial about. See how it goes I guess, might not even come up in the discussion.

Also, I had initially set a goal of doing a Whole30 in January, the goal not being so much about elimination but about cleaning up and getting my gut fixed. I've been "off" since the oxalates change in November, then the 2 weeks with the kids and gluten and Christmas, and since then I'm not eating great.

I'm eating way too much oats and rice, they're yummy and after having been off-limits for me for so long It's like I'm making up for lost time. I stick to 1 serve of oats a day most days, but the rice can be all day long. Oddly, I really cut back on fruits for some reason during the oxalates and Alaska time period. So I need to limit these foods and exchange back to fruits. 

Same goes for the fats I've introduced. I cut out butter and went for ghee. For some reason, I'm ignoring the ghee and instead going to veggie-oil based butter spread which I find more tasty. I think it's more the consistency - cold and creamy? And I've put aside avocados for peanut butter. Last night I tried sunflower seed butter and it upset my stomach (to the point that 12 hours later I was still burping the taste up of it, yuck).  Sometimes I get mayo. Sometimes I nibble on coconut oil, but that's a stupid nibble that I eat with marmalade

And the marmalade -- suddenly I'm eating marmalade on rice cakes, sometimes on a spoon. That's kinda dumb, the first ingredient is glucose syrup!

And my protein consumption is really low. Some days I just eat egg whites and a yolk.

So all my macro goals are off. Too much oat and rice, too few fruits. I didn't even mention the veggies -- I eat carrots and that's it. My fats are random and wavered away from the healthier types. My protein is limited and low. 

Let's get this back on track! Some ideas:

1A. Limit the oats and rice to 200 calories a day, choice of both or either or whatever.
1B. Increase the fruits to 1 serving a meal.

2A. Limit the butter spread to 1 serve a day.
2B. Increase the fat to 1 serve a meal, once a day for each of the types that work. 

3A. Limit as above the oats that have been used as "fiber"
3B. Increase the veg to 1 serving or more per meal.

4A. Stop the countertop meals, they lead to the oat-rice-azuc-butter problems.
4B. Sit with a templated meal. 

5A. No more raw azuc. Seriously, that canister was low this morning.
5B. Have up to 100 of a sweet treat - marmalade or caramel or chocolate instead.

January track run, first training runs to AA marathon?!

RUN 3 miles in about 35 mins, with drills on the straight

Just me and BE, LA up late not feeling good. My goal was 2 miles, then 2.5 miles, then around 2.6 miles we kept going as we felt good. BE was running more than me (he did the Hot Chocolate 15K virtual), but it was warm and calm and lots to talk about.

Our last visit was before Christmas, so we covered Christmas, New Years, and our usual random mix of church thoughts from me, no politics during Lent for BE, and the Oh, Lonesome Me cover I heard on the drive over. 

The three miles felt great, aside from a gut ache from eating probably too much oatmeal yesterday (a travel day of randomness). No hip, leg pain. But some weakness. Oh, and some back pain still residual from the trip to Alaska. Sitting in the truck for trips to home and trip to Michigan over New Years' didn't help at all.

The AA Marathon has two dates listed online -- March 21 and October 24th. Which is correct? And can I build to a marathon from 4 mpw last week? Let's see!