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!

2020 Songlist

I didn't really do songs this year. But I have a few: 

Hey Sally by Aranda -- I was looking for the Bring Sally Up song that LA got into my head. He played it for me at the Badger 100K last August. Found this song during the search, and liked it. "Hey Sally, I know just how you feel; You know where you want to go baby but you never want to take the wheel; But you're wasting all your time looking back".

Flowers by Moby -- This is the Bring Sally Up song. I used it for a BSU workout at home music challenge. 

Monster by Skillet -- Because I have to have a Monster song every year? "The secret side of me, I never let you see; I keep it caged but I can't control it; So stay away from me, the beast is ugly; I feel the rage and I just can't hold it".

Air by Snakadaktal -- Another random find. "Don't look for the answer, it's the question you don't know"

Lateralus by TOOL -- Because it's TOOL. "Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind; Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must; Feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines".

Skin and Bones by Cage the Elephant -- Can't remember how I found this one. "I've been running for so long; all that's left is skin and bones". 

Dynamite by BTS -- Couldn't avoid this one. At the pool, on the radio, loved it. "Life is sweet as honey; Yeah, this beat cha-ching like money". 

Last and First Garmin Summary

This screen capture covers both my last run of 2020 and my first run of 2021. Which year should I put it in? 

2020. Put it in 2020 because I ran today with BE (Jan 5th) and I mentally counted that as my "first" run. Either way, here's a summary of the past weeks since my last update on Dec 22nd.

We tested negative for COVID and all of us (my whole St Louis "family") went north on Thursday after LAs final exam for Christmas. The kids did gingerbread houses at the bakery, we did Eve dinner at my sis's house (Beef Wellington! It was D-lish!), then Christmas day at the parents house. Dinner was in Dad's new shed, with costume hats, Russian Shuba salad and potato cookies, and presents. The kids had to leave Saturday morning while I stayed for Dad's birthday.

Back in St Louis for a few days, then up to Michigan for New Years weekend. Benton Harbor, then Holland (our future home, I liked it but it's hard for me to see that far into the future) (it has TULIPS and old houses!), Ann Arbor, then home via Oglesby. 

I ran 2 miles in Holland on the steam-heated downtown sidewalks, but other than that....no training over the holidays! There was no interest, motivation, or time. I savored the family time instead. 

Summary of 2020? What a year. Started off running again slowly early on, then I got sick in March and didn't run again until May, then ran until October when I gave up because my right leg hurt too much. COVID hit in March and hasn't left. LA got into UMich, I decided to join him, he moved away, moved back partially, and I got the courage to really put my house on the market and leave my job. My sis is becoming a teacher, my parents are retired. But life is great. I've started running (again), cautiously, and swearing up and down I'll do PT this time!

SWIM 26870 yards in 11.5 hours (really that much?) The pools were closed until August
BIKE 634 miles in 45 hours, likely all outdoors. No group rides! This sucked. 
RUN 459 miles in 85.5 hours. Run, sick, run, injured, run.
COMMUTE 518 miles commuting. Didn't commute much this year, due to LA giving me a ride and/or just losing the habit.

For next year, next thing on my list to find the date of the AA Marathon. And keep the H100 in mind!

Back to running, so far so good

Thursday RUN 3.1 in FoPa
Saturday RUN 4 miles in neighborhood
Tuesday RUN 3.5 miles on track with 1 mile of walking
and COMMUTES here and there as I can

I'm back? Wow how many times have I said that in the past 4 years? 

I'm back to running but I haven't started the PT and strength training that I've promised myself I'd do.

And if I want to stay running, I need to do that stuff! I keep making my little lists of things I want to do for "tomorrow", and this needs to be on the list. 

Thursday LA and I ran the 5K with BE. I was supposed to swim afterwards, but there wasn't time. You'll note that there are no swims in my week, boooo. My goal was 2-3 miles, but doing a 5K was LA's idea and it felt great to be running!

Saturday while LA went to get the kids I did a neighborhood run. I was going to go for 4 miles to LP, but around the 0.6 mile mark in Benton Park my right ankle started hurting, like the bones were banging into each other, as if the ankle joint was out of place. No pain while walking, no pain in the first steps of running, then PAIN. I stretched, moved it, thinking it was popped out like it does in the pool -- but I'm not sure what started this and I don't know why in the end it just went away. I re-routed the run to stay closer to the house. This all felt good, but it felt weak and pushed a bit.

Tuesday I left LA behind with the kids and joined BE. I didn't plan on doing 3.5 miles but it felt great, easy, and NO PAIN. 

I don't know if I'll be running over the xmas break, maybe something on Thursday morning before we leave? 

I'm happy to be back, but I'm going to make the same mistakes again if I don't get stronger and do the PT!

Nutrition updates: oxalates, SCD, and more

I need to log the updates on this as they go.

Around November 18th or so, I jumped back on the SCD lifestyle diet. I started off with simple meats and pureed carrots, removed potatoes and kabocha squash and rice. Immediately I'm feeling better, the near-constant gut pain and bloating subside in a few days. 

Except my gut isn't taking the change without some protest, it becomes a case of yucky soft BM's (the puree gelatin?) and all day long urges to poo. Ugh. Off to Alaska with that.

Right before we leave, I'm having cloudy urine again, now it's every morning. Along with the pain, and it went from 1-3 a month, to 1-3 a week, to everyday for a few days. Somethings gotta change!

LA gets thinking, and we read across oxalates. I won't go into the science here, the actual chemistry is murky to me, but the overall summary: oxalates are either soluble or insoluble, the insoluble go with the poo. But the soluble can be absorbed through the gut (I'm not sure it's normal, or a leaky gut thing?), and accumulate in the body: joint pains, etc. Later the soluble gets filtered out by the kidneys where it interacts and tightly binds to calcium and magnesium forming a precipitate. Is this my cloudy pee?

Dr St doesn't think so, but says if I want to try a lower oxalate diet, to go ahead with it.

My research revealed that I eat a pretty high oxalate diet. The worst offenders are chocolate, and I eat LEAST 3-4 tablespoons of cocoa powder everyday! Other daily foods that are high: black tea, beets, raw carrots, walnuts, black olives, and more. Geezuz, my only safe foods here are the meats I eat. 

ETA As of 12-16-20, I'm completely off potatoes and squash. No bloating or pain at all. I'm OK with rice and 1 serve of oats a day. 

I'm also off dairy since....first week of November. No chest swelling and pains, skin less itchy. 

As of Nov 23rd or so, I stopped adding salt to foods. This lead to no ankle swelling at all. 

As for oxalates, no chocolate, potato, 1 black tea, 1 T peanut butter only. Still pains daily in the Ur area but no cloudy since Dec 5th. Now it's just pain.

My energy is crazy better, my gut is flat and not swollen, my joints feel like they are working better. 

Did I figure things out finally?

Honey, I met the kids!

COMMUTE Monday, Tuesday, Weds, Thurs, Sunday

RUN Tuesday at the track, 1.3 miles broken

SWIM Thursday 1300 yards

RUN Friday 2 miles

This run was my FIRST since I paused running in November. BE and I did easy laps, the running was in roughly 2-lap intervals. Total distance was 3.6 miles. I did feel some right hip pain, frontal at flexors, late in the run.

The swim was all I could squeeze in. WU, drills (as per my new plan to include them), then a 100-200-300-200-100 ladder. This was a distracted swim with poor form and focus.

The second run was a continuous to Grand and back, I dropped of the property tax for the truck. Right at 1.95 miles, I felt the tight feeling in the right calf bone again. But after the run, and once I started walking, it all went away. No aftereffects at all. 

This ended up sort of being a week off. Off of training, but on in terms of go-go-go. Does going down a slide 6 times (or more!) a day count? 

I did get some commutes in, in fact, I think I got all days with one of them being half ride day.

Monday evening they arrived, meatloaf for an awkward dinner. They tried the meatloaf, but I think nerves and the newness threw things off a bit.

Tuesday...we went to the park? I went to work. Same Wednesday, and by Thursday I was a Prodigy math game buddy, a regular dog-walker, a playground regular, by the end of the week, we were making initial'd pancakes! 

Oh, and don't forget the FAST trip home for A's 8th birthday party at the bakery. WOW what a week, LA is good to point out that we accomplished all of our goals and more. It sure helped that the kids are polite, smart, and enjoy learning new things. 

WOW!

Post Alaska week, and a 1000 yard TT in 21:39

Thursday SWIM 1500, with 1000 y TT 
Friday COMMUTE

I haven't written in the Alaska week yet, LOTS to say and update on! Later.

I didn't run again Thursday, I promised myself I'd take at least November off, and in my mind this week was included as November. The right leg is SO MUCH better - the peripheral knee pains are gone, most of the hip pain is gone. Remaining are the occasional sit bone-region pain, sometimes bilateral. And remaining is the right calf tightness, as if something is locked up or refuses to stretch. More time. 

Every time I get injured, I think it will never heal. And over time, it does. But in the Alaska week my strength training and PT and flexibility work fell off. Get back on!

Now for the swim! I haven't been to the pool since...Weds before Alaska? This TT was the final workout in the #MakeItWet [awful name, by the way] 1000y Beginner Swim Plan from Speedo. My re-introduction to swimming. I realized later I was probably more Intermediate level. The difference was pace, so I kept going with this one. 

So I had some concerns going into this. First, the plan had me doing only up to 300 yard intervals, how was I supposed to bridge them together without rest? I thought maybe I'd only let myself rest at every 200 or 250 or something. Second, being out of the pool for well over a week, what did that mean for muscular endurance, form, and all else? 

In the end, these seemed to be protective mental tricks -- thought measures created to prevent a feeling of failure or not-good-enough. And in the end, I just started the TT with no plan except to keep it Easy, Steady, and Calm. 

It worked!! I maybe only paused for an extra breath a few times, but I never stopped. I never got out of breath or sloppy. I never winded or felt out of air. I never felt my back and arms starting to burn or fade out. I did have some lower back tightness and subsequent fatigue and light pain the rest of the day, and the next day, but I felt that in the kick sets of the WU, not from the TT effort. 

I nailed it! And the split was perfect, a 500 at 10:46. The overall average pace was a 2:09 min/100y.

I think I'll put this swim into the first week of every month?