The 2015 Songlist

As with previous lists, I don't pick these. They pick me. They are songs that played on the radio, inspired me at the moment, played over and over or at key moments, and the like. Not every song makes it, but enough for me to remember the year, the races, and what happened.

Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson "I'll spread my wings; And I'll learn how to fly". My 2015 year started off with a major mind-fuck blindside life change. 'Nuff said on that. But this stupid pop song was stuck in my head while walking the dog, running, sleeping, ugh. Then it seemed to always pop up on the radio. So it made the list, like it or not.

Solitude by Nina Simone "With gloom everywhere; I sit and I stare; I know that I'll soon go mad". In early March my back started spasming again. Running was the thing keeping me going, and suddenly running was painful and scaring me a bit. I think I was getting depressed -- I was coaxing myself to do the simplest of tasks. I was mentally cracking, and only barely realizing it.

Runnin' Down A Dream by Tom Petty "I felt so good like anything was possible". The Kettle Moraine 100 song. I had this in my head before I'd even registered. And the morning of the race, while packing bags at the hotel, I played this off the phone.

Rehab by Amy Winehouse "They tried to make me go to rehab and I said No, No, No". Once my back problems were diagnosed I spent a few months making the trip to West County for rehab. Although the PT itself I didn't mind, I was losing time so fast, just didn't have any extra to spare between all the life stress and realty errands. So I told Dr M 'no more, at least for now'. I needed to focus on healing the rest of me.

Set Fire To The Rain by Adele "But there's a side to you; That I never knew, never knew; All the things you'd say; They were never true, never true". Heard this in a waiting room and it stuck in my head for a while. Gotta have at least one rain song on the list! And the quoted lyrics fit.

Fight Song by Rachel Platten "But there's a fire burning in my bones; Still believe; Yeah, I still believe."  TH sent me this song. At first it was too sappy, eventually it won me over. It's still a sappy pop rock ballad though.

Just A Girl by No Doubt "What I've succumbed to is making me numb" A song for me and poor Sugar, who had just come home from her lengthy ICU visits in a full body wrap with scars from tubes and wires and surgeries. My life had turned into a roller coaster whirlwind and it was all I could do to just hang on and hope it ended soon.

Sabotage by Beastie Boys "So while you sit back and wonder why; I got this fucking thorn in my side". This came on the list in September, right around the height of my buy a house, sell a house, get ready for hip biopsy STRESS. I was picking up old habits that were only hurting me. Not The Monster, but definitely bad.

I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty "And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down; Gonna stand my ground and I won't back down". Ugh. Disney shit. 'Nuff said.

Ain't Worth The Whiskey by Cole Swindell "I don't care that you done me wrong; 'Cause I've already moved on". Late addition, needed more country music. Removed 'cuz he ain't worth space either.

My Girl by The Temptations "I've got so much honey the bees envy me". My sweet dog, my Sugar/Shuggah/Shoogie/Fitty-Pound bag of long-eared love. She was put aside to some degree over the past few months and I wasn't paying as much attention as she deserved. And then at the end of it all she's still what I look forward to upon coming home, still wagging her tail no matter how stressed and short-tempered I get.

Fit But You Know It by The Streets "Yeah yeah like I said you are really fit; But my gosh don't you just know it". A late addition to the list, putting it in 2015 even though I heard it in the first days of 2016. New to me, but from 2004! The TJM podcast played it on one of my runs through TGP. The bouncy beat was the perfect run tempo, I laughed with it, and even though Urban Dictionary tells me the word meanings aren't what they seem on the surface, I'm keeping it 'cuz it makes me smile.

2015 Christmas to New Year's Ketchup Post

Thursday Christmas Eve: RUN 6.6 miles in about 54 mins
Saturday RUN 6 miles in about 50 minutes

And that's about it! Lots to say, probably won't get to it all.

Thursday, Run then drop off dog and head to Illinois!
Friday, Xmas
Saturday, Dad's bday and a 6 mile run to the school and back. Cold eastern wind!
Sunday, JD Pavilion for Dad's Bday
Monday, morning visit with Jess then winter storm canceled B-I-L's bday dinner
Tuesday, furniture shopping and canceled family photos
Wednesday, Brekkie with Feuchts then ice storm, delayed drive to STL, tummy buildup problem.
Thursday, terrible tummy upset accumulated from about 6 days! Missed work and run
Friday, HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Still some tummy trouble but I'm not worried about it.

Regarding nutrition -- this was probably the best vacation and restaurant-laden week I've had ever? Aside from the issues noted, no specific symptoms or problems. In fact, my fat-adapted state let me miss meals instead of forcing food and kept me even keel.

Training was minimal. Oh well!

Still undecided on what to do about gluten challenge.

But feeling good and ready for 2016. :) And yes, I know I need to get my 2015 summary and book taken care of.

Christmas full moon

Shoulder work ahead!

RUN 3 miles in 26 mins, first 2 miles as fast/easy each block

This run was in 59F weather with RAIN! Short warm up then switch each block from fast to rest. Ran to Grand and back, then looped the park to cool down. I should go back and see what my intervals were at, because the last quarter mile was plyos and I still had a good overall time. 

Well I (finally) have my MRI diagnosis: brachial nerve injury, maybe a neuritis. A branch of this nerve goes to the supra-inspinatus and infraspinatus muscles. The nerve damage led to paralysis and atrophy, hence the still weak arm. All the MRI showed was what looked like a change in the muscle density. The pain is mostly gone, more of a case of the damned thing won't move! Or I just get a penguin arm when I do try! LOL.

Dr M said it was a "unique" injury and seemed excited to show me the MRI and explain it. No wonder I like this guy. And he opens the appt by showing me his newly machined bike fork! :)

As disappointing another injury is, I'm OK with this. It's not torn or broken. It's frustrating to not have a cause, he said it was acute but can't say exactly what caused it. He said sometimes it's a brachial neuritis caused by a respiratory infection (even though I was asymptomatic at the time). Could also be a bad twinge, bad lift of something,. ...?  Unknown.

Either way. See him again in 3-4 weeks. Rest it another 4 weeks. No swimming for maybe 6 weeks because the compensation and pressure would not be good for it. Start PT when I can. Heather, I'm baaaaccckk!!!

Solstice five miler -- fasted!

RUN 5 miles in 50 mins, near end of a fast.
BIKE COMMUTE 5 miles from Chevy dealership

I did a solstice fast and actually managed a run near the end! Slow, but done. The fast was interesting, I'll definitely do it again. Wasn't as hard as I thought it would be? Really helped that I spend the evening walking with RM, CM, Daisy, and Shoogie to see xmas lights.

Mouse surgeries that afternoon, great energy and mental clarity!

Two a day weekend

RUN 10 miles in 1:32 with TV in Queeny 9:12 pace on hills and grass
RUN 1.7 miles in 15 mins with RM 9:01 pace

Oh yeah I'm breaking more rules. This week brings me to a total of 25.4 miles (I had to check the numbers repeatedly for my week total!), so not only am I up'ing frequency and mileage, I'm up'ing frequency per day.

And it feels GREAT!

The QP run was my first "trail" run and the first real test of hills in my recovery. There were no problems, minimal if any pain, great energy, and a fast finish as what TV called 10K pace. We ran some new areas (for me, anyway) of grass and meadow, explored some horse trails, and took hills. So the 9:12 pace doesn't reflect those meanderings :)

Happily he didn't check his new phone for messages during the run -- cuz if he had seen the text about his house being under contract during the run I would have had to run even faster :)

Dropped TV off, ran to Walgreen's and errands, and saw a text from RM asking if I wanted to join for his 15 min run. I was still in running clothes, somewhat refueled on coconut chips and string cheese, so why not!? It was totally worth it -- to see how excited RM was about his 9:01m/m run!

We're both making a strong comeback :)

I thought for sure that on Sunday I'd need a few miles to round up to 25 miles, but after checking, checking, and checking again - nope! I'm good!

I almost drove in?!

BIKE COMMUTE 9.5 miles
DRIVING 0 miles

Geezus Louizus it's 31F outside and I nearly cave in to driving?! Admittedly, it was a whimsy type of thought that fluttered across the brain after I walked the dog. It didn't last long, but it was tempting. What talked me out of it was the fact that I'd spend more time driving+walking than I would just biking.

In the end, I biked. And it felt good. But cold! I tried my new lobster gloves (or should I call them my 'live long and prosper' Vulcan gloves?), my finger tips got cold. I wasn't expecting them to be warm by any means, but at the least that they would be warmer than my other gloves.

Dr office just confirmed I do have the DQ2 gene. Now I want to know how many copies I have, whether family should be tested, and whether I should do a gluten challenge.

On that last question, here's my rationale. Things won't change much if I do have the disease, I'll be more careful about exposures. But if it's NOT celiac causing my vitamin deficiencies then what is it? And what about my gut reactions to the common gluten cross-reactive foods (for me that includes coffee, oats, potato, corn, rice, chocolate, tapioca, etc)? Is is cross reactivity or SIBO/SCD? Again, it's not so much that I miss eating these foods but rather that I need to understand what's going on.

But do I really want to try re-introducing gluten for up to 3 months at the top of my training season? Heck, nothing might happen and I might learn that gluten isn't a problem! Or I have symptoms that are attributed to FODMAPs. In that case, it would be worth it for me to find the carbohydrate-free version of wheat gluten so that I only eat the gluten protein. More researching....found that vital wheat gluten is almost starch free. So that would be something to consider.

Factors to consider:
Pro challenge: 
1. Mom, gpa?, great-gma, and great aunt all reported to have symptoms. Am I just the next in line? Or is just just vague symptoms?
2. Something is causing my vitamin D deficiency and symptoms
3. Sometimes I just gotta KNOW
4. I have been sloppier about potential cross contaminations in the past year or so (however endoscopy and antibodies are negative)
5. And why do I react to some of the common gluten cross-reaction foods, including coffee, oats, potato, corn, rice? Is it the starches or a cross-reaction?

Con challenge:
1. I've been having symptoms while on a gluten free diet, from terrible gut symptoms in 2014 and including the deficiency
2. Eliminating FODMAP and SCD starches improved things, so maybe it was SIBO (how does that impact absorption of vitamins?)
3. Clinical reviews seem to suggest that not all CD adults revert after being gluten free, in that the challenge might need to go on a longer time for antibodies to appear. Although the appearance of intraepithelial lymphocytes is reportedly rapid. But that requires another endoscopy.


And more waiting as I wait for the office to call back with answers. And I see Dr M next Weds about the MRI. Wish I could at least get a verbal explanation between now and then.