Pain in left foot - uh oh, or okay??

RUN 6.2 miles in 60 mins. 2 mile WU, 2 mile at 9:05m/m race pace, 2 mile CD

Yet another treadmill run. I'd love to join the Thursday run group! But it was below 10F outside. Not warm enough yet. I got "my" treadmill for once. They're different, they really are. I play favorites.

Somewhere around mile 3-4 I felt a mild pain in my left food, under the 2nd or 3rd toe when I roll the foot to take-off. Was mild, didn't feel it much running.

My Race Pace is calculated to be 9:10 for a 1:59:59 half mary. So I ran 9:05 and it felt fine. That's the first time I've run that faster pace sustained, I've been doing songervals mostly.

As for the foot, it hurt a little more afterwards, and even now (the next day) I'm aware of it. It kept me up a bit last night, thinking about how February could be a no-go if this is really an injury. Stress fracture keeps coming to mind, but I've been running steady 3x a week for 2 months now, and I've been at this 12-18 mph for at least a month. So I haven't drastically increased, and I honestly don't feel like I've done the proverbial "too much".

So I wait to see what comes of it. I can feel it just jogging across an intersection :(  My planned runs for this weekend were are a 3 and a 6, I can bike those if needed -- the forecast is for the mid-60's!!!

It's below 30F so I rode inside. HAHAHAHA

BIKE 1 hour maybe about 15-16 miles 

This went by fast, had a lot to think about. What to do next with my diet, because I'm not happy feeling sick like this. I get blood drawn for my new cholesterol numbers Friday, what will it show, and how will I go from there? And more. Chatted with mom on phone via text, stared at a blank TV screen with the DVD logo bouncing around. Used it as a stand/sit interval counter cuz it would move every 15-20 seconds. After the ride I did 10 mins of legs strength and watched the Running On The Sun DVD about the Badwater. Not sure I ever want to run that.

We're having another polar vortex, it's only 1F outside with wicked negative 20-something windchills. Sugar didn't even want to go for a walk, good think cuz I didn't either. But I really can't complain, SO works tonight out in this weather and back home they have it much worse.

I've been having some sort of chest symptoms, I didn't mention them to Dr W yesterday because of a lot of things. Mentioning something like this kinda forces them to run a bunch of tests and I'm fairly certain the tests would come back normal. Reference last October, for example. And because I stopped taking the Amlodipine (calcium channel blocker last week. Why did I do this? I ran out of the prescription while doing my Saturday morning routing of filling my morning and evening pill boxes. I have the new Rx, but forgot to add it in starting on about Thursday. So maybe Weds was the last dose? I think I took some Saturday and Sunday with my new refills. But then definitely Monday through today (Weds) I've been withholding it. I don't want to be taking so many meds. And I wanted to see if stopping this med changed anything. Dr B added it last October to see if it helped with what they thought were artery spasms. I wanted to experiment.

But I've been having this feeling for longer than the last week, but it's either becoming more prominent or I'm paying more attention to it. I think the former. It's like that feeling you get when you get an adrenaline rush -- the cold flood of feeling through your chest, but without the stomach butterflies and racing heart. It's just a feeling, sometimes verging on uncomfortable. But never painful. And never the squeezing tightness that characterized last September. But it's there, kinda regardless of what I'm doing. It doesn't seem activity related. Lab, home, driving, sitting, walking, calm, busy, thinking...

I'd like to think it's stress? I don't feel that acutely stressed but the body does funny things. Especially mine with its strong streak of denial. Could it be the running? Maybe it's not the heart but the lungs and rib muscles readapting?

I'm just being honest here, logging it for future reference. Should I restart the Amlodipine and see what happens? Maybe.

Messed up morning, but recovered it

RUN 4.5 miles in 45 mins, treadmill set at 0.5% incline

The original plan was to get up early to run, because I had an 8am with Dr L and a 3pm with Dr W. I needed to get this done.

But I woke up feeling sick (bloated, heavy, clogged-feeling) and instead I stressed munched breakfast. I tried to go anyway, thinking 30 minutes is better than 0 minutes. To avoid that "all of the workout or none of the workout" thinking. But it just wasn't there. The motivation, the gut, or the energy.

I think the cabbage I'm eating is causing this. I made a few recipes over the weekend with cooked cabbage and broccoli, and I suspect the cabbage.  It's back to my pre-FODMAP diet symptoms of just pain and heaviness in the gut. Don't even want to move or think.

So instead I leave at 7:15 from home, and in the end this was the better decision. The Hampton on-ramp I would have taken from the gym was near standstill for traffic. As it was, I barely made it to Dr L at 8am. Summary of appointment. He gave me the best explanation so far as to why running the cold is a bad idea. As always, I'll never recapture his detail here but I can paraphrase as best as possible. The cardiac is a "trainable" type of muscle, with the artery muscles are a "non-trainable" smooth muscle. As for me, I reported my mid back problems of tingling and fatigue. Turns out the mid back muscles were OK, but my lower mid back ones were compensating and causing the other problems. He again joked about how "someone so little can require such force to loosen up", or something to that effect. The hip is looking great, and I can train for the half marathon on the condition that my postural muscles maintain good health. He said if JeffH is OK with it, I can run it. I didn't point out that I wasn't working with JeffH at the moment.

Off to lab, where I tried to find closer parking but failed. Oh, and on the way back to lab instead of waiting on traffic I stopped at WF and got potatoes, choc chips (?), and yogurt, and walnuts. Oh and rice. Munch food. But I needed something else in my stomach that was nutritional yet not fiberous. But these foods don't really fill me up. Anyway. Off to lab, still feeling sick and out of sorts. 

I did the maths, and realized that if I walked out the door at 1pm I would have time for a 45 min run before my 3pm with Dr W. Success!! And I saw JP on a bike on  my way out the door, I didn't have time to stop and she was intervalling. 

Summary of appt with Dr W. My BP was 80/56 but if I'm not symtomatic it's OK. And it's not really that different from my usual 100/60 and 90/60. It just sounds worse. I can exercise outdoors down to 30F, but do what I can indoors. We just have to find out what I can tolerate. And as for the bruising, she can change me to Plavix which is a less aggressive anti-platelet. I wasn't so much complaining or looking for a change, as long as the bruising and lumps I'm getting aren't unexpected or out of line. To be sure she ordered a CBC (next day came back all normal).

Then home to get dog and some food then off to Illinois for that lingering jewelry sale. Good to get that clog off my list. Once home I stuck to the TRE goals, didn't eat anymore to let the stomach rest, got 10' mins of strength in, played with dog. And went to  bed at a good time.

Since MLK weekend, I've been sleeping in the guest room. SO noted it was warmer in there. He's right! And I'm listening to his radio as white noise, yay for bitter talk radio. And also since that weekend the phone has been kicked out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. I can not believe how often I think of picking it up "just to check something". Ugh. Awful, But breaking it!

My stomach in pain, swollen, heavy, and took some meds to see if it helped. 

I swam! And hit the 20 min benchmark

SWIM 20 minutes and 900 yards

When the bar is low, it's easy to meet it. Goal today was just 20 minutes of whatever I wanted in the pool. It's my rest/XT day.

Anton asked if I was still doing Paleo, this is from a conversation we had 5 years ago (wasn't I just thinking about 5 years ago yesterday...?) that he remembered. I gave him a brief overview of the latest. He said he's been going more plant-based, I laughed at the thought of how much this has all changed for me in the past few months.

My arms got tired after 4-5 laps so I just switched over to pulling. For some reason, this makes my arms less tired. I go faster and I'm more efficient is why, but you'd think having some kick to help would, you know, help.  Ha, my form is that bad!

Ordered my 2018 blog book today.

A pre-week long run

RUN 6.3 miles in 60 mins, treadmill

Yay I feel like I have a training plan and goals and numbers and data and a reason. I'm still in what I'm calling my preweek, with next week being my "official" start to the 8 week half marathon training plan.

So today was yet another treadmill run, really gotta get out of the gym it's driving me nuts, but it is what it is. And I almost wasn't here to complain about it.

I rant the first 5 miles steady at 10m/m then squeezed in the last mile between 8:40-9:30. That felt good, but I'm not sure my HR was low. Lemme look....I think the Garmin is again crossing over my HR and cadence data. Humph. I can say that my pace in the first 5 miles was such that I was able sing along and enjoy my  music. Couldn't say that for the last mile.

No pains, soreness, etc from this.

Took the next day (Sunday) off to rest. Oh no wait, I didn't. I did an ez 30 min spin on the Bird to burn off stress. Afterwards I pulled out my 2014 book to see what I did 5 (FIVE?!?!) years ago today -- I swam! Was a group or clinic swim, maybe with the Evolve group?

NUMERICS 4 hours and 16 minutes
SWIM 600 yards in 15 mins
BIKE 27 miles in 90 mins, all indoors
RUN 15.7 miles in 2 hours and 31 mins, again all indoors.

My first run-swim in ...oh....long time!

RUN 31 mins for 3.1 miles, easy with 0% incline and steady 10 m/m
SWIM 15 mins for 600 yards

The training plan said 3-4 miles, but that next week. I have the "official" start next week stuck in my head this week, so I'm thinking I have an easy 6 tomorrow after today's 3-4. But that's really next week's plan. So I could do 5-6 tomorrow seeing how things feel, as it will be a run-bike-run-run sequence the past four days.

Run felt great, seems my HR is higher than it should be? Or is that just the watch?

The overall goal was a 1 hour sesh at the gym, so I walked WU and CD to 45 mins on the tready, then headed to the pool. I rested the legs and did mostly pull sets.

A few hours later I can feel my arm and back muscles -- they aren't used to this yet.

Sold some of the LR furniture this morning!

Did they tell you you would come undone...

...if you tried to touch the sun?

BIKE indoors 1 hour about 15 miles?

Yesterday I selected the Alton Half as my first "event" for the year. I excitedly told SO who thinks it's "too early" and TH who said "it's not as flat as I think". My excitement dampened a little. But I did step back to re-evaluate. SO could be right, that is a big jump in 8 weeks. But I'm feeling great, no leg/hip/back problems to worry on and I've been running since the first week of December. TH is running the race (so is TG!) and knows the course, and I did say it was "flat" when there is some inclining up and over the bridge. So is this denial?

Either way, I found a training plan described as a "1:59:59" that jumps in me in at about 18-20 miles. That happens to be close to where I am right now. The plan starts next week, so is this my pre-week? LOL

Here's an overview of the schedule, I've rearranged the days to fit me. Starting January 28th which is next Monday:

Monday Rest or XT swim
Tuesday 3-4 easy
Wednesday  XT bike
Thursday 4-6 quality, plan says mostly a WU - race pace - CD
Friday Rest or XT swim
Saturday 3 easy
Sunday long 6

I'm leaving the rest or XT days to be flexible and mostly swimming probably due to the cold outdoors. The plan suggests 30-45' XT.

This first week can be 16-19 miles. Good place to start!!

I'm going to touch the sun.