Back In The Saddle Again

Here's a quick review of last week's happenings.  I finished the steroid treatment--what a nightmare.  I realized that there might be some side effects to the steroids, but I was sure unprepared for what occurred.  First, I got that rash on my achilles' heels, which then spread to my feet and went as far up as my calf muscle on my right leg.  I then got hit by an allergic reaction or a virus that caused my throat to be really tight and dry.  By the last day of the steroid use, my throat felt as though I couldn't fit a straw in there.  I've been getting better each day since finishing the steroids.  It wasn't until Thursday that I began to feel almost normal.  In case you didn't know, steroids act as a suppressant to the immune system.  I guess I found out what life would be like with a weakened immune system.  The lesson learned here is to get the shot if it's ever offered again.  In defense of the pills, they did do their job.  My heels feel normal again, and I've even been walking with my usual stride--for a long time, I was walking on the ball of my left foot to relieve the pain. 

Friday came and the rash had not gotten any better.  I couldn't get in to see my doctor, so I ended up at an urgent care.  I explained what had happened and it turns out that the steroid treatment causes a blistery rash in a very small minority of people--I was one of the lottery winners.  So now I'm using a topical steroid cream to get rid of the rash that was caused by steroids.  I was told that it should go away within a week. 

I ordered my shoes from RoadRunner sports last Monday evening.  They arrived Thursday afternoon.  There's something exciting about getting a new pair of running shoes.  If you haven't checked out RoadRunner Sports, they are definitely worth a look.  They have the daily deal which is one item that is usually priced around 50% off.  The Daily Deal features shoes, clothing, and gear.  I like to support my local running shop, but they had the NB 1225 shoe that I wanted for $140.  I got the same shoes from RoadRunner for $103.54 including tax and shipping.  I went to the New Balance store in town and picked up an insert.  I got the NB Pressure Relief insert because it was the only one that offered a substantial metatarsal pad.  As a benefit, it also features a deep heel cup and it felt really good in the store.  The only potential drawback that concerned me was that it took up a lot of room in my shoe.  I like a lot of room in my forefoot. 

I wasn't quite satisfied with where the rash was yesterday, so I decided to just do a walk.  My wife and I went for a 1.5 mile walk @ a pace of 19:00/mile.  I didn't feel any after-effects on my heels from walking, but still iced it later.  I'm an even greater heel striker when I walk than I am when running.  The rash is now about 90% gone, so I prepared for my inaugural run of 2010.       

I had been looking forward to getting new shoes and getting back on the roads, but noticed that I was kind of nervous. What if I started running and my heel began hurting again? I haven't run in a month, so how far or how long should I try for? I was really worried, but just like when you fall off of a horse, you have to get right back on. As I put on my running clothes and laced up my shoes, I was worried--just like before my first marathon 17 years ago.  Oddly enough, I wasn't really excited.  Instead I was lethargic--probably due to not getting enough sleep last night.

I set out around the neighborhood and felt really good for the first 150 yards.  After that, I began huffing and puffing like I was doing a sub 7 minute pace.  I realized that I was going too fast, so I slowed down and began to settle in.  I was waiting to hear the English man's voice telling me that I had completed my first mile.  I use CardioTrainer to track my runs and the voice that tells you the distance and pace is that of a proper Englishman.  I was thinking to myself that I had to have gone a mile by now when Jeeves (I call the English guy, Jeeves) broke into the music and informed me that I had completed one mile in 10:15.  I was shocked.  I'm thinking, "what happened to my conditioning?  Man, I'm in really bad shape to be breathing this hard while doing 10 minute/mile pace.  All I had to do was listen to the song that was playing over my phone--Katy Perry's Waking Up In Vegas.  She kept telling me to shut up and do something, so I thought I should shut up and put a smile on my face because that's what I get for doing no cardio training for a month.  I fininshed the next 2.25 miles in 18:38  The breathing was still hard, but I felt comfortable the rest of the way. 

I wrote in a previous post that I was looking for something to hold my Motorola Droid phone while I ran--it's the same size and weight as an Iphone.  I am glad to report that I did find the solution.  I bought an Ifitness running belt (ifitnessinc.com).  The neoprene mini sport belt solved the problem for me.  My phone fit in their very nicely.  I put the belt on and didn't notice it the rest of my run--no bouncing or shifting.  I didn't even notice that I was still wearing it 30 minutes after my run.  In my opinion, the belt is a winner.

The new shoes felt great.  The insert made it feel like I was running on air.  The only problem is that there was a slight rubbing on the upper arch of my right foot.  I'll definitely have to keep an eye on that--perhaps some body glide.  I felt much better after the run than before.  I still have to be cautious.  If I can go a month without the old problems rearing their ugly heads, then I'll probably be out of the woods and can look forward instead of worrying about the past.  For now, I am very happy to count myself as a runner again.     

Click here to see today's run via CardioTrainer.

Great Success (said using best Borat voice)

Well, not being able to bear another night like the one before, I took my RLS pill.  I went to bed at 2 am and didn't wake up (other than at 7:30 to yell at my kids to be quiet) until noon.  I feel awesome, incredible, like I could carry the world on my shoulders--you get the picture.  Thank you all for your well wishes.  They must have gone priority mail straight to the sleep fairies ears.  The only side affects I am still having from the steroid pills are my itchy achille's heels.  It's really weird that both would be red and itchy in the exact same places. 

I don't know if I properly stated why I was taking the steroids, so I'll do it now.  The bursa sac at the bottom of my left heel had flattened out making it feel like there was no cushioning between my heel and the nerves in the foot.  Basically the bursa sac is like a balloon filled with water.  You can push on it and, depending on how much force is applied, the water in the balloon will be outwardly displaced causing the latex balloon to stretch.  A healthy bursa sac absorbs the forces and then resumes it's proper shape.  Apparently mine has flattened out and stayed there.  The steroids are supposed to make the sac resume its proper shape, so it can get back to work and I can get back on the road.  I will finish the steroid treatment on Tuesday, and re-evaluate where I'm at on Wednesday.  So far, the heel feels good.  All indications are go for Comeback 1.1 next week.

RLS is difficult to understand if you haven't experienced it, which is why I was glad to see something on Discovery Health, or another of the health channels, that showed a sleep lab just like the one that Rachael described in the comment section of my last post.  I thought about going down to a lab, but didn't think I would get any sleep.  I'm so sensitive to changes in my sleep conditions that something as simple as a haircut will cause me to lose a night of sleep until I adjust.  I sound like a freak, but I really notice the difference in the way my head feels against the pillow after a haircut.  If someone changes the position of my pillow--look out--or even worse if I have to buy a new pillow--I know I'm in for a hard day's night.

I'm looking forward to being able to report on some actual running, but still trying to be wise and patient about it.


    

Eyes wide shut

I started the steroid regimen yesterday morning before I went to volunteer with the school kids.  I didn't notice any differences in my body or mood.  I was tired, so I decided to take a nap.  It was around 9:45 am.  This is when I started noticing things.  I was laying there and all of a sudden my arms involuntarily jerked upwards and nearly hit my chin.  I repositioned and then my legs started jumping around.  I felt like some unseen force had taken control of my body and was sadistically pulling my puppet strings.  After 30 to 45 minutes of being out of control, I got up.  You might think that an experience like that would have me freaking out, but it's something I've lived with since I was around 11 years old.  I have Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS).  For me, it only affected my legs.  It's hard to describe, but it's something akin to the feeling you get hours after a really hard workout.  You know the feeling you get when your leg muscles are really tight and need to be stretched out.  The problem is that there isn't any amount of stretching that will satisfy the feeling.  It only affected me at night when I tried to go to sleep.  My legs would jerk involuntarily every few minutes.  The feeling in the legs wasn't painful, but rather it was just always there and frustrating.  I learned to live on 4-6 hours of sleep per night.  The sleep I did get was not a solid, deep, and uninterrupted sleep either.  I would wake up several times during those 4 to 6 hours.  In the last couple of years, RLS has been identified and there were some drugs that were supposed to treat it.  I tried a couple of them with no success.  One of them caused my heart to feel like it was constricted--I thought I was having a heart attack.  The other one didn't touch my symptoms.  Finally, around 3 months ago, my doctor told me about a different drug that had shown success with RLS.  It's a drug used to treat Parkinson's disease.  I tried it and (ring the bells and praise the lord) it worked.  Instead of it taking me between one and two hours to fall asleep (on a good night), I was asleep within 10 to 15 minutes and the legs were normal.  I hadn't felt the RLS symptoms in months until yesterday when they returned with a vengeance. 

Keep in mind that all of this happened after only one steroid pill.  I still had 5 more to take that day.  The afternoon was uneventful.  I took 3 more of the pills.  Later, I noticed that I was getting really irritable.  I was using my laptop to read some blogs and the computer was slow and kept freezing.  My anger was growing and I came close to smashing it on the ground.  I think my shirt started to rip like when David Banner was transforming into the Hulk.  I gained control and, fortunately for the laptop, decided to watch a running movie called Running On The Sun.

This documentary chronicles the Badwater 135 mile ultra run that starts in Death Valley in the middle of summer and finishes at Mt.Whitney.  I was glued to the individual stories and I noticed that my heart was racing.  I wasn't sure if it was from the fear I felt from even thinking about attempting to finish that race, or if it was due to the steroids.  One of the things I liked about this race was that the competitors were not the super athletes that have sponsorships and run in the olympics.  The competitors were everyday people who loved running and challenging themselves.  All but four of the competitors were there just to finish.  I don't want to give anything away, but there was a group of Marines at the race that really made me proud--if you watch the movie, you'll know what I mean. 

By the time I went to bed, it was around 1 am.  Always fearful of mixing drugs, I didn't take my RLS pill.  I took the final 2 steroid pills of the day and layed down to sleep.  I had to be up at 6:55 am to get the kids to the school bus.  Almost immediately, I recognized that old RLS feeling as I heard Simon and Garfunkel in my head (hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again).  If you don't know who Simon and Garfunkel are; Simon is the short guy from the music video who was playing all the instruments while Chevy Chase sang that song, "You can call me AL".  I don't have any references for Garfunkel.  That's a funny name to say--everybody, as fast as you can, say Garfunkel three times.  This night ended up being terrible.  I could not get to sleep.  Both legs and arms were moving like I was MC Hammer.  My heart was racing--at one point I clocked it at roughly 170 beats per minute.  I wonder if I could count that as a cardio workout.  In addition to all of this, I had acid reflux going on.  This is something I've only experienced two or three times in my life.  That burning sensation is really weird, and kind of disconcerting.  I played the game of watching the clock until 5:25.  At that point, I thought, "hey, I can still get a solid hour and a half in if I fall asleep right now"--call me an optimist.  That was the last time I looked at the clock before it's alarm woke me.  Usually, I'm all over the alarm having turned it off before it's reached the second beep, but not today.  I heard the loud beeping and was trying to find it, but there were all these curtains that I couldn't get my hand through to turn it off.  We don't have curtains in our house.  The alarm must have been going off for a long time because I saw my wife, who sleeps like the dead, sitting up, angrily saying to give her the alarm and she'd turn it off.  I got up for the day and didn't feel the least bit tired.  Strangely though, both of my achilles' heels have been itchy all day and I have a hive on my right arm.  All night long, I kept thinking--you idiot, you should have gotten the shot.  So now I sit here dreading going to bed--It's like I live on Elm Street and I know Freddie is waiting for me except I want to fall asleep, but can't--what a nightmare

As far as my goal to get to 500 sit ups a day goes, I just finished # 200 for the day and I still have 2 1/2 more hours left in the day.  I know I won't get 500 today, but another two sets of 75 seems reasonable.

Trip to the podiatrist

So, I went to see the podiatrist today about my left heel, which still has some kind of sensation that should not be there.  I told him that the orthotic he prescribed for me was fine for short runs, but when I ran between 8 and 12 miles, I would feel shooting pains going up the back of my heel.  He must be an optimistic person because his response was "hey, great, we've got you able to go 8 to 12 miles, wow."  I guess when he saw that I wasn't enthused, he settled down and told me about "how the orthotic process can be a long one, but we'll keep at it and when we eventually get it right, it's right for a long time."  He then went over my options: taking the lift on the insert down, a shot in my heel, continued icing, stretching, and rest.  Being that I wasn't too keen on keeping the orthotics anyway, I decided that we could try to modify them again.  I assured him that I was stretching everyday and had been resting for a solid 2 1/2 weeks now.  As for the shot in my heel--NO, not today.  He tried to push the shot on me last time I was there also, to which I also turned him down.  He then tells me that I could take a series of pills over six days that would do the same thing as the shot--sign me up!

So, away I went to get my orthotics modified again.  The orthotics guy, came out into the lobby and asked me what the Dr. wanted him to do--not a good sign.  I explained to him and he basically told me that that wasn't possible--at this point I don't really care because I'm now 100% going with the NB insert anyway.  He does what he can, and I leave to drop off my prescription.  I get to the pharmacy and hand over the prescription.  The pharmacist quizically looks at it.  She asks me, "Is this a Z-Pack?"  I don't know what a Z-Pack is, so I say, (in my best Forrest Gump voice) "The Dr. told me it was a bunch of pills."  She looks at me and says in her soup nazi voice, "You come back in two hours".  I avoid eye contact and shuffle out.  Not wanting to upset the nazi (pharmacist), I don't come back for four hours.  I get my prescription home and open it up to see what magic beans it holds?  Lo and behold, It's a 6 day steroid program.  Immediately, I have visions of playing second base for the Yankees.  Jerked back to reality like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, I see that I must take six 4mg tablets for the first day and one less every day after.  Perhaps, I should have opted for the shot.  It's not that I'm afraid of needles.  I've had needles put into my eyes while awake and watching thinking about the old kid's rhyme--something, something, something, stick a needle in my eye.  I forget how it goes, but everyone remembers the last part because a needle in the eye was the worst thing imaginable.

I'll start the roids tomorrow morning.  I volunteer at my kid's school every Tuesday and Thursday morning for an hour.  I help two 2nd grade kids who are struggling to read.  I must say that most days I feel a high that is indescribable when I leave the school.  It really is fulfilling to teach young kids and see them improve.  Anyway, I hope I don't get all roid-raged and go Serena Williams on the kids when they make a mistake.  I think I'm going to wait and see how the steroid treatment feels before I start running again.  If it works as advertised, Comeback 1.0 (Sorry Lance) is in sight.     
        

Reigning in the competitive spirit

There's an article by Elisha Cooper in the February 2010 issue of Runners World that I found to be funny.  He discusses how male runners seem to take it personally when they are passed versus female runners who don't seem to mind.  Out on the roads, I have no problems if someone passes me, but if someone is ahead of me I find that I will try to increase my pace to catch and pass them.  Where this article applies to me is when I'm at the YMCA running on the treadmill.  For some reason, if someone gets on the machine next to me, we are going to race whether they participate or not.  I've been in the last mile of a hard 8 mile hill workout when a younger guy foolishly toed the starting line (got on the machine next to me) and started running faster than me.  I looked at him, and proceeded to increase my pace so that it was noticeably faster than his.  I ended up running an extra 3 miles that day before I broke that guy (or he simply finished his workout).  Yes, in my mind, we were racing.  Perhaps, this mentality led to my not being able to run (I'm no longer saying the word injury--from here on out, it shall be the word that must not be spoken/written).  Fortunately or unfortunately for me (depending on how one looks at it), the YMCA that I frequent is predominately visited by seniors--and I don't mean those in high school or college.  I won't denigrate those seniors who are there walking because I respect their effort.  How difficult must it be to make yourself go to the gym when you are in your 60's and 70's?  Too many people make fun of those who work out--saying they're wasting their time or they're only there to be seen, but I think they try to put them down to make themselves feel better because they can't get their own lazy asses off the couch--I understand it's difficult to do much when you've got a remote in one hand and a bag of chips in the other.  I seem to have gotten off subject.  Recognizing the problem puts one on the path to fixing it.  I have to try to be more disciplined when I do my workouts.  No more racing and trying to break the spirit of the old lady next to me.  I think it was the Penguin who said you have to "run your own race" or in my case "run my own workout".  Maybe I need to get some races in to satisfy my competitive spirit--to race against those who know they are in a race.  I've planned some 5k's and 10k's for February and March, so we'll see how things go.  I made an appointment for Jan. 6 to see my podiatrist.  If I get the okay, I'll probably be running again by the weekend.

If you previously checked out this blog, you'll notice that the L.A. Marathon countdown timer has been replaced by the Prescott Whiskey Row Marathon.  While I was really looking forward to L.A., there just won't be enough time to get into descent enough shape so that I don't  (insert word which must not be spoken/written) myself again. 
      

Goals for 2010

The primary goal for 2010 is to finish a marathon in under 4 hours.  The secondary goal is to qualify for Boston.  I also want to run a 5k, 10k, and a half marathon.  I want to do more core work this year.  I am shooting for 500 crunches a day.  I was doing 200 crunches a day when I felt good, but have really slacked off, so I'll have to build up to this amount.  I also want to take more time to do post-run stretching.  Lastly, I want to stay healthy.  2009 was not a good year as far as injuries go, and I don't think I've ever been sick for so many days as I was this year.  I attribute the increased sickness to my volunteering at my kid's school.  It's hard enough trying to dodge the germs of my own 5 kids, but I added the germs of another 25 2nd grade kids.  The increase in germs with hard training, and not enough sleep equals a lot of sick days.  While I do have fun in training hard, I need to learn to relax a bit more and not forget that training is not my job. Running/training is something that I don't have to do, but rather something I am fortunate enough to do.

2009 Recap

2009 was a good year overall.  Here's just some of the stats.  I started running at the beginning of June.  It was pretty hot, and I remember struggling to finish 2 and 3 mile runs.  It's funny because a mere two months later and I was warming up with one and two miles before the actual running began.  I totaled 528 miles for the year.  5.5 weeks of training were lost due to injury.  My longest run was 13.1 miles, which I did twice.  I did not run any races. 
I think I'm getting pretty close to running again.  My right heel feels normal.  My left heel is around 90% now.  Hopefully, I'll be ready to go in another one to two weeks.  I have decided to get the New Balance ultra arch support insoles to go with the NB 1225 shoes.  I am looking forward to getting these items and really hope that they solve my feet problems.  Based on the preliminary re-start to my training program in a couple of weeks, The Sun run 10k is in jeopardy because I would only have around two weeks to get ready for it.  I am optimistic...cautiously...for 2010.