Sick

Woe, woe is me. I can't believe I've gotten an infection in my lungs. I've gone SEVERAL years now without any kind of chest cold (that I can remember). I've had sinus infections, strep throat (for the first time in my life), and regular old colds. But each time I was fortunate to avoid it getting in my lungs, and triggering my asthma. And every time I thanked God, because I know for me and my asthma it could mean a trip to the e.r. But now, here I am exercising and taking my Advair faithfully, and it gets me.

Of course, I can still thank God, because without the running and Advair, I would probably be in the hospital by now.

If I weren't on a schedule, and only 4 weeks into this, I wouldn't worry so much. But I'm so afraid when I'm well again, I'll be back where I started.

I'm on day 2 of my antibiotic, so I am hoping that if not tonight (because I'm still pretty congested), then by tomorrow I should feel better. It's the prolonged coughing crap up that I'm worried about.

I'm a little perturbed at the whole situation, but there's no one to direct my perturbed-ness at, so I'm basically just sitting around crying because it's the only way to release my anger.

Knitting News

I did not make the fishy socks. Not for entry in the contest anyway. I am making fishy socks for Lorelai out of different yarn though, and I'll put pictures up when I get one done.

I haven't heard back from knitty.com yet, which is actually encouraging, because they said if you don't hear it means you're in the queue. BUT I'm not getting too excited because it's only 10 days after the deadline, and the issue doesn't come out until June 1. I'm sure they have tons of entries to look through, and I didn't get mine in until the last minute. So I'm not going to hold my breath.

My carpal tunnel is acting up, and my left hand feels numb a lot. Erich diagnosed me, and said he was surprised I didn't get it before now. But I have had a trouble with that hand on and off for years. Before now, it's mostly been pain. The tingling has only happened once before a few years back.

I have a feeling my knitting might be put on hold for the summer while I tend to my garden. I also have another project underway, but I'm not ready to reveal it yet.

Samantha knows, and, oh great, I know how well she keeps secrets! ;o)

But when I know more about it, I'll share it!

Week 4, Day 2

Week 4, Day 2
Wednesday, March 11

ON HOLD

I have a cold, and a cough. And from my experience with my asthma, I can tell by the way the cough feels there's a bit of upper respiratory infection going on. I am also pretty certain I'm running a fever, so another sign of infection.

Hard headed as I am, I would normally run anyway, but I found this info on coolrunning.com:

"Exercise definitely affects the immune system which is fighting whatever viral infection you have. High intensity exercise has been linked with suppressing the immune system1. Which means that if you workout at a high intensity you may actually be making things worse!

If the symptoms you have are 'below the neck' such as aching muscles and a hacking cough, or chest congestion DO NOT workout that day and rest up. Working out places stress on the lungs and heart. If the heart and lungs are already under stress through an infection then exercise will just stress the body more and may actually lengthen the time it takes to recover from that cold."

So, I will sit out my running for today. If my chest congestion is gone tomorrow I will run then.

I'm distressed about missing a day, but I don't want to make myself sicker.

Pray for me to get well soon, so I don't lose my 4 weeks of training so far!

Week 4, Day 1

Week FOUR, Day 1
Monday, March 9, 2009

Brisk five minute warm-up walk followed by:

Jog 3 minutes
Walk 90 seconds
Jog 5 minutes
Walk 2.5 minutes
Jog 3 minutes
Walk 90 seconds
Jog 5 minutes

Okay, I've just completely foregone the format of this blog. I need to write BEFORE I go, and then again AFTER. I promise to do better.

Wow. Did you read that itenerary? That's 16 minutes of jogging with only 5.5 minutes of walking.

And ya know what? I did it, I did it, I really really really diiiiid it. (Sung to the tune of the "I'm naked" song by Lorelai).

I went back to the track, but after having been wet and walked on it was like running on huge rocks. It was littered with footprints and holes. And I don't mean once in a while, it was solidly bumpy. Yes, solidly bumpy.

And my ankle hurts. I'm sure that's what it's from. Ibuprofen, here cometh I.

But ya know what? I did it, I did it, I really really really diiiiiid it.

Did it almost kill me? Yes.
Did I want to quit? Yes.
Did I quit. NOOOOOOO. I am TIRED of being a quitter.

And I just looked forward to Friday, and all the sudden quitting doesn't seem all that bad, really. :o)

But tonight there were (and I counted) 15 people on the track, and several more standing by. All people who could ridicule and judge. As a matter of fact, I ran past one Hispanic couple on my second lap, and I heard the lady say "two" and something in spanish that sounded like "circle". I knew she was talking about the fact that I ran past them twice. I think they must have had a bet, because she sounded genuinely surprised. And to let you know I'm not just paranoid that everyone is talking about me, she went on to say (and you must insert your own ghetto-ish inflection here) "I'm not tryin' to run". And the man said something to the effect of "Run!" or "Go!". Then I heard them arguing over the fact that he said something to me. "I only said run!"

Okay, that was a completely unnecessary story, but I told it to make the point that people were NOT riduculing me, they were JEAL-OUS. Get some.

I'm going to take my Advil now.

Week 3, Day 3

Thank you Samantha and Erich for supporting me. I love you guys for loving me enough to care.


Week 3, Day 3


Friday, March 6, 2009





Brisk five minute warm-up walk followed by two repetitions of the following:





Run 90 seconds


Walk 90 seconds


Run 3 minutes


Walk 3 minutes





Today's Challenges:


Donald was late getting home, and it was almost dark when I got finished





Today's Motivations:


It's been three whole weeks, and my clothes are starting to fit like they used to





After the run:


I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I miss the cold weather. I already think it's much nicer in which to run.


I ran past the mysterious "lake" that's supposed to be hidden back in our neighborhood and it sounded like a million singing somethings -- tree frogs, insects, who knows. But it was beautiful. It did make me look even more forward to spring. I'm just not looking forward to the heat.





Otherwise, nothing new to report. Same old story for tonight. Next week..... uuuuuuuhhhhhh..... will I survive? I am really really really hoping to get back onto flat land for next week.





Here's my wall chart: 9 down, 18 to go -- I'm 1/3 of the way through (almost done with page one!)
I think at 4.5 weeks I'm going to take pictures of myself again to see if I can see a difference.

Week 3, Day 2

Week 3, Day 2

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:

Jog 90 seconds

Walk 90 seconds

Jog 3 minutes

Walk 3 minutes

Again, I'm dispensing with the challenges and motivations, because today's post is after the fact. I'm slipping, I need to get back on my game.

Since the park is likely still muddy from the melting snow and slush, I again ran in the neighborhood. Which reminds me, I need to write a follow-up letter.

Dear Hills,

I kicked your ASS tonight. Huh? Get some!

Yours Truly,

Carla

I ate those hills like they were breakfast with extra breakfast.

I rocked it yesterday evening. Normally when I'm running, I'm calculating in my head which direction I need to go to avoid running up the hills. It's a complicated process. But yesterday I took the hills head on. For my warm-up walk, I walked all the way up our road, which is a very steep hill. On one particular turn-off in our neighborhood that dead-ends into some trees, I normally go only to a certain mailbox that begins the steep climb, but yesterday I went all the way to the end.

I did all my segments. I nearly died on the last jogging one, but it was uphill (small hill). And now that I'm over my bloated-ness I feel quite, and almost fit this morning. I feel better than I have in years. When I get up from a sitting or standing position, my legs don't cry out for mercy. They're actually quite accomodating now.

And as of Friday, it will be three weeks. And, as Sam says, three weeks makes a habit.

I meant to look in the storm drain yesterday to see if my inhaler was still there, but it was during that last push, and I was concentrating on just putting one foot in front of the other, so as I went by it just looked like a blur. Not because of my speed, mind you, because I could barely see straight.

Another good thing I noticed last night. Before I started all this, I would lie in bed some nights and my heart would just pound, and it would feel like it was shaking my whole body. Last night I could feel my heart beating, and it was this nice, steady, strong feeling as opposed to feeling like I was minutes away from cardiac arrest.

8 down, 19 to go. I AM a RUNNER.

P.S. I made a healthy dinner for myself last night. Black beans and rice with chow-chow. YUMMY. I took a picture of it because at the time it looked very beautiful to me.

Week 3, Day 1 - Early

Week 3, Day 1 - Early
Sunday, March 1, 2009

Brisk five minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:

Jog 90 seconds
Walk 90 seconds
Jog 3 minutes
Walk 3 minutes

I'm going to skip today's motivations and challenges, because today was an impromptu run. There is a big winter storm "comin' rait forus". And there is expected to be anywhere from 1-3 inches of snow on the ground tomorrow. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing snow is not the best thing to run on, especially since there's likely to be ice mixed in.

SO - despite my husband's wild-eyed "your psycho" looks, I got suited up and headed out the door in the cold March rain.

I've eaten more than my share of oreos in the past two days, and don't even talk about what else I've eaten. I seriously need to get that under control. I promise myself I'm going to work on that beginning NOW.

Okay, so cold, rain, winter weather warning. I'll be honest. I didn't do it all. The rain for some odd and crazy reason makes you run faster. Which, in turn, put me off my rhythm, which in turn ruined my breathing, etc. Also with the rain coat on, as my arms swooshed against my sides, and with a toboggan and hood on, it sounded like 100 birds singing right in my ear.

Speaking of 100 birds, there were at least that many in my back yard this morning stuffing their little bellies because they know the snow is coming. It made me wish I had a bird feeder.

Another funny story -- I had my inhaler in my coat pocket. It stayed there nicely until I ran past a storm drain when, "plop" it fell right out of my pocket in to the drain. Seriously?! It's like it jumped right out! On my way back by, I looked down and there it was. Although there was so much water rushing over it I had to study it for a minute to be sure that was really it.

So, I only ran one minute of my last segment, which means I only ran 6 minutes in all. But I will still call it a sucess. Until I get pneumonia of course.

I just want to stay up to speed. And I'm going to judge next week, hopefully I can run Wed and Fri and then decide if I need to repeat a day next weekend. If not, I'll get back to my normal schedule next week.

Oh, and when I got home, Donald was standing on the front porch with a towel in his hands shaking his head. I'm not sure if it's because he loves me and is proud of me, or because he didn't want me to bring my wet clothes inside. :o)