Its Been Awhile

Yes, OK, so its been awhile since I've written anything here. It has also been awhile since I've run any races or worked out in general. The reason is because I began to experience a series of injuries, one after the other. And to be honest, these constant injuries just wore me down. It got to the point where instead of trying to achieve a respectable time in a race I was simply trying to complete one entire race without re-injuring anything. And I was not succeeding.

I believe I limped across the finish line of 3 Cotton Row Runs in a row. I also limped through an entire 5K race in Somerville, Tennessee one year. Yes, I limped the ENTIRE race. Pulled a hamstring. I was SO mad that I did the race anyway. But obviously my state of mind by that point was not very optimistic.

Also contributing to my workout unhappiness was the fact that for 3 years straight I was somewhat limited to running on a treadmill. I had a workout partner running beside me, which helped. But he injured his knee while stretching one day. Yes, stretching. That was all he was doing. But that knee injury stayed with him and got progressively worse until today, where he is not running at all anymore. And neither am I.

I no longer have a gym membership. My employer has a room they call a gym. We call it a storage closet where a bunch of weights are piled. But they insist that it is a gym. Or as Human Resources calls it, a 'workout space.' Yeah, not much space there, but at least there is an Olympic bar and some Olympic plates. Theoretically I could squeeze in there and do an actual weight lifting workout.

My workouts lately have consisted of nothing more than climbing a staircase that goes from the ground level up to the 8th floor, which is as high as it goes. Considering my injury-plagued history I have been taking this slowly. I did this climb daily for a very long time before upping my intensity to a light run up the stairs. Even so, three times I have had to stop because of an injury to my knee. Its on old injury, but it comes back whenever it detects me trying to exercise and reminds me that it is there. It usually takes about a week for it to return to normal so that I can resume my stair climbing again. This last time, due to an unexpected office move that required me and several other men in the group to move everyone else's desks for them, the injury lasted closer to 3 weeks. It was nearly healed when I was drafted to help with the move. But it seems much better today.

I know this is not exciting. Very little about this blog is terribly exciting. I'll admit I did this on purpose, to some extent. For those of you still reading, if you were aware of my previous blog then you likely have noticed that I have gone to great lengths to make sure this blog is nothing like it. Its not that I didn't like the previous blog. Its just that I wanted to do something different, more for me than anything else, and with less cussing and nudity.

Wednesday

I've been fairly consistent with my workouts since starting back up again. I've made it into the weight room at least 3 times per week, each week, usually 4. When I've been in pain and unable to run I've either biked or used the elliptical. I've stuffed myself with protein and other recovery-oriented chemicals following my workouts and then slept like a corpse from total exhaustion.

But my strategy of trying to get my speed up without first getting my whole body back into the workout groove hasn't worked so well. My knee hurting and swelling I guess I can deal with. I've been pushing the speed and that puts added stress on the knee joint. But when my problematic calf gave me a twinge of pain and a threat of taking me out of this race one more time I took it as a big warning.

Yesterday, just to be cautious, I started walking and very slowly raised the treadmill speed one tenth of a second at a time. Even when I finally started running I kept raising the speed very slowly and very carefully. I never reached the speeds I've been running in previous workouts. I just reached a speed that I felt I could hold without my knee hurting or my calf tearing or cramping. It wasn't the speed I wanted, but I want to not be hurt more than I want to finally run a decent time again after 2 years in a row limping across the finish line in well over 30 minutes.

I didn't work out at all today. I had been working out 4 days per week, Monday through Thursday. I'm starting to believe that I'm trying to leap into this too quickly and all I'm going to do is reinjure myself just in time to not be able to run my race. So I'm cutting back, slowing down, and lowering my aim.

My new goal is to run the Cotton Row Run from start to finish without any injuries popping up and making me limp or walk prior to my crossing the stupid finish line. Reaching for the stars, I know. But considering the injury troubles I've had in the last 2 races I'm thinking this might be the best idea for me right now.

Sorry if this isn't very inspiring. If my workouts go better I may raise my aim a little. Otherwise, this is probably for the best. One injury-free race and then I will aim higher.

Not gonna be me

So here's the thing ...

So here's the thing, I've been to the doctors, had lots and lots and did I mention lots of blood drawn and sent away to be tested. I had the unique experience of a doctor stopping me in the hallway of a major medical center to say "you're bleeding in the floor." I had just had blood drawn and was sent on my way with a cotton ball when I noticed that my arm inside my coat sleeve felt wet. Then a random passing doctor commented on blood dripping from my sleeve. I looked down at my arm.

Blood.

I spun around and entered the nearest bathroom. (Let me correct that statement - I entered the nearest men's bathroom. The nearest bathroom was the women's.)  I yanked off my coat and sure enough, blood was streaming down my arm from the spot where they stuck the needle in. My first thought, of course, was to turn my coat sleeve inside out and start frantically wiping off the still-wet blood. Once the coat was as clean as I could get it, I started working on my arm. The active bleeding seemed to slow enough that I was able to wash blood off my arm and hands. I didn't put my coat back on, though, because I wasn't quite that confident that there wasn't more bleeding to come.

Anyway, so far the rest results show nothing. I don't have diabetes. I don't have Lyme disease. I don't have rheumatoid arthritis. I don't have anything that they can point to and say "there, there is why you are having these strange problems, injuries, pains, etc."

But that's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, NOT having the things I so far know that I don't have is good. It's possible that I'm just getting old and creeky and my body is rebelling against years and years of physical abuse in the form of various sports I got involved with as injuries drove me out of one and into another, or boredom did. Either way, I'm hoping for this all to just heal. If it doesn't, I have to go back for more tests. Next time I'll wear a less expensive jacket.