Almost Made It

I almost made it through the month of February without missing a single training run. By the third week I was feeling great, adding mileage and increasing my pace by a very small amount each week without experiencing any adverse effects other than tired achy muscles. So, foolish me, I stepped it up and wham, I found my upper limit in terms of heart rate. At 3.9 miles per hour, with a heart rate of 150, my sinuses flooded and I suspected I was in for a bad sinus headache. I dropped my speed, keeping my heart rate around 130 for the rest of my run with the hope I wouldn’t pay too much of a price for my imprudent increase in speed.

Sure enough I woke up the next morning with a painful ache in my temples, behind my eyes and across my forehead.  Not painful enough to keep me in bed, but painful enough to keep me from moving around or lifting anything for the next couple of days. It seems strange to struggle so much with sinus headaches simple because my heart rate gets elevated, but I have observed this cause and effect repeatedly for several years and am learning to live with it. Some day I may sit down with my doctor and try to figure it out, but in the mean time I remind myself that a few years ago I couldn’t let my heart rate get about 115 without suffering a headache and now I have a higher threshold, so I can do more, I just need to train at my aerobic heart rate.

Five days of rest and I was able to get outside for a one-mile jog without consequences. Good to go! At least I thought so. On the last day of February as I sat daydreaming, working on the plot outline of the book I am writing, at the breakfast table I performed my next foolish act. I got a pecan lodged in my throat. It was far enough done I could breathe, but it certainly wasn’t going anywhere. A little goggling by my husband brought up the suggestion of sipping coke to help loosen the food and wash it down. Which makes sense, as coke is acidic. Therefore I spent the day sipping coke and tea and chicken broth… to no avail. Finally at the end of day, just before I decided enough is enough I am going to Urgent care, I swallowed a tiny piece of bread and after a moment of, well maybe it would all come up, the nut made its way into it’s anticipated destination, my stomach. It’s been a long time since I have felt such a level of relief and simple joy in being able to swallow I couldn’t stop smiling.

I wasn’t able to hit my goals for distance and pace for February, but on the first Friday of March I managed a five mile run/walk without getting a headache giving me the confidence of knowing I will be able to finish the 10k race I am running on March 18^th. It won’t be as fast as I want but I will go the distance. 

Now if only I can keep myself from doing silly things that interfere with my training I will meet my goal of running a marathon in the fall.

Safe

“Is she okay?” asked four year old Elizabeth

Her older brother didn’t respond.

“Is she okay?” Elizabeth reached out and touched his face with her finger.

“Elizabeth! Stop touching me! I’m sleeping.”

“Is she okay?” The little girl asked again.

“Is who okay?” David asked in exasperation.

“The fairy princess in the backyard. It snowed. Is she okay?”

He got out his bed, padded over to the window and looked out at a fairytale kingdom of white and crystal.

“Yes, I’m sure she’s safe. After breakfast we can go sledding and make sure.” He said with excitement in his voice.

Spring Day

The day was bright and warm. A perfect spring day with birds singing in the trees and the dogs following their noses into the woods searching for the sources of the scents they detected on the breeze. Harry strolled along, his walking stick making faint marks on the soil of the path he was following. He had left his coat behind in light of the warmth and the freedom of shedding the extra layers of clothing needed during the long winter months.

Two miles from home found him topping a rise and stepping out of the woodland. The view spread before him was breathtaking. On the horizon he noticed the building of dark clouds, advancing across the sky as he watched. There hadn’t been any forecast of foul weather. There hadn’t been any indication of a storm brewing, nothing to indicate a possible cause of concern. He whistled, calling the dogs to his side and turned back the way he came. It would be close, his getting back to the safety of his house before the storm over took him, but then he laughed. It had been years since he had been caught outside in a storm and he recalled the thrill of it, the joy of it, the challenge of it, and slowed his step. Today he would embrace the unforeseen change of weather and relish the transformation of the landscape as the rain brought forth new growth.

First Month of Training Done

First month of training done! At the beginning of January I wasn’t sure I would be able to meet my running goal for the month. The New Year found me traveling to Florida with my husband and mother-in-law fighting a head cold and over all fatigue. A couple of days of resting in the car, they did all the driving, and a couple of days soaking in the greenery and the ocean air restored me to the point where I was ready to come back to the frozen northland of home and kick it on the treadmill.

I returned to a household of sick grandchildren and within a day all the rest from my trip had vanished and I was headed down that slippery path of illness once again. The disruption to my running schedule left me wondering if I would be able to train enough to be ready for the 10k I had registered for in March. But with a lot of lounging around and avoiding everyone I thought may be harboring any kind of cold or illness and dosing myself with vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc supplements and herbal tea I preserved in regaining my health enough to get back on the treadmill and run.

A little extra effort and I finished the month meeting my running distance goal, which got me back on track with my training schedule.

Let’s see what challenges February throws at me. I am confident I will conquer them.

It Snowed Last Night

It snowed last night. This morning I bundled up and stepped outside. The air was fresh. The world around me was muffled. I strapped on my snowshoes and headed out into the snow-splashed woods. All around me the beauty of winter showed its best side. A splash of red marked the flight of a Cardinal. A loud chatter sounded from the branches above me as a gray squirrel greeted the day. I came to the big oak tree and stopped. I placed my hand on the rough bark and smiled. Sometimes life is this simple, serene and free from conflict.   

A Year of Running

This year I will be running my first marathon!  I am excited and little intimidated by the idea of running twenty-six miles. I decided to do this for a couple of reasons.

First, I have always loved running. As a child I ran everywhere. Then adulthood happened with its many demands, schooling, working, childrearing, and just taking care of the vast assortment of obligations, scheduling, home maintenance and did I mention childrearing, leaving me with little time to pursue any hobby of my own. After my children left home I joined my daughter in running and the joy I felt as a child was rekindled. I ran several 5ks and even got my husband into the sport for a season.

Then I had a car accident and suffered a broken nose and concussion. Over the next four years I struggled with severe headaches after any kind of physical exertion, both cardio and strength training. I would be woken up in the middle of night with sharp, stabbing pain in my temples and across my forehead. The next day would be a day of very little activity and ibuprofen. Sometimes the headache would linger for a week or more making it difficult to get much of anything accomplished. During this time I was receiving treatment from a chiropractor and went through physical therapy and the frequency and intensity of my headaches slowly diminished, allowing me to do more, but not disappearing completely. My oldest daughter then talked me into trying an eating program called the Whole 30, basically giving up processed foods, grains, soy and dairy, which she had found made a big difference in how she felt. After two weeks of faithfully following the plan I discovered the final piece to my headaches, dairy. Now I love dairy, I can’t imagine a world without cheese, especially on pizza, but it was hard to argue with the evidence. Eat dairy, suffer headaches due to inflammation of my sinuses. Do not eat dairy and be headache free, but what about pizza on Friday night? There are a few dairy free cheese substitutes out there, though they aren’t quite the same and my husband objected to the substitution. A bit of experimentation lead to the discovery that if I was dairy free all week I could have my regular pizza on Friday night. I would be a little lethargic on Saturday, but now I could run again. Yay! And I did a little bit here, a little bit there. I did some hiking and started to realize that even though I had lost fitness I could get it back. Which lead me to my second reason for running a marathon this year.

This is a milestone birthday year for me and I decided to something big for myself to celebrate. What better way to celebrate life than to work toward becoming as fit as I can. My daughter helped me set up a training program. It started with running a 5k in December and continues through the year with a 10k in March, a half marathon in May and a 20-mile race in September leading to running the Twin Cities Marathon in October. My husband, in a show of support, has committed to running with me. Now all I need to do is run.