I'm back!

For a day and a half, and then I'm heading up north for a family wedding. It'll be fun, but I'm tired, but it'll be fun...

I didn't do any more speedwork sessions in NY, just a couple more runs if memory serves me right. Then we went down to PA and I got a couple of solid runs on the Haverford College loop---love it--approx 5 miles and approx 10 miles, the latter being my long run these days. No resistance training.

The travel and accumulating number of random pepper-seasoned meals have been catching up with me. We left PA for the beach, finally, NJ, and I was so looking forward to a long run or two just loping along the beach for an hour or two, and it didn't happen. I was--still am--drained. My guts were haywire and I didn't seem to be absorbing enough. My heart was starting to do its thing again, no big episodes, but plenty of little flips here and there which are tiring enough. My legs were already getting to the heavy point in PA, and I guess the ten miler totally plowed me. I got to NJ and the first two days, I walked. No running. It felt hard walking for about an hour on the sand--it was tiring trying to stand up straight. not good! Finally, I felt strong enough to run, about 3-4 miles. The following morning, my husband and I did 5 miles, and it winded me. It was so discouraging.

As much as I was looking forward to this vacation with my newly returned husband :), I was also dreading the logistics, the havoc of visiting six states, with ample car trips in between (I get carsick), the havoc of strange beds for four weeks, the havoc of trying to do workouts in unsuitable places, the havoc of trigger foods galore. Especially pepper. For someone who has happily and blithely scarfed down street food and raw food and strange food in various countries, I am disgusting sensitive to peppercorns, which are pretty much thrown into everything in the upper two countries of NAFTA, including salad dressings, cold-fish/shellfish salads, any mashed vegetable, pasta sauce, soup, meat seasoning, etc, etc, etc. And I'm too darn polite. I abhor asking my hosts if there is pepper in this or that, or holding up the waiters asking about it. It shouldn't be a big deal but it is a resounding failure for me. I'm still used to having a food allergy or sensitivity or whatever the heck it is. I guess I have to call it an allergy. No, I'm not going to spectacularly sprout pustules or require an emergency trach, but it does get pretty gross and dismal. I've lost about 5 pounds in the last week or so. I could have easily afforded to lose 5 pounds, but definitely not like that.

Enough bitching! I have a busy weekend to get through, and then hopefully I can get into a routine, or get back into the routine I had in Florida. That had gone really well and I'm proud of how much I and my husband were able to accomplish there. And the rest of the trip was fun, just not good workout or health-wise. There is some consolation to having an overactive digestive system: it was extremely well-timed: I didn't give a second thought about eating anything buttery or sugary or generally boardwalk-fatty in New Jersey. As long as it didn't have pepper in it, it could have been deep-fried lard for all I cared. The horse had left the barn. Onwards and upwards!