Back in the saddle

During Monday night, I had a small setback.  It felt another cyst rupture, fortunately not major.  I just stayed put and let it rip.  Tuesday, I was useless.  Mostly napped on the couch.  Wednesday, I walked with the dog, and that was a trip.  I was still a bit feverish.  Thursday, another walk, this time with just a headache.

Last night, I fell asleep to the sound of guns, and I guess that and the lack of exercise disordered my sleep, because I woke up before six.  I hadn't fully recovered, but it was on.  Can't waste a magic hour early rise like that, especially with a predicted high of 30 C.  I grabbed the dog and hit the major, and flatter, road around here for a change.  I've run back home on it, but have never done a full run on it.

Unfortunately, it's mostly a slight downhill going out, and thus the reverse going back, and the ground was a bit soft and moist, but it was only 18C and the sun wasn't fully up.  It was surprisingly refreshing even though I miscalculated slightly: I should have walked up the initial hill instead of letting my breathing get jacked up right at the start because, once it's elevated, I tend to keep it there.  And I shouldn't have run that far.  I was running pretty low by the end.

I got home and was shocked to find out that the run was under a 1/2 hour.  3.7 miles, I think.  Mind you, that was pretty close to tempo effort.  If I start off more sensibly, I think this is the easy route I've been longing for.  There are no steep inclines on it apart from that short nasty bit right at the beginning.

And then I did arm/shoulder exercises, and that went well too.  No daily double until stuff settles internally, but I think I'm back, even though the headache has also returned too.  This is why I have to work out.  My innards are a ticking bomb; the thicker the bunker, the better. The first time I had a major incident, it took me at least a month to bounce back.  Mind you, it was worse, and I wound up in the hospital with septis and anemia, but it hadn't helped that I hadn't been living the healthiest life before that.  This was the alarm that actually started me running more than ten years ago.

Stupid bird

It's a nice cool night but the windows are shut because Stupid Bird and its two siblings have woken me up every day this week.  They are baby mockingbirds.   We can't actually tell them apart except one of them seems a bit larger and more persistent than the others, and this is Stupid Bird.  The others are Dumb Bird (unfortunately, not dumb sound-wise) and Demented Bird.  There are other baby birds around, but Stupid Bird is the most annoying, although not the only one that has woken me up way too early.  I am unused to Nature and so any animal noise wakes me up.  I used to sleep through sirens (lived round the corner from a fire station), deep bass (lived behind a club), dining noises/clinking silverware (lived above a restaurant with an outdoor patio), trains, traffic, even a certain beeping garbage truck that came at five am (lived on a glorified garbage lane behind the club and other establishments), and I'm getting used to sleeping through the nighttime explosions here, but I cannot sleep through two things: breaking glass and Nature.  One little frog pip is enough to wake me up.  I don't know what the heck is going on out there, actually, but I keep getting woken up.  And the only noise I recognize is Stupid Bird.

So, my sleep has been kind of crappy this week.

Today, 20.4 (I think) miles biking in 90 minutes with my husband.  He set a more comfortable pace and picked a much more comfortable route avoiding all sharp hills.  Unfortunately, the hills are on my commutes so all of my rides until today have had them---gosh, biking is soooo much easier without steep hills!   It was actually an easy ride today.  I got more comfortable using the lowest handlebar position too.  I hadn't bothered much with it until today, when I had no choice.  My hands are a bit blistered from the shoveling, and consequently my usual hand position is irritating.  Finally, I gave up and plunked my hands on the lowest part and I don't know what I did differently, but it was luxurious.  It was like lying down!

Then, I jogged for an hour in front of a lecture.  MHC class I and class II.  Basically, MHC I signals killer T cells (Cd8+??) so the peptide is a darn tight fit because mistakes are costly, whereas MHC II signals (is that even the right word?  aids?)  helper T cells (Cd4+?), not so much at stake, thus it offers a more relaxed hotdog bun sort of fit.    Hopefully I got this right.  If I didn't, at least I jogged for an hour.

Then, more digging/lifting dirt.  We now have the right sized hole in the ground, I think, and I will level for the concrete blocks tomorrow.  Fortunately, it turns out that the bottom is mostly clay, so I won't bother putting in a concrete collar after all.

Digging deep

We're building the koi palace: cross-training!

Thurs: 6-7 miles biking, arm exercises, daily double
Fri: digging
Sat: tempo loop, digging.

I think we ran the loop in about 40 minutes, an improvement over last time.  However, I can't know for sure.  In the middle of the last large hill, a lady driving a truck stopped me.  Had I seen two pugs?  She was house-sitting and they'd escaped under the fence.  She gave me a description of them, and I got the address from her, just in case--there was neither landline nor reliable cellphone reception there.  About two seconds after she drove away, I saw them, and I yelled at her.  She collected one of them, and the other ran up to us, and eventually I shooed it back to the truck, and then we had a laugh about the situation (turns out there was a third pug, but it came back), and she drove off again.   If all of this took more than two minutes, that means that we ran the loop in 40 minutes.  However, I had the advantage of catching my breath on that big hill.  Hard to gauge!

In the sauna now

I suppose summer has started, although we are supposed to get lows of 8-ish C this weekend.   Today was a humid 29 C, which is probably also the temperature in the garage.  It was toasty in there compared to the house at a frigid 26 C.   These are 2-shower days, and I certainly earned my 2nd one.

Walk with the dog.  90 minute jog on the TM, then the most abysmal leg workout in my life.  I was completely drenched by the time I got to the weights, and though jogging was fine, I proved to be massively sapped.  I had to reduce weights.  I figured it would be a good opportunity to concentrate on form at least, but I couldn't even manage that.  I was a limp, sodden tangle of overcooked noodles. 

So, now I know.  I'll still give a post-sweatbox workout a 2nd chance--I also haven't been sleeping more than 4 or 5 hours a night, which could be a huge factor--but I won't expect much. 

I really should do the leg workout after tough hill runs outdoors, but I've been cowardly with those recently.  Must shape up. 

Saturday morning should succeed a low of 8-9 C.  I'll go to bed at a decent hour and then wake up with no other option except to run.   As if there is absolutely no other possibility in the world.

Toasted

Yesterday, eh, it was raining pretty much the whole day, and on my motivation too.

Today: 1 hr-ish jog/walk with the dog in the forest, then 1:06 biking, 15.8 miles--14.X mph, yeah!  The route was similar to the last ride: hills on the ends, and a flatter portion in the middle.  The hills seemed a smidge easier, thankfully.

And then, since I had to study, I put on a lecture and hopped on the TM and jogged for 50 minutes.  It was supposed to be an hour, but I got a stitch about a half-hour into it, fought mostly through it, and then I started feeling queasy.   I increased my breathing rate to get rid of the stitch without increasing my pace, which led to a sort of sickly hyperventilation, and I was sweating a lot and consequently was drinking a lot of fluid too.  Not a good combo.

Then arm exercises.  I had a slight glitch, a neck spasm--because I stupidly yawned with my head turned.  My injuries are often that doltish.  Fortunately, a few minutes of stretching got rid of it and I was able to continue.  And then the daily double without the sit-ups.  Too much sloshing for those.

I'm pretty beat now, but it was a fun few hours.

The engine

I'm finally discovering some seemingly short and especially essential muscles for biking, the little bits that pack the most torque.  With running, I feel these pistons around my hip flexors and glutes; with biking, they seem to be in my inner thighs.   These are possibly large complex sections of muscles, actually, but they seem like small factions that don't have to move much, as opposed to bigger and more painful useless stupid chunks of burn.  I'm finding this really hard to explain!

Anyway, my husband and I went biking today, just a quick trip, 16.4 miles in ?  maybe an hour and a quarter.  He had his bike computer and I'm not sure if it shuts off for stops, but we averaged 13 mph.  Not bad for those hills and a warm day. 

And then the daily double, and I was reminded of yesterday's arm workout during the pushups. 

DOMS

Yeah, I overdid it yesterday.

But my arms and shoulders were perfectly fine, so I exercised those after jogging for an hour on the TM.  I finally put more weight on certain exercises, and it ended up being a tough workout.  The daily double pushups afterward were unkind.

The jog was surprisingly fine, however.  I was sore and the garage was kind of hot, but it felt nice because I'm in sauna-mode now (I had to bump the A/C up to 80 yesterday because it was cold in the house).  And I found a super series of immunology lectures on Youtube, but the camera-person was a dunce, at least for the first lecture.  Ten seconds on the slide: 2 minutes on the lecturer's face doesn't help anyone---shoot, after the first few minutes, I'd gotten over that he looks sort of like Dr. Spaceman from 30 Rock, I don't need to see much more, and meanwhile, what the heck is the innate equivalent of gamma-interferon?  I STILL DON'T KNOW.  And I was playing ah.fm as background music again because it gives me wings, sometimes interplanetary wings.  Lecture + choons + TM = multitasKING.  Except that today it felt like someone else was warming the royal commode.

The whole day felt like I mailed it in, actually, except when I was hurting during the weights. 

Yeah!

Today is a hot day, high of 32 C.  It was about 22 when we got out this morning, and humid, plus I'm having an off-day (oddly enough, I'm often forewarned by a certain dream theme, and such has been the case today) so we walked.

And then I got on the TM, loaded an appropriate lecture (I've started two new courses), and jogged for 80 minutes.

Then legs and the daily double.  Let's talk about legs a bit; not much to say except that I tried out the 50 lb dumbbells on deadlifts, with mixed but promising results.  3 reps seems to be the ticket--I tried a fourth one set, and it was just a little too much.  I got a little twinge in my neck (gone now).  However, the major limitation is my grip strength.  Admittedly, my gloves were actually my husband's, and thus they're large for my hands, but the extra material hasn't been too much of a complication until now.   But my hands are fundamentally weak.  One, they were frostbitten when I was 17; two, I spent umpteen years developing finesse/speed to the apparent detriment of strength while studying harpsichord.  However, I'll get used to it.   Having 35 lbs on the dumbbells was an awkward grip at first, but now I don't notice it.

Plus, though the new plates have holes too wide for the dumbbells, they probably will be fine if sandwiched between dumbbell plates, and thus I can have the intermediary 40 and 45 lbs.   Actually, I was considering putting 40 lbs on them today, but this was at the end of my workout when 50 lbs was tiring, and likewise simple math.  At first, I correctly thought that, oh, 2(10 lbs) + 4(5 lbs) = 40 lbs, and then I erroneously reconsidered that I would end up with 50 lbs.  Such fatigue-generated stupidity is intriguing, and I have countless examples...at any rate, I think I will go to 40 lbs for my deadlifts next time so that I can concentrate on form more.  50 lbs was pretty much "oh, man, straight back, just get 'em up." 

The ultimate soup is waiting for me.   Leftover veggie improv happens at least weekly here, and it turns out fine whatever goes in, but yesterday's creation is one for the memoirs.  I roasted some tomatoes and cabbage with garlic, olive oil, and garlic, and then I threw that into the crock pot with dehydrated tomatoes and mushrooms, beans, chili flakes, Persian seasoning (I forget what it's called, except that it's not za'atar, one of my mainstays), and ume shiso.  Somehow it wound up perfectly balanced, and I will be eating it for the next couple of days blissfully.  If I had a different disposition, its eventual disappearance might inspire melancholy and/or an obsession to recreate it (even if there was a recipe, there would still be so many variables), but since I dislike repeating household chores in general, I will enjoy approaching this sublime level from future ever-changing avenues.

Back in the saddle

Yesterday: aftermath from dining out.  Whenever I'm away from my mostly gluten-free kitchen for more than a couple of days or so, I get a bit sick.  I've tried taking gluten enzymes in the past but didn't feel any noticeable difference; they probably work further down the alimentary tract, past the stomach and its enzyme-denaturing low pH.  Oh, well!  So, I try to make eating out count, and I think I succeeded this trip.  So much good food.  And yesterday, I mostly finished paying the price, I hope.

The dog was zonked from his recent stay in the puppy spa, so he took it easy yesterday too.  He actually didn't get up until close to noon.  !!!

Today, however, is a new dawn, etc: almost an hour jogging/walking in the forest, and then I did arm exercises and the daily double, which I'd sadly jettisoned during our trip.  I guess it was a derailment in general, but worth it. 

But, yes, now I feel a trifle soft.

My new weights are presently holding down my new exercise pad, which already has dog hair on it.  Any floor covering recently unfurled and put to use quickly becomes desirable, and since he was a good boy and not too balky getting out of bed early this morning, I invited him onto it.

out of town, out of ZZZ

Thurs: long car trip

Fri: approx 75 min/8.5 miles running on the nature trail at Haverford College.  We were visiting family who will be moving out of that area soon, and so the run was poignant.  Every visit in the past eight years, I've run the trail almost every day, and now we will have no reason to return.  This time, many of the flowering trees and bushes were shedding their blossoms, and so I was running on red carpets, and pink, and white, and purple.  Flourishes befitting a farewell.

We were also given some household stuff, including a bar and weights!  The bar is a so-called e-z curl bar, and not a straight bar, but it's a good addition and still pretty versatile, I think.  We'll have to get more plates for it.  Too bad we didn't have room for the bench press station because that was up for grabs, but it might end up moving with the family.  We also got a pair of 50 lb dumbbells, which I haven't even touched but will be a source of inspiration for the time being, and an odd little step machine which might be fun while watching TV.

Sat: walk on the beach, more time in the car

Sun: hour run on the beach.  This was close to the centre of Hurricane Sandy's landfall, and the beach has been completely transformed.  The dunes are flattened, the shoreline has changed, including the offshore sandbars (which shift around anyway, but more drastically this time) and an amazing amount of new sand has been brought in and dumped in lines of countless truckload heaps.   I had to run at high tide and the footing was really poor.  They've also built a new jetty--and, actually, the hurricane uncovered the remains of an old pier that none of us knew about--anyway, to get past the jetty, I had to run a path going up some of the sand heaps, and it was gratifying to feel all the hill-honed muscles kick into gear after 50 minutes of slogging over mushy sand.  Not that the heaps weren't loose, but they were  a thrilling quick dash up and down.

After much more time in the car, we got home late.

Mon: walk with the dog, bike ride/errands.  Maybe I will hit the TM this evening.

down for the count

Yesterday: 1 hr jog/walk, biking, daily double
Today: I call it Karen.  Back in the day, before I had a better understanding of my abdominal whackery, a coworker and I used to joke that I had a tapeworm, and I named the tapeworm after her.  There isn't actually a tapeworm, but there is more than one issue...and, today, apparently a cheese-grater as well.  I'll try some deep-breathing yoga stuff and go from there, but it's looking like one of those rare days spent mostly curled around the dog's soothing warmth.

Edit: well, the count lasted for just several hours.  I woke up again sometime before noon feeling considerably better.  The discomfort is back to a dull roar, and I decided to jog on the treadmill while listening to tunes and watching math videos, just to see how it would go.  I think I could get into this routine.  It ended up being a really easy 80 minute jog (my easy pace has quickened a bit on that TM too, thanks to all the hills, and not have any hills at all lifted me to an amazing zone), and then I did arm exercises and the daily double.

Drenched

Our timing excelled today.  When we left the house, there was not even a drizzle.  The heavens didn't open until we were warmed up, and they didn't open to their widest until we were on our last lap.  At that point, it was uncomfortable to see, and that was added incentive to push through to home.

We did the Triplet four times.  I had problems accessing full drive up the hills, but the slipperiness of the wet footing was the main complication.  Rain strips the teeth from cogs.  Going up a steep slope covered in wet pine needles becomes a scramble instead of a thrust.

Afterward, I did leg exercises, and despite my previous poor experience, I kept on all the plates for the squats.  So, it was more of a uhhh than a pow, but I handled the additional weight better this time.   The pow will come back with repetition, and I'll enjoy it for at least a couple of workouts before I put on more plates that I don't own yet.

And then the daily double.  No sloshing during the situps this time. It's amazing how much quicker progress has been this time.  Perhaps it would be quicker still if I did more volume, or additional workouts during the day, but I'm not motivated enough for that, not at this point.  Handling one bout of an uncomfortable few minutes per day is yielding consistency and results, and that's good enough for the time being.

Boom!

The big guns kept me up for much of the night.  They've been firing off some pretty heavy things in quick succession, and I'm still not used to hearing it at night.  I could have used more sleep because I'm a bit sore from yesterday.  It was a waste of a nice cool running day, but at least we got a fair bit done around the house.

We walked and then I did the daily double. 

No ghost dog

Today, the Triplet.  And, since it's May, we did it four times.

The run started off really well.  It was one of those days where the good zone was within the first few steps of the start.  Like stepping into a pool of water that is the perfect temperature.

And so, I slackened too much, failed to prep for the Triplet, and went through it the first two times in a sort of disengaged manner.  It had rained a bit earlier this morning, and so the footing was as good as it gets too, which further withered concentration.  Oh, steep hills, let's check out during these, see you later.  But that's not the point!!

After self-admonishment and reminders, mainly about breathing and hip drive and feeling strong through the shoulders and certain muscles that run roughly from my armpits to my hips--we've made an acquaintance recently but haven't been formally introduced--I went through the Triplet two more times in a much more solid and strong manner.

I even jogged back up the long hill after it, successfully finding a measure of comfort during it (this being another goal).

And then, weights and the daily double.  All solid, especially mentally.  I'm growing more and more fond of the focus.  My hands go round the bars, I squat, and prep, a few deep breaths, a reminder that I could hurt myself, and then this amazing clear space where I imagine the motion and nothing else at all.  And then I go through it.

The only low point was more internal sloshing during the sit-ups, but it was manageable today.  I could probably cut back a bit on my fluid intake between weights reps.

The altitudes of atmos

As much as the forest goes up and down, it hasn't really much variety otherwise.  There are no streams or ponds or marshy bits.  There are no clearings.  There are more oak trees on one side, and there are more ferns in another section; the undergrowth varies somewhat, but there isn't a whole lot of it and the forest is basically tall and straight pines above a bed of their acidic needles.

I've experienced some swings of drama in there, mainly loose dogs (oddly enough, the one today was held back even though it was the same black female lab that has met us a few times now, including once in the owner's presence).  However, apart from the thrill of running the Triplet, and the more usual general decline during a run, there usually isn't a whole lot of change or novelty. 

So when I heard a new bird call this morning, I was piqued.  There are mockingbirds here and I have been fooled by them before, but I've noticed a certain artificiality in their performances--I can't describe it except that it sounds like a bird imitating another bird, or sometimes a bunch of different other birds in quick succession.  It's sort of akin to a man singing falsetto, I suppose. 

The call this morning, however, seemed more genuine.  I  have very poor depth perception, if any at all (thank you, childhood lazy eye--but hey, drawing is easier, I just pick an eye, and 2D movies and TV are just as good as real life), and so picking out a bird in a forest is usually an aggravating and futile task unless it's moving a lot or there's a forced perspective cue to aid me. 

Fortunately, it's pretty hard to miss one of these: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-headed_woodpecker/id

I've been hoping to see one for a while!  I'm an lazy selective birdwatcher: either snazzy birds (plumage or vocal-wise) or birds that come into my backyard and do amusing things like squabble. 

Seeing the red-headed woodpecker was a big thrill, and I walked on feeling almost complete satisfaction with everything, which is pretty rare.

A few minutes later, a bout of human and canine screaming erupted.  Not from us!  Something was happening deeper into the forest, or perhaps on the hunting farm behind it--I couldn't tell how many humans or dogs were involved, but the sound kicked up suddenly, lasted about half a minute, and then there was a gap until it happened again.  The dogs (or dog?) wasn't yelping or barking, it was a more desperate sound, and the people sounded panicked too.  I couldn't distinguish any words.  And I couldn't tell how far away they were except that they weren't really close.  I'd estimate about a mile away.

My first thought was of feral dogs.  With all the loose dogs about here, and the possibility that some are further neglected if not mistreated, it's not a huge stretch to imagine a few of them deciding to start a club and hit the burg.  So, maybe a pack of dogs set upon someone walking their pet...I started to look for a large stick.   And I started to feel angry.

Usually, I try to hold my vexation in and be nice, and all, but if I'm in a place where there might be something going down, it feels more comfortable to feel more tough.  I breathe deeply, stoke up the heat in my core (not my head, I still want to be calm), and probably the bitchface goes on too.

And then I saw a pale animal dart by, but not closely.  Usually pale means a deer, more specifically, a deer butt or tail, but the little I saw of this creature suggested a pale torso, paler than a deer, and smaller than a deer.  But it could have been the light.  It could have been my stereoblindness.  However, the thing did not run like a deer at all.  No bounding.  It ran like a dog. 

I haven't mentioned this before, but there have been a few times where my dog has stopped to stare and whine at something that I just couldn't see.  Once in particular he was very insistent, and it was hard to get him to move on, and he is not like that, even with deer and foxes and other exciting wild animals.

Now we know what it is!  Ghost dog!  We'll see if we'll meet it again.  It's not worth worrying about, but of course it'll add at least a little frisson to our runs. 

And walks...yeah, we're both taking it easy today.  I haven't done the daily double yet, either.

10+ hours of sleep, and no juice to show for it

This morning, 60ish minute jog/walk/mostly walk in the forest with the dog.  He's outta steam even more than me.

Then arm weights and most of the daily double.  Contrary to my usual laziness, I gave up during the situps and not the pushups.  I had drunk too much and the sloshing was starting to push upwards.

And then 6+ miles biking to pick up our co-op produce.  I had my derailleurs tuned, but they're still giving me grief.  They threw the chain.   My shifting is occasionally not as anticipatory as it could be, mainly because I am always always shifting, but I never had problems with the gears on my old bike.  Not once, and I've had it for almost seven years.  And it took about a decade and a couple of winters for my bike before that to crap out its gears: spectacularly on the wrong end of a long out-and-back, necessitating a bungee cord and a 40 km ride home on essentially a fixie.  Anyway, this new bike has already been a few years' worth of problems, and I've even given up my usual cowboy mount/dismount to give the thing a break.  But otherwise I really like it.  So I guess I'll sit down for a few hours and sort it out myself.  Maybe a screw is stripped or a collar is loose.

At any rate, I'm feeling tapped out.   I'm still healing, and my appetite is gone again--when I feel hungry, I actually think hungry, in a more theoretical sense.  Oh, I probably require some nourishment now.   I'm down about five pounds from last week.  Fortunately, we got lots of supplements, and so I'm taking more until this issue sorts itself out.  And a kale omelet and Brazilian cheesy puffs should tempt my appetite tonight.  But maybe I'm bored of my own cooking?

My dog's last tempo run

Possibly.  Perhaps it was too early for him.  Perhaps he didn't like leaving my husband behind.  Perhaps his nails have gotten a bit too long.  And tempo runs aren't his favourite.  He's much better with slower and longer runs, or shorter and faster intervals.  The middle ground is uncomfortable for both of us, but especially him.  Four legs dictate more defined quanta of pace, and there is a range that's fast to trot and too slow to canter comfortably.

However, he is nearly eight and a relatively large dog, and the inevitable might be starting to happen.  I've been keeping him at a healthy weight and giving him glucosamine and massages, as well as fresh vegetables, soup bones, eggs, and so forth to augment performance dog food, and I'd thought that we'd have at least another year or two before issues arose.

Maybe it was just an off-day for him, but he wasn't a happy camper during last week's tempo run either, and today was worse.  He was an anchor.  At times, my leash arm and shoulder were pulled back, making already uncomfortable moments especially so.  Mostly he stayed a few paces behind me, instead of beside me.  He hauled me back on downhills.  The only time he rejoined my side was during the second large hill.  I was already burnt before I got to it, and I felt new aches in my quads. I pushed past the usual level of lactic acid, just one more mailbox, just one more mailbox; the thought of stopping and then having to restart was repugnant enough to force me on, and discomfort turned to burning and then into a more acute pain as though my muscles were being stripped from bone.  And then they became exhausted and useless, my pace plummeted, and the dog caught up with me. 

Perhaps convincing my husband to join us the next time will put more of a ping into the dog's pace.  Otherwise, he's staying at home for this particular run next time, and he'll get a nail trimming and a soup bone later today.

Pace-wise, I think it was a bit slower than last week.  4.75 miles in about 42 minutes.  8:50/mile.  Slow for a tempo runs, but it's nearly twice as long as my past tempo runs, plus I'm getting back into them, and those hills!  And raw guts don't help, although they're already much better than they were yesterday.

And then I did leg exercises and weights, and the daily double.  Being lazy about taking plates off between the deadlifts and squats was not optimal.  I'm really tired now.