Aching backs, sickness and botched blood boondoggles!

   When last we spoke, I think I had just finished telling you about my wonky back from working on the back yard and generally how my aging body seemed intent on placing obstacles in my running path.

Couldn't finish the run but
enjoyed the scenery along the way!

   Well that was then and this is now and for the last two weeks my body has presented me with both the pre-amble to and the after effects of a miserable head cold.
   I've had enough head colds in my life that I can pretty well tell you the chronology of them as they take me on their journey. This one has taken me down the same scratchy-throat, watery-nose, clogged-sinuses, and hacking-cough road pretty well every other cold has forced me to travel on. This one did seem to be one of the worst, though.
   Through it all, I have tried to run twice. Each time, I was able to make it to about the three and a half kilometer mark before my lungs forced me to stop. The legs felt okay but it was impossible to take in a deep breath without gagging on whatever it was that was rattling around in my chest.

More of that scenery!

   The second time I tried to run was the same day I was scheduled to make a blood donation. From previous experience, I've learned that you don't try and run after a blood donation. Just doesn't work! So I made sure to get the run in a little earlier in the day. The donation itself was kind of strange. The person doing it had all the earmarks of a first-timer---seemed distracted and nervous, fumbling with equipment, couldn't find a vein, after the needle was already in had to adjust it and then, to top it all off, something got stuck in the needle and they weren't able to even complete the donation! Then, afterwards, I'm sitting in the little refreshment area and a fellow donator finishes her donation and comes and sits down. She's barely in her chair when all of the sudden I hear her say "oh oh", I look over and blood is just gushing out if her arm and all over the floor! Staff end up running around all over the place, staunching the flow and cleaning up. Very bleachy there for awhile! I really wanted to thank her on the way out for the awesome show! All in all, a strange trip to the clinic!

Remnants of my botched donation...

   And this all came as I was finally starting to follow a 10K training plan.
   After stating this as one of my goals for the year I have actually signed up (and paid for!) a 10K race later in the summer. This has led me to seek out a 10K training plan and I finally found one of Hal Higdon's novice 8-week training plans on the internet. Almost immediately as I began it, I got sick! Today I am two weeks removed from the initial signs of the cold coming on and I still have not been involved with  running or any of the other training components of the plan which include stretching, weight training and cross training. Obviously, I may need to slightly revise the 8-week plan!
   I already know that I can run 10K as I've done it a couple of times this spring. Both times, though, I did them in about 1:18. If I do this race at that speed, I'll still be out on the course as they're handing out the awards! So a little distance-specific training is in order!
   Nor has the weather been particularly accommodating for getting out there and hitting the pavement---LOTS of rain and wind in these parts!
   Today, Victoria Day, however, is looking and feeling like a much better day to run so I really need to get out there at some point. The lungs still don't feel a hundred per cent but hopefully I'll be able to get a full 5K in this time around. And if there is anything still nestled down there inside that chest cavity that shouldn't be there then maybe a brisk little run will take care of that for me! Wish me luck!
     

Catching Up

   So have you ever started reading a blog post and the writer of the post starts off by saying something like "I'M BACK!!" because it'd been awhile since he or she had posted anything? And did you ever feel slightly guilty because you never noticed they'd gone anywhere.....?
   Well....I'M BACK!!
   I know, you're thinking to yourself didn't he just post something yesterday?
   And the answer to that is yes I did (thank you again, Lori Benetau) but it was one of those posts that kind of dropped into my lap right out of the blue and thank God it did because I've had zilch to write about for the last two weeks or so. Almost no running whatsoever.
   The last post I wrote in anger was to moan and whine about my leg and pain issues. I believe I also stated I was off to see my chiropractor, Zeinin, in the hopes that she might be able to offer some relief.
   I did manage to get in to see her the day after that post. She did the usual adjustment and then began paying more attention to my right upper hip/groin area.
   She very quickly found the source of the pain and kneaded the area mercilessly. To maintain some balance, she also did the same on the left side but it was her work on the right side which had me squirming just a touch. It was one of those "hurts so good" types of situations.
   Afterwards, I did feel better. Not a hundred per cent but better, which was what I was hoping. Zeinin also showed me a lunge stretch which she recommended for the groin area. This stretch has now become part of the pre-run routine.


Heading off, into the woods.

   I kind of laid low for the rest of that week but by the weekend I was feeling quite a bit better and had the urge to run so I headed out, with no real plan.
   It had been awhile since I had hit the local trails so that's where I headed. It was still pretty damp in Warbler Woods but still quite a bit better than the last time I'd been in there so no need to change my usual course.
   I ended up doing 5K with a combination of trail and street running and walked about a quarter of it. No regrets around walking in the slightest---it just felt good to be out there, propelling myself forward!

Leaves, suspended over the trail.

   It was great running through the woods again! It's always different this early in the spring, the new leaves haven't popped out yet and you can see much deeper into the forest than normal, which is kinda cool. Unless you're being chased by the cops, or somethin'.

Where I had been...

   I did have to dart by two or three people walking in the woods but, for the most part, had them to myself. I did run into a little mud but it was pretty easily side-stepped. I was wearing my older Nikes and was not nearly as worried about the mud as I would have been if I'd been wearing the new Asics!


...and where I was headed.

   After the woods, it was out onto the city sidewalks in my neighbourhood. As always this time of year, it was so refreshing to run past all the homeowners who were out getting their yards prepped for summer. That was SUCH a long winter!
   The rest of the run was pretty uneventful and, afterwards, there was very little of the groin pain I'd been experiencing. That was LAST weekend on the Saturday and the next day was bright and warm and sunny here in London so I decided to get some yard work done.
   We have issues with our backyard. A few years ago we decided to "de-construct" the two lower tiers. Our backyard slopes away from the house in three separate tiers and the two lower tiers were landscaped when we bought the house in '08 but then we decided we wanted to do something different so we took out all the bushes and railway ties. Unfortunately, our plans to "re-construct" it have consistently met with roadblocks, mainly financial ones.
   This summer, however, I am bound and determined to do something about that situation! So I took advantage of the beautiful weather to get out there and clear out some of the underbrush, rake up all the pine needles (a couple of towering pines at the back of our yard), and trim some branches.
  

Back yard on the right...

I ended up with about fifteen bags of yard waste to set out by the curb. Because most of the greenery was still somewhat damp, the bags weighed appreciably more than they might have otherwise. Not only that, they then needed to be carried up the three tiers and out to curb.
   At the time, I knew I was tired but no big deal. The next day, however, the full effects of my three hours of yardwork the previous day hit home! Oh my aching back!

...and back yard on the left.

   That was the Sunday and I have Mondays off so it had been my plan to do a combination of maybe running, yardwork and golf. Nix to that! I ended up spending my afternoon filing, of all things!
   So, once again, no running for the rest of that week. I am able to say, though, that this weekend I was able to get out on the Saturday for a 5K run. I ran it as my version of an SSD (short slow distance) run but this was fine with me. Doing it this way enabled me to run the whole way without stopping and it had been ages since I'd been able to say that about a run!
   So that's what I've been up to the last couple of weeks and pretty well why I haven't been blogging much. Just not much to blog about as this aging body has, once again, played some nasty little tricks on me! Gonna fire it!

   
  
  

The Liebster Award!

   Many thanks to Lori at Journey to Fit & Healthy who recently nominated me for a Liebster Award! I've seen the Liebster Award pop up on the odd page I follow and I always thought it'd be kinda cool to receive one of my own so...many thanks again to Lori! She's also a blogger I consider to be a homey of mine so drop by her blog and take a boo!
    The general idea behind the Liebster Award is to recognize other blogs and bloggers of note and possibly introduce them to new readers. Kind of a fun way of "spreading the love"!
   So here are the rules:

1. You need to link back to the person who nominated you
2. You need to answer the questions they gave you
3. You then get to pick 10 of your favourite bloggers
4. And nominate them for a Liebster! Plus notify them and have them answer ten questions YOU made up!

   Easy enough?? Here are my answers to the ten questions Lori gave us.

1. Why did you start blogging?
     I've pretty well always had this desire to write. A friend of mine started up a very shortlived blog three or four years ago and I thought, "Well...if he can do it..." At that point, I started a blog called "Neanderings", which was and is simply a hodge-podge of random topics. I was in the middle of all that when I got interested in running. Running then became one of the things I found myself blogging about. At that point, I wondered if maybe I could devote a whole blog of its own to running and "Strides" was born!

2. Do you have any "furbabies"? If you do, tell us a little about them.
   Furbabies? Do we EVER! We have four cats--Squeaker, Puffer, Luna and Yoda. We are pretty well constantly surrounded by them and can't imagine life without them. They're constantly underfoot, they tell us when to go to bed and they seem to want to assist with the blogging process, as well. Yoda and Luna are the two "babies" and are still constantly wrestling, chasing, hugging and snuggling with each other. Puffer's the one the other cats don't fool with and Squeaker's my main squeeze (after Doralyn!)

3. Who do you admire the most, and why?
   Tough one! Out of all the people I admire the most, I'd pretty well have to pick Leonard Cohen. He writes, he's musical, he's eclectic, he has a Bohemian air about him, he's both ageless and timeless AND he gets women!

4. What is a habit that you had that you are most proud of breaking?
   Another hard one! I seem to wrestle with a lot of little bad habits that some days I conquer and, other days, I don't. I suspect this is the same for a lot of us. I've never smoked or done drugs or gambled or any of the biggies but I do procrastinate like hell! In retrospect, the closest thing to a bad habit I'm proud of breaking was my habit of not running!

5. What is your favourite holiday?
   Probably Thanksgiving. Still about the family but not so much about the presents.

6. What would be your dream job?
   Living in a little log cabin, writing novels.

7. What is the first website you check when you turn on your phone/computer?
   Usually right straight to Hotmail, then Facebook. Then I check blog stats. Lately have been spending a lot more time on Twitter.

8. What did you study in university/college? Would you do something different if you could go back?
   Right out of high school, I wasted a whole year's worth of tuition attending Western University. I really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and was just taking general arts courses. I was not only directionless but my mother passed away in the Spring of that school year and I never even bothered to write exams. As an adult, I attended college and took Developmental Service Worker courses and that's the field I've been in for over thirty years. If I had a "do-over", I might have concentrated on literature and writing. To go along with the log cabin...

9. Who is your biggest celebrity crush?
   lol The last time I had an all-consuming celebrity crush was back in the sixties and the object of my affection was Diana Rigg (Emma Peel on "The Avengers"). The closest you get to that these days might be Jennifer Aniston, she just seems to be the epitome of looking better the older you get!

10. If you could do a workout/run with anyone, who would you choose?
   There are a handful of running bloggers I would LOVE to sit down and have coffee with! As far as sharing a run or a workout, I would have to pick Solana Klassen and Nikki Scott (who quite often run together, so that would kill two birds with one stone) as the people I'd likely have the most fun running with. They are a couple of west coast bloggers who were featured in a video a friend of theirs produced not long ago of a group running through the mountain trails in North Vancouver. Everyone on the run just seemed to be having so much sheer joy that it was infectious and hard not to want to be a part of that sometime! That and I have a bit of a "west coast" thing.

   Okay, THAT was fun!
   Now, here are the ten bloggers and their blogs I would like to nominate. I think the idea was to nominate a "small" blog but I have absolutely no idea what a "small" blog is so I am simply going with my faves! So if I nominated you and you thought you were a "big" blog, please don't be offended, I nominated you because I LIKE you! Here we go! (these are in no particular order, believe me and there's WAY more than ten blogs I really like---I suspect somewhere down the road you'll ALL get a turn---whether you want it or not!)

1. Erin @ Running Tall
2. Suzan @ Welcome To The Nuthouse
3. Nikki @ Slow is the New Fast
4. Solana @ Beast Mode On The Run
5. Mike, Michelle and Rhoda @ 3 Cheap Runners
6. Flower @ Up and Humming
7. Stephani @ Running Away From Trouble
8. Krysten @ The Misadventures of a Darwinian Fail
9. Tina @ Fabulosi-T
10. Crystal @ Running With Rhyno

   Oh crap...there ARE way more but apparently I am limited to ten, so there you go!
   Okay, running bloggers, here are your ten questions:

1. Tim's or Starbucks?
2. What's your favourite distance, and why?
3. How many hours a week do you blog?
4. How supportive of your running is your significant other?
5. Run in the rain? Or the treadmill instead?
6. Does your job provide "training" benefits or incentives?
7. Any notable difference between male bloggers and female ones? It just occurred to me I only nominated females....
8. Love numbers or hate numbers? (I hate 'em!)
9. Consider your OWN celebrity crush. Go for drinks with them or go for a run with them?
10. If you had to give up one or the other, would it be blogging or running?

   Well, there you go! Congratulations and I hope you have fun and that you have the time and energy to take part! In any case, thank you all for the enjoyment you've given me in following your running (and "life") adventures. Cheers!