Medical Monday And Something I Wasn't Quite Expecting

   In my last Medical Monday post I briefly made mention of a blood donation I'd tried to make which never came off because I had had a punch biopsy the previous week and hadn't received the results yet. Even more briefly, if you recall, I made the fly-away comment that I hoped the results of the biopsy didn't lead to a bunch more Medical Monday posts. Well, I might have jinxed myself.
   This past Tuesday, my dermatologist's office contacted me with the results. There is a spot on my left temple which has been diagnosed as a squamous cell carcinoma---skin cancer.
   I wasn't quite expecting this. My dermatologist has been treating me for the last few years for any spots on my head and face which appear to be pre-cancerous. On a pretty yearly basis, I undergo applications of Efudex, a chemotherapy cream, which identifies these spots and essentially burns them away. It's kinda like giving yourself a good sunburn! This has all become so routine that I'd really stopped giving it a lot of thought---the pre-cancerous spots were becoming fewer and farther between and less of a concern.
   There has been this new spot, however, which I initially thought was the remnants of a pimple so I just scraped it off, it bled a little and then scabbed over. The scab never fell off on its own, however, and so I would scrape it off again. Another scab formed and this became an ongoing routine.
   The week before last, I attended my usual scheduled dermatologist appointment and we agreed that all the usual spots looked good. I then told her about this one particular spot which never seemed to heal. She examined it and then decided to do the biopsy. Which then led to this week's diagnosis.
   There are three basic types of skin cancer (not that I'm an expert but I do know how to google) and they are basal cell, squamous cell and melanoma. Basal cell cancer is the least worrisome or problematic. Melanoma is the worst. Squamous cell lies in the middle and just the fact that it's in the middle and not at the bottom tends to give you pause.
   The little bit of research I've done also indicates that, caught early enough, squamous cell cancer is extremely curable. Good news! All I need to find out now is what "early enough" means! The little spot on my temple is a pretty recent development, however, so I have as good a feeling as I can at this point.
   The treatment is pretty simple---cut out as much of it as you can until you can't find anymore cancerous cells. Easy peasy. I am hoping this does not leave a large hole (definitely nothing you can see through to the other side), heals quickly and then I just get on with things (only perhaps a little more vigilantly!)
   The surgeon who will be doing this has a pretty impressive resumé and can also do reconstructive work along with curing snoring. I will simply ask him to make me handsome at the same time as he's curing both my cancer and my snoring. It'll be a win-win-win for my wife!!
   All of this, of course, is a cautionary tale about the dangers of too much sun. As an adult, I think I've paid pretty good attention to keeping the sun off my susceptible parts. Broad-rimmed hats, tons of sunscreen, regular check-ups, etc. The killer (oops!) in this case may be all the sun damage I got as a kid. Lots of burns and several blistering ones. I used to love pealing the dead skin off my ears and arms, not even remotely thinking about what this might mean as a grown man.
   So there you have it---a different kind of Medical Monday. My knee is just about back to where it once was and one of these days I will be running through the forests again and you'll see scenery instead of medical reports. Yes! 

I Ran TWICE As Far!

   I had a little free time yesterday afternoon so I thought I would head over to the nearest trail and see if a little running was in order. 

   
 I more or less did the exact same thing as I did last week and headed over to Kains Woods via Warbler Woods. My goal was to try and add a little extra mileage this week as the last time out I had run a paltry one kilometer. To be fair, I am really experimenting with my right knee these days and any sort of mileage is just a bonus right at the moment. In light of this, I actually doubled the kilometers this week and aimed to do two, yes, a whole two kilometers!

   I hiked briskly through Warbler then got back out on the streets til I got to Kains. Once I got to the three K mark I started a slow run.
   The one difference between this outing and the last was that I didn't feel any real pain in the knee right at the beginning and didn't have to make up my mind as to whether this was actually a good idea or not. Not only that but when I hit the 1K mark and then ran through it I didn't have the feeling that I was in dangerous territory---in fact I felt like I could have run a lot farther! Right from the get-go, the knee felt strong and good. At the end of the running portion, I found a log to sit on and munched a couple of granola bars I'd brought along. Very briefly, the knee protested when I stood up and started to walk again but after a few feet the pain disappeared.
   Today, I can tell that I was out running yesterday. It's a kind of discomfort that I'm actually appreciating because it's the old discomfort, the aches and pains of a body that worked hard as opposed to a body that's broken! And that's good!

On The Trails Again And Some Actual RUNNING!

   This was supposed to have been the summer I really got into trail-running. I got a bit of a taste of it at the end of last summer and vowed that I would get into it full-time come this summer.
   I actually ran trails most of the winter long (it was a reasonably mild winter here in London) and felt that I was well on my way to enjoying an awesome Spring and Summer. 
   Unfortunately, these plans got a little de-railed back in May. Wanting to see what marvelous benefits my winter training had wrought, I attempted to go run the streets in my neighbourhood. My knee popped on me about four houses down and that was it for running. My doctor told me that walking would be okay, so that's what I did. Started easy and then got into it with a vengeance and ended up hiking about 110 kilometers worth of the Thames Valley Trail in the month of July.

Warbler

   I also spent a great deal of time  on my knees in the  backyard, laying stepping stones and border rock. What with all the hiking and kneeling, my right knee never truly had a good chance to recover.
   Lately, though, I've managed to take a break from all this and my knee ended up feeling much better. So much so, in fact, that I actually decided to try and go for a short trail run this past Thursday.
   My plan was to hike through nearby Warbler Woods and then on to Kains Woods, which are more or less adjacent to each other. Once in Kains, the plan was then to run for at least a kilometer and see how I felt.
   Well, I started to run and it did not feel good. Had a fair amount of pain in the knee and after about a hundred meters I shut it down. In my head, I began this list of all the medical stuff the knee was going to require and especially began entertaining concerns that I was now dealing with something chronic, as opposed to temporary.
   And then I remembered almost every other time I had ever gone running, especially after a layoff. My knees always hurt. And even though they always hurt, I persevere until gradually things loosen up, parts fall into place and I end up running just fine, thank you. It occurred to me then that this might be what was happening. I decided to give it another shot and, sure enough, after a little bit the knee came around and ended up being quite workable. I ended up running for the allotted kilometer and then returned to walking briskly. I had set my Garmin when I walked out the door and as soon as it hit 5K I turned around and headed back the same way I came.
   

The entrance to Kains Woods. Took my
trekking poles for the hilly, hiking parts.
While I was running, I pretended they
were spears.....*giggle*

The right knee seemed fine at the time but I knew that the telling part would come the next day. On Friday, however, the knee continued to feel good (well, as much as a 64-year-old knee can) and I had no issues with bending, kneeling or using stairs. Woo hoo! 
   So now the plan is simply to do this a little more often and up the running portion of it by small increments. I also still have the option of seeing a PT for the knee, as I do have a referral, if at some point it flares up again. Perhaps a little hard work mixed with
optimistic caution will get me trail-running next summer! We shall see!

Pain!

   Yesterday, I ran the trails in  nearby Kains Woods. Ever since I got interested in trail running in the area, I'd been hearing about Kains Woods and thought I would finally give it a try.
   It was a great day for a run with the temps being a little more fall-like than they have been for the last month or so.
   The plan was to run 10k as this is the mileage target I've been aiming at for the last few trail runs. I was just approaching the 5K mark when I started to feel a little tension on the inside of my left thigh. This area has been giving me a little grief over the last couple of months and has been the target of some pretty horrible cramping. When I felt the tension begin, I immediately stopped and did a little flexing, in an attempt to gauge the severity of what I was dealing with. It seemed as though if I ran on more or less level ground, it didn't bother me. If I needed to extend my left leg in a different direction to hit a rock or log in a certain way then that's when I felt it. Eventually I found that the leg felt better if I actually ran a little faster, so this is what I did.
   By the end of the run, however, both of my legs were starting to feel it and I ended up with this very uncoordinated feeling down there---that I would try to get them to move in one direction but then they'd go off on their own little tangent. At the end of the trail, there is some rather steep, rocky and root-infested terrain and having wonky legs made it quite problematic in traversing it. I basically walked the final kilometer. I was then faced with the long walk home, knowing things were just not right.
   Once I got home, it felt good to sit down, but at the same time I tried to get up and move around a little so that things didn't seize up too much. I had been doing this pretty successfully but then made the mistake of taking things a little too for granted.

Yeah, it was right in there somewhere...

   I stood up from the couch and, instead of making sure i was perfectly aligned, I had my right leg slightly extended. As my body lifted off the couch, that leg went into full-blown cramp mode. The pain was excruciating and many curse words were said. I could neither stand all the way up, move, or sit back down again. I had Doralyn fetch me an ice pack and a tall chair so that I could at least take part of my body weight off my legs. The pain seemed to begin on the inside of the knee, up the whole inside of that thigh and then taper out across the top of the thigh.
   It took about 5 minutes to eventually settle down. I walked around for a bit and then eventually sat back down on the couch. I was able to get back up and down a couple of more times but then the same thing happened, lasting another 5 minutes.
   At that point, no more couch for me! I set up the laptop beside a tall chair so that I would be fairly close to standing position as I wrote.
   In bed, things continued to be difficult. I could not move my legs enough to re-position the covers without the fear of a cramp taking over. Today, I am not cramping but my legs feel like they've been through the wringer and definitely feel as though one wrong move would paralyze me again.
   I've spent a fair amount of time researching sports cramps, as a result of the past month and a half or so. What I've found is that there's no real consensus as to what causes cramps. The thought used to be that de-hydration and loss of electrolytes were the main culprits. Recent research has put doubt on whether this is true or not. There is also not a lot of consensus as to how to treat them and/or prevent them. After all the research, it seems that the most likely cause may simply be overdoing it. Muscles get used to contracting and relaxing according to the regular amount of work they're given---if you give them more work than they're used to, they go all postal on you.
   I have certainly been "overdoing it", by my standards! I've gone from running 5K on pavement maybe every week and a half to running 10K through forests (in extremely hot temperatures, I might add) once a week. What's more, for some reason, I seem to be ignoring little warning signs my body's been giving me as I've been doing this.
   Okay, so I think I need to ratchet things down a little! No more 10K's for a bit and just work my way up gradually, possibly running shorter distances a little more often. We'll see how it goes but, right at the moment, I'm just gonna try and get up off the couch one more time!

Longest Run Ever? And Hydration Issues!

   Okay, so yesterday I made sure the Garmin was properly charged and headed off yet again to Komoka Provincial Park. On my last run there I'd had a specific mileage goal but the Garmin crapped out on me mid-run, so I was not quite sure what my mileage was that day.

Every fifty feet or so, you could
take a pic like this!

   It's September now and, right on cue, the weather has turned a little cooler and a lot of the crushing humidity has disappeared. It was still a warm 24C when I set out but it was a much nicer run than any of them lately.
   Had to pay a little extra to park as I was planning on being out for about three hours this time around and you have to pay for either 2 hours or 4 hours, so, $7.50 later, I was on my way! (exorbitant, I know...)
   I was determined to explore a couple of new trails when I came across them and so I did. The main trail at Komoka is the White one and you can see most of the things you might want to by sticking on it. There is also the Blue trail and I set off on it when I found it. After being on it only a short time, I then came across the Orange trail branching off of it and decided that I would see where it took me. It was a fairly short little trail and all it did was take me back to a part of the Blue trail I'd already been on so I filed this away for future reference.
   

The old parking lot. Kinda sad but
some great memories!

The Blue trail ended up taking me back to the old parking lot we used to use before they implemented the new pay system. I don't really miss it as it was a mess of potholes. Yesterday, it just looked a little sad. I then headed back until the Blue hooked up again with the White and I just stayed on that for the rest of the afternoon. My goal was to exceed 5K on this run and I did that fairly early. My next goal was to make it to The Steps. The Steps consist of a winding set of wooden landings which take you down to the Thames River, enabling you to run more or less along the river for a ways. There are 60 steps in all (I counted) and they make for kind of a refreshing change in your run or hike. Depending on  where you are in your run or hike, they can also be a little daunting. I've been up and down them several times and had promised myself that one of these days I would run up them, thinking this would be way off in the future. Yesterday, though, I decided to run up them, likely because I knew I was near the end of the running portion of my afternoon and would be able to recover afterwards.

Cool tree just off the Blue trail. Has
obviously been a meeting area. as it
is covered with carved messages.

   Well, I didn't exactly bound up the steps but I did manage to get up them, running. I briefly thought I would need to just walk the last flight but knowing this would take away from the accomplishment I forced myself to finish the thing off. Thank Buddha there was a bench at the top or I likely would have fallen in a heap! I'm kind of glad that there were no other people around at the time or likely the paramedics would have been called....
   The last time out, I'd gotten a little hungry so this time I brought along a sandwich to eat, my plan being to eat it at the top of The Steps. At the top of The Steps, however, I felt more like puking than eating so left the sandwich tucked away.
   At this point, the Garmin told me I was just shy of 8K so when I got back down the steps I started running again until I hit 8K and then I just hiked the rest of the way back, as had been my plan. 

One of those messages

   The park was busy, it being the weekend and all and I saw even more people than usual. They come in all shapes and sizes--- young couples, families with kids (some with babies in slings), people with dogs, older men with full backpacks, and the occasional runner. There is a rule in the park about dogs being on leashes and, unfortunately, this gets ignored a little too often. It is a little disconcerting to be running around a corner in the forest, only to come face-to-face with a couple of unleashed, large dogs who are strangers to you. Their owners are never far away but this doesn't alleviate the mini-tension which sets in. I always stop dead in my tracks when I see dogs, even the ones on leashes, until they pass. I was running in my neighbourhood once when I passed a couple with their dogs on leashes and thinking I was safe, did not give them enough leeway. In his excitement, one of the dogs suddenly leapt up on me, tearing a hole in my shirt and breaking skin. So I am extra wary of dogs! Most people with dogs in the park, though, have them on leashes and go out of their way to restrain them as runners or other hikers pass. One of the couples (with an unleashed dog) actually had a GoPro attached to its collar. They say it makes for a pretty interesting video and I must say I'd be interested to see the trails from a dog's perspective!

A creek beneath a bridge. I was VERY
thirsty at this point and the water was
SO clear and cold-looking....

   Okay, at this point, a little about my hydration fails. Until recently, in my 5K runs around the neighbourhood, I've been able to get away with a using a Fuel Belt 7 oz. arm band bottle. Unfortunately, this doesn't cut it for being out in the trails for three hours. I hate carrying anything when I run, so what I've been doing lately is bringing extra water in the car and then returning to the parking lot to refill the arm bottle. This is almost never convenient. I also find that I start to get hungry when I'm out so now there's a need to carry extra stuff with me. At this point, it seems almost inevitable that a hydration vest is in order, just which one? And can I afford it? Hmm...

A memorial bench, for a couple of
obviously well-thought-of hikers!

   Possibly coupled with my hydration fails, I actually started to cramp up yesterday, during the walking portion. At one point, I was walking up a steep, root-infested hill and realized that my right foot was not always going exactly where I was aiming it. Upon investigation, it seemed as though the muscles in that leg were not contracting properly. I was also getting the odd little twinge and I knew that I was borderline full-on cramping so I adjusted myself accordingly and became more mindful. At that point I was nearing 10k altogether and 8K of that had been running through a hilly forest. This is way more than I've done lately and not far off as much as I have ever done. And, if you factor in the terrain, it was possibly my longest run of all time so maybe a little cramping was in order! 

Once again, The Steps. They always
seem to make a good pic. I had just
run up them and had to sit for a while
before even being able to take the pic...

   Later that evening, after much re-hydration, a full-on cramp in my left inner thigh did take hold and I was in a fair bit of agony for about 5 minutes, til it settled. Lots of expletives, you should have been there! Unfortunately, there is a fair amount of contradicting info on the internet as to what actually causes cramps and what some preventative courses might be. My best guess is that yesterday it was a perfect storm of hydration issues and plain overdoing it. Will try and be a little wiser next time!

What I've Been Up To!

   Okay, my stats are WAY, way down and my blog is rife with referrer spam so I guess this means I haven't been posting regularly...??
   Well, I haven't been posting because I haven't been running. And I haven't been running because...well...I've been running. My ass off, to be more specific!
   I finally managed to land myself on a ball hockey team for the first time in the last two and a half years. This means I've been spending the last two weeks chasing twenty- and thirty-somethings (did I mention that I'm sixty-two?) around a rink, twisting and turning, stopping and starting, diving, kneeling, blocking shots and, generally, running into people. And my legs are paying for it!
   Before, when I wasn't playing, it was quite easy to schedule my running and run as much as I wanted, when I wanted. Not so anymore. 

Yes, I play for the Outlaws. Cuz I'm badass.

   Right at the moment, I am on someone else's schedule and I run whenever I have to, not whenever I want to. This means that the kind of running I generally blog about has taken quite the hit, so much so that I can't even really remember the last time I did run any kind of distance.
   There have been days when I thought I maybe should have been out there on a run but my legs were so sore that I simply couldn't imagine doing so. And so I didn't. By the time maybe a couple of days had passed and my legs were feeling better then the next ball hockey game rolled around. So I didn't run. Again.
   I'm hoping and believing that eventually the running and the ball hockey will sort themselves out, once my body becomes more accustomed to the new routine. It would actually be interesting to try and compute just how many kilometers I might actually be running when I play ball hockey. Who knows, maybe I actually run farther!
   

My Non-Forrest Moment and a Strange Click in My Hip!

   Yesterday afternoon, I played my first game of ball hockey in about two and a half years. Because it's been so long, there was a fair amount of trepidation on my part as to how I would perform and how my body might react.
   I was pleasantly surprised!
   In my last blog post, I described my concern that, at full speed in the midst of a game, my body might disintegrate. I've been doing lots of running over the last couple of years but none of it has been at full speed and I was worried that parts of me might actually fall off, a la Forrest Gump's leg braces, if I ever actually got up to full speed.
   Well, there were a handful of times yesterday that I at least almost obtained full speed and nothing really bad happened, it pretty well felt like any other time in my life when I've run hard. My other concern was that perhaps my hand/eye coordination might be off as well but even it didn't seem too bad.

Well...it was to HIM anyway!

   I'm on a team called the Outlaws and it seems to be a whole bunch of guys who've never played together before. And they're almost all young, so young in fact that a few of them could technically be my grandchildren (though perhaps not realistically).
   This is not a new situation for me, I'm the oldest player in the league and pretty well always have been. You can look like and be the oldest player in the league but the trick is to not play like you are. I kind of think I held my own today, not sure what the other guys were thinking.
   So I felt okay yesterday and I felt okay last night but I'm kinda feeling it this morning. One thing I did learn yesterday is that a lot of distance running is not necessarily going to prepare you for the stopping and starting, twisting and turning, and bumping into guys at high speed you experience playing ball hockey.
   On top of it all, my hip now clicks.
   I got home and showered after the game and then sat and watched T.V. for a bit. The first time I stood up and walked across the room after that, my left hip was clicking. It didn't hurt and but I could feel it and it was loud enough that Doralyn could hear it as well (and it kind of grossed her out!)
I immediately went to Google, typed in my symptoms, and it appears as though my IT band is snapping across my hip bone, to dumb it down a little bit. At least the description of this exactly matched what I've been feeling and hearing. I will let this go for a little bit (my usual way of dealing with physical ailments) but if it continues for too long I may seek medical advice, or at least check in with Zeinin, my chiropractor.
   This was obviously my first time playing with this team but I have pretty good feelings about it. The talent level seems to be there but what I appreciated even more than that was they seem like good guys. This is always more important to me than how much talent there might be. I've played on some extremely talented teams in my day that were awful to play on simply because of nasty personalities and over-inflated egos but, so far, this doesn't seem to be the case with this team. The next game is tomorrow and I hope things have loosened up by then---I can't imagine having to play again today! So we'll see how it goes and I'll let you know!
   

My Right Foot

   A little over three weeks ago, I went on a 12K run. This was part of my plan to gradually increase the length of my weekend long runs.
   Prior to that run, I had not had any issues with the gradual increase. After that run, however, my ankle hurt like hell. Occasionally.
   It didn't hurt to walk or stand, for the most part. Once in awhile, though, a slight weight shift on that foot would cause extreme pain, enough to almost make me fall over. The sensation was that the ankle was actually giving out on me. It gave out on me once as I was walking down a short flight of stairs and I basically fell down the last two steps. I have had people standing beside me and when I turned to talk to them my ankle gave out and I almost fell over them. I have startled people by yelping as we pass each other.
   The overall feeling was that I'd lost all elasticity in the foot and ankle and that I no longer had the same range of motion available to me.
   It could very well be that I simply overdid it while trying to increase the mileage. I generally wasn't running any farther than 5K during the week and then, on the weekends, I was more than doubling that and this might not have been the best approach. In retrospect, I might have been better off to also slightly increase the mileage during the week as well---nothing earth-shattering, just toss in a few 7 and 8k's now and then.

Blogging and heating my foot
on a Himalayan salt  de-toxifier! If
it works, I'll let you know!

   This past Saturday, exactly three weeks after that 12K run, I hit the road again. For the last few days the ankle has been feeling as normal as it ever does and I thought I should probably test the waters again.
   Initially, the discomfort I felt running was actually in my right knee. The knee has been taking a little extra abuse as I have been favouring the ankle so much for the last three weeks. It got to the point that when I was walking up steps, I would need to angle the ankle off to the right a little so that it was not taking all my weight straight on. This then put extra stress on my right knee. Hence the pain I was feeling at the beginning of my run.
   The knee pain only lasted until I got warmed up and then it disappeared. I really only wanted to test things so I limited my run to 3K. This seemed like an absurdly low mileage for a run but, as I mentioned, I just wanted to do a little wading. The rest of the run, thankfully, was business as usual.
   On Sunday, the ankle didn't feel too bad, going up and down stairs wasn't nearly as problematic as it had been and I was feeling quite relieved. Sunday night, however, I made the mistake at my brother-in-law's place of walking up the hill that is his driveway. I had the option of using steps but ended up taking the hilly route instead. I found this almost impossible. My right ankle would not allow me to roll up the incline in any kind of normal way. This was extremely disheartening, as I felt I'd been making progress up to that point.
   The following day, the ankle ached so much I couldn't even gently do a calf or ankle stretch. Today, it feels a little better.
   Now, every time I yelp, moan, groan or take the stairs on my hands and knees, my wife gives me the so when is your doctor's appointment kind of query or look. I can't really blame her and I am struggling mightily with the whole should I or shouldn't I thing, as far as medical help is concerned. My feeling is that rest will do the trick (because it generally does) and if I could just stay off it long enough it might fix itself. It's just that this is the worst my ankle has ever felt and there's no telling how long it might take to rest it sufficiently.
   To further my anxiety, the lack of running in the last three and a half weeks, coupled with all the extra holiday sweets and meals and I've put on approximately 15 pounds, if you can believe it. I really count on the running compounded with healthier eating to lose the weight I think I need to. Thank goodness the holiday eats are almost over!
   In the meantime, a little more rest is in order and I'll probably wait til the ankle's felt "normal" for a few extra days before giving it another go. And when I do give it another go, it may just be walking!
   

Die, You Retic!

   Okay, that was really bad. The title of this post, I mean.
   Because I have absolutely NO running lately to blog about and yet still have this weird desire to call myself a Canuck Running Blogger, I offer up this short little effort about a subject I don't think I've actually seen addressed anywhere in regards to running.
   I take a diuretic on a regular basis (okay, does the post title make sense now?) as a component of another medication I take regularly which helps keep my blood pressure in check. Chances are I'll be taking this med long-term and it's already been several years with no real detrimental side effects I've been able to ascertain.
   It does, however, affect my running.
   Because I am a man and men are (occasionally) stupid, it has happened that I've forgotten to take this particular med from time to time. It's also happened that I've run out of it and time has elapsed before I've acquired more.
   Two years ago, shortly after I'd begun participating in the Running Room Learn-to-Run classes, I was running along a sidestreet in downtown London with the other members of the class and found I could barely breathe. We'd travelled all of half a block and I had the very real fear that I wasn't going to be able to complete the run. I couldn't remember ever feeling quite this way!
   I recall one of the co-leaders of the group realizing I was having difficulties and pulling up along side of me to offer support and advice. Nothing much she had to offer, though, did any good. I finally was able to complete the run but just barely.
   I am fairly self-analytical when it comes to most things sports- and health-related and found myself scratching my head about it all the way back in the car.
   When I got home, it dawned on me.
   About four days earlier, I had run out of meds. I'd called and re-ordered them but then life happened and I never managed to get back in and pick up my prescription. Essentially, the lack of diuretic in my system had filled me up with fluid to the point where my lungs were acting at much less than capacity.
   I might not have made that connection, however, had it not been for my experience with my Dad several months earlier.
   I had received a call from his pharmacy saying that my Dad was there to pick up his meds and that he was having a very difficult time catching his breath. I immediately went to investigate and discovered that he basically was unable to take any more than about ten halting steps before needing to rest and let his breathing catch up. I managed to get him to the nearest emergency department and they immediately began testing and bloodwork. To make a long story somewhat shorter, they discovered he was suffering from congestive heart failure and that his system was no longer able to properly handle the fluids in it. They pumped him full of heavy-duty diuretics and he immediately felt better and could breathe much more easily. Ever since then, I've been much more aware of the fluid levels in my system.
   Once I got "caught up" with my diuretic, life returned to normal, I've not had the same probs anymore (which is not to say that haven't been out of breath while running) and I pay much more attention to taking my meds appropriately.
   Having said that, I did just miss two days of the diuretic again (I'm a man...) and although I didn't experience any breathing difficulties (when you don't actually run, breathing's pretty easy) what I did notice is that I gained a couple of unexplained pounds. I do a pretty good job of explaining away weight losses and gains given how much food and/or exercise I've had so when a couple of pounds appear mysteriously I can usually blame forgetting my meds.
   To be clear here, I am in no way a medical person and I do not endorse diuretics as part of a weight-loss strategy! So far from it! I did want to offer just a little bit of my own insight into a possibly running-related health issue I've never heard anyone else bring up anywhere, so that if perhaps you were already on some kind of health regimen involving a diuretic and a similar situation as what I described above occurred, you might be able to put the pieces together a little more quickly! (whew, breathing hard after a long run-on sentence now!)
   So in the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all and I've gotta go pee now....     

BodyFlow (or how my body fled)

   One of the benefits of recently joining Goodlife Fitness was the ability to take part in being orientated to the different fitness classes they run there.
   One of these classes is called BodyFlow.

Looks easy, doesn't it?

   BodyFlow is a one-hour class involving a combination of yoga, tai-chi and pilates. It is also karma's way of getting back at you for anything bad you may ever have done!
   Before attending my first BodyFlow class, my initial few visits to the gym consisted of getting together with a trainer and having him put me through my paces on all the machines they had there. The man worked me hard, made muscles hurt in places I didn't know contained actual muscle and, generally, wore me out.
   The sweet little, white-haired, smooth and soothe-talking lady who ran the first BodyFlow class I attended, however, kicked my ass from here to there and back again!
   There were about 25 to 30 of us who took this class and out of that many, Doralyn and I and one other lady were the only "newbies". We were surrounded mainly by lithe-bodied young(er) females, all of whom knew the poses and routines and were able to follow them flawlessly. Doralyn is pretty flexible and kind of in to the whole yoga thing and she didn't have a problem. I, however, was totally lost.
   It would take me an extra twenty seconds to force myself into an approximation of the position the rest of the class went into effortlessly. Then, having finally achieved this, I would take a quick peek at the instructor only to find out she and the class had already moved on to the next position. People were flipping from one position to another without seeming to elevate from the mat while I often had to stand all the way up, turn around and force myself back down again. Real horror show.

I could do this.

   There was one other guy there who looked like he might be in his forties and he wasn't having the easiest of times either. At one point the both of us found ourselves in a standing (while everyone else was on their mat) position at the same time. I kind of looked around, saw him, and all of the sudden had this hey bud, wanna go somewhere for a beer? thought wander through my head. Sadly, though, my telepathic powers seem to be lacking when I need them the most.
   There were a couple of positions that I would really need to fall off a ladder and get myself wedged in the bushes to even come close to duplicating. I also actually planked for the first time. I'd heard about planking and it seemed pretty easy so when the sweet little lady announced that this was what we were going to do, I thought finally, piece of cake. I got myself into the plank position and it was easy. And then the lady asked us...to do stuff! Like wave your arms around, rotate your legs, reach behind you. Cruel, medieval stuff!


This...not so much.

   At the end of all that, I'm pretty well face down on the mat and realized that I was engaged in my own little bodyflow---like right off my forehead, down the bridge of my nose and then drip---right onto the mat. In torrents. I turned to Doralyn and mouthed a two-word expletive involving religious procreation. She just giggled.
   BodyFlow is an awesome workout, mark my words. The following day I felt pretty good. Until I laughed. Then my abs let me know just how good a workout BodyFlow really is!
  
  

Things I Didn't Know, That I Had To Go Look Up: Part One

   For the past several weeks I have been reading a ton of running blogs and quite enjoying the process. I am, however, a "newbie" and along the way I have encountered a handful of terms I've been unfamiliar with. At these times I've found myself thinking wouldn't it be cool if there was some sort of easily accessible electronic device that would give me instantaneous answers to pretty well any question I could possibly come up with but seeing as how that seems pretty far-fetched, dontcha know, I'd simply decided to ignore those terms.
   And then somebody told me about Google.
   Because of this, I am now able to take you along with me on my personal journey of discovery as I learn the meanings to words the rest of you runners out there have been intimately familiar with for years now. The list for this post is relatively short but, as you may have noticed in the title, this is only Part One, I fully anticipate more posts to follow.

IT Band
  Okay, so what the hell is an "IT band" and what the hell do you use it for? If your IT band is stiffening up can't you just lubricate or, if all else fails, go buy a new one??
   Yes, I kept running into people who were having issues with their "IT bands". Their IT bands were tightening up, they were getting physio for their IT bands, and round about mile 8 their IT bands started to hurt. It finally occurred to me that if an IT band hurt then it must be an actual body part. So far, though, with all of my own achy body parts, no medical

person had ever talked to me about my IT band so how was I to know?
   Finally I decided I was hearing so much about IT bands that it only made sense to find out what they actually were and why it was that so many people seemed to be complaining about them.
   IT actually stands for "iliotibial" and your IT band is a thick band of fascia which extends down from your hip, attaching itself just below your knee. Apparently it is crucial in the running process and when you see a depiction of it you can understand why.
   So now I know.

Negative Splits
   All I seemed to be able to figure out when I was hearing about negative splits was that people were dividing up their runs or races into portions and timing them. In an oddly counter-intuitive kind of way, the more negative the splits, the more positive people seemed to feel about them.
   Personally, I have never timed a portion of anything, I waited until the very end to see just how slow I ran. It was good enough for me to know that I ran the same route faster (or perhaps not as fast) as the last time.
   Eventually, though, I was hearing so much about negative splits that I looked it (them?) up. Negative splits occur when you divide your run up into equal portions and each portion is run slightly faster than the previous one. More simply put, you finish stronger than you begin.

   The strategy around this is a pacing one---don't use up all your vital energy at the beginning. Essentially, start slow.
   I thought this was actually pretty cool because if there's one thing I can do, it's start slow! What I struggle with is finishing even slower...

   So there you have it, the first installment of "Things I Didn't Know, That I Had To Go Look Up". I am quite sure there will be future installments as I continue to read about runners who know what they're doing. As I was writing this, actually, it occurred to me that I only think I know what "fascia" is...

   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!


  

My Legs

   I am fast approaching my very first "runniversary" and it's hard to believe that it's been a whole year since this running adventure began.
   When I learned that my wife, Doralyn, had signed us both up for a 10-week Learn-to-Run course at the local Running Room I was pretty certain that, at the end of the course, running would go right back up on the shelf it had been collecting dust on for the last 30 years or so of my life. I am still amazed that, long after the weekly sessions ended, I still wanted to run and was quite happy to run on my own, without being accountable to a schedule or another group of runners.
   One of the things I was pretty certain about was that I would lose weight. Sure enough, the pounds gradually came off. When I started to run last August I was flirting with 235 and  by the time the fasciitis hit in March I was flirting with 210. Unfortunately I kind of plateaued there due to having to lay way off the running while the heel got better. Eventually, people started looking at me and saying stuff like holy cow, you've lost a ton of weight, haven't you?
   Because I've rollercoasted with weight issues like many of us, I've gotten used to occasionally getting this kind of reaction from people, if things have been going well. One of my friends looked at me about a month ago and said something no-one else ever has, though. He said he thought my legs were getting skinny.
   If there's one part of my body I've never had a problem with, it's my legs. A lifetime of one kind of sports or another has managed to keep them what I always considered to be well-toned and muscular. I've had issues with upper body strength and tummy weight but my legs always seemed to maintain some sort of constant good health. I guess that's why my friend's comment took me a little by surprise.
   In retrospect, though, it's not like body fat picks and chooses where and how to distribute itself. It made some sort of sense, I suppose, that if I'd lost this much weight then likely some of that was from my legs.

It's in there somewhere!

   Since that comment, I've paid a little more attention to my legs, in an investigative (and hopefully not too narcissistic) kind of way. What I've noticed is where certain muscles were in ways more rounded  that now they seemed to have taken on a slightly more angular sort of shape with a touch more definition. The other day, I was leaning over and tying a shoe when I looked down and actually noticed a vein popping out on the inside of my right knee. The light sort of hit it the right way, or something, because I saw it clearly then but have had a hard time finding it since. But the fact remains that I actually saw a vein and I have never seen one there before. Over the years, I've seen all sorts of pictures of well-muscled athletes and one of the things about them that stood out the most for me (no pun intended) were their veins. The fact that I now had a vein (an elusive one at that) popping out kind of tickled me!
   Of course, this might also mean that I'm one run away from a heart attack or something so if you're runner and have experienced this kind of thing please weigh in!
   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!
  

Am I really injured?

   Right at the moment, if you asked me as a runner, I would tell you I was injured. For the last few months, I've been harassed by a nagging case of plantar fasciitis.
   If, however, you were to ask me as a hockey player, I would say that I was not injured but simply had a heel that was bugging me.
   I've been trying to figure out exactly what the difference in mindset is.

One on the R will stop you from running. One on the L, not so much.

   A couple of summers ago, I suffered from the same condition. It cropped up toward the tail end of ball hockey season and, at the time, was un-diagnosed. Fortunately, it occurred right at the end of the season and by the time the next season rolled around it had cleared up and did not return. At no time while I had it, though, did I consider it something that would stop me from playing. I went out and bought some over-the-counter orthotics, threw them in my athletic shoes, and continued to play. I limped a little but didn't consider myself "injured".
   Fast forward to four months ago and the PF shows up again, likely as a result of over-training, worn-out shoes and winter-running (I love hyphenated words!)
   Now, however, I feel injured.
   So what's the difference?
   After giving this much thought, here's what I've come up with.
   When you're playing a sport, there are many ways of being injured in many different parts of your body--sprains, concussions, broken bones, torn ligaments, pulled muscles, etc. At the same time, you can hit a home run with a sprained ankle and you can score a goal with a separated shoulder. Other well-trained parts of your body can still perform.
  

Anyone out there tired of hearing about my PF...?

With running, however, it all boils down to the relationship your foot has with the running surface. If your foot hurts, you're injured. No pun intended, a searing pain in your foot (substitute knee, hip, etc., as required) will stop you dead in your tracks. When this happens to me, as a runner, I feel injured, as opposed to just suffering from a nagging ailment.
   One of the cool things about having access to so many running blogs these days is that you get to hear and find out about the injuries other runners are having, or have had, to deal with. As an example, many other runners also have had issues with PF and it's informative to get their perspective on what worked, or didn't work, as far as their treatment of it. What I find even more fascinating, though, is how runners deal with their injuries from a psychological aspect. I found it encouraging to find out I wasn't the only person who was going bonkers because they couldn't get out and simply just run. There seems to be a constant struggle with wanting to run but wanting to heal at the same time and needing to balance the two. Some runners show great patience, others not so much, and it is very easy to identify with all of them!
   On top of everything else, when you play a team sport you have some responsibility to your team members. There is a desperate need and desire to pull your own weight and, occasionally, this will lead to players continuing to play even though they might be injured. There is also the possibility you might actually be hurting the team by playing injured. In running, your only responsibility is to yourself and what you do with that responsibility is entirely up to you. In most

Better be TRUE, damnit!

cases, there is no coach or trainer saying you can't run and nor is there any pressure to run. You are neither helping the team nor hurting the team one way or the other.
   So here I am, trying to decide whether I am, or was,  actually injured or not. Most days, I can now get out and run and only suffer minimally afterwards. Because of this, right at the moment it is hard to describe myself as injured and so I don't. There was a time however when running seemed like an impossibility and I have no qualms about describing myself as injured back then. However, if a coach had said "get out there and run, Baker".....     

My "Running-backwards-and-almost-puking" 5k Run

   For the last couple of weeks I've switched over from trail runs to a 5k run on pavement, here in my neighbourhood. This was a route I'd run extensively up until late February, when the PF hit.
   It's a route I came up with in prep for a trail run I'd signed up for in late April. I'd heard the run was very hilly and challenging so I wanted to incorporate a few more hills into my training. All was going well, right up until the PF.
   I've run this hilly route many times and decided this past week that, simply for a change, I'd run it in the reverse direction.
   Normally, the run starts at my house and finishes up slightly less than half a kilometer away. To run it in reverse, I walk to the normal "finish line", turn around, and start to run.
   Running this route in reverse changed everything. What were once long, wonderful, downhill lopes were now torturous, breath-robbing uphill ascents. What used to be a kilometer-long, mind-numbing slight uphill grade near the end of the run became a delightful, energy-reserving canter near the beginning of the run.

From the bottom...

   Overall, it seemed easier now, apart from one steep stretch I found almost impossible to do without stopping. I'm pretty sure that anyone
watching would have had one finger on 9-1-1, just in case. At the end of that stretch, however, basically everything else was downhill, or at least felt that way.
   At the right is a picture of this hill. Like most pics, it doesn't show the steepness (would that there were "Hill-o-Vision") but I did point my camera straight ahead. The first pic is from the bottom. I then drove half way up and took a pic of the rest, although I had to leave out the very top (cuz no one wants to see runners' skeletons...)


...and halfway up.

   So I did that once, no problem, and noted the time on my Garmin. The second time, I was nearing the end, probably had about half a kilometer to go and I take another quick peek at the Garmin. I notice that I'm pretty close to my previous result and figure that, if I kick it up a notch, I'll be able to better that result. So I put things into a slightly different gear, legs pounding, and bettered my time by five seconds. I did, however, almost collapse in my driveway, thinking to myself please don't collapse in your driveway! I did manage to recover, though, and as is my habit, began walking back along the sidewalk, to cool down. About six houses down, I started to get a sensation I've never had at the end of a run before. I thought I was gonna puke.
   As stated, this was a new feeling for me and I wasn't quite sure what to do. It wasn't like I was in the middle of a trail run and could simply skulk off into the bushes and do my thing. No, I was in the middle of a residential neighbourhood on a well-travelled street. I wasn't that far from my house but, at the same time, I wasn't quite sure I could make it back there. I wondered what the etiquette was for barfing in front of a neighbour's house. Do you barf on the grass or barf on the sidewalk? Do you avoid the driveway? Lawn or boulevard? What's the best way to clean up outdoor puke or do you simply lose your cookies in the street and let the city handle it? Is barf bio-degradable?
   It was amazing how many scenarios ran through my head in the relatively brief time I felt as though I was about to upchuck. This feeling did pass, however, in a minute or two, to my relief. Hopefully, I will remember this the next time I try and go all out at the end of a run. Although I'm not sure it would stop me...

   Have you "lost it" on a run before? Is it kind of an "occupational hazard"?

   And in the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!

What A Great Day To Watch OTHER Runners!

   Doralyn and I had some groceries to buy today and when we were out we saw runners. Lots of them.
   I never used to pay too much attention to runners before I became one myself. These days, I pay a lot of attention---I look to see what kind of foot strike they use, what kind of hydration system they carry, what kind of shoes they're wearing, what their stride is like and, generally, if they look like they know what they're doing.

Heels...one on the right's pissin' me off!

   Lately, I've been extremely jealous of anyone who looks like they're out there and running pain-free. I've been trying to recover from this p-fash (plantar fasciitis) for so long that I'm starting to get worried that I might never recover. I've been through this before with other types of injuries and I know that my body has always been wonderfully recuperative and I suspect that some day I will be better. Until this actually happens, though, it's hard not to feel just a little panicky.
   I would so much rather be telling people how the prep is going for the next race or what new mileage I'm up to but the fact of the matter is there is no next race right at the moment and the mileage has remained stagnant. Not knowing how long I might be sidelined with the p-fash, I've really been unable to commit to any race any time in the near future. In my brief racing history I've run a 3k and a couple of 5k's and all of the sudden I was thinking that I might actually schedule a 10k somewhere down the road. I'd been running 5k about three times a week and once a week I'd been LSDing and upping that by a kilometer a week. I was all the way up to 9k when the p-fash hit.
   So, some day, I have a 10k training run in my future. I even have it mapped out and all ready to go. Just need to get healthy.
   I'm not exactly sure what healthy means anymore, there have been a couple of times when my heel has felt totally fine and I could feel no difference between it and the other one. Then, after a long walk, the pain is back! Not a long run, a long WALK !
   So I'm just not sure what approach to take anymore. I ran all winter here in Canada and was so looking forward to spring and not having to run on ice, through slush and over snow piles. Now that spring is here and the running weather is perfect, I can't run! I just get to watch all the other runners! (not to sound too bitter...)
   Well, having said all this, I'm headed out for another long walk. It irks me a touch to even be talking about the required recovery time between walks but this time I gave it an extra day and we'll see how it goes.
   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!