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!   
  

I Am Misaligned (Maybe)

   I am misaligned. And I'm not talking liberal vs. conservative or half-empty vs. half-full or male vs. female or anything like that. No, I think my right hip is way out of whack.

I have this...

   I have occasionally had hip problems in the past but more on my left side. I'd get out of bed in the morning and be greeted by a jolt of pain on the outside of my hip. In the 
 
beginning, it was a reasonably minor type of pain that would fairly quickly disappear after walking around for a bit.
   Eventually, though, it started taking longer and longer to disappear and also became quite a bit more intense. My wife at the time urged me to go see her chiropractor. Those days, though, I was pretty leery of chiropractors so this visit never occurred.

...which could be this...

   Along came my second wife and I was still suffering these bouts of hip pain. What was different was that it had become almost impossible to propel myself forward anymore. I had been given a cane as a joke present a few years earlier for my fiftieth birthday and I now had resorted to actually using it!
   My second wife also had a chiropractor she recommended and at this point I was pretty desperate so we made an appointment.
   I then ended up having my first meeting with Dr. Zeinin Haji. Zeinin is a wonderful woman who runs a chiropractic and holistic wellness clinic here in London. She took some time to explain the concept behind chiropractic and then did an assessment on me.
   She discovered I was way out of whack.
   I then found myself being poked and prodded and stretched and manipulated and jumped on! (Zeinin is a pretty tiny woman and I swear she actually leaves her feet to get some of the adjustments done)
   At the end of all that, I was given advice on stretching, how to walk and sit properly and even how to carry my wallet! My wallet is about six inches thick and I carry it in my back left hip pocket. I spend a fair amount of time driving through work and never even thought about what it might be doing to my body to constantly have this large, leather wad pressing into my left butt cheek. She simply suggested I carry it in my front pocket when driving. Pretty easy fix!
   We then arranged to have me come back two or three times a week for a prescribed period, until my body had had the time it needed to respond to the treatment she was giving it.
   In fairly short order, the hip pain was gone. Now I'm at the point where if I start feeling any little twinges down there I simply go in for an adjustment and I'm right as rain again.

...or it might be this!

   These days, however, the pain is in my other hip. It is also more around to the front and deeper (whatever that means). It seems to pop up periodically when I am engaged in normal, everyday activity. I might step off a curb or get out of my car or be walking up steps when it hits. It feels as though it might be related to slight pivoting movements coupled with shifts in weight-bearing. It also feels as though my groin might be involved.
   Similarly to the left hip, the more I move around, the better it feels. Lately, I've had twinges at the very beginning of runs but after a block or two the pain disappears and I'm able to run normally. Yesterday, this did not happen.
   In an attempt to keep my #RunToCanadaDay streak alive, I headed out for what I thought was likely just a 2K run. I began to run, experiencing the same kind of pain but only more intense than usual. I then decided to walk the 2K but I was unable to even do that. At that point, the streak ended. It was still fairly early in the day and I thought that if it straightened itself out a touch I  might be able to give it a shot later on. This never happened.
   So. I think it's off to see Zeinin again. I am hoping against hope that this pain is also the result of misalignment and can be eradicated with some adjustments. I suppose it could also be just a pulled groin muscle and because I've been attempting to maintain a running streak, it's just never had the opportunity to heal itself. Or, at my age, I suppose I could possibly be looking at some kind of arthritic entanglement and this could just mean a trip to the family doctor.

Whatever it is, hopefully Dr. Zeinin Haji
will be able to fix it!

   What I do know is that I've had this before and it has gone away on its own, with a little rest. My plan is to give it some, have a visit with my chiro, and go from there.
   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all! 
  

Downtown 5K Race Recap

Little bit of the little bit of an expo...

   Yesterday, I ran in the Downtown 5K, here in London. The Downtown 5K is the second race in the series of six races sponsored by London Honda, in affiliation with Runners' Choice.
   I was initially a little worried about what the weather might be like as the forecast was calling for rain right about race time but, as luck would have it, the rain did not materialize. The temp was about 8C, pretty overcast so, all in all, a pretty good morning to run.
   The race both started and ended downtown (naturally

Was my race bib a foreshadowing...?

enough) in Victoria Park. It involved about an eight block loop on city streets which we ran twice (there was also a 2.5K category and they ran the loop once). It was kind of cool because they had traffic stopped for us at all the major intersections. As a driver, this would have annoyed the hell out of me but, as a runner this one time, it was sweet!
   As I always do, I lined up for the start of the race at the back of the pack. This somehow or other only seems like the right thing to do---even when I was back in school I always headed to the back of the class when picking out seats for the first time. Anyway, it's a heck of a lot less claustrophobic back there!
   I woke up that morning feeling pretty good and ready to run. The previous couple of days I had substituted walking for running as part of my #RunToCanadaDay streak and this had left me with a little extra energy. The only thing that had me worried was the fact that it had been ages since I had actually run 5K. On top of that, during the streak we are required to run only 2K and I was finding that I was pretty tired after just that, so hard to say what a 5K might do to me!

The start of the Kiddy Trot.

  

The bandshell in Victoria Park.

At any rate, I started the race and was feeling just fine for the first couple of blocks. I very quickly noticed a speedwalker up ahead of me, a tiny elderly lady, dressed in neon, with brightly coloured compression stockings. I thought to myself "how cute", as I prepared to pass her. Well, I had quite a while to prepare as I soon realized that that she was speedwalking at the same rate I was running! I was running at what I thought was a good pace for me at the beginning of a race so that I might have something left at the end but this pace would not allow me to get past this little woman. Slightly against my better judgement, I picked the pace up a notch and was soon even with her. I complimented her on her pace and she thanked me sweetly, as I slowly pulled away.

Crowd at the starting line.

   Further along, I came across another runner who had stopped for a walk break. I passed her and then a little ways up the road, I stopped for my own little walk break. At which point, she passed me. We then started taking turns passing each other as our walk breaks alternated and soon we were joking about it. It was only at the end of the race that we realized we actually knew each other through work connections many years ago! Small world!

My Sweetie, seeing me off.

Nearing the finish line, forcing a smile. Nice
pic by my Sweetie, Doralyn!

   Toward the end of the race, I was feeling pretty whipped. I had ended up taking way more walk breaks than I thought I should really need. By this point, the neon speedwalking lady had actually passed me for the last time and did, in fact, kick my ass at the end of the race. With the finish line way up ahead, I had decided to take one last walk break so that I could at least finish the race running. It was here that she pulled so far ahead of me that there was no catching her. As it turned out, I took that last walk break a little too soon and almost had to stop and walk right in front of everyone at the finish line! Fortunately I was able to tough it out but it wasn't pretty...

The start of the race. Me at the back, yellow shoes, white cap. Up ahead, near
the curb, neon top and coloured stockings----Demon
Speedwalking Lady!!

   Anyway, here are some observations: 
                                                                                                                                  Someday, somewhere, somehow...I need to get a little more serious with the training. I ran this race in a touch over 35 minutes and that just doesn't cut it. Big goal, for me, would be to get that down below 30. (tee hee) (and that "tee hee" might be part of the problem)
                                                                                                                        I thought it would be kind of cool to enter this race series because, at my age (61), I figured I would be near the top of my AG. So, so, SO wrong on that account! The handful of other guys in this AG who run this series are all experienced runners who do 5k in the mid-twenties. Laugh's on me!

  I need to calm down a little before a race. The last race, I couldn't remember how to start my Garmin. This race, I wore a short-sleeve tech shirt over top of a long-sleeve cotton one. Bad form, I realize. WORSE form, however, is that I put the short-sleeve one on backwards....(giggle) (and that "giggle" might just be part of the problem)

Finally!

  
  

My "A-little-too-soon" Trail Run

Generally, this area is dry.

   It was an awesome weekend, weather-wise, here in London, Ontario.
   Once again, the temps were in the mid-teens when I headed out on my run on Sunday.
   I had decided I would try and get a bit of trail work in, which might have been a bit of a mistake. When I say "mistake" I say it only insofar as I knew from recent past experience that the trail through

A little bloodied up in the thigh/ankles area!

Warbler Woods, near where I live, would be very wet. Last spring I had attempted to run this trail and much of my time was spent gingerly tip-toeing around long stretches of slime and muck. Sunday was no different and very soon into my run I knew I had perhaps, indeed, made a mistake.
   Very quickly, I decided I needed to get out of the forest and into the fields which bounded it. I did this but found that there were no real trails to follow and that I would need to make my way through a lot of tall weeds and prickly plants (for the lack of a better word). After the run, my legs were a little the worse for wear---many of the plants I'd tried to tiptoe around had reached out and grabbed me.

This was NOT supposed to be there!

Not right!

   Eventually, I found myself free of the forest and weeds and back out on to pavement. By this time, it was a welcome change and I likely will hold off on the same trail run until things have dried out a little. For goodness' sake, there was still a little snow in there!
   All in all, I ran pretty close to 5K today, although there was a fair amount of time spent trying to find a way through all the wetness. Still, it felt awesome running through the forest on a warm spring day! 

Spring Is Here!

   Yesterday was a glorious day for running!
   The temps were in the mid-teens Celsius, the snow (except for the one narrow strip I found) was all gone and you could

A stretch of sidewalk I ran a couple of
months ago

actually run with just one layer on!


The same stretch of sidewalk yesterday,
but from the opposite direction.

   I headed out for a run with no real firm plans as to how far and where to. The only thing I knew was that I needed to get at least 2K in and keep the #RunToCanadaDay streak alive.
   For the last few days, I have been bothered by an un-diagnosed, periodic pain in the upper leg-hip-groin area. There is occasionally a strong jolt of pain deep down inside, at the front pretty well where those three areas of my body join up. I have to pivot in just the right way for the pain to hit and then, generally, it goes away. The pain will cause me to limp a little for the first half kilometer or so and then just works its way out and I'm fine to run after that. This is what happened yesterday.
   The run yesterday was just fine right up to the 2 and a half kilometer mark and then I made the possible mistake of stopping to take a pic. When I turned around to start running again, the pain returned.

The only little skinny strip
of snow I ran across

   I have a race coming up on Good Friday this week and the fact that I occasionally find myself running in pain is a little distressing. I decided I would just walk the rest of the way home yesterday and not take a chance on aggravating anything. While walking I tried to come up with a strategy for being ready for Friday and keeping the streak alive at the same time. The rules of the streak dictate that 2K must be accomplished every day but a little leeway is given to people who might need to walk it, rather than run. I think I might end up making copious use of that little "loophole" for the coming week, in the hope that I can finish the 5K I need to run on Friday.


Bike Sale anyone?

   Along the way, I ran into all sorts of people who were taking the opportunity to dig into some yardwork and tidy up garages. When I got back from the run/walk, we were in the middle of doing the same thing. Doralyn and the boys were hard at sweeping out the garage, throwing out stuff and re-arranging for the summer.


Doralyn's look of disapproval---
scary, isn't it?

   In the process, Doralyn found a dustpan she'd been missing for months and, surmising from the circumstances in which she found it, figured I was the likely culprit. The stern look of disapproval was hard not to capture, digitally.
   I love this time of year and I think most Canadians do. After one of the most brutal winters ever, it is even doubly sweet! Round about this time last year, I was on the shelf with a medical condition I have sworn never to mention again and was unable to enjoy the Spring weather to its fullest, running-wise. Not this year!