Training Day 5

I was so tired this morning, I know its fatigue from my lupus and not burning the candle at both ends.  The kids started back at school today so I really wanted to get a run in this morning, one of my friends also wanted to come with me.  We decided on the Ness Islands again, its my favourite run and I always seem to do better on that run.

 

I have a confession, the time is good as is the distance, but I was so busy chatting away to my friend, when I looked down at my watch about 3 mins into our run, I realised I forgot to press ‘start’ on the watch *doh*

I am also thinking I need to go and see a sports therapist.  I seem to have a tightening on my achilles, and I am wondering if I have any scar tissue there that has adhered itself when I broke my ankle…

(quick recap, I broke my foot in 2 places 2yrs ago on a run, but I actually thought it was a sprain!!! I was still trying to run on it, albeit badly, I went for an x-ray about 5 months after and discovered the fractures but they have been healing, so too late to plaster it, bur had physio to strengthen the foot again…..)  

I dont think physio will help it, but the sport therapist I see does a fantastic, albeit painful massage! so maybe I am needing some knots removed.

Anyway…debating about a kickboxing session tonight!

Running is a mental sport…..I’m insane so its ok!

The New Year is the time I am allowed to go back out running.  YAY! I have been signed off with a Tibia and Fibula Fracture since September, and advised not to run for the rest of the year.  Truth be told, I had apparently fractured my right ankle back in May, but thinking it was just a really bad ligament tear, I just rested up and took it easy with the running.  Unfortunately, in August, after finally going to the Dr’s then getting an X-ray, it was discovered that I had healing fractures.  Advised not to run the rest of the year and to pull out of the Baxter’s Loch Ness Marathon.

It’s amazing that something you love doing, then its been taken away can change your personality so much.  I lack energy, loose patience and don’t even talk to me about love handles!  Where the heck did these come from!?! I have put on a stone in weight and for me, it’s depressing.

The prospect of getting the running shoes on again, fills me up with utter joy.  But not running for so long, I feel I am going back to square one with my fitness level and will no doubt be huffing it around the blocks again.

When I started running about 18 months ago, I used the couch to 25k program on my iPhone.  Walk 5 mins, run 1 min x 8 times (or something like that)  Toddlers were passing me in the street, on legs, not in a buggy!

Just this week, I was reading Emma’s blog journal on 13 JellyBeans Emma started running in October, her blogging is witty and every runner, whatever level they are at can relate with her.  Emma has mainly be running on a ‘dreadmill’ (my term!) at her gym, and is wanting to um, Do it outside I have always been an outside runner, due to the fact, like Emma, I can not coordinate that right moment in time, when you are parched and really needing to fill your body up with a sugary filled energy drink, trying to grasp the bottle in the holder with the risk your face will meet the belt of the machine.

There is also, trying to look cool, there is runners to the left and right of you pounding along like Cheetah’s pouncing on their prey, Stunning, fast, and concentrated.  Unlike me, uncomfortable, smelly and with no co-ordination.

I also suffer from asthma, was diagnosed at the age of 11.  Occasionally, I do get out of breath, although running has eased up with attacks.  I never really suffered a lot from attacks, just breathlessness, occasionally I suffer more in the summer during high levels of pollen.

With the asthma, when out running I may find that I need to stop running on occasion, or at the very least slow down my pacing altogether for a slow jog.  However when I am on the dreadmill, at the gym, I feel there is more pressure on me to just keep pounding on amongst all the stealthy Cheetahs.  The face bright red, gasping for any little bit of air left in my lungs, pleading with Jeremy Kyle on the little television  (UK equivalent to Jerry Springer) to push me on.

Emma’s blog post made me think about being self conscious out and about running.  I know, come the new year, because my fitness level will be virtually non-existent, apart from the swimming sessions I have been doing, I know, I will be back to walking 5 mins running 1 min, the toddlers laughing at me on their way past.

But should a runner care what you look like when out running? Should it matter if you need to slow down to a bounce rather than a run? Do passers-by really care that your ass looks like a small country jiggling along the road?

Personally I think the answer is no, the important thing is you are out doing it, getting the air in your lungs and exercising that body. I also like to run outside to quench the boredom, running along the canal or in the forest, there is always something to see and you actually go from a point A to point B.

I am signed up to do the Loch Ness half marathon in March, I have 3 months to get back to the level I was at before injury.  I hope to finish around 1hr 30mins but to be honest just finishing will be victory enough for me.

Father Christmas asked me what I would like for Christmas this year, I told him I have been a very good girl, apart from the occasional high level mood swing, here and there, I think I deserved a Garmin 305, the porn watch for runners.  He said he will see what he can do.   Come January 6th (Hey I am Scottish, we celebrate New Years for a week!) I will be training like an olympic athlete!

Runners Porn

 

 

Can I have euthanasia please?

*cough* So I have got over the trauma of starting a blog, and I am trying to embrace it, like I have been embracing swimming.

Basically I am a runner, have been running for about 18 months, have not entered any big races, just local 10k’s.  Although in October this year I was planning in running the Loch Ness Marathon. Unfortunately it didnt go to plan.  I started training in May this year, and I ended up after a trail run with swelling in my right ankle.  I thought it was a sprain, so I rested and iced for a week.  Went back out and was still in pain.  I was like a poor wee geriatric hobbling downstairs. This was going on for a while! I went to visit a sports massage therapist who gave it a rub, I congratulated myself in the reflex area, I was in so much pain but I did manage to refrain from kicking the shit out of her.

In August, enough was enough, I decided to go to the Dr.  He has been my family doctor for a while, also a runner and a friend. He looked at my leg, then glared at me. ‘Why have you not been in before’ he said I mubbled something, I dont recall, I became scared of him, I thought I was in big trouble.  ’We are going to have to amputate’ no, he didnt say that thank goodness I actually needed to be sent up to the hospital for an Xray.  This was worse!

I work on a part time basis as a bank nurse in Accident and Emergency, ie, I am called when cover is needed, sickness, holidays etc, I deal with the Xray department everyday. If you know your history, you know there is long standing non-existent feud between Scotland and England.  Well, the same goes for A&E and Xray! And now, I was being sent into the battle field.

Oh, please Dr, just amputate my leg, it will be so much easier than dealing with the Xray girls!

Turns out, they recognised me but didnt know where! I think with having my hair down, no makup on and no scrubs I was in a great disguise!

The witch, was ‘not allowed‘ to give out Xray results, I couldnt tell her that I worked in the dept or my disguise would have been scuppered! So I had to wait a week, still hobbling.  When I got my results I found I had not torn ligaments I had BROKEN 2 bones, the tibia and fibia! WTF!  As the fractures had been there for 4 months, they had been healing naturally, so I did not need a cast on, much to the dismay of my friends as they had really wanted to decorate it in profanities! *sigh*

I was told no to running my first ever marathon, and no to running for the rest of the year, until I have completed physio.  Which has not gone to plan either, at my first physio appt he suspects that I have other stress fractures, so he cant rehab me and I am waiting to see an orthopedic surgeon.  All I am allowed to do is swimming, which I hate with a passion!

The physio gave me weight belts to ‘run’ in water, which I attempted once, and found myself being headlocked by a pensioner trying to swim me to safety. She thought I was drowing….in a pool which I can stand up in!

But I digress, I did say I was trying to embrace swimming, much the same as blogging.

So, now I am sick, its more a sniffle really, a headache, heavy eyes and a rasping throat.  I dont do sick well, I dont crave pity, cant be doing with that.  I told you, I am a bank nurse in A&E, I have little sympathy, unless of course its serious.  Last year, we had the winter vomiting bug going around.  And I got rattled at a patient that came in with it.  If you are old, or have other illnesses then yes, come in, but if you are just throwing up for the sake of it.  Stay in your own home and do it! Dont take it to me and share it around the dept.  You are not going to get a hospital bed for a winter bug, SO STAY HOME!

I dont take kindly to my kids being sick either, I will hold my daughters hair up when she is being sick, but I am behind her gagging too.  But, I love my job!

I know from experience, a cold is just inconvenience, it doesnt stop you actually functioning, it just makes you function slower than normal. I am not my husband, who thinks that a cold is actually terminal.

I also do not take pills of any sort.  The only thing that goes into my stomach is sugar, chocolate and carbs.

However, my mum, who is a potion guru as she tries every herb and vitamin on the go suggested I take Echinacea a herb which is suppose to ward of nasty colds and infections.

So, I went to my local supermarket, Tesco, who has a vitamin/herbal section but alas, I could not find the Echinacea at all.  So, I proceeded to the pharmacy counter, I waited patiently in the queue so the real sick people could get their medications.  It was now my turn.

‘Can I help?’ asked the pharmacist

‘Yes, could you tell me where the euthanasia is please?’

Excuse me?!

‘Euthanasia’

‘um, we dont sell it’

‘Oh, will I only get it in a herbal shop?’

‘What is it actually you are looking for?’

‘Euthanasia’ I said again ‘Its a herbal tablet I believe that helps colds and flu from getting worse

‘Oh, do you mean Echinacea?’

DAMMIT!…..Grabs box, pays and runs!