It takes time

So it has been a bit since I posted anything. It has been more because of my inability to mentally get past feeling sorry for myself than anything else. I have been kind of down due to not running in the way that I am wanting to. I believe that I have kicked the Lyme, but for a while I did not think so. Every time I went out for a run, I felt lousy and for want of a better word, weak. It took a bit, but I believe that since I have not run very well for quite a while, when I did start running (or trying to) the weather had changed from what I was acclimated to. Instead of the abnormally cool, wet but not humid weather that I was used to (and liked), it was now humid and hot. I am not used to that. My system is not used to that. Biking has been my saving grace. I am able to get out and enjoy a ride without feeling like I just drained all of my energy. So I will continue to plug away at improving the running, but with having the bike to keep my fitness level up hopefully I can also improve my mindset. It is definitely worth it.

Keep on trying

Things seem to be slowly getting better. I ran Tuesday night, 7 miles, and I did not feel awful at the end. Of course, I did not go crazy with any kind of speed, just an easy pace with Dave Brady. Wednesday morning I went to the fitness center, did a body weight workout and then hopped on the treadmill and did a twenty minute run. I ramped up the speed every two minutes until fifteen minutes into the run. At that time I was running a 6:40 pace. Then I ramped down every minute until twenty minutes total. I was pleasently surprised that I felt pretty good. So right now I feel good about keeping up my fitness level until I get off the medication.

Another try

I ran again on Thursday after taking Wednesday off. Felt good heading out but by four miles I was in sorry condition. Right now it looks like I will only be able to run every other day because the day that I run I am so wiped out, it takes the next day to feel good enough to run again. Hopefully I will start feeling better the farther into this I get. Of course, I am not sure if it is the Lyme that has me feeling like this or the cure. I am already beating myself up over not doing what I know I should be doing (or what I want to do). Carol is happy as I am not going to be out the door every weekend morning to run. Maybe I will be getting more done around the house? I'll have to wait and see. But I am going to miss the woods. Plus, I have not tried to bike yet. Monday morning I will find out how bad biking to work is going to be. Maybe I should take this opportunity to stay up late and visit a bar. Like that will happen!

New reality 2

This might be harder than I thought. I went for a run this morning (before taking my medication). I first slathered on ample amounts of SPF 50 sunscreen lotion. Leaving out the front door, I felt pretty good. Up the street and a left onto Ocean Avenue, running my normal seven backwards. Continued to feel all right through the first mile, which is mostly uphill. Once I crossed Willets Avenue and started downhill toward Bank Street, I started feeling different, bordering on lousy. It happened pretty quick, just feeling blah, like I had completely nothing in the tank. The sun did not seem to bother me too much. I think I probably have to get some more of this stuff into my system before the sun sensitivity starts happening. Going down Bank Street and taking a right on Howard, I kept plugging away, keeping a semi-hopeful pace going. Through the two traffic circles and onto Pequot Avenue, I started dragging. Then as I passed Stash's, I did something that I do not normally do. I started walking. Walked for about one minute, felt a little better and started running again. Felt good for about two minutes, slammed back into feeling lousy and continued running as best that I could for the next two miles and then walked again by the private beaches on Pequot. Unfortunately that was not the last time. Once I started up Ocean Avenue, I ended up walking for a bit. After that, I slogged my way through the rest to home. I sweated a lot, felt lousy and was still glad that I got out there. Of course, with the medication, I am not supposed to eat for one hour after I take the pill. I lasted 30 minutes and then I HAD to eat. So I will try to have the pill before I leave the house and see if that works, because when I get done working out, I gotta eat.

New Reality

Went to the doctor's today for verification. Two weeks ago I found a tick on my lower abdomen. Approximately 10 days later, I noticed a very red rash in that area. By this morning the rash had spread around both of my sides. It was itchy but if I scratched it, it burned. Nasty. So when I went into the doctor's this morning, I told him about the tick and showed him the rash. First thing out of his mouth was, "yep, you have Lyme disease." He said that based on that, they do not even run a blood test. Just put me on the medicine, Doxycycline, for 21 days. Have to make sure that I use the sunscreen lotion liberally. Since Carol has had this at least two times, I know what to expect as far as side effects. I am planning to continue my training (such that it is) as much as I can. I look at it as a small impedment. I am not injured and have no desire to allow this to bother me. For all my years of running in the woods, this is my first experience with Lyme. For some reason, ticks never seemed to bother me. I can not say that anymore.

Getting old (?)

Is it getting old or maybe something else? Some disconnect in my mind. I had planned on running Nipmuck Trail Marathon. I was looking forward to it. I knew that I had the application sitting on the dining room table. All I needed to do was fill it out and send it in. Do you think that I did it? This past Friday, I pulled the application out and discovered that I was too late. There is no same day registration and I could not get the application to Nipmuck Dave (race director) since the last day to do so had already passed. So I told Carol that I would be doing a long run on Sunday on the Narragansett Trail. Sunday came around and I grabbed my stuff and headed for North Stonington for what I hoped to be at least four hours on the trail. As I was strapping my backpack with the water bladder on, I realized that I had forgotten my trail shoes. They were still on the front steps of the house. Okay I will just run with the Ecco shoes that I was wearing. Not trail shoes and not really running shoes. But they would have to do. If I had a bad run, I could always blame the shoes. I noticed right away that the tread on the shoes was not built for the trail. I was slipping all over, especially on the rocks. Not a problem, I will just avoid the rocks. Approximately one mile into the run, I realized that I had forgotten my Gu's and my Powerbars. The only food I had was a banana in the backpack. At about the same time I realized that I had run out of the Succeed Tabs and since it was warm out, I might end up with cramping problems without them. So based upon everything that I had forgotten, I decided to cut the run down to three hours. At least I could enjoy myself for a little while. Surprisingly, I did. It was a good run, a semi heat training run. The only bad blip was the two dirt bikes that decided to wander onto the single track instead of staying on the fire roads. But their noise disappeared quickly, leaving me to enjoy the solitude and silence. But I really have to work on the, what was it? Oh yeah, I forgot.

I have decided that I would like to do another 100 miler. The problem is that a lot of the 100 mile races require that each entrant do volunteering at a race or races (some require a certain amount of hours and some require it to be certain races or ultras, or to do trail maintenance) that will pass whatever requirements each race calls for. I volunteer at races on my own. I do not require anyone to make me do it. But I do not take take kindly to a race director or committee to whom I am paying a goodly amount of money for the privilege of running in his/their race requiring me to also do as they say in regards to volunteering. I enjoy volunteering at races; I know a lot of the local runners and race directors in my area. Since there is only one ultra in this area (50K in Branford, which is still a half hour trek), the requirement to volunteer in an ultra means that I would have to travel to complete that. To get in say Vermont 100 I would have to do the following: 1) get permission from my wife; 2) pay my $200.00 (!) entrance fee; 3) find out what volunteer work will be okayed by the race director; 4) travel to said volunteer work (and have it recorded?); 5) travel to Brownsville, VT to participate in the race. This does not include the training time (truth be told, I do this anyway) which can and should be extensive. It also does not include the cost of staying somewhere Friday evening and possibly Sunday (it depends on how fit you are to travel).
If you look up volunteer in the dictionary this is the definition:
1.
a person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking.
2.
a person who performs a service willingly and without pay.

It does not say anything about being made to do something. When you do that, you are no longer a volunteer, but akin to a conscripted person. It no longer rings true that you are doing volunteer work.