Sick and Injured?

There are 2 things endurance athletes can’t stand…being sick and being injured.  I say injured, because of that old cliché we all know from our favorite professional athletes that “if you’re hurt you can still play”.  Well, endurance athletes are no different from basketball players, football players or NASCAR drivers – we play hurt.  It’s apparent when you read Runners World, Triathlete, or any other magazine aimed at endurance events and you see at least 1 article per month on how rolling a golf ball under your foot aids in plantar fasciitis, and scrunching up a towel with your toes improves foot strength.  Each attempting to help keep “hurts” from turning into injuries.  It’s the injuries keep you on the sidelines and being sick just plain sucks (that last part isn’t limited to endurance athletes).

Well, I had my bout with both of them in the last 2 weeks.  Those of you keeping up read about my bout with a little head/chest cold that held me down for a few days.  In the midst of all that non-sense, I had a bit of a situation with a potential injury this week as well…

Potential because I couldn’t exactly explain what was going on, so I did what any logical resident of 2011 would do – I “googled” it.  When I didn’t get the answers I was looking for, I “hoo’d” it (Yahoo you can send royalty checks payable to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society when that catches on).  After I expended my vast knowledge of search engine navigation without getting satisfactory answers from Al Gore’s contraption – I decided that maybe I should go see a Doctor.  I mean, if Jeeves doesn’t know what this thing is – I may be in real trouble. 

Now – I hate going to the doctor.  I’ll avoid the doctor like Lady Gaga avoids the norm.  I even have a low deductible health insurance plan because if I had to pay any more than $30 to see a doctor I’d probably die of complications from a bunion before I’d pay that guy to look at my….anyways – I don’t like the doctor.  So you know this is serious. 

Long story short – the doctor told me that the tingling/burning sensation I’ve been feeling when I…………….stretch my calf (was that enough dots to get the joke across?) is likely a nerve that runs along my Achilles that ends in my heel, and should go away on its own in a week or so.  By the way, the “injury” was feeling a funny sensation in my heel when I stretched my calf, but I wanted to make you sweatJ.

Bottom line – I’m fine, and over my illness and ready to break…it…down!  I’m getting ready to head to the gym for back/biceps, and to swim.  Then off to soccer.  I feel good about being able to hit it hard again, and am looking forward to the training this weekend (although not looking forward to driving out to 151^st street) into next week.

Jen only has 3 more radiation treatments!  The last one can’t come too soon, her throat is so sore that drinking water is difficult, although she is getting a nice little tanning (or should I say redding) base goingJ.  Remember my rant about being sick…I have NOTHING to complain about. 

Fundraising has slowed down, and I think I can safely say that the results of my initial campaign are in.  The results speak for themselves – WOW…46% of my goal.  Once again – thank you so much to those who have donated.  I’m looking forward to getting creative to knock out the remaining 54%, and then helping my team to reach its goal.

Stay tuned to see how I do it

Sick!

Boom – it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I’m sick…ugh, I hate being sick.  I guess I should count myself lucky that I didn’t get sick while Jen was in chemo with a weakened immune system.  Jen always laughs at me because I will never admit I’m sick, but I felt it coming on Monday afternoon with a sore throat, that turned into sinus pressure, that turned into a stuffy nose/heat, and has moved into my chest ending in an overall feeling of ickiness.  Last night I finally made the designation…it’s official.  It’s not the laid up in a used tissue infested bed, watching Oprah (NO…I don’t watch Oprah), chicken-soup and cracker diet, only thing that will help is a Nyquil induced coma type of sick…luckily.  I’m still going to work, but my workouts have taken a back seat for a short time, and although I’m trying to keep my diet on track, I haven’t felt much like making lunches or dinners.

Someone once told me not to push physical activity when you’re not feeling well.  Good advice.  I can remember one time I didn’t take that good advice and turned a head cold into a week long date with my sofa and (AWFUL) daytime TV while slipping in and out of “green haze” consciousness.  I learned from my mistakes and have taken the last couple of days off to recover.  The good news is I’m starting to feel better, and might get in a yoga session tonight.  The bad news is I’m missing out on a golden opportunity to take advantage of the groundhog’s gift to endurance athletes.  Oh well…my time will come.

Nonetheless, to get everyone up to speed – the official TNT kick-off was a week ago, and our first official training was on Saturday.  I got to meet my team.  There are 8 of us going to Philadelphia (9 counting our campaign manager).  Our honor patient (a recent Hodgkin survivor) is actually on the team!  He was just cleared by his doctor to participate and I’m very excited for him.  The rest of the team seems extremely well manneredJ, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them better in the near future.

Our first training took place at Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence at 7am.  Yeah, half way to Columbia (or so it seemed).  I guess I should get used to this, because most of the trainings are either out south or east.  Maybe I can convince them to hold one at the downtown airport, or better yet, up Interurban Road (more on that in following posts once the weather improves). 

So I woke up at 6, threw on my training garb, made a PB and H, snagged a banana, filled up my water bottle, and headed out the door.  When I got there, I was met by all the warm faces of the TNT spring team, the “newbies” of the summer team, the staff, and coaches.  The staff and coaches made a couple announcements, and sent us off on our merry way.   The goal was to run 3 miles, but I figured I’d go a little further.  I could feel the cold air in my lungs, but my legs felt good as I kept up with the 2^nd group (the 1^st group must have been out for blood).  After a few miles conversations started budding and I realized I was actually running with the marathoners.  Luckily, their training goal was only 4 miles today.  Friendly bunch (as is typical with all participants in/around this program).  I met a guy in the Air Force who just ran a half marathon in Afghanistan and a girl whose bucket list includes a marathon in each state.  Before we knew it – wrong turn…where are we?  Luckily we hadn’t gone too far off track, but the consequence was that instead of 4 miles we actually ran closer to 5.  I know now to bring my Garmin wherever I go so I can track my pace, effort, and distance, because it seemed like no one had any idea how far we had gone. 

My apologies – I’m realizing this is kind of a bland post, but like I said…not feeling too well.  I’m hopeful the next one will be livelier with me feeling better in the nicer weather.

In closing – Congrats to Troy and Shannon who brought their 2^nd bundle of joy into the world…Reid Michael (you can see posts on Troy’s facebook page…yeah he joined facebookJ)

Cheers!

Oh no...It's Cold Again!!!

My apologies to my new followers – I had vowed to have at least 1 post per week, however super bowl Sunday and the MUvKU “disaster” on Monday got in the way of my plans, and it was either my post or my training.  In the spirit of keeping my priorities straight, (although I’m starting to enjoy being a blogger!) I kept my training in line and waited until today between work and my 8pm soccer game to fulfill my commitment to you drooling piranhas salivating at my every keystrokeJ - Just kidding, and let me take this opportunity to thank you again for reading.

My joyous week of training was brought to a SCREEEEECHING halt.  The most diabolical winter storm in Kansas City’s history (or so the weather personnel would have you believe) hit with the fury of a cat-fish swarm chasing after those little dog food pellets at local marinas (gross!).  Are we still blaming El Nino for crazy weather patterns?  Remember Chris Farley as “El Nino”?  All other tropical storms will bow to El Nino – El Nino is Spanish for…the Nino.  That was funny!

 As I press into month 2 – once again I was forced indoors fending off the temptations to hibernate.  I changed up my strength training in accordance with Tony Horton’s desires to confuse my muscles, and have grown accustomed to my trainer workouts, trips to the dungeon for plyometrics, and bearing the “new year’s resolution” crowds at the gym.  I even took advantage of the 2.5 to 3 feet of snow that accumulated in my driveway by turning shoveling snow into a squatting exercise.  So I’m doing my part to make the best of this atrocity, and now it’s mother nature’s turn to reward me with an early spring.  Punxsutawney Phil is even doing his part by keeping his shadow at bay (although I’d be more afraid of all those dorks in top-hats whispering in my ear).  Come on spring!!!

Jen just started radiation and is feeling a little run down, but she got to travel for work for the first time since diagnosis, so she was pretty excited about that.  Only 12 more trips to KC Cancer Center to go (which is actually 2.5 more weeks)!  

A little cancer note:  It is certainly interesting how serious everything is with cancer – diagnosis, prognosis, staging, treatment, etc. (and rightfully so).  I mention this, because of some of the scheduling “issues” we have had throughout this experience.  For instance, it was imperative that when Jen got started with radiation – she was to go EVERY day……except weekends.  When I asked why not weekends, I got a “duh” kind of look, and an answer “because we’re closed on weekends”.  Ok – so this vital process to cancer treatment and survival is so important that you can’t miss a day – unless the clinic isn’t open…gotcha.  I guess it’s just one of those nuances that you don’t think about until you experience it, and in no way (to my knowledge) are these things a detriment to Jen’s eventual cancer ousting, so don’t take this for distain, but I promised to share thoughts about cancer in this blog as well.  Now, I certainly have respect for time off work (believe me), and don’t wish doctors/nurses/technicians to work 24/7.  I just found it kind of funny how critical things are, can be, or seem to be until it runs into happy hour (food for thought).  Lastly, this wasn’t an isolated incident either – there was also a similar situation with Jen’s diagnosis and again when starting chemo, but that’s a story for another time.    

Looking toward the future – tomorrow is actually the TNT kick-off for the summer team.  I’m pretty excited to officially get started, even though I’m almost 45% to my fundraising goal already (Thanks again everyone).  I not only get to meet who will be accompanying me to Philadelphia, but the rest of the summer team (marathon, century ride, and hike teams) along with our honorary patient and mentors.  This weekend is also the first training session…we’ll see how my preparations stack upJ.  The meeting is at 5:45, and they’re having pizza…seriously???  We’re supposed to be in training and our kick-off is a pizza party?  I know what you’re thinking – the answer is ‘yes’ – Diet Dr. Pepper does taste more like regular Dr. Pepper.  The place I figured to be safe from saturated fat, and monosodium glutamate is where I’ll need to test my skills on portion control.  Trust no one!