October 2020 Monthly Running Challange

Morning!

@TheMrWobbly im down for your challenge! Arkansas. Yee haw. 😂

@quilteryoyo do you mean diagnosed injuries? 😂😂😂

The worst one i have and still deal with is my IT bands. Strength training and PT have been the cure, but i have to be REALLY consistent or they get real bad again. Add strength training and PT when I did was a God send for all these ultras.

Today i am running with a friend for the first time in my life.

Here’s how much i hate running with people.

This is like my best friend and i want to say i have diarrhea or something.

*sigh* i am not a meanie or a liar so i guess we’re doing this.

10-1 7k easy
10-2 7k slow
10-3 7k slow

October Total: 21k
October Goal: 170k

January Total: 161k
February Total: 167k
March Total: 181k
April Total: 191k
May Total: 200k
June Total: 156k
July Total: 180k
August Total: 172k
September Total: 176k

2020 Total through September: 1584k / 176k per month

Partly cloudy, lower 40s F and frosty this morning. Watch wouldn't lock on the satellites, so I just ran what I ran yesterday.

Great running, @eleanorhawkins!!
@TheMrWobbly I'll be glad to Run the World from Ohio.

When you pop in here claiming your December 2020 mileage, what accomplishments will you have made?

Return to a good running weight of 175 lbs
Run at least 4 5k races
Get a 5k PR
Average at least 138k per month, to meet my Run the Year pledge of 1,020 miles
Stretch goal: If I can average 169k per month, I can run 2020k in 2020
Run the Year Team: Pavement Pounders -- Completed 9-29

2020 races:

9-8 to 9-13 "Virtual Boston with Vincent" Time goal 5:15:00; actual time 4:47:01

quilteryoyo wrote: »

I don't think we had a monthly question in September. I'd like to propose that the following as a strictly selfish one to give me inspiration as I recover from surgery - hopefully this month. "What is the worst injury/medical issue that you have come back from and how did you do it?"

Yeah skip the following if you are squeamish about surgical details.

Ovarian torsion caused by a massive (benign) tumor which led to the death of the ovary. Did not have health insurance at the time so the hospital really wanted to pretend I didn’t have a problem - they sent me home with a torsion, saying that the ultrasound showed I had blood flow (found out later by reading this is not diagnostic of torsion) where I stayed for about a month in off and on blinding pain. At this time I developed diabetes for the first time, which is apparently pretty common for it to first emerge during a severe illness when stress causes a cortisol spike, blocking the effects of insulin. Anyway I felt as if I was starving, too exhausted to get out of bed, and scarfed down entire bags of candy at one sitting, yet lost 25 lbs in a month, because I wasn’t getting enough insulin to metabolize my food. Finally went back to the ER and literally threatened to kill myself if they didn’t do something, which got their attention - I had to have someone sit with me at all times from that point forward - but also got a compassionate doctor to call his personal friend who was a gyn to recommend I be admitted. Seriously that dude has a place in heaven. They took 2 days to get me stabilized enough to operate, found out the ovary was dead and necrotic and had a 11 cm tumor on it, and also oh by the way your bg was 270 the first time we saw you, we just didn’t bother mentioning it to anyone.

I definitely got to see the best and worst of the medical profession at that time! The ER doctor who claimed I didn’t have anything wrong with me is still an ER doctor. I have encountered him since when visiting the ER and he once again misdiagnosed me, saying my ruptured Baker’s cyst wasn’t ruptured because “they don’t do that.” When I eventually got into an ortho clinic they said it was the worst rupture they had ever seen of a Baker’s cyst. On the other hand once I got past the ER, the staff at the women’s hospital were amazing. My surgeon went out of his way to get my tumor out without having to convert to an open surgery - he was very proud of his ingenuity, he put the tumor in a baggie and drained it into the baggie, then brought it out without having to enlarge the incision.

And then once I was back in the care of normal, not women’s hospital professionals, they were Star-spangled morons again - like the endocrinologist who sent me home with a massive prescription for medication that lowers blood glucose, no advise and no monitor. And the hospital dietician who gave me a consult for my diabetes and recommended eating no more than “three carbs” per meal, with one carb defined as a baked potato, sweet potato, piece of pie, or whatever. I still have the chart she gave me and it’s horrifying in how inappropriate the advice is. I guess she was used to dealing with people who ate a certain way and weren’t willing to make changes, so she had dumbed everything down to the point of uselessness. I do remember that I asked if quinoa was better or worse for diabetics than other grains and she had never heard of it. It occurs to me now that possibly she had seen it written and never heard it out loud, and had no idea how it was pronounced. Fortunately I did my own reading, bought my own meter, and got my own blood sugar under control.

So, when I emerged from the hospital, I had a new diabetes diagnosis, lots of meds, a three inch incision on my belly, and instructions not to drive for at least two weeks. I also couldn’t see, because the sudden change in blood glucose had warped my corneas and my vision was temporarily very blurry. I was morbidly obese and had been so sick for so long that I couldn’t walk to my mailbox without getting winded. And I was d.o.n.e. Done with being sick all the time. So I sat down with my husband and had a talk about the bad habits we had and how I wasn’t going to be a part of them any more. I had previously lost 50 lbs twice before, and put it all back on both times due to gradually giving way to eating more like he did. I told him I wasn’t cooking junk for him, I wasn’t going out to eat junk, and I wasn’t going to be around it in my home. And I was going to start working out every day, and I didn’t expect him to complain about it. And having seen me nearly dead he was pretty scared and agreed to support me. And to be fair he has done exactly that ever since.

I was so weak when I started that walking around my block was exhausting. But I did it, the day after I got home. I started lifting cans and water bottles until I was strong enough to lift weights. I did research and started eating to the meter - testing my blood after every meal and adjusting my carbs accordingly to keep my blood sugar within normal range. At my first follow up appointment my doctor lowered my meds because I kept going low. By the second appointment he took me off everything but metformin, and called in the other doctors to show them how much weight I had lost and how he wished all patients were like me. I still had stitches at Christmas and my goal was to be no longer obese by my birthday in June. I made it, and started running shortly after. By December of that year I was normal weight and had run my first 5k.

So, when most people say couch to 5k, they didn’t literally start from the couch. I did. I could barely even walk short distances and was almost completely disabled by illness when I started. This short telling makes it sound like I was determined and put in a bunch of hard work, but I’m leaving out the parts where I cried and cursed my life and screamed things like “If I have to work out every day in order to eat I don’t know why it’s even worth it to be alive!” Yes, this is a real thing that happened. For months, while I was getting used to doing what I needed to do. No pie, ever - sugar substitutes taste like poison to me and even a small sliver will spike my blood glucose. No Coke, ever. I used to drink giant coke icees all the time, they were literally my favorite thing. And instead of playing video games all day (I make video games for a living so playing them is an occupational hazard) I didn’t have time, because I was running and lifting. And I really did hate it. But I did it, because when you need to do something or you will die, you just do it. Not being able to see really brought home to me that high blood glucose destroys the body. Reading about the high chance of stroke, heart attack, and amputation if I had uncontrolled diabetes, combined with the death that year of my dear friend from diabetes related causes, drove home the point. I had to change to live and I did it. But that first six months I hated every moment of every day.

I had to seek out new pleasures and new sources of pleasure to keep going. Now I love running, I love lifting, and I love the food I eat. I don’t fear going back to my old way of living because it seems terrible and I can’t imagine why I liked it at the time.

quilteryoyo wrote: »

I don't think we had a monthly question in September. I'd like to propose that the following as a strictly selfish one to give me inspiration as I recover from surgery - hopefully this month. "What is the worst injury/medical issue that you have come back from and how did you do it?"

When I first started out running I had really bad knees. To the point that I couldn't do a quarter squat without holding onto something because they would hurt like kittens. (To whomever blindly advocates that running is bad and cycling is good - badly fitted bikes are awful for knee health, peeps.) Luckily for me, they didn't hurt much while running. It was mostly a matter of not overextending my own abilities. Used KT tape as needed, rested as needed, did wall sits whenever I brushed my teeth so I wouldn't skip them. It was a slow process but eventually they got to the point where I didn't need to constantly monitor them. Still do wall sits while brushing teeth though, I think the habit has stuck.

There's this article that I shared last year and I think it's quite applicable so sharing it again. This line really hits home: You are still an athlete, and recovery is now your sport.

@rheddmobile I'm going to file your story away in my long term memory to tell anyone who ever tells me they're too lazy/sick/stuck in their ways to live healthier.

quilteryoyo wrote: »

I don't think we had a monthly question in September. I'd like to propose that the following as a strictly selfish one to give me inspiration as I recover from surgery - hopefully this month. "What is the worst injury/medical issue that you have come back from and how did you do it?"

Broken leg. It was fairly easy to come back from after cast was off. I had to get used to walking again for a few weeks (2 crutches to 1 then none). I started with 30 minutes of walk 4:30 then run :30. Increased the running by 30 seconds each week until I could run the full 5 minutes.

Hardest part was getting the range of motion back. My big toe took longest. And I still don't have the same flexibility/ range as before. Some times it's hard to get shoes on. Sometimes when the weather changes quickly it aches.

After reading up to this point, my niggles, both big and small, do not even rate a mention.
My hat is off to all you courageous runners who overcome the challenges life throws in your paths and keep coming back for more.

@rheddmobile you have true grit and determination! Yes, you are an inspiration to us all.
@kgirlhart very sorry about the job loss. You're right, it comes at a very bad time, but the blessing is you have an immediate replacement, and with better pay That's pretty hard to beat.

For the first time since October of 2019 I ran somewhere besides my neighborhood! I drove about 15 minutes to the next town and ran the trails. They are paved, but wind through woods and around 3 small lakes. It was glorious! Temp started out at 58F and finished at 61F. Light wind, just wonderful. Before I knew it I was at 14 miles, with an average pace of 9:01/mi. I really need to get out of my neighborhood more.

I have been very fortunate to not have any running related injuries other than a shin splint. My worst illness though happened my senior year of college. I felt awful and kept throwing up, so I went to the campus clinic. They gave me an antibiotic, which didn’t help, so they then sent me to the ER, where I was diagnosed with a UTI. Two days later, I had a fever of 104, so my roommate and boyfriend took me back to the ER, and my mom drove several hours to see me. I ended up being in the hospital for a week with an infection of unknown origin in my gallbladder, liver, spleen, and both kidneys. My gallbladder totally stopped working, and I ended up having it taken out a few weeks later when my platelet count went up and my white blood cell count went down. I had so many tests done, and we discovered my allergy to azythromyacin. I still have no idea what caused it. It took me awhile until several weeks after the gallbladder came out for me to get my energy back to do much of anything.

@rheddmobile, your story is incredible. You are such a strong person.

@kgirlhart I’m sorry about the job loss, but I am happy something else was waiting for you. I hope the new job goes well!

Last night was just a brief walk with my dogs, followed by strength training. Today, I got in 1.75 miles, and I went to a new class at my gym- RIPPED. I have never done so many burpees. I am exhausted and think I will likely be sore tomorrow.

10/1: 1.5 + ST
10/2: .5 + ST
10/3: 1.75 + RIPPED

Total: 3.75/50