Week ending 28AUG2022

Monday AM - up and out in the rain in Cleveland MS for an easy wake up 3 miles.

Pix from the hotel room (really):

PM - again, post a corporate outing.  Certainly not preferrerd, but manageable.  3.3 miles in the rain-ish, sweating so that I look like I am swimming, and did my first true workout of sorts in a while - at least since the lung diagnosis:  10 x 1 minute on, 1 minute off.   Ended up averaging sub 8 for a run, which hasn't happened in about a month.  Anc this new fangled watch tells me my resting HR this AM was 29.  I am not sure I believe that.  Apparently I got to 180 on the run for some of that whopping 6:20 stuff.   All that doesn't matter:  it felt good to spin the wheels a bit.  

Tuesday AM - a bit of the second day drag.  3.2 miles in the AM for the wake up.  Typical conditions for here I guess.  

Evening - 5 miles.  At least not raining.  Easy.  

Can anyone answer why Strava doesn't automatically flag runs that have mile splits at better than 3:50 in the middle of a 5 miler?

Wednesday AM - 3 miles in the mist.

I guess Sage Canaday also dealt with pulomonary embolisms last year.  I need to dig into understanding his circumstances a bit more though.  

Thursday - missed the AM.  Slept in.  Got out for six in the evening.  The rain cleared and the skies were blue so it felt stupid hot.  Did six by 2 minutes on full active rest.  Six miles

Friday - 4 miles slow in the AM in the humid again.  Shorts were soaked as they could be at the end of this one.  Had to wring them out before tossing them back into the luggage.

Saturday - Back in town and got in six at the Mountain Vista meet.  Easy.  Saw several of the CRUD folks who now coach for Cheyenne Mountain with SOD.

Fun in the evening up at Peculier (yes that is how they spell it) Ales.  Great brewery and location.

Sunday - tired legs.  6.4 miles to get 40 on the week.  

This is ridiculous.

Week ending 21AUG2022

Monday AM - 5.1 miles morning Eagle jogging.  Warm.

Afternoon practice - 5.4 miles with some weak ass hill strides

Tuesday afternoon - 8.1 miles.
Rain a ridiculous amount the AM.  That is great but for a bit it seemed like we were gonna head the way of 2012 again.  

Wednesday AM - 3 miles easy with GW.

Afternoon 5.1 with a handful of fartlek builds

Thursday afternoon - 7 miles.  Hot.  

Open Mic at Rails.

Played with TC on "Call Me the Breeze" and then did "Poor Life Choices," "Something in the Orange," and "Feathered Indians."

Friday - down in Westminster for a meet:  8 miles easy

Saturday AM practice - 9 miles.  Some strides at the end.  

I am going to have to come to terms with beginning to get back out of my comfort zone again.  It has slipped to 8:30 and 8:40 miles.  I can tell my lungs ain't what they were, but I need to not really give a crap about that and just work.  It may never be what it was (it never is in fact) but I don't have to accept that I am what I am.  

Sunday - travel.

After the welcome diner, got out for 5.7.  It was raining, which was nice but I would have been soaked in any case.  It is a different level of humidity here in the Delta.  

Ended up with 56 and change on the week.  In many ways it was a progress week, better than the last few in terms of miles and even getting on the gas on occasion.  But I recognize it is is also a weak week.  But patience now.  

Week ending 14AUG2022

Quite the article on burro racing.

Monday AM - 7 miles.  Hot.

Tuesday AM - 7.1 miles.  Hot.  
PM 2.5 miles on Ridgeview with GW.

Wednesday afternoon - with JZ on North Star Mountain (sort wedged between Lincoln and Quandary and Silverheels).  Got up to about 13k feet.  My lungs suck right now (oh ha ha).

We were up there to get a summer visit into ES' resting spot.  Took a bit to find it so I was sure to get a GPS on it this time.   JZ and I ended up with about 4.3, with about 1500 of climbing.  Few things I love as much as spending time up high like this on a summer day with one my most favorite people.  

Wednesday evening - band practice:

Thursday AM - 7 miles around practice.  IG showed up and that was nice.   Snake season still.

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Eric S (Lead Feet) was in town so I was able to get to meet up with him for a beer at Rails.  

Eric has Leadville next week and is gunning for his 9th finish. He'll get it.

Friday AM - 7.5 miles.  Best I felt in the lungs the last three weeks.  Hit the Hot Buttered Rum concert at Levitt (awesome venue) based on a recommendation from JT.  Missed taking the obligatory bird shot.  

Saturday - 8 miles total around (mostly after) the TT for the kids.  

Sunday - explored with TZ and @theragethatissage above Boreas Pass, heading up Black Powder Pass.  Beaut.  

40 something on the week.  Still in a recovery mode, but moving along well.  Some good time at altitude - and this is the time for it.  

On Wednesday I found out there the blood tests for any sort of genetic marker or predisposition to blood clotting came back negative.  The good news on that is I can get off the blood thinner protocol on a 3 month window - and don't have to take them for life (for now).  The bad news is we don't know why they happened anyway.  I am happier with this set of circumstances though.  

Week ending 07AUG2022

Monday - headed to Tahosa for what I think is my 7th XC camp with the Eagles.  Fifth year at Tahosa.  Probably missed a COVID year in there but I'd have to check.  

It felt like a great camp for me.  Good kids, good environment, some great goal setting and conversations.  All the things you want when involved in something like this.

I decided I was going to do some running.  I wasn't expecting much.  The biggest concern with it all was that I'd take a tumble and bruise something.  Being on a blood thinner then makes that a greater risk.  I promised to be more careful, but it is true that I am rather klutzy.

Monday night we headed up the St. Vrain trail.  5.5 miles.  It was clear that as soon I had to breathe significantly at all, I was gonna hurt.  The deeper lung pain was still there even though it has generally gotten better over the last week.  

Tuesday - 5.1 miles up towards the Beaver Res, and then jumped on the Sourdough for a bit.  Same sorta thing.  So just easy running.  Or barely jogging.

In the evening I tacked on another 3.2 miles up the Coney Flats out of Beaver Res.  Things seemed to loosen up a tad in the lungs on this one.

The couple days up there reaffirmed for me a couple of things: I am gonna run.  I am committed to getting past this crap so I can continue to do this stuff.  I do want to get back to being fit enough to do Pikes in 2023 and the Fairplay Burro Race as well.  I have had a variety of shit pitched to me in the last couple of years (this, the Achilles) that has screwed that up but I will get back to it.  

Great pic of Jack from last weekend.

And, it also affirmed that I was completely not going to be able to do the burro race this year.  No, that would have been a med evac situation possibility had I done it.  

Wednesday AM - I saw my local doc and it was surprisingly a good visit.  I'll be on the thinners for 3 months, but I am getting some tests to see if they a root cause to my clot issue can be determined.  For the moment, they are sorta stumped.  But it was clearly stated that my general health / vitals were a huge benefit for me getting through this pretty unscathed.  Apparently there may have been some permanent damage to one of my lungs, so I could expect to deal with that longer term.  

In the afternoon I got out for five on the ditch with JZ.  It was hot, and I think I was feeling the effects of all that blood being drawn, so this one was especially wonky.  5 miles.

Thursday AM - 6 miles easy with GW and JH around practice.  Pretty sure the thinners are screwing up my sweat.  I look like I am taking a bath at the end of every run.  And the sweat seems saltier than usual.  

Been running with the Garmin 35 watch I got.  I got it because I didn't expect to carry the phone for the entirety of the Fairplay or Pikes events.  So much for that.  It tells me a lot.  Maybe too much.  Like number of steps I have taken, my HR when I burp, etc.  

Friday AM - practice.  6.5 with strides.  No way would I call this a good run but it is the best one I have had all week.  The pain continues to drop a bit and I can breathe a little easier.  

Saturday AM - 8 miles around practice.  Continued progress.  Still can't and won't run hard yet but getting better.  Saw some owls.  

Sunday AM - 9.4 miles.  It was a bit of a cooler morning.  I felt fine for the first half dozen but then was sweating like I was in the midwest.  Really just slow but good to get in a few.  Still dealing with some deep breath challenges  but way better than a week ago of course.

About 45 on the week, but I can see that I am way behind where I was a few weeks ago.  Engine is just sputtering through some stuff.  

Week ending 31JUL2022

Monday AM - walked in Waukegan for 1.7 miles.  
PM - walked in Libertyville for 6.  Made six phone calls.  

I'm grateful.  Grateful I have people that care about me in this circumstance.  Grateful I have access to healthcare to help me through it.  Grateful I am healthy enough to deal with it with little repercussion.  

But I am pissed too.  I am pissed it will impact Burro Days.  That I can't run right now.  That I am on a blood thinner that makes me feel a tad different.  That its is not clear why this happened.  It was pointed out to me that I mentioned I was told it could be COVID and then I got sent an article that it could be the vaccine (which I last boosted at two months ago).  That I will have a big ER bill.  That I will have someone that will likely recommend that I am on these meds for life.  Etc.  Some of the pissed is a little logical.  Most of it ain't.  But I am pissed.

And I don't enjoy walking nearly as much but it is better than sitting on my ass.  I guess I am grateful that I got to talk to people during it and grumble about my really non predicament.  

Tuesday - I woke up and felt like I had a hangover but I had not had a drop last night.  So a slow start and no AM walk.  Seems increasingly unlikely that Fairplay is a good idea in regards to running.  

PM - back over to Libertyville.  5 miles of quiet walking.

Wednesday AM = 1.4 miles around the hotel. 

Evening - walked 5 miles.

Thursday AM - 1 mile at wake up.

Evening:  after the biz dinner.  I have avoided the dinner all week.  I do enjoy it, but frankly I'd rather skip it.  If you were with me and are reading that, I am sorry.  I did enjoy your company and I was glad to share it.  But at the same time I was an ass and I was often thinking about being out somewhere. else. 

Anyway, so I got out after that.  After 4.5 miles of walking, where I even saw some lightning bugs, I gave up on the walking and jogged for a bit.  It just felt weird.  But I was a bit relieved to do it.  6 miles.  

Friday - loop around the mall.  1.3 miles in the AM before hitting the site and heading out for travel.  

Traveled home.  

On Saturday, KZ left for Japan for a year.  So there was that.  

Then we bolted up to Fairplay.  I was definitely bummed to not be racing but the joy-task at hand was playing the gig for Burro Days.  We had a blast.  

The harmonica hurt ... probably for obvious reasons.

It was an awesome show.  The crowd was great, and they brought incredible energy - even in the rain.  It was really a great time.

Sunday ... I watched the start of the races ... and was disappointed.  There were 12 starters of the long course.  I am not thinking we would have been in it for the win, but it would have been a good day.  I was irritated by the whole affair.

But anyway ... it just sorta cemented a resolve to get back to it.  

Off to XC camp next week.  Oh yeah, I deferred on Pikes too.