Gotta Get Right

I've been AWOL on the blog lately. The reason being that my health has been a mess, and of course my training has suffered considerably. Well, I am finally feeling better, at least well enough to tell the world about it. This season seems like it had a slow start, and then right when it was time to put the gas on and crank up the volume, my health crumbled to pieces in a "death from a thousand cuts" sort of way. Every time I turn around something else has me out of commission, missing a workout, or a few days of them.

The first thing that started to go haywire with my health was my mysterious chest pain (see old blog post about this). Running to and from work in PA was absolutely great for about a week or two, then the pain settled in, and got progressively worse as weeks went on. My training log is filled with entries about having to walk on my runs, and how bad it hurt. About two weeks ago, I was running home and it hurt so bad I swore off ever running again. I wasn't able to find a pattern as to why it was happening, and though it seems to be subsiding now, I am still left at a loss. It's GERD-related to be sure, but what is causing the GERD I don't know. There were no major changes in my diet or lifestyle that could be blamed.

So, I decided to shift my focus from running to biking, since I don't get the chest pain while biking. I began bike commuting, which is awesome when the weather cooperates. And that weekend I scheduled a 4 hour ride with Becca. Then, the day before the ride I got hit with a nasty chest cold. I was hellbent on riding since I have missed so much training this year, so I went anyway, and it hurt. When we got home I had lost my voice, and had a 102 fever and laid on the couch under blankets in a NyQuil coma the rest of the night.

The cold roughed me up pretty good all last week. So, I scheduled an appointment to see a doctor. I figured I was ready to get a new doctor in PA anyway, I was sick as a dog, and I could always use another (maybe the 5th?) opinion on the chest pain. The doctor was great, and to stop my GERD she put me on a Nexium regimen that could kill a horse. It cleared up my GERD in a few days. She also took a listen to my lungs and predicted (correctly) that my chest cold would be gone in a few days. But then, while she was examining my neck she found a large mass on my thyroid gland. It's too early to know anything concrete about it, other than its a lump and it doesn't produce hormone (my thyroid panel was fine). But still, it scared me pretty bad for a few days. I wrote a blog about it, but then decided not to post it. I am going for an ultrasound to find out more tomorrow, and perhaps a biopsy to follow. Now that I have learned more about it, I am not as scared.

But even this screwed up my training for a few days since while I was waiting for my thyroid panel to come back I was not supposed to train. See, if I had hyperthroidism, heart failure is a common condition. And given the chest pain I have been having we decided it was a good idea to find out first. So, after a few days we found out my thyroid hormone levels are fine, and I was cleared to train again.

At last, a good training weekend...but it was Easter and we were headed to CT. No matter, I will run a bunch while I'm there, and bike when we get home Sunday. Well, Saturday it absolutely poured in CT. I ran an hour of hill repeats and got soaked to the bone, it was a miserable run. But, the good news was that I felt great otherwise. As lousy as I have been feeling lately, this was a great sign. Then Sunday, we got home in time for another run. Besides having my legs being sore as crap from the hill repeats and then sitting in the car for 5 hours, it was a lovely long run through our new town with Becca and the baby jogger.

When we got home from the run, I saw Becca eating her protein recovery drink. She's been such a machine lately, she must be doing something right, so I decided to have some. This was against my better judgment since I've gotten mild hives from whey in the past, but not too serious, so I downed a scoop of the stuff. Twenty minutes later I have two fat lips, my mouth is numb, and my entire trunk is covered in giant hives. I guess I am really allergic to whey (and soy, what the heck am I supposed to eat for protein besides the Outback Steakhouse???) So, its off to CVS for benedryl. I took two, so again I was out of commission for a workout. Becca ground out two or three hours on the computrainer while I dozed off.

So, what does all this mean? It means I "gotta get right." My GERD is finally on the right track, so the chest pain is subsiding. I am 95% over my cold. I'll stay away from whey. And I'll learn more about my lumpy neck this week. It's time to get it all right, then ask my body to do some serious work. I have scheduled big hours this week, so we will see how it goes. It's now or never for IM CDA.