One of the neighbors scared the crap out of me on my run the Sunday before last. I started out on my normal route because I really missed what I affectionately refer to as my ”stretching post”. Really it’s a stop sign on the corner that’s close enough to the curb that I can hold onto it and do calf raises and leg stretches before I set off on the first part of my run.
I almost had a heart attack when I saw a shadow moving in my peripheral vision. I looked all around me quickly and I stumbled a little (no coordination+being startled does not equal a balanced Jamie), not seeing anyone. I had images (hello too much Criminal Minds) of someone sneaking up behind me bent on throwing me in a shady white van or worse. (I’m not overly-dramatic or anything).
Not seeing anyone I finally looked up and realized one of the neighbors was on top of her motorhome, cleaning it. That’s where the shadow came from. I think I scared her as much as she scared me. She was grasping her chest with a rag in her hand like I startled her. I mean, granted I had just started running, but I am not a quiet runner. My lungs like to make it known how much they struggle, so they wheeze and whistle sometimes in addition to the huffing and puffing, plus I know my footfalls are not quiet. The one time I ran without music I felt like I sounded like a buffalo plodding down the street. Plus from her vantage point, she had a birds eye view of the whole street.
Hoping she hadn’t seen me frantically looking around for a serial killer and tripping over my own feet, I sheepishly waved at her, said ”Good morning!” and ran off. I’m pretty sure she waved back but I was too busy watching where I was going to know for sure.
It really is getting too hot to run outside anymore. Either I need to start running on the dreadmill at the gym, or I need to start getting up at the butt crack of dawn to run. My weather app said it was only 72 degrees when I got out of bed, but it felt way hotter than that as I ran into the blazing sun.
That run was much better than the one prior. It was still a slow run because it felt like the heat was pressing down on me, trying to keep me from going too fast. Instead of trying to beat my time, and based on how much I struggled with the decision to actually run, I decided to just do 1:30sec intervals with 1:00 walking between. I felt accomplished just putting my running clothes on.
I had kind of been feeling like crap all week. I don’t know if I was just feeling run down because it’s the end of the school year, or maybe I was trying to catch the stomach bug that seemed to be going around, or if my stomach didn’t like the reintroduction of one of my favorite Starbucks drinks. I felt slightly nauseated almost every day last week and my stomach was just really bloated. Like I looked about 7 months pregnant bloated. I hate that feeling. Both the nausea and the bloating actually, but I hate feeling bloated more than anything. I always want to take a pin and stick it in my stomach to see if it will pop.
My favorite Starbucks drink during the hotter months is the Strawberry Açaí Refresher, sans the strawberries. I’m not a fan of freeze dried fruit to begin with, but there is something about those red chunks floating around and possibly getting sucked up into a straw that just absolutely grosses me out. So I always order it without the fruit. There is something about it that just seems so refreshing to me and it was a nice change of pace from my normal unsweet black tea that I normally get in the morning before school.
I don’t know if there is something in there that my stomach doesn’t like or if it’s a coincidence, and my stomach is just a jerk. I stopped drinking them last summer because I felt like my stomach was worse when I drank them, but again I have to think, is it my stomach or the drink itself? I’m not going to drink any for a week or so to see how I do and then on a ”good” stomach day I will drink one and see what happens. My family gives me grief about all of my weird food ”experiments” but it’s the only way for me to figure out what to avoid without cutting everything out completely. Of course if I could get an actual stomach diagnosis, that would be great.
Sorry…I got a little off track with all the stomach talk. I think the overall feeling of crapiness (that consequently led to me not eating great) contributed to my slowness. I have not been kind to my body the last two weeks. Between not sleeping, not eating well and the overall ickiness I’ve been living with, I think my body is finally starting to get pissed off at me. I know it’s so important to sleep and fuel correctly when running, but I’m just doing everything I can to survive the end of the school year right now so it is what it is. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop running-I kind of need that for my sanity right now.
As I ran I thought about school. It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. We have a little less than a week left and I wonder what other interesting things we have in store for us. I have discovered in recent weeks that junior high kids get a little restless towards the end of the year. I love my school, I am honestly so glad I moved to middle school, I feel like this is where I’m supposed to be, but to be honest some days it’s a veritable shit show. I really need to start writing all the things down that kids say and write a book. I have some great ones from when I taught elementary school, but junior high kids are a lot more inventive and colorful with their language.
As I continued to run with the sun beating down on me, I tried to distract myself from the fact that I was sweating so profusely it was running down my face and into my eyes, making them sting. I’m honestly shocked that I didn’t cause myself bodily harm (based on how graceful I am…not) by falling down or running into something because I felt half blind for most of my run. I focused on the music and tried to ignore the fact that I was drenched and probably losing most of my body hydration.
It was so hot (have I mentioned that it was a little hot?) and there were no sprinklers, hoses, or yards with irrigation in sight. I would happily have taken my shoes off and splashed through some irrigation water had it been available. I would have even taken someone just throwing a bottle of water on me at that rate. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been that hot while running. I felt like my face was melting off and my feet were getting stuck in the melting asphalt. I am 100% overdramatizing of course, but it was really hot.
I have come to the conclusion that 4 miles is now my long run. I ran it by ”accident” a few weeks ago, and now I feel like anything less is just dumb when I know I can do 4 miles. I mentally played tug-o-war between just cutting it off at 3 miles because it was so hot, or continuing on, but the side of me won that said, ”That’s dumb it’s only one more mile.” So I pushed on despite the headache that I could feel forming and the fact that I could feel my pulse was pounding both in my head and behind my eyes.
The last few weeks I had been pushing myself a little past the 4 miles. I keep thinking I have to set records every week with my Garmin. Today was not the day for that. As I got closer to my house, I saw that I was only 2 tenths of a mile from the 4 mile mark and realized for the sake of my health (and melting brain), I probably should call it quits. I proceeded to run halfway up my block and back (I tried to sprint but the heat just sapped out any extra energy I had). When I hit that magic mile marker and my Garmin recognized it by vibrating it on my wrist I stopped. I just stopped. A dead stop. Normally I jog to slow down and walk around a little to cool off. There was none of that. I stopped still and just stood in the middle of the road and briefly felt like I was going to vomit. I took some deep breaths, used my shirt to try and wipe the sweat that was still dripping into my eyes, and slowly headed home. Luckily I was only like 15 feet from the front door when I stopped.
When I first walked in the door I thought about just going up to my room and sitting in front of the fan, but I knew I needed to go stretch. As I trudged out back I realized how spent I felt. I basically collapsed in the spot where I usually stretch, even with the sun beating down on me. I probably laid there for about 10 minutes before I did anything.
I did my post-run stretches grudgingly, but I knew if I didn’t, I’d be miserable later. Then I dragged myself upstairs, turned on my fan and chugged a whole bottle of water. I laid down on my bed and my cat came to join me. She either liked how warm I was, or she was telling me she was proud of me for getting out there. I can never tell with her, she doesn’t say much.
When I finally cooled off enough to function, I checked my Garmin app to see how I did. I obviously didn’t hit any speed or distance goals, but I did hit my personal goal of knocking down mile three to get my negative splits! I was so excited!
I was ecstatic that I had accomplished my personal goal. I’d been trying to work on that for a few weeks now, but mile 3 kept beating me. I was over the moon that I was able to achieve this goal, even though it wasn’t one of my better runs.
I had planned to see if I could do that again on my next run, just to see if it was a fluke or not. I woke up early this last Sunday morning. 6am. On my one day to sleep in. That’s how determined I was to run this week. My goal in getting up that early was to beat the heat. I figured I could do my normal Sunday routine, groceries for school, pick up grandma’s groceries, sort out her medicine, do laundry, run errands, etc. and then take a nap mid-day. I don’t like taking naps on school days because I know I’ll be up all night and I won’t get enough sleep for school. If I did happen to nap, I figured it would be worth it in this case if I was able to go for a run.
Apparently that was not in the cards for me though. My back has been doing weird things all week. Not my back per-se, but my right shoulder blade. I don’t know how to quite describe it. There wasn’t really any one thing that set it off, I don’t remember twisting funny, picking something up that was too heavy, or getting into any accidents without my knowledge.
It started last Monday. It almost feels like when you get pins and needles in your feet or hands, but in my shoulder blade. Or like if you’ve ever been to a chiropractor and they’ve used a tens unit on you and maybe turned it up too high…like that. Occasionally it will feel like someone is digging their finger into my shoulder blade, and every once in a while it’s like someone is snapping a rubber-band onto my back. Sometimes it’s burning, sometimes it feels like someone squirted me with cold water and I get a weird sensation of something cold flowing down my back. It’s going up into my neck too.
Also the fingers on my right hand keep going numb. Actually I’m pretty sure the whole hand is going numb. It went so numb, that on Thursday morning I was trying to straighten my hair before school and I dropped my straightener. I had gone to bed with semi-wet hair the night before and it was a hot mess in the morning. I have natural waves that some people think are ”beachy”, I just think it looks like I didn’t do anything with my hair. I generally straighten it every day, unless there is a special occasion and then I curl it.
When I picked up my straightener it was working perfectly fine. For like a minute. Then it made this sad electronic noise and turned itself off. I was already running behind schedule and was not in the mood to deal with electrical issues. I tried everything, turning it on and off, unplugging it and plugging it back in, flipping the reset button off and on, waiting for 10 minutes and then trying everything I had already tried once-again. Like giving it a break was going to give it enough energy to start up again or something. It would power on for a few seconds and make this sad little noise like when you lose a life in an old-school video game like Donkey Kong or Mario Bros. and then it would turn off. I finally gave up and had to curl my hair.
As bad as my morning started I had more compliments from students that day. One boy who barely speaks up in class said, ”Wow Miss (that’s what they call me), you look really pretty today and your clothes are nice too.”. I must look like a big scrub every other day of the week judging by the other positive comments I received on my appearance.
Anyway, back to the matter at (numb) hand. In the mornings it isn’t too terrible, but by the end of the evening I can hardly stand it. By nightfall it feels as though someone is poking me with an icepick or something equally uncomfortable. I have to try to contort myself into weird shapes to try to find a comfortable position that doesn’t hurt. Based on everything I’ve said, the majority of the people I’ve talked to this week (of course none have an MD after their names) have told me it sounds like I have a pinched nerve.
Looks like the chiropractor and perhaps a few massages are in my future. I don’t mind the thought of regular massages, but the last time I went to a chiropractor (over two years ago), he adjusted me and I got an immediate migraine that lasted for days and was nauseated for like a week afterwards. I really don’t want to experience a repeat of that. I’ll have to call tomorrow and try to make an appointment for Friday maybe. Thursday is our last day of school with kids and Friday is a teacher work day. If my stuff is done and my classroom is relatively put away, I’m pretty sure I can leave a little earlier than normal to get to my appointment if I can get one. Considering this post is so late and has sat in my drafts box, I already went to the chiropractor, but that’s a story for another post!
I knew when my alarm went off that morning that I probably shouldn’t go for a run. My back was immediately doing the pins and needles thing and I had to roll over to get out of bed rather than just sitting up like a normal person. But my brain was screaming at me to GO RUN! So I got up and started getting ready. It didn’t bother me getting dressed. Not even when I had to wrestle myself into my sports bra. I thought for sure that would make it flare up or set it off or whatever, but I was good to go. By 6:25 I was out the door, stretching and getting ready to set off.
As I walked to my normal stretching corner, my back started bothering me again. I kept telling myself it was fine though and I’d be able to run no problem (runner denial). I stopped and stretched as per my usual and then set off at a slow pace. I seemed to do okay while running. When my interval timer went off and I slowed down to a walk, my shoulder started acting up even more. I tried to keep a slow pace in hopes my shoulder would loosen up and I’d be okay, but every time I stopped to walk, it hurt worse. It started feeling like something was torn in my shoulder. I know that’s not the case because I’d be in a lot more pain, but it’s hard to put into words exactly how it felt.
I decided to call it a day after a mile. I probably could have kept running. It hurt, but I didn’t feel like I was dying. I’m still trying to be responsible and listen to my body. There is no sense in making it worse by pushing myself, especially without knowing exactly what’s going on with it. As aggravated as I was about stopping early, I didn’t think of it as quitting so much as future-proofing my running. Ensuring that I won’t have to stop running semi-long term to deal with some dumb injury. I’m definitely calling and making an appointment with a chiropractor tomorrow. I’m sure they will tell me if I need a regular doctor or if they can help with whatever is going on.
It’s sad how small this block of time is. (And how slow) My goal is to get my ish together in the next few weeks. I want to get the all clear that running is not going to make my back worse, then I will start running on the dreadmill during the week for my ”short” runs and continue to get up early for my long runs on the weekend if my schedule allows. Since my second job is so accommodating to my school schedule during the summer months I open up my availability completely so they can work me as needed. It’s hard to get a regular routine that way, but I’m not complaining. I love working there, or I wouldn’t still be there almost 5 years later.
And since I didn’t take the obligatory running pictures today (did it even happen if there is no photographic proof??) I will leave you with this:
PS As I left to go pick up dinner that night the sprinklers came on. I decided what the hell, they’ve been elusive on my runs of late, so I took full advantage and ran through them! I’m sure the neighbors thought I was nuts-but it was fun!
Runs Through Sprinklers 