Training on the horizon?
With the new pain meds, I find myself with more of my usual energy...I didn't realize how tired I was from hurting so much. The pain med takes the edge off- I still hurt, but I am not as aware of it (praise God!). And since the inflammation I experience is not damaging my joints (thankfully!), it's just a matter of dealing with pain, and my doctors have no restrictions on what I physically do (they know I pay close attention to my limits), I decided to go for a run on Monday!
It was nice to pop out of bed at 4:45am ( I know, I am crazy right? :) ), put on my running shoes, and head out. I just took a regular watch with me, not my Garmin, because I didn't want to pay attention to my pace. I just wanted to run. I ran 1.4 miles and I felt good after it. And since I timed my run, it turned out I ran at a 10:00 even pace...not bad for not running since January. My right IT band still caused some problems, so there is gait analysis and some PT in my future when I start increasing mileage.
And then, I went swimming today. I started a membership at a new pool in hopes of conquering the Big Bad Swim...and figured this would be one exercise that would be more forgiving on the joint inflammation.
Holy-out-of-shape-Melissa Batman.
I used to be able to swim over a mile...I was gasping for breath and couldn't feel my arms after just 100 yards of freestyle followed by 100 yds of breaststroke. I made myself do 100 yds of pulls without paddles, 50 yds of sidekick drills, another 100 yds of free and 50yds of breaststroke...yup, 500 yds total (hey, engineer here, I like even numbers :) ). I almost landed on my face as I pulled myself out of the pool because my arms were completely DEAD...I seriously had spaghetti limbs and a high heart rate...but I recovered decently (might be the ice cream I ate afterwards ;-) ). I wasn't upset over this, I mean, I honestly can't remember the last time I swam, so I wasn't expecting a Phelps-like performance today. The hips and shoulder joints did hurt a bit afterwards, but seem to have settled now...so probably just doing 300yds for a while will be a good distance for me.
So what did I learn? That I'm definitely not ready for full blown training- exactly what I expected and I am content with that. I just wanted to see where I was physically. I can do small amounts - the run distance was good, the bike was a bit long (or I need to take more breaks), and the swim distance will need to be shortened until fitness improves, but I can start getting some cardio and muscle back, which will be nice. Obviously, I don't want to rely on the pain meds to "bandaid" everything (they are non-habit forming, just in case anyone was concerned (I was, that was the first question I asked!), and hopefully, and Lord willing, once the insurance approves the new meds, they won't be necessary. But of course, baby steps here - I don't want to stress my body out any more than it already is - I am shooting for the rehabilitating affects of exercise, not the training affects...at least for now :).
So that's my fun "training" post - I hope you weren't anticipating trumpets and fireworks, but I'm glad I was able to do what I did this week. Such a good reminder to be thankful for every step forward, and for learning my limits and my dependency on Him.