gwennefarrell

This week I decided I needed to completely adjust my schedule for training. We started to hear that more atmospheric rivers were on the way meaning copious more rain (just what we need). Normally I do my interval training on Thursdays and my long run on Saturdays. Of course these are the 2 days when we are going to get the most amount of rain. So, I regrouped and did my interval training yesterday, a walk on the treadmill today, will do 10k tomorrow (the weather is supposed to be decent) and then a walk on the treadmill Saturday. As much as I dislike walking on the treadmill I hate even more having to run on it.

Back in August as I was discussing my blood test results with my doctor and after having given her my latest weight she suggested a bone density scan. I asked why I would need this and she explained that studies have found that when there is a significant weight loss it can also lead to a loss of bone density. I said sure, let’s do it. Of course it took a few months but the scan finally happened last Monday.

Per my normal paranoia I had to research the bone density scan. Apparently there was a study done that found that especially post-menopausal women who had lost a significant amount of weight (particularly belly fat) were more likely to suffer bone density loss and become at risk for osteoporosis and hence fractures. Wait, what? Losing all the weight is a good thing right? Turns out that while the study did point to an increase risk it was a small study and the risk, while material, could be managed. Phew, I sometimes think if people trying to lose weight know about all these risks and side effects they might stop. Then I realize, nah, the risks of that extra weight are far more damaging.

Anyways, the scan is an x-ray scan of the hips and spine. There are 2 types of comparisons that can be done. Firstly the T-score which compares your score to a healthy young adult of your same sex. The goal is for this score to be -1 or above with a score of -2.5 or lower indicating osteoporosis. The second is the Z-score which would compare your bone density to the average of people in you own age grown, sex, and ethnicity. I don’t qualify for this score as one of the requirements for women is that you are pre-menopausal.

Ultimately the bone density scan is looking at my bone health. Yes, I am hoping it comes back saying I either have healthy bones or at worst osteopenia which indicates some bone loss but not osteoporosis. Should the worst cast scenario of a diagnosis of osteoporosis happen I will deal with it and do what I can to mitigate risk factors.

I do believe that knowing these health risks are an important part of continuing this journey.

I started out on my run today and was pleased that there was no rain forecasted. I had planned on doing an 8k but sadly that went south on me. As I began my run down the hill I thought it is a little breezy today. As I headed west towards the promenade the wind picked up. Then when I got to the beach I realized this was a really strong wind. I literally struggled to keep going fighting that wind but by time I hit the pier I gave up. Really, I felt like I was barely moving forward. It was much easier with the wind at my back and I still got in a good 6k run. I think I need to do a better job checking the weather so I know when it is best to run on the dreaded treadmill.

14 years ago when I was 41 years old my doctor sent me to a specialty joint replacement clinic (note other than the medical staff I was the youngest person there by decades). They did full leg x-rays of both my legs and the results were pretty astonishing. If you looked at my left leg my knee appeared normal. My right knee however looked like it had trees going in it. The specialist told me that knee was already full of arthritis and that I would need a knee replacement. The problem is the protocol for the replacement is unless the pain is absolutely debilitating then it couldn’t be done until I was at least 55. A few years ago I was again referred to an ortho specialist who brilliantly told me I had very bad arthritis in my knee and I should plan on getting it replaced as soon as I qualify.

So how did I get here? Well, I fell through a ceiling nearly 30 years ago and did major ligament damage. Because after the first surgery my knee capitulated (meaning it was frozen) I went through 3 more surgeries for a total of 4 surgeries in 2 years. I’ve never regained full range of motion in that knee which in itself has caused all sorts of issues.

What causes osteoarthritis? There is a list of things including age, sex (women are more likely to develop it), obesity (ok, I’ve gotten rid of that problem at least), stress on the joint, genetics and for me the obvious reason, injury.

The reason I am talking about this today is ever since my 16k run my arthritis has been bothering me. I don’t think it is from the run, I think it has more to do with the changes we are going through in our barometric pressure due to these intense storms coming through. I long ago realized that while I can’t predict rain, my knee reacts when there is a significant change in the weather (extreme heat changes has the same impact). When I was running today there was no additional pain, just a tightness that always tells me I am having an arthritis attack (yes there is pain but nothing too bad). I just follow the usual treatment, anti-inflammatory cream 3 times a day until it feels like it is back to normal.

Tomorrow is my hill interval training and Coach reminded me that downhill is far harder on your knees than uphill. I learned this many years ago along with going down a staircase puts more pressure on your knees than going up. I’ll take it careful and if my knee feels bad then I’ll just change things up because the mantra is listen to your body which I do every time.

Finally, if I have bad arthritis in my knee is running really good for me? According to my physio therapist it absolutely is. Keeping that joint moving is what will stave off that knee replacement for as long a possible (ok, the weight loss probably also helps). Having gone through rehab after each of my 4 surgeries I would rather deal with the pain and stiffness than do that again. As long as this knee holds up I will just keep moving one step at a time.

A little over a month ago we got our hot tub. Last Saturday I took a water sample in to be analyzed to make sure the chemicals were all in balance, they were not. They gave me all the corrective measures to be done which I followed and now I have a very murky hot tub whose chlorine levels are nil. I took in another water sample on Thursday and they again told me what to do to fix it. Sadly that has not worked either. The frustrating part is until we resolve this we can’t use said hot tub which I so desperately wanted to do tonight.

So today was my 16k. When Coach told me that is what she wanted me to do for my long run this week I wasn’t surprised. Moreover, I wasn’t overwhelmed or intimidated I just knew this was the next part of my training. I got up this morning and had a protein and carb breakfast making sure I had some good fuel in me to get me through several hours of running (note there was a snack of almonds when I got home).

Because my day was going to be busy I hit the road this morning at 5:15am. I did my normal 5 minute walk and then started to run. I had already decided that the best way to do this was slow and steady, this was not the time to try and improve my pace, this was the time to test my endurance and boy did I.

While I had calculated my run to get me to the 16k mark I knew where I would go but it was so pretty running along the beach that I decided to change things up and instead of running uptown I decided to do 2 runs along the pier and promenade. I am so glad I did that as it was beautiful down there. I passed a young man who I often see running on the promenade and at the last pass he asked why he was seeing me so much. I told him I was running my 1st 16k and he said well done, you’ve got this.

I admit the last 2k were a bit tough but I knew I had already done 14k and I could make it to the finish. When I got home my dog was looking at me expectantly wanting her walk but quite frankly after that much running I opted to just let her go out into the backyard. That’s ok though, she loves it there.

The bottom line is I, Gwenne Farrell, formerly a short, fat, chick just ran 16k. Who knew when I decided to train for a 10k that this is where I would be. Remember, it is simply 1 step at a time.

I keep seeing pictures of our resort where we keep our trailer and it doesn’t look good for a lot of people. From the overhead pictures we believe there is a small chance that the water did not get in the trailer (and I do mean small chance) but we know all of the items stored under trailer and stored in the outside counter are toast. The positive to this is if the water got high enough to get in the trailer it likely has ruined the outdoor patio furniture which I was trying to find an excuse to replace anyways. Here’s hoping the next big storm they are predicting for early next week doesn’t make things worse.

Today was my hill interval training. I had to do 10 intervals running up a hill and I picked a pretty steep one. I haven’t done any hill training for several months and even then I think the most intervals I did was 6. Further, before I would slow down the more intervals I did. This time I decided I was going to keep a good pace going each time I ran up the hill.

I could not believe how difficult this was. By time I hit the 6th interval I had decided get to 8 and then quit or maybe take the pace down a little. Of course when I hit interval 8 I decided screw it, you have come this far you can get to the end. I also opted to keep up that brutal pace on each and every interval just so I could say I had done it.

The end result is I made it. I found even walking (gently) down the hill each time my heart was pounding though it would slow a little by time I was ready to start the next climb. For some reason I also decided to run the last 3 blocks home just to get the extra kick in. The end result was I did a 50 minute full cardio workout. I thought this would be pretty easy since it was only 2 minute intervals and really I run 11-12 minute intervals now but no, that steep hill was a real bitch.

I will say that I am pretty impressed that I didn’t give into that urge to quit. Instead, I thought I want to do this a few more times until I can start doing them longer and faster. When I have those kind of thoughts I think just who the hell have you become? Apparently I have become a runner.

Yesterday we were told it could be quite rainy here on the south coast of BC. So, onto the treadmill for me to do a 5 km run. I wasn’t really into it for some reason but stuck to my resolve to get my workout done. By time it was over ‘heavy’ rains had started (oh and I do mean heavy). I explained to the dog that there would be no walk today as I didn’t think that even my rain slicker was going to protect me. As the morning progressed the rain just seem to keep coming in even stronger squalls to the point where even the downspouts couldn’t keep up.

After lunch I decided I should do some work as a client is expecting their finances to be completed this week. As I was heading downstairs to my office I noticed the mat on the inside of the front door was a little wet but knew it was from the rain slamming against the door all morning. For some reason I decided to check the garage and my heart sank when I realized it had a good coating of water that was 1/2 – 1 inch deep. I went out and checked the drain in front of the garage door and it was clogged. I managed to get as much of muck out of it as possible and used a push broom to get rid of all the water on the outside of the garage. I then tackled the inside with the broom pushing out all the water I could. Finally I got out a bunch of towels and got the cement floor as dry as possible (it’s a good thing we own a ton of towels). We don’t keep anything of real importance in the garage so no real loss, just a bunch of hard work.

Today I learned that our recreational property is completely flooded. I have only seen the pictures taken of some of the trailers from the lake but I have no idea how our trailer has fared. I Face Timed Tom to let him know and said worst case scenario is we have lost the trailer, best case is that we have to throw out all the items we have stored under the trailer. He asked if we are insured (seriously we have been married for nearly 30 years and he doesn’t know how neurotic I am about things like insurance?). I assured him we were for the trailer though it wouldn’t be much for the contents.

Yes, this storm wreaked some havoc on us but really it is all just things. So what if we have lost the trailer, we aren’t one of the 7,000 citizens evacuated from their homes when their town’s water system failed. We aren’t one of those who spent 24+ hours stranded on a highway that was blocked in both directions by landslides. We did not lose our lives as a woman did when her vehicle was hit by a landslide. We are safe as is all our family.

Sometimes you need to look at a situation and keep yourself real. My Dad used to always tell us that no matter how bad things are there is someone out there that has it worse. That thought came to my mind the past couple days as I kept myself in check. Things can be replaced without having our lives being in total upheaval as the evacuees are (note they have no idea when they will return home) nor did we lose a life like that poor woman in the landslide.

I know my household loves to be full of drama but what we are going through because of this storm is pretty minimal. Yep, have to keep myself real.

Something very strange happened this morning. I woke up at 5am as usual and thought let’s get moving, you’ve got a 14 km run to do. I was actually excited about it. Wait, what? I’m excited to spend a couple hours out running? How the hell did that happen. For the first time there was nothing in my head telling me that I couldn’t do this, in fact it was just the opposite as I thought I had better carb up before I got started.

So out I went. It was a nice mild morning with no rain in the forecast (ok, by this afternoon that forecast has turned out to be very incorrect). I did my usual walk for a few minutes then got the legs moving. I’m in the process of reading a new John Grisham book and I was so engaged in it I didn’t even realize how far I had run when I hit the turn around point at west beach. Running along the pier I could see the tide was really out and there were tons of birds just relaxing on the sand. I particularly enjoyed the heron that seemed to be shouting encouragement at me.

As I ran back up the hill I realized I was more that 1/2 way through my run and wasn’t feeling tired at all. I got to the 10 km mark and thought, this is really strange. Normally by this point in my run I am talking myself into considering quitting. But no, I just wanted to keep going because I now know, I can do this. Yes, I was dragging a bit the last 2 km’s but that’s ok I still finished feeling pretty good.

I sometimes need to take a step back and think exactly how far I have come on this journey.  Today was one of those days that made me feel pretty proud of myself.

I didn’t workout today (ok, still did a 1/2 hour walk with the dog) and I don’t feel bad about it as I have done 3 good runs this week. Instead, today is about remembering. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 the Armistice agreement was signed ending WWI. Here in Canada on November 11th we recognize all those that have served our county. This is a special day for my family as my Dad was a veteran who served in WWII. Normally we would spend the day at our local Legion to give thanks to those that have served their country. However, my family made the decision not to attend the services this year simply because it is too much contact with other people and we all agreed we could watch the services on tv. A friend has let me know she is attending the outdoor service at our local cenotaph and will lay her poppy there for us (note, here in Canada the poppy is a symbol of remembrance).

My Dad enlisted into the army at age 17 (this of course wasn’t legal but he lied about his age as did his father who was in his sixties so wasn’t eligible to enlist either). He never spoke to us about what he saw while he was overseas, instead he told the fun stories. He told us about the antics with his friend Jerry such as how they lied about being smokers so they could get cigarette rations which they then sold to the other soldiers when they had run out of their rations. They had a funny story about stealing Xmas turkeys from the mess and then selling those (this of course led to a stint in the brig). The only thing he ever said about landing in Normandy on D-Day was that James Arness, who was 6′ 6″, was one of the first soldiers to get off the amphibious boat so that they could tell if the water was shallow enough. Those are the types of stories he shared, not ones about the atrocities he saw.

For his service, the government treated him deplorably. For decades he fought to get the injuries he sustained in the war recognized. In particular, he came out of the army with serious back issues. The government denied that this had anything to do with his service. As a matter of fact at one point they sent him a letter telling him his pain was psychological. It wasn’t until he was dealing with an orthopedic specialist on an entirely different issue that proof was finally found. Turns out while Dad was unloading a supply truck it had backed up and pinned him against a tree. This caused chunks of bone to break off his spine and those chunks became filled with arthritis hence the sometimes unbearable pain. At that point Dad finally was deemed a disabled veteran and was given a pension which was not retroactive. Unfortunately the amount he received was no where near enough to support a family of 5 but the government blamed that on him telling him if he had not had children so late in life we would no longer be dependents and him and Mom would have easily been able to live on that pension. Seriously, that was the thanks he got.

But, the war did more damage to him. It took me a long time to realize that Dad suffered terribly from PTSD. While that term is thrown around a lot now, back then psychological damage from serving your country was not recognized. Sadly, I believe that the psychological injuries were far more painful for him than the physical injuries.

I will be upfront here, I am a pacifist, I do not believe in war. However, that does not stop me from remembering the fallen and the fact that they served because they were dedicated to their county and felt they needed to protect the rights of all citizens. I guess it worked because while I am sure when I acknowledge my dislike of war my Dad is looking down at me shaking his head but smiling in pride that when he fought for this country he ensured my right to those beliefs.

So I ask all of you today, wherever you are, if you see a veteran or someone who is currently serving in the forces, just thank them.

I leave you with the following which I think sums up my feelings on this day of remembrance,

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

I spent most of last night listening to the current storm that blew threw last night. The wind was pretty strong and the rain was heavy. I lay awake just dreading the fact that I would have to do my 8 km run this morning on the treadmill and you know how much I hate that.

I got up early as there was plenty to do this morning. Of course it was still stormy out so headed down to the garage. After my 5 minute walk to warm up I started running and since I notice my usual pace is no longer keeping me in the cardio zone I decided to do 40 minutes of my workout at a much faster pace than I am used to. Yes, this was tough but as I neared the 40 minute mark I thought, what the hell, if you hold out for another 20 minutes you will have done 1 hour at this pace. Of course then I convinced myself I could do another 15 minutes to get me to my 5 minute cool down walk.

I got through of 1 hour 15 minutes of running at a pretty good pace. So, how did I feel afterwards? Well, at my normal pace I would have run 8 km but today in that timeframe I ran 10 km. Much to my surprise my legs had not turned to jelly and though I was sweating pretty profusely I never got really winded at all. According to my Fitbit, I had done a good cardio workout throughout that run. I will admit a while later when I was doing my squats my quads were complaining a bit but not too much.

Will I set that as my new pace? Not for every run but I think I’ll give it a try once a week and for the other runs pump it up a little for my normal pace or alternate the normal pace with intervals of the more intense running. It still amazes me that even after having met the original goal of being able to run 10 km I am still finding ways to get even more fit.

I think that pushing myself a little is just going to help me get to that 20 km run.

It was a great day to do my run at the beach today. The rain held off, the temperature was perfect and there was a nice breeze to keep me cool. I think a lot of people thought the same because the promenade was full of runners. As I was finishing running on the promenade 3 young people were just starting their run and one young man shouted out to me, you’re doing a great job. Yep, that helped keep me going.

At the start of each week when I get my training schedule from my coach I often look at it and think I can’t do this. After only being back at training for 2 weeks having taken a month off to let my toe recover I was nervous about how much we were increasing my training this week. The instructions were a 5 km (ok, that one is easy), an 8 km, 10 intervals running 11 minutes and walking 1 minute and finally a long run of 12 km. Wow, I thought, not sure I am ready for this.

I think because I still walked 6 days a week I didn’t lose much of my strength and endurance that I had built up before my month long break. I got up this morning after having gotten through my interval training on Thursday and thought, you’ve got this. Before my break I had done a 15.5 km run so really, I can do 12 km. Yes, those last 2 km’s were tough but I got through it. I have a feeling that 1/2 marathon goal is going to happen in the next few months.

Overall my break did very little to my fitness level. Moreover, I have lost 2 lbs since I started running again which is 1 lb more than I had gained (note I am still in my target weight zone which is +/- 2 lbs). All in all I am confident I can keep doing this.

I had a lovely call with my aunt today. After we got caught up on everything she said tell me you are not trying to lose more weight, you are thin enough now. I assured her that I am not losing more weight but that I am also going to continue to run to help keep myself where I am now. Not sure that she really believed me

I woke up this morning with my toe hurting again but in a different spot. I’m not too concerned about it as there is no redness or swelling but I will keep an eye on it. That made me realize that foot care would be a good topic for today’s post.

As a diabetic taking care of my feet is extremely important. With what happened to my brother I learned that the leading cause of non-traumatic lower limb amputation is diabetes. Diabetics can be prone to ulcers occurring on their feet and if the infection gets out of control it can lead to gangrene and ultimately amputation. I am determined to avoid any foot infections at all costs though I admit with my weight loss and exercise routine my blood glucose levels are completely normal so my risk at this time is pretty low.

A number of things I do for my foot care can apply to anyone but especially if you run or walk as much as I do. It starts with the proper footwear. I now tend to wear compression socks when I run. These can really help with the circulation in your feet and are actually quite comfortable. The downside is they are quite expensive (about $25/pair). Next of course are my shoes. I have wide feet and often shoes are tight on me. For my runners I wear a 1/2 size larger than what I normally do and always get them in wide. Of course the podiatrist has recommended I go to a different brand of runners that he feels will be a better fit for me. As for high heels, I wear them rarely but if they are tight I take them to a shoe repair shop and get them stretched until they fit comfortably. Wearing the right size shoes helps prevent things like calluses. I also make sure to keep my toenails short and cut straight across which helps avoid ingrown toenails.

The final thing I do which is one of the most important is I inspect my feet daily. I look for any signs of change, check for redness or swelling and investigate anything that feels even the slightest bit painful. The reason this is so important is that catching things when they have first started can get the issue dealt with quickly. I’ve witnessed my brother avoid having his feet checked when he feels pain an look where that led to. So, every morning before I put on my expensive socks and runners I do a check of my feet and so far (other than the corn) all has been good.

Take care of your feet especially if you work them as hard as I do mine. Yes, I’ve had to invest significant money into my running footwear but I think it is so worth it.