Pet Cementary

The day dawned with lots of snow on the ground. I slightly irritated my lower back today when I went outside to shovel. Before you tell me that I should have hired some kid down the block to do it for me, I don't think it would have been appropriate in this instance. You see, it wasn't snow that I was shoveling, but a shallow grave for my children's pet Bearded Dragon that recently passed away.

I decided to wait until the ground was nice and frozen before we commence with the funeral procession in the backyard. In actuality, my hand was forced since I don't think I could have gotten away with telling them that "Max" was simply sleeping as he hadn't moved in about 1 week and was starting to get all shriveled up. The children took the funeral in stride and only a few tears were shed - the children's tears, I held mine in despite my lower back pain.

Sometimes having my wife walk on my back seems to help when it is bugging me. However, she must be pissed at me for something, since she disappeared for a second after this request and came back wearing a pair of spiked heels. I quickly changed my mind and decided to use one of those free Ben Gay patches I got from a race. I think I will be as good as new by tomorrow.

Perserverance

Perseverance is its own reward and that is what it took to make it through today's run. It was fairly chilly when I started out just before sunrise with a nice stiff wind. I tried not to overdress, but I wish I had, since I was chilled through most of the run.

I set my watch timers to track 11 minutes of 80% followed by 4 minutes of 85%. After warming up for 26 minutes, I set out for the first 4 minute effort. I couldn't really get to 85 percent so I figured I just wasn't warmed up enough. At the next one I had the same trouble and I wasn't really feeling right trying to push for the pace. I decided to take your option 2, and go for a 20M at around 75%.

After running about 7.1 miles, I ran home to take care of some technical difficulties. When I started out I was feeling pretty lousy GI wise and I had a feeling that I passed more than gas at one point. My feet were also hurting me in my Mizuno Wave shoes - the arches are too high.

Fortunately, my tights weren't soiled and a quick swipe with a wet wipe made feel as good as new. I changed my shoes into my nicely broken in Saucauny Grids and started out again. I felt a bit better, but my HR was still not coming up to where I wanted it to be. I think I was just too cold.

After around 2 hours though, I started to feel really good. My HR started to come up and I finally felt like running. Unfortunately, just as I started to run very well, 20 miles had just passed. I could have completed a marathon at I am sure negative splits. Here are the details of the run so you can get an idea of what was going on:

Time: 2:48:00
HR: 138/158
TiZ(155/137): A - 0:03:07, I - 1:41:13, B - 1:03:40
Dist: Approximately 20M
Calories: 2175

Dist Time HR
3.7 33:29 138/154
3.7 33:26 134/148
3.7 31:28 135/147
2.5 21:25 136/148
2.5 20:49 141/153
3.4 27:21 148/158
.3 Cool down

The Dead Arm

I am back off to bed now. I woke up after finding this warm dead arm in my bed. Fortunately, it was attached to my body. I just didn't realize it was mine, since I slept on it funny and completely lost all sensation in it for a while. For the first minute or two, it was really cool playing with it - lifting it up and letting it plop down, whacking it into the headboard, etc. as it completely had no feeling. I even started to jerk off, since I had no feeling in my hand, it was like someone else was doing it for me. Then I made the connection that it was a male hand, which freaked me out with a homophobic moment. But alas, all fun must come to an end and I spent the next 5 minutes trying not to move a muscle while the nerve endings woke up so as to limit that crazy pins and needles feeling.

The Pustule

Today I saw perhaps one of the most disgusting and disturbing things in my life. Those who know me, acknowledge that I am not easily nauseated. However, what I saw today completely made me ill.

During my swim this morning, I noticed what appeared to be booger just below a fellow swimmer's nose, who came to rest at the wall just after we completed an interval in the same lane. I made a motion for him to wipe his nose, whereupon I realized, that this was not a booger at all, but some sort of giant pustule growing off of his upper lip.

As I looked closer, I notice that the skin around milky white pus blob was all red and inflamed. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what sort of skin lesion this person was suffering from. This thing was enormous. If his face was the map of the United States, then this thing was the size of Texas. I couldn't believe I was in the same water with him, much less the same lane.

Anyway, after about another 30 minutes of swimming and having to see this giant sunspot of pus many times, I suddenly noticed that the lesion was gone from his face like a trailer park after a tornado. A gapping hole was in his face where once existed the pustule from hell.

All I could now think about was that this slimy mess was now floating somewhere in the water. This is the same water that inevitably enters my mouth and nasal passages while I swim and breathe through the water. You can imagine the horrible thoughts now passing through my mind. Maybe it touched my body. maybe it went into my mouth. maybe is got washed down my throat from that bit of water I swallowed when my face got splashed when I turned to breathe.

I have dealt with much pain and suffering throughout my training. This by far was the worst thing I have ever had to deal with.