Great day

I had a good day at work today, a great workout, and then a friend called who I haven't talked with in years. Oh, and I ate healthy today and no doubt tipped the calories in/out scale.

At work, I got to meet with people I really enjoy and had some time to actually get some work output completed.  It felt good to connect with people and be productive.  I also used the stairs for the first time in months.  It's quite a hike up to the fourth floor.  The second floor is evil because it's actually 3 flights instead of 2.  I rested at the third floor landing and wondered if I should negotiate to move my office down there.

My workout was great because I took a different approach to laps and I walked and ran 4 miles in about 54 minutes.  I think that's right.  I had to have Ken help me with the math formulas (he's a math superstar) but I applied them and may have made some critical error.  But my watch agrees, so I'm going with that.  Post surgery, I think I ran 5 miles in about an hour, so I'm making progress.

The difference in my workout today is that I decided it was crazy to measure my progress by miles.  Miles made sense when I was running 3 or 5 or 10 or 13 miles.  However, when one mile is difficult, using a mile as my measure is deflating.  That train of thought took me to my attitude when I reached mile 11 of the 2008 half marathon, I remember rejoicing because I knew I could run 2 miles in my sleep.  Ha ha ha.  Not now, bucko.  I also recalled that some of my marathon runner friends talking about marathons in 5K and 10K increments.  It's all relative, isn't it?

Since I ran on the RPAC track again and it's 1/8 mile, I changed my measure to 1/8 mile and clicked the lap button on my watch at every lap whether I ran or walked.  I always did the whole 1/8 mile (see, I'm even writing about it like it's a long way) running or walking.  Then I did the geek thing and put it in a spreadsheet to analyze.  Yes, I know I have no time to do this, but I was curious about my new measurement method.  Let me say though, I certainly have a new appreciation for my Garmin 305 which does all this math for me.

If I was tracking miles, they were 10:38, 14:06, 12:14, and 17:45. My 5K distance was 38:16, which isn't bad since my personal best is about 29:00, which I ran in 2007 and afterward my legs were really wobbly.  I trained a lot for that race to beat my 30 minute goal.

After I ran, I tried to stretch but I couldn't really stretch anything above the hip flexor.  I tried many ways to stretch my lower back but all caused quite a bit of pain in my left side (below and to the left of my breast). I was hoping the sore place is where the expander is attached, but then why isn't the right side hurting too?  Anyway, stretching anything other than my calves has been a challenge.  I was able to figure out how to stretch my quad and hamstrings a little today (slow motion and very carefully). I also tried to do ab work but I couldn't even fully engage my abs without my left side screaming at me.  That left side is pretty sore tonight.  It was pretty sore last night too.  I'll take meds before going to bed tonight.  I'll talk with the surgeon about it next Thursday.

And last but certainly not least, an old friend called me tonight.  He had heard from his parents (the grapevine in our small hometown is active as ever) that I had cancer and wasn't doing very well.  I guess losing both breasts certainly can be interpreted that way.  He's been worried about me.  I was able to ease his mind by telling him I no longer have cancer, I do not need chemo or radiation, and I'm even running now.  He's an ophthalmologist and is very familiar with surgery and biology and health and cancer and all.  He talked about how people have trouble giving up one eye even if it doesn't work anymore and it is causing cronic pain, so he wasn't at all surprised of my angst over my surgery decision.  We had a great talk and I'm so touched that he took the time to track me down.