One step forward...

A while ago, I wrote

I'm trying to view it as a race where I've started at the back. I've already caught up to the sitters and I'm starting to make inroads on the standers. After that the walkers, then...

Since then, thanks to my little episode at 6ft, I've caught the standers, and as of this week I'm one of the walkers! Having been given the go-ahead to walk, I've been walking for about 1/2 an hour on the non-swimming mornings. Guess what? When you don't even walk for two months, everything just shrivels up. My shins ache just from the effort of striding out. Strange days indeed :-)

That's the good news. The less enticing news is that I went to my Dr this morning, and he's going to ring the Neurosurgeon to see if I should get into him more quickly. Although the pain has subsided, the leg weakness is just the same, and his concern is that the longer the nerves are damaged, the more chance of them never recovering. I'm trying not to dwell on it, but permanent leg weakness is a sobering thought.

There is a funny side though. When I was crossing the road this morning, I misjudged the available time between cars (I'm not used to walking across reads :-) ), and I found half way across that I had to get a hurry on so I broke into a jog. I was so wobbly and it was so comical that I burst out laughing at how ridiculous I must have looked. So here I am walking along giggling to myself when I look up to see a mother and child coming towards me, and she is clearly concerned about this giggling lunatic approaching her...

Lunatic Gnome :-)

Physio Graduation

The last couple of weeks have seen me continue to mix up my training with swim, bike, run and wts and the body is holding up well. At the end of last Thursday's runclub where I did all bar a 200m, Tim commented that it was the first solid session I'd done in 18 months. That was nice to hear.

I caught up with my thyroid specialist last week and despite being the slimmest I've been for 20+ years, he told me I wasn't losing weight fast enough, my hands are cold, my pulse is too slow, my reflexes are far too slow and to up my meds by 50%! I protested the slow pulse was fitness but he gave me that 'dream on' look and said they were all symptoms of the thyroid not being up to scratch. Apparently I should be jumping out of my skin this week but I still managed a 2hr nana nap today.

The excellent news is I saw Dr Pain about my Achilles yesterday. Last time he felt it had gone backwards but after telling him I had had no problem in or after the 10k race a couple of weeks ago he checked it and said "much better." He reckons I need to keep doing some skipping and plyometric style exercises for at least 3 months before we can say the tendon won't snap but I don't need to see him. He joked that all he needs to do now is get Gnome better but then probably his other CR couple will get injured :-)

TA

A pretty good Birthday!

Wasn't Saturday at Six Foot a great day? Even if you weren't there physically, reading all the reports on Cool Running takes you there emotionally. From the shouts and excitement when Fats appeared out of nowhere to claim the record till Horrie's grand entrance as the Grim Reaper, it was just a superb atmosphere. One day. One Day :-)

I spent most of the day sitting (of course) in the only spot I could find that would afford me reasonable photo opportunities, which happened to be just adjacent to the PA speakers. On on one of the rare times I ventured out of my seat, I walked in front of a speaker just as the announcer let out a bellow. Damn near deafened me, and I instinctively twisted and bent away from the noise. Of course, twisting and bending are two things that I'm not supposed to do, and my back repaid me instantly with pain to spare. Not happy, but later I noticed a strange thing. I could walk for longer without leg pain. Noice!

It appears that the shock movement actually relieved some of the pressure on the nerves, so that three days later, I can remain standing for as long as I like. My leg is still weak and I still can't make bits of me move, but for the moment, that's a small problem :-) I was due for another epidural injection on Thursday, but when I went to the Doc's on Monday, we decided that it wasn't necessary. What's more, I went swimming this morning for the first time in a month and did a k (with flippers). Apart from being more tired than normal, it went very comfortably. I'd call that a pretty good birthday present.

I have to remember that the underlying problem is still there and could return as easily as it went, so the appointment with the Neurosurgeon remains in place and I still have to be pretty careful. Regardless, as I sit here typing and listening to a birthday DVD (Elton John live - yes, I'm an old fogey) I'm a whole lot more relaxed than I have been for a while.

Gnome

That was fun :-)

After doing the February CR5k and taking 60 secs off my Dec time I had to decide what to do the following Saturday - Striders 10k or Nepean Enticer. As the week went on, the gut said do Striders. So on Saturday morning I lined up at the VERY back to do my longest run in 15 months.

It had been suggested I'd do 58.43 but although I hoped to do under the 60 minutes I was not going to be ruled by my watch only my breathing. CR Chunderbolt decided to accompany me as he needed an easier run and we happily set off. We met up with a guy called Craig at about the 1.5k mark and he joined us. I told the guys that it felt great to have 2 male escorts looking after me and that they could chat while I just ran ( ha ha). Craig told us he was back to running after 10 years and had lost 15kg since Christmas.

We went through the 5k in 29.29 and I still felt good. At this point we started passing quite a few ahead of us (and gave some encouragement to Sista Chris Criniti ) and from about the 7k mark I picked it up a bit more. Craig was hurting a bit from his new orthotics and slowed a little but was not too far behind. Finished in 58.33 on the watch for a 25sec neg split and with an offical 58.48 on the Strider clock. (Takes a while to cross the start line with 360 runners ahead of you! ). Gnome was on timing duties and after we were all packed up we then enjoyed a post race breaky together.

Sunday we headed to the pool. Me for a recovery swim and Gnome to walk in the water. Gnome managed 200m of walking and another 200 of swimming. This was his first exercise in a month or so. It left him tired but happy.

Monday I did some wts in the morning and because I was to lead Runclub that night, I headed into the bay about 5pm to do my Tuesday easy 60 mins before Runclub. I know it wasn't Tuesday but I don't get to run the bay very often and it seemed a good chance. About 4k's into a very wet run I met CR Chonky and he joined me for the last 6k's including 2 barefoot laps of the oval at the end. We both commented on how quickly the time went. I dried off and waited around to see if anyone was coming to runclub but only one mad person like myself turned up, so he headed off to do a loop on his own. I ended up having a quick chat with Tim and got chided for running then, but he was pleased to see how well I'd backed up from Saturday.

As I did today's run yesterday I was told to do some walking so I walked to and from the High School as I was on canteen today. 60 minutes to get there and a shorter 40 home ( quickest route is 20mins). Tomorrow is rest day :-).

TA

Two milestones

Passed two milestones today.

Number one was that Dr Pain declared that I was improving - my toe movement has progressed to a Grade 1. Apparently, last week's Grade zero means no activity, and Grade 5 is full movement/strength. If I concentrate hard and watch closely, I can lift my toe a fraction of a mm. Still, it's a start :-). Actually, there's a whole bunch of useful markers of improvement. I managed to feed the cat and get my cereal this morning! Up till now, I've had to sit down between the jobs. How cool is that?

The second milestone was that I had to let my belt out a notch this morning... Looks like I can't continue to eat a 50+ km/wk diet on 24 hr/day inactivity :-). Dr Pain told me to start walking in water and see how I handled it, so watch out - I'm going to be an olympic-level water-walker before you know it!

Gnome

p.s. Thankyou for your uplifting comments. I'm not actually a ray of sunshine all the time (just ask TA! :-) ) , so there were a few times when your posts really lifted me out of the doldrums. Thanks.

p.p.s. I asked for a sitting-down-job at striders on Saturday, so I'm told that I'll be on timekeeping. Just remember, for those of you running, a signifcant PB is only a blank cheque away... :-) :-) :-)