Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Thanks for the info.

I As soon as I read Olga's comment last night, I took the band-aids off my toe to let it air out. I figured if anybody knows about losing nails, it's probably our ultra-runner-extraordinaire! I was still a little nervous this morning, and seriously considered wrapping it up, but instead, I slapped on the Aquaphor (per Donald) (and only on the end where it blisters, not over the nail bed. Trying to follow all pieces of advice here), then on with the toe socks.

Seemed like everything felt okay, so I headed out the door for an easy five. Only thing is, I was feeling so good out there that I thought I'd add a little loop. Then at about the halfway point of the extra loop, I was still feeling good, so I decided to turn it into a big loop. Total miles: 7.2. Total time: 1:25:56. Compare that with Sundays race - 7.4 miles, 1:24:47. Today’s course was mostly flat or slightly uphill, with one big drop and one medium hill. Sunday's race was mostly uphill with some giant, humongous, towering, mountain-sized (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little) hills. Looks to me like my easy pace is closing in on my race pace. I know I couldn't have gone any faster on Sunday with the big hills - although, I did hold a conversation for most of the run. I'm going to have to think about this. But with a half, and maybe Portland in my future, I think I should be focusing on distance, not speed. I haven't done any speed work at all, nothing. Except that once a week hill workout - which is said to be speed work in disguise. I am planning to make that hill workout a weekly run, and maybe on non-race weeks I'll even do it twice. We'll see...

On another note, I had some blood work done on Friday and got results yesterday. Most of the numbers have moved back into the normal range - only two things were flagged. My white blood cell count is low again, (it was up for a while), and some other thing is high, and ferritin (I think that is iron stores) is right on the low boundary. All in all, I'm thinking it's good - that the anemia is improving, and that it was probably related to the gall bladder - "anemia by infection". Of course, this is self-diagnosis - the results are emailed to me and then I look everything up and interpret it as best I can. I expect I'll get a call from the doc in the next couple of days explaining it all. (I'm pretty sure all my running buddies feel the same way about my health issues that Anne's husband does about her recent experience!)

Just a couple of days till we head north! Thanks for checking in.

8 comments:

tryathlete said...

"My easy pace is closing in on my race pace." A humble way of saying "Ain't I fast!"

Dawn - Pink Chick Tris said...

Good luck with those toes.

Donald said...

I'm telling you, aquaphor is amazing. Glad it worked for you.

psbowe said...

That's great that the toe didn't complain during your run today!

I think you did the right thing by uncovering it like Olga suggested. Otherwise, it seems like it would get infected if it does not get any air.

Good luck and thanks for your kind comments on my page.

Unknown said...

Geez, you're not going to be too tired for the hill run tomorrow are ya?

And can you go away now so I can talk to the others about how we have all heard enough about the gall bladder, yada, yada, yada.

onepinkfuzzy said...

yay!

have fun in AK!

Olga said...

I don't want to scare ya, but there was a time my easy pace closed in to a race pace - I got even overall, but not faster:( But it could be a whole different story for you! I am talking some weird distances and terrain here. But the fact is, my speed on flats is pretty much the same, it just feels easier:) In other words, I suck in short flat races!

Legs and Wings said...

We really should have a photo or two of your beautiful toe. Rob is pretty handy with the camera and all the tech involved in posting photos...have him take care of it.

And, maybe Rob could hijack your blog while you are away...?? I have a feeling steak could be on the menu.