Waiting

Unfortunately, things haven't gotten any better with my back. I had an MRI yesterday and get the results back tomorrow. The MRI was a real challenge for me. I am extremely claustrophobic and while it was an "open" MRI with the sides open, the machine is still only 17 inches at the most from the face. It was a long 28 minutes.

They had me lie down with my feet propped up with a pillow under my knees. Then then moved the table into the machine. My husband had warned me how loud an MRI is (think jackhammer noises). The tech gave me headphones and played music, but I couldn't even make out the words part of the time because the machine was so loud. Luckily, the extremely loud part comes and goes.

The tech also gave me a panic button if I needed it. The first two minutes, I was really tempted not only because of the anxiety but because I wanted to make sure it worked. But I didn't. I also wanted to have asked him to count down in 5-min increments so I'd know how much time was left. Too late for that question too.

I decided I would figure out the timing on my own. I'd asked for the local station that plays Christmas music. I figured that each song lasts 2 to 3 minutes. So surely after 10 songs, the test would be over. I tried to do deep breathing to relax, let my mind wander to my favorite beach (Destin, FL) and count songs. Sure enough, after roughly 7 songs and several commercials, it was over.

My back actually felt better during the test than any other time in the last several days. So now I'm spending a good portion of my day on the family room floor and pillows under my knees. It is actually the only time I am almost painfree.

If this is a bulging disc, looks like no running for a few months while I do therapy and focus on strengthening my core, etc. Thank goodness it's winter here in Ohio. I don't know what I'd do if I lost my favorite running months of the year.

OK, I've been sitting at the computer for 10 minutes or so and the pain is saying "time's up." That's it for now.

Sometimes waiting is good

I didn't run Thursday or Friday this week. I just couldn't face 40s and 50s and rain one more time. I can hardly believe that 8 weeks ago, I ran in 15 degree weather. Back then 50 degrees and rain would have seemed spectacular. But the weather was supposed to break this weekend, and I was willing to wait.

Sometimes waiting is good.

What a gorgeous day today. I started with 90 minutes of yoga at 9 a.m. then had two pieces of toast with PB and a G2 ,and watched part of a movie before heading out into sunny skies and 50-something degrees around 12:30.

I wanted to run 6 miles today. I decided to experiment with slowing down a bit and running 11:30 miles plus 1-minute walk breaks after each mile. The idea was if I slowed down, my heart rate would slow down. This experiment failed pretty miserably. The alarm telling me to slow down kept yelling at me the entire run, but I just couldn't slow my body down enough. I managed to run about 11:20 miles but by the end of the third mile my max heart rate was at 175 and the average was like 166. According to my age, my MHR is 173 but today I reached 177 and have reached 183 before. My MHR may be even higher than that, and no, I don't have heart palpitations or feel like I'm going to die when I hit these numbers. Still 164 -- even with a 185 MHR -- is too high for a LSD run. Oh well.

The run itself was great. I even ended up doing 7 miles, although the last mile was just a cool down mile which is why it's slower than the rest. But interesting that while I slowed down my max heart rate was higher than any other mile. As much as I don't like walk breaks, I definitely feel stronger after several miles. Guess I'll stay with them for a while. I still want to experiment with 5 min run/1 min walk on a shorter run.

What's interesting to me is Lap 5 and 6 because even though I was getting tired, (after steading incline for a mile or so) I used a few ChiRunning check-ins -- checking my posture, keeping my feet landing just behind my center of gravity and focusing on maintaining my lean -- and look what happened: two of the best miles in the entire run. I do love CR.

I know this is all boring for anyone reading this but lately I really need to use this blog just to track what's going on with my heart rate more than trying to be entertaining in any way.

Lap 1: 11:19
Lap 2: 11:22
Lap 3: 11:11
Lap 4: 11:36
Lap 5: 11:25
Lap 6: 10:54
Lap 7: 11:44

Ave. HR/Max HR
Lap 1: 157/163
Lap 2: 160/171
Lap 3: 166/175
Lap 4: 167/174
Lap 5: 167/173
Lap 6: 166/173
Lap 7: 166/177