An Acute Case of Wii-itis

Right shoulder muscles (I couldn't find a picture of the left shoulder)

This is Rod Laver, my idol when I was growing up. I am left-handed like him.

Wiitis: A "Sports" injury contracted by playing too much Nintendo Wii.

I've been playing the Wii Sports games for the past week now, mostly tennis since it brings me back to my sports roots. I used to be a tennis player before running became my sport. I played tennis from high school all through college where I played for my university's varsity team. I started out trying to get a feel for the game and as previously mentioned in an earlier post, the intensity has been growing to the point of breaking a lightbulb and almost falling headlong on my TV. So now, I move some furniture as far away as possible before playing. The first few days I didn't save any of my games and won a majority of them. Turns out I was playing as an amateur competing against other amateurs. When I finally saved my games, I noticed that I was losing more frequently and that when I won, my opponents levels were being elevated to professionals. Professional level starts at 1000 and I have been playing against as much as 1800 pros. However I still have been winning my share of games so much so that I am now a 700 level amateur. The thing about playing against better opponents is that the intensity level goes much higher. More strokes are played and the ball speed is faster. As a result of playing more vigorous games, I developed a case of Wii-itis. I woke up one morning and my left deltoid and left side of my trapezius muscles were very sore (I am left-handed). This was something that I never experienced when I was playing real tennis (well, I was much younger then). So I got to reading about wiiitis on the internet and there is even an article about it on WebMD.com. Having learned my lesson, I do some warm-up stretches now before I play the game. This game is so intense and realistic except for not having to chase the ball around a tennis court, that I have now added WII Tennis to my arsenal of workouts.

The Reader

I just finished watching the movie "The Reader" with Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. The movie was slightly long but the pacing was very good and even the slow parts were not boring and kept me engaged. The script was also well written and I highly recommend to anyone to watch it. I even think this is better than Kate Winslet's other movie "Revolution Road".

New Math

Now why didn't they teach us this way in high school???

It would have made it simpler and more understandable then.

Thanks to Bill Amend, the owner of this comic strip.
Click on the cartoon to enlarge it so you can read the balloons.Thanks :)

Congratulations President Barack Obama

We have a new President!
God bless America!
Looking forward to a fresh start :)

WII Weeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Well, I finally gave in. After having experienced playing the Nintendo WII at my relative's Christmas party last year, I finally bought one yesterday when it became available at a Target store near my home. It helped that I received a gift card from my cousin at Christmas, so that took care of the sales tax part of the purchase. Today, I hooked everything up, upgraded the software/firmware on the internet and loaded up the included WII Games. I put in the CD Disk, then...nothing.... I got an error message saying “unable to read disk”. I took the disk out, wiped it clean, then tried again. Still nothing. Finally picked up the instruction manual then went to Nintendo's website to look for error messages. Well, duh! I found out that I put in the disk wrong side up! Well, I got the thing working and tried a few games. Some of them like tennis and boxing were pretty strenuous. Being a former tennis player myself, I was swinging away as if I was really on a tennis court. Fast forward to just a few minutes ago (9:30 P.M.). The WII system gives frequent warnings about securing the remote control to your wrist and have enough space around you when playing games. I played tennis again and after a few sets I was playing pretty vigorously. After my computer opponent hit a very angled shot, I lunged for the ball and hit the floor lamp near my computer, which fell over and broke the light bulb. So there goes my first WII casualty. Still I pressed on and after a few minutes, my computer opponent hit a very strong serve and when I attempted to hit the ball, I almost fell head on against my TV set. Fortunately I managed to catch myself on the TV stand thereby avoiding casualty number two. I figured I better stop now before I do more damage to my living room. So here I am feeling hot and sweaty while I type this. I enjoyed the experience very much and thought I got a pretty good workout at the cost of one lightbulb. I never was a video game player, and still don't consider myself one, but I thoroughly enjoyed the interactiveness of this Nintendo WII System. I just hope I don't break anything else after tonight.

The End Of The Streak

I originally wrote this article for my running club newsletter in August of 2007. It gives you an inkling on why I'm obsessed with running.

The End Of The Streak

My stack of logbooks say that It had been 21 years and 8 days since I missed a day of running. It started on January 25, 1986 and ended on February 2, 2007. I don’t even remember the reason why I started running every day. It just sorta happened and became a habit or a necessity like brushing teeth or eating. I could not imagine not being able to run, be it to force myself to do at least a minimum of 15 minutes, all the way to 3 hours or more when preparing for a marathon. The last three years have been a struggle as I have suffered through some painful injuries. The left achilles tendon injury in 2004 which lasted a whole year, then the posterior tibialis tendonitis on my right foot the past two years which prescription orthotics failed to remedy. In other words, I had become brittle. Through all the aches and pains I struggled to maintain my daily running ritual. In recent years, my weekly mileage had dropped steadily from a high of approximately 40 miles a week , down to about 15 miles a week. The decrease was due to my body's inability to recover as quickly as it used to. To compensate for decrease in mileage, I cross-trained by using a stationary bike, and a rowing machine with an occasional weight training session.

On January 21, 2007, I was out for a slow one hour run. At about the 50th minute, I was about to cross a street when the traffic light suddenly turned red. I made a quick right turn then stepped off a curb on my left foot. Due to the quick turn, I miscalculated the height of the curb and landed awkwardly and heavily. I felt a twinge of pain on my outer left thigh but was able to continue running and finish the hour undoubtedly the pain numbed by the endorphins circulating within me. I managed to hobble/jog for 20 minutes each of the next 3 days, then was able to do about 30 minutes on the 4th day.

Its kinda difficult to run when your stronger left leg which is now injured is being supported by a right leg with an ongoing posterior tibialis tendonitis problem. It creates all kinds of imbalances and compensations by other muscles just to keep upright and keep moving forward. Either that or you just pound away on the same pre-existing injuries.

A few days later on my regular every other Sunday run with AREC, I was even able to do some pick-ups on a 7 miler (10 minutes warm up, then 5 sets of variable intervals: 3 minute pick-up, 1 minute recovery jog, 2 minute pick-up, 1 minute recovery jog, 1 minute pick-up, 2 minute recovery jog, then next set). I felt twinges of pain and was ready to stop anytime the pain got worst, but somehow I managed to run the whole 7 miles. I was thinking my leg must be getting better. Five days later, I tried doing the 3/2/1 interval workout again. This time things didn't go too well. I tried pushing past the pain and in doing so, not only aggravated the left thigh injury, but made the pain unbearable. I wasn't sure if I could even run the next day. Tomorrow came and I planned on running for only 20 minutes. I tried to run to my neighborhood video store to return some rented DVD's. I hobbled with excruciating pain from my door to the video store, all 5 1/2 minutes to cover 1/2 mile. After placing the DVD's in the return slot I tried to resume running but after a few steps the pain was too much to bear and I had to stop. I walked slowly back home a beaten man. My 21 years plus daily running streak had ended, and not by choice. Was it a great endeavor to try running everyday for the rest of my life? Or was it just a foolish obsession despite the cumulative injuries? If it were you, what would you have done?

The Day After

Hello folks, it seems like I survived the night without going into a coma after my bathtub fall yesterday. Thank goodness for that. Other than a mildly sore back and left knee and occasional lightheadedness plus mild headache, I seem to be ok. I was debating going to the emergency room last night but knowing how ER's operate, I would not have been seen by a doctor until 6 to 8 hours later. Concussion and other maladies don't take precedence over chest pain here in the U.S., specially when ER's are often used by the populace as after hours clinics. Hint: If you go to an emergency room and want to get attended to quickly, tell them you have chest pain, then just add the other complaints later.
I managed to do a 45 minute run this morning and only felt dizzy when my mind was thinking about dizziness. Funny how the power of suggestion works. Hope I recover well without further medical intervention.

First post for 2009 + My Old Web Page From Way Back

January 5, 2008
This will be my first post for 2009. Nothing new to report except I slipped and fell in the shower earlier today and hit the left side of my head and hip against the bathtub. My head hurts but I hope I'll be ok and not get into a coma when I fall asleep tonight. Maybe I'll have my cat scan my head for internal injuries. Come here, kitty, kitty...
I can't be in a coma, I have to run tomorrow morning!!!

Visit My Old Webpage: http://geocities.com/noelotp2/noel.htm
This was my old web page from the late 90's. The design was very basic and made through Microsoft Frontpage Express. There was even a typographical error in one of the stories which I didn't even bother to correct anymore. Thanks for visiting it if you get a chance.

Movies I liked over the holidays (Originally written December 26, 2008)

Christmas pic - I'm the one with the eyeglasses

December 26

Movies

After the aforementioned gimp run, I retired home and watched a couple of very, very good movies which I would recommend to anyone. If you have the chance to see them, please do. They are: "Slumdog Millionaire" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/
and "Seven Pounds" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814314/
Watched them while icing my ankle of course.
A few days ago, I also watched "Gran Torino" which I also highly recommend. Initially you would think that it was a very serious movie until you see Clint Eastwood snarl at the beginning then you would see how funny most of the movie really is afterwards.

The Tale of Two Gimps (Originally written December 26, 2008)

The Tale of Two Gimps

“What we do for fitness.” A quote from a woman named Diane this morning while we were out running with my neighbor Katherine. I haven't run with Katherine for about 2 and half months now since my injury and today I ventured out with them to see if I can still keep up. Turns out Diane is injured too, she literally has a pain in the butt, which is much higher than my ankle injury. Ergo, the tale of two gimps: Diane and I running gimpily. We runners are a stubborn bunch, we could be in excruciating pain and still try to go out there to pound the pavement. We go through all kinds of pain just to stay fit. Pretty much similar to the USPS motto - “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”. Add 'pain' to that motto and what you get is a runner. Well, with the help of those two ladies, I managed to complete a one hour run, my longest since the injury. It was a very satisfying breakthrough. I'm was so happy that I was able to do it since I needed to burn the calories I have been eating a lot of this holiday season. For today, mission accomplished, but there is still New Year's Day to deal with ...

60 to 0 in 6 seconds (Originally written December 19, 2008)

December 19

60 to 0 in 6 seconds

The power and speed of cars are often measured by how fast they can accelerate, say: 0 t0 60 MPH in 6 seconds. My running has gone on reverse since the aggravation of my injury. I went from being able to run an average of about 8 minutes and 40 seconds per mile over a distance of 12 miles this past summer, to about 11 minutes per mile for about 4 miles. Such is the nature of a running injury such as mine. I am learning to accept that just being able to run regardless of pace is better than not being able to run at all. I am also trying to apply this acceptance in my life, the thought of being only responsible for myself and being only able to control my own behavior, and not think about how others do or not do. In other words, I'm trying to learn to let go of things that don't really matter in the long run, and also accept the things that I cannot change.

All Green (Originally written December 6, 2008)

December 06

All Green

My goal for today was to try to run for 30 to 40 minutes. This would have been my third run this week in the new over the counter orthotics. I took a regular route which had 2 traffic lights, so that would have made it 4 traffic lights back and forth. My first time checkpoint which used to take me 15 and 1/2 minutes to reach years ago when I was still able to run fast, and in recent years has taken me 16 and 1/2 minutes, took 18 minutes today. But I'm not complaining, at least I'm able to run again no matter how slow. After the checkpoint, I went around this small park then headed back home. I passed my limit of 30 minutes which was 2 days ago and looked towards running for 35 minutes. I eventually ended up with 37 minutes when my right ankle started bothering me. The nice thing about today's run was that it was non-stop because even with 4 traffic lights to deal with, I reached those intersections when the lights were all green. I hope this bodes well for my return to running, slowly but surely. The thing about these orthotics: I don't feel any spring in my step at all, I land very heavy and flat on my feet on each stride. However it feels like it controls overpronation very well. So for now, I'd rather have a heavy stride and be able to run for a few minutes, than not run at all. Just like the green traffic lights, all signs appear to signal: GO !

Two Days Later... (Originally written December 4, 2008)

December 04

Two Days Later...

December 4, 2008

I was scheduled for some routine blood tests today so I decided to run/walk to the laboratory depending on how my right ankle would tolerate it. I managed to run from home to the lab which took 30 minutes of continuous running (except for traffic lights). Wow! 30 minutes straight! There was some pain, but not the pain that I suffered at the Long Beach Half-Marathon two months ago. After having my blood drawn, I decided that I had enough running done for the day and didn't really want to push my ankle and make it worst, so I did a 42 minute brisk walk to get back home. The distance was about 6 miles back and forth. Next run in a couple of days, I'll try 30 to 35 minutes of running continuously. Now I gotta go and ice my ankle and take my aspirin. 30 minutes!!! So Happy!!!

RUNNING !!! (Originally written December 3, 2008)

December 03

RUNNING !!!

Yesterday, I ran, well sort of. After 2 months of being unable to run due to my right ankle tendonitis, I managed to run yesterday. A very modest and conservative effort but nevertheless better than I have been able to do lately. I bought a pair of over the counter orthotics 3 days ago, they are called Superfeet. I wore them at work the other night and yesterday, decided to try to run in them. I was apprehensive on how much pain my ankle would be in so I just tried to do a shuffle/jog. My goal was to do it for 15 minutes straight but was prepared to walk of it hurt too much. Well, I survived shuffling for 15 minutes and decided to walk the rest of the way till I reached one hour. After five minutes of walking , I thought I would shuffle again to the end of the street I was in. I went past the end of the street and kept on going and hoping I could do 10 minutes. I went past that and was able to do 15 minutes. Then I walked another 10 minutes to get home. It was more than I could hope for. I RAN !!! I was so ecstatic and I hope that the new orthotics did not just have a placebo effect on me. I'll try to do it again tomorrow and we'll see. But for now, I'm elated :)

Jolo Classmates Found (Originally written November 28, 2008)

November 28

Jolo Classmates Found

Hello my former classmates from Notre Dame of Jolo who happen to drop by this site and read my blog. A brief history: I was born in Jolo, Sulu, Philippines. Went to Notre Dame elementary and high school there, moved to Manila for college with a major in physical education, moved to the US and had been working as a mental health worker since then. I'll spare you the years so as not to reveal my age, hahaha! In the past month I found a blog of my former classmates who wrote about "our" high school reunion: http://joloano.blogspot.com/
This started my quest for former classmates to try to get in touch with them and share what has happened to us in the past several years since we had last seen each other. I was hoping that the internet would be able to help me with this quest. I believe that the unfortunate incident in Jolo ages ago is the reason why our class had broken up and ended up in different parts of the world and lost contact with each other. If not for that incident, a lot of us would probably still have visited Jolo one time or another for vacation. These are the people whom I have found so far: Edmund Lim (via his blog), Nayda Nour Uckung (via Skype by random search for: Jolo), Leonardo Wee (via Friendster), Joseph Llenado (courtesy of Leonard), and Tisa Tulawie Rodriguez (also courtesy of Leonard). I found someone else through her blog although she was a grade below us. Her name is Jasmine Amin-Jaya and this is her blog: http://dinazad.blogspot.com/
I started this blog to chronicle my running injury woes but now it is expanding to other things. Nobody else may read it besides myself but at least I'm putting into writing what my thoughts are before they fade from my memory.
If any other Joloanos find this blog, please leave me a message because I would like to hear more about my classmates and townmates. Thank you so much.

Sodium? Potassium? Water? Electrolytes? I’m confused!!!

This is an article I wrote for my running club newsletter back in July 2008:

Sodium? Potassium? Water? Electrolytes? I’m confused!!!

When I was growing up and playing tennis in a very small town in the Philippines, whenever a tennis player started to get leg cramps, somebody would always ask to get some salt for that player to consume. I don’t know if it really helped or if it did, how long it took to relieve the cramps. At the time it was common belief that salt helped with leg cramps. Fast forward to the 80's and 90's. For one reason or another the pendulum had swung to the other end of the mineral spectrum and the so called more knowledgeable people were saying, take more potassium to prevent or relieve cramps. So they started serving more bananas during marathons. Here we are in the newmillennium and researchers have found that the common belief in the 60's and 70's and maybe a few more decades before that, was correct in the first place: that lack of sodium was the cause of leg cramps. Who knows? Maybe in a few years they will say that lack of another mineral causes cramping. This was even before the word hyponatremia was known except for people who worked in the medical field. (Hypo=low, Natremia(Na+)=Sodium). And now the question of electrolyte replacement drinks, bars, gels, shots, blocks. Once again in
the 80’s and 90’s you would often hear the tip:“drink early and drink often” during a marathon. Nowadays, it’s not necessarily true anymore,
because if you are running a marathon about 3 hours and beyond and you are just drinking mostly water to rehydrate, you are in danger of
getting hyponatremia. In other words, the water you kept drinking early and drinking often washed out the sodium from your blood through sweat. And this is the reason why we are seeing more salty energy replacement products in the market for endurance athletes. In brief, salt consumption retains water to prevent dehydration and cramps and also helps to avoid hyponatremia. A question came up at the Clif presentation on June 28,2008. Should one drink half electrolyte drink and half water during a marathon? Again, this was the common advice in the 80's and 90's and the reason being so that you don’t get an upset stomach from drinking pure electrolyte drink. All I can say about that is, drink and eat in a marathon what you drink and eat during training.

Ankle Injury Update (Originally written November 20, 2008)

November 20

Ankle Injury Update

So I finally got to see a podiatrist last Friday and I brought the shoes and orthotics I have been wearing for running, and he checked out both of my ankles. He just confirmed what I already had the past 3 years which is: Posterior Tibialis Tendonitis. He said that my posterior tibialis tendon had weakened further and prescribed new orthotics and was going to send a request to the insurance company for approval to pay for it. I hope insurance pays for it because custom made orthotics are really expensive, anywhere from $ 250 to more than $ 400 a pair. Last time I had one made 3 years ago, the insurance company didn't pay for it. The doctor also suggested that I switch to cycling or swimming which I'm not so keen on because it requires too much equipment as compared to the simplicity of running.
Well after 6 weeks of just stationary cycling and stationary rowing I finally tried to walk for extended periods of time with my walking poles (also known as trekking or nordic poles). Basically these are 2 poles that you use as if you were cross-country skiing while walking. It helps me keep my balance and relieves my ankle pain since I can use the poles to bear some of my weight. I am even able to jog for about 30 seconds to 1 minute before I feel the ankle ache and I have to go back to walking. At least I'm exercising outdoors. However I have lost all of the running fitness that I had developed over the summer. I'm out of breathe so easily when I'm on the jog portion of my walk. I'm not so concerned about being out of breathe as I am about the pain on my ankle though. I'll try to walk/jog at least 3 times a week as long as my ankle can tolerate it. Doesn't burn as much calories as just running though so I suppose I'll have to try to eat lesser to maintain my weight.

Pre-teen crush (Originally written November 15, 2008)

November 15

Pre-teen crush

It was so very long ago. I knew her but she didn't know me. Our ways separated and I never saw her again until...
How do you handle a pre-teen crush that happened when we were in elementary school? Me in the sixth grade, and she in the fifth. So long ago in a far away place that is but a distant memory. I have always remembered her name in the back of my mind. I liked her name so much that I thought that if I ever have a daughter I would give her that name.
Then out of the blue I found her again. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, the world has shrunk with the help of bits, bytes, and packets of data travelling electronically. We had grown older and lived separate and contrasting lives and never the twain shall meet. My fantasy as a young boy never to be fulfilled. But I am not sad, for today I have gained a new friend.

Heel Spur (Originally written November 12, 2008

November 12

Heel Spur

Well, I got my ankle x-ray results yesterday and it showed that I have a heel spur. I don't know how that is affecting my pre-existing tendonitis in that area but I'm sure it is being aggravated by it. I'm seeing the podiatrist this coming Friday and see what he says about how I can rehabilitate the ankle and get back to running. Today, I was able to walk for an hour with the help of a pair of trekking poles with minimal pain. I don't like walking as an exercise so much because it burns even lesser calories than the stationary bike, but it's a break from pedaling in place and I got to exercise outdoors again. I miss the endorphin high that running gives me.

Tendonitis? or Rupture? (Originally written October 27, 2008

Tendonitis? or Rupture?

October 27, 2008

Well, so far even just walking continuosly for just a few minutes makes my ankle hurt a lot. Its becoming very frustrating since I was hoping I would be healing by now.

I've been researching the symptoms of my ankle pain in recent days. I already knew I had posterior tibialis tendonitis for the past 3 years, so I looked up the next possible exarcerbation of the injury, which was a tear or rupture of the tendon. What I found out was not very promising. If the tendon ruptured, then I face the possibility of not being able to run ever again. The prognosis so far is very poor based on my self assessment. Of course diagnosing the problem myself is not the way to go since I am not a doctor or an ankle specialist, but from everything I have read so far on the internet about the injury, it doesn't look too good. Its as if someone told me I couldn't go out and play anymore. I have taken certain steps to relieve the pain based on treatment suggestions I found on the internet like wearing my orthotics all the time plus a heel lift, and also wearing an ankle brace when I'm at work or just walking around home. This is not only to keep the ankle stable but also to retain heat around the area to promote healing by increasing circulation. I'll have to wait and see if all these help. I'll probably schedule an appointment with my doctor in the next few days with the possibility of getting a consultation with a podiatrist.

Ankle Injury Update (Originally written October 21, 2008

Ankle Injury Update

Update on my ankle injury. October 18, 2008

I won't be running very much or at all in the next few weeks until my ankle pain quiets down. It feels worse than I thought it was going to be. It has been a week now since I aggravated it and it doesn't feel any better. Even walking is painful and when I ride my stationary bike it aches too because of the movement of the ankle joint. Its quite depressing to think about not being able to run. It's going be a lot of riding the stationary bike and doing the rowing machine the next few weeks.

Finally another good running day (Originally written October 4, 2008)

Finally another good running day

After my last entry about running very well in the month of August, my body started to complain about the stresses I was giving it by running too hard and too often. My joints were aching and I was mentally tired, so I started to run slowly again for the whole month of September. Finally today, I thought I might try to run hard again (one week before I am supposed to run the Long Beach Half-Marathon) as a tune up to see how my body would feel. It was only 8 miles but I was able to run hard the whole way. Hopefully I can keep my fitness until next Sunday and my joints would hold up and not get injured. I am considering running with a pace group to try to break 2 hours for the 13.1 mile distance. I hope my next entry will have good news in that regard.

NOTE***Somehow I missed posting this entry about the Long Beach Half Marathon so I'm adding it here because its related to the entry above.

Summary of my experiences in the Long Beach Half Marathon 2008 (October 12,2008)

Right inner ankle with tendonitis gave in at 4.5 miles. The pain was so intense, it was like someone took a hammer and hit my ankle with it. All I could think was “even it out, even it out”, hoping the pain would subside in the next few steps, but it didn't. I limped to the finish the rest of the way.

Ran the last 8.5 miles on a leg and a prayer.

Wasn't able to give it my full aerobic effort because of the pain.

My right leg was basically just for balance since I couldn't push off it due to the pain.

Disappointed that I couldn't run the race to my full potential but relieved that I managed to finish it despite my severe right ankle pain.

Still couldn't figure out the reason why my ankle gave, I can only speculate that when someone from AREC said hello to me, I lost my concentration and pushed off on my right foot harder than what my already injured ankle could tolerate.

Only a runner would understand this, but here are my mile splits:

Mile 1 – 9:24

Mile 2 – 9:22

Mile 3 – 9:07

Mile 4 – 9:17

Mile 5 – 9:11

Mile 6 – 9:34

Mile 7 – 9:25

Mile 8 – 9:30

Mile 9 – 9:31

Mile 10 – 9:33

Mile 11 – 9:47

Mile 12 – 9:07

Mile 13.1 – 10:07

Total cumulative time: 9:03:01, Official finishing time: 2:02:54, Average pace: 9:23 .

Oh well, better luck next time.

The Day the Moon, the Stars and the Planets Aligned (Originally written August, 2008)

The Day the Moon, the Stars and the Planets Aligned

The Day the Moon, the Stars and the Planets Aligned (August 2, 2008)
Chronic right inner ankle tendonitis…check. Right outer ankle twisted on a sidewalk a couple of weeks ago…check. Left hip strain from weight training last week…check. Tender left knee from track intervals two days ago…check. All systems go, ready for take-off. For one glorious morning, I was able to run like I did four years ago before all my injuries. A day when the physical and mental got together and had a party. A day that occurs too few and far between now. It was tough and it hurt aerobically, but darn it, did it hurt so good! Finishing the run at an unexpectedly good and unplanned pace gave me immense joy. I guess this is the reason I keep on running despite all my aches and pains – the satisfying high that I get when all cylinders are clicking, and not caring if my knee or hip or ankle is going to hurt tomorrow or the next whole week. I don’t care, I don’t feel the compulsion to run every day anymore. Been there, done that for 21 straight years. For one day I managed to let it all hang out, teetering on the edge of oxygen debt, redlining the pace for all of 12 miles. I may not be able to run that pace again in a long time or at the upcoming Long Beach Half-Marathon (because I suck at racing). But for one fine day I did. I competed with myself, surpassed my expectations, and that was good enough. A running experience indeed. I run, I train, therefore I am. So come on fellow runners,keep searching and striving for your own one glorious day. Please excuse me while I go wrap a bag of frozen veggies around my ankle now and hope the nutrients filter through via osmosis to make it feel better.
P.S. – Thanks to all the AREC members who whether they know it or not, give me the pull or push to finish the Saturday morning runs. Another side note - One advantage of not running everyday: lesser running shorts, tops and socks to wash during laundry day, six sets instead of fourteen in a two week period.