Training Day 4 - March 18, 2010

May I whine for just a moment? Everything about today was difficult. It began when my eyes popped open with the pounding of the garbage truck snorting and banging just outside my bedroom window. Why is it trash companies, birds with shrill calls, helicopters and lawn companies with noisy gas fueled equipment choose 7 am to do their duty? Rude awakenings always make me feel so cheerful! Uh...NOT

Anyway, I dragged myself out of a perfectly cozy bed only to stand on two feet that felt like someone had been hammering on them all night. They didn't stop with my feet either. The sadistic buggers had a grand time mushing up my hips, back, shoulders and neck as well. It's difficult to start the morning with a sunny smile when you feel as though you've been beat up and your joints have turned to hot cement. That has pretty much been the story of my life every morning for more than 25 years. Since AS graced me with its presence, it has tested my strength in many, many ways. For quite a while, it took me about an hour to get get myself up and mobile every morning. Now it take more like 3 hours before I'm ready to get household tasks done or leave the house to run an errand. I used to work full time; now I'm lucky to keep up with my daughter on a shopping trip that lasts more than 2 hours.

Enough of that; on to the training news. My Asics started beckoning me early this afternoon, so I grudgingly began the process of putting them on. Did you know such a simple task as putting shoes on could be a challenge? Since I cannot bend over far enough to put my shoes on the normal way, I donn them by pushing my foot in, then prop my feet, one by one, onto a chair. In order to reach the laces from a standing position, I bend my knees so that I'm in a semi squat position to tie each shoe. That accomplished, I got Lucie and my water bottle, and off I went.

Once outside, it was a slow start. Experiencing more pain this morning than other days, it felt a bit like I was walking through knee high mud. I suspected I wouldn't get 2.5 miles done in the 45 minutes allotted, so I adjusted my focus from mileage to proper form, steady cadence and fending off the temptation to turn around and go back home! After about 20 minutes I felt better, my joints loosened up and it became easier to ignore the burning pain in my left hip and knee. You have to be stubborn to get anywhere when you have AS; this is not a disease for the feint of heart. Learning how to look past pain and concentrate on more positive matters is a skill I've picked up along the way. I thank God for that or I'd be in a real mell of a hess, as my Dad used to say.

There I was, 30 minutes into what was turning out to be a decent training, and THUD! "Oh s**t", I thought, "what just happened"? In the short moment that followed I gathered my wits and understood I had stumbled. I fell hard onto my left hip, scraping my elbow and lower leg on the way down. Talk about a rude surprise!! Determining that I hadn't broken anything, (I always worry about that since my low back and hips are fused,) I picked myself up and looked around. I don't know about you, but after an event like this, most women have the urge to look around them to see who witnessed them in the ungraceful act of falling. Thank goodness I was walking in a new homesite, so most of the construction dudes were either perched on a roof nailing down shingles or banging their hammers somewhere in the interior of the homes. All I had to worry about were the two landscapers off to my left. Can you guess what caused me to stumble? Some lame construction person had strung a gray string from a stick in the ground on the homesite across the sidewalk and onto another stick poked into the future location of some landscaping. The string being exactly the same color as the sidewalk went completely unnoticed to my eyes, and I caught my left toe squarely under the string, bringing me down with a very unladylike KA-WHUMP. So what was I to do? Well, I finished my 45 minute training, that's what. I had to ignore some hip pain, but I was certain I didn't break anything, so why not just push on?

I'm home now. We'll see what the outcome of the fall is when I get up in the morning. Either it will have put me into a flare (bad), or be nothing more than extra stiff and sore (good) when I once again put my feet onto the floor to begin another day.

My JIM training schedule gives me Fridays off, so I'll be posting again Saturday after team training. FYI, the entire Seattle JIM teams meets every Saturday morning to train together. Some walk, some walk/jog and some run. Saturdays are a good day to get to know the rest of the group, so I'm looking forward to meeting my mates. Check back here Saturday evening to read the latest. Keep movin' - rest is rust!