Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Went to the podiatrist today because I had a scheduled appointment to get my foot zapped (aka “Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy”) to help with the plantar fasciitis, but in the end I didn’t get zapped. He had given me a 2nd cortisone shot the last time I was there, about two weeks ago, and that seems to have done the trick. Even after the 10k on the 14th, I’ve not had any heel pain, so it appears, six months plus later, that I’ve finally licked this one. Let’s hope so, this was not a fun injury. And I’m tired of sleeping in a night splint.

So, with no need to sit on my ass for the rest of the day recouperating (I took the day off), I went and ran errands.

You know you’re a triathlete (or other endurance athlete) when you go spend $40+ on “nutrition” and none of it is stuff you’d just sit down to eat. Powdered drink mix, shot bloks, gels, etc. All stuff I need and was completely out of it.

Then I ran up to Homo Depot and picked up more paint swatches than you can shake a stick at. BC has offered for forever and a day to help me paint my apartment and I’ve never taken him up on it. So, time to pick out colors before he rescinds the offer. Should be a trip.

I know people aren’t suppose to complain about this, but my pants are starting not to fit. As in, I’m shrinking out of them. And it’s not like I’m not eating, because I most certainly am, yet the increase in activity is changing me. For the better, mind you, but it’s annoying feeling like my pants are either going to fall off, or are staying on but too far cinched in. And it’s even better at work with the blackberry on my hip.

Completed the first 4 week cycle last week with a nice down week. Popping down definitely worked – I felt much better running this morning, though tonight’s swim was a little rough at first (wasn’t feeling balanced when I started). In any case, good stuff today, and nice to see confirmation of the wisdom of the 4 week cycle (three weeks of gradual increases with the fourth a drop back a step to recover).

In non-training stuff, BC and I headed out to a DC United game yesterday with friends. Was lots of fun (they won). Tried taking some pictures, but we were too far up to get any decent ones with my camera. Took tons of pictures on Saturday at the club’s training tri, some good, most mediocre, but it was still fun to take ’em, though I ended up napping a good bit of Saturday afternoon after it.

Looking forward to dinner with Dean tomorrow, haven’t seen him in a bit and it’ll be nice to catch up.

Heard from the parental units tonight, they’re up near the Grand Canyon in Arizona and were about to go out swimming with my niece, whom we’ve taken to referring to as “DP,” or “Disney Princess.” After an initial period they finally sat her down and had an attitude adjustment talk which seems to have helped – she was feeling full of her 11 years at the early part of the summer, so an adjustment was definitely needed. Sounded like she was doing much better, though. Also spoke with my brother earlier today (a rarity – we just don’t talk that often on the phone) and he’s doing well, which is a welcome change from last year.

Anyway, off to bed here so I can get up and bike in the morning. Pickups tomorrow – small bursts of speed surrounded by moderate biking. Speedwork is always fun, so I’m looking forward to it.

Tried to go shopping today, post-pride. Wanting to not waste petrol, and since I was already warm from walking around at the pride festival, I biked over to Barracks Row to hit the local bike shop and the local yarn shop. Someone, however, had other ideas for me.

• Strike One: Local Bike Shop no longer carries nutrition products, the sole thing I needed.
• Strike Two: Local Yarn Shop doesn’t have any of the notions I wanted to pick up.
• Strike Three: Picked up my mail from yesterday on the way back into the building, and the every-two-years-like-clockwork jury duty summons was in there.

I get the picture, I’m staying in the rest of the day.

Earlier I did go down to the Pride festival for DC. Was nice, nothing particularly smashing, but I enjoyed it. Saw several folks I don’t see much of these days, picked up a bracelet (bike chain pattern), got some sun (no burn though – yay SPF 30). I didn’t go out to the parade last night – I didn’t want to go drinking after or during after yesterday morning’s race, and honestly I prefer the festival for people watching and talking. Instead I finished up Half-Life 2: Episode One on the Xbox (didn’t take long, actually), finished a knitting sampler I was working on (increases and decreases, various methods), and started the next project – BC’s hat, to match the scarf. The hat, after the initial cast on and row, is coming along quite nicely, especially in comparison to the scarf. We’ll see how it goes when I have to start decreasing and slip it over to the double pointed needles.

Question for my knitting friends: Do they not make aluminium or metal needles these days? Mom has a ton (which I will filch from her in due time), and I like the feel of them, but almost everything I see other than Addi Turbos are wood of some sort (or bamboo). What gives?

I bought some plants & two new planters for the balcony (I blame Marn. And Martin.) So, without further ado, before and after pictures:

And I just discovered, post-planting, why it is that I was feeling so warm:

Teach me to go out without sunscreen. ;-p

Yesterday was the first time in forever and a day that I’ve done two workouts in a day (a short run in the morning, swim drills in the evening), and today everything is sore. Hips, arms, core, the works. And I still want to hop on my bike for an hour or more here this morning to get in one more workout this week. I know this’ll get easier, but I did not want to get out of bed this morning. As it was I let myself sleep in.

Going to attempt a visit to the Washington Design Center today with BC (depends on when he gets over here, I suppose). It’s here in SW, and I’ve never been, so I want to check it out. Spring has sprung and I’m wanting to rearrange my living room. I have ideas, but it’s always fun to see what other folks have done to tweak those ideas.

This week was supposed to be a relatively quiet one, or so I thought. Then a cousin called, is in town, and we’re having dinner tomorrow, which means my hair appointment (for the 3rd of 4th time in a row?) gets rescheduled, hopefully to Wednesday, when I have a date with BC (dinner after haircut, I suppose). Thursday turns out to be election night for my cult co-op, so I’ll be getting some knitting in then. Busy, busy, busy.

The legs are a bit sore from yesterday’s short run, which is expected. Treated myself by making a nice curry tonight, though it reminded me why I don’t keep cashews in the house in a regular basis (*nom, nom, nom!*). This curry’s best with a light topping of cilantro & chopped cashews, so I went all out after a brief stop at the grocery store for the fresh stuff.

One of my larger projects is going to be picking up steam here in short order, so work’s going to get very busy with lots of the more tedious aspects of being an attorney. I think we know where we’re going with it, though, so hopefully it won’t be too painful.

I’m deliberately not commenting on all of the political posts I see all over the ‘net these days (well, except to share satire), mainly because I happen to like my friends and would rather not unduly antagonize those relationships.

So, the acid test this evening was to lie down flat, relatively quickly, wait a bit, then get back up with similar speed, and see if the dizziness returned either time. I’m quite, quite happy to report it did not. What. A. Relief.

A few more days of not sleeping on my right side and I should be back to completely normal. I went in late to work this morning so I could take the full, prescribed 24 hours in the blasted collar. Actually, I did cheat a little by sleeping most of the night without it, but only because I’d managed to “lock” my head into position with a well-placed pillow that wrapped partially around my head and kept it upright and forward like it was supposed to be. Much more comfortable that way, and it did the trick.

It was very difficult not to want to dance around the room when there was no reaction to the shift in position.

Definitely in much, much better spirits this evening, and quite relieved that the worst seems to be behind me.

It moved! Or, rather, it was both sides, not just the one that got treated last week.

Okay, let’s back up. I continued to experience vertigo, first lighter after the treatment last Monday, then back to how it had been over the weekend. Yesterday morning a lie-down on the bed (from full upright to fully on the back) induced full fledged spins. Whee! So, a call to the ENT set up another appointment for this morning.

When they tested to see which side it was this time (last time was definitely the left), the right side is what turned up positive. The doc said the audiologist last time noted some reaction on the right, but because the left was so much more dramatic they thought it was just the left. So, this time we treated the right side, and hopefully that’ll knock it out.

Took the day off so I can sit around, keep myself upright, and try not to worry about stuff.

Unfortunately, it’ll be another week before we know for sure if this has gotten the last of it fixed. Which means a full three weeks off from exercise. I’m now less than 12 weeks out from my first planned tri, and so much closer to the 10 miler and the half marathon, which means I’m not going to have the fitness base there to be able to run any of the three of them. And that means I’m canning them for this year. Which sucks in a major way, because I enjoy these two particular running races, and was looking forward to doing this particular tri for the first time.

Got myself all kinds of stressed out over the lack of exercise this past weekend. Stressed enough that my hands are a big mess of eczema. It’s getting better now that I’ve let go of the races, but how gross. At least I discovered that my old med for the eczema was out of date, so I’ve got a fresh batch to pick up in a little bit (and no visit to the dermatologist needed, thank heavens).

Anyway, so just chilling out at home today, and meditating over where I’m going to go, fitness wise, once I’m good to get back to exercise. My first race would then be a 10k in June, then the two tris in September and November. Probably should hit the weight room, as I should have been doing over the winter, as well as base building cardio fitness, and lots of technique work. But that’s to be mulled over while I try not to drive myself crazy in this collar for the next day.

Got to the ENT and then had all hopes of having a useful day shattered with a single sentence: “Well, we’re going to give you a neck brace to wear for the next 24 hours to keep your head from moving too much…”

Ugh.

it turns out I have classic Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, or BPPV. Basically some of the little calcium carbonate crystals that are supposed to stay in one place in the ear got out and are wreaking havoc with the innards of my ear, causing the vertigo. So we did a series of slow movements to shake the little things back to where they’re supposed to be, and then they laid the collar on me and sent me home. Well, after paying the co-pay and for the collar they sent me home. Strict instructions not to move the head quickly, no looking down, keep it upright, sleep propped up tonight, etc. Which then meant no going shopping as I’d hoped (holiday sales!), and no laundry or other housework. So, after that I basically bummed around on the Xbox all day, since I can do that and keep my head upright pretty easily. Beat Half-Life 2 and started in on Assassin’s Creed. Fun.

The treatment we did is something like 80% effective with one treatment, so in another week we should know if I have to go back in for a repeat or if we got them all knocked back with the first one. No real cause to pinpoint (no head trauma), and while it’s more likely to recur than not, most cases won’t recur with a 4-5 year period of an episode according to the doc. Which is better than my odds at getting picked for jury duty in DC, so I’ll take ’em.

Take a note: Don’t go book buying (or to the library) if tilting your head to read spines makes you dizzy.

And don’t tilt your head all the way back when sitting in your office chair, either.

Took off from work a little early (after the office chair incident referenced above) to do some shopping, which I cut somewhat short after the dizziness at the book store. Thankfully that particular store is on the bus route that drops me in front of my building, so after a short wait in the cold I was delivered directly to my front door.

Some Super Mario Galaxy this evening (I can power the spaceship finally), and a few more rows on BC’s scarf (I started a scarf for him Monday – fisherman’s rib). And lots of grousing about not being able to exercise since I can’t exactly bounce around a lot right now. So. Annoyed. At. My. Ears. Hopefully the doc was right and this is just a little viral thing that’ll work its way out in a week or so. We’ll see what the ENT says on Monday.

I do look forward to having something else to write about.