Monday, May 11, 2009

44 miles on the bike!

Saturday I rode my longest distance on the bike ever - 44 miles. I started from my house, stopped at Venice to pick up a friend (turns out she couldn't ride so I had to continue alone), then headed on to Malibu to meet my group. Riding back was a challenge, as by mile 35 I was getting pretty tired, esp my hip flexors. But thankfully I returned safely and I felt pretty good. I took a 30 minute nap before going to my strength training session. A bit of boxing mixed in, it was fun!

Sunday and today, however, not so good. My body has become lactose intolerant, I discovered. For a few weeks my stomach was bloating up quite extremely. I thought I was getting fat but this was a balloon like swell. So strange. It got to a point where I just couldn't eat anymore and I have been in pain for two days. I am starting to eat again, now no milk in cereal, no yogurt in my shakes and no more of my favorite cottage cheese snacks. Sad. Time to find other alternatives.

Hope to muster up some strength to be able top swim tomorrow.

Blessings,
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

3 comments:

Russ Egeland said...

Fantastic! Very encouraging words and story. I was diagnosed with fibro in December after misdiagnosed with other ailments. Overall muscle, joint, ligament pain for 3 weeks. PMS doctor put me on Morphine Sulfate and Norco and that did nothing for me. I agree stress can be a cause and may be one of my causes for fibro, also almost died while running an unltra in WV with 3 clogged arteries, ran with peripheral blindness for the last 2 miles or so as my body was shutting down...5 mountains and 94 degrees. Could have also triggered the fibro. Bouts of heavy sleepiness (18 hours of sleep), fibro fog causing near fatal car crashs (2x) or thinking that the lack of clear thinking and extreme tiredness caused it. Became a runner, then marathoner, then ultrarunner quickly after 2003 after 5 arterial stents...However, had to take 6-month hiatus from exercise due to variety of physical problems (degenerated disc, herniated disc, pinched nerve), low blood oxygen...but now starting up again. Your words are encouraging, it is a complete life style change. I'm nearly 57 and a male (that other 20% of fibro sufferers). Worked last 6 weeks to get to 20-25 miles running trails per week, slowly. I have no speed in me. Did 5k race in 27 minutes compared with 22:30 2 years ago. However, on fast runs, like a 5k, I get totally wiped out and need to rest for several hours...very slow long runs aren't as bad...so, I'm hoping to get to running a marathon or ultra again one day. You're enthusiasm and perseverance are really motivating to me to continue. Almost everyone says I need to take it easy...doctor says just do 2-3 miles at most...however, pyschologically, I feel really good when I can do a nice long run, even though I go slowly and have to take a quick nap to recuperate....food/nutrition also very important....thx for all your comments and posts...they made my day!

Russ Egeland said...

I forgot to mention. For hip flexors, I had similar problem (at least it sounds like it) so I started to do the hurdlers exercise. Basically you use a chair or something that is about "inseam" high and slowly "hurdle" over it in slow motion...it was very, very painful the first time I did it, but it took care of the hip flexor problem and I still do it periodically. Amazing!

small town small times said...

Glad to hear about your ride. I'll be curious to read if your pain changes once your go off lactose. Keep us posted.

In the meantime, I still think of your advice -- a little bit at a time. I'm happy to report, I've been running again. I'm almost up to 1 1/2 miles without any pain the next day. It feels grrrreat!

Thank goodness you're here to keep us all going.