Dead Cows and Sports Doctor

Monday, May 19, 2007

Runners Have Stories To Tell:

As I ran on my favorite but little-used dirt road along the RR tracks this morning, the smell of death was strong in one remote place. On the way back I smelled it again, went past, and then thought "that's how the crime dramas start - a runner finds the body". So I stopped my watch and walked back on the tracks themselves, where I could see into the deep ditch on the other side, finding two dead cattle (beef animals I think) at the bottom the ditch. A lot of expensive beef. I saw nothing that would suggest what killed them, and didn't crawl down the steep embankment to inspect more closely. After a call to 911 and a call-back by an officer, I finished the 8-mile run. On my next run along that trail I’ll check to see if the animals are still there. I'll be able to tell without looking.

Splits 8:54, 8:46, 8:41, 9:17, 8:55, 9:51, 13:06 (call from cop), 9:17, total 1:16:47. Pace for the seven non-cop miles: 9:06. Good enough for that dirt trail. NO PAINS! That's wonderful. I've been doing my ITB stretches; perhaps that’s helping.

This was “dex day;” I took the dexamethasone cancer treatment the night before, so I had high blood sugar today. I’ve learned that dex interferes with the body’s uptake of glycogen, which is why the blood sugar goes high - it’s not transferred easily from the blood to the organs of the body, especially the muscles. Seems to me that would make it harder to run, or do any extended exercise that requires more glycogen than is already stored in the muscles. If true, I did OK today!

Sports Doctor:

I like him, Dr. W, the sports doc at Stillwater Medical Group. He knows his stuff. I told him about both the right hip and the left knee. He did the usual checkout and opined that both of the problems are due to tight illiotibial bands (ITB). He advised me to run down the middle of the road where possible and otherwise avoid running surfaces that slope either way, to keep doing my stretches, and to come back for other therapies if those things are not enough. He's sure enough about the ITB that he didn't even suggest x-rays.

I was doing those things anyway, so I didn't get huge value from this visit, but now he's my touchstone for these problems and his diagnosis gave me more incentive to do my stretches regularly. He did say that he thinks my joints are otherwise basically quite sound. That's nice.



Post-run breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and dried cranberries, fruit mix of pineapple, kiwi, and mango, organic strawberries, organic walnuts, banana, dark chocolate, nonfat organic milk, organic pomegranate juice.


Dinner: Wild-caught Alaskan salmon, organic vegetable mix with asiago cheese, organic lemon.