DEX Does Make a Difference!

Yesterday I was exhausted after a seven mile run on the indoor track, and today I felt much better and ran much more easily. I stopped at six miles for reasons other than exhaustion, but I think I could have gone the rest of the intended ten miles without dropping below 9-minute miles. The difference is that yesterday I was on dexamethasone (DEX), a myeloma treatment, and today the effect of that DEX had mostly worn off.

I stopped because the right quads were hurting again. Apparently I injured them a little in last Thursday’s 200 m sprint, and probably re-injured them a little yesterday, trying to run with a DEX-throttled glucose supply. But there are other things going on too:

• I did feel just a hint of trouble from the left Achilles tendon, mindful of what I felt last year after running the same sprints;
• There is a little pain in the arch of my left foot, though not when I am wearing shoes with arch support; and
• Though this is probably not related to running, I’m feeling a pain in the gut a couple inches to the left of the navel. I need to log that somewhere, so here it is. I have an idea what may have caused it, but that will be for the myeloma blog after the next Mayo visit.

Anyway no more running for at least two days, and even then I will run where I can easily stop if any of those pains should reappear. We have a marathon coming up in mid-February - I don’t really care how fast I can run it, but I sure don’t want to be injured going into it.

Splits: 8:58, 8:44, 8:59, 6:52 (.78 mi), 9:02, 8:42, total 51:19, pace 8:53.



Today's lunch: Two-egg cheese omelet, all organic, with organic salsa and organic mixed vegetables.