Breakfast Berries

Yesterday, at the suggestion of runner/biker and brother-in-law Cal, I fixed my bike so the seat is high enough. New post, seat, and water bottle holder for $80, all on a bike that cost only $150 in the first place, brand new. Today I took it out for a 1-hour spin, pushing pretty hard. It’s a big improvement. I can’t be certain, but I have the impression that I was mostly able to keep the bike in higher gears than I could last Thursday, when I complained about knee problems. The knee still bothered a little today, but not as much.

The plantar-fasciitis foot hurts a bit today though, after some lawn mowing. First I’ve felt it since the cortisone shot last Wednesday. I took more curcumin as an anti-inflammatory, and will continue the cold packs, the Strassburg Sock, stretching, gel heel inserts, tennis ball under the foot, and more.

Breakfast this morning. Oatmeal is such a great excuse to eat berries:

From the bottom: Organic oatmeal, organic milk, blueberries, blackberries, organic strawberries, roasted pistachios. Estimated Weight Watchers points = 3. I like this photo so much that it's my screen saver now.

Part of breakfast every morning. Sunshine fries two eggs in the tiniest amount of butter. I love these eggs with black pepper and a little salt:


Breakfast yesterday:

From the bottom: organic oatmeal, organic skim milk, blueberries, organic strawberries, organic sugared ginger. Estimated Weight Watcher points = 3.

Challenge Cancer 5k

My sweeties and I went to the Challenge Cancer 5k this morning, where Sunshine and Sweet Pea ran the race in a good time, and eight cancer survivors, including myself, were recognized for remaining athletically active while dealing with our cancers. I didn’t run this race, because Grandma’s Marathon is just a week away now and I want to give my plantar fasciitis the best possible chance to heal first. So I rode my bike a little and took pictures; what a beautiful day and a nice time.

Afterward we headed to the club, where I “ran” on the elliptical for 32 minutes at a rather hard pace, which I believe is the right thing to do one week before a marathon. The machine said 3.9 miles, but my heart rate was about 150 most of the time, indicating a faster pace than that.

The doctor actually suggested taking an anti-inflammatory before the marathon. I’m aware that other doctors might disagree, for several reasons, and that excess use of anti-inflammatories can threaten kidneys and liver, already threatened by the myeloma. So yesterday I tried taking one gram of curcumin, a natural anti-inflammatory with no known long-term risks, and today I took two grams, just to make sure that I don’t have any problems with it. So far so good - I think I’ll take two grams before the race next Saturday.


Catfish, pan-fried in 1 tsp organic butter, organic lemon, oven-roasted organic sweet potatoes, organic catsup, almonds, jicama, and Breckenridge Oatmeal Stout (not shown). Estimate: nine Weight Watcher points including three for the stout.

More Biking

Bicycle again today, 1 hour 50 minutes, distance unknown. The wind was an interesting factor, blowing hard from the south as thunderstorms and tornados began to invade Minnesota and western Wisconsin. White caps on Lake Woebegone. I started out south for several miles, lugging hard into that stiff wind, then looped around toward the west on mostly-wooded trails, exploring several new ones, and finally toward home, making good time with the wind at my back. I think the effort was roughly equivalent to running 10 min/mi, so the aerobic energy expenditure was perhaps the same as running 11 miles.

I would have gone farther but had some pain in my right knee, directly under the kneecap. It doesn’t feel like something that will be with me for long; I think it’s because I started out riding 40 miles last Sunday for my first real bike ride of the season. I don’t feel it when I walk, but it may keep me from biking any more before Grandma’s Marathon. Happily, there is still the elliptical machine at the club, in addition to water running in an actual lake.

Meanwhile, the foot feels GREAT, like I could run a marathon! That’s the cortisone talking, of course. I’m trying hard to do all of the things that the doctor recommended including ice, stretches, shoes with gel inserts, Strassburg sock, and walking softly. No running, and no bare feet. Nine days left until we cross the starting line; then all bets are off.


Grilled free-range chicken marinated in lime juice, broccoli with organic lemon zest, organic parmesan cheese, blackberries. Estimate: Four Weight Watchers points.

Cortisone Shot

Gulp. I got the shot. My regular doctor is on vacation this week, but I’ve lost patience with my plantar-fasciitis foot, so I went to see his office mate, another very experienced doctor. He confirmed my diagnosis that the problem really is plantar fasciitis, and offered considerable advice. Here is some of it:

• The inflammation will not heal unless I stop antagonizing it, and even then will not heal quickly. In the best case it might take three weeks, and perhaps longer because feet are slow to heal and even longer because of my age.
• Therefore, I need to figure on taking perhaps a full month off from running, though other cardio exercise such as the bike, elliptical machine, or swimming are fine as long as they don’t annoy the foot. Meantime:
• Ice it for 15 minutes at least three times per day. He is an advocate of ice, rather than heat, although he allowed that various opinions do exist out there. What the heck, I’ll try it.
• Buy Dr. Scholls “Gel Heel Cushions” and use them in all shoes, moving them from one pair of shoes to the next if necessary. I bought a pair of those, and another pair of Dr. Scholls Heel Pain Relief orthotics, which specifically mention plantar fasciitis on the label.
• Don’t walk barefoot in the house or out if it. Always use shoes, with the heel cushions.
• Don’t do any activity that makes the heel hurt. Thus yesterday’s very productive yard work was probably UNproductive for my foot.
• Running on it probably wouldn't do permanent injury, even a marathon, but would set healing way back.
• Runners’ stretches of the calf muscles are good, especially after exercise.
• Use the Strassburg Sock at night. He hadn’t seen it before, but I showed it to him and he thought that it should be as good as the clumsy braces they normally prescribe.
• He showed me another type of stretch used on the edge of a stair. I’ll try it.
• Ibuprofen or naproxen sodium might actually help, by reducing inflammation.
• Surgery is a last resort; there are other things to try first.
• A steroid shot can actually improve the likelihood of healing by reducing inflammation (as does ice), but carries a slight risk of further injury later.
• He mentioned that professional athletes do get these shots, because the current season is so important to them, implying that he wouldn’t be so anxious to give one to an amateur athlete.

I mentioned that I run Grandma’s Marathon quite competitively, and that my mom would be waiting for me at mile seven this year again, probably for the last time, because my folks may not be volunteers there next year. So he administered the shot. It contains both cortisone and novocaine, and it actually numbed the heel at first. Now the novocaine has worn off, and the heel feels about as it did before the shot. Ice treatments to follow.


Big salad: Bed of organic lettuce greens, organic celery, diced jicama. With avocado, blue cheese, artichoke hearts, organic strawberries, brazil nuts, raspberry vinegar. Estimated Weight Watcher points: 4.

Long Run by Chainsaw

Well not really. But it felt like it. The plantar-fasciitis heel still hurts, so I did yard work for five hours, including three hours of mostly clearing downed trees and brush.
Several years ago we had a lovely "nature walk" in our little woods, including white violets, trilium, jack-in-the-pulpit, three varieties of sturdy oaks, ash, elm, two types of linden, birch, spruce, cedar, and more. Trees had fallen across the path, and it had disappeared from disuse. So today, after mowing the lawn, I got out the chain saw and cleared that path again. As part of that work I took down and sawed up four eight-inch diameter spruce trees, killed by the power company which topped them so they wouldn't hit the power lines. A lot of sawing, lifting, and carrying.

Unfortunately, the heel didn't get better today. In fact, it got worse. Tomorrow I will try to get in to see my primary doctor, and probably get a referral to a specialist. I'm a runner who can't run, a fish out of water, and I'm getting upset because I'm doing all of the things that I should do and it isn't getting better.


Salmon bake with wild-caught canned salmon, yogurt, dill, and paprika. Sauteed sweet purple onions, peas. Estimate: five Weight Watcher points.

Reecom Weather Radio Review

Our very old Midland weather radio expired, and we went to Radio Shack for a new one, only to find that they were out of stock. No reasonably-priced weather radios on hand at all. So we turned to the internet, ordering a Reecom R-1630 Alert Radio from Weather Connect.

Bottom line: It works as advertised; I'm quite pleased with it.

• It has S.A.M.E. technology, allowing us to program it to sound off only when our own county is included in an alert, whereas the old radio sounded off for any county within the range of the Twin Cities NOAA radio transmitter, a much larger area which included several large Wisconsin counties.
• I have actually programmed it for our county and several counties to the west, where storms usually come from, and recent alerts have confirmed that it works correctly. In fact, the memory now shows 18 alerts in the three weeks that we have owned the radio.
• The owner's manual is a little clumsy, and the radio would be hard to program without it, but I actually had no trouble with the programming.
• Siren (alarm) volume is separately adjustable from radio volume; that's nice.
• Alert duration (time until the radio goes silent again) is not adjustable but is short; that's even nicer.

I don't own stock in the company, and I can think of improvements that could be made. For example, with batteries in the machine (it works even when power fails), it's hard to tell whether it is plugged into house power or not. It should have an indicator. Further, it's a table model with no holes in the back for hanging it on a wall. Duh. But the bottom line is that it works.

I saw part of an advertisement on TV yesterday that Rainbow stores (or one particular store?) will be selling this radio in the Twin Cities this weekend for $30. If so, that's a much better deal that I got on the internet. This is the time of year to have one; in Minnesota, there are more tornados in June than any other month.

Long Run by Bicycle

A new experience today. I’m a runner, not a biker, so I’ve never deliberately ridden a bike as far as I could in three hours, until now. Forty miles even, in 3:13. Not at all Lance-like, barely over 12 mph, but my hybrid bike is slow and I’m old, so I’m content with this “run.”

The plan was to work very hard for three hours or more, simulating a 20-mile run, in hopes of retaining whatever cardio-pulmonary fitness may be left over from the marathon four weeks ago, and possibly even improving my body’s ability to convert fat to energy. The specific fitness for running may slip during the next two weeks (and the previous three) but that’s the tradeoff.

I’d rather be running than biking, but I’m not going to run at all until Grandma’s Marathon, in hopes that my plantar-fasciitis inflamed foot will heal so that I can finish the marathon. Breathing was fast enough to qualify as a hard workout, three or four half-cranks of the pedals per full breath, and even faster toward the end as I tired out. I took lots of water but no gels.

I did get pretty tired, not being accustomed to long, hard miles on the bike, and I slowed down some during the second 20 miles. Now, afterward, when I go up a flight of stairs it feels like I’m carrying a second person. I suspect I’ll feel this ride in my legs in a day or two. The foot gave me no trouble at all; biking is apparently a non-event for plantar fasciitis.

"Men's Bread" (a sample my sweeties brought from a race), whole-wheat bread, parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, dill pickles, roquefort mustard, organic cashews, organic strawberries, tortilla chips. Estimate: 11 Weight Watcher points. The cheese alone is 6 points.

It'a a recovery meal because it has (1) Carbs (bread), (2) Protein (nuts & cheese),(3) Salt (chips, pickles, & cheese).