I'm working from home right now.
This is generally a good thing -- easy commute, less distracting hallway chatter, comfortable surroundings (not over air-conditioned, or air-conditioned at all, really), no interrupts from coworkers or the boss.
Quite good, actually... if it weren't Saturday.
A few photos from the garden. These are all from plants that were grown from seeds that I'd harvested out of fruits that we either grew, received from the CSA or bought at the supermarket. There are notes on the image in my Flickr stream.
Kind of exciting, but maybe that's just me.
We've been getting some crazy rain the last couple of days. So far, it seems like the bed is draining well, so the plants seem happy enough.
Our "new" rain barrel is almost full even though we haven't actually fitted the gutter downspout over to it. (I guess there are some advantages to having old clogged gutters -- there's plenty of water that's just been dripping/pouring over the corner of the roof rather than going down the downspout.) We're probably going to look into getting another rain barrel at this point, but for the time being, our party buckets have doubled as water basins, and even they're full up and overflowing.
3 miles this morning. Average pace a little below 8:30 minute miles. Max heart rate somewhere around 169*.
It's still not where I'd like to be, but it felt a lot better than a week and a half ago. And it's progress.
*
Within the first 1/2 mile, I checked the monitor and it read 176. Then 179. Then 181. I definitely didn't feel like I was working that hard so I tried adjusting the strap of the sensor and the reading shortly dropped down to 156. *phew* For the record, I don't think this had anything to do with the high reading from the last 3 mile run, and I really did feel like crap at the time.
Hey.
So, I've basically been sick for something like three out of the last four weeks. Sinusitis and bronchitis, according to the doctor. At a follow-up appointment last week, he now tells me that he thinks I have acid reflux (which is making my cough persist) and asthma. He's recommending that I start taking a daily dose of Prilosec and regular shots from a Albuterol inhaler.
Needless to say, this is news to me. Also needless to say, I'm not particularly happy with his diagnosis.
Since then, I've gone to the acupuncture clinic and have been trying to just rest and give my body a chance to recover. It's been a week, and I'm feeling like the cough is getting a little better, but I'm going to give the Prilosec a shot for a week, just to see whether it makes a difference or not. I'm not thrilled about being on a regular regimen of meds, but we'll see how it goes. My hope is that it will clear things up to allow my body to heal, and then I can go back to business as usual and let my body take care of itself.
Anyway, the upshot of this is that my marathon training got completely derailed. I'm still hopeful that I'll be able to get back on track and be ready to go by October, but things really aren't where I'd like them to be right now.
I figured it'd be a slow start, but my first run the Sunday before last wasn't promising. 3 miles. started at 8-1/2 minute miles, finished closer to 10 when my heart rate hit 176, which, for the record, is higher than when I was trying to test my max heart rate by doing 300m uphill sprints. Granted, it's been hot and humid, but I don't think it accounted for all of it. I've since played a little frisbee (and aggravated the hamstring) and had a disappointing "long and slow" 5.5 mile run, that was supposed to be more like 6.5 miles but was cut short because my knee started hurting after striding up a short uphill.
Bah.
It's worse than square one. It's square zero. A friend thinks that it's just residue from the sick, and when I'm *really* back at 100%, the endurance and stamina will come back with it. I have a few other friends who also think I should be able to get back on track.
Hope so. There is at least one guy who thinks I'm screwed (and believe it or not, it's not me), but I am ignoring him at this time.
So I'm clearly not going to be running the marathon for time. Which makes me wonder whether I should put Marine Corps Marathon back on the table for consideration. It's supposed to be kind of a clusterfuck because there are so many people, but if I'm not worried about trying to finish in 3:20:59, maybe it'll be more interesting than running one of the quieter races. It also has the benefit of giving me an extra 2 weeks for training, which is not the worst thing ever.
Hopefully they won't close open registration before I make a decision. Too bad it's already sold out.
Have I mentioned, bah?
UPDATE: just signed up for the Cape Cod Marathon. Just in case. Poking around, Long Beach is looking somewhat appealing except that I'm not all that excited to travel (cost, and time, and well, the stress of travel these days), even if it is near home base.
