Mini Struggles, Race-cations and Loose Ends

It has been quite a week, a week full of mini struggles. I've quickly come to realize that I plan a lot of what I do around running. Let's rewind a bit.

So as you know (if you've been following along), my hands have been swelling up when I run. They swelled up during my 5K on Sunday, and my parents asked me to stop running until I see my Cardiologist. I think I may have also mention that I called last week to get an appointment, and the soonest they could get me in was at the end of May. The thought of not running was really irritating to me, but it is in my best interest.

Monday I got back to work and told Linda (my work running buddy) about my predicament with running, and she said it was perfectly fine, and that we would just go out and power walk. I was so thankful she wasn't mad, again, I didn't expect her to be. I was also thankful that she was open to the idea of power walking after work. Just the idea of getting out and moving after work, that's enough for me right now.

Monday after lunch I decided to call my cardiologists office to see if he thought it would be in my best interest to stop running until he could see me. Unfortunately, he was out of town all week (big vacation week up here in NYS). The nurse said she would pass my message along and get back to me on Monday when he was back, and until then, use my common sense. Let's be real, most of us runners ARE CRAZY. We will run because we love it and we hate it all at the same time. Enter struggle #1: NOT running. It has been a LONG week without running... at all. I have a feeling most of you know how I feel, and some people even get irritable if they're not able to run. We're addicted to the endorphins.

By Monday afternoon I started to feel a "lump" in the back of my throat. I kind of shrugged it off and thought maybe it was because I hadn't consumed enough water throughout the day, and maybe my throat was just dry. Linda and I went out for our power walk after work and it had just started to rain. No big deal, it was still somewhat warm out, so we managed just fine. We walked just under 2.5 miles, and again my hands swelled. Are you kidding me?! All we were doing was walking! We got back to the department, and this time I showed a different cardiologist my hands. We talked for a minute about my hands, and I told him what the other cardiologist said about getting on a Calcium Channel Blocker. He disagreed. He said the Calcium Channel Blocker would be good if it were Raynaud's, but neither of us think that's what it is. He looked at me and goes, "Valve time!" (Let's just hope my cardiologist agrees)

That night I woke up around 1:30 am with a bit of a fever. Great, struggle #2: I was getting sick. That darn lump in my throat. I tossed and turned for the remainder of the night. I went from cold to hot in an instant. I turned my fan on and even crawled on top of my bed with just a fleece blanket thinking that would help. I'd fall asleep for about 20 minutes at a time, but wake up drenched in sweat. Wonderful. The next morning I woke up feeling like death warmed over (this was obviously my body telling me how much it hated me that I tried to act like college student again over the weekend). I still managed to pull myself together to get to work, but they ended up sending me home early, luckily the schedules were light. I came home and slept until 6 or so. Woke up, tried to make dinner, but nothing sounded good and was back in bed by 8.

Wednesday I wasn't feeling much better, so I asked Linda if she minded that we held off walking until Friday. She said that was fine, and that I needed to focus on getting better. My coworkers asked if I wanted to go home early, but I said no, that I'd power through. Again, I went home, and slept. I did manage to eat some soup for dinner though. The rest of the week was much of the same. Thursday Linda told me that we would start back up walking on Monday. She could tell I still wasn't myself and she didn't want to push it. I still have a horrible cough, and I sound horrible. I've been wearing a mask at work so keep from spreading my cold to my coworkers and patients. I even told my coworkers I can't remember the last time I had a cold this bad. Oh well, it will pass!

The last struggle right now is the fact that I've been planning ALL of my vacations around running. My mom and I have been planning on visiting New Orleans this coming November. I read about the Jazz Half in my Runner's World, and ironically, my mom has been wanting to visit New Orleans, so I thought this would provide the perfect opportunity to visit! I also think that I have convinced my mom to run the half with me! This will be her first half, that is if we still go. Since I've been having issues with my hands, my mom wants to hold off planning our trip to New Orleans until after I see my cardiologist. I agree it is important, but I'm just SO bummed.

The rest of my vacations I have planned for this year are for half marathons:

August : Dumbo Double Dare (which is also my birthday weekend AND my first visit to Disneyland!)
November: NOLA Jazz Half Marathon
November: Avenger's Half Marathon

There's even been discussion of a Disney trip with my friends from Penn State over the WDW marathon weekend in January, so I told them I may run that half. I haven't registered yet even though I'm an annual passholder. I'm holding off until Tuesday and I'll make my final decision. I've been so excited about these trips, and I still am. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that nothing gets in the way of these races. I guess we'll cross that bridge if/when we get there.

Final tidbit: after my Garmin froze last week, I was FINALLY able to get it working again, and work in a timely manner. It took a few runs, but it seems to be in working order. I had already ordered a new Garmin 220 which came a week ago.

I was on the fence about keeping it because my Garmin seems to be working again, and I am still very interested in the Nike+ Sportwatch. In the end, I decided to return the new Garmin, and I'll probably get the Nike+ Sportwatch.

Today I'm heading out to visit family for Easter, and we're going to the outlet mall to shop. There is a Nike outlet, so I will look there. I know it's an outlet, however I don't think it's technically an outlet store, so I hope they have them. If not, I'll have to order it online or pick one up at the local Best Buy. Keeping my fingers crossed! I hope everyone has a great weekend, and Happy Easter!!

QOTD: Do you plan any vacations around races you'd like to run? Or plan races in places you like to visit?