Bradbury Recovery

I really needed today's run.  My previous two days off from running were no fun.  Thursday was spent fasting and then prepping for my first colonoscopy (recommended after turning 50, plus my Grandfather had colon cancer).  I was surprised by how well I did with this; I'm usually pretty bitchy when hungry and rarely go very long without eating.  Friday was the actual procedure.  (You may skip to the next paragraph to get to the run and avoid maybe a TMI situation; your call.)  I let the nurse know that I am very susceptible to the la-la drugs they give as sedatives.  I didn't want to lose the rest of my day.  Well, it turns out that I have intestines that are to regular peoples' intestines as the O Trail is to normal trails.  They said they needed to give me an extra dose of the sedative because the procedure was causing cramping.  This resulted in me being very difficult to wake up.  I'm not sure how Rick got me home, but it was nearly 4pm before I woke up (I went in at 8 am), still fairly groggy.  I functioned enough to make supper for the people, but then was back to sleep on and off for the rest of the night.  I wasn't sure what the Dr. meant by the causing cramping till I woke up the next morning and found the muscles in my hips, glutes, and lower back close to spasming.  I felt like hell, but assured Rick that running would fix me.

I was still a bit foggy when I got to Bradbury.  Ian and NJ Dave were already in the parking lot with TMs trickling in.  There was Jeff, Mindy, Julia and Dave, to name a few.  Ian had the Connector with exploring in mind.  I think he said he was looking for about 20 miles.  I wasn't up for that and certainly not at what I imagined the pace would be.  Fortunately for me, Mindy, looking to fine tune the loop for her 40-40 run, planned on two 8ish-mile loops.  I figured I had at least 8 in me and hoped to hang in there for both.  Nate (I think) Augustine, who'd already been out running for an hour before, decided to run with us.  I hope he didn't regret his decision; Mindy and I really were chatty today.  Really.

My muscles seemed to loosen up fairly quickly.  The fog didn't lift till half way through the first loop.  But the Brad worked its magic.  I felt better and better as I ran.  After the first loop, we stopped at the cars to refuel. Mindy didn't even carry water with her on the loop, relying solely on the stop.  Yikes!  I couldn't have survived.  It wasn't hot, really, but the humidity was intense.  We said goodbye to Nate, who was happy with his miles and, perhaps, to get rid of the chatter.

Heading out on the second loop, I felt totally recovered.  Mindy is such a great running companion.  I think she helps me put something into perspective for me every run and gives me interesting insights various topics.  I hope that someday she is able to incorporate running into her therapist practice.

She tweaked the second loop just slightly (I haven't looked at the garmin yet to see how the mileage compares).  A little over half way into this loop, I realized that 12 miles probably would have been the optimum length of a run for me, but I survived all 16.5ish.  Yay!  I downed another bottle of water before we got to E&Ls.  I think the owners love our reaction when we see TBLTs on the menu and we love seeing it!  Changing in their bathroom, I realized I felt a lot better than I looked.  That's OK; I'll take feeling good over looking good any day.