Mama Said (There’d be days like this)
Since my diagnosis, I have been tired. Not like fall down fatigued, more like older guy out-of-shape tired. But I honestly was feeling like that before my diagnosis. Since starting medication, I am feeling less fatigued, and more like tired from routinely working out. If you’ve ever hit the gym regularly, I think you know what I am describing.
But there are days when I just don’t want to workout. During these 7 weeks, I have willfully taken like two days off of exercise, and another two days due to weather. So roughly 92% of the last 7 weeks I have exercised at least an hour everyday. Somedays I’ve done extra, like yesterday. I did my morning routine, then I did a quick circuit on the weight bench. And then in the afternoon, I padded again for another 60 minutes. It was a good day, lots of physical activity, and overall I felt good.
But my lunch, well it was steak and eggs. Not the Mediterranean Diet, I know, but I was really in the mood for steak, and I didn’t want to waste it. Realistically, I should have only eaten maybe a third of that steak and loaded up on some veggies/salad. My lunch sat with me all day and I could definitely feel it this morning. I woke up feeling full, and had to force myself to eat breakfast, so I could take my morning pills.
It rained last night and some this morning, so paddling was not going to happen this morning, so I got an early start on work, I am taking half-days this week, so I’ll get back out on the water this afternoon.
But earnestly, this morning I wasn’t feeling like exercising. Part of it is, I crave variety. And paddling the same river, every morning, it’s getting boring. It got boring the 2nd week in, that was 5 weeks ago. Maybe I’ll drag/cart my kayak down to the other side of the dam (I did this a week ago) and paddle the other part of the river.
But yeah, overall I am feeling very blah, I am certain that it is related to what I ate yesterday. I will need to be more conscious about that going forward. And I feel like that was something that was an issue before my diagnosis, hell for as longs as I’ve been an adult living on my own, sometimes you eat something that was fantastic and you regret it later. Same goes for hangovers.
The Good
My wife likely will tell me that I overdid it yesterday with the second round of paddling, which is why I feel blah Today. But I really don’t think it was the extra paddling, I really think it was all that protein and fat, though I really tried to not eat the fatty parts of the steak.
As I was having a good day, and had the energy (and free time) for it, I paddled that extra hour. I need to work on my overall endurance. I am finding that 60-90 minutes of low intensity exercise are relatively easy for me to do on a regular basis. But beyond that 90 minute mark, I am getting tired. Only way I know to deal with that is to start doing more exercise.
Doctor’s orders are for 60 minutes a day, I set my watch for a goal of 70 minutes. Because, more is better, right?
But I have a paddling event coming up on September 14th. The first day will be 15 miles, the 2nd day will be 27 miles.
I have done Day 1 of Paddle Antrim before, and I would like to say that it is easy. But one of the years, I didn’t make it all the way, I had to call it quits as I passed by my in-laws cottage. The weather was just too windy finish. But in general, Day 1 is something I think I will be fine with at my current level of endurance.
But Day 2, that is going to be the kicker. Because well, it is Day 2, immediately after Day 1. My excursion the other day was running part of Day 2’s route. I was able to make it maybe 10% of the route in 45 minutes. Again a relatively easy route and the weather was good, little breezy, but not overly windy or choppy.
I have no illusions of finishing the whole 27 miles. I would love to, but I realistically know that I will be able to make the first checkpoint, which generally speaking takes about 3 hours (if memory serves). I have never gone beyond the first checkpoint. My goal, is to make it to at the very least the 3rd checkpoint. It would be nice to make it to the 4th one.
But I will feel very accomplished making it to the 3rd checkpoint.
There are a lot of factors that go into the paddling for that amount of distance, like we are going with the current which makes it a bit easier than my usual morning workout of 35-45 minutes against the current. But if it’s windy, like it has been many years, then that is as bad as going against the current.
Point being, I can do 90 minutes without a problem. Will I be able to do 8 hours? Will I be able to basically do that two days in a row?
I don’t know.
The Bad
My muscles are angry, like pretty cranky angry. My hamstrings particularly. Some of that I know comes from sitting too much. But I’ve also been feeling like there are times, my legs feel like they are made of lead, and or my back muscles are very angry for not being used too much.
In a recent convo regarding my condition and discussing meds, the statin they put me on, the person I was chatting with mentioned they were prescribed a statin and didn’t care for it, due to the muscle pain. While I am sure that is buried in the side effects disclosure I was given when I filled the statin, no one verbally said anything about that to me.
I mean, I would have remembered someone saying “By the way, your muscles are going to hurt more.”
During the conversation, it clicked “well that explains why my muscles hurt and feel like lead sometimes”.
I have been reading more about it and am going to start taking some CoQ10 to see if that helps dull the pain. I mean I am not in like constant pain or anything, but there is a dull ache in a muscle somewhere on my body all the time.
And with that said, I am working out routinely, so duh, your muscles are going to hurt, especially because I am not young anymore either.
The Ugly
Trying to keep the title theme going here, so what could qualify as The Ugly? I would probably say that it is my craving for sugar. It is still there, and while I have indulged it a little bit. And one could argue that fruit is just a healthier substitute for candy. I mean a doctor once described fruit like this “Fruit is nature’s way to get you to eat healthier”.
I enjoy fruit, I really do.
But I miss the sugar high one gets from skittles, gobstoppers, M&Ms, etc. I used to sit down late at night to do some coding, with a can of sugar-free Monster and a box of gobstoppers. I would eat enough candy and drink enough caffeine beverage to create what I would jokingly call “Rocket Fuel”, but it was a suagar-high that put me in “The Zone”.
Sugar really does provide a similar effect on the brain like cocaine. So those suagar cravings are really a form of withdrawl.
In bringing up my diagnosis on social media, many folks informed me “Well there are plenty of sugar-free candies out there”. I informed them that I have had them, and don’t care for them. I mean it’s been well over a decade, but my wife went through a whole sugar-free candy bit. I ate a few too many, and those sugar alchohols they did not sit well with me.
So I’d rather eat some fruit, or a muffin that I made, and just deny myself candy than try the fake stuff.
I also don’t care for artificial sweeteners, I mean I tolerate the sugar-free Monster, which uses Sucralose. Normal diet soda is something I can drink a can or two of, but the after taste gets to me a bit, those are generally Aspartame. But I cannot stand Stevia sweetened things, it just tastes wrong. I don’t care for monkfruit either.
I mean in high school, I used to load up my coffee with so much sugar it was laughable. Then as an adult, probably during the “sugar-free candy era” I stopped using sweetener and just used some soy milk. These days I take it with oat milk, or skim milk if a non-dairy is not available. The only black coffee I can stand the taste of is a Nitro Cold Brew, can’t say why, but it is.
So there are going to be good days, bad days, and the ugly days. But I just have to keep going at it. I have to remember that my goal is Check Point #3, at a minimum.
I also really want to run up Mt Currahee, more on that later.
“Three miles up, three miles down.”