Tag: running

Running: Reboot or Bust A Move

Published on by Andy Affleck

Two weeks. I would have been on the dreaded week 5 with the 20 minute non-stop jog. But that damn kidney stone put me on the DL and I’m only now able to get back out and into it again.

I had the stone zapped on Tuesday. A thoroughly exciting process that I have no memory of thanks to the lovely drugs they gave me. But the stone is gone now and after giving myself 24 or so hours to recover from the procedure and to come down from two weeks of pain and Percocet, I am ready to begin again.

I debated from where to resume the C25K program. I finally decided, in part based on advice from someone on MyFitnessPal.com, to return to the beginning. As they put it, I need to build the infrastructure for the later weeks and after two weeks, I have pretty much lost it. I agree. I decided, since it’s Thursday and I still want to keep this on a roughly Tue/Thu/Sat plan, to start with Week 1 Day 2. I figured if I get to Day 3 and find that I’m struggling, I can always do the third day of Week 1 and then move on. Otherwise, I can move on after 2 days or even skip ahead.

Well, I won’t be skipping ahead. It was a slog today. Sure, I went out for a run/walk a week ago but, other than that, it’s been two sedentary weeks. So, while I didn’t have any pain, I did have a lack of puff, as my father-in-law would say.

But I made it. Now my legs are stiff… but I’ll live…

Running: Interlude

Published on by Andy Affleck

And then I got a kidney stone.

Now, usually, these things only cause me intense pain for about 24 hours and that’s it. I suffer, I deal, I move on. This one has lasted six days (and counting). So, I didn’t run for a week. Instead, I suffered and I did tech week and ran sound for the kids’ show at Swamp Meadow. This morning, the plan was to go to the Emergency Room to once and for all deal with this. At least get super hydrated via IV to help push this thing along. Except I had no pain all night. No pain this morning.

And it was a gorgeous morning. So, what the hell. I decided to go for a run/walk instead. I figured I would get some exercise, assess where I was physically so when I resume C25K, I knew where to actually start from, and maybe force the stone to move (through the impact of running) and get some pain going so I could go to the ER and not feel silly.

So, I went out. I tried a job after a few minutes of walking to warm up and found that it came quite naturally. So for the rest of my 30 minute excursion, up and down hills (I decided to stay in the ‘hood rather than go to the bike path) I alternated walking and jogging. I even got to run nice and fast down a steep hill (that was FUN!) towards the end.

The result? I feel great. I can see where I am a little stiff after a week of not moving much and I think my plan will be to do Day 3 of Week 2 on Saturday and then restart Week 3 on Monday/Tuesday and take it from there.

Assuming, of course, that the stone is really done with me. I had no pain during or after the run so if it is still there, even my running didn’t jostle it loose. Or it has already moved down past the point where it causes pain (it hurts when it is wedged in the upper pathway between the kidney and the bladder — the pain is from when it is being forced to move, scraping against the walls of the pipes — once it moves close to the bladder, the pipes are wider and it tends to finish the trip to the outside in a few days without causing any discomfort).

That said, it may start hurting later today for its own nefarious reasons. In which case, I’ll deal. But if I really am done with it, I have a plan and I feel pretty good right now.