Monday: 3 km run

I then had muscle pains for a couple of days and then the christmas party time set in full fledged! I had no less than three christmas parties to attend to this year, from work, with friends and again this weekend with more friends. It has been fantastic in every way and then finally the snow came as well. It now does look like christmas but it has not done me well in the exercise scheme, the roads are perilous to run now but since it is close to christmas I will see if I may sneak down into the exercise gym at work and find a cross trainer or something similar to work out on.

I mean it, I need to get more exercise and the weather and road conditions are just not really that fit for running right now. Fortunately snow rarely lasts that long here in Stockholm, it will be fine for running in no time.

I had one proper quality jogging last week but that was a really good one, my ordinary 4 km run.

Apart from that life just got in the way a lot training wise and I managed to squeeze in some long walks. All in all a not so good week but I will do better.

Been awfully bad now for the last couple of weeks again. Feet has still had problems with the urtikaria rashes which has made it hard to run and I don’t really fancy other forms of workout that much. Swimming would be an option but it takes a lot of time to go there and do the workout and come back showered and all.

But, I did another 4 km today and it felt pretty good. My usual track around the Slammertorp cottage (2 laps on the easy path) and the time was about 8:30 min/km so not bad for not having been out much the last couple of weeks.

Gonna do better now, I promise. Feet feels nice tonight actually.

So two runs this week. Starting to get back into the habit is hard however. I really miss the shape I was in a month ago but I will get there soon!

Did two runs this week, both of them were horrible, the first was a 4 km run at an extremely low pace, 9:15 min/km and today I did another one at 8:40 min/km but that was only a 3 km run. My body really did not want to run today so it was all in my mind really. I had set out to do 4 km today as well but my body refused to do more than 2. So we reached a kind of compromise on 3 km. Not that good really but I think it is going the right way slowly. Next week it will start feel better I’m sure.

My last logged run was september 7 and today is october 7. I set out not knowing what my condition would be like but my usual warmup walking rendered about 15 bpm higher heart beat than I remembered so that was definitely an indication that it was going to get tough.

And it did. I managed to get around 2 laps of my usual track and it took 37 minutes to complete 4 km. However even if the tempo of 9:15/km is just a sliver better than walking real fast, I actually did it. I tried to keep my pulse around 160-165, I have found it gives me the best burn workout I can get. At this heart rater I can keep going for some time without stopping and it gives me a good workout with plenty of sweat.

Today it was difficult to keep that rater even with the really slow running. On the second lap it started to creep up beyond 170 bpm and several parts of the track was done around 170-175 bpm rather than the 160-165 that was my goal.

So definitely I have lost condition. I have also gained weight these four weeks but that is about to come right off again as I start running more regularly so I am not too worried about that right now. And condition comes rather fast, especially when you start low :)

Even though my 7 km run looks distant right now I am sure that in 3-4 weeks time I might be able to repeat it if my health stays okay, that is.

Still nothing but things are getting better. Now the flu is gone and I have only the urticaria to battle. Right know I have a blood filled blister under my left foot but I hope it is gone soon.

Then I’ll go jogging again!

No training this week either. Really crappy. Went to the doctors on tuesday and got cortisoned badly, that worked, kept the rash and itch in check pretty well, could get some sleep but then I went back to work on wednesday and that was a bit too soon. The cortisone treatment was for 4 days, so that made tuesday to friday special days indeed but then I was setting out the cortisone and going for the antihistamines and what happens?

By Saturday night I was covered in urticaria all over my head and face, looking like something straight out of a 1950ies creature feature movie. Not a pretty sight. And it hurt — and the itching is hard to describe. Can’t give in to it though, that just make things bleed and scar.  I have had a rough night now but I have woke up feeling a little better actually. This might be because the human body produce it’s own cortisone in the morning or … perhaps I am slowly getting better.

I even played with the thought of putting a photograph of my horrible looks on my home page but then decided against it, the world might not be ready for that kind of disfigurement yet.

My better half Jeanette is having the flu and I believe that is what onset it this time for me as well. She’s feverish and coghy and tired and have all the classic symptoms. Even though I probably had a bit of that (last night my throat was a little sore) I think I got off the flu easy. Let’s hope this leads to something good, like immunization to A(H1N1) better known as the bacon plague.

My hands still hut a bit and I still don’t dare that perhaps I will now start to get better because I know when nightfall comes and cortisone in the body is switched to melatonine instead then these kinds of rashes usually gets worse. I go from cold sweats to hot spells regularly still.

And now the time has passed enough that I no longer longingly pass my sneakers in the hallway. I have forgotten the joy of running. I need to nurture the addiction once more and learn how to start slow. Not that I think I have lost everything but I believe there will be a couple of weeks of build-up before I can get back to where I was.

If I get better now…

This has not been the best week for me. I have gotten som kind of infection and feel terrible so I skipped the long run on saturday. I did the two shorter runs which went well though but I will probably miss some runs next week also as I am not feeling well at all.