Had my checkup yesterday along with the accompanying blood test and the good news is the infection is gone! Finally! I've been dealing with this thing (Prostate infection) since I first woke up with a fever back in October...blood in the urine, painful urination, loss of bladder control as the day went on.
A visit to the Urgent Care with a shot in the ass of a powerful antibiotic and a 10 day round of Cipro, known as the tendon killer. Not good for runner, BTW ;-)
Another follow up visit in November showed the infection was still raging, so another round, this time Bactrim to save my tendons...and at this time my PCP told me to make an appointment with a Urologist as he is the specialist with these problems. My PCP was not only concerned about the infection, but the possibility of cancer. (Notice I don't capitalize the word as my Mother had a double mastectomy (still alive at 86) and I lost a sister to the disease back in '95.
So I made my appointment with the Urologist and it was his opinion that cancer was unlikely, but that he wanted to do another large round of Cipro, which is the only antibiotic that can get to a deep infection like a prostate infection. So even with the possibility that I may rupture a tendon or tendons, I went on 21 days of 1000mgs of Cipro...a nuke, as my doc put it. During this time I also went ahead and ran a road marathon in El Paso (a total failure) and also the Salida Trail Marathon, another failure. During both races I did have achilles tendon pains, deep in the calf where it inserts, so didn't feel like I could or should push it. El Paso was too hot anyway, so I stuck with a low HR during that race to keep from overheating and overstraining my tendons. At Salida, I actually had tendon issues in my shoulders and achilles, so I had to run easy.
How has this affected my running? Not too good....I've been working harder, breathing heavier at a much slower pace. Lately my paces have been around 12:30ish, where several months ago I was cruising in the low 10's/upper 9's. The doc said how being on this much antibiotic and as powerful as Cipro is affects everything. It kills all your good gut flora and your gut is the center of your universe, mess with it and all sorts of things go haywire! If my PSA score was still above the norm, then I would need a prostate biopsy to rule out cancer. Needless to say I was sweating out going to the doc yesterday, but it was normal and am clear to move on with my life :-)
So to get back where I was I am now running pure Maffetone (120 BPM) until I start feeling my running coming back. No speedwork whatsoever. I hope this gets me in shape to finish the Zane Grey 50 miler coming up next month.
There's still the question of how this infection came about...it is very similar to a female getting a Urinary Tract Infection. My theory, and something I have mentioned to my doc, is that finishing the Hardrock 100 in July was my most difficult ultra yet, even harder than the Barkley fun run I did in 2001. I think being out on those trails for over 44 hours put my body into a deep fatigue and caused my immune system to get out of whack, thus I was open to illness. Add to that my late summer into fall marathon training schedule (yes, I'm a stubborn runner), there was not much recovery, even though I added in recovery days/days off, with the infection I should have been doing nothing!
I feel like I'm now back in control and like I said in the prior paragraph, it's all easy from here through Zane Grey and also after for at least a month. I then will start training for a 5K old man personal best. Eventual goal is 19:59, which may take me a year or more to achieve ;-)
See you on the roads and trails!
Steve
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Sandias!
Deb and I were down in ABQ on business and opted for a longish run in the Sandias for Zane Grey training.
Our day began with dropping off some of Deb's artwork for the Masterworks show at the Expo, so We got a late start, but were sure even if we ran and hiked easy, we'd be back in plenty of time before they closed the park.
We started at the bottom of the Pino Trail in the Elena Gallegos Picnic Area and ran along a nice rolling foothills trail in around 60 degree temps. It was awesome! From there we made our way over to the Tram building and found the Tramway trail at the far end of the parking lot, which said would take us to the La Luz trail. Getting on this trail was another delight, rolling around just above the foothill homes, several times we got caught on some connecting trails where there were no signs and ended up down in the housing area, but climbed back up from where we came and found the trails again.
Soon we were on the La Luz trail and if I remember right, this took us close to 2 hours. We ended up about 1.75 miles up the La Luz from it's trailhead.
There were lots of hikers on La Luz....until we reached the 5 mile point, where the snow begins and it gets colder and windier. The snow was well packed down, but we still put on our Katoola Microspikes for added traction as the trail is maybe a foot wide and angled down to the left or right.
Once up near the top after the Albuquerque Road Runners sign, the trail was now on the sunny side and more mud that ice. We reached the Tram house on the summit at around 4:45 into the run and at this point were getting concerned as to if we were going to make it back down to the truck in time before we got locked into the park.
From the Tram house on the summit (10,640'), it was about 4 miles to the Pino Trail in off and on ankle to calf deep snow, which slowed us down quite a bit. I forget exactly what time we reached Pino, but ti was somewhere around 6:30PM, 4.9 miles up from the park, which closed at 7...not good. So we made the decision that I'd go ahead and run down as fast as I could in the hope that I'd get there in time before the Ranger left. I knew my fastest time running down this was 45 minutes, mostly due to being old and some icy spots when I did that. This time add more ice and snow and several blowdowns....but I tried.
About the top third or so I had to run in the microspikes due to the ice and snow, but I had pretty good traction and with that comes confidence in not slipping. Once i got down to where I thought there was no more, I took them off and blasted down as fast as I could. Again my time was around 45 minutes, arriving at the park around 7:15. The ranger was just cleaning up and getting ready to lock the park up, but he was a nice guy and waited for Deb to come down. She was only around 15 minutes behind me, arriving around 7:30.
Once down we both thought the same thing....FOOD! So we drove on over to the Range in Bernallilo. Now I will mention here that we've both been vegetarians for quite a while, maybe 1-1.5 years for me and maybe 3-4 for Deb. After ordering my La Cumbre Elevation IPA to sip on, I ordered a juicy green chili cheeseburger and Deb got some salmon ;-)
So that's out adventure....our day began leaving the house for ABQ at around 8:30am and we got home a little after 11PM...tired, we showered, I grabbed one of my home brews, a nice stout and sat down to watch some "Big Love" ;-)
Now it's Sunday morning and we're heading to Los Alamos for some errands and a gentle hike...
See you on the trails and roads!
Steve
PS: No images, etc because my internet here at the house is lame.
Our day began with dropping off some of Deb's artwork for the Masterworks show at the Expo, so We got a late start, but were sure even if we ran and hiked easy, we'd be back in plenty of time before they closed the park.
We started at the bottom of the Pino Trail in the Elena Gallegos Picnic Area and ran along a nice rolling foothills trail in around 60 degree temps. It was awesome! From there we made our way over to the Tram building and found the Tramway trail at the far end of the parking lot, which said would take us to the La Luz trail. Getting on this trail was another delight, rolling around just above the foothill homes, several times we got caught on some connecting trails where there were no signs and ended up down in the housing area, but climbed back up from where we came and found the trails again.
Soon we were on the La Luz trail and if I remember right, this took us close to 2 hours. We ended up about 1.75 miles up the La Luz from it's trailhead.
There were lots of hikers on La Luz....until we reached the 5 mile point, where the snow begins and it gets colder and windier. The snow was well packed down, but we still put on our Katoola Microspikes for added traction as the trail is maybe a foot wide and angled down to the left or right.
Once up near the top after the Albuquerque Road Runners sign, the trail was now on the sunny side and more mud that ice. We reached the Tram house on the summit at around 4:45 into the run and at this point were getting concerned as to if we were going to make it back down to the truck in time before we got locked into the park.
From the Tram house on the summit (10,640'), it was about 4 miles to the Pino Trail in off and on ankle to calf deep snow, which slowed us down quite a bit. I forget exactly what time we reached Pino, but ti was somewhere around 6:30PM, 4.9 miles up from the park, which closed at 7...not good. So we made the decision that I'd go ahead and run down as fast as I could in the hope that I'd get there in time before the Ranger left. I knew my fastest time running down this was 45 minutes, mostly due to being old and some icy spots when I did that. This time add more ice and snow and several blowdowns....but I tried.
About the top third or so I had to run in the microspikes due to the ice and snow, but I had pretty good traction and with that comes confidence in not slipping. Once i got down to where I thought there was no more, I took them off and blasted down as fast as I could. Again my time was around 45 minutes, arriving at the park around 7:15. The ranger was just cleaning up and getting ready to lock the park up, but he was a nice guy and waited for Deb to come down. She was only around 15 minutes behind me, arriving around 7:30.
Once down we both thought the same thing....FOOD! So we drove on over to the Range in Bernallilo. Now I will mention here that we've both been vegetarians for quite a while, maybe 1-1.5 years for me and maybe 3-4 for Deb. After ordering my La Cumbre Elevation IPA to sip on, I ordered a juicy green chili cheeseburger and Deb got some salmon ;-)
So that's out adventure....our day began leaving the house for ABQ at around 8:30am and we got home a little after 11PM...tired, we showered, I grabbed one of my home brews, a nice stout and sat down to watch some "Big Love" ;-)
Now it's Sunday morning and we're heading to Los Alamos for some errands and a gentle hike...
See you on the trails and roads!
Steve
PS: No images, etc because my internet here at the house is lame.
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