There's a Happy Ending

Last Saturday's snowy trail run really wrecked me. By wrecked, I mean that I was hurting worse than if I had run a marathon. I'm not sure what caused me to feel so crappy after that run. It was only 8 miles, we only got a couple inches of snow, the trail is packed dirt, but whatever it was, I paid dearly this week for that run.

It started with a rumbling down under (TMI) and over the week, morphed into a full-blown RA flare. Since I was feeling so crummy after Saturday's run, I was worried about that happening. Hoping to keep the sleeping giant asleep, I made the decision to keep my training low-key this week. With a half marathon less than a week away, it was kind of like a taper, right?

F--king RA didn't care. I didn't want to write a weekly wrap post this week, because who wants to read a sad story? There were some workouts, so I'm recapping them and trying to keep it positive. Unfortunately, every time I did any kind of physical activity this week, I paid for it.

There is a happy ending, though!

Pipeworks Lizard King IPA
My reward after a hard race.

On Monday, I went out for an easy paced 5 mile run. Because I was feeling achy, I wanted to skip the run but with a change in my work schedule, I thought I wouldn't be able to get a run in the rest of the week. The run went ok, but when I stopped to play in handstand, my wrists let me know that they weren't happy with me.

When I woke up on Tuesday, I did not feel well at all. I was super achy and fatigued. My wrists and my knees hurt. I broke down and took some ibuprofen in the morning to ease my symptoms. I finished work early and could have gone for an afternoon run, but decided it would be better to listen to my body and rested on the couch until dinner. Wednesday was much the same. I worried about my upcoming half marathon. The way I felt, I had serious doubts that I was going to be able to run it. I started to consider that I might need to take steroids to ease the inflammation.

Cocoa making sure I stick to the plan to rest

My youngest son was home from college and he planned on going to Thanksgiving bootcamp with me. Probably due to those 2 days of rest, I felt pretty good that morning. Bootcamp was fun. We broke into teams of 3 and tackled the workout. There were some 250m runs carrying the wallball, rowing, wall balls, slamball bear crawls, KB suitcase carries, slamballs, and wallball situps with a partner. Matthew commented that he didn't know if he could work out like that every week. Really? He plays rugby!

Thanksgiving was at my sister's house and it was a really nice day with my family. My dad is feeling much better and he was cracking his bad dad jokes, always a good sign. After dinner, I went to bed early since I had to work the next day.

The sleeping giant, RA, woke me up in the middle of the night. Normally, I wake up once or twice to change positions because I get so stiff. This time, I when I tried to move my legs, my hip hurt so much that I cried out in pain. I shifted around, got comfortable, and was able to fall back asleep. But when I woke up for the day, it was really hard to move. Everything hurt. I seriously considered calling off but didn't because I knew I had a full schedule of patients.

I also considered my half marathon the next day. I thought about all the training I've done, the long runs, the pacing, and that Steph and I planned to do this together--I wasn't going to DNS this race! By the time I got to work, I was in tears from both physical pain and mental anguish. I've been feeling so good. Why now? I cycled through sadness and anger. I hadn't been in this place for a while. I didn't like it.

So I decided to take control. I finally broke down and started taking the steroids. By lunchtime, I could feel some relief. I also felt a little guilt. Should I be running a half marathon while I'm having a flare? After all, I didn't tell my rheumatologist that I was going to run a half marathon when I called to ask about the steroids. I reminded myself that running doesn't ruin my joints, RA ruins my joints. Contrary to what people think, running isn't going to make my disease worse. If my body will let me run, I'm going to run. I know now that my running days are numbered. It's a sobering thought.

Saturday morning, Steph and I ran the race. I'll recap the race on Tuesday, but I'll share here that the run/walk intervals were a great strategy for me. Based on my training, I set a finish line goal of 2:10 and I finished this race in 2:09:57. It was hard and I couldn't have gone any faster. But I was thrilled with my race and I didn't walk at all outside of my intervals.

Thrilled with my race!

It's been a tough week for me. I felt like every activity this week caused a spike in symptoms. I finish the steroid pack in a couple of days and I'm hoping it will be enough to shut off some of the inflammation. I plan on taking it easy this week to allow my body to recover and heal from Saturday's effort. Here's to hoping for some healing.

Fingers crossed.

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