5:45am: I woke up a little earlier today because I was able to get into bed a little earlier last night. My waking up process was rather painful though. I slept like an absolute rock last night. When I woke up my eyes were sealed shut with goober cement and my lips had some kind of drool glaze all over them. It is very rare that I dream, but last night it felt like I dreamt all night. Whenever there are nights that I dream, I always feel well rested. I have no idea if it has anything to do with CF or not. Do most CFers dream just like anyone else? Is it just me that doesn't normally dream at night? Inquiring minds want to know, well, at least I do.
This morning was back to the normal flat walk but I decided to lengthen it a bit. I only added .2 miles, but Mandi and I are going to run later, so I wanted to save my legs. And if I'm not mistaken today is legs and shoulders at the gym. Oh boy today is going to be a rough one. The beginning of the walk felt really good. I was trying to pick up my pace to get my pulse going a little bit and make myself breath a little harder. The increased pace wasn't doing much in the way of coughing, but not to worry, Jezzabel was there to save the day. While walking (and me looking the other direction), J Bell spotted a cat. Now it's not that Jezzabel hates cats, but she loves to chase them. When she was younger I would always ask her, "Where's the kitty?", to see how worked up I could get her. Well she spotted the cat and nearly ripped my arm off in the process. As I was tugging on her leash and verbally assaulting her, I got worked up into a coughing rage. I finally started to work some stuff up, and coffee back out, all thanks to that little mutt of mine. Thanks so much J Bell, way to look out for your daddy!
The walk went pretty fast this morning and all in all felt really good. I'm going to have to pick up the pace even more at some point. It's just tough with J B because she wants to sniff everything in sight. I might have to do the first half with her and the last half without her or something. I'm always most junky in the morning so I really like to give my lungs a good work out. I'll just play it by ear and see what happens.
Total Distance: 2.3 miles
2:45pm: It's that time of the day again to go get my swell on! When I got to the gym I was feeling pretty good although bloated. I've felt full around the clock the last couple of days. I'm not sure what's going on. I've been concentrating on small portions and more meals so my stomach has an easier time digesting, but maybe my portions aren't small enough. So today was legs and shoulders. It is always an interesting day, especially since I'll be running later. I worked them pretty hard as you could tell if you saw me walk out of the gym. By the looks of it I should have gotten back onto a HORSE and not into my truck. I increased the weight on every exercise and they all felt very good.
Now to the shoulders. First I've got to tell you that I have really bad shoulders (see side note). Whenever I work them out I try not to push them too hard and use it more as physical therapy. Even with really light weights though my shoulders really burn and pinch every day that I lift them. I'm hoping that if I grin and bear it through the pain that one day the hurt will just go away. I'm not counting on it though.After my shoulders were shot, I remembered that I had forgotten to work out forearms yesterday. A quick set of those was followed by pull-ups, which was then followed by abs. I really enjoyed the gym today and was in a good rhythm the whole time I was there. I kind of didn't want to leave. I haven't had that feeling in a long time. Current Weight: 191.5 lbs
Side Note: To spare you the long story I'll give you the short version. Summer before I was a senior in high school I was doing a power set on the bench press. While pressing the weight back up, both of my shoulders popped out. I got them back in quickly but it stretched out all of my rubber bands in there. The doctor who looked at them said that I could get surgery on my left shoulder and miss the football season or play through the pain and get shots and physical therapy. I opted for the latter and my shoulders still give me problems to this day.
5:00pm: So I wasn't sure how running would go today after working my legs at the gym, but I wanted to test them. Mandi and I set off for our 3 mile loop that we mapped out. We started with just a fast walk to warm up our legs, but Mandi didn't waste any time in challenging me. After about .2 miles she was picking out spots to run to. I surprised her when I started going past those spots and running through ones that I had picked out ahead. My lungs felt pretty good today. My legs held up for most of the walk/run although shin splints were giving me some trouble about half way through. I started to feel like I got into a certain running pocket that alleviated some of the pain. And remember that 1/10th of a mile stretch that I ran the other day that felt like an eternity? Well I did it again today, and although it felt like an eternity again, I will say that it felt better and I caught my breath faster. I'm really trying to step up the running part of our walk/runs and we definitely ran more today than we have on any other day. We actually extended our loop today by .2 miles. We could have gone longer but we have an Office watching party to attend. 2/10ths of a mile here we come!!!!
Total Distance: 3.2 miles
Total Distance Run/Walk for Day: 5.5 miles
For the past year or so I have very vivid dreams of me roller blading around toronto (jumping off things and spinning and all sorts of things I can't do) or skiing quickly with trees zipping by. They are the coolest dreams, and get be excited about being physical again one day post transplant. I know better to try those activities now, but I know one day I will be back on my skiis. =)
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