Anointing With Oil

My house STINKS!  I walk into my house after work and am immediately hit with a stench coming from WITHIN my house.  Yes, I do have two boys and a teenaged daughter, but they are not the reason my house smells.  My daughter has a dog, but she is not the reason for the smell.  My wife is a REALLY good cook... and that is not the reason it stinks.  It smells like a mixture of Ben Gay, flowers, candy, and "Old Guy" in here.  Since I have injured my calf/Achilles, I have been anointing my legs with essential oils, slathering lotions on them, bathing them with hot water and epsom salts.

Actually, let me paint the picture by simply making a list of all of the things I have done for my calves since Friday evening.
1.  Ice
2. Stretching
3.  Foam rolling
4.  Peppermint oil
5.  Lavender oil
6. Deep Blue rub
7.  Epsom salt baths
8.  Prayer
9.  Whining
10.  Rest
11.  Hoping
12. Complaining
13.  Blogging
and... my cousin just sent me a suggestion that I of course MUST try next
14.  Nayaran Balm
15.  MORE REST  -- so much rest that I am feeling all sluggish and frumpy.  I actually planned on naming this blog post "Frumpy".

It started hurting on Friday afternoon.  Today is Tuesday.  If I had to run today, I would not be able to run the entire race.  I would have to stop and walk somewhere.  Likely before the end of mile one.  Fortunately, the race is not until Sunday.  But... it IS THIS Sunday.  Maybe the Nayaran Balm will cure it.

I am trying all of these things and hoping that they will do anything to make it feel better. In my mind, I believe that it is just going to take time to heal and these adjunctive therapies will do very little, but I am trying them anyway. -- and as a result, my house stinks.

I cannot remember if I have typed this story already, but I am reminded of a story that happened to me a few years ago.

Valerie bought me some workouts at a place called Speed Source Athletics.  I called it Bigger, Faster, Stronger.  It was basically a warehouse with astro-turf and some equipment with some trainers there to torture you.  They required a test-in and a test-out.  You would set specific goals and tailor your work-outs to meet your goals.  I  was not aware of what the test-in/test-out procedures were about.  I had not researched anything.  It was simply a gift from my wife -- a welcomed gift.  I liked it.  It was a good gift.  Anyway, I go to my test-in and they have me scheduled to test-in with a high-school senior.  I think I was 40.  This kid was 18 years old and had clearly been working out.  He asked me why I was starting this program.  Apparently, most of the athletes were high-school kids wanting to go on to collegiate athletics, college athletes that wanted to get ready for the pros, professional athletes that wanted to keep their job or move from second team to starter, etc...  You get the idea.  My answer was, "I just don't want to get fatter."

The first thing we did was body fat analysis.  We stripped down to our compression shorts and stepped into a big white egg.  There was a seat in there and nothing else.  I am not exactly sure how it worked, but it closed and sucked out some air and beeped and opened.  I felt like Mork from Ork.  I was proud that my body fat was registered at 10% and the young kid was more like 18%.  So far, so good.  There was a balance test.  We both failed.... badly.  It was hard.  There was a board over a cylinder and the board had electrodes on it, so it would register when the board touched the side.  You were supposed to balance on the cylinder and not allow the board to touch the electrodes.  I got on it and tried to balance and nearly broke the thing as I hit one side then the other, then the other, back and forth, hitting each side HARD.  Fail, fail, fail.  The trainer says, "we will work on your core."  GREAT!

Then we moved on to standing high jump, seated high jump, and standing broad jump.  I killed him in all three!!  The trainer was even impressed.  (presumably impressed that such an old, white man could jump).  Then we moved on to the 40 yard dash.  I explained to the trainer lady that I had not run a 40 yard dash in 20 years.  She laughed.  -- She laughed.  Then we line up and she has these laser timers set up.  "Just go when you are ready.  The laser will calculate your start time and clock your finish."  So, I take off.  I felt like I got a really good start.  Head down, body forward, legs churning underneath me.  I begin to raise up and pick up speed visualizing the finish line when out of nowhere someone stabbed me with an ice pick in the hamstring.  I pull up lame and limp over the finish line and she records my time 6:30.  I said, "6:30??? ooooh, that's bad."  She said it would have been better if you had run in a straight line.  UGH!!!  I pulled my hamstring lady!!!!!.  She asked, "Did you pull it or just tweak it?"  I said, based on the severe pain, the lump of muscle rolled up to my butt and the bruise that is forming as the blood is pooling behind my thigh, I'm thinking I pulled it.

She changed her demeanor a little bit after that, but then again I was not able to see her again for about six weeks.  Which is the amount of time it took me to fully heal.

I am hoping that this calf/Achilles thing is just a "tweak".  Keep ya posted.  In the mean time, I am going to open the doors and windows and try to fumigate a little.

Calf/Achilles

I was joking with Valerie that I did not have that much to whine about lately, so I have not written in a while.  The truth is, I have been out of town and on vacation.  We went skiing with our family and our dear friends, the Shennings, our Framily.  We have been together a few times before and we are still friends.   Nine of us in one townhome for a week.  We really had a good time, and we have had a good time every time.  Already thinking about next year.
 

I tried to be good and continue my training while I was on vacation.  I ran almost every day I was there.  Then I went out and skied all day.  And a few times walked the mountain instead of taking the tram.  7200ft elevation and we were staying well up the mountain.  Every run started with a one mile downhill trek.  Then some running around town and around the base of the mountain, then I had to figure a way to make it back up the mountain.   Unfortunately it was too early for the chair lifts to be running.  Most of the days I was not able to run up the hill/mountain with a normal pace, so I would run hard for 100-200 yards, then walk, then run, then walk... you get the idea.  It was my attempt to train some cardio and get the miles in one way or another.  I was pretty proud of myself.  I assumed that the thin air training and the uphill training would be beneficial for me.

I did not run on the last morning, travel day because my calves were hollering at me a little.  We got back late Tuesday night and I did not run Wednesday either although I played racquetball instead.  Felt pretty good.  I really intended to run Thursday (yesterday), but... I dunno... I just didn't feel like it.  So, I had a few days off and decided to run this afternoon (Friday).  I started running and felt pretty good.  Calves were sore, but no big deal.  Most of you will not believe this, but I actually stretched my calves before I started running.  OMGoodness, what is next, yoga? essential oils?  Vegan diet? -- I'm nervous.

I got about a mile into my run and my right calf started to hurt.  It will go away.  It will be fine.  I'll survive.  Just keep running.  At 1.5 miles I decided to stop and stretch my calf some more.  I know, crazy!  Then I decided to continue with the full intention of ignoring the pain.  -- I'll skip the drama -- I quit at 1.8 miles.  Now I am having difficulty walking.

I guess I have found something to whine about.  Hey, I've got an idea.. why not whine on my blog.  Ding ding ding.... we have a whiner.

This is bothersome for me.  I have a race in Little Rock NEXT WEEKEND.  A mere 8 days to heal.  Ughhhh.

Apparently, this type of injury is attributed to over use, trail running (which I was doing at the time), and uphill running... hmmmm.  Arghhh!!!

OK... many of you are well wishers and experts in different areas... so, I will tell you what I have done so far.  
FIRST, I stopped running and watched Noble's football game.  
2.  I came home and iced my calf for 20 min.  
3.  I had some ice cream (It made me feel better) with fudge (it was dark chocolate fudge and I hear dark chocolate is good for you, so it must be medicinal).  
4.  I whined about it on social media.  (this did not make me feel better like the ice cream, but I felt like all my friends needed to know. LOL)  
5.  I began to whine... er.... blog about it.  
6.  I sniffed some essential oils.  (I am just kidding... I joke about the oils because it seems to be the latest craze.  Seems like everybody I know sells oils and/or real-estate).  I do have some samples that people have given my wife and I think I am gonna splash on some peppermint and wait for healing.  7.  I am ready to ice again.  -- stand by, I'm gonna go get some ice now..................

OK... I am back.  I just talked with my daughter and she offered me some deep blue lotion.  I think I will slather that on there.  Now that I think about it, I have several racquetball buddies who swear by Tiger Balm.  I don't know what is in these things, but I am thinking about trying them all... at the same time.  Now we are talking results.  More is better, right?!?!?!  

I have fond memories of being in my great grandmother's house.  We called her Great.  She was very sweet to us kids.  I was the youngest.  I remember she ALWAYS had a bowl of peppermints, the soft ones that would melt in your mouth.  I would sneak SEVERAL of them even beyond what she offered me.  Then I would get a glass of ice water.  The feeling inside my mouth of the ice and the tingly feeling from all the peppermint was a great feeling.  Makes me think of Great.  That is how I feel right now with the peppermint oil that I just bathed in, I mean rubbed on my leg and the ice, it seems to intensify the cold... but it feels kinda good.  Who knows, I may just be all better in the morning. LOL.

A few of my friends have told me that the best protocol is RICE.  I wasn't sure if that was cooked or uncooked, brown, long-grain, or sticky.  It is all so confusing.  I have a pot of minute rice going right now.  Maybe that will do the trick.  

BTW... the whole rolling thing...  O....M....Goodness!!!!!  I abhor rolling.  It hurts so bad.  It makes me wanna cry.  I am NOT doing that!!  Why would anyone subject themselves to that?  I have no idea.  It is really just my legs though.  When I get massage therapy, I often tell the therapist to DIG.  I have stated several times, "You will have a hard time hurting me, so go after it, and DIG".  A few took that to heart and really TRIED to hurt me.  I LIKE when they use deep, firm pressure on my neck and back.  It feels GOOD.... but on my thighs, particularly and to a slightly lesser extent, my calves, IT JUST PLAIN HURTS.  Hurts like I wanna cry, hurts.  Rolling is like that.  IT JUST HURTS!!  

Anyway, the part that is bumming me out is that I have a race in Arkansas next weekend and I am afraid that this is going to sideline me.  I would rather not have to run walk or worse yet, drop out.  That would be a major disappointment for me.  

My faith tells me that I should pray and call upon the church to pray with/for me, and use the best that modern medicine has to offer me.  The irony and humor is that the text reads, "13Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick,"  This should be funny to all of my essential oil friends... but, as I understand it, the meaning of the text is to utilize the best of modern medicine.  Follow the doctor's advice and take the appropriate medicine... which, to be fair, may include essential oils.  I'm keeping an open mind.  But first and foremost, I am going to pray, and I will ask you all to pray for me as well.  Thanks in advance.

I'll keep you updated.

Race Recap -- New Orleans, LA

Rock n Roll Half Marathon New Orleans

Registration:

Registered online again.  This race did not require proof of finish time, but asked for an estimated finish time.  I gave 1:45 as my estimated finish which put me in corral 2.

Fee:
$107.48 total -- same as the Tempe Race
$95.99 registration
$11.49 transaction processing fee

The Expo:
This expo was at the New Orleans Convention Center.  This expo was set up exactly like the Arizona expo last month.  The same vendors, the same set-up, the same race bags, the same bibs and tracking system.  I suppose the Rock 'N' Roll series is attempting to make the experience uniformed for each race.  I will admit that these Rock 'N' Roll series races have been more organized than some of the other ones, so I guess they are accomplishing what they have intended to accomplish.

Shirt:
The shirt was a wicking, tech shirt.  I have gotten smarter and ordered an L this time.   The writing reads Laissez les bon temps rouler, which means let the good times roll.


Race Day:
Sunday

Race Start Time:
7:30 am.  We started on time.  The wheelchair athletes started a couple minutes early, but the elites and corral 1 started right at 7:30.  In Arizona, Corral 2 was held for 1 minute and 15 sec.  In this race Corral 2 was only held for like 20 secs.  Just enough time for us to get up to the start line.  Not sure why there was a difference, but this configuration kept us more more "bunched up".  I was dodging people literally the entire race.  In the other races, it seemed much more spread out... especially after the first few miles.

Course Map:


This course was marked well.  I did not notice as many police, or volunteers, or even spectators for this race... until the end.  The "crowd" was sparse and those that WERE there were offering some minor "golf claps".  -- oh, and I noticed several cow bells.  Not sure what that was about, other than a noise maker.

Race Type:
This was all road race, and very flat at that.  Of course when I say flat, what I mean is in terms of elevation.  I think there was some 12 feet of elevation to the entire race.  My Garmin showed a maximum elevation change of 35ft.  I guess that is pretty good for a town that is below sea level.  What was NOT flat about the course were the roads themselves.  I felt like I was leaning the whole time.  Actually, check out the other guy in this picture:

He ran on the left side of the road the ENTIRE time, and he leaned left the ENTIRE way.  I am not exaggerating.  I know because we passed each other multiple times AND HE FINISHED IN FRONT OF ME... of course I think he might have fallen over (to his left) when he quit running, but I am not positive.  Anyway, that is how I felt that I was running because all of the roads were in such bad shape.  Potholes, uneven roads, orange caution cones everywhere.

Accommodations:

It was a bit difficult agin to find a place to stay near the start and near the finish, and the prices were quite high because of the time of year, being around Mardi Gras and all.  I ended up 2 miles from the start and 2.6 miles from the finish.  I definitely limped back to the duplex because of my blisters.  It took me 45 minutes to hobble back to my place. Funny thing though, I got stopped 7 times by people heading to the finish trying to find how to get there.  None of them could believe that I had already finished.  I am not sure how long they thought it should take, but it made me feel good that they were impressed.  I had a police officer offer me a sincere congratulations and a blessing.  I was hoping he would offer me a ride, but I was happy with the blessing.

Transportation:
Riskshaw was the most common form of transportation that I noticed.  Since I got the AirBNB, I walked.  Most everybody was walking as it looked like they stayed in one of the hotels in the French Quarter, but there were several who were utilizing the rickshaw mode of transport.  I suppose I am too cheap for that. :)  Walking to the start was no big deal.  I treated it like a warm-up.  I tried as hard as I could to show up right on time, but alas, I was 30 minutes early still.  I cannot seem to figure out how to show up right on time.  The walk back was a bit tougher.  My biggest blister did not pop until I got to the airport, but immediately felt better.  If I had known that, I would have popped it before I hobbled home.  Oh well... live... learn.

Weather:

The weather was great.  The sun was shining and it was 53 F at the start and warmed up to about 60 F.  I was comfortable and happy to not be freezing.

Race Morning:

There were 20 corrals for this race also.  I was in corral 2 and my pacer was also in corral 2. There were 9,208 finishers in this half marathon and there was a the full marathon that also started with us, so there were LOTS of people.  The start was a wave start, but a quick one.  Corral 1 went off and we waited about 20 secs before we went off.  There were people everywhere. -- racers that is.  I think I went three or four miles longer than the actual race, but only sideways, as I was dodging people the WHOLE time.  It was kind of like my golf game.  I have a tendency to hit the ball very hard and it goes a long way.. just not straight.   300 yards to the right, and 250 yards to the left.  When I finally get into the fairway, I have already hit 700 yards and the hole was only 426 yards to begin with... and I still have another 100 yards to the hole.

Race:

The course was all pavement.  All roads.  No traffic.  The only bit of confusion was when the half and the full marathon course split off.  It was early in the race and it was clearly marked, but I noticed a couple folks complained that they were confused.  The course was almost totally flat, no bridges or overpasses.  The two things that I did not like about the course:  1.  The roads were uneven and I was leaning the entire race.  2.  There was mostly two long straights.  There was a turn around at mile 4 and then a left turn at mile 8 or so, then straight, straight, straight.  It reminded me of Interstate 10.  It is LONG and flat and boring and LONG and did I mention long?  It seems longer to me when you are just running straight... and the people dodging wasn't enough to give me that variety that I was looking for.

Water/Food Stations:
Plenty of water and Gatorade every 1.5 miles or so, but no other food or other drinks.  The only other thing I saw was Gukos Energy packs after mile 8.  I drank one, but it did not seem to help this time.  I got a blister on my left foot, on the bottom and outside at about mile 9.  Then a blister on my right foot between my big toe and the next one at about mile 11.  My times slowed significantly after that.  Not sure if the blisters were the cause of my slow down, but I recall feeling every step and wanting to stop and walk and remove my shoe or something but I forced myself not to stop.  I only stopped at one water station to  take a drink without splashing it all over myself, then immediately started back again.

Scenery:

Ya know, I m not sure what I was expecting.  I thought it would be cool to run through the French Quarter.  I guess maybe I had visions of Mardi Gras parades and Canal St and Bourbon Street.  I guess I envision hordes of people dressed in some crazy Mardi Gras outfit or at least some of the famous NOLA "flavour".  As it was, I just felt like I was running, on an incline, straight through some old neighborhoods and then through the business area, then into the park.



Race Entertainment:
There were several bands, and one was a brass band all wearing kilts.  Not sure what that was about either.  But there did not seem to be much in the way of entertainment along the course.  I can think of 5 bands playing on the side of the street.  And one of the "bands" was just one guy playing the guitar.  A one man band, I guess.  I remember thinking there was simply not a lot of turn-out for this race -- comparatively speaking.

Finish:
The finish was in the park past the New Orleans Museum of art.  I had lost all track of time or distance at the point that we reached the Museum.  I could not see around the museum, so I thought the finish was just behind.  I assumed that I would see the finish as I rounded the semicircle past the museum, but it was like another half mile or more away.  I, of course sped up -- no one would mistake my increase of speed at the finish for a "kick", but I did pic it up a little -- UNTIL I rounded the semicircle and realized that I could STILL not see the finish as it was STILL too far away.  That was a bit disappointing.  But I did finish, and survived the whole thing... blisters and all.



Bling:




Misc:

I was alone for this race.  I did not speak to anyone... well, I did speak to one person.  At the finish, I limped over to the ambulance and asked the EMT if a band-aide for a blister was too small of a medical emergency for them to manage.  There were two of them sitting there.  One told me no, and the other said, "I think we can handle that" and gave me a band-aide.  Otherwise, I spoke to no one before, during, or after the race.  I did speak to several spectators on the walk home.  Everyone was very nice.  Some went out of their way to say hello or how ya doin.  My point, other than the local folk seemed very nice, is this was a no "frills" race for me.  But, to be fair, that was how I set it up.  I did not participate in any of the activities or parties or anything but the race.  I had dinner at a pasta restaurant the night before, alone.  It was actually quite good.  I witness a real live fist fight as I walked to the restaurant.  I was walking up, about 6 or 8 feet from three guys when one of them punched the other in the mouth and his friend also jumped the guy who got punched, so now it was two against one.  I quickly crossed the street.  They were gone by the time I walked back.

Post Race:

Post race consisted to my visit to the EMT ambulance, a five minute sit down leaning against a tree and a 45 minute walk back to the room.  I had a nice hot shower, laid down for 15 min. then caught an Uber to the airport.

I finished 624th out of 9208 with a time of 1:46:51, two blisters, and sore calves.  Only 45 more to go.  LOL!!  Next month, Little Rock, Arkansas.  Valerie will be with me for this one.

Kudos to Bose

If you have read some of the previous blogs, you will know that in an attempt to drown out my heavy panting and wheezing, I feel the need to wear some sort of headphones and crank up the music loud.  I tried multiple earbuds, some with wires and some without.  Noise cancellation and not.  I broke several sets of them... apparently if you sweat profusely while you are panting, you can drown your earbuds and they don't seem to like that.  So, I finally decided to go with a set of earbuds that are designed to get wet -- made for sports.  I chose Bose, because I was very happy with my noise cancellation set until I killed them.  Of course I was using them "off label", so it is hard to blame them.  I found the Bose SoundSport  and purchased them at Best Buy.




As you can see above, they were $150, but I thought it important enough to buy them anyway.  They operated well right out of the box.  Paired nicely and easily to my phone.  Kept a charge for about 4 hours of continuous use or 3- 4 runs depending on the length of the run.  he sound quality was great, as you might expect from Bose.  I could take phone calls with them also.  They fit well in my ears and stayed in there nicely and comfortably.  They charged quickly... about an hour.  Worked great -- until they did not work at all.  I had them for three months and they simply quit working.  They did not turn on.  They did not hold or accept a charge.  DEAD.  Awesome!!

I figured I could just take them back to Best Buy.  After all, I had a digital receipt on my phone.  Easy, right?  Well, I missed the return by date -- BY ONE DAY!  So, I thought I was out $150 and that was the end of that, but -- THE REASON FOR THIS BLOG POST  -- in case some of you did not want to read any of the rest (of the fluff :)) -- is that Bose showed great customer service.

I called Bose and gave the serial number off of the ear piece.  She said, "I am so very sorry that you are having difficulty!  Please accept our apology and allow us to replace your headphones.  All we ask you to do is take your existing headphones and mail them back to us using the UPS return label that I am sending to your email address right now."

I printed the email, placed the headphones in a box and sent them to Bose.  Two days later, I got an email that stated that my product had been shipped and was on the way.  One day later, I received a brand new set of Bose SoundSport wireless headphones.  EASY!! SIMPLE!!  DONE!!

They had not yet even received my return yet.  But sent me the replacement any way.  No questions asked.  No problems.  I was very impressed.  I thought good customer service was dead.  Not at Bose, apparently.

I ran yesterday with my new headphones.  They worked great.

I can forgive the fact that the set that I purchased originally broke.  Things happen.  Nothing is perfect.  No business gets it right 100% of the time.  There will always be minor issues and sometimes major issues.  It is an inevitability.  The difference maker is the company that makes it right.  Don't make excuses or find a loop hole, just make it right.  Don't make it hard, just make it right.  In my estimation, this is the difference maker in a company that will survive or not.  But, it is simply my opinion. Carry on.