Tuesday

About 30 minutes, 1.7 miles, 1:1 minute run/walk ratio

So, here I am again, finally making a real attempt to get back into running. I see my last attempt was in September of last year, so about nine months ago. I haven't done any regular exercise at all since then. I've gone out for a walk a few times, but without any plan or schedule, so without any real expectation of keeping it up. As I wrote in my last entry, I was just feeling worse and worse when I tried to exercise, instead of better, so I just gave it up entirely.

I started seeing a new doctor earlier this year, trying once again to figure out why I feel so weak and exhausted most of the time. I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea, and started using a CPAP, which seemed to help a little but not really enough. So my doctor sent me to a surgeon who found a huge nasal polyp that was blocking my breathing on the left side. I had surgery to remove it in April and it has made a huge difference in my breathing! I can actually get air in without a struggle. It has taken quite a while for my nose to completely recover, though. I was very congested and bleeding a lot for over a month, but finally it seems to be settling in. I've been using a humidifier in my room at night to keep my nasal passages from drying out, and saline rinse several times a day, and my nose has almost completely stopped bleeding. So I decided it was time to try getting in shape again.

Of course, this came right when the weather is starting to get really hot again, and my improved breathing doesn't seem to have had any effect on the way direct sunlight saps my energy, so I decided to start setting the alarm for 6 AM again and getting in a half hour's run before the sun got too high.

This morning the weather was perfect—mid-50s, with a light breeze. I got up ten minutes before the alarm and was ready to go right around 6 AM. The first frustration with this morning's run was that when I went to re-download my Zombies Run app last night, which I'd deleted to save room when I wasn't using it, my phone refused to download it using cell data because it's over 150 MB in size. It wanted me to use WiFi. But I don't have WiFi right now, so I couldn't download it. I will be having new satellite internet installed tomorrow, so I'll be able to download it then, if I don't go into town today and use Starbucks or something. Oh well, I figured I'd just play music and use my watch to mark intervals.

Second frustration was the neighbor's dogs barking their heads off when I went outside at 6 AM in my running clothes. They've sort of gotten used to me being outside during the day, but I guess this was too weird for them, so they set up a commotion. I didn't want to run with them barking at me the whole time, so I decided to run down the road and back instead of around the house.

(Another minor frustration was getting my music set up right. I don't use my phone's music app very often so it took a bit of fiddling to get it playing. I listened to Alan Parsons Project "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" while I ran.)

After all that, I had a pretty good run. Tried to just take it easy. Did about 12 minutes down the road and then turned around. By then I was almost to the mile mark. By the time I got back, I'd just hit 30 minutes. Plus I futzed around for nearly five minutes at the house before setting off down the road. So I don't really know my actual time and distance, but whatever. I got out there and did it and felt pretty good. I am going to do my best to keep it up this time.