Joggin, Day Six!

This was, hands down, the hardest day of jogging I've done yet.

And I'm not entirely sure why.

Actually, I have my suspicions. Suspicions that rhyme with "nehydration" and "nexhaustion."

I did manage to complete the jog, though! And I managed to tack on a bit more distance, although I did do that at the expense of my overall speed.

I also am blaming the air quality today. It is thick and unforgiving and the sun is hot. Any time I spent in the light of the Sun left me instantly ruing the lack of trees or buildings for cover. It felt like I was breathing bus exhaust most of the time. Unsatisfying, to say the least.

I took off running and was having issues by the time I reached the prom... not a quarter of a mile into the jog. I don't think I slept properly the night before. Just not enough sleep. On top of that, I drank a fair amount of coffee Friday. While my coffee drinking today wasn't eyebrow-raising in any way, I think I might've still been working from a hydration deficit. Or at the least just having recently gotten to the point of proper hydration.

And man did I sweat today. It is humid and hot. This must be what it feels like to be a thermometer. Just tiring, oppressive heat.

So I started slowing down after reaching the bottom of the hill by the Western Cemetary, just 3/4 of a mile in and knowing it was, literally, all uphill from there. My legs started really protesting by the Ohno Cafe and I was in deep trouble when I turned onto Pine Street.



Then I got a second wind as I stepped onto Vaughan, I think I mostly just realized that I was going to make it. A lot of my motivation stems from "20 minutes isn't so long, in the scheme of things."

And I crossed the finish line and, despite the slow down, my time wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Still not good, of course, but better than I'd expected.

I wheezed and shuffled around the block to cool down, made it back to the apartment and realized there was no way I could stretch. There's no sun and I'm so dehydrated I'm in danger of falling over at any minute.

Stumble up the stairs, pour myself a glass of water. Sit and try not to think about the sheen of sweat over every single inch of me. Dripping down my temples, down my nose.

Just drink the water.

By and by I come back to life and regain some semblances of consciousness. I pick up a magazine, leaf through that as I pound more and more water.

And now I'm feeling OK. It's been about an hour.

Palpitations were minor. I can count on about three per jog, it sounds like. But whereas before I've had sustained flutters over the course of a couple beats, today I just had single spasms. Despite all my complaints.

And I feel good about that, at least.

Today I saw a woman in a sundress chasing after her dog. As I approached, I saw her get out a little poop baggie. Hopefully for the dog. I saw a family picnicking. I saw an evergreen bent back in an uncomfortable looking yogic bridge pose. I saw the same man with the tremendous stomach reading on the prom. I smelled barbecues and smoke. I smelled buses pass me by. I heard women speaking in a foreign tongue. I waved goodbye to my roomer as he left for work.

All right. Now to shower, eat something and go to bed. Some of us have to work stupefying hours.

PS: Worth noting with both days five and six that if you click on the image of the map, it'll take you to the walkjogrun site and you can read more info about my progress. If you're into that, that is.

My Misfiring Heart

For the past year and a half or so, I've been having arrhythmic palpitations.

At first they really freaked me out. I thought I was dying. They led to panic attacks. Then I read up on them and found some relief in that they probably weren't deadly.

The panic attacks went away, but the palpitations didn't. Probably about once a week I have an unnerving, 20 second - or less - episode. It's scary while it's happening but it passes.

Now that I have health insurance, I'm taking action on it.

My primary care physician hooked me up with a cardiologist. They've now fitted me with an event monitor. I have two electrodes strapped to my torso. They had to shave a patch of my chest to make way for one of the patches, the other goes on my side.

The unit is pretty small, about the size of a beeper (remember those?). It comes with a belt clip and hangs out on my pants most of the time.

The wires stick out from under my shirt.

It feels weird. I haven't gotten used to it yet.

It's constantly on, always monitoring my heart. If I feel an attack, I press a button and it records the 30 seconds before I press the button and the thirty seconds afterward.

I then call a toll free number and - and this is the coolest part - I play the recording back through the phone. It sounds like an old dial-up (remember those?) modem. If the folks I call detect something life-threatening, they'll keep me on the line or pass it on to Maine Med.

I can take it off when I sleep, shower and such. The electrodes are just stuck on with sticky tab.

It beeps when I activate it. It's not supposed to beep during the recording, but when we tested it this morning it sure did.

Ah well.

Anyway, if you see wires sticking out from my shirt, hear weird beeping or see me dart off and make a clandestine phone call with a box, that's what's up.

It's all for my heart.