Sunday, February 01, 2009

Feeling Twitchy


It's Sunday evening and I haven't exercised at all since Tuesday. I was tempted by a Gearshifters ride yesterday afternoon but the swelling from my wisdom tooth surgery on Wednesday was still causing me some pain and the stitches were bugging me, so I reluctantly flagged it away. Instead I went on a long walk around the Southern Coast (pictures to come), but it wasn't enough and by last night I was truly bouncing off the walls of our living room. My body seemed to decide to channel the excess energy it was dealing with through my brain. Suddenly everything was bright and shiny and interesting. I found myself feverishly researching beds online (our current bed is well past its use-by date). Celebrating my gradual return to eating real foods I drank a bottle of Scrumpy Cider and ended up completely toasted. Hamish and I watched an English programme that followed a couple as they hunted for a property that they could turn into an eco-lodge and I commented with fascination on every little plot twist. The situation started to get more than a little out of control.

Anyway, I thought it might be useful to post the Taranaki Cycle Challenge course profile. You'll probably need to click on it to view it properly. It's obvious that the elevation gains aren't huge, but that 30km or so of gradual climb inland from Opunake is a killer.


Lavender farm, Stratford, Taranaki


I'm reasonably happy with the progress I'm making post-surgery, despite the excess of energy. I've been taking my painkillers and antibiotics and doing the mouth wash thing. On Thursday I felt a bit achy but the main pain came from my scratched up throat, which made it difficult to swallow. I took it easy and took an extra 5mg of Hydrocortisone mid-afternoon when I started to feel a bit heavy and lethargic. I was taking Panadeine every four hours and each time I took it I would start to dose off, which I found odd because Panadeine shouldn't make me drowsy!

On Friday I started to eat a little normal (if soft) food again, after restricting myself on Thursday to chocolate milk, yoghurt and soup. My weight started to go back up to normal again after losing over a kilo following surgery. As mentioned above I stayed away from the alcohol till Saturday and, as tempting as it was to ride in the gorgeous summer weather, I figured I'd end up in too much pain if I tried.

By this morning I was almost able to talk normally again and my smile was almost back to normal. At least, I was able to mimic a real smile without looking like I was grimacing. Hamish and I set off to run a few errands - preparing for friends' commitment ceremony in a couple of weeks and bed shopping. Our current bed is ridiculous. It's around thirteen years old and falling apart. Hamish keeps getting a sore back from sleeping on it and when it gets bad he starts tossing and turning, at which point I start getting thrown around next to him. Add to that three cats fighting for space and you end up with a lot of disturbed sleep.

We stopped by Wellington Beds today to see what was available, knowing that we wanted a king-sized bed, and that motion-control was important to the both of us! To our surprise we ended up agreeing on a flexi-slat bed with a medium-firm mattress. We even liked the same headboard. Both of us agree that a tailboard would annoy us. Neither of us was keen on a base and mattress combo, due to the lack of under-bed space and the need to mess around with a valance. In any case, one of the cats would be sure to use one corner as a scratching post.

Old Taranaki farmhouse, Stratford (Mt Taranaki in background)

After another day of no exercise I'm more than ready to try a run tomorrow. I've decided to try to shave my 5km. I've never run anything shorter than a 7km race before so I have no idea what kind of time I am capable of but I'd like to think I can manage the distance in around 25 minutes. This week I'm going to do one of the 5km series of runs that take place each Tuesday night on the waterfront. Unfortunately they will clash with the Gearshifters evening RPM classes, but I'll keep working on my speed and do a few more of the 5km runs once the Grape Ride is over.

I'm feeling quite excited about switching back to a running focus now that the Rotorua Marathon is on the horizon.

Jet Trails over Mt Taranaki, Stratford

Tentative plan for this week:

Monday - Upper body weights, flat run
Tuesday - RPM, Body Balance, 5km run
Wednesday - Lower body weights, hill run
Thursday - Swim, Ride
Friday - Waitangi Day holiday. Sea swim then dancing at One Love!
Saturday - Long ride
Sunday - Long run

2 comments:

Sass said...

You'll manage a sub-25, no sweat (metaphorically speaking; I imagine there will be a little "glowing" post-run;p). We did a squad time trial once and I managed just under 25 and you'd be faster than me.

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