Greetings from 6:57 a.m.. As I imagined, my comfortable wake-up of Day Two is but a distant memory this early morning. By yesterday afternoon, my self-survey of my musculature (how ever little there may be) revealed the following: hip flexors reporting mild tension and tenderness with palpation, hamstrings had the same news, shins slightly more cranky than that, and calves weighing in with moderate protest to walking and stair climbing. This is not great news, given that my home is a split level. I expect full on anarchy by the end of the week. Overall, nothing to out of the ordinary, particularly for a girl at my current fitness level. This morning upon waking, most of those reports coming in from various body parts escalated all about a half step. This is nearly exactly what I report to my patients who are the unfortunate souls involved in a car accident. Most report that day 1 and 2 aren't feeling too badly, but by day 3 symptoms appear seemingly out of nowhere for a few reasons, a couple of which are the adrenaline kicking in right after the accident and hanging around for a while to get you home and safe, and the other is that your body needs time to assess damage, prioritize repairs and get down to the business of healing. That's apparently where I am today. A little stiff and sore, the angriest culprits being my calves and - oh yeah - my lungs.
My lungs felt like there wasn't enough air in the atmosphere today and I have to say that is an absolutely awful feeling. Each step was really a challenge today, not because my muscles were protesting as expected, but because I felt thirsty for air. The muscles warmed up after the first few minutes, but my respiratory system was having none of that. No deep breaths or arms overhead could quench that thirst today, but knowing what I know, I knew if my physiology really desperately needed oxygen, I would just pass out. Just like when a kid threatens to hold their breath or screams so much they run out of oxygen, the Innate Intelligence of the body takes over and that kid (mercifully, for those poor parents) passes out. The kid conks out, Innate takes over and resumes normal breathing to get plenty of oxygen to the brain and body, and the parents get a brief respite from the tantrum. Everybody's happy! I didn't feel like I was going to pass out, so I pressed on, confident that my lungs and brain were getting all the air they needed, pacing myself carefully, and psychologically reassuring myself I was OK. All this self-monitoring and self-talk was definitely interrupting my groove with Stone Temple Pilots and Peter Gabriel, so I focused on my tunes and kept going.
Slug Alley was fairly quiet this morning because it was raining, but I did see a small cluster of about a dozen squirming bodies huddled under the protective blooms of a yellow Scotch broom shrub (they're the ones that grow wild all along I-5, and when in full galore, the stretch from US-2 and Everett Mall Way smells like pee. This is when I hit the "recirculate" button on the ventilation system in my van...). These brooms also have a tendency to fully launch my seasonal allergies - I was putting 2 and 2 together as I trudged along.
My allergies began shortly after my son was born and have worsened over time (I joke with my kids that they got all of my good stuff and now I'm rebuilding...). They seem to be seasonal, although blood tests have revealed I am also allergic to all things cow - even beef. I did a long stretch of eliminating all things bovine a few years back and my allergy symptoms stayed about the same, so my infantile logic has given me permission to continue eating cow food products declaring, "If I'm going to feel itchy and sneezy anyway, then I should get to eat what I want - so there. And neener, neener, too." It's good to be a grown-up. With the cottonwood flying and lawnmowing season in full swing, I have noticed more eye itchiness and a slight wheeze at bedtime in the past week. I'm thinking between conditioning my lungs to this new routine of cardiovascular activity, the likes of which my body hasn't seen in 20 years, and the rebellion of my immune system to various particulates floating in the air, I have thirsty lungs today.
The good news is that as I increase my cardio fitness, my lungs will get happier. Also given that exercise is a fabulous stress reducer, physiologically and emotionally, the inflammation level in my body in response to pollen in the air can only get better, and my lungs will get happier. So a few mornings I feel a little desperate for air - easy breathing is way overrated, right? ;) I'll just keep singing that old song "One foot in front of the other...." as I plod along. Time to go Google the rest of the lyrics ;)
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