<p>Holy cow, fireandrain, get better soon!</p>
<p>4.1 miles this morning.</p>
<p>Yikes! What a terrible story.</p>
<p>Trainer. The pool isn’t officially closed, but is empty. Just as well so my chest can heal.</p>
<p>~ 4 mile park run. 45 degrees and overcast. Squirrels, robins, crows, ducks, magnolia buds.</p>
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<p>Mine started with some tightness right between my shoulder blades. Then, it because an amorphous crushing pain all thru my shoulder and down my arm and – what prompted me to go to the emergency room – down the left side of my chest. The odd part, all along, was that I could never point to exactly where the pain was. I was so relieved that it wasn’t a heart attack that I came home at 3 am on Sunday morning with nothing but instructions to take a Tylenol. </p>
<p>That’s when the fun started. I couldn’t sit. I couldn’t lie down, The only way I could tolerate the pain was standing. So after being up all night Saturday night, all day Sunday, I found myself standing in the hall next to my bedroom all night Sunday night, until I would eventually fall asleep and go down to the floor, only to be woken up by the pain and have to start all over again. It was the worst night of my life.</p>
<p>I was at my doc’s office at 8 am on Monday when it opened. The nurse practitoner figured it out from my outstretched arm. Put me on an oral steroid to reduce inflammation around the nerve. My most desperate need was sleep, so she gave me a prescription for Vicodan and a muscle relaxer. A couple of those would dull the pain long enough to get an hour or two of sleep. I spent two or three days in bed and then fully recovered over the course of the next week or so.</p>
<p>I am always on the watch for tightness in that area. At the very first sign, I stop what I’m doing and take it easy for a day or two. I’ve not had a recurrence. </p>
Fireanddrain, how awful! Feel better soon!
<p>Packmom:</p>
<p>I haven’t read that one, although the dog Atticus is oft-mentioned in NH hiking circles. I’ve been reading another book fromt the same publisher, this one about a guy and a teen girl hiking the 52 mountains with a view in NH. These are mostly the mountains I’ve been hiking.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Buffalo-Tough-Cookie-Hampshires/dp/1931271305”>http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Buffalo-Tough-Cookie-Hampshires/dp/1931271305</a></p>
<p>niquii77:</p>
<p>Wow, I just realized that challenge is to hold the bottom position of a squat for a cumulative 30 minutes each day – however you want to break it up. That’s a lot of static hold for an ol’ (formerly) fat guy like me. That position is reasonably comformtable, but I know about racking up 30 minutes a day!</p>
<p>fireandrain:</p>
<p>What a buzzkill to a perfectly nice bike ride in a sunny warm place. Falling on glare ice is starting to sound like it’s not so bad afterall!</p>
<p>Ran 7 miles yesterday in sunny 64 degree weather. Today snowing and 25 degrees…crazy!</p>
<p>PT exercises and 50 minutes on the NuStep today. I decided to start from the beginning watching Breaking Bad again (just finished it up Saturday night), so now I’ve got something great to watch when I go to the gym - my music favorites may be put on hold. Whereas I had only been doing a combination of 30-40 minutes between the track and NuStep, now I’ll like be doing 45 minutes+ so I can get through one whole episode. </p>
<p>Dreaded Airdyne intervals for me. I’ve still got a tender wrist, so some of my short basement workouts (like KB circuits and burpees) are out for a few more days. Heart Rate monitor spazzed out in the bitter cold dry air. Said my heart rate steady fell during the first interval and ended up at 38% of my max at the end of three minutes pedalling hard. I don’t think so. So I canned the automatic intervals on the watch and just did two more manually – pedal for a mile, pedal easy 'til I could go again, and do the third mile. No stats. No pretty graph, but a nice solid workout. Now it’s off to stir some fresh fish and chopped clams and saffron into a pot for Mediterraean Seafood Stew – a lovely thing, indeed, for the food tracker!</p>
<p>My heart rate monitor (Garmin) is simply not working well at all in the cold weather. I’ve ordered the one that will go with the Garmin watch that is recommended as more stable- it’s a Magellan soft strap. It’s worth it to me since I do so much HR training. It’s $54. 17 degrees, dark- 5 miles done. I wore SO much stuff. It’s a pain to lug it all to work, into the building, put it all on, lug my work clothes back out to the car, drive to the path to run… The mornings are just not OK right now, though. The streak lives on. That’s about all I can say right now.</p>
<p>Alas, I am using the Magellan strap, slathered in electrode gel. It’s been totally bullet-proof until the last few days. Pretty much unusable yesterday and today. Not just inacccurate readings (high and low), but actual dropouts where it just stops reading altogether.</p>
<p>I’ve also got the latest generation Garmin strap (which they sent me as warranty replacement). I’m going to try that one next time. But, I just think it is so cold and dry that the static electricity is an insurmountable obstacle. My fancy TV remote control is resetting every time I touch it. Same problem.</p>
<p>That is not what I wanted to hear! </p>
<p>fireandrain–This is not what anyone would expect on vacation! I hope you are feeling better soon and tolerating the treatment. You are brave!</p>
<p>kmc and abasket-- You are correct about the calorie tracker! It has been extremely eye-opening and I can see the value. I am surprised by the calorie counts in some items. I hadn’t realized how high in calories mushrooms are. Who knew! I am a little overwhelmed and intimidated trying to figure out what to eat BUT I am so excited to nail this. </p>
<p>I exercised some but held back so as not to exacerbate sciatica issues. I avoided hills and have been stretching and doing exercises I learned in PT almost 10 years ago! Stretching and PT exercises are so incredibly boring. I will get new sneakers tomorrow which I hope will help. My food was on track. I did much better with protein. </p>
<p>I am still figuring out the nuances of converting and recording the exercise from my fitbit into the myfitnessplan. I need to spend a little more time on it. I am extremely impressed that the options of foods in the pulldown menu included all of my food sources by label. So easy!!!</p>
<p>S/S/C. Mile warmup. Then a. 5: 30 mile on the treadmill. Mile warmdown. </p>
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LOL. It’s a lot of static hold for me! :)) Too much…I’m passing on this challenge. Maybe I’ll do it in the summer, but 30 minutes of my day could be spent more wisely. ;)</p>
<p>Darn…there was another challenge that I saw…it was something to do with squats, but I don’t think it was THE squat challenge…</p>
<p>The hunt ensues…</p>
<p>peacefulmom:</p>
<p>There must be a something flukey with the food database. Mushrooms have almost no calories. Looks like a pound of raw button mushrooms is only about 100 calories. Now, when I get done sauteing them in a big slab of butter or some olive oil… now that’s a different number!</p>
<p>Mushrooms are not high in calories at all. Even sauteed in a bit of olive oil or butter it isn’t going to be that much…</p>
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<p>Tell me about it. I’ve got three basically brand new HR monitor soft straps. The Magellan had been working really well all summer and fall. This week was the first time it flaked out. I think once it reaches the point where sparks shoot from my hand when I pet the kitty, it’s trouble for HRM straps. I might try it with a cotton shirt, since I’m not really sweating very hard in my workouts right now (53 in the basement, usually mid-60s when I’m on the Airdyne).</p>
<p>*Calories 1780</p>
<p>Fat 96g
Protein 112g
Carbohydrate 107g</p>
<p>Dietary Fiber 19g
Net carbs 88g
Sugars 19g</p>
<p>50% fat
25% protein
25% carb*</p>
<p>Not too shabby. Lustig would be proud. I beat the sugar bear today. Speaking of Lustig, here’s a good NPR interview from last year:</p>
<p><a href=“The Fallacies Of Fat : NPR”>The Fallacies Of Fat : NPR;
<p>Ugh, I couldn’t log onto CC as MaineLonghorn since the changeover. I tried to create a new account, but I didn’t get the confirmation email until this afternoon! Then I was able to contact a tech guy. It took him awhile to figure out the problem. He said it looked as if it affected about 450 users. I’m not liking the new site, either. Grr. </p>
<p>I ran 6.2 miles yesterday. I didn’t run today, so I’ll have to make it up tomorrow, after I drive my daughter to Boston (she’s going to study abroad in Spain). </p>