Another one bites the dust

I'm starting to think that my life is giant conspiracy against me running target marathons. This week should have been the final push, but I started with a burning sensation in my throat on Tuesday evening. By Thursday morning my left tonsil had swollen up and was bright red. I felt like (and still feel like) I'd been hit by a bus. Game over.

To add to the fun at 10am yesterday, as I was skulking on the sofa, my cat appeared from upstairs and sat down briefly. She was very fidgety and every time she moved she left behind a little wet patch. I called the vet (no mean feat since I had very little voice), covered the sofa and floor in kitchen towel and panicked that I'd made her ill by giving her an infection. The vet said that's not possible, but it's rather a coincidence don't you think. They kept her for a few hours to administer antibiotics and do tests. Driving to the vets twice was soooo not safe. I think I had about 7 near misses in each direction each time. And I have to go back today to get some medication for her that they ordered in. She actually seems much better, except that she isn't jumping up on the sofa or the bed.

I am not much better. The burning sensation in my throat has passed but I am feverish, one minute boiling and sweating, the next freezing and shivering. I look like shit and the house looks like a bomb has hit it.

Had I done the training I maybe wouldn't worry about the marathon being effected, but the fact is that I'm 200 miles plus short on the schedule already, most of which have been missed in the last few weeks. I'm not in the best shape anyway so there's no point subjecting my body to the stress of it. Best to move on I think.

But hey, the IBS has been better behaved of late. Except for a really bad case of bloating post Great North Run (caused by eating something from the goody bag - there were problems with the transport on the way home and I was stuck on a platform for over an hour with no access to any other food).

Peak mileage week decimated by colonoscopy

There will be waaaay TMI in this blog, you have been warned!

On Monday I had to start the ridiculous white food prep diet. The instructions were to eat foods ONLY from this list: boiled chicken, boiled or steamed white fish, eggs, cheese, milk, white bread, white potatoes with no skin, rich tea biscuits. Yuk.

I have to admit I was looking forward to breakfast a bit though. Cheese on toast. OK, so it was lactose free cheese on whit toast with no Lee and Perrins, but since I'm intolerant to dairy and avoiding wheat for Fodmap elimination, I haven't had such a thing in ages. It was rather lovely. Less lovely was my morning run. 6 treadmill miles of slog. By the time I'd subjected myself to plain boiled chicken with boiled potatoes and a little cheese and a few rich teas I was feeling sluggish. The planned 10 miler for the afternoon turned into a 4 mile plod. I did manage a weights workout though.

On Tuesday I got up early for a 4 mile run before work but had to run at a slower pace than normal. I finished work around 1pm and hoped to fit in another 6 miles before starting to take the laxative, but I had no energy. I only managed a little over a mile.

So the time came to take the Moviprep and I relocated upstairs with some nice drinks to intersperse with the laxative. The instructions said to expect things to start happening as soon as you take the first dose, to stay near a toilet and advise the use of a barrier cream. It took an hour an a half to chug through the first litre and nothing happened. Well, my stomach swelled up with all the liquid in it, but I tried to go to the loo and nothing came out. I started the second dose at 7pm and finished it at 8.30pm. Still nothing. My stomach was huge and squishy and tender, but still nothing moving. I was getting worried by this point. Finally at 9.30pm, five and a half hours after starting, I was able to go. It was just like water. No explosion, no cramps, just a steady stream of liquid. There was never any urgency and I went maybe 4 or 5 times in total before falling asleep in the early hours. Plus once more on waking. I was so convinced it hadn't worked properly!

I got antsy sitting around the house so I decided to walk to the hospital. This may not have been the smartest plan in retrospect, but I was OK. Just hungry. I was nervous and it seemed an age before I was called in. It didn't help that the air con was broken in the waiting room. After a questionnaire they gave me a gown and dressing gown and ..... dignity shorts. I laughed out loud. They were navy blue and made out of papery stuff. One size fits all and it's a good job I'm fat at the minute because they hung off my hips and ended just above my knees. There was a flap at the back with velcro. Yes, really. They took me through to theatre and asked me if I knew what they were going to do to me. D'uh, yes! What exactly? They ask. You're sticking a camera where the sun don't shine, says I. And so they did. After plugging me in to the sedative and sticking some sort of giant cotton wool ball up my nose (I have no clue what that was). Memories are hazy but I recall seeing the screen and thinking it wasn't very attractive inside me. Very pink and tubular. I also recall some discomfort going around the bends, but no pain. Then it was done. I think I would have liked to have spent a bit longer lying down but I must have been compis mentis enough to satisfy criteria and they moved me to a changing cubicle where I had to sit up and drink coffee and eat bourbon biscuits before they would take the annoying canula out of my arm. Oh, alright then. They handed me my discharge sheets and left me to get changed before finally dumping me in the waiting room to wait for my friend to collect me. All done.

I was a bit spaced out for the rest of the day. It was like being on drugs. Well, I suppose I was! I did manage to watch Despicable Me 2 and the Free From Bake Off (useless!), but that was it.

I expected to feel normal again on Thursday but it was like having a hangover. I was so tired and nauseous. And also starving hungry. Yup, just like a hangover. I hoped to make it out in the evening for a short run and to collect my prescription, but that was soooo not happening.

Back to work on Friday and it took a few hours to wake up properly, then I felt fine for the rest of the day. Great, I can get a decent run in, I thought.... By the time I'd done a full day, collected my prescription and waited an age to get it filled at the chemist I was done in. No run for me.

Having done no proper training all week I thought I'd better do something useful on Saturday. So I took myself off to Gedling to reclaim my course record at the stupidly hilly parkrun. 20.46, the course record is mine again but jeez that is one hard course. I probably should have done an afternoon run but I was tired again having run a load of errands in the morning and then taking the cat to the vet in the afternoon.

Today was my last proper long run. 24 miles. I died a death in the last mile. Possibly related to the terrifying, sticky, black tinged with dark green poo that came out of me this morning. Totally freaked me out that did. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about as I'm back to my usual browny yellowy icky colour, albeit with a tinge of mid-green. Anyway, I'm treating that as a one off but monitoring. Life with IBS is such a treat.

A measly 45 miles for the week. It should have been 85.

An 80 mile week at last

It was scheduled for weeks ago, but I have finally hit 80 miles in a week. Next week is supposed to be bigger, but with the colonoscopy I can't be sure how much I'll be able to do. Every mile counts.

Monday - I was supposed to get up early for the usual 4 miles before work and 9 miles and Body Pump afterwards. I failed. I just did 10 miles in the evening and no Pump class.

Tuesday - I took my shiny new track spikes off to the track, excited to try them out, only to find that actually we weren't training there, but in Wollaton park. Poop. And it was my most hated session, the 3-2-1-3-2-1-3-2-1. I hate running for time rather than distance. With distance I can see the end and run faster to get there. With time if I run faster it will just hurt more, so I go too slow. And we got locked in so had to go the very long way round for my cool down. I was feeling decidedly light headed by the time I got back to the car.

Wednesday - I had a scare early in the MLR when I realised I wasn't really in control of my limbs and my vision wasn't quite right. It was a bit other-worldly. But after 5 minutes or so it went away and I was fine again. Very strange, but I got the full 16 miles in.

I was hungry on Thursday and ate more than usual, which makes it all the stranger that I had an even bigger scare. About two miles into what was supposed to be a 9 miler I got the same feelings as on Wednesday, but worse. It was as if I was in slow motion and the rest of the world had been slightly speeded up. I figured it would wear off again, but it didn't. At one stage I barely knew where I was. I knew enough to cut the run short and staggered into Tesco after 6.5 miles to buy dark chocolate. I didn't mean to, but I ate the whole 100g. Oops. It wasn't hunger. I think maybe it was iron as I'm not allowed to take iron tablets for the week before the colonoscopy.

On Friday I had beef for lunch!  I had hoped to have a rest day but was short of a few miles from Monday and Thursday, so went to the gym to plod them out on the treadmill before heading to Tesco to buy boring, bland, white food.

Saturday was the mile and 5000m races at Harvey Hadden. I knew I wasn't in 5k pb shape, but thought the mile could be doable. There were 2 faster girls entered in the 5000 so I just jogged around to ensure 3rd place and a cheque for £30, saving my legs for the mile. It didn't work. I asked my legs to go faster and they told me to f*** off. I crossed the line frustrated but not especially out of breath. Grrrr.

Sunday - 23 miles with heavy legs, entertained by one powerboat race, two wedding parties and three dead vermin (rat, floating in canal, pigeon floating in canal, pigeon on canal path - delightful). I have spent the rest of the day eating very colourful food to offset the whiteness that is to come over the next two days of prescribed diet.

So 80 miles for the week. My insides haven't been too bad. I've had the usual alternating D and C and a little bleeding, and of course the terrible light headed episodes, but otherwise I've not felt so ill.

I have a date!

No, not *that* kind of date.

You have to love the NHS, you hear nothing for weeks then they give you only a few days notice. Colonoscopy will be on Wednesday next week.

Could it be magic?

The day after my last post was awful. I couldn't physically get out of bed until after 1pm and then I had such overwhelming fatigue that I was completely unable to do anything all afternoon. Just as I thought I was perking up a bit in the evening I was struck with a bout of explosive and watery D. The whole day was a write off.

I still had major mind fog and lingering fatigue on Sunday, but I was giving a friend a lift to the race so had no choice but to go. I was cold and tired and decided that unless it looked like I could win it, I'd just run within myself and try not to die. This was the Rugby Rover 30k. Another off-road race with lots of ascent, but rather better sign posted than the Dovedale Dipper and rather less extreme.

You have to set off fast to avoid congestion on the gate and single track path, so I did, and found myself in second place behind a bird-like lady with a bouncing back pack. A girl in a Trentham vest I'd seen warming up earlier was behind me somewhere. I'd picked her rather than the bird-like woman as the main competition.

We reached the first big hill and I opted to walk it to save energy. Trentham vest came past me here and birdy got a bit ahead too. On the flat at the top however I easily passed birdy. Trentham was showing no signs of tiredness though. I kept up the pace in the hopes that Trentham might also tire, but by 10k I knew I wasn't going to catch her so I eased off. I was feeling more alive by this point in time but knowing the win wasn't going to happen I wanted to save my legs for training.

Sure enough, I finished in 2nd place. I was looking forward to my bag full of random crap that my friend Katie had won in a previous year for 3rd place, but it turns out there are new organisers and there was no prize for 2nd. Boo, hiss.

I was rather tired on Monday and only made it to the gym in time for 3 miles before work. Doing 10 afterwards meant I missed Body Pump. I felt generally unwell all day and had massive distention in the lower abdomen. Finally at 9pm I was able to 'go' for the first time since Saturday night's D. It was so hard and large it made me bleed.

Tuesday - I woke up bloated and it just got worse and worse. Until I turned into the Endless Poop Machine in the afternoon. I must have gone 8 or more times, and for a large volume each time. By the evening I was feeling much better, and the track session was back on our own track (newly reopened after refurbishment), which made me happy. The downside though is that I have way less time to warm up and cool down due to travelling and them locking up. I completed the full session of 2 x 1000m, 2 x 800m and 1 x 400m but it only came to 5 miles with WU and CD.

Also on Tuesday, my Symprove arrived.

Wednesday - I woke up feeling better than I have done for a while so can't attribute it to Symprove. I took my first dose just before leaving the house for work. Bleurgh. It smells grim and tastes like the taste you have in your mouth after you've been sick. And you can't eat or drink for 10 mins after taking it. I felt fine all day and had no issues during my 15 mile evening run.

Thursday - I had one brief bout of cramp, but otherwise it was another good day. It was also a rest day so involved doing the grocery shopping only.

Friday - I realised that if I take the Symprove immediately on waking then I can brush my teeth 10 mins later to get rid of the taste. And I still get to have my morning Espresso. Win. I felt well again all day. The evening run did involve a couple of cramps, but nothing that involved stopping or hiding in a bush.

Saturday - A waver perhaps? I slept until 1pm again, but maybe I was just sleepy. I watched Mo Farah win the 10000m in Beijing before heading out for a recovery run. It was hot. Where did that come from? It's been cold and rainy for days! I had to stop to buy a bottle of water I was so parched!

Hopefully I'll make it out of bed at a reasonable time tomorrow for a 22 mile long run to bring up 75 miles for the week. If I do it, it will be the first decent mileage week I've run in the whole marathon build up, and time is running away from me so it is much needed.

Throw money at it?

I need my life back. I'm still waiting on a date for the colonscopy, but the GI consultant doesn't think it will show anything anyway. So I need to take matters into my own hands.

I have been reading up and there are two top options, both of which are expensive. Acupuncture supposedly has some great results, and Symprove, which cured 1 in 3 IBS sufferers in the clinical trials (but made no difference whatsoever to 1 in 3 - the other 1 in three saw 'some' improvement).

Any thoughts?

http://www.theibsnetwork.org/the-self-care-plan/therapies/acupuncture/

http://www.symprove.com/

We Are The Champions!

I’m having some internet issues at home, so posting is a little delayed.

Sunday was the UK Women’s League (Division 1) fixture in Wigan. A double header with Division 3, which makes for a very long day but does have the benefit of including Katarina Johnson Thompson who competes for Liverpool I think. Our division has Seren Bundy Davies competing, but our very own GB youngster Charlotte McLennaghan took her down. It’s great to see the GB athletes turning out for club fixtures.

I picked up one of our youngsters an inflicted my music on her for the 2 and a half hour journey cross country. Eating was a nightmare. I wanted to eat my 'safe' packed lunch 3 hours before my event, but there was absolutely nowhere to stop on the A50. I had to wait until the first service station on the M6, by which time it was just over 2 hours before my event, and only an hour and a half before I needed to start warming up. Not surprisingly this did not go well. I was gurgling and churning throughout the warm up and felt nauseous to boot.

I was hoping to run a marginal PB and had the splits written on my hand. I was right on target for the first four laps but I was out in no-mans land and just couldn’t hold the pace with no windbreak and no-one within chasing distance. I faded badly and ended with a very disappointing 11.09 and second to last place.

However, every point counts and I still scored 5 of them as not all clubs had a B string runner, so I did contribute to our team winning the match and also the entire league. Promotion to the Premier Division is ours!

Monday was just an average Monday. I made it out of bed early enough to go to the gym for my 4 mile recovery run, then it was back to the gym in the evening for another 9 miles and Body Pump class.

Tuesday should have been a nice easy 8 miler, but I was struck down. Stupid, stupid IBS. I’d ‘been’ before I left the house, and it had been rather a lengthy stay. Needless to say it was therefore a surprise to find myself cramping up. I had to stop and walk/shuffle with my cheeks clenched until I made it to the local leisure centre, where there such ludicrous volume of cow-pat style explosion that I fear I actually blocked their loo! Just imagine if there hadn’t been a handy leisure centre. What on earth would I have done????

Not entirely surprisingly I had cramps all morning on Wednesday and had to take Buscopan. Then just after 5pm I had more loose and urgent movements, so I popped some Loperamide. Bad plan. I had a race that evening and was trying to avoid a repeat of the first Summer League Fixture where I near ground to a halt mid race for fear of explosion. There could be no explosion of course, but instead I had horrendous cramps and such stabbing pain under my sternum that I could barely breathe. I went from hoping to finish first to accepting 4^th place, until the only girl who could possibly overtake me in the overall standings came up on my shoulder with maybe half a mile to go. Fight or flight kicked in and I pushed on, leaving her behind and also passing the two Worksop girls I’d allowed to pass me earlier. I crossed the line in agony and had to go and hide behind a little outbuilding for a while. So I finished second in the race and maintained my second place over all. The disaster of a first race meant I needed some sort of miracle to win the league this year. I did win my age category, but that’s small consolation when the over all winner is actually in an OLDER category. Ah well. We also failed to get a strong team out and only finished second team, having gone into this final race with a decent margin.

I was up multiple times during the night with cramps and so on. So I was desperately tired on Thursday and had to take a rest day. 

Today marks the 50 day countdown to the marathon and involved a 15 mile MLR in near darkness. At 6pm in August. Got to love the British 'Summer'.