Today’s Run

Time – 54:49
Distance – 6.4 miles
Pace – 8:32 min/mi
Elevation – 123 ft.

Continuing the awesomeness that is the group run with Runwell, I got out and ran fast again. This one hurt a little bit, but that’s what the faster days are supposed to feel like, I’m told. Held pace really well, didn’t have any pain, but I did have to slow way down at mile 5 because I felt like I burned out. After a minute or so of walking, I was back at it. I’m thinking that I need to get my iron levels checked and I need to watch my water intake. Other than that, the run was good.

Cramping sucks

I’ve now been having cramps in the calves in the mornings and evenings after runs a few days a week. The chiro is telling me that it’s a calcium problem, which would make sense as I had cut out the Greek yogurt for a little while. I’ve put it back in, but looking at the foods I’m eating, I’m not see anything that looks like enough of a replacement for dairy.

Of course, I’m no doctor, which means that I only have speculation and the internet as places to go for information. Checking with a doctor is a good idea, and we should all do it. (End disclaimer)

Sources for calcium are not the simplest to come by if you don’t have milk to lean on. Green leafy vegetables like kale, foods like broccoli and almonds, and fortified orange juice are the best sources that I’m finding. There’s options through fish and other interesting items (bok choy, anyone?).

In looking at this, I’m realizing that diet is going to be the biggest thing I will have to deal with in my running. That sounds strange, but think of it this way. If you don’t have a source for good gas for your car, it doesn’t matter how much work you do on the engine, or the maintenance you schedule. The engine will eventually have issues that can’t be fixed as a part of regular maintenance.

Time for more research!

Today’s Run

Time – 48:50
Distance – 5.0 miles
Pace – 9:46 min/mi
Elevation – 0 ft.

It was just a little too cold today, so I decided to go over to the YMCA before they closed and do 5 miles on the treadmill. There is really NOTHING to watch on TV at 8:00 PM on a Friday night. It’s pretty bad. Otherwise, the run wasn’t too hard. I was feeling a little weird at the end, but I’m pretty sure that was because it was 9:00 and I was thirsty and hungry.

Humans are amazing

A child of one of my friends needed to have surgery yesterday. He’s only about 2 months old, and has a hole in his heart. It’s kind of a big deal when you think about it, but the doctors were very reassuring to my friend and his wife. They were going to take care of it, they said. And they did yesterday.

The little guy has a patch on his heart now. He’s recuperating in the hospital for the next few days, and then he’ll be heading home to get better. A few months of recovery, and he’ll be rocking and rolling, they say. Isn’t it amazing?

We humans are awesome. The time spent learning how to take care of each other, and the understanding of our bodies and our physical needs is tremendous. The things that can be done with a scalpel, some surgical thread, and a $250,000 education are beyond belief.

And then there’s our bodies themselves. They heal over time on their own. This is the biggest part of what our medicine can do. Doctors don’t necessarily fix the problem, but they put things together so that a body can fix itself. The little guy’s heart will heal as soon as they close the hole. It will build new muscle and blood vessels and nerves, and he’ll have a new part of his heart when he’s older.

That’s really what medicine is, when you think about it. It’s a body that works, and time. The first thing that makes the body work is what gets put in it. This is why I make such a deliberat push on the food I eat. It’s the only way that my body can repair itself after years of damage I’ve caused. You can’t build a house with rotten boards, broken windows, and a poor foundation. It will fall over.

The quote from Hippocrates always used in the countless food documentaries on Netflix and Hulu is, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” It’s from this same individual that we get the Hippocratic Oath, the oath that Greek doctors in the ancient world would take as they embarked on a career in medicine. Everyone remembers the part of the oath that says:

“I will do no harm”

Very few, however, know that those words are part of a larger passage:

“I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgement, and I will do no harm or injustice to them.”

Food is central to our bodies working to heal themselves. It’s the most important factor in recuperation. My friend’s son will be eating as infants do, and growing and healing quickly. The same can and should be said for the rest of us. Are we fueling our bodies to do what they can do best, or our we eating bad building materials that will break us down further?