Stars, Moon, and Bare Feet

Yesterday I was tired all day. It was hard to get through the day because I was so tired. Shortly after dinner I sat down to read and fell asleep. When I got up this morning I had planned to go for a run, but still feeling tired, I scaled that back to a walk around the neighborhood. And if I was going to walk, I could try it barefoot. Or at least barefoot part of the way. I took my Xero Shoes along because the road is very rough and I figured I'd want to switch.

Outside the sky was clear. The air was cool, not cold, actually a perfect temperature. A crescent moon hung in the sky surrounded by stars. I don't know all of the constellations, but I recognized Orion. The neighborhood was mostly dark, but there are some streetlights (I took the picture above under one of the lights). A lot of the houses have porch lights on, some more than one. After walking a while barefoot I could tell the ball of my foot was getting irritated. Either my form, the rough road, or a combination, threatening to raise a blister. I stopped and put on the Xero Shoes at that point and continued.

It was pretty peaceful until a car came down the road toward me when I was almost back home. They slowed, nearly stopped, then drove past, turned into a driveway and turned around to drive past again before turning on the street where I was going to turn. I think they were lost because they did turn into a house on that street and park. Otherwise, no cars, no dogs chasing me.

I still feel like I could use some rest, but it was good to get out and walk. I need to do more barefoot walking, I haven't been barefoot outside nearly enough this year!

Daily Challenge 26: An Apple...

Today I went out for my walk during a break in the rain. At first my son came with me, also barefoot, but after a short distance out he decided it was too cold and wet and wanted to go inside. I walked him back, then retraced my steps to walk around the property.

I meandered around a bit more today. Passing our apple trees I noticed again how many had fallen to the ground. We need a better plan for dealing with the apple harvest! A few hardy apples still clung to the leafless trees, most bird-pecked and rotten, but a few good apples remained. I picked a few and munched on them while I walked.

I'm still pretty sore. Getting stronger each day!

Daily Challenge 25: Healing

Much time has passed since I last posted a daily challenge. As I'd mentioned, I started having health issues. It started as a pain on my lower right abdomen. "Pain" is almost too strong of a word. Uncomfortable, sometimes becoming painful. Annoying, but something I could ignore. Most of the time.

When I went to a master class for writers a few years ago, we played a simulation of a writer's career called "The Game." In one part of the Game you rolled dice, and sheets were consulted to determine what happened. A "life roll," something that could impact your writing (often negatively).

This is my latest life roll.

At my day job they started a wellness program. Go in for a physical, get some blood work done, and we'd all get a deduction on our premiums and a credit against our deductibles. Since the problem wasn't going away, and I hadn't had a physical in a long time, I went ahead and made the appointment.

When I first showed up the doc was so enthusiastic to see me. "Someone who is basically healthy!"

I'd gone through the standard questions with the nurse before hand. Smoke? No. Drink? No. Never? Never. Any surgeries? No. None? None.

Then I went through it again with the doc. It really gives you a good idea of what they deal with every day when they're surprised to have someone healthy, that doesn't drink or smoke!

I'd mentioned my problem, the discomfort I was feeling, and when the doc did the hernia check I got the bad news. "You've got a hernia! I'm going to refer you for a surgical consult."

I had a vague notion of what she was talking about, that's it. I did notice that after she had pressed on my abdomen that the 'discomfort' I'd been feeling had become more painful. I expected it to ebb. Instead, after the appointment, it worsened. Now it was painful. Was it just in my head, because now I knew what it was? I don't know. Maybe I'd ignored how bad it'd gotten.

I ended up back at the doctor's a few days later, seeing one of the other doctors in the group, because the pain had become quite distracting. This doc did a careful exam, ran a few other tests and confirmed the hernia diagnosis. He also showed me where it bulged when I coughed.

Nothing to do except wait for the surgery consultation a week later. That went as expected. Yep, hernia. Yep, it needed to be repaired. Another week and I went under the knife.

I'd expected pain post-op. They all told me. Without having ever undergone anything like this, I imagined I could still write and make progress on my novel while I recovered.

Right!

After the initial drugs wore off, moving became very difficult. Even getting into or out of bed became an excruciating chore. The narcotics made me all fuzzy-headed, but oddly not really sleepy. Restless, in constant pain, there was no way I was kicking off National Novel Writing month!

Talk about a life roll! Health issues, having surgery, has an impact!

With the support of my family, I gradually improved and began to better. Moving became easier. I started taking notes on the book I wanted to write. I finished an online writing workshop. I still couldn't move easily. Sitting for any length of time, walking, doing much of anything was hard.

Was hard? Is hard!

It's gotten better. I went back to work this week. Tough, very tough, to make it through a whole day at work. It's good. It gets me up doing things instead of staying in bed.

Today I decided to go for a walk around our property. It isn't far, we do have a tiny hill. And I went barefoot. I want to build back up my strength and get moving. I want to improve what I'm eating. I'm still in pain and I have to take it very easy. No pushing. I still have lifting restrictions for the next few weeks. I'm not getting better over night.

I am, however, getting better. I'm writing the book now. I'm back at work. And now I'm getting out for a walk. Running and cycling will come in time. For now it is enough to take a short walk around the place.

Urban Primalist

Today, while reading the Before and After thread over at Mark's Daily Apple, I came across Timothy Williams' site, Urban Primalist with a great before and after series of photos. There are a ton of similar stories on the message board and it really encouraged me when I was first starting out on our primal journey. "After" is a bit wrong for most folks, given that it doesn't ever really start. When it comes down to it primal/paleo is more about paying attention and eating and exercising in a smart, healthy fashion. It's not about dropping a set number of pounds or anything like that, it's about being healthy.

Check out Timothy's story, and then maybe some of the others. Worth reading.

In my case I'm much healthier now than I was back when we started at the end of February. Since we're about six months later I'm going to take some new photos soon and post up a new before/after comparison. It'll be interesting to see the difference.

Worf's First Run

Took Worf out for a run this morning around the local streets. Both of us unshod. The roads are rough asphalt with plenty of loose rocks. I forgot to look at the time again, so that's a guess.

Worf, Resting

When we took Worf for his last shots we noticed how leash-shy he acted, so this was a good chance for him to practice being on leash. He did really well. Mostly stuck right by my side, rarely pulled. Never barked or really tried taking off after bunnies. When other dogs barked he ignored them. Cars scared him, but there's little traffic on the street. He crowded my legs as we ran past one car parked on the street, but otherwise handled it fine. I think with a bit more practice he'll turn out to be a good running companion. I'll need to get him down to the trail so we can work on passing other people, dogs, and bicyclists.

As far as I can tell at this point my feet handled the rough surface fine. Nice short run, a bit misty at times but not really rainy. Solid cloud cover and 59° F degrees.

Barefoot Blisters

I went out this morning barefoot, carrying my huaraches in my hands, the Spot GPS strapped to my arm. At 59 °F the cloudy morning felt about perfect for running. Cool without being cold, a light breeze stirring the mostly Douglas fir trees along the road. This road hasn't been repaved in many years and my feet felt all the small stones, the cracks and loose pebbles. I pressed the button on the Spot to track my progress and started out with small, light steps.

The surface felt rough, hard, but not actually painful to run on. I ran as light as I could, each foot fall a nearly silent padding along the road. I wore shorts and a t-shirt but felt comfortably cool. My breaths flowed in and out. My calves felt stiff and tight but I didn't push, letting the run loosen them up as I headed down the road.

A half-mile on I headed down the steep hill to the trail as a car passed me going the same way. The Yelm-Tenino trail felt much smoother after the rough road and I settled into the run, cruising along, enjoying the fact that my feet felt good. At the train crossing I paused and checked my feet. No hot spots. Everything looked good. I kept going.

On up the trail past a woman walking two big dogs, up into town, still barefoot. Surprising, but my feet felt good so I kept carrying the huaraches. Heading through town I ran across a few stretches, at driveways, littered with small gravel. No problem.

It wasn't until I headed on out of the main part of town, back onto the rough road that I thought maybe I'd pushed my bare feet a bit too far. I stopped and checked over the bottoms of my feet and found a blister on the ball of my right foot, and a few other suspicious parts. Rather than risk more problems I slipped on the huaraches and ran the rest of the way home.

A good run, a few blisters, but those will go away soon. Eventually I'll leave the huaraches at home! 3.54 miles on this loop, it's a good start for now. I hope to have my trike's brakes repaired soon and then I'll get back into riding the trike on my commutes more often. I still plan to keep running too.

Camping and Run

Stealth Camping

Last night it looked like a great, if windy night, to go string my Hennessy hammock up between some trees in the woods. It was the first time this year that I've camped out. Sleeping outdoors in the hammock is great fun, cool, listening to the breeze and the whine of mosquitoes (protected from them by the netting), all in the comfort of the hammock. Late in the night I found it a little chilly but that mostly just made me want to stay in the sleeping bag. When I get closer to doing bikepacking trips I'll probably look at a different bag, and maybe a ground pad and bivy. We'll see.

Right about when the sky started getting light I woke up, huddled in the sleeping bag for a few more minutes, then slipped on out of the bag and hammock. I strapped my spot onto my arm and headed out for a morning run up through town and back.

It was a great morning for a run. I stuck to the huaraches for the first leg down to the trail and then ran barefoot for a while until I started feeling a couple hot spots that I noticed the other day. Not really wanting blisters I slipped the huaraches back on and continued running. I made it back up to our street before the plantar fasciitis acted up in my right foot. I ended up walking a bit then to let it relax, but not nearly as much as my last run. Ended up with a better time. Took care of our animals and sat down to ice my foot, drink a banana/blueberry coconut milk smoothie, and write this. Good way to start the day.