Category: Health

An autumn to remember

lpaulriddle

The title says it all here — it has been an eventful fall, for many reasons, some good and some bad.

Good: My nephew’s wedding. He’s the first in the next generation of the family to marry. It was a great weekend in D.C.

Bad: Losing my cousin. It wasn’t unexpected, but it was too soon, and it was rough.

Good: Visiting college friends who recently moved to Florida. I see more of this kind of thing in our future.

Bad: My annual October/November respiratory illness. For future reference: It started with a sore throat on 10/23, while we were still in FL. The viral part was mild. It never totally knocked me off my feet, and I’m not sure I ever even ran a temperature. The bad part was the aftermath: 3 weeks of laryngitis and middle ear/Eustachian tube congestion (flying a couple of times during the initial onset didn’t help). 4 weeks later, it’s almost out of my system, and I can finally talk normally again, but still have occasional ETD issues. The ETD has mainly affected the right ear, but I did have it in my left ear for a couple of days earlier on.

Bad: Losing one of our cats.

Good: Spending 2 days in Chestertown, MD, for our 24th anniversary. Great town.

Good: Running my first half marathon at age 54 (this morning). This was one of the goals I had set for myself earlier this year, but the outcome was in doubt after a rather tough summer for running and various other obstacles that life threw in the way (some of which are listed above). The run went well, and I averaged 11-minute miles on a windy morning over hilly terrain, which isn’t too shabby for me. I’ve been slower this year than last year, for many of the same reasons it took me so long to go 13.1 miles. However, I did run 6.8 miles at 10:10/mile this past Thursday, so I don’t think I’ve lost a step — It’s more likely that I was just out of practice, and need to work up to faster speeds the same way I worked on increasing my mileage this fall. Not sure where I’ll go from here, goal-wise, but for now, I’m just going to try to run this distance about once per month through spring.

Right foot nerve again

lpaulriddle

I have been having issues with the nerve on the ball of my right foot for about the past week, similar to late last summer. Interestingly, this time around, I’m noticing the discomfort more so with running than with climbing, which is the opposite of what I reported last September. The lack of issues while climbing could be because of my shoes — last summer, I was climbing in Scarpa Force Vs, while lately, I’ve been wearing a pair of Tenaya Araís. Maybe the latter just agree with my feet better. The Scarpas are awaiting a resole, so I won’t be able to test that theory any time soon. It could also have something to do with my footwork, which I believe has improved over the past year or so.

Where running is concerned, I think I should adopt a new motto: “It’s the gait, stupid”. I started today’s run with a metatarsal pad on my right foot. Metatarsal pads have their place, and I’ve found that they often help with walking, static standing, and driving. Today, though, the pad seemed to aggravate the problem nerve. Two miles into the run, it was really bothering me, so I stopped to take the pad off. The nerve was still painful without the pad initially, and I was thinking I might have to cut the run short. Then, I noticed that on the right side, I seemed to be landing and pushing off towards the outside of the foot. I corrected that, mentally trying to engage the side of the foot towards the big toe, and the nerve discomfort improved significantly. Doing that must take pressure off whatever nerve is irritated. Flexing and relaxing my toes frequently, to keep them loose, also seems to help. Ultimately, I was able to complete my planned distance of 10K.

All of this has me wondering what is causing this recurring issue. It could be a combination of things: gait irregularities when walking/running, poor climbing footwork (climbing on the balls of my feet instead of the toes), etc. Hopefully, as I work to correct these, I’ll start seeing this problem less frequently. In the meantime, travel and other activities are going to prevent me from running or climbing as frequently as usual over the next couple of weeks, which might be a blessing in disguise, as it’ll give my feet a little bit of a break.

Sick House

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Everybody in the house has either COVID or some COVID-like illness this week, except me. I think it’s the same, or similar, virus as what I had back in November, because of the killer cough. As for me, I had a slight scratchy throat for a day or two, and have occasionally felt under the weather, but have not (yet) gotten sick.

It is shaping up to be another mild, rainy winter, which is becoming more and more the norm in this area. I have been able to keep up with running and (indoor) climbing, but have not been out on the bike as much as I would like. I have not worn metatarsal pads for my last two runs, but have continued to work on keeping my ankles loose, and my heels have been happier. Today, I forgot to foam roll my right hamstring, and by the end of the run, it was obvious that it had been making a difference. Based on our pattern of 1 to 2 nor’easters per week, I’m thinking mountain bike rides are only going to be happening in the early mornings when the trails freeze overnight. I’m hoping to ride to work on Wednesday or possibly Thursday, and may see if I can get out another day this week as well. We will just have to see what the weather has in store.

Random notes

lpaulriddle

I’m fighting my way through my second cold in as many months. This latest one has been worse than last month’s. I think I picked it up at the Ravens/Seahawks game a couple of weekends ago. It has featured the worst cough I’ve had in probably several years. In fact, the cough was the initial symptom — I never got a sore throat. Sinus impacts have also been minimal — I had a stuffy nose for maybe 2 or 3 nights. It laid me up for a couple of days with fever, chills, and cold sweats, to where I thought it might be flu, but I think the fever went away too quickly for it to have been flu. Then again, maybe it was flu, but the flu shot I got in September reduced the severity. I do know that it wasn’t COVID, unless the test I took gave me a false negative. The main story has been the cough. In the beginning, it was wheezy and unproductive, but it has become productive in the past day or two, which has me crossing my fingers that it’s finally on its way out.

The other thing this cold has done is to completely sap my energy. After spending last Thursday and Friday lying around doing nothing, I managed to get the swimming pool winterized on Saturday, over the course of the entire day, with frequent breaks. Sunday, I tried running, and struggled to complete 3 miles at 12:30/mile. Monday (yesterday), I ran again, with only slight improvement: I was exhausted after 3 miles, but managed a pace of 11:30. The silver lining was that my form and cadence seemed pretty good both days, which tells me that my running biomechanics are improving, as I’m no longer sacrificing form for less important things like pace.

This morning, I took the new hard-tail mountain bike back out. It was my first time on a bike in a week. While I was slower than usual, and got winded more easily, it was not a bad ride overall. It was more enjoyable than either of this week’s runs, but that’s not saying much. I have to say that I’m really impressed with how well this bike performs on technical climbs. There’s a trail in the PVSP Avalon Area called “Water Bars”, which is a rocky ascent straight up the river bank, with a few wooden erosion barriers along the way (the namesake “water bars”). I’ve struggled for years to get all the way up this trail on my full suspension bike without stopping or putting my foot down, but I have never quite succeeded. Today, I tried it for the first time with the hard tail, and rode right up it. It didn’t even seem very difficult, and this was in spite of my being under the weather. I’ll still take full suspension any day for descents, but the hard-tail is the clear winner when it comes to going uphill. I just need to get back to the point where I can do it without getting winded!

Running Improvement

lpaulriddle

I did not have high expectations for this morning’s run. I woke up feeling fine, but still feeling some lingering effects from the past week’s cold. I felt about the same two days ago, and did not have a good run at all. I figured today would be more of the same, but it was much better. I went 10K for the first time in a week, at a fairly respectable pace and cadence, and didn’t poop out at the end. So, I think it’s safe to say I am improving, although I suspect I was a little better hydrated today as well.

My right hamstring is not improving as quickly as I would like. I spent a little while foam rolling and stretching it before running today, and that helped. However, it’s still stiff during my runs, particularly when running uphill and/or stepping up with the right leg. I wonder if KT tape would help — I am pretty sure I still have a roll lying around here somewhere.

Run Notes

lpaulriddle

Really tough run today. I feel like I’m “over the hump” with this week’s cold, which is to say, I felt OK when I woke up this morning. I still have a slight (productive) cough, and some minor clamminess occasionally, but for the most part, I feel fine. For the second Friday in a row, I skipped climbing and went running instead. I actually felt better when I ran Tuesday than today. I ran the same route as Tuesday, but stopped when I hit 5 miles. I was dragging for almost the entire run. My average pace was around 11:10/mile, and cadence was also low, at 179 steps/minutes. On top of that, my right hamstring seemed more stiff than it did during my recent runs. It’s possible that I was mildly dehydrated, and I did not do anything in the way of warming up, foam rolling, or stretching before heading out; but, I think this cold was the main thing slowing me down today, and I just have to let it finish running its course.

Vitality Brazil French Press

lpaulriddle

This afternoon’s cup:

  • Beans: “Brazil Yellow Bourbon” medium roast
    • Roaster: Vitality Roasting (Minneapolis, MN)
    • Roast date: 9/20/2023
  • 20 grams coffee, 280 260 grams water (1:14 1:13 ratio)
  • French press
  • Gooseneck kettle
  1. Preheat French press
  2. Heat brew water to 99°C
  3. Coarse grind (JX setting 30, or 3 rotations)
  4. Start timer and pour at the same time
  5. 60 second bloom (including pour time)
  6. Stir a few seconds until grounds settle
  7. Steep 6 minutes, plunge, and pour

This was a much better cup than yesterday’s. I kept everything the same, except I started with hotter water, and I remembered to preheat the French press. The result was a more robust, better extracted brew. I feel like it could have been a little bit stronger, so maybe 1:13 will be the sweet spot. The pourovers I’ve been making with these beans have been a little bit lackluster recently, so I may stick with the French press until I use them up.

In totally unrelated news, I was amazed with how quickly I bounced back from the COVID booster I got yesterday afternoon. The only symptoms I had were minor body aches last night and this morning, which disappeared after I took some Ibuprofen. This is in contrast to all of my previous shots, after which I had 24 to 36 hours of flu-like symptoms (aches, chills, shakes, fatigue, slightly elevated temperature). None of that this time around. The big difference: my past shots were all Moderna, and yesterday’s was Pfizer. I guess I must tolerate the Pfizer vaccine better.

10/5: Brewed again. Kept everything the same, except I reduced the water to 260g for a 1:13 ratio. This seemed like a good strength. I have enough beans left to brew about 3 more cups, and may just do all of them like this.

10/9: Used the beans up this afternoon. I had 26g left, so I used 338g of water (1:13). I believe this was the best cup I’ve gotten with them using this method. I didn’t do anything differently, so I wonder if it had something to do with the larger volume of water. I’m also wondering if the speed and/or length of time of stirring makes any difference in the finished product.

Nerve

lpaulriddle

Still dealing with some off-and-on nerve pain in the ball of my right foot, which cropped up around the third week of August. It’s close to the same area where I had a neuroma back around 2016-2017, and while I can’t rule that out, the symptoms aren’t quite the same. In 2017, when I saw a podiatrist, I got a cortisone shot in that area, which I don’t think did me any long-term favors. Oddly, it seems to bother me most when I’m sedentary, and in particular, in bed when I wake up in the morning. It’s just a generic kind of aching pain, and the nerve feels kind of “weird” when walking barefoot and when swimming. Running does not bother it at all, but I’ve aggravated it a couple of times while climbing. On Monday, I did a bunch of lead climbing, and I could tell I tweaked it on the first route I climbed. This morning, I climbed 6 routes on top rope, and had no problems. I was really careful with the foot, sticking to mostly overhanging routes with juggy holds, using the bad foot mainly for balance and trying to avoid putting too much weight on it. I also wore a metatarsal pad on the right foot, which I think helped. It definitely helps while walking on the treadmill and with static standing. It looks like I can keep climbing for now, but I’m going to need to baby it like this until the issue clears up. I suspect I’m going to have occasional issues there for the rest of my life, and the key is going to be to manage it to prevent flare-ups. The silver lining here is that the whole experience with the neuroma is what convinced me to start wearing minimalist footwear and “Correct Toes”, which was a long, tough transition from conventional footwear, but absolutely worth it in every way.

Notwithstanding our current September heat wave, pool season will be winding down for us in just a few short weeks. According to Apple Health, I took my 48th swim of the season this afternoon. That’s about 20 fewer than this time last year, but I never intended to match last year’s total. My first swim this year was June 2, so I’ve managed to average about one swim session every other day this season. That average will drop a bit, as I’ll be missing a week this month due to travel, but all in all, I’m pretty happy with how the season went. I’m swimming more strokes per session this year as well (703 strokes for 2023 vs 651 for 2022). One really weird statistic: for the first time in the 22 seasons we’ve owned the pool, this is the first year that nobody outside our immediate family has been in it. Times have definitely changed since the days when we used to throw a massive pool party every summer…

This and that..

lpaulriddle

On July 6, I noted some recent issues with tightness in my right calf, which has been a recurring issue with me. I’ve suspected that poor kicking form while swimming freestyle and backstroke might contribute to this. I did not swim at all while we were on vacation last week, and had no tightness issues for the entire week. However, I’m noticing that a little bit of tightness is back today, also in the right calf, and I have not yet been in the pool. It just occurred to me that both days I’ve had the issues were right after I took long drives. On July 4, we took a 6-hour day trip to Pennsylvania, and yesterday was a 4-hour(!) drive home from Bethany. My right leg, of course, is the side I use for the accelerator pedal. Could there be a connection here?

While at the shore, I picked up a few half-pound bags of coffee beans, including some light roast (breakfast blend) from Local Coffee Roasting Co. in Roxana, DE. Today was my first foray into brewing anything lighter than medium roast in the AeroPress. I followed the James Hoffmann recipe pretty closely:

  • 11 grams coffee, ground at 42 clicks on the JX (1.5 turns minus 3 clicks)
  • 200 grams water at 99°C (1:18.1)
  • Two paper filters
  1. 20 second pour
  2. Steep 2 minutes
  3. Take off scale and swirl
  4. Wait 30 seconds
  5. Press 30 seconds

The end result was OK, but lacking in flavor, which tells me I’m probably not getting enough extraction from the beans. In his video, Hoffmann recommends adjusting either the grind size or the water temperature to address this, instead of upping the amount of coffee, which you might do with a darker roast. Next time, I may try going a little bit finer with the grind, and possibly heating the kettle water to a full boil and pouring directly off that.

Afternoon notes

lpaulriddle

Something is definitely up with my right foot and calf, as I’ve been getting some discomfort in the rear of the foot towards the heel while walking on my treadmill desk. My right calf also seems really tight, which is an issue I’ve dealt with a lot over the years. As I wrote yesterday, I suspect that it is an ankle mobility issue. It has gotten a little bit worse since I started swimming backstroke a few days ago, and I do think my kicking technique needs a lot of work. For the time being, I am going to stop doing backstroke and probably cut down a bit on freestyle, focusing more on breaststroke and butterfly, and see if it calms down. I’m also going to focus a little bit more on exercises to improve ankle mobility. I found this page, which seems like a pretty good resource.

I tried making some iced coffee this afternoon. I have a fair amount of pre-ground Wellsley Farms (BJ’s store brand) breakfast blend coffee with a “best by” date of August 2023, so I’m looking for creative ways to use it up. Since it’s ground fine for drip machines, it’s not ideal to use for cold brew, so I decided to try this recipe for iced coffee. I followed the recipe to the letter, using my electric kettle and measuring everything out with a scale. It’s the closest I’ve come to doing pour-over coffee. I don’t (yet) have a pour-over dripper, so I used a strainer and a regular coffee filter, and dripped the coffee into a Pyrex 2 quart measuring cup. Ideally, I need something a little bit deeper for this, as I had to lift the strainer up at the end to keep it out of the brewed coffee. But other than that, it turned out fine, and made about 24 ounces of iced coffee. It wasn’t all that strong, but good for a summer afternoon. I tried mixing some with a little bit of chocolate almond milk, which was tasty, but the almond milk doesn’t mix well with the water, and I had to keep stirring it to keep it from settling. Real dairy milk might fare better. At any rate, I’ll probably try doing this again.