Uphill Run

While my blog is primarily about living with ADHD, a large part of my life, and therefore my blog, is running.  Running is a great release mechanism when tempers flare, and the exercise hormones are like self medicating.  Having ADHD, however, also makes it difficult to maintain the routine.

When last I posted about running, I was preparing for a two race week, which went very well.  Toward the end of September, I ran an 8k (~5mi) on a Saturday, followed by a 5k (~3.1mi) that Wednesday.  The 8k was the farthest I had run in a couple years.  The 5k I shaved 4 minutes off last year’s time, and I’m hopeful to run a 7 min pace (~22 min) next year.  I made the mistake of not cooling down properly after the 5k.  It was a work event, and we were able to leave for the day afterward, so naturally I booked it home.  Booking it home, in this instance, means an almost 2 hour commute.  I took a week off to recover from the cramping and swelling from sitting for so long so soon after a race, which turned into two weeks, then three.  By mid October I had become sick, a sinus infection which had drained into my lungs, eventually leading to bronchitis.

I’ve had bronchitis before, and figured the doctor would (maybe) put me on antibiotics and otherwise tell me to tough it out, so I opted out of visiting him.  That is, until 3 weeks later when I sounded like a hookah when I breathed.  The doctor thought I had pneumonia, but nothing came up on an X-ray.  I’m being treated for Bronchitis and sinusitis; with a prescription for a steroid inhaler, cough syrup with codeine, and giant antibiotics.  It’s been a week, and I’m still fighting what has now been a month long cough and sinus congestion.  Needless to say I have not been running.  It has been almost 2 months since my last run.  Depressing.

 

Any long-term runner understands that when you go to long without that runner’s high, you start to get the itch.  You get moody, fidgety, sleepless; it’s just bad.  That’s where I’ve been.  Dead tired, but unable to sleep for all the medicine and sleep aids (melatonin, chamomile tea).  Walking more than a few feet gets me coughing uncontrollably.  It’s ridiculous.  So now I am at the bottom of one of the biggest uphill runs I’ve ever faced.  I’ve come back from taking several years off, I’ve come back from a fractured spine with rib, chest, and lung contusions; and now I have this.  I am eager to start again, but then in the morning I just can’t get out of bed.  In the afternoon I am responsible for picking up the kids, feeding them, etc., which obviously takes priority.  By the end of the day I’m wiped out.  While I probably could go for a run, the high would keep me up for hours, and I have to get up fairly early for work.  So it’s a never ending cycle.

Right now, I know I am not healthy enough to go out and get a solid run in, but I really want to.  To top it off, my ADHD symptoms are out of control.  My routine is broken, and I have all this pent up mental energy, without the physical ability to spend it.  I keep challenging myself at work, and I’ve scheduled 4 blog posts within the last 24 hours.  Coffee… I’m not sure if it’s helping or making things worse, so I’m just going to keep drinking it (along with a crap-ton of water) until I notice a difference.

hopefully I’ll be running again soon.  The sooner the better.

 

Seriously…