Dumb is as dumb does

So I ran my last half marathon of the season on Saturday last.   I wasn’t feeling it to be honest going into it.  I knew I was going to have some knee issues based on ITBS issues I’m having.

With my knee roofied into compliance

Around mile 3 my left knee said “Eff this fecal matter, I’m going home.”   I persuaded it with some ibuprofin to keep going a little longer.

At this point I was fairly ahead of the pace group I’d targeted to try to at least match so I kept trying to keep my pace up to keep ahead of them.

At mile 6 my left knee said, “No seriously dude, I’m packing up and going home.”   I distracted it as my pace group finally caught up to me and it was a fairly scenic view as they moved ahead of me.  I don’t really understand it but I appreciate that there’s usually a 2-1 or 3-1 females to males in races.   While it was distracted I slipped in half a Percocet (a prescription acetaminophen and oxycodone) to shut my knee up.

With my knee roofied into compliance I made it to around mile 9-10trailing my pace group and then my running partner called to chat me up on the run and at the same time my knee woke up and was very not happy at having been drugged so between the two of them they convinced me to walk a bit which let my pace group get out of sight.

I started running again, my running partner hung up to go watch her kids do ballet and in digging out a salt tab I found the other half of my percocet which I’d thought I’d left at home.  But my subconscious was looking out for me.

With my knee muted to a dull roar again I picked up the pace and managed to finish the race.  I cut almost 2 minutes off my last (first) half marathon 3 weeks ago in spite of my knee, in spite of having to walk a bit.  So go me.

But I’m seriously paying for it.  Around 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning my knee threw off the shackles of the drugs and hit me like a hammer.  It probably took me 5 minutes to cover the 12 feet to my bathroom using the foot board of the bed and the wall for assistance.

Even with the oxy Sunday through to Monday was rough.  Really rough.

Was it worth it?  Debatable.  Should I have, knowing my knee was iffy, dropped down to the 5K?  Debatable.

Would I do it again?  Debatable.   Barring Mr. Peabody showing up, we’ll never know.

I’m taking the next two weeks off all running and will be doing ITB strength training focused excercises along with some other more general strength training.   That’s a lot of clamshells, resistance band side steps, weighted squats and bridges.

I’ve Fallen and I can’t get up

When I started running one of the things that concerned me was dying while running, literally.  Dropping over from a heart attack, zombie bite, whatever.

while a junior wife sounds tempting”

So one of the things I did was get a RoadID from roadid.com so that if I did expire someone would be able to ID the body and let my wife know.  I’m wearing two charms on it, #NOTARUNNER and 10K which is my current furthest race distance.

Another thing I did was install Automate on my android phone.  Automate is a block based programming application that lets you do a lot of super cool things with an android phone.  Some things do require root of course.

One of the things I was able to do was set up an panic button so to speak.  If I press my power button 3 times in 5 seconds it sends my wife an emergency text with my current GPS coordinates.  Technically it’s the fact that the screen comes on and turns off 3 times in 5 seconds which is what pushing the power button repeatedly does.     It works fine as we’ve had a handful of false triggers due to accidental pushes.  Each time she calls me and verifies I’m not dying somewhere.   If I don’t answer then she’ll pull up the Garmin Livetrack and see if I’m not moving.  Or ping me on Google’s Trusted Contacts app which if I don’t deny the request for my location then something bad is likely happening.

It’s these kinds of things that make running by yourself regardless of the circumstances safer.  Whether a health issue, tripping and smashing your head on the street, getting your throat torn out by a zombie, hit by a drunk or just stupid or texting while driving driver etc, these are all (okay most of them) valid reasons that you might need help quickly and be in a position where maybe just spam clicking your power button is the only option you have.

Now that I primarily run with someone it’s not as big a concern but I still have solo days so having that peace of mind helps.

Other things I’ve set up is to have texts read to me while I’m running, just SMS though so texts from iphone users which use MMS for everythign don’t work.

And I’ve added the ability that calls from unknown numbers, i.e. not in my contacts list, go straight to voicemail, not even a ring on my phone.  I get a jacked up amount of bullshit calls a day from random callers for everything from helping my credit score to getting a second wife.   And while a junior wife sounds tempting, it’s not really something I’m going to interview on the phone for.