We had a major winter storm this weekend. It started with rain yesterday AM, which pooled into major puddles everywhere until it morphed to sleet/ice through late afternoon/evening. Overnight, the precip turned to snow which lasted all night. It is nearly 6PM here and it is still snowing! We woke up to a very quiet winter wonderland this AM and no power. Most churches and activites in the area were cancelled, so it’s been an unexpected “free” day, which we’ve used to talk, read, shovel and catch a gorgeous afternoon run. It is just so very beautiful that we wanted to share it here. Oh, and our power just came back on. Yea!!!! Now we can watch the Academy Awards to the light of our fire AND real lights:)
5797 South Winwood DR.
Our Street. Hours later, we started a run from this spot
Our front yard crab-apple tree fared better than most other trees in our yard that lost numerous branches to beautiful, but heavy ice blankets
View along Beaver Creek Trail where we went running. Just kidding. It’s really not, but could be. Actually, this shot was taken in Colorado, in October, on a walk from BearCave:) Thanks again to the friends of Jess’s family!!
Posted by vicki
Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 6:18pm
Look what’s blooming in our kitchen today! What a treat, on a cold winter single digit day:) Enjoy.
Posted by vicki
Saturday, February 10th, 2007 at 2:55pm
I’m experiencing a change of heart. And also a change of lifestyle.
As you may know, my heart has several “unique characteristics” (some leaky valves, atrial septal aneruysm with patent foramen ovale, and some irregular heart beats) all of which are monitored regularly by a cardiologist and none of which have been “problematic” so far. Recent tests, however, have shown the heart seems to be changing. Specifically, the patent foramen ovale (pfo), a congenital hole between the two upper heart chambers, is where the change is noted. When my heart is at rest, there has been, and still is, some intermittant hemodynamically insignficant right-t0-left blood flow going on. With exercise though (20 minutes or so to Stage VI of the Bruce Protocal, which got heart rate up to max), saline contrast imaging demonstrated transient hemodynamically significant perfuse right-to-left flow associated with decline in arterial oxygen saturation from 98% to 92%. What this means basically, is that with exercise, there is a significant shunting of de-oxygenated blood which results in my body not getting enough oxygen. We met with the cardiologist yesterday to go over results, and he commented that this is a very unusual situation. He said I was “incredibly fit” to run so long/hard on the stress test while experiencing such a rapid deline of oxygen. He says if he were an academic, he would want to write the case up. What fun to be the interesting patient:) He is particularly interested, I think, because he is a fellow-runner. He’s done many marathons and ultramarathons, and even at his older age, can knock off many 6:10 miles in a row. So he understands my mind as well as my heart:) He is very smart, very current on recent research and both Lloyd and I trust his judegment.
This new heart data helps make sense of the past 1 1/2 years or so, where I’ve noticed more exhertion, sometimes heavier breathing, and more fatigue on many (but not all) runs to get the same or less performance results. The last two marathons (Boston in April 2006, and Twin Cities this past October) have been unusually challenging. I finished, but not strong, and really struggled the last half or so. Sometimes I wonder if something happened to my heart as a result of the severe hyponatremia after the October 2005 Chicago Marathon. My cardiologist seems to think there may be a relationship, due to all the extra fluid that was in my body/blood during that experiece, because it would have increased the amount of right-t0-left shunting going on, to the point where it may have somehow altered the pfo. Who knows. Looking back, my running log shows that Chicago 2005 was a turning point for how I’ve felt while running. I’ve struggled more since then, which makes me wonder. Of course, there is always aging to factor in as well.
So here’s the deal. Dr. is not recommending surgery to patch this hole at this time. We are going to watch it over time and hope that nothing more changes. HE SAYS I CAN STILL RUN, but that I need to listen to my body. When I feel more short of breath, or the type of fatigue that isn’t “normal running fatigue”, I need to slow. He told me that keeping my heart rate below 160 (this means anywhere from 8:15-9:00 pace for me, depending upon other factors) would be a good idea, and that interval training would not. He said to be careful with tempo work and once again, to listen to my body. When I told him I still wanted to run the Flying Pig Marathon in Cinncinati on May 6th with Kristin (who will be doing her very first marathon…..Yea, Kristin!!!) he said to take it easy if I run it, and to let him know how it goes, but that he would have to chart “running such a distance at my own risk”. Based upon all the things he said though, both Lloyd and I feel assured that it is within good judgment to still run this marathon and to probably call it my last. When completed, I’ll be able to say I did a dozen marathons. 26.2 x 12. Maybe I’ll get a tatoo:)
Meanwhile, I’m planning to keep running the same weekly mileage, and to keep training for Cinncinati, but drop pace back abit and do no further interval training. I’ll probably do some tempo work though, cuz I’ll just really WANT to. I had been seriously toying with doing the HyVee Triathlon here in Des Moines this June, and had even started learning how to swim (a HUGE step for me), but have decided to watch The TRI instead. Nick and Jess, we will be cheering you on!! Maybe I will still do a triathlon someday (probably a sprint TRI) but for now, I want to get my head around this new way of running and re-arrangement of future goals. Sorry, Jess, I’m gonna have to let our Pike’s Peak Marathon goal go. Dr. was pretty adament about scratching that one because of the altitude, and I pretty much knew he was right. When you do it, I will be watching you:)
Looking forward to running again tomorrow AM:)
Posted by vicki
Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 3:29pm
