Week 2, Day 4. Do Not Panic!

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I like to do a long (well it's long for me!) run on a Sunday.  Having discussed it with Bryan, we agreed that I could do that and either leave out the gym session or do it on another day, as doing the 2 on the same day may be a bit too much.  Yesterday was such a day.

We spent a leisurely Saturday night reading the papers and listening to the radio before turning in at about 10:30 (life in the fast lane, eh!).  My wife is fighting off the sniffles and I wasn't feeling 100% myself and as I was waiting to clean my teeth I was aware that I could really feel my heart pounding in my neck and behind my eyes.  My neck was feeling a bit achy, which I'd put down to keeping my head straight whilst doing situps, and I was getting chest pains every now and again.  Out of curiosity, I took my pulse, worked it out, took it again a few more times just to make sure I'd got it right.  They were all about the same - 44 BPM.  Bloody hell, I thought, I'm not that fit.

I've just taken my pulse a few times whilst I'm sitting here doing this, and it averages out around the 58 BPM mark.  When I was in the midst of my marathon training, all those years ago, my resting heart rate was about 48 BPM, which was pretty good, so you can imagine I was a little concerned on Saturday night.

I didn't sleep very well that night, needless to say, and when the alarm went off on Sunday morning very little had changed except that now I was feeling dizzy and had tingling in my hands and feet.  Basically I felt rough, so I powered up the pooter to google (I think that's a verb now?) my symptoms and see if I should phone an ambulance, the doctor or an undertaker.  15 minutes of rummaging around various websites provided, I believe, both diagnosis and cure (I can almost hear any medical professionals reading this, groaning with exaspiration).  What, I believe, I had suffered was an anxiety or panic attack.  My belief was further reinforced by the fact that my conclusions seemed to alleviate the symptoms.

I have to confess that I've been more than a little worried about the length of my current rest period between contracts and as the majority of my recent professional experience has been in the financial sector, I can't say that the future looks particularly rosey either.  Still, I shouldn't let it get to me so much that it effects my health and it was in that state of mind that I decided to lace up me Asics and head for the Taff Trail with me sniffling missus and a liberal dollop of Vaseline round me nethers.

The run itself was much the same as last Sunday's, apart from being a wee bit longer.  I was more tired than the previous week's effort but I think I can put that down to the events of the night before.

All in all, I was happy with the 8.25 miles in 1:18:04, and I was exceeding glad that I'd done it.  There's nothing like a spot of physical exertion to lift the spirits.

I'm also becoming a fan of the hot shower, cold shower routine.  I'm convinced that it's preventing the muscle ache I would normally feel 2 days after a hard work-out.

Anyone know where I can get hold of some birch twigs?