Marathon Training Week 12 Recap: WTF is Wrong with Me?

12 by Jalil Arfaoui from Flickr (Creative Commons License)
12 by Jalil Arfaoui from Flickr (Creative Commons License)

My training had a major setback this week. My chest has been killing me since last weekend. At first I thought it was just costochondritis, which I’ve dealt with off and on for years. The pain was bad on Sunday night and it extended into my neck, head, shoulders, ribs, and arms. I started having night sweats over the weekend too. And I mean sweating – I had to change my shirt two hours after I feel asleep because my shirt was soaked from the neck seam to the waist seam.

Monday: Holy shit my chest hurts. It hurts to take a deep breath, laugh, bend over, and sit up straight. I called my doctor as soon as the office opened and got a same-day appointment. They ran an EKG, which was normal (yay). My doctor listened to my chest and referred me to get a chest x-ray and to see a cardiologist. My doctor recommended that I walk instead of run my miles this week. (I suspect he’d prefer I not work out at all.)

Tuesday: My chest and head still hurt but it’s not as bad as yesterday. The idea of walking this week’s miles make me cringe. I run partially because I don’t have the patience to walk. I walked my 4.5 miles this afternoon. My foot hurt a bit and my chest and ribs hurt a bit. I kept myself entertained by listening to multiple episodes of The #AskGaryVee Show.

I got my chest x-ray results: normal. I’m glad the news was good but it’s annoying not knowing what’s wrong with me.

This is my night shirt after a night of night sweats. I took this photo 6 hours after I took this shirt off and it was still drenched!
This is my night shirt after a night of night sweats. I took this photo 6 hours after I took this shirt off and it was still drenched!

Wednesday: My chest and head still hurt but the chest pain is continuing to improve. Walking is boring and I don’t like how much time it takes up. It took 2:10 to walk 8 miles today. I entertained myself by listening to the Dr. Drew Podcast and Evo at 11.

Thursday: I had to get my car serviced and pick up mail from my office. When I realized they were 2.7 miles apart, I opted to do 5.4 miles instead of the 5 miles I was assigned to do. Yay for killing 2 birds with one stone. Boo for the fact it was raining. I wore my raincoat from when I lived in Oregon but that didn’t prevent my jeans from being completely soaked by the end.

Here’s something that’s weird. When I run, my left leg and my right hip hurt. When I walk, my right leg and my left hip hurt.

Friday:  Rest Day.

Saturday:  My plan for the weekend was to skip cross training and walk the 12 miles I was scheduled to run on Sunday. That didn’t happen. I was pretty run down on Saturday and by Saturday afternoon, I was feeling weak and warm. It turned out I was running a fever. I slept from 5pm on Saturday evening until 6am on Sunday morning, waking up twice to change my sweat-soaked shirt.

Sunday:  I may be a masochist, but I’m not an idiot. My temperature was back down to normal by 7am, but I was still weak from the previous day. Plus something in my liver/lower lung area was hurting. I opted for a mellow day and did housework instead of walking for 3 hours.

I’ll see my cardiologist on Monday morning. Hopefully we’ll get some answers and I’ll be back pounding pavement soon. Being sick sucks.

Weekly Totals:
Running:  0 miles
Walking:  17.9 miles
Push-ups:  0 push-ups

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