How, High Are You?

No, not that kind of high.

I suspect that my thyroid levels are now high.

There have been quite a few suspicious symptoms in the past couple days.  I've been hot a lot.  Really hot.  "Turn on the air in the car when it's 65 degrees out" hot.   (Or as the Hubster says, I'm "all the hotness."  Thanks, honey!).  I've had a lot of trouble getting to sleep, even though I'm tired.  I'm getting my heart arrhythmia a lot lately (fortunately not when I'm skating, though).  A couple of times I've felt shaky and lousy for a couple of hours.  Hot, shaky, and heart arrhythmias are all symptoms of hyperthyroidism. (Although the arrhythmia can also be exacerbated by hypothyroidism, as it was for me right before I was diagnosed 2 years ago).

And then there was yesterday.

Yesterday I went for a skate at our favorite 10K trail with my sister Energizer Bunny and her friend Cop Lady.  Since I've signed myself up for the North Shore Inline Marathon, which happens in three weeks, I figure I'd better do some distance skating.  So I did three laps of the trail, with no draft because I couldn't keep up with the other two.  My lap times were not spectacular, and yet my average heart rate was 185.  That's average, not max.  In the past, laps at a similar or slightly faster pace have produced an average HR of 155.  Then, after the skate, I felt really lousy and my HR didn't drop below 90 for over three hours.  Finally, when I went to bed I got my heart arrhythmia--runs of PVC's, one randomly every 1-10 beats--for the better part of three hours.  Not exactly conducive to getting to sleep!  And when I woke up, I took my pulse (morning HR is a good way to monitor for overtraining), and I was still having so many PVC's that my HR was 46.  Usual is 56 or so for me; PVC's cause a pause in the pulse, which makes the overall count-per-minute lower if you get lots of them.  Which probably explains why I skate really slow when I get lots of them.

So, yesterday was fun.  And then today's workout was another .5 on the 1-10 scale.  A planned 6x3K on the oval turned into 2x3K when the lap times (which should have been no more than 50 seconds on a really bad day) approached one minute.

So it's time to check the ol' thyroid levels.  It's been almost a month since my last dosage change so I'm due for a blood test again very soon anyway, but I decided I'd like to know sooner rather than later if I'm heading in the hyper direction.  So I went in today and had blood drawn, and I'm not going to be surprised if the levels are a bit high this time.  And high levels make you feel just as crappy as low levels do. So I'm guessing we've got some more dosage fine tuning to do.

On the plus side, when the nurse was taping the cotton ball over the needle-poke site on my arm, she commented that I'm a "good little clotter."  So there is something positive to report.

PVC's and Other Random Stuff

So, here's a collection of random bits of information that don't, by themselves, demand a full blog post.

• PVC's.  I finally was able to connect with my Mayo Clinic cardiologist on the phone.  After hearing the new, more thorough description I was able to give of the heart arrhythmia I experience during exercise--because I'm now getting it fairly regularly when not exercising, so I'm much better able to describe what I'm feeling and what my pulse is doing--he's confident that the arrhythmia is, indeed, PVC's.  Or maybe PAC's, which he described as "even more benign." Between my description and what he saw on my 48-hour Holter monitor (EKG) and stress EKG (even though neither actually caught the arrhythmia in question), he's sure that the arrhythmia is not dangerous, and the only reason I'd need further evaluation is if it got bothersome enough that I wanted to treat it to get rid of the symptoms.  "Getting rid of the symptoms" would be cool (especially the "I skate really slow when this is happening," but also the "it's hard to get to sleep at night when this is happening" symptom), but the three treatment options are not without issues.  The first, a medication class called beta blockers, is out--beta blockers limit your maximum heart rate.  I was on them for two days when I first got medicated for my old (since-fixed-by-ablation) arrhythmia; when my resting HR was 36 and my max with exercise was 135, I suggested we try something else.  Clearly, skating on beta blockers would suck. The next treatment option, anti-arrhythmic drugs, is not appealing because PVC's are not dangerous, but anti-arhythmics can be; they can actually cause arrhythmias (sometimes fatal ones).  The third option, another ablation, may or may not be possible, depending on the profile of the PVC's.  My previous ablation was successful, but was for an arrhythmia (AVNRT) that is very common and is typically easily ablated. PVC's are apparently a bit trickier.  So, bottom line on the heart stuff:  happily, it's not dangerous and needs no further intervention unless it gets to a point where it bothers me enough that I want to do something about it.  Unhappily, this means that I'm pretty much stuck with it for the foreseeable future, unless it decides to vanish as mysteriously as it came.  A girl can hope, right?
• I signed up for the North Shore Inline Marathon.  I am in no way ready to skate this thing as an actual race, but it should be fun to do it in a "let's see how much I can enjoy this" sort of way.  Except I probably won't be enjoying the "getting up at 4 am to drive to Duluth" aspect.  Still, I think that will work better for me than trying to get to Duluth on Friday after work.  I've done that in the past and it wasn't pretty.
• I also signed up for the Salt Lake City Master's Camp that I did last November.  It was a blast, and I'm looking forward to doing it again...except that I've since realized that the "epic fail" 3K I did in the camp was the first time I had the above-mentioned heart arrhythmia--and then, of course, once the arrhythmia showed up it didn't go away.  In fact, most of my "epic fail" races have come in Salt Lake.  Maybe the altitude doesn't agree with me.   I do fine in Calgary, though, and in my first two visits to SLC, in January of 2006 and December of 2007, I did very well. So who knows.
• Workouts have been going pretty well the past few days.  I'm feeling fine, energy-wise, and still don't have a need to "time" my thyroid meds relative to my workouts, which is good.  But I'm still slower than I was last year, and with a higher heartrate--which I believe translates to "you're out of shape."
• Workshop week for school starts next Tuesday.  I've been doing stuff to get ready for the beginning of the school year, but I'm kidding myself if I think I'm ready to start getting up at 5:40 am every weekday again.
• I'll close with a happy thought.  I can't remember if I posted this before, but I love the live 24-7 webcam at the oval.  Any time the weather is iffy, I can do a quick check and see if the oval is wet.  It's the little things in life that make us happy...

Can I Get a Woo Hoo?

Actually, if you were anywhere near the Twin Cities yesterday morning around 11:30, you might have heard my "woo hoo."  Yes, that's right--I had a good workout, a 10 on the 1-10 scale; I think it was the first workout over a "5" since the season started.

My sister Energizer Bunny and her friend Cop Lady wanted to do a long trail skate at one of our favorite parks yesterday, in preparation for the upcoming North Shore Inline Marathon.  I'm toying with the idea of doing the race, so I figured it might be wise to do a faster trail skate (most of my off-oval skates are "recovery" skates, so slow paced) to see whether a marathon in 4 weeks would be prudent.

EB and Cop Lady were planning a 100-minute skate, which would likely be 4 laps of the hilly 10K trail.  I figured that if I could keep up with them for one of the laps--drafting all the way, of course--I'd be happy.

And...I did it.  I skated the lap faster than I have in the past 5 or 6 years, and it felt good.  Hard, but good--I never had the urge to say "I just can't keep this up," I never struggled to stay in their draft, I never came close to getting dropped (OK, they're both older than I am--both over 50, in fact--but those chicks are in shape.  Nothing like a couple of fit, lean, muscular 50-plus ladies to make this 48-year-old feel slow and squishy!).

Anyway, it was a blast.  I think it was the first real "skating hard and loving it" moment of the spring/summer season, and I enjoyed every minute of it (23 minutes and 35 seconds of it, to be exact).  When we completed the first loop, though, I yelled to the other two that I was dropping off for a slower lap--the first one was a blast, but I wasn't dumb enough to think that I had two of those in me!  So I skated a second lap on my own, at a nice "recovery pace" of 29 minutes, reveling in the delight of a good skate and enjoying the new songs on my iPod.  In fact, I was so happy with the way the skate had gone that I was practically dancing down the trail.  Except I don't dance, and with my coordination, attempting to boogie on skates would have been flirting with disaster.  Still, I defy anyone to skate with Maroon 5's "One More Night" blasting in their ears and not put at least a little extra bob into each stride...

So it was a fantastic day, and clearly a "just right" on the thyroid med scale.

I think that deserves a "Woo Hoo."

(And now, I'm going to go and sign up for the North Shore Inline Marathon!)

Goldilocks and the T3

Okay, I'm not blonde, and to make the allusion more clear the title should really read "...and the Three T's," but whatever.  It's the best I can do.  What I'm trying to say is that adjusting my thyroid meds has lately had me feeling a bit like Goldilocks...this one is too little, this one is too much.

I'm anxiously awaiting the "just right."

I'm on week three (I think) of my second increased dosage of Synthroid, which is a synthetic version of the thyroid hormone T4.  I also take Cytomel, which is synthetic version of T3. I usually take the T3 four times a day, but have always had to take 2 doses together 3-5 hours before a workout in order to feel normal.  (The stuff is prescribed to be taken once a day, but most people find that it's better if they split the dose into 2, 3, or even 4 smaller doses).  When my thyroid levels were low early this summer, I found I had to take 3 of the T3 doses before a workout to feel anything even approaching normal.  Well, clearly my levels are up quite a bit now, because the "3 doses before a workout" turned out to be disastrous on Thursday.

I knew before I started skating that 3 was too much; I was feeling hot and a bit shaky, feelings I recognized from when I first started taking the T3 two years ago.  These are the feelings, by the way, that lead most people to split their doses.  Anyway, I felt lousy during the whole workout, and was abysmally slow.  (And thus, for anyone thinking that perhaps thyroid hormone is a "performance enhancing substance," let me make it clear that it is not.  Too much is just as bad as too little).  And then I continued to feel lousy at my Improv class immediately after the workout.  (A little shout out, here, to my fellow middle-aged-skater-blogger Sharon.  Unlike me, Sharon has a greater purpose in her blog, beyond just relaying skating stories.  She encourages people to take risks, to push their envelope of comfort.  So, taking a leaf out of Sharon's book, when I had an impulse to sign up for a class in Improv comedy--I did. And it's been a blast. So thanks for the push, Sharon!)

So Friday,  I tried just one dose of T3 before I skated.  I've NEVER felt normal skating on only one dose, which is weird in itself; I've never heard of anyone else who has to time their thyroid meds in order to have normal athletic performance.  I suspect that maybe this means that my levels have been sub-optimal all along.  At any rate, I did just fine on the one dose yesterday (although it's painfully apparent that I have skipped many workouts this summer, and done many others at a sluggish pace.  I am out of shape!).  I can do another blood test in a week or so, to see how things look, and then my doctor will modify from there.

In the meantime, I'm still pondering whether to do the North Shore Inline Marathon, and I just got word of the this-year's-version of the Salt Lake City Master's Camp, which I'd love to attend.  So I'm really anxious to get the thyroid stuff "just right," and to get back into serious training!

Progress

I've had some little bits of encouraging progress in the skating department lately: a 40-second lap; a heart rate of 203 during some maximum-effort stuff; consistently being able to skate hard enough to get out of breath and feel pukey; and having no workouts, in the past 10 days or so, that feature that special "dead hypo legs" feeling.  Plus, I'm feeling hot at random times lately, which is (hopefully) a sign that the thyroid levels are getting to where they should be.

So, between feeling like I might be starting to skate normally now and feeling guilty for wimping out on the Minnesota Half Marathon last weekend, I'm currently toying with the idea of doing the North Shore Inline Marathon this year.  I've done it seven times or so, but not since 2006--when I got really serious with my long track skating I decided to skip the September North Shore event, because I didn't want to mess up my training schedule or my body that close to the ice season.  Plus, a mid-September race can be a bit stressful for me logistically, since it's shortly after school starts up again and I'm usually a little stressball at that time of year.

This year, though, I'm kind of making it up as I go along in the workout department, and I've been focusing on technique more than specific workouts this summer (thanks, hypothyroid).  So there's really nothing to "mess up," workout-plan-wise, and I could probably use a bit more endurance work, anyway.  The race start time has moved from buttcrack-of-dawn to 10:30, so I could actually drive up to the race in the morning rather than having to stay in Duluth the night before, which makes things logistically easier (and cheaper).  And I have somewhat of a love affair with Lake Superior, so getting to skate down the shore is pretty cool.

I have no illusions about how I'd do in the race; in fact, I plan to skate it like I did in 2005.  That was the year I was sick for 6 weeks in early summer, and then had a tachycardia-with-exercise problem for the rest of the summer (probably triggered by the virus).  I couldn't skate hard at all that summer (I think I did a total of 10 laps at 45 seconds throughout the whole summer; everything else was recovery-pace because I just couldn't go any faster).  I was already signed up for the North Shore when the tachycardia started, though, so I decided to just go ahead and do it but do it in a relaxed, enjoy-the-scenery mode (my cardiologist was fine with this, and in fact I was scheduled for an ablation procedure to fix my other arrhythmia 10 days after the race). So I did a casual, relaxed race, and really enjoyed it, and actually got a decent time.  

So that would be my plan this year, as well.  Skate a relaxed, fun race, and just enjoy the experience.  My sister Energizer Bunny is doing the race as well, and we'll be starting in the same wave, but I have no illusions about being able to keep up with her.  Still, it will be fun to have her there, even if I can't skate with her.

So now I just have to sign up for the race.  Oh, yeah...and start skating a few trail miles in my new skates with the 100 mm setup.  Probably not a good idea to race 26.2 miles in them when the farthest I've skated in them is 6 miles...

Race Report--2012 St. Paul Half Marathon

It turns out that inline half-marathons are actually quite easy, and seem to take no time or effort at all.

When you sleep through them, that is.

Yeah, I wussed out on the race.  I got up at 2:45 to take my thyroid meds (to ensure maximized timing for the 7:35 race start), and logged onto the computer for a quick peek at the weather radar.  It wasn't raining at the time but more rain was clearly coming, so I still didn't know what decision to make.  So I went back to bed, and got up again when my alarm went off at 5:00.  Another radar check revealed the same thing (but with different impending rain):  not raining, rain coming.  I weighed all my options, decided I really wasn't up for driving all the way to St Paul, messing around in the (possible) rain before and after the race, and wrecking a set of bearings--and perhaps a body part or two, if I succumbed to slippery pavement and crashed.  Plus, I had a party at a friends house, also on the east end of town, that started at 11:00, so I'd have to pack everything for both the party and the race.  I know, should have packed the night before, but I didn't want to go to the trouble of packing all the race stuff if I wasn't going to race.

It all just seemed like so much work.  Sigh.

So I decided to skip it.  I called sister Energizer Bunny--her husband Sherpa Boy answered; he was obviously being pressed into chauffeur-and-schlepper service again--and reported my defection.  EB decided to go ahead as planned.

So I went back to bed.  I woke up at 8:15 and thought "wow, the race is almost over.  That was fast."

So really, inline races are easy.

As it turns out, it didn't rain and EB had a great race--fifth in her extremely-competitive age class (50-59--those ladies threw down some impressive times!).  My friend Mel also had a great race--second woman overall.  She apparently ran into EB either before or after the race and, being unable to remember her actual name, had to refer to her as "Energizer Bunny."  Excellent!

How It's Going

I'm finally back from "Ten days of family reunion, family workweek, almost no workouts, and lots of fun" at the cabin, and I think it's time for a thyroid-and-whatnot update.  After 30 days on my increased Synthroid dose, I had bloodwork done again on Tuesday.  I also talked to my doc; we're now on the same page about medicating me to where I feel normal, not just to where labs are barely in range.  So that's a good thing.  We also discussed my heart arrhythmia.  I'm better able to describe the symptoms because the arrhythmia happens sometimes when I'm not skating now--it's a lot easier to determine what you're feeling when you're not trying to skate as hard as you can, with a heart rate of 200+--and with my better description, Doc says it's likely PVC's or PAC's and not to worry about it.  Yesterday, though, my Mayo cardiologist finally returned my call (from a couple weeks ago)--I was gone when he called, but I'd still like to get his opinion before I decide once and for all that, as far as the arrhythmia is concerned, I can pretty much ignore it and pretend it's not happening.  Except for the part about it making me slow.  Hard to ignore that.

I got my lab results back yesterday, and one of my thyroid hormones is still pretty low--in range, but just barely.  I was pretty sure that this was the case, because I'm still skating like a slug.  Fortunately I seem to be doing better in the general-fatigue department, though, and am no longer staggering to my room immediately after a workout and flopping on the bed for a two-hour nap.  Also, the Hubster is undoubtedly appreciating my (as far as I can tell, anyway) emergence from the hypothyroid-induced "Depressed and Bitchy" phase.  Can't say I'm sorry to see that one go, either!  So anyway, I've got a prescription for another raise in dosage, and directions to re-do the bloodwork in another 30 days.  And so it goes.

I realized, while doing an abbreviated interval workout on the oval this morning, that I've got to modify my workouts (when writing them) to the point where I can successfully complete them; this is critical for both my physical and mental well-being.  In the past, I'd just planned to do the workout that I did at this time last year, and then cut if short if when I got too tired.  Trouble was, this led to either doing more than I should, or being bummed that I couldn't do the whole workout if I ended up cutting it short.  Either way, this caused detrimental side-effects.  If I push too hard physically I get really tired and have a hard time recovering for the next workout; and if I set the bar too high physically and then cut the workout short, it makes it that much harder to maintain the "I can do this" mental attitude--which is already taking a significant hit due to the aforementioned "Depressed and Bitchy" phase.  So, since I'm currently--due to Coach TieGuy's continued ultra-busy life and schedule--planning my own workouts, I'm going to try hard to do a better job of setting up workouts that are realistic for the current state of fitness and thyroid function, and then feeling a sense of accomplishment when I complete them as written.

On that note (or maybe in spite of that note), I may be doing a half-marathon tomorrow morning.  My sister  Energizer Bunny and I want to do the Minnesota Half Marathon again, as we did last year.  The weather forecast looks iffy, though (60% chance of rain), and neither of us wants to skate a race in the rain.  The race is only about 30 minutes from both of our houses, so we have the luxury of not needing to make the decision until the last minute.  So we're waiting until tomorrow morning--if it's not raining we'll sign up and race; if it's raining, we get to go back to bed.  So there may be a race report soon.  Or maybe not.