July 24, 2012

How to Boil a Frog

Frogs are tricky things.  If you try to boil a frog by throwing it into boiling water, it will immediately try to jump out of the pot.  The temperature difference between “normal” and “killing me” is massive.

On the other hand, if you take a frog, put it into tepid water and turn the heat up gradually, it won’t know it’s being cooked.  It adapts to the higher temps until suddenly, it’s boiled from the inside out and voila, you have yourself Boiled Frog.

A client asked the question, “ How do you know when a situation has become untolerable?  What’s the breaking point when you know you have to bail?”

As I mulled over the question the frog metaphor leaped to mind.  In certain respects, people are just like frogs.  When we first start a job we’re tenuous and if most of the variables are okay, we go along because we’re happy to be there.  Gradually the temperature starts to rise and new factors present themselves; we stop being as happy with a co-worker, the boss starts to show his true colors, the CEO resigns and internal infrastructure collapses… anything can happen to turn up the heat.

So how do you know when to get out of the pot?  I don’t know that there’s a pat answer for this, and if there were I wouldn’t trust it.  Everyone has a different boiling point.  We’re different from frogs in that our survival instinct kicks in when we’re truly at risk either physically, emotionally, mentally, etc.  A toxic work place can put us at risk for carrying around so much stress that we can’t function in our daily lives.  We make ourselves sick, withdraw from our spouses, stop enjoying friends, maybe we even turn to drinking or workaholic behaviors to try to drown out the heat of the message.

The client that asked me that poignant question has been considering leaving the company he’s with because he’s being slowly boiled to death.  Numerous conversations with bosses haven’t changed any of the toxic workplace variables that have led to high turnover and burnout.  Unfortunately, he’s going to have to make the hard decision as to what his tolerance level for the heat of the company is, because they won’t be throwing him a lifeline anytime soon.

Filed Under: Coaching Tagged: ,
July 12, 2012

DNS on the Grand Mesa 50-mile

The Grand Mesa 50-mile Trail Race is 16 days away and as of today, I’m pulling out.

A week ago I hoped that I was healthy enough to start pounding the trail and get my fitness level back.  Two consecutive days of running proved that I was still a far cry from healthy and sheer exhaustion kept me close to home and attached to my bed for the next four days.

I finally saw my doctor two days ago, more than two weeks after I got sick.  There were three large items I wanted to discuss.

  1. Bronchitis
  2. Exhaustion due to a) illness or b) high volume of training, either of which might be contributing to a severely compromised immune system
  3. Heart rate spikes that occurred at the Green Mountain Relay and again this past weekend on the trail.

During the first leg of the Relay I ran hard.  It was humid, hot and hilly for those 8 miles.  About 5 miles in, while running up another roller, I realized my heart had been pounding… absolutely pounding… for far too long.  I was starting to get dizzy and queasy.  Slowed down and walked for a few minutes to let the heart rate calm down.  At the top of the hill I picked it up again and finished the run, thoroughly disappointed in my time.  I was shooting for 7:45/mile and finished in 8:10/miles.

Afterwards I drank electrolytes and ate.  I checked my heart rate with an app on my iPhone several times in the next 90 minutes and recorded readings in the upper 90’s.  The tingling finally went away and my stomach calmed down, so I ran the rest of my legs and did a little pacing on the side just for grins.

The doctor listened to my lungs and said they were clear; no walking pneumonia for me.  She mentioned a few reasons why I might be so tired (thyroid, deficiencies) and sent me to the lab for a blood draw.

As well, she was slightly concerned about the heart rate thing.  Upon examination she didn’t hear anything startling other than a slight heart murmur in the upper aorta.  My pulse and blood pressure were great as well; all numbers a runner likes to hear.

She ran an EKG to rule out anything bizarre but referred me to a cardiologist for a more in-depth assessment.  There is a family history of heart problems and based on the spiking during hard efforts this past month, it’s better to get checked than assume nothing’s wrong and let a small symptom turn into something large.

But I’m not pulling out of the 50-miler because of this.

I’m pulling out because the thought of trying to ramp up in two weeks is overwhelming.  My body isn’t in prime condition for this kind of effort and I don’t need to add any more stress to it as I come out of a long illness.

I had an intense training cycle this spring and all signs point to Rest.  Life circumstances and things outside of my control have come together to suggest that it’s time to take a break.  This body needs Rest and Recovery, not a hard push for a race that will take everything I have (and more).

As everyone always says… there will always be another race.  Be smart.  Train well.  Rest when needed.  Live to run another day.

Filed Under: Sick or Injured, Summer 2012, Trails, Training Tagged: , , , ,
July 7, 2012

WET

WATER was the element of choice for the world today.

Wet on the mountain and Wet on me and in me and beneath me and the birds and hummingbirds were in the greenest pocket of the valley you would ever find in a drought-stricken mountain.

Water stuck on everything and every pine needle had a shimmering crystal attached to it.  Sunlight made them look like prisms. The wispy clouds stuck to the rock faces and never moved; water in the sky, on the mountain, on the foliage, dripping sweat from my pores, water bursting out of my skin evaporating in the air, water coming out of the crevices in the rocks and flooding in rivers down the trail, water clinging to all the leaves that smacked my legs as I ran on the single track.

The mountain drank the water in large buckets and bathed in the beauty of droplets and made garlands out of them for decoration.  I gave the mountain sweat and didn’t take anything except images that got burned into my brain.

After an hour of running my heart rate was high again. I was at a fork and didn’t know which way to go because I had fallen too far behind the group so I just stood there not caring which way because eventually either way would dump me out again on the Mesa Trail.  I just didn’t know which way they went.  So I stood there and watched.  Birds.  Butterflies.  Hummingbirds.  Clouds.  The different greens of the trees and bushes.  The changing sunlight.  I just watched.

Then I went down Towhee and missed the turn and ended up on the Homestead Trail and was running down the trail, jumping over rocks, placing feet and jumping and dancing and sailing but not as fast as usual because I didn’t have the energy.  Didn’t have it in me.  So went slower and just breathed in the moist air and felt each foot land on dirt or rock, exactly where I told it to go and suddenly I was free and it was good.  I was free.

Then there was a sign that said Trail Closed for Restoration and I slowed down and stopped and realized that I couldn’t go further so I had to go back.  Had to go back up the hill.  I walked.

The Garmin made a ton of noise today.  I wore the HR strap and apparently my little watch thinks my HR got up to 190, almost 200, several times.  I ignored the beeping for a while because I always run these trail.  RUN the trails.  Not hike them.  And I’ve never worn a HR monitor on them and have never passed out and can fly up AND down.  But then the beeping got too much and I looked at the Garmin and realized I couldn’t breathe really well so I slowed down and that’s why I ended up taking the short cut.  Because I knew I didn’t have it in me to catch them today.  Couldn’t catch them.  Not today.

I’m going to keep trying to run, keep trying to get the goo out of my lungs and stop coughing all the way and get my heart rate back down to normal and get my flying speed back.  If I can’t… I might not race the 50M.  I have to have the energy for it and today I went 6 miles.  Six lousy miles.  Yeah I know the elevation gain was about 2000′.  And I know this was one of the hardest routes we could have done.  But still.  The choice might end up being DO IT and just see what happens… or drop out before I even begin.

You know what I’m going to do, don’t you.

Filed Under: Sick or Injured, Summer 2012, Trails, Training Tagged: , ,
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