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Two Runs and Reasons for Concern… Later Confirmed…

I’ll again start the post by mentioning a day with no visits recorded, March 2, and then move on to last Wednesday, when I woke up when the alarm rang, at 2 PM, after my brain spent most of that morning making me aware of some science fiction story it had apparently been working on, since those dreams just continued if I was waking up and then getting back to sleep. I’m not falling for that again, considering how it turned out the first time, but just thought I’d mention it before saying that I then had the usual stuff, the yogurt being another one of those “creamy” ones with 10% fat, and counting the raisins in white chocolate also added in it as the sweet thing, put on the full running gear, with an undershirt underneath and some things in the pocket of my tights, plus the jacket for the walk, and left at 4:05 PM, when the reported temperature was 13-14°C, supposed to drop by a couple of degrees by the time I’ll finish.
The time was 48:46.97, with sector times of 4:12.15, 5:13.84, 6:07 (6:06.04), 4:36.13, 5:08.30, 5:59.35, 4:37 (4:36.24), 5:01.16, 5:59.66 and 1:54.10, making for lap times of 15:32.03, 15:43.78 and 15:37.06. I started with a little less preparation than I wanted, since as I was getting ready, after removing my mask, I spotted two police officers a few steps away and one of them looked my way, so while my clothing should have made it clear that I was about to start running and therefore could have my mask off, I didn’t want to give them a chance to say something and just started immediately, and probably faster than I should have, which actually made that otherwise pretty good sector one time not as good as I expected. And then the next sector made it quite clear that staying under 48:30 was an unlikely target, unlikely becoming impossible at the end of the lap. So until the end of sector two of lap two I even thought I’ll have to just aim to stay under 50 minutes, but that sector and the next were good enough to let me think first of 49:30 and then 49 minutes, sector two of lap three making that pretty certain and sector three only confirming it… As sad as it again is to struggle so hard for times that are a minute or more worse than regular ones were a year ago.
There were a fair number of people, and on top of weaving and going the long way around, on sector two of lap one’s long straight I had to briefly stop when a kid on a bicycle decided to start moving again and go towards me just after I had picked which way to go around him, and then had to slow when a roadblock formed right ahead of me a bit later. On the next sector a kid on roller skates went around behind another and ended up right in front of me on her way back, so I again had to briefly stop and avoid her, and on sector three of lap two a crowd gathered in front of a stall forced me to go off the path and around two benches, albeit partially cutting a turn. There was another spot, possibly on sector two of lap two, when I really had to weave from one side to the other and pick my way through what almost was a multiple roadblock, and two girls coming down right on the middle forced me to go the long way around as I was going up the stairs on the final sector, which tired me even more and I rather walked up the last steps… And then I felt a loose shoelace on the final straight, so while I obviously didn’t stop to deal with it, I tried to adjust my running to reduce the risk of tripping… And at the end I saw that both were loose, maybe because I hadn’t tightened them before starting. Otherwise, there was some wind as well, mainly on sector one, and my back kept bothering me for the first half of the run or so, the pain radiating to my upper abdomen and chest. It did get better after that, but it’s been rather messed up after the previous week’s run and carrying as much as I did the following day, and it’s clearly getting worse as time passes.

I had a look in that Carrefour again after the run, initially meaning to look at another glass baking tray, seeing that it was too deep, seeming more like a glass pot, and ending up getting more of that cat food for Rocky, and I guess now also Micky. But last week’s main shopping trip was Friday, when I got up a bit after 12:30 PM and left a bit before 2:30 PM. With the first target being Penny, for cabbage, after quickly checking the Mega Image on the way I went there… And just left again, not liking the cabbage they had, so the first purchases were from the Mega Image that’s sort of across the road from that Kaufland, deciding to just have a look and seeing a sale on some yogurt and quail eggs that were again discounted due to expiring soon. I was a bad customer, however, since I dropped one of the yogurts when I closed the door to the fridge and it broke, but since nobody seemed to have seen me I just got another. Did “fine” myself by counting the eggs as having been purchased from “my” money, which I don’t normally do when it comes to eggs, but that was for the waste caused, since that yogurt was going to get thrown away, obviously not for causing a tiny loss to a corporation, which I’d normally consider to be something positive, albeit not so much when done in such a manner.
What I only noticed when I got to Kaufland was that the yogurt had splashed on my pants in quite a few places, so I did my best to wash it off in the bathroom, then went in and looked for the bread that was on sale. Seeing none, I meant to ask, but the employee was busy, and while she chatted for a bit after someone else who clearly knew her got her attention to ask for gloves, when I tried to cut in to ask whether they’ll make more that day I was just ignored. So I wandered around for a while and then tried again, and when she said she didn’t know I left and had a quick look through that Carrefour as well, then went to the Kaufland from Obor, using a route I had prepared, with pictures saved on my phone, but hadn’t used until then.
Since I was mainly going there for bread, went to the bathroom to wash my hands first, then went straight to the bakery area and started picking the bread with my hands to put it in the bag, which made an employee tell me to use gloves. I was only touching those I was getting, which I pointed out to her, and also said I had just washed, but she asked how I’d react if I’d see her place the bread on the shelf without gloves while saying she had just washed, and why do they even bring gloves if they’re not used. Well, as the situation from the other location also proved, they hardly ever have gloves available, so I hadn’t even looked, and my hands at that point were way cleaner than some gloves they quite clearly don’t replace after each thing they do, and even more clearly cleaner than the shelf itself, but I wandered away with the two I had gotten until then, returning a bit later for the third, and then also getting a lettuce. There was quite a long wait at the self-checkout and I couldn’t exactly afford that lost time, so I did my best to hurry back, though I also happened to notice cheaper lettuce in one place as I passed through that farmers’ market.
Couldn’t get back by 6 PM, as planned, but I was here just a little bit later… And the evening seemed to prove that it was my day to get dairy products all over myself, since I made mamaliga again and when I opened a bottle of kefir left by dad upside down, to pour what he had left in it, it rather exploded all over me. At least it taught me how to deal with those, so it didn’t happen again the next time, when I did that with more of them, but that evening it took me a while to clean up. And I finally got in bed at 5:20 AM again.

Monday the alarm was set to ring at 2 PM, but I woke up around 1:30 PM or so and at first decided to not even check the time, waiting for it to ring and maybe catching another little nap if that won’t happen right away, but I rather needed to pee, so after a little while I did check the time, seeing 1:40 PM, and decided to get up. Then I had the usual stuff, the yogurt again being one of those “creamy” ones with 10% fat, for the first time in a long time with nothing else added except the cereals, while for the sweet thing I finally finished another pack of those expired nicer biscuits, with added honey. Also drank most of the tea, wore the full running gear, with an undershirt under the t-shirt, plus the jacket for the walk, tied around my waist as I ran, and left at 4 PM, when the reported temperature was about 12°C, supposed to drop by a couple of degrees by the time I’ll finish.
The time was 1:19:16, with sector times of 4:13, 5:15, 6:00, 4:33, 5:08, 6:00, 4:36, 5:13, 6:05, 4:43, 5:19, 6:10, 4:44, 5:20 and 5:57, making for lap times of 15:28, 15:41, 15:54, 16:12 and 16:01. Just aimed to stay under 1:20, being worried that I’ll yet again fail even that, but wondered whether I’ll at least manage a first lap on the pace needed for 1:18, so in 15:36, and when I just managed to even stay under 15:30 I tried to maintain that pace on average over the first two laps, which I rather surprised myself by also managing. The next goal was to stay under 16 minutes on the third lap, and after I managed that as well I briefly wondered whether I could aim for 1:19. That would have meant averaging less than 16 minutes on the next two laps as well, which seemed impossible, and sector one of lap four clearly proved that, so there was a moment on sector two of lap four when I was rather disheartened, but then I recovered and kept pushing to try to at least stay under 1:19:30, which I eventually managed by quite some margin, thanks to a final sector that ended up being the fastest sector three. Another runner that I saw ahead of me on the last straight might have motivated me to gain a second or two there at the end, but I’d have likely still had the fastest sector three even without him, or at least one that wasn’t slower than those on the first two laps.
In terms of problems, there were plenty of people again, but other than making me weave and go the long way around, they didn’t cause serious issues, only needing to just take a step on the grass once and maybe slow a little as I squeezed through a couple more times. Other than that, it was somewhat windy, and there were places where I was pushing against it. Physically, however, I felt just fine, my right knee and left hip only giving me some faint warnings at the start of lap five, and there were moments on lap four and early on lap five when I also felt a bit of pressure from some potential excess weight, but even all of that went away again as I kept pushing and ended up in a bit of a runner’s high on sectors two and three of lap five.

One reason for concern, on top of my back, was that I had felt a bit strange last Tuesday evening. The rest of it seemed caused by what I had eaten, but I also sneezed once, and then my nose was quite irritated again after the following day’s run, I sneezed quite a number of times and even had a bit of crap to spit out at night. All of that improved significantly the next day, but in the evening I started feeling a bit strange again, and dad had already started coughing a lot, so I was starting to put two and two together even though he completely dismissed the possibility and kept finding excuses. Admittedly, I was fine again after I ate last Thursday night, and when I took my temperature before that I saw 36.8°C, which is rather high for me but obviously not a fever, but Saturday night it was after eating when I started feeling strange, having a pretty serious headache and sort of feeling unwell in general. I hadn’t quite recovered by the first time I woke up, and while when I eventually got up I was just fine again, it was one more sign that something wasn’t right.
Now, anyone reading this can quite certainly figure out where this is going, but the situation is still developing, and in my case I’m yet to have any actual information, so I’m going to leave the rest of it for another post, also in order to manage to post this by midnight and leave myself all the weekend to decide what the second post will be… Or to try to just throw something here tomorrow in order to make sure I’ll have two posts this week and I can move that scheduled one that is always set to be published at 11:59 PM on Sunday unless I reschedule it first. That said, there is a quite real risk of having that show up, for a number of reasons…

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