Saturday, April 13, 2013

What your Coach Never Told You about Running!

Sometimes as we progress through life we experience issues that can scare the bejeebers out of us. One of these happened while running last week. First off - What a wonderful run! 9:30 pace for a 10K, and No knee pain! I was a happy runner! At least until I went home.

Must SEE a DOCTOR! SEE a DOCTOR Right NOW! 


This is all well and good but when I got home I experienced something I had never experienced before and it scared me silly - Blood in the urine! Yes, it is very, VERY disconcerting when the toilet bowl is RED, not a pink, but a bright deep angry red. Did I mention being scared?

I waited for my wife to get home and consulted her. She thought my assessment was quite valid and apropos. She went with me to the doc's office.

Doctors are not omniscient, and doing some research on your own can help ease the tension of a mind running through all sorts of dreadful diagnosis Since blood in the urine is determined by exclusion - ruling out what might cause it - Doctors are careful to make sure it is NOT the worst things ( bladder, prostate, or kidney cancers) or something easy to diagnose, like an infection. If all the blood tests come back negative, then an ultrasound will be scheduled. That's where I'm at now - no sign of infection. No signs of prostate issues. So they are going to look at the bladder itself. I'm thinking they are not going to find anything. Three days out and I am back to normal but I will go through the ultrasound just to dot the 'i's and cross the 't's  

Running on an empty stomach - good. Running on an empty bladder? Not so much!

Raise your hand if you go to the bathroom and empty your bladder before running. We all do. Who wants to run when you got to go? It appears that a study was performed by a british Naval surgeon named Blacklock. Cpt Blacklock was wanting to know why some of the cadets were having this malady. Using a cytoscope, he saw that the bladders of the men were all bruised and bleeding. This was caused by running on an empty bladder. the issue does not present itself on a half filled bladder. 

So how does this help us? I will still empty my bladder before running, or else I won't be able to run as far - We are not talking about 50yd dashes, we are talking miles and miles. I am hoping that this does not happen often - this was the first time for me and hopefully the last. But not to worry If it happens again, I now have the knowledge not to freak out. And if you read this, hopefully you will too!