Building a Base

The good news is that my ear is healing up. The bad news is that it's not going to be all that pretty when the bandages come off. The other good news is that most people don't really spend a lot of time assessing the smoothness and aesthetic quality of the skin or your upper ear, so I'll still probably be allowed to roam the streets without an elephant man bag over my head.

Still, it's been a pain dealing with the bandages, and a literal pain to do the required scrubbing of the area every day. On a scale of 1 to 10, it's probably only a 3...but I'm a wimp, and don't want to deal with even the most minimal of discomforts. Despite my fragility, though, I have somehow managed to keep the area clean and covered...and the healing process continues.

On the day of the surgery, the doctor offered to write a prescription for antibiotics to prevent infection. I said I didn't really want to use any, unless he absolutely thought it necessary, and he didn't push the point. So I went the first week without taking any pills. At the first checkup, everything looked good and there were no signs of infection, but the doctor seemed puzzled that I wasn't on any drugs. This time, he said I really ought to consider taking some preventive antibiotics, and he wrote me a prescription.

I couldn't read his handwriting, of course. There's some sort of shorthand chicken-scratch code that's taught to physicians and pharmacy students so that the little slips of paper the doc hands you remain inscrutable to the normal human eyeball. But the typed label on the bottle I picked up at King Soopers said "antibiotic" and "two pills for seven days", which seemed about right. As soon as I got home, I popped the first pill into my mouth. Then I started reading the little flyer that came with the medicine.

Turns out the guy prescribed something known as a fluoroquinolone, which carries all sorts of dire warnings about side effects. Normally, I don't worry too much about such warnings; they usually caution about upset stomachs, tiredness, or headache problems that only happen to couch potatoes. I have a solid gut and generally get adequate sleep, etc, and my swimming fitness usually gives me confidence that I'll be one of the folks who has no problems. But this stuff came with an entire page of tiny print text warning of the high risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture -- especially for people over 60, or people who exercise. Well, I'm not 60 yet, but am closing in on it...and my tendons are already under suspicion as accessories in my body's horrible crimes against running form. This warning scared me badly, especially knowing that I had already taken the pill and was scheduled for an 8-mile run on Saturday morning.

Why would the doctor prescribe something this dangerous to a guy who comes pretty close to the designated disaster demographic? Especially when the healing process seems to be proceeding without a hitch? Is he getting a kickback? Does he just hate me because I'm such a smart and handsome swim coach, and he's a mere physician? Or is this part of the Obamacare conspiracy to cripple all the true patriots so that the Muslims can walk in and take over when all the athletes are hobbling around on crutches?

I dunno. But I can tell you that I'm not taking any more of those pills (unless my ear starts to turn red and hot and swollen.)

The good news is that all my runner friends seem to be telling me that I need to do more "base building", which means that I should run slower and try to gradually increase the distance. "Don't worry about your pace," they said, "just concentrate on being smooth and holding your form." Another way of saying that (at least in the way I'm interpreting it) is "It's OK to be a lazy loafer." As a coach, I expect high performance and extreme effort from the athletes all the time...but in my own training, well, goofing off is standard procedure. So, I figured I'd still do my 8-mile run, but would slow down, pay close attention to any warning signs from tendon areas, and see if I couldn't implement the advice I had received.

Long story short: I have now run pretty decent distances (for me, anyway) several days in a row. I ran 9 on Saturday and more than 5 on Sunday. Both training runs felt OK, and there were no detectable adverse effects from the medicine. I was slow...OK, molasses in January slow, but there will be plenty of days for tempo work later in the season. My goal is to run around 20 miles this week, and then slowly ramp it up from there until I have achieved this mythical "base" my studly friends keep talking about. Of course, I hope to be back in the water for swimming sometime toward the end of the week, too...but I don't intend to let that keep me from continuing to hoof out the miles. The dangerous antibiotics should be out of my system by now, so I should be OK to keep it up, right?

We'll see. I should get my ear stitches out on Wednesday, and may even receive permission to get in the pool again. Wish me luck, and have a great day!