Y'all, I know that hitting your head is a serious thing, and the brain is a mystery, more sensitive than emo Mary Jane over here, but man, I'm losing my patience.
Like many cars made in the 80s and owned by young people, I get that I haven't always had the best maintenance strategy, and even after major repairs, old habits die hard. The mentality that "everything should be ship shape" now means it's easy to let those bad habits of not stretching and gunning the engine and maybe doing some off roading when you really shouldn't slip right back in.
And then when there's a hit to the engine, but it's still running fine, I thought, I'm young, I can recover from this easily. The service people don't make a huge deal out of it (perhaps they thought I was not so young and much wiser than I really am - after all, I was made in the 80s) and I just wanted to jump back to the usual miles, because damnit, I sat in the garage for so long just a short 18 months ago.
Sometimes I forget that surgery did not make me a shiny, new model. I suddenly did not become a 2015 model - I'm still the 1983 model and even though I have relatively low mileage, the parts aren't that new and work on them doesn't make them 100%. Mary Jane, at her best, will likely only be 85-90%. Regular maintenance is still necessary, and engine work takes time, so again, I have to exercise one of the things I feel like I don't naturally have a lot of - patience.
Last week, I tried again to get back into the routine of things. Strength training, rest, run with some hill repeats, foam rolling, mobility/yoga, lawn mowing and another run. I felt okay. The run with hill repeats was just plain stupid. It was wicked hot last week, and the day I wanted to run it was thundering and lightening in the morning, so I thought, well, I'll just run right around lunchtime before it gets crazy hot.
Not the best idea. I know better. I just really wanted to run. The hill repeats felt fine (just 4x20-30 sec hard runs up a hill), but I had to take so many walk breaks on the way back. And, now that I think about it, running in the heat + concussion = big impact. I was tired the next few days. Like, really, tired. And then that exacerbated other symptoms, like irritability and loss of concentration.
I really don't want to go back into the garage. I had big plans for this fall's 10K - lots of running, speedwork and being a boss. But getting there requires a good base, one that I am not confident I'll be able to get to now. I read that mild concussions can take up to three months to fully recover from, and that's probably when people take a lot of rest right away. So, that's frustrating, although it's my own fault.
For now, I'm keeping the running to 2-3 days/week, with one day of strength, and lots of mobility and meditation in between.
I'm so bored.
Oh, and my vehicle? The 1983 Subaru DL 1800 Station Wagon. Practical, can haul a lot of stuff, but has a turbo and 4WD, so don't think it's a pushover by any stretch. And, it's pretty comfortable in nature and getting muddy while out for a drive. Sometimes, it thinks it's young, but there are a few rust spots here and there that definitely show it's not in it's 20s any more.
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