Ella Eastin is a badass

My view this morning.  My toes got cold.
I eventually put slippers on.

Earlier this year, when I was watching the lead-up to the USA Swimming National Team selection meet, I knew of some of the backstory that was occurring with one of the team's rising stars, Ella Eastin.  I don't know Ella Eastin personally, and I first heard her name when we she was disqualified at nationals for what was technically an illegal turn in the 400IM due to what's known as "The Lochte Rule".  She had raced fast enough to qualify for World Championships, but the DQ would take her out of what would have been her spot on the World Championship team. Among swimmers, the rule is one of the most debatable messes ever.  In short, during the freestyle leg of an individual medley race, swimmers must be on their front after pushing off the wall, which runs contrary to how freestyle turns are executed in every other race in swimming.  She wasn't the only swimmer disqualified at this meet for exactly that reason, but she was certainly the highest placing one.



Fast forward to this year.  Ella Eastin was diagnosed with mono prior to the summer nationals, which serves as the selection meet for Pan Pacs, and then in combination with the results from Pan Pacs, for World Championships next year.  I had mono when I was in college and I swam when I was in college.  I did not, however, swim during the semester that I had mono and I feel like the idea of dragging your ass to the pool to preserve your chance to be on the national team for the next two years must have been ridiculously hard. Ella Eastin raced in the 200 fly at nationals, in prelims, and then did not swim the final, and then raced the 200 IM in both prelims and finals and placed 3rd, which was high enough to get her on the Pan Pac team.  I can imagine that she made the decision not to swim the 400 IM because of how grueling that race is, and what mono does to your endurance.

At Pan Pacs, she was the highest placing female US swimmer in the 200 IM, but the time she went was slower than the two women at US Nationals who were first and second at that meet.  Based on the qualification rules, they will compete at World Championships next year and not Ella Eastin.  If I had to guess, once Ella Eastin is fully recovered, she will dominate the scene in her events in swimming.  For now, it's a bittersweet story.  But watch for her in 2020.

I never imagined that while I was watching this unfold over the course of the summer that I would be sitting here writing this blog entry, specifically from this perspective. I know what mono felt like some 20+ years ago, and I wasn't anywhere near that level of swimming.  I slept 14 hours a day--I went to class, not always, and wound up dragging my ass through the semester.  It was one of the only semesters I did not pull down a 4.0 GPA--in fact, that semester and the final semester of my senior year were the only times I did not get all A's.  Mono beats the crap out of you--performing as high as she did on the international scene speaks to her grit and determination.

Until yesterday, I had thought that you get mono, you recover from it, and you're done.  I'd vaguely heard of Epstein-Barr virus, and didn't understand what its relationship is to mono.  And yesterday, my doctor called me and told me that I have what's commonly referred to as a recurrence of mono, or more specifically, reactivated Epstein-Barr virus. The tests that were run on me indicated that I clearly previously had it, and am currently in an acute reactivated phase of it.

Denial is powerful.  V8 does not cure Epstein-Barr.

Prior to my colonoscopy last week, I felt tired and run-down.  I wasn't having the greatest of workouts.  I bailed out of the half marathon I was running at the 4 and a half mile mark.  In all likelihood, this hit me sometime before then, but it would take the colonoscopy to point out to me exactly how much I had been knocked on my ass.  I told myself (and I told my doctor and I told my triathlon coach) that I was sure this was just dehydration and an electrolytic imbalance that was the result of the colonoscopy prep.  I decided I was going to fix myself with V8.  And I tried, and it basically didn't do jack.  I'm sure my doctor knew--doctors always know, and I'm sure he just let me believe it, because drinking a few extra V8's is highly unlikely to cause any sort of long term damage, and is probably beneficial from the standpoint of keeping your body balanced while fighting Epstein-Barr back in to remission.

So, what's up next?  Sleeping.  And resting.  And not working out.  I'll go for a walk.  As for long course nationals in 3 weeks?  A race that is 3 hours and some change right now is probably exactly what I would need to extend this mess and cause a further relapse of Epstein-Barr.  While I think I wouldn't have a problem placing in the top 18 of my age group and getting on the team for age group worlds next year, let's be real--doing so is not a good plan.  I'm not in the position Ella Eastin is, who is at the height of her swimming career and racing against the best in the world.  My best option is to completely recover from this, and then make a run at it next year.  Age group worlds will be there year after year, unlike the the elite level of any sport, where you've got this very finite number of shots at it, if you are able to compete at that level.

Just because.  Maybe I'll watch Top Gun soon.

As for my medical prognosis--who the fuck knows?  Reactivated Epstein-Barr is rare, and there is precious little on the web about how long it takes to recover from it.  It's probably less than the time to recover from a primary infection, but when that time was several months 20-some-odd years ago in college, what does "less than several months" really mean?  All I really know is what my doctor said, that some people rest for a week, go back to work for one day, and then it's too much for them, and they have to take some more time.  Some people manage to work, but that's all they can do.  It sounds like a real recovery is something like a few weeks of rest.  Time will tell. 

As I've found out in the last day, I have the added complication that I can't take a week off, go back to work for a day, and then have to take more time off because of the rules regarding short term disability.  The first 7 days out of the office for me are currently hitting my vacation time, and after that, disability kicks in.  Going to work for one day resets that 7 day counter.  I'll just have to figure that out in the next day or two.

Anyway--see you on the other side.  And if you have suggestions on shows to binge watch on TV, let me hear them!

Fell apart in Long Beach

I'm staring at the title that I just wrote and realizing that this post could be about any number of things.  It is not about my mental health--that seems to be under control now.

Today, I ran the Long Beach Half Marathon, or at least I made an attempt to run it.  At 4.6 miles, I cashed it in and stopped running and walked to my car.  I started this race pretty conservatively, executing the plan that my coach and I had discussed about how to run this race--it isn't, and never was a major goal race of mine, which puts it in a whole different category of what a success is defined as.  Stopping a third of the way into the race doesn't reach the level of any definition of success, except that I was successful in recognizing that suffering for the next 9 miles was probably going to cause an injury that would be the worst possible outcome of the day.  Well, except dying.  Dying pretty much trumps everything.

My knee started screaming at me, very suddenly, very shortly after I just exchanged some conversation with my friend, Chuck.  I was due to walk up the overpass we'd reached anyway....the plan was to hold something like 9 minute miles and walk up the hills to minimize the chances of post race day recovery that I have very hard times dealing with from a hard running race.  I thought this walk might let my knee loosen up a little bit.  It did not.  The subsequent slow jog downhill was excruciating.  I stopped and stretched, focusing on my IT band and it loosened up for a little bit.  I slowed down the pace to see how long I could make this last, and that turned out to be 3 minutes until it tightened up and screamed at me again.

There was no way I was going to make it through another 9 miles like this.  Luckily, the beginning of this course goes out to the west, and does several passes back near to where it begins--I was not that far from my car.  I walked off the course, got in my car, and drove home.

I had a week that did not treat me well--having gotten a vaccination on Friday that knocked me on my ass more than I expected it to.  "Muscle and joint pain" is listed as a common side effect of this particular one--it might be that.  It might not.  It might just be that it knocked me on my ass, and similar to anything that's like an illness, it might have left my body not functioning quite right for a while.  And running any sort of long distance is consistently the hardest thing I do to my body.  Some people are more biomechanically blessed for running than I am--a hard run of any distance beats the crap out of me.  That's probably why I generally enjoy it.

So, I'm going to get back up on the horse....not today, maybe

tomorrow, or maybe after I get through this colonoscopy this week.  Maybe I need to do more strength work--focusing on that a little more can't possibly be a bad thing as I age.