Yesterday I went to the doctor. I recently went and there were some concerning high levels of liver enzymes. I got some more tests and went back to get the results. It was a little stressful because I had gone onto the web and read up on that which meant I was sure I was dying.
In the end, I am not. The levels have since gone down. I suspect they were merely elevated initially from the food poisoning I had a month ago. Maybe it takes awhile to go back down.
But these days I am worried about my health. My legs hurt. I still run every day, but it is not as enjoyable. Fortunately I have an appointment to get a massage tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll be better after that. I think the biggest problem is my left heel which has previously had a fat pad bruising. I suspect it has come back. It has caused my gait to change which is probably causing other issues.Someone knowledgeable might tell me to let it rest and recover. Those people are wrong and I will not listen to them.
I also appear to have a pain in my abdomen that I thought was a hernia. My doctor thinks it is just a sore muscle, so I’m hoping the masseuse can also do something about that.

The day I arrived back at work I discovered that there was a “team building” event going on that day. It had been announced while I was gone, so I had no preparation for it. Luckily, I was up for the challenge.
There were two parts to it. The first part was to eat as much pizza as possible. That may not have been an actual event, but I took the opportunity to replenish calories.
The second part, probably the main event, was go-cart racing. I was surprisingly good at it. In the initial round, the goal was to have the fastest time around the track. I did the best in my heat. The final round, after being placed with people of similar skill, I placed third.
The competition was aggressive; at one point I was shoved into the sideboards and I’m pretty sure I got some air there. My bigger problem was that the strap on my helmet wouldn’t stay tight. The helmet stayed on, but the hair hood they made us all wear started to get in my eyes. Adjustments were necessary as I raced around the course. That was probably not safe.
There were no prizes except for honour. But it was a nice way to get back into work.
The next day though, everyone’s back was covered in bruises; the go-cart seats were hard and the corners were rough.

A week ago I returned home from Houston. It was a great trip and I got to see Catalina again. She is going to arrive in Vancouver again on Thursday, so it was a taste of things to come.
We did the usual hotel stay and joined the conference to see our friends. This meant late nights. There was free, low quality, alcohol, and I tried some champagne on the first night, but I couldn’t be bothered after that. I stuck to cans of pop. This was a weekend where I decided not to bother watching my sugar intake, so it was hedonism for me. They also made the mistake of giving me access to a buffet dinner, and I will admit the third trip was probably one more than I needed, but I still had room for desserts.
That said, I still ran every day. Part of me wants to say that was not a good idea, but who am I kidding? I have a pattern I have to maintain. Let me elaborate though.
Since I didn’t want to have to run when I was having fun with Catalina and friends, I decided to run before my flight on Thursday. Since I had to be at that airport at five in the morning, this meant I was out running at 2:45 AM. Stanley Park is a lot more skunky at that hour. It shames me that I have to correct people that I mean there are lots of skunks, not that it smelled of pot. That sort of skunky is more during the day.
In the mornings in Houston I did my runs. There is a lot of pavement in that town, but I found ways to get to the bayous and ran along those. They are murky affairs, surrounded by decaying trees, and they probably have alligators. It was different, but not as scenic as Vancouver. Despite being in the low 20’s there, it is still greener in here.
My biggest problem was that my legs were hurting on every run. I initially blamed the cramped seating on the airplane, but I think the real issue was that my shoes were old. I had run about 600km on them, and I think they had expired. I could keep up my regular pace, even accounting for traffic lights, at the start of the weekend, but by the end, every step hurt too much. When I got back to Vancouver, I stopped using those runners, but my legs still feel bad. There are bad knots in my glutes that are making things my runs slow.
In any case, I was still having a good time in Houston. There was even a pool party at one point, but as usual it was too cold for people. For non-Canadians. I did get to be inside a giant inflatable ball with Catalina that was tossed around the pool; she was obligated to wear a hamster costume. It was not a problem for her.
We ended the weekend at her new place. It a rental she is living in temporarily, so she isn’t trying to make it a home. It was also the most difficult place to run from; it’s a gated community only accessible by a freeway. Still it was a nice place to be with her.