Well, if a paddling trip through the Grand Canyon didn't finish me off physically, the crafts fair last weekend sure did. My entire body was achy and sore by the time I brought all my tools and equipment home from the event on Sunday evening.
In the days since then I have felt like doing little besides lying around. The aches and pains have been quite a variety: a sore right biceps muscle, which I strained somehow while swinging an axe last Friday; soreness in my lower back; a stabbing pain in the vicinity of my left hip flexor whenever I move a certain way; and a very general exhaustion of all my trunk muscles and even my internal organs.
Maybe the weirdest thing is an ugly rash of hives across the right side of my torso. It sort of looks like poison ivy, but I can't recall coming into contact with any of those three-leaved plants recently. I also haven't taken any new medications, and I can't think of any foods I've eaten that I might have an allergic reaction to. Very strange. I first noticed it last Saturday evening, and in the last couple of days I think it's gotten worse, not better. And the skin in my torso area seems more sensitive than usual, even where the rash isn't... kind of a tingling sensation.
Meanwhile, my weight has been down below where I think it should be. At least anecdotally, I seem to feel at my strongest and most energetic when I weigh close to 160 pounds; but for most of the last year I've been in the low 150s, and just before I left for the Grand Canyon I dipped below 150. Since getting back home, I have continued to weigh in below 150, with my low point being 146.
The explanation for my weight loss, and what it might mean, is something I don't really know. I've tried changing my eating habits a little--incorporating more protein, for instance--but I never could tell if that was making any lasting difference. In recent years I've been lifting weights less, largely because of the nerve-impingement issues in my upper spine, so maybe decreased muscle mass has something to do with it.
In any case, these days I'm feeling about as "down" physically as a person can feel. I feel borderline sick, actually--my throat has been sore for a couple of days. But I don't seem to be running a fever, and once I get up and around each morning my energy level seems okay.
The good thing is that a thorough rest is already what I have planned for the next several weeks. I'll be here at home for the next four months; my next big event is a return to the western cape of South Africa for some downwind paddling in late January. Certainly, I'll need to be trained up for that, but I've got time. I hope to have a new fitness program underway by late October or early November.
Right now I'm just trying to keep myself moving to some minimum degree. I went down to the river and paddled both Tuesday and today. I've actually felt surprisingly good in the boat once I've warmed up, though today I limited myself to just an easy 40 minutes because I'm getting more and more concerned about this rash and whatever maladies I've got in me.
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