Gout: a lingering ailment caused by genes & years of neglect

I was riding high through last Saturday (4/16).  I was feeling great.  My running was going well.  Through that Saturday I completed 12 miles and was going to do another 4 on Sunday.  When I woke up on Sunday, however, my right ankle was hurting too much for me to run.

Now it's Tuesday evening and my ankle still hurts.  It's not a sprain or a strain.  It's gout.  Damn.

Gout is a form of arthritis.  My father and my brother both suffer from it.  I have it too, but it's been over a year since my last gout attack and I was sure that with the significant weight loss and better/healthier eating habits, this particular ailment was a thing of the past.

Apparently not.

I can tell from the pain that it's gout.  First, it's in the same ankle it's always attacked (for 13 + years my gout has always acted up in my right ankle).  It's a hot, burning, achy feeling in the joint area.  It does not feel like a sprain or a strain.

This really sucks.  I'm going out to DC this weekend to meet friends and to run in an 8K.  I've got a half marathon in less than a month and I'm way behind my training schedule for that race.  I needed to be able to do a long run of 8 miles this week at least a few days before Saturday.  That doesn't look like it's going to happen now.

It's my fault.  First, I neglected my health for so long (even in my youth when I was working out a lot, there were plenty of excesses in my diet) that some of the damage to my body was bound to be irreversible.  Second, even now, I've been derelict in staying well hydrated and well rested and I'm eating way too much red meat.  These are all contributing factors to gout attacks.

I've been reminded.  This gout attack, although mild relative to some of the attacks I've had (I literally had to be on crutches in the past when I had gout attacks), has startled me back to reality.  I'm going to tighten up my regimen further.  That tighter regimen will include more chicken and fish and a lot less red meat.  I'm going to drink more water.  The sleep/rest issue will be the one area that is going to be hard.  I can't get everything I am responsible for doing each day completed and still get 7 or 8 hours of sleep.

The pain today is less than yesterday.  Maybe by tomorrow night I'll be able to head out for a short run and then on Thursday I can try for 8 miles.  I hope so...

"Racing" season has begun - Shamrock Shuffle 8K this morning

"Racing" season begins today.  I saying "racing" because what I do is not really racing.  I participate.

Anyhow, today is the first race of 2011 for me.  This morning I'll be running in the Shamrock Shuffle 8K in downtown Chicago.  There are supposed to be 30,000 runners.  That's the main reason I signed up for this run.  I wanted to experience a big race.

My goal for today is very easy: finish without running in 60 minutes or less.  That's totally doable.  I can run 5 miles in 60 minutes.  I've done it this year in training.  If there is a challenge today it will be maintaining a good pace.  I may start slower because of the crowds and I may prematurely speed up and try to run too fast because of the faster runners in the crowd.

I'm taking my ipod but I'm going to keep it off for the first 1/2 to 1 mile.  I'll turn it on a bit later.  I will posts my reactions and some pics shortly after the race!

Now it's time to get ready and then it's off to the race (sort of)!