Shit, crap, rubbish sodding run.
I really hate running sometimes. I really hate how it puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the day if it doesn't go according to plan. I'm such a grump right now, I could punch someone.
Not even going to detail what I did today as it was so pointless.
Last night I had the medical screening at the gym. Here are the basic results although I'll get a full report in a weeks time which will hopefully include some interpretations.
My blood pressure was 128 over 69. The benchmark is 130 over 85 so it's still fine, but when I had it done a week before the marathon it was 102 over 76. Also, my pulse was 71 and it was 52 last time. Maybe that's because I was at the peak of all the marathon training at that point.
My bone density was -1.4 which was slightly below average. (Anything between -1.0 and -2.5 is considered below average; below -2.5 is pretty much a diagnosis of osteoporosis according to the notes she gave me). I was a bit disappointed with this but she said it was essentially fine, although I should concentrate on doing more high impact exercise (MORE!?) and more strength and resistance work to get it up above -1.0.
My blood/cholesterol tests seem to be ok, but again I'm not really sure what to compare them to. They're all measured in millimoles (eh?) per litre.
Triglycerides (fatty acids) were 0.94 - healthy range is anything below 3.5.
HDL (good cholesterol) was 2.06 - healthy range 1.2 and above
LDL (bad cholesterol was 2.0 - healthy range below 4.0
Glucose was 4.96 - healthy range between 4.0 and 8.0
TC (Total cholesterol) was 4.5 - healthy range less than 5.2
TC/HDL Ratio was 2.2 - healthy range less than 4.5
This all lead to a cardio attack risk in the next ten years score of 0.0% - healthy range less than 5% for someone under 45 yrs. Seems strange that they can give you a score of zero. Surely there's always some risk, no matter how tiny?
The final test was a spirometer reading, which is a test for lung capacity. I had to blow into a tube as forcefully as possible and then continue to blow out for as long as I could. Before I did this, she entered all my info into a computer, height, age, etc, and the computer draws a line on a graph which is its predicted result for someone with the same criteria. Then you blow into the thing and your actual line is supposed to more or less match the predicted line. Graph looks a bit like this:
Anyway, I did the test, which I found quite difficult. I did it three times in all. At the end she said 'wow, that's the best I've seen all week!' and I was feeling quite pleased with myself, but turns out she spoke way too soon. Although my FEV1 score (what you can blow out in 1 second) was much higher than the predicted line, the other part, how long you can keep blowing for, was terrible. Much, much less than predicted. The final score for the test overall is given to you as a 'lung age', ie ideally my lung age should've been the same as my actual age. Before the test, I was initially feeling quite smug, thinking it might come out around 28 or 29 or something, but when all the results from all three tests were computed it came out at 57!! My lungs are equal to those of a 57 year old woman! I was totally shocked, and so was she, and she ran it through again but it came out the same. I'm really confused about this but I'm not going to worry about it unduly until I get the final report and see what it says. However, I did do a bit of research on the internet last night, which I know is usually a bad idea when it comes to all things medical, but I just wanted to understand it a bit better. What I found was loads of information about giving up smoking with info such as this from a quitting smoking advice website: 'most very heavy smokers (30+ per day) find that after taking a spirometer test their lung age is often 10 - 15 years older than their actual age and this information is often enough to make them kick the habit'. GREAT!!! 10 - 15 years older for someone smoking 30 fags a day. Mine is 23 years older! I feel quite gutted about this, but will wait and see what the report says.
Anyway, it was all very interesting, and I'd like to have it done again in six months or a year to see if it changes at all.
So pissed off about my run today. Wish I'd just gone down the beach and done the Sport Relief mile instead.
I really hate running sometimes. I really hate how it puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the day if it doesn't go according to plan. I'm such a grump right now, I could punch someone.
Not even going to detail what I did today as it was so pointless.
Last night I had the medical screening at the gym. Here are the basic results although I'll get a full report in a weeks time which will hopefully include some interpretations.
My blood pressure was 128 over 69. The benchmark is 130 over 85 so it's still fine, but when I had it done a week before the marathon it was 102 over 76. Also, my pulse was 71 and it was 52 last time. Maybe that's because I was at the peak of all the marathon training at that point.
My bone density was -1.4 which was slightly below average. (Anything between -1.0 and -2.5 is considered below average; below -2.5 is pretty much a diagnosis of osteoporosis according to the notes she gave me). I was a bit disappointed with this but she said it was essentially fine, although I should concentrate on doing more high impact exercise (MORE!?) and more strength and resistance work to get it up above -1.0.
My blood/cholesterol tests seem to be ok, but again I'm not really sure what to compare them to. They're all measured in millimoles (eh?) per litre.
Triglycerides (fatty acids) were 0.94 - healthy range is anything below 3.5.
HDL (good cholesterol) was 2.06 - healthy range 1.2 and above
LDL (bad cholesterol was 2.0 - healthy range below 4.0
Glucose was 4.96 - healthy range between 4.0 and 8.0
TC (Total cholesterol) was 4.5 - healthy range less than 5.2
TC/HDL Ratio was 2.2 - healthy range less than 4.5
This all lead to a cardio attack risk in the next ten years score of 0.0% - healthy range less than 5% for someone under 45 yrs. Seems strange that they can give you a score of zero. Surely there's always some risk, no matter how tiny?
The final test was a spirometer reading, which is a test for lung capacity. I had to blow into a tube as forcefully as possible and then continue to blow out for as long as I could. Before I did this, she entered all my info into a computer, height, age, etc, and the computer draws a line on a graph which is its predicted result for someone with the same criteria. Then you blow into the thing and your actual line is supposed to more or less match the predicted line. Graph looks a bit like this:
Anyway, I did the test, which I found quite difficult. I did it three times in all. At the end she said 'wow, that's the best I've seen all week!' and I was feeling quite pleased with myself, but turns out she spoke way too soon. Although my FEV1 score (what you can blow out in 1 second) was much higher than the predicted line, the other part, how long you can keep blowing for, was terrible. Much, much less than predicted. The final score for the test overall is given to you as a 'lung age', ie ideally my lung age should've been the same as my actual age. Before the test, I was initially feeling quite smug, thinking it might come out around 28 or 29 or something, but when all the results from all three tests were computed it came out at 57!! My lungs are equal to those of a 57 year old woman! I was totally shocked, and so was she, and she ran it through again but it came out the same. I'm really confused about this but I'm not going to worry about it unduly until I get the final report and see what it says. However, I did do a bit of research on the internet last night, which I know is usually a bad idea when it comes to all things medical, but I just wanted to understand it a bit better. What I found was loads of information about giving up smoking with info such as this from a quitting smoking advice website: 'most very heavy smokers (30+ per day) find that after taking a spirometer test their lung age is often 10 - 15 years older than their actual age and this information is often enough to make them kick the habit'. GREAT!!! 10 - 15 years older for someone smoking 30 fags a day. Mine is 23 years older! I feel quite gutted about this, but will wait and see what the report says.
Anyway, it was all very interesting, and I'd like to have it done again in six months or a year to see if it changes at all.
So pissed off about my run today. Wish I'd just gone down the beach and done the Sport Relief mile instead.
posted by Rab at 8:37 AM
1 Comments:
Ah... cheers! Yes. A little self-indulgent whinge to let off steam there I'm afraid. Feel a bit better now!
Not too worried about the tests at this stage. Bit bizarre, but will wait for the full report before I start running to the Doc!
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