Yesterday I mentioned that I had taken my blood pressure and it was in stage 2 hypertension (translate: really, really high). I have already played the blame game and now its time to get the blood pressure down and figure out what I need to do going forward. This poses some big problems, primarily, until the blood pressure is in a normal range or the ‘safe zone’, I cannot continue my workouts and endurance training. This might change when I visit the doctor next week, but from previous experience, got to get the pressure down or face serious hospitalization.
Good thing is, this happened right before my recovery week and my much needed geek vacation,DragonCon(more on this in a later post). Bad thing is, I really wanted to try for 3 miles this week in my long run, guess I will have to postpone that till I get back from my vacation and hopefully by then my blood pressure will be back under control. All this really reminds me is that I cannot slack one iota or I will have to miss training to bring levels back in alignment. Its a nice little wake up call, keep on target and everything will be fine, slack off and lose a little diligence and pay the price. Of course right now that price is missing workouts. So, doctor is next week, even though I pretty much know how this is going to go, but better to be safe than sorry.
I plan to still do the open water swim tomorrow. Swimming does not elevate the heart rate too much and the season of good swimming weather is drawing to a close shortly. I will just have to be really careful and not add too much stress. I might even just settle for my smaller primary goal and work on swimming to the first buoy and back several times.
The thing I am still eagerly looking forward to is volunteering for the Olympic triathlon I mentioned earlier. Got my assignment email and looks like I will be manning a water station for the bike and run legs. The largest size shirt they have is a 2x which fits fine around the waist now. I still prefer 3x shirts as a habit of being fat is to never wear anything that is remotely tight, or semi-tight in other words.. baggy is the way to go. While I easily fit a 2x, I still don’t feel super comfortable in that size. The biggest issue I have with a 2x shirt is that thanks to swimming, my already massively broad shoulders and chest (I wear a size 58 suit jacket and my chest with little fat is 49-50 inches) have added some dimension in different areas that make shirts hang funny or hug the chest and upper torso funny. Guess I will have to start practicing my Arnold or Stallone voice!!!
Fun things are afoot while all is not well, keeping my head up and staying possitive… til next time.
Chatter Gets Fit 
Must take care of ourselves to meet goals. Do what you have to do. That’s great that you have a place to swim. Enjoy the volunteering. Hope you decide to blog about the experience. i think it’s an idea worthy of consideration for me this fall.
Yeah, my health problems have come back to haunt me. I will definitely post about the experience.
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I hear you on the shirt delima. I was tht way for a while, especially at races that had tech tshirts, which tend to be tight anyways. Still have a bit of the belly, and swimming makes everything above the belly HUGE. I just have to remember tht I look so much better than I once did, and decide that I don’t really care what people think anyway. Good luck on volunteering for the triathlon, and I hope everything goes well at the doctor. If you get this sorted out before your trip to the ATL, and you need to get a little run in, check out Olympic Park. It’s really close to the convention hotels and it’s an interesting place to run. PS if you are looki or some good/bad food, check out googie burgers in Olympic park. Treat yourself.
I hope you’re able to get your blood pressure in check soon! I’m glad you can keep the swimming in your routine for now – and volunteering for that tri sounds fun too.
[…] into one. My biggest issue, going back into type 2 hypertension dominated the week. As I previously mentioned my blood pressure had skyrocketed when I checked it on Wednesday. Because it was so high I put […]