Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Health screening

Today was our annual health screening at work. I'm glad to say I have a clean bill of health. With all the running I do, I pretty much expect to be basically healthy, but of course you never know. This isn't a full physical exam, but it covers the basics like blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol, etc. They also do a flexibility test and measure your body fat, blood sugar, and triglycerides. My flexibility improved a lot, and I'm now within the normal range (last year I was too low). I guess the extra attention to stretching is paying off. Everything else was low or in the normal ranges last year, and I think I improved slightly on pretty much everything. So that's a relief.

I did pay a little extra to get a hemoglobin and hematocrit test done, and the results of those will be mailed to me in a week or two. It doesn't test the actual iron count, but I can compare the results to the numbers from this past summer and see how things look. I expect I will stay on a multi-vitamin regardless, but if anything looks low, I'll probably go in to see a doctor again to see if I need to go back on iron.

Whew! The hardest thing about this screening every year is that I have to fast for 12 hours before the screening. This meant that I had to stop eating at 8:30 last night up until about 9-9:30 this morning, when the screening was over. It's not really a big deal, but I was pretty hungry by the time I finally got to eat. The other thing is, you're not supposed to engage in any vigorous exercise for 24 hours before the screening. Here is how they describe it in the questionnaire: "in vigorous exercises, like running, you feel winded; it is hard, but you are good to keep going" and "in moderate exercise, like walking, there is some exertion, but you can comfortably hold a conversation." Hmm...so vigorous actually sounds like a tempo run and moderate sounds like an easy run. I ran three miles recovery yesterday, so there. I took my heart rate right afterwards and it was about 130 and within a minute was down to 80, so I think that's pretty moderate.

Today things get back to normal. I am continuing Pfitz Week 2 with a medium-long run of 10 miles at easy pace, and possibly weights after. Then I will refuel with a nice big salmon dinner! :)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only time I get the activity restriction is when I get a PET scan. Supposedly, even tapping your foot while waiting for one can cause a false positive!

I hate fasting. I do very poorly with fasting and usually end up with a severe headache and ready to pass out. I especially hate when they put the test at say 10:00 or 11:00, something like that ... Then I am really dizzy and feel terrible!

jen said...

Cool- glad to hear you got a good health screening result! I should get in for a physical... I haven't had my cholestorol checked in a while and I'd be interested in knowing body fat %. Good for you keeping up on this stuff. :)

I'm on Pfitz Week 2 also, but you must be on 18 week program and I'm on 12. You're hard core! :D

DawnB said...

Mir good luck with following the P plan.

DawnB said...

Mir good luck with following the P plan.

Nitmos said...

I'm always uneasy going into a health screening even though I usually feel completely healthy. After all, what if they tell me that giant knot sticking out of my forehead is, in fact, a problem?