[Thank you for all the great ideas I have received – not to speak of the well wishes – after my last post]

Not that I was trying to scale dizzying heights with my running prowess… simply wanted to understand the pattern of my onset of dizziness. If you have read the last related post, you will grasp the context.

Next morning, when the temperatures were in mid 60s, I went for another run. The idea was to complete 3 miles if I could. And carefully notice the pattern of events if and when the dizziness set in.

The run felt beautiful. Had my wicking hat but no sunglasses on. Cooler temperatures and the wind was fairly nice. Carefully chose a path where I could stay in the shade for most of the time.

Almost on the mark of one mile, I got dizzy. Much milder in intensity but I could feel the clear instability. Went thru the check list quickly. Heart rate at the time, one minute reduction in bpm and all that. Everything was within good limits.

Next thing was to do some quick sit ups and turns of the neck. Did not get any dizziness. Stand up on leg for half a minute. No issues.

Started the run again. This time, the goal was to see if could power myself thru or would the dizziness get worse if I did not stop.

Got a major clue during the next bout – which came after another three fourths of a mile. Felt mild dizziness. But powered thru. Separated the legs a little more to give more stability but kept running. The dizziness went away after about what seemed like a minute or less.

Now, I admit I was running with a little bit of fear – fully focussed on how I was feeling. I kind of felt that at a very very low level, I was still a little unstable – but that might just have been the fear.

There was another pattern I discovered – I would feel more unstable going downhill than uphill. The one logical reason would be my brain was not processing fast enough to realize that when stopping downhill, my foot would find the ground a bit later. In that gap of expecting landing and actual landing, brain was getting scared. Uphill was not a problem. Because I was landing a bit earlier than expected. Now, this is only a theory.

So, it is either true my brain is having hiccups – could be hypoglycemia as some have suggested or lack of electrolytes. This would mean the heat simply got to me. Which reminds me, I have been walking the dog in the heat every day too (the evening walks are cooler) since Sharmila is attending a wedding in Dallas.

Or that BPPV thing. It fits the pattern of gentle sense of instability – but only when I am standing. Never feel it when I am sitting down or lying down. Got Brandt-Daroff exercises literature from my doctor friend in India.

I am going to start getting more electrolytes in my drinks as suggested by a few more of you and insisted upon by my wife.

And observe what is my body trying to tell me the whole day.

Question for all of you: What do you do to listen to your body – which is almost always sending you enough feedback?

Also, on a side note, feel free to communicate to me directly about your concerns about my health. My poor wife, who is already very worried about my health gets really worried when you ask her about my health. I guess she feels guilty she is not taking care of me. In reality, she is doing everything she can. It is I who have decided that I would rather die sooner but fully understand what I died of than die later but never understand what was this body that I had was all about. That is a personal choice (messed up as it might be)

Again, none of this takes away my gratitude to you all. I take your reach out and comments as markers that I have made some real friends in life who care enough. I even get dizzy realizing therefore how blessed I am 🙂

Hopefully, you will continue with me in this curious journey.

Last time this happened to me, the paramedics from the fire engine building had come over to help me.

I started my run a little late today – slightly after 11am. I was thinking of putting in 3 miles. Started a Youtube video on my airpods – Bertrand Russell’s original paradox of Set Theory and headed out merrily. It was a bit warm but the trail was mostly shaded.

Around the three quarter mile point, I suddenly felt very dizzy. Instinctively, I pulled my feet apart to not lose balance. After, what seemed like eternity – but, in reality it could not have been more than 3 seconds since I must have taken no more than 5 steps further, I realized that it was not a passing thing. I often get dizzy for a second when I get up suddenly or sometimes during a run if I lift my head up very quickly. This was not one of them.

At that point, I took all evasive actions to not fall down and if I did fall down, not on my back. Bent forward as I tried to walk out of the trail and then lowered myself down on all fours. I stayed that way for about a few minutes. Spotting a bench nearby, I slowly walked up there while keeping a low profile.

Got up after a few more minutes. First thought was to walk back. But I realized that if I did so, I would not know why it was happening. Coming from programming background, I had to recreate the problem to understand what was going on. So, decided to continue with the run and stay in the popular parts of the trail such that if I needed help somebody would be nearby. Also, decided to abort and go back if the problem came back soon.

All the time, I started isolating the variables in my mind. It was 80 degrees. Not that hot. My heartbeat was at 158bpm. For somebody 56 years old, that is well within the exhaustion limits. I had a lot of water the whole morning. I had only a fruit and two cups of tea like every morning but I was not feeling that hungry. Besides, I had the problem within 7-8 minutes of running. I was not feeling hungry or thirsty. But of course I did not know my sugar level.

At about the 2 mile marker, I felt it again. It seemed like I was getting dizzy. Without thinking twice, I sat down in the shade immediately and ran thru the few checks I was prepared for. Heartbeat was still under 160. And it dropped by 25 within the first minute. So, all was seemingly good on the heart front. Vo2 max was at 33.6 which is above average.

Now my worries went to whether this might be something bigger going on inside my body. Including internal bleeding. I could not see any discoloration of skin anywhere that I could visually inspect. Of course, years of hospice volunteering started scaring me about Parkinson’s and worse.

Convinced that I need to separate out more likely variables before jumping to bigger conclusions, I tried the systematic approach again. I noticed that when I took the hat off, it was dripping. My scalp was very warm. Well, my scalp felt the palms were very cold. This is a new hat. Maybe they were not wicking hats? That would heat up my head quickly.

Started the next segment of the run without the hat on. This time, I turned around and commenced towards the starting point. It was a miserable run. Without the hat, the sweat was dripping all over my face and eyes. And lo and behold! I had another attack. It was milder. But sure, I felt dizzy.

Did the next round of tests. Stood one one foot for 30 seconds with either foot. No issues. This is one of the tests my doctor had done when I had an attack of BPPV three years back. This rules out any major underlying neurological issues.

One more bout of run to the starting point.

Then I had another idea : Could it be my sunglasses? Well, it is a polarized clip on that I use on top of my prescription glasses. And this is a new one. Those polarized glasses (prescription or clip on) messes up peripheral vision for most people and for people like me, it can cause issues like dizziness.

In a bit of sheer lunacy, I went for yet another mile – no sunglass, no hat. The whole mile felt good. But there was this mild sense of not everything was alright. I was afraid to make quick shifts of the neck. Just kept looking straight ahead and ran. Not sure whether it was just fear or a real feeling of instability at that point of time.

Unless there is something major going on with my body, I suspect I either had a mild heatstroke OR my old BPPV problem has come back. (It is fairly benign and will go away with time). I will not know till I go out and run again tomorrow early in the morning in cooler temperatures.

Meanwhile, tonight I am going to load up on carbs!!