Pain is back

I went out this morning and played soccer. It's something I like to do, play soccer on Sunday mornings with my brothers, cousins, uncles, etc. Usually we get a good game of 4-on-4 or something.

Being as it was cold this morning, I got a t-shirt to wear underneath a jersey I like to play in and tossed a sweater over that. Once at the field, I took the sweater off and played in my jersey with t-shirt underneath.

Now, perhaps it wouldn't have been a problem had we not been able to score. We played up to 10 with a break after one team gets to five. The first half, though, took 57 minutes to complete as our marksmanship was anything but precise.

Midway through the second half, I started to feel the pain again, the all-too-familiar but not-quite-pleasant pain. It came on kind of strong too. First, my right nipple hurt and then it was both of them flaring up. When I first felt them, I believe the score was somewhere around 7-5 with us losing. I tried to push through the pain but it just got worse. I finally stripped myself of the jersey and played with just the t-shirt, thinking that one less layer would equate to less friction.

Big mistake. It actually increased the friction on my now-protruding and flared nipples. I tried to hold my shirt away from my body while I ran but had little luck. By the end of the super-extra-long game, I was in utter pain.

I didn't expect to run that much and I wasn't thinking properly in the first place anyway. I was only concerned about the cold in the morning. I paid the price though. On my drive home, I took off my t-shirt but the stupid seat belt kept scraping against my nipples. More pain. I tried to hold it away from my body but it was no use. By the time I got close to my house, I'd taken the seat belt off. I put on some hydrocortisone when I got home but so far it's not really done much to take the pain away. I'm just airing them out, seeing if that helps.

Definitely one of my new year's resolutions will be to have and keep nipple cream handy. I want to try that cream combination that was recommended to me but without a running program I've not had the time or need to go and get all the supplies for it. Now, though, I will make it a point to get it. That and stop wearing t-shirts when I run or do any physical activity whatsoever. My poor nipples can't handle it.

On the positive side, I ran and ran and ran and ran... here are the stats: for the first half, I averaged 162 heart rate with a max of 184 and burned 879 calories over 57 minutes. The second half, I had averaged 163 with a max of 185 and burned just under 800 calories in roughly 45 mnutes when I stopped the monitor because we'd scored what I thought was the game-winning goal. I had another 8 minutes with an average HR of 163, max of 179 and burned 115 calories. Also, we lost the game but I did have an awesome pass that led to a goal.