Once A Runner…

Knee Pain

While I set this blog up for myself to track my journey back to running and better general health, I forget sometimes that I’m not as alone in this and related issues as I might feel. I forget that there could be literally thousands of folks out there who’re going through the same thing, or something similar, as I am.

Judging from the search terms used to find this place, there are plenty of people concerned about at least two of the things I’ve posted something about here:

• Burning calories
• Knee ailments

The calorie burn thing I covered in my post How Many Calories AM I Burning?, which linked to a site that explains the whole thing far better than I’m qualified to do.

The knee pain issue is one that affects all of us at one time or another, I suppose. If we’re not searching for help to diagnose, heal, fix, nurse, or rehabilitate knee injuries, we’re looking for how to prevent knee injuries, and there are literally hundreds of places to find help on the web.

Of them all, I find this site: bigkneepain.com seems to be more comprehensive than any other I’ve seen so far. In fact, I’ve decided to put it in my sidebar links, too.

So, now, anyone who lands here because of my stupid post about my having some minor knee aches and pains might also find this post and, through it, I hope it can help them discover something they might find far more useful than me whining about my own problem.

Opening Up the Discussion A Bit

Completely rewriting this post because it just sounded kind of pompous and idiotic the first time around.

I’ve enabled registration for anyone now. I still reserve the right to moderate comments that I find inappropriate, but I’ll try not to be too heavy-handed about it.

I’d like to have the discussions focus on:

• losing weight
• becoming more healthy and physically fit
• the benefits of walking for fitness
• running — both for fitness and for racing
• training
• gear and gadgets that make any of the above easier or more fun
• books about any of the above — fiction and nonfiction

Sometimes, I might rattle on about something else entirely, but I’m going to try to keep this blog centered on these things.

Anyway, the floor’s open to comments.

Sleep Apnea, CPAP Machines & Other Nasty Stuff

Edit: There have been a lot of people landing here while searching the web for info on sleep apnea and CPAP issues. Before anybody gets the mistaken impression that I know half as much as I think I do about the topic, keep in mind the following:

• I’m supposed to be using a CPAP, but was so aggravated by the damned thing that I just up and quit using it
• I did not get a doctor’s permission to cease my treatment
• I do know that I risk certain dangers to my health by not continuing my treatment
• I also know that I can lose all the weight I want, get in the best shape of my life, and return to running again and I could still be at increased risk for heart disease and high blood pressure as a result of my sleep apnea

My decision was based on what I considered right for me, even though I fully recognize the risks I’m taking. I’m very seriously gambling on my belief that my apnea was brought on by my weight gain, sedentary lifestyle, and poor sleep discipline. I’m betting — quite literally with my very life — that I can undo the damage my poor health habits brought on by reversing my long, slow slide into obesity and becoming a full-time couch ornament, through eating healthier, physical conditioning, and keeping more regular hours. It’s a fact that I could lose this bet.

You’d be well advised to listen to your doctor first and take my prattling here for what it’s worth — which is nothing much, really.

End of Edit
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It was pouring buckets outside this morning, so no walking until later today. But I was just sitting here thinking and my mind wandered back to the treatment I received for my sleeping problems a while back.

A couple of years ago, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea — I would stop breathing in my sleep literally dozens of times a night and wake up to start breathing again. Not very good at all for getting a restful night’s sleep. The process of being diagnosed involves filling out a questionnaire about your general health condition, your sleep habits, and your general situation during a normal day — do you fall asleep easily, would you doze off while driving, etc. — followed by a consultation with a doctor specializing in sleep disorders, after which he might order a “sleep study” where you lie in a bed at the clinic to be monitored all night by cameras, microphones, and an alarming number of wires attached to your head and body.

Well, despite the doctor’s best intentions — I assume — the one thing that nagged at me most during the whole process was that two of the major indicators were being overweight and being sedentary — and I was both at the time, in spades. And those very important contributing factors — the ones that are arguably most within a patient’s control — were the ones that received the least attention during the consultation. It seemed to me that they were brushed off in a rush to get to having a “sleep study” done and possibly surgery or certainly CPAP treatment prescribed.

So, I went to the clinic for the “sleep study,” was shown the charts the computer produced a few days later, and might have gotten a little carried along by the whole thing and right into CPAP treatment. To be honest, I was quite alarmed to discover that I wasn’t simply snoring obnoxiously just because I played around on my computer into the wee morning hours every day. I was snoring horribly because I was shutting off my breathing all night long and waking with a snort or gurgle and all the accompanying fits and starts that would go along with that.

A CPAP machine is a device that basically blows a steady stream of air at a specified pressure through a tube into a mask to make sure you get enough air during your sleep or, in my case, a “nasal pillow” that blows air up my nose and forces me to keep my mouth shut when I sleep. A whole lot of bother, actually, but it damned sure controlled my snoring and I didn’t seem to wake up as much at night, and I woke a little more refreshed, so it appeared to be working okay… for a while anyway. A rather nasty side affect for me was that it dried out my nasal passages, led to sinus ailments and more upper respiratory illnesses. Add in the facts that the hose was a damned nuisance, the “nasal pillow” was often very uncomfortable and would slip a bit and start hissing or would dig into my face, and I’d wake up more because of the cure than I did because of the condition.

When the negative side effects started bothering me too much to ignore, I kicked the machine off my bedside table and switched to those nose strips that hold open your nasal passages reasonably well. I also sprayed the snore relief stuff into my throat before bedtime. Then — and this is probably the most effective measure I took — I started going to bed several hours earlier than before. I felt just as good, the sinus problems were reduced a bit and I got sick a little less often. Still not good enough. I still snored and my wife said I still occasionally woke her with my breathing problems, and I still had headaches — often severe — way too regularly to ignore.

Okay, come all the way around to the point where I started thinking about the exercise and weight loss factors so poorly addressed in the doctor’s office. Since changing my diet, I’ve had even better results than I’ve had on either the doctor’s prescribed treatment or my own over-the-counter treatments. I’ve strictly reduced my consumption of processed, heavily sugared and salted foods and snacks, restricted caffeine to no more than tea a couple times a day and only one or two diet sodas all day (down from three to four cups of black coffee and a six-pack of soda before), and I’ve adopted a diet rich in lean meats and fish and lots of fresh or frozen (preferably fresh, of course) fruits and vegetables, and I started getting up and hitting the roads for a walk every day. And I sleep great, my wife reports I snore very little and she hasn’t noticed any signs of apnea at all, and I wake feeling much better, without the headaches.

I guess my whole point is not to let yourself get herded into surgery or some expensive treatments when there was clearly an alternative, even when the doctor doesn’t do a very good job of discussing the viability of alternatives. Had I simply started exercising and lost some weight — and my wife tried to clue me in by telling me that I never had the problems while I was less overweight and more active — maybe I wouldn’t have been writing out a check to pay the co-payment on a CPAP machine and doctor’s visits.

Anyway, the CPAP machine might be gathering dust, but I won’t be anymore. And I hope to delay the time when I ultimately return to dust — maybe only just a little bit longer than I would’ve without starting to get my diet, my physical conditioning, my life back under control, but I’ll take what I can get.

Besides, the point isn’t the years in your life, but the life in your years. I feel like I’m getting a little more life out of mine already now and I’m glad of it.

Anniversary Coming Up… March 2nd

No, not the wedding anniversary. That one is July 22nd, and it’ll be our 30th. This one is the anniversary of a track meet at Alamo Stadium in San Antonio which is where Chrissy first saw me run the mile in a meet. After the meet, back home in Converse, we sat out on the back steps of her parent’s place for a while and that’s where I kissed her for the first time. (Yeah, guys, women remember things like that for the rest of their lives and you’d better remember it, too, especially if you marry her.)

So, anyway, this will be the 35th anniversary of that kiss on March 2, 1973. Chrissy has been a pretty good sport about the whole change in eating habits diet thing and she’s been very supportive of my getting back into shape and trying to get back to running again, but she hasn’t taken the plunge and started walking either with me or on her own yet. Today, I ordered her a nice little red iPod Shuffle, complete with the appropriate anniversary engraving (only one line, the Shuffle is so small!) and with the gift-wrapping and a nice card to remind her of that day, that kiss, and every kiss since.

She should be surprised, but along with that maybe I can load the little iPod with some tunes that will make her want to lace up and come for a walk.

Comments Limited to Registered Subscribers

And the only way to subscribe is to email me first, of course. But you’d have to convince me about creating your account. This ain’t no game I’m running here. I’m serious about what I’m doing, even if some people might see it as just some sort of vanity on the part of an old man with too much time on his hands.

Given that the purpose of this blog is primarily for me to chronicle the hopefully eventual return to running by a washed-up, old has-been who would welcome being able to do what a lot of you can do quite well right now, there are rules and the rules are quite strict. And I control the rules tightly.

No posting at all by other users. All comments are subject to moderation, naturally, to make sure they are in keeping with the purpose of this blog. I reserve the right to edit comments. I also reserve the right to delete submitted comments that I deem unsuitable. What constitutes “unsuitable” is entirely subjective and the sole determination is mine.

Now, that all sounds rather severe and probably a bit pompous, but I paid to register the domain where I created the subdomain to set up this blog, and I pay for the hosting, and the bandwidth, so I have all the rights because I have all the responsibility for the content of this blog. I want you to be my guests while you are here, but I expect you to behave as guests, too. I don’t let guests in my home move my furniture or change the paint on my walls, and I won’t let guests to my blog change the tone and timbre of the blog either.

If you’re curious about my progress — or lack thereof — you’re welcome to hang out and keep up with me on the long road back to the running life I so callously frittered away somewhere along the trip so long ago. If you want to laugh at me or get your giggles about how stupid this all is, then that’s your prerogative, and I could care less if you do that — in the privacy of your own space — but I won’t have anyone vandalizing the blog just to stroke their e-peen.

So, if you can abide by those simple guidelines, you might be welcome here. If not, then you might be more at home some place else.

Like I said, I’m only doing this as a way to record how I’m going about trying to get back a little piece of the gift I so foolishly squandered long ago. If anything I share here helps others to decide the struggle would be worth it for them, too, then that’s all gravy.

How I Got to Here…

So, yeah, I started running fairly seriously some time in 1970 when my dad was in Vietnam for his second tour. I also played baseball and tried out for football. I wasn’t very good at either sport, though I really enjoyed baseball. I was tall and skinny and not very coordinated. Running became more my thing, but that was before Frank Shorter won the marathon and Dave Wottle’s amazing finish in the 800 finals in Munich, so the storied “Running Boom” of the late Seventies was still a few years away at that time. For most of my peers back then, running was sort of just something that we did as part of playing an organized sport, never really a sport unto itself.

Johnston Junior High School, which apparently no longer exists in Anniston, Alabama, didn’t have a track team when I attended, so mostly I just ran lap after lap around the athletic fields with some kid whose name I will probably never remember. It’d be nice to remember that kid’s name some day because he had come from some school up North where they did promote track and cross country and he really encouraged me to see things differently and just run.

I didn’t actually run track until my eighth grade year in Kirby, Texas (outside San Antonio), where I ran the quarter-mile at Kirby Junior High School. I broke Brad Palmer’s school record (59.9), set the previous year, and Gilbert Encarnacion — if I recall correctly — returned me the favor the following year, lowering my 59.7 mark to 59.5.

At Judson High School in Converse, Texas, I ran the mile and cross country (usually two-mile road courses back then). I lettered in the mile my junior year when I placed fifth in the District 29AAAA meet with a 4:42. My regular running buddy, Danny Busheme, ran a 4:30 and finished second to Wayne Becken of Roosevelt High School to qualify for Regionals. Along with most of the distance runners from the track team and the cross country team, I also ran in local fun runs and events sponsored by the San Antonio Road Runners and was an SARR member for several years.

Judson High School was growing very fast back when I attended, having just barely moved up into District 14AAA my first two years there before immediately being pushed up again, straight to District 29AAAA by my junior year. So, though we had no official cross country team my sophomore year, Tony Lozano, Bert Richardson, Mike Terry, Danny Busheme, and I were permitted to run in the Region IV cross country championships in San Marcos, Texas. The following two years, Judson High School earned a trip to San Marcos by winning back-to-back District 29AAAA championships in 1974 and 1975.

My brother, Darrell, (a half-miler and a member of the cross country team) and I almost didn’t get to go to Regionals in my senior year. The coach threatened to throw us off the team for training every day — he caught us doing an easy run the day before the first cross country meet of that season. As it was, I ended up quitting track that year because that cross country coach became the head track coach. His training methods were stuck in the past, based on hard interval work at race pace and supposedly designed for “peaking” for every meet in the season.

Danny Busheme, Darrell, and I had learned from Tony Lozano the Lydiard system where our training was carefully structured for peaking for an intended target race — in our case, the district meet, the most important meet of our season. The situation became intolerable when it was made abundantly clear that any compromise must be all on our part and none on the coach’s, so Danny Busheme and I walked away from the program altogether. Darrell stayed, and I think he might have been the smartest of us three for doing so, but I just couldn’t pull tractor tires with the off-season football players when I knew I should be out on the roads building an endurance base. I still ran some on my own, though, and I had plans to run in college, but that never happened.

When my dad retired from the Army, there were five of us kids at home with me being the oldest. Going away to university wasn’t going to happen and even a local college was going to be rough on the budget. The Army still had the Vietnam-Era G.I. Bill back then, and I decided a four-year hitch was worth getting college paid for by my Uncle Sam. That four-year hitch turned into a career that lasted almost 21 years. I went through most of my Army career still believing I was a runner, and there were several years in there when I worked pretty hard to prepare (not really training, but at least putting in mileage) for road races — mostly 10Ks — and I also ran the Mule Mountain Marathon (from Bisbee to Sierra Vista, Arizona) in 1994. I barely finished that marathon, but I finished it.

I was posting maximum scores on my Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) for most of my last several years in the service. Prior to that, I was mostly interested in just doing the minimums for push-ups and sit-ups to save most of my energy for the two-mile run. Yeah, kind of stupid, but I was a runner. Push-ups and sit-ups weren’t the part I liked to put my effort into. And, yeah, there were more than a few times when I just wasn’t in good enough shape to do very well and was happy just to pass the APFT at all.

To be sure, there were also stretches in there where I fell out of the pack of runners and did very poorly at keeping up any regular kind of running. As a result, by the time I had hung up my Army uniform for the last time and retired, I wound up about 24 pounds heavier than I was when I enlisted. After two years working overseas and then returning to the States to go back to school full time and finally get a degree while also working a full-time job, I was even worse off. Inertia had set in and the weight piled on as my conditioning deteriorated badly.

After earning my degree, I started running a bit again and made it through a few 10Ks here in Georgia, but a knee injury sidelined me in July 2002. Since then, I’ve done very little — only a little walking for a while during several different periods of time before stopping again. And that has further complicated matters. Three days before my 50th birthday, I rummaged around until I found the bathroom scale, dusted it off, and stepped onto the damned thing. I weighed 206 pounds — seventy pounds more than I did when I graduated high school!

So, my early birthday present to myself was to start a real diet. Not a quickie weight-loss diet — I’m talking a complete change in eating habits. No more processed foods. Only lean meat or fish at every meal with fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables. A little over a week later, I’m down a few pounds — largely water loss since I have also cut my salt intake to the bone, I don’t have my usual headaches in the morning, and my wife reports that my snoring isn’t waking her at night.

For my birthday, I bought a new pair of shoes and I started a walk/run program — a whole lot more walking than running at the moment, to be sure, but a good start nonetheless. I’ve been at that for five days now. If I can keep my wits about me this time, unlike in 2002, maybe I can keep my impatience from taking me too fast or too far too soon again and I can avoid an injury.

The problem is, naturally, that my mind remembers how it feels to fly and my body is still grounded, unable to soar as I once could. Of course, I like remembering that I once did because I’ve got — no, I need — to believe I still can some day — not as fast or far as when I was young, but just being able to really run again and just keep on running is my dream now.

One year from now, I want to be running around White Rock Lake in Dallas with my brother, who’s still out there running 5Ks at a 7-minute+ pace practically on the eve of his 49th birthday.

He’ll probably smoke me, but I can’t think of any better way to help him celebrate his 50th birthday next year.