Once A Runner…

Hello… Again

Yeah, I’ve been absent for a bit.  Nobody to blame but myself, of course, but here I am, back again.

It was pleasantly cool this morning when I woke up a little after 6:30 a.m., so I put on the shoes and shorts, grabbed my Nike+ iPod and took a 20-minute walk.  NaNoWriMo is on the horizon and I’m starting to think about story again, but I also figured I’d better get a little more air into my lungs so I can not only survive NaNo for another year but have enough oxygen in my brain to think and actually write something worth a damn this time.

Am I really, really returning to tackle getting back into running shape again after giving in to gaming and laziness such that I’ve pretty much ruined all my progress?  (I weighed 192 pounds after my walk this morning!) Time will tell, I guess. But I think that maybe if my theory about oxygen to my brain proves successful in helping me to turn my story idea into a solid novel, then I’d have to be an even bigger idiot than I’ve already been to not continue this time, wouldn’t I?

Too Far, Too Fast, Too Soon — Just DON’T Do It!

For the time being, as I start the transition from a predominately walking program into more jogging, I’ll be taking a day off between workouts. This is contrary to what I desire to do, or what I want to settle into for the long term in the future. But it’s the prudent thing to do — increasing stress progressively with adequate rest between sessions is generally regarded as the best way to make progress with less risk of injuries.

However, I already note a tendency to try to “race” myself. I want to push more already, and I’ve only just started! This is kind of dangerous and could lead to a major setback if I don’t reign myself in constantly. It’s not that I’m not strong enough — I do feel much stronger. It’s that testing the limits of those gains in every workout is totally foolish and counterproductive.

Work has to be followed by rest if you’re to make any gains in strength and endurance, and rest by work if you’re to continue to make any progress, but work intensity has to be increased progressively, added to in manageable increments. Going too far, too fast, too soon is a recipe for disaster. It just takes ramping one of those up too quickly to tip the intensity of the work effort too far and start a chain reaction that could wind up setting me back to the beginning all over again.

Yesterday, I set out on my normal 30-minute Nike+ iPod workout setting, complete with the walk for five minutes, then start jogging, with the intention of walking the last five minutes. However, I did go farther and a little faster than I had intended. No ill effects this time — other than a little soreness.

But hearing Tiger Woods in my iPod headphones telling me that I’ve just turned in my fastest mile — three workouts in a row — tells me I need to watch it. This isn’t the time for all that. This is the time to build up slowly and gradually, to follow a system, not choose what to do by whim. I need to settle into a rhythm and increase rate and intensity progressively. I’m still going to have to constantly remind myself of what has sort of become my motto: Patience and perseverance.

On the weight-loss front, I weighed in at 181 pounds this morning. I’ve added a sidebar item to track my progress. I’ve also gone ahead and declared a goal weight.

I’m making good progress and I’m happy with how things are going so far. I need to try not to get too happy and so carried away with how well it’s going that I sabotage my progress by being foolish.

“Major Milestone” Achieved!

Saturday, I managed about a mile at a slow jog, but yesterday I actually maintained a slightly faster pace for about two miles.

More or less the usual routine.  Set the Nike+ iPod for a 30-minute workout and started.  This time, however, I only walked the first five minutes, started jogging at around an 11-min/mile pace and slowly picked it up (averaged 10:22/mile), and then walked when the voice announced “Five minutes remaining.”

Of course, I’m a little sore today, but it’s worth every bit of soreness to me!

It’s nothing all that special, but it represents damned good progress.  And I’m pleased to get this far.  Finally.

“Possible Tibialis-Posterior Tendinitis”

So, the ankle was really annoyingly painful and swollen yesterday morning. The doctor took a look at my feet and knees, had me do a couple of squats with my feet in their natural placement and with my feet pointed more forward than my right foot normally does, and diagnosed my problem as possibly tibialis-posterior tendinitis. So, it wasn’t a mild sprain from stepping funny off a curb. That misstep must have simply thrown an existing biomechanical weakness out into the open for me.

Prescription? Rest, ice, compression, elevation, NSAIDS for pain and inflammation. I didn’t want to hear the rest part of the treatment, but I knew that was coming when I hobbled in there. RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation) is always the smart thing to do anyway, and the one thing doctors will almost always tell you to apply.

When the doctor explained that I could be looking at a rupture of the tendon if I didn’t let it heal, that my right foot could lose what arch it has left and go flat, and then we’d be talking surgical correction, well… that was enough for me. I left the hospital with a photocopied sheet of exercises to do, an ankle wrap-brace kind of thing, a big rubber band, and a bottle of ibuprofen.

I took off yesterday from my walking, tried to spend as little time on my feet as possible, iced the ankle, and did the exercises on the photocopied page he gave me. The ankle is wrapped and feels okay — less pain anyway and less swelling. I guess I might be out of the walking game for a few days or so. I’ll keep track of the pain and swelling and see when I might be able to manage getting in a little walking around the block again. In the meantime, I’ll have to reduce my daily caloric intake to compensate for the loss of physical activity, of course.

Sucks to have any kind of injury, but having a worse one later when I want to be running again would suck more.

I Am So Blasted Stubborn

When I get on a streak of any kind, I stubbornly stick to it. This can be good and bad. The good is obvious: I keep on trucking and consistency is almost always a good thing. The bad? I don’t get enough rest and recovery. I tend to bull my way on through minor injuries when I should instead take a step back and let things stabilize.

Well, I did a bad thing yesterday and today. I stepped off a curb wrong yesterday and my right ankle twisted funny. It hurt a bit, but I could tolerate the pain. There was a little swelling, but not much. Yeah, pop an aspirin and take it easy the rest of the day.

Then I stubbornly went ahead with my walk last evening. It was a slog. And that’s being rather generous. I was slow(er than usual) and I had to adjust my gait to accommodate the ankle. Never one to be smart when I should, I then got up and walked again this morning, too. I was even slower, but by design — I slowed down a whole lot and paid close attention to how my ankle felt. Some pain, but not as bad as last night. Then the knees — yeah, both of them — started aching, though. Not very badly, but enough to get my attention.

I’m too stubborn to take a whole day off when my program is already at such a low intensity as it is. Just doesn’t feel right to me to back off at every little twinge when I’ve gone this far at this very slow rate of progress and I’m still not even really running yet.

Of course, part of me acknowledges the wisdom of backing off, taking full rest days to recover, especially after a stupid misstep like that. But part of me bristles at taking off for such a minor thing so early, especially when I know the intensity is so ridiculously low right now. I mean, if I back off from this what am I going to do when the heat is on later? I know me, and I don’t think this is something I should coddle myself over at all. I’ll just try to keep monitoring the minor injury and take steps (ice, slowing down a bit, etc.), but I just can’t in good conscience come to a full stop for this.

There are so many little, niggling aches and pains to deal with in getting back into shape — a death of a thousand cuts — that it’s easy to forget which ones are important enough to step back and really focus upon and which ones you just have to force yourself to work through. I’ve often gotten the two confused in the past, but I really think I’ve too often taken the easy way out and permitted myself to slack off when I should’ve worked through things.

I’m working through this one. I need to work through it. I’m going to suffer much worse in the months and years ahead.

I Managed A Little Jogging Today

The wind was howling this morning — 30 MPH gusts — so I waited until the afternoon to walk, only the winds didn’t let up. Too bad for me. I went anyway. The wind was brutal and the wind chill was about 37 or 38 degrees. Guess who forgot his gloves, too?

I drove out to Fort Gordon to use the red clay loop around Barnes Field, figuring it would be softer than asphalt for a change. It would’ve been, but recent rains (much appreciated help with our long drought) had parts of the track compacted, other parts muddy, and the wind had torn down two branches from a couple of the already-blooming Bradford Pear trees that border the parade field all around the inside circumference of the track. One of those branches was quite large — it stretched across the whole track!

I set out on a 45-minute walk, but after clearing the headwind on the second turn I picked it up into an easy jog for a short bit three times with walking between. Then I repeated that on the second lap, with a seventh short jog on the first turn of what would’ve been the third lap. I went about 18 minutes over my workout target — I always seem to go longer than I set on the Nike+ iPod workout. At the end, Joan Benoit Samuelson piped up and congratulated me on a new “personal best” for the mile, and I completed the 5K faster this time around than last time I went that far, too. (Yeah, yeah, I know. But it’s progress.)

So, how did the jogging feel? Pretty good, if I get over the fact that I was lumbering along more like a bear coming out of a rudely interrupted hibernation than like the runner I want to be again. I felt really heavy and slow, which is the truth — I am heavy and slow, but just to pick it up and move a little bit faster felt okay. The knees weren’t much trouble at all, either, so I count it as a great leap forward.

I won’t do that again too soon, though. Getting a little too rambunctious too soon could derail what progress I’ve made so far. Tomorrow will be a longer walk because I really like moving around more on the weekends when I don’t have somewhere to be right away. Saturdays and Sundays give me the opportunity to go a little longer, something I want to encourage to become habit since I’ll try to get in a long run on those days in the future. I might as well try to get it set in my head to go long every weekend now as try to change things later.

So, a little jogging and it felt okay enough that I have hope that I can maybe begin the “White Starting Plan” from Daniels’ Running Formula by early April, just as the weather starts to really get nice. I can hardly wait. That program will carry me through most of July. Then I can start the “Red Intermediate Plan,” after which I should be adequately prepared to start getting ready to run the Cowtown 10K with my brother, Darrell.

My Wife Threw Me An Old Pair of Jeans This Morning…

… and they almost fit me again! They were a pair of 34×34 Levi’s 501 jeans, a pair from several (maybe four or five?) years ago. I had gone to a 36-inch waist and then the 38-inch waist jeans I usually wear now. The 38’s were becoming tight, too, just a month ago.

I think that pair the wife dug out of the closet had been shoved into a box and saved simply because they were still fairly new, but it’s also possible I had insisted that we shouldn’t give them away when I had to move up to a larger waist size — you know, the old I-just-might-get-back-into-those argument. And, well, I have because I slipped into them without a problem and buttoned them right up. Okay, I had to suck in my gut a little the first time, but not by much. The fly gapped just a tiny bit so I was concerned that they might bother me to wear them to work, but they fit pretty well — much better than they would’ve just a month ago.

Now, I do wear my jeans down on my hips a little bit, so there’s no way I need to be in that pair for a little bit longer yet. My real waist is a little higher and a bit larger than 34 inches still. Regardless, I felt pretty damned good about being able to get into them again. There is progress. Yes, indeed. Good progress.

I had a nice walk this evening. I overslept this morning by a little too much to push the time and get in breakfast and get to work. Blame the weights I did last night, I guess. We had company last night and I delayed my lifting until after they had left. It’s not really a very good idea to work out so close to bedtime, of course, but I was stubborn.

I think I slept okay despite the late weights, but my wife said I was a little restless and tried to monopolize more than my fair share of the bed, so I would’ve been wiser to postpone that workout to tonight.

The scales this morning had me at 188 pounds. I need to stop weighing myself every morning, but it’s kind of becoming a compulsion. I’m smart enough to realize that there will be no appreciable progress day-to-day, and I know that increased muscle mass will register as weight-gains, too. I guess I’m eager to get to a weight where I think I can risk my starting running again. Yeah, I know, reminding myself yet again: patience and perseverance.

The Right Way Versus My Way

I was mildly admonished Thursday afternoon by someone for not following the right approach to getting back into shape. I was always a jump right in and “Just Do It” kind of person when I get an idea into my head. Not that Nike has me brainwashed or anything but their slogan just kind of neatly sums up what I mean.

First, this person objected to the fact that I did not see a doctor before starting an exercise program. Since I just turned 50, and the conventional wisdom is that anyone over 40 should consult their physician first, I guess I’m guilty of foolishness.

Second, I was reminded that I’ve been predominately sedentary for several years. Again, the conventional wisdom about consulting a physician if you’re not accustomed to exercise is supposed to be applied before jumping in with both feet.

Third, I was over 30 pounds overweight when I switched my diet and started walking. Anyone more than 20 pounds overweight really should talk to their doctor before starting a fitness program. This person didn’t mention it, but perhaps I should’ve made an appointment with a nutritionist before modifying my diet away from the typical American processed food/fast-food diet, too.

Now, I’m not making light of the concerns this person expressed. They are all valid points and I probably should’ve followed the conventional wisdom. I mean, these things just make good sense and they’re obviously prudent and responsible things to do.

On the other hand, I’ve always been very much my own “coach” and I have a pretty good ear for “listening” to my body. I’m also smart enough to realize that I have to start slow and progress slowly. I figure that I can’t really start any slower than walking. Walking is something we all can do; we do it all day, everyday — mostly just not the right kind, at the right intensity, or for the right duration. So, in this case, I just felt that walking isn’t sufficiently intense to warrant all that fuss. Jumping right into one of Dr. Daniels’ running training programs straight off the couch, on the other hand, would really be foolish and just begging for a coronary.

I’m also honest enough to tell you that everything wrong with me has been the direct results of the choices I’ve made:

• I chose to eat processed foods, unhealthy snacks, and fast foods instead of taking the time to prepare healthier meals
• I chose to salt my food before tasting it, often with enough salt to preserve it — regardless of how much salt was used to process it in the first place
• I chose to drink several cups of coffee morning and night and more than a six-pack of diet cola a day
• I chose to sit on my butt surfing the web, playing computer games, and watching TV and films rather than getting up and getting some exercise
• I chose to have problems with sleep by not getting sufficient rest — staying up late, not keeping regular hours, not going to sleep early enough or at a regular time and not getting up at a regular time
• I chose to buy jeans with an ever-increasing waist measurement rather than shed the inches that made the current pair too tight to live in

None of these choices were forced upon me. All of these choices are contrary to what a physician would advise me to make. The cumulative effect of those choices brought me to a moment of truth on February 4, three days before I turned 50, when I stood on those bathroom scales and saw I weighed 206 pounds.

I made a new choice — the only choice I could see that made any sense. I chose to change.

I gave away all the “bad” foods in the house and bought the leanest meats I could find. I bought fish — something I rarely ever ate unless you count the occasional breaded fish sticks or a fish fillet sandwich. I bought fresh fruits and vegetables. Where I had to — for added variety, of course — I turned to frozen fruit and vegetables. I shopped the perimeter of the grocery store as much as possible, staying away from the candy aisle, the snacks and chips aisle, the canned soups, fruits, and vegetables aisles, and the pickled stuff aisle where you can also find all the baking treats. The change was almost miraculously immediate — I stopped feeling crappy, stopped being so irritable, stopped having headaches all the time, and started feeling much better almost right away.

I bought a new pair of shoes, and also got a iPod Nano with the Nike+ Sport Kit, and I pushed myself away from the computer keyboard and got started walking. Has it all been rosy and easy? Not on your life. My knees creaked and ached. My body is slowly adapting to the greater demands I’m forcing it to accept and I’m not letting it settle into a comfortable routine yet, adding in strength training and even slowly increasing my walking pace and distance as my body tells me it’s prepared to handle it. When my body tells me to back off, I do, but mostly it hasn’t been telling me that as much as I feared it might.

Am I ready to jump into running yet? Nope. Not for a while yet. I anticipated maintaining this walking program for more than the three weeks I’ve been at it so far. I figure it could be easily another month or more before I’m ready for running.

At that point, I’m thinking I may well schedule an appointment with my doctor to make sure I can start piling on more intense work. I have my copy of Daniel’s Running Formula sitting practically at my left elbow as I type this and I do intend to begin Dr. Daniels’ “White Starting Plan” as soon as I’m ready. And, because I know myself well enough to know that completing that will make me hungry to go on to the “Red Intermediate Plan,” I certainly will need to make sure I’ve got a doctor’s okay before I do.

So, the bottom line, for me, was that I needed to make a change — not later, not after seeing a doctor, but right then. And I made it — 22 days ago. Now, I’m settling into a routine and it’s working for me. Whether I keel over in the next five minutes or out on the road some fine morning on my daily walk, I’ll go a few pounds lighter and feeling the best I’ve felt in a very long time. That, to me, really matters a lot more than whether or not I did it “the right way.”