Once A Runner…

I’m Right, I WAS Wrong

I did the math after this evening’s walk in the blustery 29F wind chill. The Nike+ reported that I burned 305 calories. The math shows me that Nike+ assumes I am actually running instead of walking because my weight times .75 times the miles equals 303 calories. Since I’m walking, it should be my weight multiplied by .53, or about 30% less.

So, I just have to remember that the total is 30% lower than reported. No big deal, really. I can adjust and live with it. Since I’ve dropped some weight so far, I can expect to drop more over time, just not as fast as I was thinking.

Right now, to be honest, I’d just like to drop enough to be able to run at all. Being this heavy is not working well for me — my knees aren’t built to motor my fat butt around. They want me to lighten the load a bit for them… and I’m trying.

Patience and perseverance. The keys to getting there. I’m going to need them both.

How Many Calories AM I Burning?

I’ve been pretty much taking the figures Nike+ gives me at the end of a walk at face value, but now I’m not so sure. Granted, I haven’t yet calibrated my Nike+ for walking and running. I’m not able to run any appreciable distance to make it worthwhile right now, but I may have to once I’m able to start running again.

I’m certain that I’ve decreased my intake of calories somewhat, but I’m not strictly counting calories. I’m starting to think I may have to reevaluate my weight-loss goals a little bit. Not really a huge problem, actually. Or else I may just have to decide that losing weight is something that will happen over time and accept it as a by-product of improved general fitness and not an end in and of itself. Probably a healthier approach for the long run anyway.

What brought on the doubts, though, was an article by Amby Burfoot from Runner’s World: How Many Calories Are You Really Burning?. That running burns more calories than walking is not exactly a surprise, but the interesting part is the difference between Total Calorie Burn and Net Calorie Burn — something of which I was aware but really never paid a whole lot of attention.

I’m going to have to keep this chart from that article in mind as I factor weight-loss objectives into my overall physical fitness regime:

            Your Total Calorie Burn/Mile     Your Net Calorie Burn/Mile
Running     .75 x your weight (in lbs.)      .63 x your weight

Walking     .53 x your weight                .30 x your weight

According to that chart, what’s in the sidebar probably doesn’t really represent my progress towards pounds lost in exactly the way that I was thinking. I have to assume they represent Total Calorie Burn (TCB), but they are still a positive factor nonetheless. More calories burned plus less calories consumed will equal steady weight loss. And as long as my Net Calorie Burn (NCB) plus restricting my eating a little totals to a 500-calorie/day deficit, I can expect to lose around a pound/week.

With what I’m doing right now, I’m just probably going to have to expect to hit a plateau soon and for progress to slow, or else augment NCB with further restriction of calories.

Once I can run again, of course, I believe things will improve more dramatically.

The Road Back So Far (Week Two)

Okay, so I’m still not running, but I know from my past experiences that this isn’t something to push too recklessly. Too fast and too far don’t help worth a bit. So, I’m still walking and not ready yet to start jogging, much less turning loose the demon to run and play like he wants to. I’ve tried throwing in a little easy jogging here and there and found my knees not up to the task yet, so curbing my enthusiasm and impatience is still the order of the day and for the foreseeable future.

I weighed in at 190 pounds this morning. Since February 4, that’s 16 pounds. Most of the early weight loss was just water, I know that, since I’ve restricted my sodium intake severely with the change in my eating habits — cutting way back on processed foods will do that for you, and I reach for the salt shaker only rarely and use it far more sparingly than I used to. Snacking between meals — or instead of meals — and settling on fast food instead of taking the time to prepare a proper meal are also out.

As my body starts to accommodate the increased activity level and I stick to getting in a walk every day, I’m starting to be able to go farther and maintain a good pace longer. I’m not quite up to a 4-mph clip yet, so my walks are brisk but not too brisk. I’m trying to keep the pace down a little during the early minutes of each walk and gradually increase my pace as I go along. This feels pretty good to me. I still feel the urge to hit a double-time as I warm up, but I still have to continue to resist for the time being.

I haven’t started a strengthening program yet, but I have assembled a good general conditioning program that should help to strengthen my whole body. I realize that getting that ingrained as a regular habit is important to continuing it after I finally get healthy enough to run, so I have to get cracking on that in this third week.

The new eating regimen is starting to feel a bit stale. I’ve settled into picking a couple of regular meals and not varying it enough. That’s dangerous, so I’ve dived into Google searches for recipes that either adhere to the diet goals or can be modified to fit it. I never was a fan of meatloaf or meat balls until I found a recipe using very lean ground beef and no cereal products for fillers. I’m going to be making my own beef jerky today so I will have a good high-protein, low-sugar/low-sodium snack that isn’t a handful of dates and walnuts — good as that sounds, it does get boring after a week or two. Preparation time for eating real food instead of processed food products is a bit of a burden in the morning after a walk, shower, and trying to get ready for work, but the meals are worth it and will pay off in the long run.

I’ve back-slid a bit into my bad sleeping habits. I’ve gone to bed a little too late for several nights running this week because I’ve let the computer geek in me have his way about researching and working out ways to make the blog run better and do more that I want it to do. I’m learning great things, but I still need my sleep and rest is a critical component in not only my getting back into shape but also in my settling into a more healthful lifestyle altogether.

In the past, I could always count on a good solid month of working back up to a decent level of maintenance conditioning, but I’ve never let myself fall so far out of shape before. There will be a much longer time frame for this early, less strenuous walking and general adaptation than in the past, but it will eventually give way to a level of conditioning that will let me do more and faster. Patience and perseverance are the keys.

After sitting for a bit, I get up and my right knee cracks and pops so much it sounds like I’m walking on bubble-wrap, but there’s no real pain — just tension and pressure being released. The pain only comes when I try to jog, and it’s not as acute as it was in the first week. Not enough progress yet, but any progress is good.

So, thus far, all is well, but I’ve still got a very long way to go.

Nike+ Is A Pretty Good Motivator

After hearing Paula Radcliffe and Joan Benoit Samuelson congratulate me twice each for milestones over the past two weeks, I was starting to wonder who else might pop up soon.

Well, after an early attempt at jogging again tonight — that didn’t last too long before both knees lodged their complaints! — and right back to walking. So, I settled into a good stride and slowly built up as I went along. I pushed past the scheduled 30 minutes, as usual, but this time I varied my route considerably and wound up going three miles instead of the normal two and change.

This time it was Lance Armstrong who congratulated me — for my longest workout so far.

So, not only am I able to listen to a playlist on my iPod Nano that is mostly classic rock songs that were playing on the radio in my high school running days, but the Nike+ also gives me these nice motivational sound bites from several famous athletes which I can discover as I hit different milestones along the way.

I can recall a time or two when Frank Ridgley brought along a transistor radio when we all ran a group workout. This new technology makes things a little more interesting and more fun.

Oh yeah, I finally put something on the “About” page — the link is in the header above — that I hope helps to explain what this blog represents… to me at least.

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.

Another Evening Walk

I didn’t feel very well rested this morning when the alarm went off at 5:15, so I shut the fool thing off and crawled back under the covers. I guess I needed the extra hour and a half of sleep because I felt great when I did get up.

I spent most of the day finishing up in the garage, this time unloading the overhead, loft-like storage area and going through some boxes and hauling a few into the den for my wife to go through at her leisure so we can repack what’s to be kept into storage bins and carry them out to the shed, which we also reorganized today. It’s a fair trade. My wife finally got me to help clean up the garage and storage shed and to haul a ton of stuff off to donate to Goodwill, and I got half of the garage for the weights and benches.

While we were at finishing up in the garage, I decided I wasn’t pleased with the flexibility of the smaller bench I have — it’s not built to decline and will only incline to 45 degrees while I like to occasionally take it to 90 for seated military presses, etc. So, I donated the one I had and bought another. I also bought a weight tree to store the Olympic plates and bar better than just stacking them on either side of the big bench. If I’m going to keep it, I have to keep the “home gym” organized.

For this evening’s walk, I started a little slower than usual and gradually picked up the pace over time. It felt pretty good. I only had a couple of times there that the knees complained and they were much less bothersome than normal even when they did.

Calories consumed this time was a bit lower than usual. Two good reasons for that I guess:

• I had to dial down my weight to 192 pounds because that’s what I weighed this morning
• The pace was a little slower on average than usual

Still, take off another 299 calories towards the 3500 calories deficit I need to rack up for each pound I want to lose. I’m not counting calories with the changed eating regimen, but not eating processed foods, staying away from snack foods like chips, crackers, and cookies, and keeping to lean meats and fish, veggies, and fruit I reckon I’m probably cutting down my daily calorie consumption by a couple of hundred at least. That reduction taken with the calories burned by walking should be coming in right about 500 per day which is sufficient to take off a pound a week — what most physicians will tell you probably a safe rate of weight loss.

At this rate, especially not running yet, it’ll take me most of a year to make any appreciable headway, but it took me longer than that to put it on in the first place, so I’ll take it. I gotta believe adding in weight-training — now that the “home gym” is finally about set the way I wanted it — will help towards that even more.

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.