Ran a bit this evening

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Today's walk at lunch was just over a mile, in 17 minutes. I could have gone further, physically; but workload and meeting time constraints didn't give me that option today.

Work was hectic, and I got to my volunteer job almost an hour late because paid work didn't want to let go. Fortunately, it wasn't insanely busy at the VITA site; I got out of there on time. Finished up with the Spark web routine, and decided to do a trifecta (pyramid of body weight squat, Australian pullup, and pushup as a bit of activity before bed. Put on my running shoes to go downstairs for the trifecta, and they felt so good that I went out for a bit of a run afterwards.

"A bit" was really not much. It was about a tenth of a mile, and not enough minutes to work up a good sweat or count as cardio; but it was a successful run that didn't bother the bad foot. This is encouraging. Being able to do *something* sure beats sitting around waiting for the foot to hurt less!

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

RG_DFW 3/22/2012 8:23AM

Finally! Feels good, I bet Report Inappropriate Comment

MAGGIE101857 3/22/2012 7:00AM

Put one foot in front of the other.... and soon you'll be out the door !!!!!! So happy for you!!!! Report Inappropriate Comment

ONEKIDSMOM 3/22/2012 6:31AM

You can indeed "see it from here"! Glad you have been patiently giving the injured foot time to recover. Well done! Report Inappropriate Comment

KRISZTA11 3/22/2012 3:58AM

That's a milestone in your recovery! Report Inappropriate Comment

HEALTHIERKEN 3/22/2012 12:40AM

Yay! I'm so pleased you got that little bit of encouragement. You've been darned good about staying off the foot : ) Your day *is* coming. Report Inappropriate Comment

MYSTERY-LADY1 3/21/2012 10:22PM

Report Inappropriate Comment

I'm not there yet, but I can see it from here

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

It's almost bedtime, and my pedometer reads 8728 steps. Yesterday I logged 8234 steps. The last time I broke 8000 steps in a day was February 9, when I really aggravated my hurt foot and had to start taking resting the foot seriously.

Right now, the foot feels as good as it did Sunday evening. This is after walking over a mile continually on my lunch hour both yesterday and today. Today I was able to jog up and down my hallway for a minute and a half.

The irritation of the tape on my right foot is becoming more annoying than the soreness. I take this to be progress. I'm beginning to think about having some full walks on the lunch hour, and maybe a short run later this week.

I'll still need to feel my way through coming back slowly. The last thing I want is to re-injure the foot and take another solid 6 weeks off from running. And it's unreasonable to think I can train to run a full 13 miles by April 29. But the prospect of doing 13 miles in a run-walk or pure walking mode by then seems possible. Not certain, but possible.

In other news, this morning I actually felt like exercising. I probably would have got it in even without the entrenched habit of exercising when the steel cut oats simmer.

It may be too soon to say I've totally weathered the storm, but right now this feels pretty good. I want to try to build on it, gently and slowly, while my paid work sucks up more hours between now and July.

With luck, by the time work gets really frantic running will be a good stress relief again. Just have to remember that "stress relief" doesn't have to mean "running further and faster than ever before."

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

HEALTHIERKEN 3/22/2012 9:58PM

You're getting there! Yay : ) Report Inappropriate Comment

WATERMELLEN 3/21/2012 8:42PM

Sounds very sensible. The rate of injury for runners is (I'm thinking) pretty close to 100% over time . . . Loved to run myself, my favourite form of cardio for sure: but eventually had to accept that the injuries were going to make all exercise impossible. Report Inappropriate Comment

ONEKIDSMOM 3/21/2012 6:32PM

Progress is always welcome. Stress relief without injury is the goal, right? Report Inappropriate Comment

RG_DFW 3/21/2012 12:27PM

glad to hear Report Inappropriate Comment

KRISZTA11 3/21/2012 4:13AM

I'm glad you are feeling better! Report Inappropriate Comment

STRIVERONE 3/20/2012 10:40PM

If the palliation is more irritating than the injury, you've reached the tipping point in your foot recovery. Comment edited on: 3/20/2012 10:41:09 PM Report Inappropriate Comment

Progress in Slow Motion

Sunday, March 18, 2012

The standard advice of only weighing yourself once a week doesn't work for me. I need to weight myself daily and see those small changes, so I know when a current day's weight is an anomaly.

But the philosophy of only looking once a week is beginning to make sense to me with recovery from injury. Yes, that same troublesome foot I've been whining about since early February is still less than 100%. Progress is slow.

Reviewing my last blog from a week ago, I see that I tested the foot with a walk of 0.47 miles two weeks ago, and that was too soon. Last week I managed two 10 minute walks on my lunch hours Tuesday and Wednesday, for distances of more than half a mile each. Then Thursday and Friday it felt inadvisable to walk that far. But I was able to get short intentional walks in.

This morning I was able to do some light barefoot running up and down my hall for 30 seconds. It's clear that the foot is not yet ready for real running, but it's better than it was a week ago. This afternoon I gave it a test of walking "around the block," which is an odd shape where I live. That's 0.86 miles, which I covered in 13 minutes for a 15:11 pace per mile. I could feel the foot, but it didn't keep me from walking normally, at a pace about as fast as a normal walk was before I started running.

Tomorrow I'll see whether those 13 minutes were too intense. I don't think it will be a major setback, but it's possible that I won't be able to do as much tomorrow. I want to work up to walking for real again, but I don't want to find out how much is too much the hard way. That's a puzzle, but no more of a puzzle than maintenance in general.

I think every day this past week, I didn't feel like getting my morning exercise in. I got it in every day anyway, and was always glad afterward. Habit, and the stupid motivational trick of Spark Points are working in my favor there. The current routine includes pushups on the ball, kettlebell Turkish get-up/windmill combinations, KB snatches, deadbugs (as described by EMMANYC), and KB dead clean/squat combinations. I'm working with a 45 lb. kettlebell, and usually treat the deadbugs as a rest between the snatches and the dead clean/squat combos.

On another forum, I read about a Trifecta promoted by Al Kavadlo:

www.alkavadlo.com/2011/05/minimal-eq
uipment-workouts/

This is suppose to be a body weight exercise of squat, pullup, pushup. Start with one rep, pyramid up by adding a rep each set till failure, then pyramid back down. The pullups make it a non-starter for me, both because I can barely do three pullups under optimum conditions, and because I have no good place to put a pullup bar; but the alternative of Australian pullups looks possible for me. I can use an Olympic bar set on my weight rack at the appropriate height. I haven't done this yet, but I think I'll give it at try this coming week some time. The squats and Australian pullups wouldn't bother the foot, and I've already tested and found the foot is good enough for pushups.

On the weight front, the trend was sideways for most of the week. It dipped down for the weekend, but it's too soon to see whether this is a random fluctuation or a need to add calories back. I don't think I've burned all that many more calories in exercise this week.

Outlook for the half marathon on April 29: Unclear. A week ago, I thought it was a no go. Now, it seems possible that I might be able to walk it. Just have to live through the time between now and then and see what is possible to do with an acceptable level of risk.

Edited to add: Tried the trifecta this evening. I reached failure at 8 reps on the Australian pullups, then was close to failure on the downside until I got down to 3 reps. The hard part is that the rest time between pullups got shorter as the reps declined. I wasn't able to work up to enough reps to be challenging on body weight squats or pushups, but it's an interesting format to work towards being able to do real pullups.

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

FIT2BETHIN 3/19/2012 5:52PM

Slow progress. Maybe that should be a new Spark Team! JK Hang in there....sounds cliche. But you are doing really well finding other ways to get fit! ps. those stupid Spark Points motivate me too! Report Inappropriate Comment

CHRISTINA791 3/19/2012 4:28PM

I'm going through the same thing right now myself, and I get the frustration (in my case, it's a shin injury that's slooooowly improving, and my HM is at the end of May). It's hard to be patient when you want nothing more than to be back where you were. One bright side to this is that it's forcing me to focus on areas of a healthy lifestyle that I might have been neglecting before. I love running. Running is easy (in terms of motivation, anyway), and I don't have to force myself to do it. It almost felt like I found the magic key to weight loss for me, and to have that taken away even temporarily is a hard pill to swallow. Now I'm having to go back to forms of exercise I don't enjoy as much and I'm having to watch my eating more than I'm used to... and I don't think that's a bad thing. Of course I want to get back to what I love, but having to plan around an injury in the meantime is a good lesson. Hope your recovery continues and that you're able to do your half! Report Inappropriate Comment

KRISZTA11 3/19/2012 4:11PM

You discovered and mastered a many non-running exercises! I can't recall if you mentioned, has your doctor checked on your foot? Is it healing as it is supposed to be? Report Inappropriate Comment

RG_DFW 3/19/2012 8:39AM

It's good to see that you're not giving up... way to go! Report Inappropriate Comment

WATERMELLEN 3/18/2012 9:18PM

You. Are. Persistent. Under adversity. And that is impressive. Report Inappropriate Comment

ONEKIDSMOM 3/18/2012 8:58PM

Funny how the quality of today's workout always colors the outlook for upcoming events. We're as bad as the sports casters when it comes to predicting our own ability to perform! Hang in & keep on recuperating... you're doing what you can, and that's all one can do. Be proud. Report Inappropriate Comment

A week between blogs

Sunday, March 11, 2012

From the outside, this must look like a loss of focus and/or motivation. There certainly is some truth to that; but as is typical of life, there are a lot of moving pieces.

Work is crazy. When this happens, one of my natural inclinations is to take whatever free time I have as down time, not organized into doing anything productive. Hence, no blogs and few comments on other folks' blogs.

Progress on the eternal foot injury has slowed to where I don't notice it getting better each day. The bad foot is just kind of there. Thursday it felt enough better that I tested it with a walk. Went 0.47 miles in 8 minutes, and that was enough to convince me that this was too soon. The foot got worse, and it's only now about back to where it was before that.

I was getting discouraged with the lack of progress on the foot. It's only 7 weeks till my half marathon, and at this rate I'll just get my expensive technical shirt and not even line up at the starting line. Bummer. So, how bad is it? It's about time to look at some quantifiable stuff.

I donated blood last Monday. Blood pressure was 98/58, and pulse was 44. That's just about the same as last time, so far not affected by taking a month off from running. I wonder how long that can last?

Tonight I tested some light running up and down my hallway, with the tape still on my foot but otherwise barefoot. I could do 2 circuits without significant discomfort, which is better than the last time I tested. However, it's still not time to get out and train for running. :(

Okay, how about pushups? The last time I tested real pushups (as opposed to the pushups on the ball I'm doing each morning), I had to quit at 26 because the bad foot wouldn't support the pushup position. Did a test just now, and got 70 pushups in; and I quit because of upper body strength exhaustion rather than the foot. That's good news.

I also notice that I'm not remembering to ice down the foot or take ibuprofen regularly. That might be slowing the recovery, but it also means the foot isn't constantly reminding me how bad it's hurt. Perhaps that's a progress indicator of sorts.

So I guess it's going OK. I adjusted my calories up and appear to have stopped the weight loss; it remains to be seen whether the next adjustment will be an increase due to more activity or a decrease because of loss of fitness while I can't run or walk distances. But at least controlling the food is something I can do even with a bad foot.

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

HEALTHIERKEN 3/13/2012 11:20AM

Great work with the push-ups! Maybe the shirt becomes a trophy to your overcoming adversity and disappointment instead of a badge of running achievement. Still a good trophy : ) Report Inappropriate Comment

FIT2BETHIN 3/12/2012 10:03AM

Congrats on measuring your progress in other ways! Sounds like you're doing very well! Hang in there....your foot will get better....in it's own sweet time. Report Inappropriate Comment

RG_DFW 3/12/2012 7:40AM

I'm certainly pulling for you to get back to 100 percent soon!! Report Inappropriate Comment

BYFTHALONE1 3/12/2012 5:22AM

While I certainly empathize with you on the race, I missed a scheduled 4 mile race this past Saturday, you know that taking the time to heal is most important. All to often we try to rush things only to set us back. Keep up the good work and before you know it you'll be out there knocking down the miles. Keep the faith! Report Inappropriate Comment

Checking in, no real news

Sunday, March 04, 2012

I see I haven't blogged in 3 days. Part of that has been being busy, part has been not having much to say that's relevant to fitness or nutrition. I've been eating to plan, the weight is kind of stable with a slow downward trend, and I don't see an immediate need to adjust my calorie range. The range will have to come up when I become more active, whenever that may be.

I got a bit bummed out because my bad foot got ever so slightly worse. This wasn't too hard to figure out. The foot had been feeling better, so I felt better about walking briskly and got more steps in. I tested running perhaps too many times. Big surprise, a slight move backwards in the recovery.

So this weekend I've been pretty slothful by post-SP standards. I get between 10 and 20 minutes of exercise that doesn't bother the foot in while I'm preparing breakfast. This makes the slow cooking time of steel cut oats important! And that's about it. I was under 5K steps yesterday, and will be again today.

I was rewarded with an ever so slight improvement in the foot, back to where it had been. When I took the garbage can to the curb this evening, I went out into the snow flurries without a coat. Without thinking about it, I ran back to the garage. It was okay, but the foot still isn't ready for running any real distance. Sigh. Getting the foot back to healthy status is like watching paint dry. It takes a long time, and I'd like to hit the fast forward button.

This is a bit of a downer when I'm reading blogs from people ratcheting up their running or walking mileage to distances I fondly remember running or walking . . . but which are now out of my range. I need to control my competitive urges, and my envy.

Tomorrow is a day off work in honor of a scheduled blood donation. The original plan was to run in the morning before donating blood in the afternoon. That won't happen. I'll find something else to fill my time, something . . . sedentary. That's scary. I could get back into sedentary habits very easily, and I don't know whether I can control my weight with diet alone if I let the activity go.

Oh, well. Guess I need to be sure I always have steel cut oats on hand, so I can get those 10 to 20 minutes in every morning. If that's all I'm going to get in, I'd better get it in consistently.

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

FIT2BETHIN 3/5/2012 9:55AM

Lots of good advice here for the exercise. The important thing is to rest that foot and get creative in your quest toward good nutrition and fitness. Be kind to yourself and accept this injury for what it is: a temporary bump in the road. Hang in there! Be proud of what you've accomplished thus far! You WILL get there again! Your spirit won't allow anything less than that! Report Inappropriate Comment

RG_DFW 3/5/2012 7:46AM

Don't give up... remember that the injury is only a speed bump Report Inappropriate Comment

HEALTHIERKEN 3/4/2012 11:34PM

Let's hear it for steel-cut oats! Have you tried getting back to the kettle bells for a spell? Give you something to do, feed your competitive spirit a little, burn a few calories . . . . Report Inappropriate Comment

ONEKIDSMOM 3/4/2012 8:20PM

On exercises to damp down the competitive spirit? I noticed someone recommended yoga yesterday... I have tried this and while it doesn't "look" like much exercise, it's really, really good for stress, balance, stretching, and breathing. Someone else suggested a pool... don't know if your gym has one, but that, too is a way around mis-behaving feet, sometimes (depends on the nature of the injury, of course). Remember back to your earlier blogs? Goal #1 - don't get injured? Controlling weight with diet alone? Hard. Seriously difficult for me, for sure... but not because it can't be done, because I'm an emotional eater and exercise is my emotion calmer. If Yoga can do that for me... then I can control my weight with diet. Hang in. You CAN do this. I have faith in you! Report Inappropriate Comment

BOBCATGIRL76 3/4/2012 8:12PM

I'm sorry to hear that your foot is still not great. I actually thought about some of your blogs while I was running my 5k. When I finished, I could not imagine ever actually enjoying running, but I guess I'll only know by continuing to do it. I just bought a pedometer and have been wearing it and have gotten 9,000 steps a day but that seems very high. It was cheap so it might not be that accurate. I continue to hope your foot feels better! Report Inappropriate Comment

MSLZZY 3/4/2012 8:05PM

Patience is the key. I'd say I have enough for both of us but I'm here and you are there. Do the best you can while the steel cut oats is cooking. Be as consistent as you can and as patient as you must. Report Inappropriate Comment