Archive for Fitness and Exercise
February 14, 2009 at 3:30 pm · Filed under Don't Be Stupid, Fitness and Exercise
Shin splints suck.
I, apparently, am the definition of the beginner runner, the zealous convert, the veritable King of Too Much, Too Fast, Too Soon.
It started a week ago, when I did this run, a 9.6 mile long, slow run. I felt fine during it - got rewarded with some spectacular views of Denver and the Front Range too. However, much of it was on pavement and asphalt, as there seems to be a dearth of suitable running paths (or I just haven’t looked hard enough).
The next day, mild shin splint pain set in. So, I diligently iced my shins, wrapped them in Ace bandages, talked sweetly to them, bought them dinner, etc. By Thursday, they felt fine, and I thought maybe I was up for a short run at lunch time.
Well, that was a mistake.
A mile out from the office, my shins let me know they were not pleased with me. I took it easy getting back to the building, got some ice from the cafeteria, and began the healing process anew.
They feel okay today, but I’m not taking any chances. I guess I will take the week off and just stick to non-impact cardio, although the elliptical machine and stationary bike have nothing on being out in the world, running.
On the bright side, I am getting some great tacit knowledge about a variety of running injuries, the kind of learning you just can’t get from Google (but probably don’t want anyway).
Still aiming for a marathon this summer sometime. Let’s see what I can hurt next.
January 31, 2009 at 4:14 pm · Filed under Fitness and Exercise, Personal Goals
Was up and out early (for me) this morning, with shoes to the pavement just after 9am. My goal today was a long, slow run of at least 8 miles, possibly 10 if I felt like it -but with my recent spate of injuries, I knew that 10 would be pushing it.
I also changed my run/walk from a 4/1 to a 5/1 - hoping to eventually get back to the 1 minute walk per mile I had before the extensor tendinitis. But, again, I’m not pushing it.
Had a good run - it was a beautiful day in Denver, warmed up nicely from the 40 in the morning to about 60 by the end of the run. I just went where the moment took me, and at about 8.5 miles, I was pretty worn down, but I was also another 2.5 miles from home. So, I stopped for lunch and stretching, and then walked the rest of the way home.
I also decided to play around with MapMyRun.com and charted my run here:
1.31.09 Long Run
It’s not perfect by any means, as I did it quickly, so if you use the satellite view, you might think I’m either Jesus or a ghost as it shows me running across water and through buildings. If you’d like to start a new religion centered around me, though, I would be totally ok with it (so long as I get a cut of the profits).
A year ago, when I was first getting on the “in-shape” bandwagon, I could hardly jog for a few minutes without wanting to stop. I am amazed at where I am now, and amazed even more that my goal is to be able to finish 26.2 miles in a matter of months. It’s going to be an interesting journey.
I am also realizing how badly I suck at writing non-snarky, honest posts (unlike my previous blog), so I will wrap this one up here!
January 17, 2009 at 2:15 pm · Filed under Diet and Nutrition, Fitness and Exercise
The local high school running track, that is.
Despite some minor lateral ankle pain, I decided to give this running lark another go this morning. All in all, the run went well - covered four miles - but did walk now and again, and had some minor pains in toes of my right foot.
I’m not sure what’s going on there, but I suspect because of previous injury I am unconsciously changing my gait slightly and then consciously trying to correct for what I perceive to be poor form, which is just creating a mess. I hope that as I get more comfortable and confident again in my running, it will go away and feel more natural.
There were times in the last couple miles where everything seemed right: running was easy, no pain at all. Of course, once I became aware of it, the moment was gone and I was right back to over-thinking my form.
That said, ’twas a good run overall and I feel better for having done it. I just wish I had eaten something beforehand so I would not have been tempted to stop at the McDonald’s near my house and undo my 40 minutes of running with 10 minutes of eating. Gah!
Ah well, can’t undo what’s done been done. So, movin’ right along.
January 10, 2009 at 2:42 pm · Filed under Fitness and Exercise, Personal Goals
It’s been a long two weeks of resting the right foot, icing it a few times a day, and dropping Ibuprofen like some sort of junkie (although in the last week, I upgraded with a prescription from the doc for a better NSAID with a side-effects and hazards list three pages long - rock on).
However, I think I am just about ready to get out on the road to run again. I’m walking without pain now, with only minor stiffness in the morning (ba-dum-dum).
As a reward for not doing anything too stupid while injured (yet), I ordered the Garmin Forerunner 50 Bundle from Costco, as they currently have a $50 instant rebate. For $80 and change, you get the Forerunner 50 watch, heart rate monitor, and inertial foot pod for measuring distance/pace/cadence/etc. Seemed like a good deal to me, and until their GPS versions shrink and improve (not just one or the other), it’s about all I was willing to spend.
So, with any luck, on Tuesday I will begin training anew for the marathon, with my eye still on the Anchorage Mayor’s Marathon, although I checked out the cost of hotel rooms in Anchorage and nearly died from sticker shock. Ah well, plenty of time to start saving up!
December 31, 2008 at 5:58 pm · Filed under Fitness and Exercise, Personal Goals
I am a runner.
I never thought I would type a sentence like that, at least those words in that order, as I often type sentences that involve personal pronouns, verbs, and nouns.
Even once I was hooked on working out, lifting weights three to four days a week and doing cardio another three days, I avoided running; I stuck to the elliptical trainer, the stair climber, the stationary bike. Running, after all, looked hard.
That all changed back in August of this year (which has another 6.5 hours left in it), when I volunteered to be part of my company’s race team in a local charity 5K race. I had no idea how I would do, but I figured I was in the best shape of my life, so it wouldn’t kill me. I turned in a time of 32 minutes and change, which - yes - was a full fifteen minutes behind the winner, but I was happy just to have finished the race (and, even then, I finished in the top 25%).
I was also hooked.
I entered another 5K race a month later, ran a 28:42 time, and then got this crazy idea: I wanted to run a marathon. Three point one miles… twenty-six point two miles… how different could they be? I set my sights on the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon on May 31, 2009.
I checked out some books from the library* and started training. Things went well for the first four weeks or so, until after a 10-mile run I developed extensor tendinitis, most likely from my shoes being laced too tightly. I got checked for stress fractures as well, but came up with all bones intact.
Just to be safe, I chose to get fitted for new shoes as well, and paid a visit to the Boulder Running Company. I did a video gait analysis with one of their sales staff, and we settled on the Brooks Addiction 7.
Once the injury healed (thanks to Javier for the “dunk your foot in ice water” tip), I used the new shoes for about a week, putting thirteen or so miles on them, when I developed extensor tendinitis again, this time further down my foot where the tendon hooks onto the toe bones. The problem with running shoes is that you don’t know if they’re the perfect shoe until it’s too late to return them.
So, a trip back to the Boulder Running Company, where I worked with a different, older (and probably more experienced) salesman, who listened to my tales of foot maladies and shoes gone bad, and worked with me for probably 45 minutes to find a good compromise shoe… one that wasn’t as quick to wear out as the original pair, but not as rigid as the Addictions.
In the end, I walked out with a pair of Brooks Adrenaline - and the best part is that the store took the other shoes back, even with the outdoor mileage on them, some mud stains, and the bugaboos from my sweaty feet. I highly, highly recommend The Boulder Running Company if you’re in the Denver metro area - it’s worth the drive. Let me say it again:
I highly, highly recommend The Boulder Running Company. They will have my running business for years (assuming I stop injuring myself).
I’m not able to test them out yet, as I still have my foot pain. I am icing it daily, doping myself up on ibuprofen, and taking off my shoes whenever possible. I hope to be able to get a run in on the weekend.
Anyway, that was a really long-winded way of getting to my main point: running kicks ass.
No elliptical trainer session will rival the feeling of being in “the zone,” where your legs seem to move with little effort and your mind is clear and everything feels right in the world for at least that point in time. No stationary bike is going to let you explore new paths and interesting routes for getting in your miles. No stair climbing machine is going to top the feeling of crossing a finish line, of what once seemed an impossible distance, be it a 5K, marathon, or more.
I’ve now got my eye on the Anchorage marathon in June. I used to live in Alaska as a child, and I look forward to seeing how things have changed, or how I just remember everything in ways unimaginably wrong.
I also look forward to crossing the finish line, receiving the finisher’s medal, and knowing I’ve done something so difficult that most people would never even try… maybe, someday, when they have exciting elliptical trainer races the world over, I will go that route, but for now…
I am a runner.
* I recommend Galloway’s Book on Running,Marathon… You Can Do It!, as well as The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer.
December 29, 2008 at 9:24 pm · Filed under About, Featured, Fitness and Exercise, Personal Goals
Yes, it happened.
Again.
Right as I got motivated to resurrect this blog, the very act of trying to change my life got in the way of writing about it. I suspect that’s why Jesus had all those other people write his story (aside from, well, most of it being fiction or loose tales and rambling rumors tied together in to something that, if you don’t read too closely, makes some kind of sense). But, hey, dude’s got 2006 years of success over this blog, so I won’t knock it too much.
Anyway, I’m back.
First goal: a redesign of the site, using as much of a pre-fab theme as possible.
Second goal: actually write something of interest.
Third goal: lose another 10 pounds, run a marathon in June or so, and write about that and other stuff on a regular basis.
That photo is where I am right now, except in real life I’m usually in focus, depending on how many beers I’ve had… a year ago, I was at 199 pounds (which for a 5′8″ guy is, in the parlance of the medical profession, “rather tubby”) and would only run if being chased by something dangerous (something hot and saucy, well, I’d stand still with open arms). As of today, I am at 173 pounds and, prior to some injuries I’ll detail later, able to run 6-10 miles without much problem.
I’ve come a long way, baby.
March 1, 2008 at 4:10 pm · Filed under Better Than Themselves, Diet and Nutrition, Fitness and Exercise
Wow.
“Hubba hubba” could also be a suitable comment about Jennifer Marnell’s transformation.
February 5, 2008 at 9:25 pm · Filed under Better Than Themselves, Diet and Nutrition, Fitness and Exercise
No, not that one.
Commitment.
I am convinced that, unless you’re of those rare few genetically-destined to be large, your weight problems (and resultant health issues) are simply because you are committed to being one way and not the other. You can say you don’t have the energy, you don’t have the time, you don’t want to look silly in the gym, but it all comes down to your choosing to be, as I was to an extent, a fat slug. You choose to be committed to your desk, your sofa, your television, your Twinkies.
Change, corporate, personal, or otherwise, takes dedicated effort. It takes a vision of where you want to be, and a willingness to commit to getting there, no matter how hard it may seem. Even when you fall off the path, you have to get right back on it and try to do better.
Check out this guy:
Two years ago, Phill Novak weighed 387 pounds.
Reality hit in January 2006 at a Pittsburgh Steelers game. Novak had gone to smoke a cigarette.
“We were walking back up to our seats, and I started getting winded,” says Novak. “I didn’t feel right, I started sweating. I didn’t think I would make it back up. My heart [was] beating a million times a minute; I thought I was having a heart attack.”
“A lot of things went through my head, about saying goodbye to my kids,” says Novak choking back his tears. “I told my friend, ‘This is it, I’m not going to live like this no more.’ ”
Novak, who was approaching his 40th birthday, made it through the football game. As he ate two double-cheeseburgers and a milkshake, he began to think about the limitations of obesity and how it was keeping him from living a full life.
The next day, Novak devised his own game plan and started his weight-loss journey.
He began simply by walking — one mile a day and eating a low-carbohydrate diet of 15-30 grams a day.
“I walked off my first 100 pounds,” he says. “Walked it off, an hour a day. I lost 100 pounds in seven months.”
I thought my losing 20 pounds in two months was impressive, but this guy has me beat hands (and double-cheeseburgers) down.
Two years later, Novak has lost a total of 192 pounds. Today, he runs 30 to 40 miles a week, works out two to three hours a day, does yoga in the morning and squeezes in a push-up whenever he gets a chance at work.
Now maintaining his weight at 195 pounds, Novak says he’s made a lifestyle change and rarely takes a day off from exercise.
I know the feeling.
I hate if a workday schedule keeps me from getting in my planned workout, and on a long weekend I keep looking forward to being able to use the office gym. I would half chalk it up to having a somewhat addictive personality and the other half would be that I am seeing real results from my efforts. Pants I used to squeeze into now fall off of me. Looking in the mirror I see muscles that, until recently, were just the stuff of my own biological rumors. Not to be a walking cliche, but I honestly believe I have knocked years off the clock (even if it only gets me back to where I ought to be).
Doesn’t much hurt that I got hit on in the elevator the other day after working out. Hey hey, look at me, Pavlov’s dog. *Arf*
Anyway, getting here has taken focus and dedication. I’ve had to eat more carefully, abstain from as much of the tasty amber nectar of the beer gods as I might want, and push myself in the gym when I think, “Wow, I’d really rather be in a meeting about some incredibly boring business topic right about now.”
As I have begun to transform myself, a number of coworkers have asked how I am doing it.
I happily provide them the workout templates, the schedule, the ideas behind what I am doing, but they quickly fall into two classes of people: those who hope to find the time to take care of themselves (but seldom do) and those who know this is what they need to do. I can easily compare and contrast two women with whom I work - one is a professional type, looking to be healthier and knowing she should, but our very first workout together was postponed because of her schedule (apparently lunchtime was reserved for caloric intake). Another woman, one of our hourly employees, asked me for my aerobic routine and I gave it to her - and she was in the gym the next day, and today as well, busting her ass to do the hardest 20 minutes of her life. When her coworkers taking leisurely strolls on the treadmill asked her how she was doing, she confessed it was hard but she was not going to quit.
That’s commitment. Commitment in the face of your own weakness and the attempts of your friends to bring you down to their level of effort (or lack thereof).
Even though I might be ahead of her in the fitness race, seeing her effort and dedication was a huge inspiration. I made a point of approaching her afterwards and letting her know how great I thought she had done, because I sincerely did think that.
Here’s hoping she (and I) keep it up!
January 30, 2008 at 5:34 pm · Filed under Diet and Nutrition, Fitness and Exercise
More from the world of medical research:
Increased Fitness Associated With 50% to 70% Reductions in All-Cause Mortality
Sure, yes, we all know exercise is good for you, but perhaps some people need to hear just how good it can be for one’s longevity.
January 23, 2008 — One of the largest studies ever to link exercise capacity to mortality risk should motivate physicians to pay as much attention to patients’ exercise capacity as they do other major risk factors, researchers say [1]. Their study of older male veterans suggests that the adjusted risk of dying was reduced by 13% for every 1 metabolic equivalent (MET) increase in exercise capacity; men with the greatest exercise capacity reduced their mortality risk by 70%.
“For a little bit of investment you get a lot of a return,” lead author on the study, Dr Peter Kokkinos (Veterans Affairs [VA] Medical Center, Washington, DC) told heartwire. “In a time where health insurance in this country is going through the roof, we could do something like walk for thirty minutes a day and reap major benefits.
The study involved did focus on older male veterans, so perhaps the copious benefits of vigorous exercise only apply to them, but I have my doubts.
Favorite quote from the article:
“For god’s sake, if we could walk on the moon we can certainly walk on earth.”
Dr. Kokkinos, we have people who will circle a parking lot for five minutes to find a close spot rather than having to hoof it an extra 50 steps. These folks probably wish it was the moon so that walking would be 1/6 easier - hell, maybe they could just bounce their way to the doors of the Food Court in that case. And eat six times the normal weight of Cinnabuns.
People need to do more. They know they need to do more. They choose not to do more, because it would require effort and be an admission that they have failed in some manner. I know, because I was turning into a fat slug who thought that bacon cheeseburgers, beer, and watching movies on the couch was a fine way to live - and then, well, you know, things changed.
If news like “you will live a lot longer” doesn’t motivate someone to take better care of themselves, there’s not much any of us can do - even on the Moon.
