A time to heal...

OK, some of you looked at the title and went right to the Byrds.  Those who did not, do not bother, the title is what it is -- no secrets.

My recent trip to Santa Fe (elevation 7000 feet) was revealing in two ways.  First, being at 7000 feet makes one from sea level a little winded by walking, and when it hits nearly 100 degrees F (38C), the air thins even more.  My wife took altitude sickness shortly upon our arrival, and I decided not to push my luck by going on a run.  We walked, and being that Santa Fe can be a little hilly (especially for someone living in the Gulf Coastal Plains), we decided that was enough exercise.  I did come back two pounds lighter, despite all the great food.  Secondly, the plantar fascia in my left foot really began to heal.  It made a lot of progress last week, so I am going to continue to rest it this week.  Even now, it feels 95% well.  We have a lot of work to do around the house and with the property, so I will be busier than usual.

Nonetheless, this week affords the opportunity to do tempo and balance drills, in addition to catching up on some self-study.

Next week I will continue to incorporate cycling and swimming on the same day, pushing the cycling to six miles.  I will continue to run the "HR Intervals", and may incorporate a second run on one of the days.  We'll see; I have to honor the left foot's plantar fascia before getting too crazy.

Meanwhile, keep moving, and forward if at all possible.

Shut down...

Although the frozen roller helped the plantar fascia feel better, it was not enough to take a run this morning.  My walking gate is altered because of the pain, and running will on further exacerbate it.  I am going to put on my common sense hat and do what I would advise others in the same situation to do: rest, ice, compression, elevate (RICE).

Sometimes I hate common sense, but it is too wise to ignore.

Heading into vacation

My wife and I head to Santa Fe, New Mexico soon for a week of fun and sightseeing.  Vacation time always challenges exercise time, and this will be no different.  I am going to try to get some fitness activity into each day.

I have not posted since Tuesday.  Wednesday was a rainout for cycling and swimming, but I got back on-track Thursday with another running workout.  The last three running workouts have been very consistent in terms of times and efforts.  No new breakthroughs to report.  I stepped on a stick (about 1.5 inches or 4 cm in diameter) pretty hard last week (I run in Vibram Five-Fingers ELX), and it has created a pain in the left plantar fascia that is not going away quickly.   I have a foot roller which I keep in the freezer, and I have pulled it out for therapy.  We'll see.

Today's workout saw my best cycling time on my 5+ mile quasi-loop, though much of that gain had to do with waiting less time at traffic lights.  I'll take it, since it was finished with less rest (VBG).  I followed the ride up with a swimming workout which lasted 27 minutes.  It felt good to be in the water, and while I have made some gains in swimming form, I still have a lot on which to improve.  When I found the swimming website Enjoy Swimming, I thought I could use that alone as my coach.  I am not sure that will be true, though I will get a few more sessions on my own before deciding that for certain.

Tomorrow sees another run, and I am hoping the plantar fascia in the left foot is cooperative.  I will coax it tonight with some cold roller time.

Keep moving forward.

Run before the storm

Tropical storm Bill is comin' to get us!  Many businesses closed early or did not open at all because of Bill's looming threat of flooding.  I wanted to get my run in before the rains came.

I had a good run/workout today.  The time of the workout was the same as the previous one, so I am glad for consistency.  My running dynamics (recorded by my Garmin 620) are looking good, but also telling me I might focus on picking up my feet a little quicker.

While trying to extend my running distance between my recovery point and 80% HRmax, I will try to slow my pace.  In doing so, sometimes my form breaks down.  In this case, it is being too vertical causing the feet to land slightly in front of me.  The cure is simple, lean an inch forward (measured from nose, and leaning from your ankles).  It also means to concentrate on heal pickup, being centered, and where the feet are landing.

One other thing I am doing now with respect to form is doing a full arm swing.  If you have Denny Dryer's ChiRunning DVD, you will notice that he does a screen split into four.  He does this to illustrate that his cadence is the same no matter what "gear" he is in: slow, medium, fast, and race pace (he numbers them as 1, 2, 3, 4 and the gears' name corresponds to the inches of lean required).  The other thing to notice on the split screen is his arm swing.  He uses the arm swing to control cadence, and the arm swing is exactly the same no matter his pace.  It looks a little excessive in Gear 1, but reasonable in the rest.  Making the same arm swing regardless of speed is the way to control cadence, so practicing it now, when in Gear 1, is mission critical for me now.

It looks like Bill landed quite west of Houston, so it remains to be seen if I will be able to cycle and swim tomorrow.  The weather people say were are not out of the woods, yet.  Of course, they want to boost ratings, too.

Keep moving, forward whenever possible.

Wheels and water

Today was the first day I combined cycling and swimming.  My ride was my standard 5.3 miles quasi-loop.  After this week I will bump it to six miles.  The ride went well, though my thighs continue to burn (a good thing, overall).  I expect the burning to subside and the speed to increase after this week.

I used my daughter's pool to get back to swimming.  Gosh, I cannot remember the last time I got in the water to attempt a "lap"; it has to be at least 10 years.  All I wanted to accomplish was waking up my muscles to the notion of swimming.  Swimming has never been "fluid" for me (really, no pun intended).  I have always felt my form was bad and my stamina poor.  I was hoping to be in constant motion in the water for 30 minutes, but I only made 22 minutes.

Thanks to my recent surgery, I was able to exhale my full lung capacity through my nose and underwater.  I had not been able to do this before, meaning that my breathing rhythm has been quite poor since forever.  I am sure the breathing problems contributed to my lack of stamina.  I did drills for swimming using only my legs and discovered that, except for the breast-stroke kick, I need a lot of work on getting my legs to aid the effort.  This is where coaching will come into play.  As to waking up my muscles for swimming, it did not take long before my shoulders and arms were providing rather concerned (TIC) feedback.  Overall, adding swimming on cycling days seems to be a good fit, so I will keep it.

If 91L does not prevent me from doing so, I will be back to running tomorrow.  Keep moving forward.

Cool moist blanket beats a warm moist blanket

I got out to run before 7AM today, and the air was definitely cooler.  It was still humid, but cooler is better.  I finished today's workout almost three minutes faster than Thursday's workout.  The best part of today's run was the focus on form, especially in the second half.  When you think about it, the movements you make while running slowly are the same initial movements when running faster.  Running in good form at lower paces will make for good form at higher paces -- which has more to do with increasing momentum in the legs after the initial heel pickup via the body lean.

I would like to say that I am not a star runner, an expert, or anything else.  I am just a guy north of 55 years who discovered the joy of distance running late in life and am trying to recover it.   I have my own heroes and inspiration, guys who are also north of 50 years and have made themselves into very good runners.  They have shown me that the goals I wish to achieve in running are possible, but I must stick with it, just as they did.  I write here to fight my own running demons, to relate the realities of progress, to share the journey, and to encourage others.

I take tomorrow off, let the body rest and recover.  I plan to add a couple of swimming sessions next week, probably on cycling days.  Fixing my swimming form is a goal for the summer, focusing on the four basic strokes: freestyle, breast-stroke, butterfly, and back-stroke.  Right now, I feel my swimming is more akin to punishing the water for existing...

Keep moving forward, and thanks for coming along.

Warmer. Slower.

Yes, it was a full 5 degrees (3C) warmer, and I was 30 seconds slower today compared to Tuesday.  It is to be expected.  I got a late start, hitting the road at 7:30 this morning instead of an hour earlier.  The best time to run is 5 or 6-something, not 7-something or later.  Gotta remember that one.

Two positives to take away from today is 1) I made it to 0.3 miles before hitting HRmax (on the startout), compared to 0.2 miles just three runs earlier, and 2) I went over 1.5 miles being able to recover to 70% of HRmax before running again.  Thermodynamics took over, and by the end of the run, I could only recover to 75% HRmax.  The one negative from today happened late in the run.  I began to feel some knee pain.  With all the work I have done on form the last few years, I was able body-sense and assess quickly.  I made a form correction and was OK afterwards.  When fatigued, it is harder to keep good form, and the heat was getting the best of me.

Yes, I wish I could run the whole thing at 80% HRmax or less.  It is summer, I am overweight (but losing it), I have had a broken ankle and sinus surgery in the last 12 months.  I have no other option but to be patient and keep going.  I want with all my being to get back 10-12 mile weekend runs.  I did not get to there overnight back then, and it will not happen overnight this time.  Endeavor to persevere.  George Wooten penned that (or was it Lone Watie?).

Tomorrow is a cycling day.  Keep moving forward.