It’s that time……Again!

I have been a bit lax since the last race in February. It seems, since we moved from Broward to Palm City, we seem to be doing a lot more activities! That is a good thing! 😉

Meanwhile…..back in running land….it is time to start training for the Walt Disney World Wine and Dine half marathon!

To bring everyone up to speed, as I sated, we have been busy. With Cub Scouts, work, and all sorts of “events”, time has grown scarce for training. Then there was the “knee” issue. Yes, “that” knee!

Some time in late May, my left knee began to hurt and lock up. It appears as though something has broken inside the knee and is bouncing around. Off to Doctor Baylis to see what is going on. An X-ray was taken, and it pretty much tells the story.

The knee with the screws in it is my left knee. If you look at the other knee, you can see a nice, smooth space between the knee bones. On my left knee, there is little space and, as I suspected for some time, my knee has worn unevenly which results in my left foot pointing out further than my right foot. The cure for this is…..nothing!

What apparently happened, is that a portion of bone has broken off above the bottom screw in my left knee. That bone, along with other debris, is wandering around in the space in my knee. Because there is no space, these tiny fragments cause the knee to lock up…until they work their way down past the middle of my knee. Then, they languish there for a while.

Dr. Baylis said we could go in and retrieve them, but, we would have to know where they are to get them out. He would only be able to remove the pieces he could get to and if a bunch are down the inner side of my right knee, that would require several incisions to be made just to find them. And, if we couldn’t find them, then it would be a wasted surgery.

Another option would be knee replacement. Which I do not wish to have done. All I hear is how the only thing the replacement corrects is the pain. I can handle the pain. Losing more mobility and the ability to do a lot of things I still enjoy, isn’t really an option at this time.

Looking back on previous years, for whatever reason, in March, April and May, I seem to have these occurrences. Coincidentally, that is also the busiest time of the year for my work. Navigating attics seems to aggravate my left knee, as well as my right knee and back!

So……on to plan F! I am currently getting hyaluronic acid injections. That combined with my newest brace from DonJoy, should allow me to continue to run.

I have also managed to find a set of walking around shoes. The New Balance 670V1s, which fit perfectly. The size is 11.5 4E. As my Saucany shoes are to narrow, I am going to try the New Balance M990V3 shoes which are for mild over-pronators. Hopefully these will work as the Saucanys have created a callous on my left inside front foot.

Right now, I am in day four of the 7-day Total Body Cleanse. I try to do this every 3 months, but it has been a long time since the last “clean-out”! A lot of people have negative things to say about these body cleanses, but I can say, that the one I use, from GNC, works. Usually, by day three, I am feeling much better. This time, it took until day four, but, I am starting to get my energy back.

I am pretty sure, staying on the BSN NoXplod and Nitrix for six months without a break is responsible for my sluggishness as of late. Your body adapts to these supplements and at some point, they do not work. The good news about the cleanse, is that gradually, I am able to tolerate fruit and vegetables. That will be incorporated into the new low carbohydrate diet.

Training will be broken up into to segments, weight training and running.

Weight Training: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, complete body workouts using lighter weights, 3 sets of 12 repetitions to start. Golds Gym has an entire row of machines starting with leg press and ending with arms. I can go right down the row and use every machine!

Running: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday will be running days. Tuesday and Thursday, shorter runs, and Saturday will be a longer run. I will be following the Jeff Galloway running program, and will just start with whatever week it is now as I think I am two weeks late for the very beginning of the program.

Weight Loss: Living the “high-life” adds pounds…quickly! The official starting weight for this training program is 244.5 pounds! YIKES!!

The good news there, is that eating all of this fruit tends to cause bloating and some water retention. That should subside after the cleanse is finished.

We have already paid for the race, and thanks to our Mousekeplanner Extraordinaire Jennifer Upton, our rooms are reserved for the race. All that remains is the training. Hopefully, all of my body parts will hold out and I plan, if all goes well, to run a personal best. I don’t know what the numbers will be, but they will have to be faster than a 2:45 time.

Stay tuned!

Thursday run..another 5 miles!

Yesterdays food diary:

March 6, 2013

FOODS	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Cholest	Sodium	Sugars	Fiber
Lunch
Celery (Km) – Celery Raw Stalks, 2 med stalks	15	4g	0g	0g	0mg	115mg	2g	2g
Publix – Cheese Spread With Pimentos, 2 tbsp	90	4g	7g	3g	10mg	390mg	3g	0g
Dinner
Homemade – Manwich Sloppy Joes With Ground Sirloin, 1 Cup Meat Mixture	280	28g	9g	48g	110mg	0mg	20g	8g
Snacks
Fruit – Pink Grapefruit , 1 grapefruit	52	13g	0g	1g	0mg	0mg	9g	2g
Liquids
Diet Sierra Mist – Diet Soda, 24 oz	0	0g	0g	0g	0mg	70mg	0g	0g
Supplements
Bsn – N.O. Xplode, 2 scoop	50	12g	0g	0g	0mg	470mg	0g	0g
TOTAL:	487	61g	16g	52g	120mg	1,045mg	34g	12g

EXERCISES	Calories	Minutes	Sets	Reps	Weight
Strength Training
Seated Biceps Curl			5	15	15
Triceps Push Down			5	15	30
Seated Biceps Curl			5	15	40
Triceps Push Down			5	15	45
Standard Bench Press			1	12	145
Standard Bench Press			4	15	105
TOTALS:	0	0	25	87	38

And, the run today:

Mile one:                           12:35

Mile two:                           12:17

Mile three:                        13:43

Mile four:                          12:06

Mile five:                           12:10

Total:                                 1:02:51

Total run

Distance: 5.25 miles                Total time: 1:05:41                                     Average pace: 12:31

Before I ran, I still had a lot of pain in my shins. I suspect, I may actually have hurt myself! I started my run using the run/walk interval set at 3 minutes running and one minute walking. Three minutes was a bit much! Although it did produce some good starting times, it was just too much time. I reset the pace to 2 minutes running and one minute walking at mile three.

As a result, mile four and five were much easier to run. I also began to run on the front of my feet to ease the pain in my shins. This worked and I also picked up some speed. I was actually surprised to see that miles one and two were as fast as they were. Looking at the numbers, walking a minute less for miles four and five made the run easier and faster. I find it strange that I can run for a minute more and go slower! Maybe that Jeff Galloway really does know what he is talking about!

Tomorrow is a busy day, two inspections and Saturday is the Heart Walk.

Next week is already booked up with inspections and Doctor visits, then, Saturdays run of 17 miles! I can hardly wait!!

Thursday..luck shines down on me!

The food diary from yesterday:

May 9, 2012

FOODS	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Cholest	Sodium	Sugars	Fiber
Breakfast
Jones All Natural Golden Brown – Breakfast Sausage Link-Fully Cooked, 3 Links	250	1g	24g	7g	45mg	380mg	0g	0g
Generic – Egg Scrambled – Large (Usda Data), 2 egg	140	1g	7g	6g	277mg	88mg	0g	0g
Lunch
Nathan’s – All-Beef Hot Dog, 2 hot dog	340	2g	30g	14g	70mg	940mg	0g	0g
Dinner
Whole chicken – whole chicken , 8 oz	460	0g	34g	0g	200mg	160mg	0g	0g
Ken’s Lite Options Dressing – Sweet Vidallia Onion, 2 Tbs	80	11g	5g	0g	0mg	120mg	10g	0g
Lettuce – Iceberg (includes crisphead types), raw, 1 cup shredded	10	2g	0g	1g	0mg	7mg	1g	1g
Liquids
Diet Sierra Mist – Diet Soda, 12 oz	0	0g	0g	0g	0mg	35mg	0g	0g
Home – Water, 64 oz	0	0g	0g	0g	0mg	0mg	0g	0g
Lipton – Decaffeinated Tea Bags, 3 Tea Bag	0	0g	0g	0g	0mg	0mg	0g	0g
Supplements
Bsn – N.O. Xplode, 1 scoop	25	6g	0g	0g	0mg	235mg	0g	0g
Centrum – Centrum Silver Supplement, 1 Tablet	5	2g	0g	0g	0mg	0mg	1g	0g
Patenthealth,Llc – Trigosamine, 3 capsules	15	2g	0g	1g	0mg	100mg	0g	0g
TOTAL:	1,325	27g	100g	29g	592mg	2,065mg	12g	1

Speaking of yesterday, it appears serious injury has been avoided. After the debacle that was the treadmill workout yesterday, I really did have some concerns about how injured I was. Today, my left knee is very sore, but, I can work with it. My right leg hurts from the bottom of my calf, around to the front near the top of my ankle, up through my calf, and finally, all the way up through my quadriceps! My right calf is sore, but it isn’t the stabbing pain that I had last year.

I am guessing it is just some type of strain and will be fine by next week. In the meantime, I’ll be returning the Dr. Scholls inserts later today!  The one good thing that came out of this is that the inserts did quiet my running on the treadmill as well as relieve the pain on my bone spur. The foot doesn’t hurt at all! Since Zappos gives you free returns and shipping, I am going to try these inserts: Sorbothane. If they can provide me with some extra cushion, that can only help. I really noticed a difference when I took the Dr. Scholls inserts out. My shoes felt almost worn out!

Today is a work day and then later, I’ll be reading up on the Jeff Galloway training manuals that we have here. Training manuals

I’ll be switching to the methods described in the manuals next week as well as just running on the treadmill as a warm up for my regular workouts. I am confident that right now, I could do the 10 mile race and finish in the allotted time, but I do want to make a 10 minute per mile pace which puts me somewhere around an hour an a half finishing time goal.

Until tomorrow……………………………….   🙂

Running Day 24..Weight Training Day 12!

Running

I am a firm believer in the old adage, “The definition of insanity is doing something the same way repeatedly, and expecting different results”! With that in mind, after yesterdays leg workout, I expected the worst, as it was one of the hardest workouts I have done since I started back in the gym. To my surprise, there was only minimal pain in my left knee with a little swelling. My quadriceps in  both legs were a little sore and, some good news, my calves seemed to have loosened up!

At the advise of my long distance coach, Jen, I decided to look into a different training method as far as the running goes. I have always believed that you learn from others who have more experience than you in what you are trying to do. It makes things easier. So, I looked into Jeff Galloway and his recommendations for training for 5K, 10K, 1/2 marathons, and full marathons, in order to adjust my training.

I got up early, actually, our cat Samantha decided that when I got up at 2:30 am to go to the bathroom, she would like to tread on my chest when I returned to bed and give me some “lovin”, so, I have been awake since 2:30 am! I got up and did a few things around the home, did some internet things, and then at 4:30 am, went out for my run.

I started by walking the first third of the first lap, then running the second third, then walking the last third. The second lap was more running a half a lap and walking the second half. The third lap was the same, as well as the fourth. It worked out that way, but, I was actually just walking when my right calf started to hurt.

Two miles in the book, no more pain in the calves than I started with and total time was 15 minutes. I worked up a sweat, but wasn’t tired at all. I also didn’t take any NoXplode prior to running. Although it does provide many benefits, it also causes a slight bloating effect until it completely works its way through your system, which takes about three hours. Tomorrow will be a one mile walk followed by a light leg day at the gym.

Speaking of which…………………….

Weight Training Back and Shoulders

Abdominals

I did three sets of 20 sit ups on the incline bench followed by three sets of 20 reps in the standing leg lift machine. Apparently, Mondays ab workout was a little bit more intense than I thought as my abs were sore for the first time in many years!

Shoulders

Shoulder press: I did five sets of 6 reps with 130 lbs. using both arms.

Shoulder pull ups: I do these on the Smith machine. These are different from the shoulder shrugs as you only move the weight in front of you and you grip the bar with both hands and your elbows pointing out, parallel to the bar. Five sets of 6 using 70 lbs. as the weight.

The “21s”: For this exercise, you take two dumbbells and lift them straight up and out in front of you, seven reps. Then, you  place the weights at your stomach, and pull the weights out to each side, then back to the starting position, seven times. You then press the weight over your head, seven times.  For the second set, I lift the weight straight out and up seven times, then the second and third positions are the same. For the third set, I rotate my hands so my palms are facing up, and lift the weight straight out in front of me, seven times, then the other two exercises are the same.You do these three exercises all in a row, hence the name, the 21s.  There are alternate methods to perform this exercise, but, this is the one I prefer. Three sets of those using 20 lbs. of weight and the shoulder workout is done.

Back

Shoulder pull downs: Five sets of 6 using 120 lbs. for weight.

Seated row: Five sets of 6 using 170 lbs. of weight.

Lat pull downs: No lat pull downs today.

Shoulder shrugs: I do this exercise on the “Smith” machine as it allows you to maintain control of the weight, which in-turn, allows you to target the muscle you are trying to work. Three sets of 10 using 270 lbs. of weight.

Today was a very good day for both running and the workout. I was actually getting tired at the end of the workout, most likely due to the lack of sleep. I will try to stay awake for the rest of the day and hopefully, catch up on my sleep tonight!