Surviving The Loss of Running Muscle Memory

Well here I go again trying something I had not done since last December. I would like to say that I have given up running altogether because of my ankle tendon problems and myopathy stricken thighs due to Atorvastatin, but I broke that non-running habit again last Thursday. Any semblance of running nowadays may be worth writing about because of the glaring absence of it in my exercise logs. So this is what happened last Thursday: I jogged to the bank and back home. Not like what I did a couple of weeks before when I jogged 1 minute and walked 1 minute, but one continuous, non-stop jog other than stopping to withdraw money from the ATM and for stop lights. One might call it a slow jog but jogging already implies slow, so perhaps it was more like shuffling my feet forward and backward. Nevertheless I thought it was faster than my fastest walking pace. So how did it feel? Hmm, very, very different. It felt like I had never ran before because the muscle memory that I had  from decades of running had developed Alzheimer’s disease. The unfamiliar strides I took were the shortest I had ever taken, which was probably helpful because I landed less heavily. What was surprising to me was that I was anticipating for the myopathy to act up, but it never did, so I just kept on plugging along.

Another surprise awaited me on the way home. I ran into Katherine with her dog who also happened to be running to and from her bank. The muscle memory might be gone but at least I remember my neighbor Katherine whom I trained with for years. I may have mentioned her before in one or two of my posts and I'd like to lay to claim that I contributed to her marathon PR in L.A. (correctly or otherwise), because of the workouts we did together especially the ones on the track in Long Beach City College. For two people who supposedly don’t run anymore, it was funny to have met on the street while running to and from different banks. We separated ways after exchanging a few pleasantries.

A couple of blocks from home, I had to do a double take in a strip mall because I noticed that the video store I used to rent DVD’s from had closed down, no doubt due to lack of customers who have probably since switched to Netflix, Red Box, or at worst, illegal downloading. I was sad to see it go. I was there so frequently in recent years that the managers knew my membership number by heart. Another thing that tells you is that I haven’t exercised outdoors much so it was the first time I noticed the video store was gone. A few more minutes later, I was back home from the unexpected 42 minute jaunt through the neighborhood with not much or any permanent damage done to both muscles or tendons.

A couple of days later, I logged another run, but this time it was on the treadmill, which lasted 50 minutes. It almost felt like my running muscles were slowly regaining their memory.  I'm so glad the Press Telegram fixed their Android app (there was a problem with it for a couple of weeks) and it made for better reading while running on the machine.  Okay, this can't be right. What's this showing up in my workout log? Two runs for the week? Highly unusual nowadays. My body has learned to live without running but after a couple of these recent experiences, I'm feeling the craving again. It's like a damn drug! Is that normal?

From that running high came the downer two days later – the tragedy of Boston Marathon 2013. WHY???!!!

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What Has Gotten Me Running Again

So what has been going on in the past two years as far as running is concerned? Since I reached 10 miles last Saturday, what had I done differently? This is a brief accounting of what has happened. It was just two years ago when I gave up running and I actually bought a road bike to try to make cycling my main aerobic workout. Now and then I would make a foray into running but inconsistently. I even joined a walking club but they walked too slowly and I couldn’t find someone with the same pace as mine. After a summer of cycling in 2010, I didn’t take the bike out again because I found spinning indoors or using the recumbent bike, and even just walking uphill on the treadmill made for a more efficient aerobic workout and didn’t take a lot of time like riding on the roads did. During the times I tried running again, I always felt that my fitness level for the activity was close to what it was before and I tended to push the pace to reach that level. The result of course is making the condition of my ankle tendons worse. It was a vicious cycle.

So what changed this year? Let me think… pace, that’s it! Letting go of the pressure of trying to run as hard as I can. Accepting that being slow is ok, that running slowly is better than none. That and decreasing the number of times I run per week to two so the ankle tendons can recovery over 3 or 4 days. An evolution in stride change also helps. After making a conscious effort to alter it, I can now sometimes subconsciously run with a new but slower stride. Whenever I find myself going back to my natural stride, I pull back because that is the one that causes my ankle tendons to overstretch. It’s the push off of the foot that does it. My new stride is shorter and pulls from the front. Those explanations may be simplistic but it took a long time realizing them and those are what work at the present time.

I can’t assume that everything is now hunky dory because I was able to complete 10 miles. There are no hard and fast answers. With stage II and III PTTD (posterior tibialis tendon dysfunction), disaster can strike at any time with a tendon rupture just by taking an unfortunate misstep. I’m only taking it one run at a time – a midweek short run and the AREC training run on the weekend. Not an ideal training schedule and not something you will find in any training program. Well, that’s okay because I’m not training for anything anyway. It’s just exercise.

Other notes on the past 6 or 7 weeks of being able to run: A happy consequence of this twice a week activity? I noticed in the shower that I was  getting my running tan lines again. Since I’ve had these injuries, I no longer have balance if I try to stand on one leg. Whenever I put pants on, I have to hold on to something or lean on a wall. My stride, if you can call it that, feels more like a quarter lunge.

So everything was going well from mid-May to the first week of July when this happened: Oops, Something Happened On The Way to 12 Miles

I’m off the roads again trying to make my left thigh muscle recover. So far I can only do light gears on the stationary bikes without pain. Well, it was a good 7 weeks while it lasted.

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AREC Training 7-7-12: Oops, Something Happened On The Way To 12 Miles

Still OK past 1 mile

Well, I was writing about how I got back on the road and started running again the last few weeks, eventually culminating with a 10 miler last weekend, then as suddenly as I seemed to be getting better, disaster struck on the way to 12 miles this week, perhaps jinxed by what I was writing about. So what happened? Did I tweak one or both of my perpetually injured ankles? Did that developing knee pain from last week get worse? No and no. I consider this more of a freak injury and the same type on the left leg that stopped my every day running streak of 21 years several years ago. It seems to be a deep tissue muscular strain on the outer left thigh just below the hip that happened for no apparent reason. I wasn’t pushing the pace, or pounding the ground too hard, or bounding up 6^th Street hill at about 3 ½ miles when I felt it. I was actually having a decent run up to that point. One moment I’m telling pregnant Ellen “walking pace, right?”, and urging the walking Kenny (or Tenny) to continue running up the hill, then the next moment pain struck. A normal or sane person would have stopped and walked at that point but since I’m neither, I continued running hoping to work the kink out. Based on previous experience though, I knew it wasn’t going to happen, but still I pressed on until the pain became too sharp and unbearable at about 6 ½ miles. So I sputtered and walked back to the finish using a short cut on the course.

Just smiling for the camera at about 5 1/2 miles but I was already in excruciating pain

Since AREC training started this year, I’ve been running with other people, but last Saturday I did not.  In retrospect, I should have stayed back and ran with someone rather than going on my own. There was just too much separation between me and the next runner ahead that I should have pulled back and made the pace a lot more conservative.

So how bad is it? The thigh hurts even just pressing on the clutch while driving and it’s going to hurt like the dickens when I do my cycling workouts. Certainly it will keep me off the roads for at least 2 to 6 weeks. It almost never surprises me any more when I get injured because that’s been my history in at least the last 5 years. It surprised me more that I ran 10 miles last week.

The Aftermath: Thigh bound in elastic bandage and ankles braced.

 Despite the protracted run and the weeks of rehab ahead, I’m still I’m grateful to have had 6 or 7 good weeks of running and met new people in the process. Old and new running buddies, please forgive me if I’ve gone missing and you don’t see me on the roads any time soon, but like a bad rash, I’ll be back.

p.s. I’ll post the blog about my running comeback (the one that caused the jinx) after this one.

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AREC Training – Week 3 and Ankle Remediation Techniques

Tools of Recovery

Saturday, May 19^th was the third week of AREC marathon training. I wasn’t sure if I could make it this week because it was my weekend to work and waking up too early makes it difficult to make it through the night while on duty. Due to the unfortunate circumstance of my grandfather’s death last weekend, I am currently on bereavement leave.

 So back to the training run. More people showed up this week and it appeared close to double the number compared to the previous two. I even got to talk to a few people whom I haven’t seen for a while. Leila was there last week but I didn’t see her until we started and she was faster and too far ahead to catch. We were able to catch up a little bit before today’s start. The person I was surprised to see was Monica who I ran with a few times three years ago when she satisfied one of the must do things on her bucket list by running a marathon. I knew that she had moved to Texas some time last year and that’s why I was surprised to see her approaching me this morning. Two weeks ago, I happened to see someone with the same last name as Monica’s listed in the sign up roster and she confirmed that it was her daughter.

When we started running, I again tucked behind Michael and Rosie who were guiding the 12 minutes per mile runners. I saw Kim and asked her how married life was treating her because she mentioned last year that she was getting married soon. Well I was presumptuous because it’s not happening until June 2^nd (my birthday!). After a brief chat, I caught up with pacer Michael who had already ran 5 miles beforehand with Rosie and Nick. Wow, some of these peeps are hard core! I saw Kathy about 30 yards ahead and told Michael that I’ll try to keep her company. She told me she was recovering from an injury that she aggravated when she ran 21 miles at the Big Sur Marathon course four weeks ago. We were joined by another runner who was supposed to do the 4 mile course but gut waylaid and the three of us ran together until 4 miles where another lady whose name I didn’t catch pulled me to the finish. Actually, she didn’t know the course so I helped her with that while she pulled me along. When we finished, I went back on the course to look for Michael and Rosie. I joined them in finishing, then the three of us added another half mile plus so they could put 12 miles in. My guesstimate total was very close to 7 miles since I haven’t been wearing my GPS watch of late. Total miles ~7, total time = 1 hour and 15 minutes which is the most I’ve run since last year. Not bad for a gimp, I’d say.

Thus far, it doesn’t seem like I’ve aggravated the tendons in my ankles despite running twice a week for the last three weeks. I’ll have to wait till tomorrow and the next day to get a more accurate assessment of how the ~7 miles affected my posterior tibialis tendons. Here are the things I’ve been doing post run: When I get home and after showering, I apply some capsaicin ointment on my inner ankles, bind them in semi rigid braces, and pop a Motrin (after Saturday runs only). I have to keep the braces on for a few hours for two or three days to minimize movement and pain. Somehow this works better than icing which I stopped doing. This is what I call my ankle remediation techniques or damage control techniques. About the frequency of running? Well, twice a week seems to be working quite well so far. Thank goodness for that J.

The Ties That Bind

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The Boulder, The Thigh Injury, The Oil Change Walk, and the Pregnant Dream

So there was this rock that rolled into town two weeks ago and I was planning on seeing it on my way home from work. I even made a note of it on a post it pad. Well I totally forgot about it until was at a grocery checkstand and I overheard a cashier mention it to a coworker. I drove less than a mile from the store and found the rock where it was supposed to stay all day. They only moved it at nighttime to minimize traffic problems. The rock was parked in the center median and occupied the inner lanes of both sides of the streets leaving the outer lanes for the vehicles to travel through. I took a picture of course but it’s not anything you haven’t already seen in the newspapers or the internet. Truthfully, I was slightly underwhelmed because I thought it would be bigger than the monstrosity that it already was. Maybe because it was shrink-wrapped in white plastic. Nevertheless, it was nice to experience the unusual event so close to home.

You would think that I had enough problems with my ankles when I do one of my infrequent attempts at running. A couple of weeks ago, the plan was to run a little and walk a lot for about an hour just like I’ve been doing in Signal Hill. It went pretty well at the start because I was able to do my full stride on the running portions no matter how short in duration they were. About half an hour into it, my plan was spoiled when I began having some pain in my left thigh. Oh my, another tribulation. It was not a new type of injury though because it was something I’ve had three times before. The last I can remember was about 4 years ago. The difference was that in the past, I would have kept on running regardless of the pain. This time, I stopped and walked the rest of the way and just extended the workout to an hour and a half. I haven’t tried running since.

On a related note, there was finally a Q&A on the Runner’s World website addressing PTTD (my permanent ailment). Here is the link:  http://sportsdoc.runnersworld.com/2012/03/orthotics-recommendation-for-ruptured-tendons.html. There might be a slight hope for some relief but first I have to find a talented orthotist as mentioned in the article.

A week after the thigh injury, I had my car serviced (smog check and oil change). While that was being done, I was able to do a walking workout of about 8 miles. Rain was in the forecast for several days and the clouds were already thick that morning but fortunately I was spared from it. The walk lasted two hours and I was actually back at the shop in an hour and a half. When I saw my car was still in the oil change bay, I tacked on another 30 minutes. The only running I did that day was to cross one street. When I had my car serviced in past years, I would either run around the neighborhood or if I took it to the shop on a workday, I would take their courtesy shuttle home, go to sleep, wake up in the afternoon and run to the shop to pick up my car. What a time saver, and oh how I miss those days.

The L.A. Marathon was held last Sunday morning and I watched it on TV while riding my stationary bike. I didn’t realize it was the 27^th iteration of the event already. The first time I ran it, it was L.A. Marathon V in 1990 which finished at the L.A. Coliseum. I mentioned the marathon because I had a weird dream Sunday night about a running acquaintance who ran in it. I dreamt that she was pregnant, had a C-section, ran the L.A. Marathon a few days later, then the evening after the race, she was singing and dancing in a Filipino reunion party. I still haven’t told her about that dream. Should I tell her before, or after she runs the Boston Marathon in a few weeks?

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Catching Up With Runner’s World, etc.

Oh boy, am I delayed in my magazine reading! The January issue of Runner’s World magazine had already arrived even before I could finish the December issue. I decided that if it was a quiet night at work, I would try to catch up. Having finished my routine work early last Monday night, (doing rounds, taking vital signs, charting, and making new chart packs) instead of grabbing my netbook, I took out the two issues of RW and started reading. I was already at the last article of December about why you don’t see too many African American runners, so I was able to finish that issue rather quickly. Then I started on the January issue. Ever noticed how much thinner this magazine is now? It’s becoming more like my local newspaper – filled with advertisements. The magazine was so thin that I was able read it halfway before stopping to save some for the next day. I have a three year subscription and  am only being charged less than a dollar each issue so I have no complaints about the thinness and the ads. They have to make a living after all.

I don’t know why I’m still subscribed though, because training hasn’t changed much through the years and they are practically saying the same things over and over. However there are human interest stories that are nice to read. It’s just disappointing that I am no longer able to try some of the workouts that the magazine suggests. One of the best ones I’ve tried before all my ankle problems started was the 3/2/1 intervals which I’ve mentioned in previous posts. After a 10 minute warm up, run 3 minutes at about a 10k pace, recover by jogging for 1 minute, then for 2 minutes pick up to a 5k pace, then 1 minute recovery, then 1 minute at a 400 meter pace, then 2 minutes of recovery jogging. One set of that gives you 10 minutes and do 3 to 4 sets of that plus a 10 minute cool down at the end. It’s a tough road interval workout that can take the place of a track workout. Better to do if you have a variable interval timer watch. You’d be very thankful when you reach that 2 minute recovery jog at the end of each interval because by then you would have gone anaerobic.

Speaking of recent running, my ankles were hurting for several days after last Tuesday morning’s (not yesterday, but last week) treadmill run because I wore thinner soled shoes. They were still motion control shoes but the soles were slightly thinner than the one’s I usually wear. Not only that, but I tried increasing the pace slightly and that increased my pounding against the surface. Say what you may about the advantages of barefoot running but that just doesn’t work for collapsed ankles like mine. I need the thickest ,most supportive motion control shoes plus orthotics to minimize the side to side movement. Enough said about running for today. I probably spent more time reading Runner’s World than actually running this past week. At least I’m caught up with that part of life.

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Saturday’s 12.1 Mile Walk and Schedule SNAFU

Well folks, I did my last long walk last Saturday morning, three weeks before the Long Beach Marathon. I know three weeks is a long time to taper for just a half marathon but it may take that long for my ankle tendons to recover, not to mention  left leg shin splints. I was finally able to summon the energy to wake up early Saturday morning so I could join our AREC running club. The marathoners were doing their second 20 miler while the halfers were doing 10. I wasn’t sure if I was going to start earlier than 7 a.m. or start with the whole group on time. Fortunately I saw Deb and asked her if I could walk with her. She was planning on doing 6 miles. We started with the whole group and by the first quarter mile we were trailing everybody. I haven’t talked extensively with Deb since she got a new job a few months ago, so that’s what we chatted about mostly, and also about the eating disorder - anorexia nervosa because she knew somebody who was having that problem. Her partner was out of town and was doing her 20 miler on trail in Maryland. Other than the first year of AREC training, Deb and Kate have been training with the group for 6 years now. Deb had already done 8 miles in prior weeks so she decided to cover the same distance on this day. We separated ways upon reaching 6 miles, she on the way to the finish and me on the way to the 10 mile turnaround point. Oh, boy, was I ever appreciative of her company because the 6 miles with her didn’t feel that long. So I continued on, turning around at Ocean Boulevard and 60^th Street. When I reached the finish, I decided to extend the walk one more mile out and a subsequent mile back with another 1/10^th tacked on. That way if I ever make it to the starting line three weeks hence, I know I could do 12.1 miles, and all I had to do was one more mile to finish.

There is however one glitch to this plan. Even though I’m already signed up for the race, I didn’t realize till last week that I’m scheduled to work that weekend. Last year the event happened to be on my weekend off and I mistakenly thought it was the same this year. I’ve been asking coworkers to work for me but so far none have been available. My only recourse may be to call in sick on Saturday night so I can do the race on Sunday morning. That would mean that the nursing supervisor would have to put me in to work the following weekend.

Given how bad my ankles have become in the past year (they are aching as I type this), I had planned this race as my last hurrah because dealing with the pain after long walks isn’t worth it any more. I can’t even do a walking workout more than twice a week. That’s why I really need to be at that starting line in three weeks. I’m still hoping that someone can cover my shift otherwise it would be an expensive race t-shirt for me with no finisher’s medal if I don’t make it to the race.

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Post-Crooked Running Workouts

After doing all that crooked running two Saturdays ago, my ankles couldn’t quite recover even though I kept myself from running again since then. The pain in the past week was just too much despite all the icing, compressing, and elevating. That means I didn't even bother preparing my running gear on Friday night and missed the AREC training run this past Saturday morning. I even avoided walking so as not to put pressure on the sore tendons, so the workouts for the past week have been limited to the stationary bikes with a few bouts on the elliptical machine and rowing machine. I even had to go overtime on the bikes one morning because I lost control of my eating the previous day. There was a sale on cookies with lemon flavored cream filling and they were so yummy that when I started eating them, I found it hard to stop. I’m now trying to keep it down to three cookies as dessert after a meal. Just one bout of mindless eating and you pay for it dearly.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before now, that I’ve started using the rowing machine again. I find it hard to do a rowing workout for extended periods of time so I do a sort of circuit training among all the machines in my living room. I usually start off with rowing for 5 minutes, followed by 5 minutes each on the elliptical machine, spinning bike, and recumbent bike. That makes one set. I do three sets and I’ve done an hour long workout while avoiding the boredom of doing it on only one machine. Heck I only usually do 40 to 50 minutes on the recumbent or spinning bikes if I use those by themselves. Five minutes increments on each machine at medium intensity makes it more manageable and easier on the mind, rather than thinking of it as a whole hour of working out. I turn the TV on for the rowing portion, then turn it off and read the newspaper on the other machines. It’s not as satisfying as finishing an hour run, but it’s enough to keep the endorphin cravings at bay.

This is life with a bad case of PTTD. Run a few weeks as the tendons allow, stop a few weeks when they protest. By the way, I bought a roll of Kinesiotape from Walmart a few days ago but I haven’t applied it yet. It was a surprise to find it at that store because previously you can only buy them online or locally from podiatrists and chiropractors. Although I think my PTTD is beyond help from Kinesiotaping, I’m willing to give it a try. I’ll let you know how it works out.

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The Crooked Runner

If you told me four weeks ago that I would be running 9 miles this past Saturday, I would probably tell that you must be more delusional than I am. But that’s exactly what happened during AREC’s training day so I could debunk such delusion. I didn’t have anybody to pace with so I had to run mostly by myself except around 5 miles when I tried to keep up with this lady who’s name I learned later was Elsie. The problem with trying to keep up with her was that she would throw in some surges ever so often and I’m more of a rhythm runner. Besides, surges don’t sit too well with my injured ankles. So I had to let her go and I trailed about 50 meters behind her after 7 miles. I had to take a couple of 40 second walk breaks in the last mile but in spite of that I was surprised that my pace became quicker so much so that I was able to catch up and pass Elsie and also Rick who was about 75 meters ahead at the 7 mile mark. Those two walk breaks really helped make my ankles recover somewhat. Now I’m wondering if I should just do that for the whole distance instead of taking the breaks when my ankles start hurting. I was very elated to finish strong and for being able to cover the distance when I’m not supposed to be covering any distance at all. But oh, the soreness the morning after! Because I’m not able to run as often as required to avoid the said muscular soreness. There is a minimum of three runs a week to avoid the soreness but once a week of supreme effort is all I could muster. And that’s not even mentioning the tendon pain. Like I said before, I don’t mind muscle soreness but it takes longer for tendon pain to recover. I question myself sometimes if one day of running is worth the rest of the week in pain. With the type of injury I have, everything can change tomorrow and I’d be back to walking, if that. But last Saturday morning, I truly appreciated what my body allowed me to do.

p.s. As you can see in these photos, I’m mostly leaning to one side when I run nowadays due to muscular and joint imbalances, thus I am a crooked runner.

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Running Aimlessly

Having not recovered from last Saturday’s 8 ½ mile run, but itching for a different type of workout other than what I’ve been doing indoors in the past three days, it was a gamble deciding to put on my running clothes and venturing to the sunny outdoors of my neighborhood. I really wanted to run on Tuesday but had to put it off for Wednesday because my ankle tendons were still tender. I figured I’d just stop and go back home if I started to hurt too much so I wanted to keep it in the vicinity. I wasn’t even sure which direction I was going when I got out the door but started heading North, then West, then it became aimless after that point. All that mattered was running slowly for four minutes and taking a one minute ankle-recovering walk break afterwards. Maybe I’ll turn down this street, wait, maybe a couple more streets down past this construction zone. Make a left, a U-turn, a right on a street where a friend used to live, then ten minutes South on the L.A. River bike path. At this point thirty minutes into the run, my GPS watch indicated that the lap memory was full so I had to stop and walk until I figured out how to reset it to zero. Resuming the run, I headed back North, down another street, into the neighborhood park, added a few minutes by running up and down a couple of short hills, then headed back home to finish fifty minutes of meandering and aimless running. Finally! A relief from indoor cycling, rowing, and from the elliptical machine. Let’s hope the ankles will have healed enough to run on Saturday. Weight training having been done yesterday, now to start my abs workout…

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Making Do With The Treadmill

So I’ve been lazy about posting lately and of course that has something to do with not being to talk about my running experiences due to my ankle tendon problems. I never thought I would ever say this: I’m making do with treadmill runs and even getting pleasure from finishing an hour on it. This lower impact alternative is better than not being able to run at all. I’ve had more treadmill runs in the past two weeks than I’ve run on the road. My pace is slow enough to read the newspaper except I have to reread some lines and paragraphs to comprehend the words that just passed in front of my eyes. Even if I wasn’t reading, I don’t think I could go much faster anyway because I’m keeping the pace only to the point where my ankles don’t get overstretched. One thing good about trying to read while running on a treadmill: you have to try to run smoothly and not bounce up and down too much thus lessening the impact of your stride. In the condition my ankle tendons are in though, I don’t see myself ever running long distances again. One hour on the road or treadmill two to three times a week is all my joints can tolerate.

I don’t know if this is real or just my perception of things, but the anesthetic effects of endorphins seem to last much longer than NSAIDS as far as my ankle tendons are concerned. When I don’t overstretch the tendons, the usual pain is numbed between 8 to 12 hours. The only NSAIDS I take is a daily aspirin for heart health and that doesn’t even come close to numbing the pain compared to an endorphin high. Of course when the ankle tendons are overstretched, no amount of endorphins or NSAIDS help. By trying to run easily and slowly, I’m trying to keep the pain to a minimum. That reminds me of part of the lyrics to the song “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera – “slowly gently…”

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Random Running Thoughts For Late January 2011

If you haven’t noticed, I have not been posting as often as I have in the past couple of years. It’s all because I had to stop running and had nothing new to pass along. As I try to run gingerly again, maybe I can find something to write about, even if it doesn’t involve marathon training or racing because putting one foot in front of the other while trying to avoid pain is an adventure in itself.

It’s going to be Groundhog Day soon and we will find out if the groundhog sees it’s shadow or not. As for me, I have seen my shadow while running this past week and it isn’t pretty. It looked like I was moving in slow motion, which I guess is better than glacial pace, but nevertheless, pathetically slow. No matter, at least it was a semblance of a jog.

I successfully completed an hour of non-stop running on pavement last Saturday morning. Well, mostly non-stop. I ducked into a Target store at the 25 minute mark to check out a product that I wanted to buy (a more comfortable replacement saddle for my spinning bike). They didn’t have it, so I resumed my run till I finished an hour without doing any walk breaks. Would you believe that there was only a difference of 9 seconds per mile between the run/walk technique and running non-stop? I might as well do the run/walk all the time because it causes less pain on my ankles.  Anyway, I added calf or heel raises to my workout regimen in an attempt to strengthen the muscles supporting the ankles. Maybe that added to the soreness I felt after running non-stop.

Hell on shoes. That’s what I am. No, nothing to do with speed a la hell on wheels but more to do with the damage done on the outsole of running shoes, you know – the rubber that hits the road? I’m such a severe overpronator and a heavy strider that the outsole of my shoes are worn out after just a few weeks of use.

Wow! Does this mean I’m writing about running again?

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Running Shorts In My Laundry

I had been biding my time before venturing to run again. I figured that each day that I would be able to hold myself back from running, would be another day of healing. So what about running again? After three weeks or so of resisting the urge to do so, I tried running a couple of times on the treadmill the other week at a very, very slow pace. The first time, I did a 4 minute run then a 1 minute walk for a whole hour. The second time, I was able to do a slow jog for 40 continuous minutes. Three weeks of rest didn’t do much good for the developing PTTD on the left ankle.  However, as usual I had good days and bad days. The following week, I did a couple of jog/walk workouts for an hour each time. Then on Monday morning I was able to jog for an hour and five minutes non-stop on the treadmill without too much strain on the ankle tendons. I may never be able to run hard again or for extended distances but for now, some running shorts have been finding their way to the laundry basket again.

To try to strengthen the muscles around the ankles, I’ve been doing toe contractions where you scrunch your toes as if to pick up objects from the ground. Although it helps a little, it hasn’t been enough so I had to find other strengthening workouts. I had been looking for Thera-bands which can be used to rehabilitate my ankle tendons, but couldn’t find any in drugstores. I found something similar and cheaper at Walmart with the Gold’s Gym brand name (Thera-band is a brand name by itself). With these wide rubber bands, I could do ankle flexions, extensions, and eversions with resistance, which I hope would strengthen the muscles surrounding the ankles. How much it helps remains to be seen. The left ankle has more potential to be rehabilitated because the posterior tibialis tendon has not ruptured, but the there isn’t much I can do with the right side since it ruptured a couple of years back.

While looking for Thera-bands, I saw that drug stores are now selling pulse oximeters for home use which costs about $50.00 (Pulse oximeters measure the level of oxygen in the blood).This was a surprise because in the past, only healthcare professionals can buy these and you probably would have needed a prescription from the doctor. Anyhow, I If I looked, I would probably have found a cheaper version of pulse oximeters at Walmart too.

                So there it is. I’ve taken the first tentative steps in my attempt to return to running or jogging. My muscles seem to have forgotten how to do it because they get sore despite the slowness and short distances. Nevertheless, it’s better than having to ride the stationary bike all the time and I get to wear running shorts again instead of just cycling shorts. If my laundry basket could talk, it would probably ask – “where have you guys been?”

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Random Running Thoughts for Early January 2010

Whoa! That was my first reaction when I saw the Vibram Five Fingers print ad in the January issue of Runner’s World magazine. Most subscribers have probably seen it already and I’m wondering what their reactions were. Me, I’m just catching up on reading it since I got my copy in the first week of December. For those who haven’t seen it yet, what I’m talking about can be found between page 48 and 49. Damn! There is a nekkid woman in a running magazine(please don’t correct my misspelling, it’s intentional)! I wanted to scan it to show here but it was a foldout page that was too big. Ok, I found the pics and here it is:

As runners, do you care how much you eat or just go for broke because you know you can run off the calories anyway? We know that running gives us the most bang for buck in terms of calorie burn. Well, how about when you cannot run due to injury, weather or whatever? What would you do then? Other types of workouts don’t seem to do the same job as running does. Regardless of what type of activity you do, there are no shortcuts. You still need to put in the time and effort.

While searching for new ways to deal with posterior tibialis tendon problems, I found a $40.00 over the counter rigid orthotic that looks and feels almost exactly the same as my $250.00 prescription orthotics. However it’s thermoplastic instead of graphite composite. Still, that’s a big difference in price. No wonder health insurance companies don’t pay for sports orthotics – because you might find non-prescription ones that might work or a pedorthist can make adjustments to it to fit your foot condition better.

Last Christmas was my 30^th here in the U.S. which coincides to the number of years I’ve been running. Running was the sport that enabled me to immigrate to this country after all. Thank you running and thank you U.S.A for taking me in.

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Reflections in the Past Year of (Not) Running

The year in review: This is a summary of my trials and tribulations and attempted comebacks in 2010. The year ended the same way it started, meaning - I’ve stopped again due to worsening ankle tendon problems. That makes a total of 4 times for 2010 that I had to quit my beloved recreational activity. What ended it this time was a lung busting, ankle breaking one hour fartlek workout just before Christmas.

I’m sure this tired topic has been heard or read by some of you so many times already if you have been following this blog for the past 2 years, and I’m sorry about that. At the start of 2010 during the winter, I was just recovering from another one of the episodes of overstretching my right ankle posterior tibialis tendon while trying to keep up with Cindy who was a much faster runner than I am. When it got a little better in the spring, I did the Wrigley River Run 10k. Two weeks after that, my left ankle tendon started to hurt so I took 6 weeks off, thinking that was the end of my running days. I even purchased a road bike to use as an exercise substitute to running. At the end of 6 weeks, this time in the summer, my left ankle felt a little better while the right side was status quo, so I tried running again. That lasted all of two weeks because I strained my right calf and had another lay off from my beloved sport, which made me miss the Long Beach Marathon. Finally at the end of summer going into fall, I restarted running gingerly. Disaster struck in the winter while doing the above mentioned fartlek workout, when my “good” left ankle finally gave in. That makes a total of 4 stoppages due to injuries just in one year, the most number of times I’ve had to quit. Have you noticed a pattern here? Every time I start running harder, or picking up the pace when I’m feeling good, that is when I start hurting my ankle tendons again. All that is a result of the original right ankle tendon injury which has caused numerous imbalances to my biomechanics and stride.

 The pain in my left ankle is now where my right ankle felt 6 or 7 years ago when that original injury just started. The pain is pretty constant nowadays on the left side which is not a good sign. The difference between then and now is that I was still running every day 7 years ago regardless of pain, and I was able to do so because I still had one leg to rely on to support most of my weight. Today however, I literally don’t have a leg to stand on, or at least to run on anymore. Thus the latest stoppage. This comes about 30 years and change after I ran my first marathon in 1980. After 30 years of running with less than ideal biomechanics, I’m surprised I even lasted that long, and it bears special mention again that 21 of those years, I managed to run every day. Will this finally be it for running, never to make another comeback? I’m going to take a few weeks off to find out if the left ankle can still recover and take it from there. Meanwhile, I consider 2010 the four seasons of my running discontent.

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Wimp Out Due To Rain? Or Rational Decision?

Saturday morning’s scheduled AREC run was 10 miles for one group and a longer 18 miles for those training for a marathon. All that to be done in the forecasted rain. Based on my injuries earlier this year, 10 miles appears to be the breaking point of my leg joints and muscles so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I set all my running rain gear out Friday evening: shoes, socks, shorts, long sleeved shirt, Goretex jacket, hat, gloves, GPS watch, ID, cell phone, hard candy, MRE’s. Oh, wait, not the last one. Should I run very easy like last week? Do the 4:1 Galloway method? Wimp out because of the rain and run on the treadmill instead? In the end, my final decision was not made because of the distance or the weather but because my ankles were still aching from last Thursday’s unplanned fartlek workout.

 Let me explain. It was supposed to be a GPSless slow and easy run, but 15 minutes into it, I decided to pick up the pace for the length of a block then recovered on the next turn. Well, instead of continuing in an easy pace, I kept doing the block-long pickups and recoveries until I finished an hour of what I considered an impromptu fartlek workout. It felt really good picking up the pace but the downside is that increases my pounding against the ground so much nowadays that it overstretches my already tender ankle joints. I was hoping that they would recover on Friday so I could join AREC on Saturday morning, but it was not to be. My ankles were hurting too much and I didn’t want them to get worst. Instead, I just repeated Friday’s recumbent bike workout plus 5 more minutes. This was the workout for Friday and Saturday: 4 minutes fast cadence on easy gear, 3 minutes on medium gear while trying to keep the cadence up, 3 minutes on heavy gear = 1 set. Repeat to finish 4 to 5 sets. Not the same feeling as running but it was gentler to my ankles while keeping my pulse rate up and my breathing heavy. Good enough. I might not try to run again until next Tuesday. In the meantime, ice, ice, baby.

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The Shape of Things

I am currently in terrible running shape because I couldn’t run as much as I want to or even just do maximum of three runs a week. When or if I can depends on how my ankles feel that day. I have to experiment wearing different orthotic and shoe combinations to find out what works best and more comfortably on any given running day. Since running nowadays has been a struggle, I’m out of breath faster and am unable to go far. You probably won’t believe how I can derive joy and pleasure in such small successes like the 45 minute slow treadmill run I did last week. It was enough to trigger the pleasure zones in my brain.
When my ankles won’t allow me to run, I have to rely on other, less satisfying workouts. Here is an example: My watch band broke last Sunday night so instead of running the next morning, I walked to Walmart to buy a replacement. It took 45 minutes to get there at about 16 minutes per mile (I didn’t use the GPS and I’m just guesstimating) so it would have been an hour and a half round trip, but I did an extra half hour. The last time I walked that long was about 4 months ago. Just as my chronograph hit two hours my mp3 player battery died. Perfect timing!

In a related topic, there’s this website called Healthyroads.com which I mentioned in a couple of posts before, where I log my workouts. When I logged Monday’s 2 hour walk at a pace of 4 MPH, the calorie calculator said I burned approximately 530 calories. For the previous days’ 1 hour bike ride at a pace of 16 MPH, the calorie expenditure was the same. I was more exhausted after the 1 hour ride than the 2 hour walk. I do what I can to stay in shape.

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Replacing The High With Another

My left ankle had been hurting since my last run last Saturday morning but it felt good when I woke up for my next scheduled run on Tuesday morning. After changing into running clothes, putting my shoes on, and warming up, I started feeling the pain again. Should I go out to run and see if it would feel better as I warmed up, or should I just get on the spinning bike? After several shoe and orthotic combination changes, the discomfort didn’t get any better so I changed to cycling clothes and did the spinning bike instead. That would give me another couple of days of resting the ankles before I try running on them again. I was just getting concerned because the good left ankle which is now turning bad, has been hurting more lately than the permanently damaged right ankle. Working thirteen hours last Saturday night then wrestling with a patient the next night certainly didn’t help.  Better to be conservative and take several extra days off than not being able to run for a longer term.

In other running news, I ran to my doctor’s office last week to get my tetanus/pertussis shot due to the dog scratch I got (Rabies Anyone?), and while in the waiting room, a woman noticed my running clothes and mentioned that her husband runs and is also addicted to it. He runs in any kind of weather and did so in the middle of the day during Wednesday’s 98 to 100 degree heat. We talked for a couple of minutes until I was called into the clinic. I actually took a chance when I ran to my doctor without knowing if they received a fresh supply of the vaccine. Fortunately they had it and I was able to hit two birds with one stone – running and getting the shot. The round trip was supposed to be six miles but I extended it on the way out and ended up with about seven miles.

So, I continue to chase the high that I get from running, but nowadays, when I’m hurting, I try to be more prudent by taking extra days off to heal a bit. When I want to feel the same type of exertion I get from running, I get on the spinning bike and do a lot of stand ups. Whatever it takes to stay fit, get my fix, and get high.

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Cautious Running

Never in the history of my running life have I been laid off so long and so often. Last Saturday I began what I hoped was a return to some semblance of running by doing the 1 minute jog with 1 minute walk intervals. I haven’t tried again since then until Thursday morning and just by sheer coincidence. I was just planning on taking a walk when I heard my downstairs neighbor leave to take her kids to school, so I fired up the treadmill instead, and started a very slow jog on it while reading the newspaper at the same time. A matter of feeding the mind and the body all at once. Since the newspaper covered the console, that gave me an excuse of not peeking too often at the elapsed time. I was hoping that my recently injured right calf could handle at least 15 minutes non-stop. When that time passed, I hoped for 5 more minutes, then another, then another. In the meantime I was monitoring how the calf felt but with the distraction of reading, I managed to keep going until I reached 45 minutes. Erring on the side of caution, I finally stopped even when I felt that I could do more. For a cool down, I took a 45 minute walk to and from the bank to withdraw some money. It’s always good to find a an excuse or reason to propel yourself at your own power when you have a reachable goal. That way you finish an errand and also engage in exercise. If my calf holds up and recovers, on my next run I will have to learn a lot of self control by not going too far or pushing the pace when I am feeling good. For people who hate exercising, self control means finding the motivation to do it. For me, it is the opposite. It is finding the courage to not overdo it. I’m considering keeping my runs on the treadmill for now to lessen the impact on my legs and to be able to keep the pace constant. Please, please, keep me from pressing the UP button!

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The Advantage of Being Horizontal

Another entry from the “blog ideas” vault which was never posted. I wrote this a few months ago when I was still able to run and what used to help me recover somewhat from the pain in my ankles. Unfortunately this technique has stopped working and no amount of being horizontal has helped.

Working 12 hour shifts, plus the time driving to and coming from work has taken a toll on my ankles. At least, that’s my belief. My ankle problems started to develop about the time we switched from 8 hour shifts to 12 hour shifts. Even though I had to work more days in a row with the 8 hour shifts, my joints, muscles and body as a whole got more rest because it was able to settle into a routine of waking, sleeping, and exercising. This is particularly more important when you are working the graveyard shift, where you sleep in the daytime and work at night.

                This used to be my routine with the 8 hour shifts: work from 11 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., go to sleep from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., run from 3 to 4 p.m., shower, dinner, and TV from 5 to 8 p.m., nap from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., then get ready and leave for work at 11 p.m. My body adjusted and rested pretty well with that routine because I worked 3 to 4 nights in a row.

With the 12 hour shifts, this is how it went: Leave for work at 6:30 p.m., work from 7 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. the next day, go home and sleep from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., exercise from 2 to 3 p.m., dinner at 3:30, then try to take a nap from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Repeat for two days.

I do not work more than two days in a row so that disrupts my sleeping and waking patterns a lot. After trying to sleep in the daytime for two days, I have to switch to sleeping at night time during my days off which is usually three days, then it was back to the daytime sleep. I find myself just hanging in there when working 12 hour shifts for two days and the long hours of staying upright contribute to lesser recovery for my joints. For those two days of working, I don’t get enough sleep and rest.

Even though I exercise every day, much can be said about the time I spend staying horizontal. The position relieves the stresses on my joints, particularly the ankles. With the 12 hour shifts, I tend to stay vertical longer than I did when working 8 hour shifts. When I am able to sleep 7 to 8 hours at night during my days off, my ankle joints seem to recover better than when I am only able to sleep 3 to 4 hours in the daytime when I’m working.

Unfortunately, there are hardly any more 8 hour shift psych hospital jobs and with the current high unemployment rate, it would be difficult to find one and switch anyway. 

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