More About Life, None About Running

For a few decades, running dominated my life. That's why I started this blog, didn't I? In the recent past, since running has become a much lesser part of my so called life, other realities happened (like my trip to Zamboanga and being assaulted by a patient).

                So why haven't I written anything about running? After all this blog is about life and running, right? Well that's because I haven't done any running lately. I did try doing so last Monday with disastrous results. Yep, you're right, another injury. My legs seem to have readjusted themselves in a way that they are no longer built to propel me forward faster than walking. About last Monday - having not run consistently for awhile (about 3 times in 6 weeks), I started very conservatively, running for 1 minute and walking for 1 minute. After about 10 minutes of that, I ran for 2 minutes and walked 1 minute. When I reached 30 minutes, I ran for 3 minutes and walked 1 minute. It was on the subsequent attempt at 3 minutes when I felt a twinge of pain in left upper thigh near the hip area. It felt like the same muscle strain I had last spring at the 3 mile mark of a 12 mile run. If I were to guess, it seems like it’s the upper part of the vastus lateralis. The difference between now and then? I stopped running immediately and walked the rest of the way back home. Last spring, I kept on going until the pain got worst. I was hoping that this time, by nipping it in the bud, so to speak, I could keep the injury at a minimum and hoping the recovery would be quicker, instead of several weeks it usually takes. Good idea, right? Over the next few days, I could feel a discomfort on the thigh so my workouts were limited to the stationary bikes (recumbent and spinning).

 Then last Saturday morning, I again joined the Long Beach Area walking club at Signal Hill (wow, three Saturdays in a row for me!). The first hint of trouble came when I ran across the street for a couple of seconds to avoid a car. The hip discomfort was still present so I knew I wouldn’t be doing any running that day. The pace of the walk was pretty brisk and I was making good time covering the distance. It was with about a quarter mile left when we were negotiating a slight downhill on a dirt and gravel trail when disaster struck again. The loose gravel made me slip and while trying to keep my balance, I felt a spasm on the already injured hip muscle. I had strained it further and the pain was so excruciating that I could barely walk back to my car. I knew then that it would take weeks to rehab the injury.

 So, that’s what I’ve been trying to do in the past week – trying to strengthen the thigh muscle when the pain diminished. My indoor cycling workouts had to be limited to the easiest gear so as not to further strain the injured area. I couldn’t even walk on the treadmill, and I had to take the utmost care going up and down stairs because of the pain. Only in the last couple of days have I started doing slow body weight squats and a few wall sits. I guess I’ll be letting you know when everything starts to feel normal again. In the meantime, it looks like more indoor cycling for me.

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Three Weeks Missing

Yipee! After a 32 minute hill walk on the treadmill at 10% incline, I ran for 18 minutes on 1% incline thus completing a 50 minute workout last Thursday morning. It has been about three weeks since I injured my left thigh while out for what was supposed to be 12 mile run (http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2012/07/arec-training-7-7-12-oops-something.html). My very conservative rehab plan was not to start running again until the pain was gone, but sometimes plans go awry. A week after the initial injury, I tweaked it while exercising on the recumbent bike when I tried pedaling on a heavy gear. A week later the thigh felt as if was healing pretty well until I did a weight training workout called the clean and press. Wait, is that weight training or dry cleaning? Anyway, on the fourth set of the clean and press lift which of course involves the legs too, I felt a violent spasm on the healing muscle and fell backwards because of the pain. Fortunately my bed was right behind me and it made for a soft landing. With that spasm, it brought me back to square one. I had my thigh wrapped at work all night and developed contact dermatitis from it. With luck, we didn't have to chase any psych patients around that night.

I started hill walking on the treadmill just a few days ago as part of my rehab.  Previously I could only do the recumbent and spinning bikes on light gears and couldn't even use the stairstepper because of the pain. Today the pain is almost gone but still lurking. I can now do slow non-jerky squats on body weight. I might try running on pavement in the next few days and see how it feels and hope I don’t aggravate the muscle again. For now, I’m still missing from AREC training. Darn, I couldn’t even chat with my newly met running buddies L.

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Thursday’s Urban Walkabout

Well it seems like it’s back to walking for me. My ankles haven’t really recovered from the 9 mile run three weeks ago and I didn’t even start doing a walking workout on the treadmill until early last week. I happened to have awakened earlier than usual on Thursday morning after being off from work the previous night, and thought I’d walk outdoors maybe for 2 to 2 ½ hours, which would have made me catch up to the training mileage for the Long Beach Half Marathon.

So I headed out towards the Virginia Country Club area and planned to crisscross the streets and maybe throw in some loops. I was only aiming or at least hoping  for a pace of 15 minutes per mile while doing 4 minutes of aggressive walking with 1 minute of slower recovery. After all, I haven’t done a walking workout in a while and besides it was a hot day. The first couple of miles were uneventful but, darn it, when I hit three miles my left ankle started to hurt, and I thought I would have to abort the workout. Going into the fourth mile which I thought I was on my way home, the ankle started to stabilize, so I pressed on. That’s when the maybes started: maybe one more block, maybe 5 miles, maybe 6, maybe 7, okay, let’s try making it 8 and that should do it. When I hit 2 hours, I was slightly past 8 miles so I went for 8.5 to even it out. But wait, there’s more – I ran up the time to 2:15 and completed 9.13 miles. The first 7 miles were right on the money at my goal pace of 15 minutes per mile, but the last 2 miles were way faster because at the end, the average pace dropped down to 14:48 for the whole distance. So I didn’t make it to 10 miles, but it wasn’t bad at all for not having walked for weeks.

Even though I was surprised and excited to have completed that distance, I didn’t write about it right away because I was afraid of the aftermath. Often my ankles hurt more the day after, so I had to wait and see how it would turn out this time. Well, it seems like the tendons recovered much faster than when I subject them to the pounding of running because the pain is not as much.

After experimenting between a short, quick heel-to-toe stride and my more normal longer walking stride, I found out that my pace is faster with the longer stride, so maybe I’ll keep it that way. It isn’t as pretty as the swiveling hips of racewalkers, but it seems to work better for me.

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Aerobicizing Without Running

Equipment I used to have years ago. The upright bike and stairstepper have been replaced with a spinning bike and treadmill plus an elliptical machine.

I’ve been trying to hold off from walking or jogging the past couple of weeks and confined myself to the recumbent and spinning bikes at home. I’m trying to get my left ankle to heal as much as possible even though it’s tempting to get out and pound the pavement. One moment I don’t feel any pain then the next moment the pain comes for no reason at all.

On the spinning bike, I noticed that when I start on a low gear and ramp it up ever so slowly while trying to keep the cadence high, the breathing pattern feels like doing an easy run then progressing to a tempo run. Because of that, the endorphin high feels similar too. The only difference is the pain in the butt. For some strange reason, doing stand ups on heavier gears, even though it feels harder,  doesn’t have the same effect.

Unfortunately the elliptical machine isn’t working too well for my ankles because there is too much up and down motion which overstretches the already tender tendons. I’ll try wearing running shoes with heel lifts and use a lower tension next time. Maybe that would help.

I’m considering using the rowing machine again but I don’t like the inconvenience of dragging it from it’s corner and unfolding it. Besides, I can’t do any reading while rowing which I like to do while stationary cycling. If I had more room I’d keep it open and probably use it more. I used to do a variation of circuit training where I do five minutes each on the rowing machine, recumbent bike, and upright bike for three or four sets. It breaks the monotony of using only one machine for a whole workout. I still do this sometimes with the spinning bike, recumbent bike, and elliptical machine.

          I haven’t resorted to my old Taebo DVD yet. I’m not even sure if I can find it any more.

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Doubts About Still Being a Runner

Although I was able to walk 9 and 10 miles, it still didn’t give me enough pleasure as running did. To add to that, the afterburn (increased metabolism after exercise) of walking doesn’t even come close to running. Perhaps I should start swinging my arms all the time so I can go faster and maybe that would enable me to do more heavy breathing. But would that increase in pace be detrimental to my balky ankles? When I ran those hills two Saturdays ago, I knew I was taking a huge risk, but I had to give it a try anyway because the walking part didn’t give me any challenge or satisfaction. The 10 mile walk two days later was a test mainly for my ankles, not for endurance or speed. These past few months, there has been a  slow and almost imperceptible transition from running to walking. With the cycling, and the walking, and the occasional running,  I’m no longer sure what to define myself. Should I just categorize myself as a daily exerciser? When I first met with the walking group, I told them I was a lapsed runner.

I seem to be maintaining my fitness and weight despite not running any more or rarely doing more than an hour of any type of workout so why should I even think about doing any endurance sports like the Palos Verdes half marathon? Is the challenge or drive still even there?

In other workout news, my elbows started hurting a couple of weeks ago and can’t do upper back exercises and biceps curls. Any movement that involved the biceps make the elbows hurt. I have to limit myself to rubber tubing for the curls but I’m still able to do the bench press, pushups, and dips for the triceps.

I was digging around in my closet one day and found two AREC duffel bags. Now how the heck did I end up with two? Then I remembered that a couple of years ago, the club gave out technical hats as swag for renewing our membership. Since I don’t wear hats, I opted for another bag which was left over from the previous year. Those were from my running days which now seem oh so long ago. Sigh…

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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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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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Random Thoughts For Early September 2010

My Proctor-Silex toaster, circa 1981, obtained when I moved in my first apartment months after arriving in the United States, finally died on Thursday. Despite heroic attempts at reviving it by shaking out the crumbs and readjusting the electrical plug, the long serving and loyal device finally met its demise due to old age. Viewing of the departed will be at my nearest trash bin for the next two days and its eternal rest will be somewhere in a California landfill. Farewell dear friend, you will be sorely missed.

I received a 2 dollar bill as change from the grocery store last week. You don’t see 2 dollar bills very often anymore. There have been instances where some people think its fake money (http://www.snopes.com/business/money/tacobell.asp). One of the reasons why there are not many in circulations is because people keep them instead of spending them, thus an already rarely seen denomination becomes rarer. Should I spend mine, or should I save it? I also happen to have a few half dollar, dollar,  and Susan B. Antony dollar coins stored around here somewhere.

Shenanigans at work regarding stray cats – The head of the Security Department in my workplace is trying to get one of the nurses in trouble for feeding stray cats in the parking lot so much so that he reported it to the police even though there is no law against it. Believe me, the neighborhood where my job is has more problems with gangs, shooting, vagrancy and other serious crimes than a woman feeding a couple of cats. By the way, it’s the same head of security that reported me for blogging after notifying him of problems during a fire drill (http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2010/03/fire-drill-that-didnt-work-so-well.html).

I wrote this about a week and a half ago when I restarted running but I never finished the thought - Now that I’m back running a little bit and appreciating it especially when I was 100% sure that I wasn’t going to run again two months ago. How 100% sure was I? Well, that was the reason I bought a bike which I wouldn’t have done if I felt there was a wee bit of a chance that I would run again. Oops, spoke too soon. I can’t run again due to a new calf injury (http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2010/09/little-bit-up-lot-more-down.html).

Death, change, food, cats, and not running. How much more random can you get?

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