A Quarter of 20 for Me

Note: I wrote this before the treadmill run post on 111 degree Fahrenheit Monday (in Long Beach). I just didn’t get the opportunity to upload it.

Shall I do my usual 25 mile bike ride, or should I try running? Those questions went through my mind upon waking up Saturday morning. I opted for the second choice. Then I couldn’t decide whether to put heel lifts plus my orthotics in my shoes as prescribed for runners with PTTD or just run in the shoes without extra support. Wearing shoes with the heel lift and orthotics felt awkward so I took them out. On my last post, I was considering whether to keep running on the treadmill until my right calf fully healed. But it was already too warm indoors so I decided to pound the pavement outside instead. While the AREC marathon trainers were out on their last 20 mile run (some did 22) before the Long Beach marathon, I was out clomp, clomp, clomping my way around my neighborhood for an hour of 4 minute jogging with 1 minute walking. It was supposed to be a hot day and indeed it was but I hardly felt it because of my slowness. I didn’t even sweat that much because I didn’t feel perspiration dripping from my brow. Maybe because it was dry heat. Even though I moved like a slug, I felt no need to try picking up the pace. I’m not sure I could have anyway since I’m still trying to recover from the calf injury. It felt like I was running about 11:30 per mile so I was surprised when I checked at the end that my pace was 10:55 (the combination of running and walking).  Along the route, I saw volunteers picking up trash in the neighborhood, God bless them. Then I saw a guy who was running so slowly. He must have thought the same way about me when he saw me slogging along. We gave each other the acknowledgement nod that runners do during these types of encounters. In the end, I completed 12 repetitions of the 4 minute run and 1 minute walk intervals for a total of an hour, covering 5.5 miles. Although I didn’t feel fully endorphinated because I could not push the pace, it felt really good to experience a semblance of running again. All that was left for me to do was pack both ankles and the right calf in ice when I got home. The distance was only over a quarter of what I usually do this time of the year, but it was good enough on this day and I couldn’t ask for more.

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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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Witnessing A Cross Country Run and An Obesity Walk

After having to workout indoors on the upright and recumbent stationary bikes from Wednesday to Friday, I finally went out on the road bike Saturday morning. It was something I’ve been putting off for a few days for reasons I’ll explain below. I was planning on an hour ride circling the Virginia Country Club area several times but when I got there, there was some kind of cross country race going on. It looked like there was an open race where all comers were welcome to participate in, and a separate high school and maybe even middle school race. Well, I didn’t want to get in their way and also didn’t want to feel envious seeing all these people running, so I left the area and went on the L.A. River bike path instead. It’s still a surprise to me how few people use that path. There were not even too many cyclists, runners, or walkers on Saturday. When I reached the Long Beach lighthouse, there was another event going on but they were already finishing. It was a walk for obesity which was organized by a bariatric medical group who do stomach stapling and lap band procedures. My ride lasted just an hour and nineteen minutes but that was good enough since I haven’t ridden outdoors in a couple of weeks. It still exceeded my one hour goal. Don’t you think it’s interesting that I encountered skinny high school runners with obviously no obesity problems and bariatric patients on the same ride separated only by about 6 miles?

The reason why I’ve worked out indoors since last Tuesday is of course because of my recent right calf injury. I couldn’t even use the elliptical machine and have to limit myself to cycling. Well that injury made the calf hurt a lot going down stairs so either I have to step down with only my left foot with the right foot going down the same rung, or step sideways alternating right and left. I had been afraid that if I was lifting something heavy like a bike, I might fall down the stairs. Somehow doing it sideways doesn’t stretch the injured muscle too much and I found that out on Friday. Finally, I found a way to go downstairs with little pain so I could lift my bike! Not terribly exciting, but if finding something that worked made me mildly ecstatic.

On Friday, I went for a slow 15 minute walk to test the calf and as long as I do it slowly and with short steps, it felt ok. I was able to double the time on Saturday but there was some discomfort after 15 minutes. Oh, I forgot, I was finally able to wear the Louis Garneau cycling shoes during the bike ride and they felt okay.

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