“Over the Hill … and Back Up Again”

Follow Tim Bondy client Rich Bachus as he works with Damon Whitfield and the Fairview Center staff to train for the Harbor Springs ½ Marathon on October 8^th. Can he go from out-of-shape desk jockey and kid chaser to a real running competitor? What can Tim Bondy do for Rich that he can’t do for himself? Find out right here 2-5 times a week. The battle against the bulge begins May 9, 2011!

NEW NOTE 5/18: If your web person can figure out a quick easy little logo to go with the title of the blog, I would like to have just a brief subject line at the opening of each post, instead of the title of the blog.

NEW NOTE 5/29: I think I misread the treadmill with the original 214 lbs. I checked it out at home and I was at 220 at the start of our little project.

Let the Games Begin!

DAY 1 (152 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Pretty Good (Great afterwords)

Distance: 2.11 miles

Time: 30 minutes

Weight: 220 lbs.

MONDAY (5/9/11) – Well, I asked for it and Damon got me going on the treadmill today – taking it nice and easy alternating between one minute of walking and one minute of running (well, jogging really).

I haven’t spent much time on a treadmill, so I was pleased to reach my first goal of not getting flung off the back of the treadmill … score one for Everyman.

Damon gives me his “it’s not a competition” speech, which I get and appreciate. I just need to see what I can do and take it easy at first … so that I’m in this for the long haul … and don’t cave at the first whiff of Johan’s donuts.

Speaking of donuts, I think my unconscious self has been preparing my body for some kind of exercise shock-to-the-system. It’s been about 4 ½ years since I went from working full-time as a carpenter (climbing, lifting, hammering all day long) to being a stay-at-home dad (breakfast, snack time, lunch, snack time, dinner, midnight snack).

To prepare for my first workout session with Damon, I have left no donut uneaten, no French fry untouched over the past week. Like a bear preparing for hibernation or a squirrel gathering nuts, I have been feasting in expectation of the new demands Damon is about to bring to my life.

I think he is on to me, though. Before I even began to sweat he mentioned the N-word: Nutritionist, that is. He’s already got one lined up for me. Yikes! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always believed in a balanced diet, but the best I’ve managed to do is alternate between good food and junk food … good food/junk food. I don’t think that’s the balance they have in mind.

But I’m good to go, and ready for a change.

I will be competing only with myself, so I’m going to keep the little running balance above to help keep me in line in ways that I can measure and weigh. Go ahead; you can laugh if you want to. I only need to shave 9 minutes, 46.2 seconds off my mile time to keep up with ½ Marathon World Record holder Zerseney Tadese who ran 13.1 miles last year in 58 minutes. 23 seconds. I’ve got one advantage, though. While Zerseney has been training most of his adult life, I have been doing a lot more resting. And rest is good, right?

Seriously, though, it was exciting just to get going. I felt better just trying to do something to begin to change this part of my life. Damon pretty much just set me up, and got of my way. A huge improvement over the last time I joined a gym about 10 years ago, and the “alleged” trainer mostly just checked out girls and told me: “come on, is that the best you can do?”

Because Damon and the Tim Bondy staff aren’t just gym jocks, but licensed physical therapists and athletic trainers who are used to working with patients’ injured knees, backs, shoulders, etc., they have a gentler touch than the typical gym. The atmosphere is more laid back, yet I feel confident that Damon will help me get where I want to go … the finish line of the Oct. 8 Harbor Springs ½ Marathon!

Homework: stretch calves, hamstrings, and quads. Damon prefers dynamic stretching instead of just holding in one place for a certain amount of time. He says stretching is actually creating micro-tears in the muscle tissue … no wonder it freaking hurts sometimes! Tomorrow: a light jog at a pace my 5-year-old daughter can keep up with. I’ve been running after her a lot these past few years, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

— Bachus, Out!

 

Concrete Galoshes …

DAY 4 (149 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Pretty Good (Great afterwords)

Distance: Negligible

Time: 45 minutes

Weight: 219 lbs.

THURSDAY (5/12/11) – If it wasn’t so close to bed time last Tuesday, my 5-year-old could have beat me jogging around the neighborhood. I felt a bit like a Good Fella running around in concrete galoshes – heavy legged and slightly hurting, but even a piddly 20 minutes of plodding helped warm me up enough to get some decent stretching in.

On Wednesday Celeste worked with me at Tim Bondy’s Fairview location, and we spent some time doing simple step exercises to reveal a bit about the knee problem I’ve been having since before I even started exercising. Although have always been writing and taught for about 4 years, I have spent about 7 years working as a carpenter.

Celeste said: “I can usually tell when construction worker comes in. They have a strong upper body and their quad muscles are usually good, but they have no butt muscles.”

So, cool. We get to work on the old seat muscles. Already I’m seeing that a lot of difficulties we face as we get older come from lack of use. Something starts to hurt to we use it less, and the next thing you know there is less muscle there. And less muscle means less support and strength for the injured area. There’s a lot of truth to the old saying, “Use it or lose it.”

Celeste gave me a little handout called “Starting or Getting Back into Running” that emphasizes a real gradual build-up of walking-running intervals. If they don’t post it on this new Tim Bondy website, then I will put it in a post next week.

Today, I took Celeste’s advice and tried to stay off the pavement. Roads are always rounded, and running along the side means that one foot is always striking higher than the other – kind of like running along the face of a hill. I had an hour to kill around Round Lake, so I decided to check out Fochtman Nature Preserve along U.S. 31 near Conway.

There isn’t much trail there, so I buckwacked around a bit to check out that little creek that runs through the marsh along Hiawatha Trail. After poking around there a bit, I had to cross U.S. 31 and ran along Graham Rd. for a bit which was pretty – saw a nice lady stop her car to save a turtle that was in the middle of the road.

Mostly, I ran about five minutes, then walked about five minutes. Still a bit sluggish and tight, but I can feel myself beginning to carry myself a bit straighter and keep my head up as I run. I feel like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz after the oil starts to work its way into his rusty joints.

Assignment: Gradual run-walk intervals about 6 days a week. Damon has a plan, can’t wait to hear what it is.

Cage Stretching …

Day 5 (148 Days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: OK (Good afterwords)

Distance: 2 miles (walk/run intervals)

Time: 30 minutes

Weight: 218 lbs.

FRIDAY (5/13/11) – I’ve got a long way to go, but at least I’m crawling in the right direction. More treadmill work with some Pilates-type core exercises (lots of shaking and grunting on my part). Damon wanted to check out my endurance or lack thereof. After a warm-up, I had to run 15 minutes at about 5.2 miles – still pretty pokey, but I probably haven’t run that far without stopping in this millennium.

You’ve heard of Cage Fighting, we’ll Damon and Jeff introduced me to something a bit more forgiving — the Truestretch Stretching Cage. It looks a bit like a medieval torture device, but it’s actually quite pleasant. With hand-holds and angled foot platforms, it makes it easy to get a really thorough stretch of my tight calves, quads, and core.

I’ve been going in and just warming up slowly, but I think I need to spend more time stretching BEFORE I even start warming up. My right knee is still giving me some trouble. It certainly needs some healing up, but I’m not sure if it is a matter of just working through the problem or if it needs a bit more direct attention. This might be a good time to mention …

A FEW “OVER THE HILL … AND BACK UP AGAIN” GROUNDRULES;

1. I’m not a doctor and neither is the Tim Bondy staff, so we are not going to provide diagnoses of any conditions or physical challenges I am working to overcome. Having once be a physical therapy patient working with Damon and the Tim Bondy staff to help with a back problem, I believe the normal procedure is for a doctor to make the diagnosis and for the physical therapist to provide treatment based on that diagnosis. So, in this blog, we will neither try to guess at or diagnose any physical challenges I encounter.
2. “Parts is parts.” Damon and the Tim Bondy staff are extremely knowledgeable about the physics and nomenclature of this amazing thing we call “body,” but I am not. I tried spelling glutimous maximus, but even my spell checker doesn’t have a clue if that’s right or not. So, in this blog, I will use simple words to explain things and only pass on the fancy words when the staff deem it necessary (and spell the words correctly for me).
3. Although this blog deals with issues of getting older, fitness, and overcoming injuries, it is not my style or belief to go into great detail about aches, pains, and injuries (unless there is a good laugh to be had at my expense somewhere in there). So, in this blog, we will focus more on uplifting the spirit … freedom of movement and activity… expressing the inner strength, stamina, and joy that is always ours … and seeing the best side of ourselves without focusing on the negative. If you’re looking for the other stuff, you might find what you are looking for at ohmybunions.com or www.digmybummer.com – just kidding, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the domain names are already taken.

Assignment: Go for a good walk over the weekend. Take a day off. (Whew!)

 

Actual Running …

Day 8 (145 Days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Good (Wiped out, but good afterwords)

Distance: 3 miles (walk 1 minute/run 3 minutes intervals)

Time: 35 minutes with warm up

MONDAY (5/16/11) – My assignment, should I accept it, was to run three miles at about 6.5 mph (which still comes out to a leisurely 9 min. 13 secs. per mile during the running intervals) for three minutes, then walk at about 3.5 mph for a minute. The day off helped the knee, but when I mentioned it to Damon, he produced a couple of giant band-aid-like tapes to give my knee some more support.

Rather than stabilize everything in its normal place, these Kinesio® Tex Gold™ bandages are more like a push-up bra for your joints. Wow! I got to get me some of those! My knee felt better instantly, and I was able to struggle through my workout without any complaints from the knee department. Of course, there were plenty of complaints from the other departments, but (except for the cheating) I made it through the three miles with something approximating actual running.

I made it about half way through before I started to have to slow down on the running part and grab on to the hand rails every now and then. You know you are getting a workout when you have to use your mind to try to distract yourself from what the rest of your body is doing. I counted frontwards and backwards, and tried to name all the kids in my daughter’s preschool class. The trick is to find something that matches the rhythmic pace of one’s panting and gasping.

A good 10 minutes in the Stretch Cage afterward, and a shirt- and towel-full of sweat later, and I was done for the afternoon. I even kept the Kinesio® Tex Gold™ bandage on for a few hours at home for the extra bit of freedom. Removing the bandages was another matter – if you have ever seen the movie “40-Year-Old Virgin” or had significant portions of body hair removed, then you know the downside of the mircle-bra-like Kinesio® Tex Gold™ bandages.

 

Last Place … and Lovin’ It!

DAY 13 (140 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Unprepared (Gimpy and happy at the end)

Distance: 5k (3.2. miles)

Time: 39 minutes, 20 seconds

Weight: 218 lbs.

SATURDAY (5/21/11) – On Friday, Damon threw me a bit of a curve ball. “There’s a 5K race on Saturday at 7:30 am. You should come.”

Not exactly what I was expecting, but after setting my alarm Friday night, I’m flying down the road by 6:30 am on Saturday for the Redneck Run at the Carhardt Store up near Bliss. I know I can make it to the end, it’s just a matter of what will be left of me afterward.

I get a little lost on my way there and show up just as the runners are about to head out on two tractor-pulled hay wagons. I hit the Port-o-John, and come out to find they are starting to pull out. I have to run to catch up, but not far. So really this will be more of a 3.205K for me, just to keep the record straight.

Damon is there thinking I was on the other wagon. He’s got on his funky, new toe-shoes that are like running barefoot, but with a bit of protection from gravel and stuff. Tim Bondy has partnered with the Redneck Store to include the 5k and about 25 runners have showed up for the event. It’s a beautiful, sunny morning. So, what the heck.

Damon is surprised that the race course is not going to be field and trail running, but along some back roads. I am surprised by how many hills there are – up and down with a couple of doosies thrown in at the beginning and the middle.

Though Damon could easily be in contention to win this 5k, he tells me he is going to run the whole way with me and coach me to the finish line. I’m comforted that there will be a witness to help locate my body should I collapse into a ditch on that middle hill.

With little fanfare, the race is off, and I have a great view of the race from the back of the pack. I’m thinking most of these men, women, girls, and boys will overdo it on that first big hill right after the start, but no. They’re just faster and in better shape. I’m not the only one walking up the last half of the first hill, but the front of the pack is half a mile ahead by the time I reach the top.

Damon peppers me with pointers and I’m actually doing “something kind of like running” (his words) for most of the rest of the race, but by the last half mile I just want him to sing the “Chariots of Fire” theme song to me.

My newish shoes have worn a two-inch long blister on the instep of my left foot and a smaller one on the right making me regret my earlier promise not to complain: “oh, my bunions.” But just when I think I’m out of gas, I can see the finish line a quarter of a mile down the road. I can do this. I’m actually running the rest of the way to the finish line.

The winner could probably have run back to the start line and done the race twice by the time I get to the finish line at 39 minutes, 20 seconds, but Last Place feels a heck of a lot better than not even finishing. And, there is a surprise consolation prize. The veteran runners we talk to after the race agree that this is the hardest 5K in the area. It should all be downhill after this.

 

Down For The Count

DAY 14 (139 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Crappy

Distance: 1.5 miles walk/run

Time: 20 minutes

SUNDAY (5/22/11) – My knee is a mess, and my whole family seems to have come down with a chest bug. Nothing too horrible, but coughing and no energy. I try to muster some energy for a quick walk around the neighborhood, but I’m gimping and lethargic. Not much good I can do out here this evening, so I call it a day and head back home.

 

Knee Tape-Tire Patch Experiment

DAY 17 (136 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Hopeful

Distance: 8 miles (biking)

Time: 45 minutes

Weight: 218 lbs.

WEDNESDAY (5/25/11) – Out sick for a few days, but rallied for the Preschool picnic and decided to get in a little bike ride to get that knee moving a bit. Stopped in to see Damon in the morning who had Kinesio tape me up again for day.

Unfortunately, the bike wasn’t much easier on the knee at first, even just spinning along in low gear on the flat from the Fairview Square to the Harbor Springs Airport and back.

I started warming up though after the first mile or so, and was able to start riding at about two-thirds my usual effort and speed.

I did, however, learn an important lesson. Kinesio tape doesn’t really work to help patch a flat on a bike inner-tube. I got a flat with only about a mile to make it back to pick up my daughter at daycare. I had a patch kit, but soon discovered the glue tube was all dried up. I tried bumming some glue off a nearby little league coach, but only came up with a few inches of used electricians tape. That wasn’t cutting it, so I gave the Kinesio tape a try, but that was a bust, too.

Finally, I found another tube of glue buried further down in my bike repair bag. By then, I was running late and didn’t give the glue enough time to dry. So, I ended up riding a couple of blocks, pumping the tire back up, riding a few more, and pumping again until I made it back. So, lesson learned: Kinesio good for knees, not so good for bike-tire flat repairs.

Sanford & Son

DAY 18 (135 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Gimpy

Distance: 3 miles (walking)

Time: 1 hr., 20 minutes

THURSDAY (5/26/11) – I thought that a nice long walk might help stretch things out enough that my knee would at least seem functional. The problem in my right knee is making me walk funny, and my foot is hurting as a result of that.

It’s a beautiful spring evening with temps hovering around 60 F and the sun setting when my dog, Laddie, and I head out, but nothing feels better as I began to warm up. I do a lot of praying out there in the cooling evening air, though. This knee problem is making me confront my fears, and I know enough about myself to know that I’m going to have to handle this fear if I want to be healed of all this pain.

Fears:

1. This is my last chance to try to turn around this apparent slide towards old age, decrepitude, inactivity, and limitation.
2. If I don’t undo the damage I’ve done to myself over the years now, then I won’t be able to keep up with my little girl when she gets old enough to run, swim, hike, bike, etc., with the grownups.
3. My wife may still put up with me, but she just won’t look at me like she used to if I don’t slim down, accomplish some of the goals I’ve set for myself, and get active again.
4. The Bowflex guy on TV who says he is in his 40s and “in the best shape of (his) life” is full of B.S., and he’s really just as broken down as I feel right now.
5. I won’t succeed in my business of writing for the outdoor industry if I don’t get myself moving and back in shape.

So, there they are … some of my worst, day-to-day fears. But as I hobble along, I also realize that I’m not just driven by fears, but by love – love for the outdoors, love for the active life, love for my wife, love for my daughter. I’m not just running away from my fears, I’m running towards the light. I’m not running to become the Bowflex guy, but to express that part of myself that is already there – the true me.

By the end of my walk, Laddie has met two raucous golden retrievers, sniffed a dead black squirrel, and licked a dead crow on the side of the road. So, he’s pretty psyched.

As for me, I make it down the steep hill from Birchwood at a snail’s pace staggering around like Fred Sanford from the 70s TV show “Sanford and Son.” Whenever he wanted sympathy from his son Lamont, he would fake having a heart attack and cry out, “I’m coming, Elizabeth. I’m coming, Elizabeth,” as though he was about to join his dearly departed wife.

Limping down the hill, I’m a pathetic sight, but I have to laugh at myself. I clutch my chest and cry out into the dusky shadows – “I’m coming, Carol. I’m coming, Carol.” Fortunately, my wife is just another half-mile down the road, and with a few fears faced and put behind me, I think I’ll make it back in time for another re-run of “Sanford and Son.”

Trailering as Therapy

DAY 21 (132 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Still a bit under the weather, but what the heck!

Distance: 8 miles (biking)

Time: Leisurely

SUNDAY (5/29/11) – I considered just staying home in bed, but with friends and family up for the weekend, I rallied to assume my customary camp-counselor role. Packed up some bikes for a family outing, and we were off to enjoy some almost-decent weather along the Little Traverse Wheelway from Glen’s to just past Magnus Park.

Since my bike was the only one set up for the kid bike trailer, I got to haul my 45-lb. kid along for the ride. Surprisingly, the knee which had been bugging me all morning just from sitting and walking, perked up right away with a bit of extra load to push.

We had a great little 8-mile ride with a stop at the Petoskey Waterfront playground. Hours later, I am still feeling great. Tomorrow there is another 5K along some of that same route. I’m not sure if I will go for it or not. We’ll see how the day unfolds. I’m just really grateful to be moving again with little pain.

 

Just Like Forrest Gump

DAY 24 (129 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Slightly crummy

Distance: 1.2 miles (elliptical)

Time: 15 minutes

WEDNESDAY (6/1/11) – A client of mine that I do some writing for sent me a big bottle of sports drink powder called Endura Fuel. I have been having trouble with some kind of bronchial infection that I just can’t seem to shake, but it is actually more of difficulty with shallow breathing than the deeper breathing of exercise.

The Endura Fuel gave me just the boost of energy I needed to get over to Tim Bondy’s and get some light training in. All of these physical challenges … the illness … the knee are slowing me down, but I feel much better after I train than if I don’t train at all.

These hindrances remind me a lot of Forrest Gump who had to wear those stupid leg braces as a kid. I can feel the real runner in me and he is dying to hurdle these ridiculous problems and just “Run, Forrest, Run!”

Working out at Tim Bondy has a similar effect on my attitude. Every day I train side-by-side with Tim Bondy patients who are working to overcome all kinds of physical limitations that seem to be the result of age, injury, and general wear-and-tear. Some might find this a bit depressing, but I find the patients inspiring. Some come in with canes and walkers, and can barely get their sneakers on without help. If they can manage to come in and work their physical therapy plans despite their difficulties, I can surely stick to the training Damon has in mind for me.

Now … if I can just get through all these planks and leg lifts that Damon and intern Jeff have for me today.

 

A Run in the Park

DAY 26 (127 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: A toss-up between going to bed and going for a work out

Distance: 3-4 miles

Time: 44 minutes

FRIDAY (6/3/11) – I don’t know what diabolical plan Damon has in mind for me today, but I just want to go for a run. I think I can do 4 miles, and Damon is all for it. He tapes up my knee, and I drive off to the Offield Family Nature Preserve off Quick Rd.

My family and I have been to the preserve several times this spring for walks, and I think I can figure out a route that will be about four miles.

Damon tells me to start slow and build up to a pace that I can sustain for the whole rest of the run, instead of doing just intervals.

It’s a beautiful warm day with rain clouds just off in the distance, and I stretch for a few minutes before heading down the trail. The knee is not great, but I manage to lope along without too much discomfort. The right knee isn’t so much the problem as the left calf muscle is, as I try to warm up and work the kinks out. I believe that all of the awkward walking caused by the knee has put a lot more pressure on my left calf, which just feels tight, even after stopping to stretch some more.

The beginning of the run is gradually, then significantly uphill and I have to walk one old two track that actually switch-backs through the woods. But I do manage to keep jogging the whole rest of the route.

I’m not sure if I was just incredibly slow or didn’t quite estimate the distance right, but I finish up the run after 44 minutes without running out of gas – so that’s something.

I Google Map the preserve on my computer later that night and only come up with about 3 miles distance, but at least I kept it going most of the time, and there were even a few parts in the middle where I thought I heard an Alabama accent off in the distance yelling, “Run, Rich, Run!”

 

Low Gear

DAY 28 (125 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Good

Distance: 12 miles (biking)

Time: 55 minutes

SUNDAY (6/5/11) – One of the biggest challenges to training that we face as we get older is finding the time to train while keeping up with our family obligations. I’ve got this a lot easier than most because I only have one kid and my wife is really supportive of this endeavor.

Some friends of mine with three kids and two busy careers are both seasoned marathoners. It helps that they are both attorneys and can afford extra help at home, but they still have to struggle with that family-work-training balance. As the mom told me one day, “you just have to accept that there will be days when you just can’t get out and run.”

As a stay-at-home dad, I have plenty of good reasons for getting out of shape, but no good excuses. The reasons are: breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and whatever treat I may need to keep me going until midnight multiplied times every day that I have been home with my daughter for about 5 years. As chief grocery shopper and cook of our household, I have no one to blame but myself, but all that time spent in the kitchen has taken its toll.

So, I’m always looking for ways to do fun things with my family that also provide some exercise. The bike trailer has been a real blessing. My daughter was only good for about 25 minutes with constant reminders not to go “too fast” when she was 3, but now she’s good to go for an hour or so, as long as she is well stocked with water and a snack.

With the right combo of bikes and trailer, this works well for Mom, too. The trick is for me to haul the bike trailer with my road bike and let Mom cruise along with her bike that is a cross-over between a road-bike and a mountain-bike. This lets us keep up with each other pretty well. Another friend recently tried this mixed-bike method with the mom taking the bike trailer with her road bike, and the dad riding the mountain bike. Even though the dad is born athlete, he had a hard time keeping up with mom and trailer.

The other trick to breaking in your kid to be a good bike-trailer traveler is, as my friend Kathleen says, “short trips to happy places.”

 

Too Far … Too Soon

DAY 32 (121 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: A lot better than 2 days ago

Distance: 4.2 miles

Time: 49 minutes

THURSDAY (6/9/11) – I spent a couple of days home in bed not feeling too well, but rebounded quickly thanks to some prayerful support. Those couple of days gave me the chance to read Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand who also wrote Seabiscuit.

This is the true story of an Olympic runner named Louis Zamperini who became an Army Air Corp bombadier in WW II in the Pacific. Louie’s athletic career in the years before the war was fascinating enough, but Louie’s B-24 bomber went down in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Louie survived 47 days in an open raft with almost no provisions, was captured by the Japanese as soon as he almost reached dry land, and spent the next couple of years as a POW enduring nearly daily beatings, starvation, forced labor, and constant exposure.

This book is certainly not everyone’s recuperation reading, but the thing that inspires me about these kinds of stories is how these POW’s were able to keep their thinking above their bodily conditions. When some of these guys were finally liberated after the Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945, some were just days or even hours away from dying. But that shot of hope when the first U.S. fighter planes flew over the camps dropping notes with the news, and later, food completely turned these guys lives and physical conditions around.

True, some of them didn’t make it home even after learning of their release, but the lesson for me is twofold. First, whatever piddly problems I’m having with a cough or sore knee are nothing compared to what guys like Louie went through as POWs. And secondly, a change in thought can have a profound and instant impact on one’s physical health.

And so, I hit the road trying for a longer distance than I’ve run in many years. I drove my truck along the route ahead of time with mileage counter spinning to measure the distance for a 4-mile run. My course followed a flat road with a good gravel shoulder with about a mile of an old railroad-bed trail. I was ready to go, but my lungs just weren’t quite up to the task yet.

I did run most of the first three miles, but I kept pushing on for that nice, soft trail when I probably should have turned back at the 1.5 mile mark for a 3 mile run. I had to break into walk/run intervals, but the good part was that the knee pain and calf tightness where mostly gone after the first half mile or so. The instep blisters also came back with a vengeance, but I managed to jog the last half mile or so back to my starting point.

I will probably never be as fast as Louie, but at least I can try to follow his example of training, training, and more training.

 

Cleaning House

DAY 33 (120 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Okay

Distance: up and down the stairs a bunch of times

Time: Hours and hours

FRIDAY (6/10/11) – Does cleaning the house count as a workout?

I think so. It was my wife’s last day of teaching before summer vacation, and I wanted to get her off on the right track with a (mostly) cleaned house and chocolate cake.

I was sweating, running up and down the stairs a bunch of times for about 4 hours, so I’m counting it as a workout.

For many of us, the demands of jobs, housework, and projects constantly compete with any sort of athletic training. I’ve got it easy, with only one kid and one wife, but making my commitment to getting in shape a more public aspiration has really helped.

I don’t expect to be waited on hand-and-foot because I might be tired after a workout, but this training has helped establish the expectation in my household that Daddy will be out running, biking, or working out most days. My family is not only okay with this, but they are supportive.

And the benefits are beginning to kick in, too. Not only do I have a bit more energy (for house cleaning and other activities) now that I am exercising, but I seem to encouraging my family members to keep moving a bit more, as well.

So, cleaning the house doesn’t have to be detractor from training, it can actually become a factor of my training. That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.

 

Every Little Bit Helps

DAY 36 (117 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Beautiful Day

Distance: 7 miles (bike)

Time: About 30 minutes

MONDAY (6/13/11) – A nice family outing with the bike trailer again – my wife on the cross-over bike and me with road bike and kid in tow.

I was not feeling well again for the past couple of days, but it is remarkable how much better I feel when I get even a little exercise in.

Thinking more about Louie Zamperini the WW II vet and former POW ….

I’m impressed how some great athletes start off at a deficit. Louie was kind of a pip-squeak as a kid, and always in trouble – mostly from stealing food because he was so poor and hungry. But his older brother got him into track and helped him build up his strength so that he could go out for track in high school.

Then, there was the triathlete I was just reading about who was born with some kind of an anemia and could barely even play outside with the other kids. He learned to overcome his problem to become a top-placing athlete.

The thing that really sunk in with me is how these athletes just kept training and running and built up their strength, speed, and endurance bit by bit. Sure, there are some natural-born athletes who run before they crawl, but for most of us, it’s not about great leaps and bounds but just about the next run or workout.

 

Getting on Track 6/15/11

DAY 38 (115 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Pretty Good

Distance: 3 miles (run/walk)

Time: 38:27

WEDNESDAY – Damon sent me packing to the track from some run/walk intervals. His new plan for me is to run 3 times a week; bike 2 times a week; and get in 2 workouts a week with core, upper body, and leg exercises.

For the runs, I’m supposed to do 1 interval workouts on the track … 1 30 minute jog … and 1 long run a week. For these intervals, he says to run the straightaways and walk the curves. I’m pretty stiff at first with the knee, but I get going after a couple of laps. My 5-year-old daughter joins me for a couple of laps at first, then becomes my water girl when she decides she’s too tired to run … every few laps she runs out with the water bottle, but she’s given most of the water to the dog.

It’s nice running on the track, and I even start cutting out the walks on every other curve. It’s a great day, and I finish up feeling good. I’ll be back to the track for sure.

 

Up the Mountain 6/16/11

DAY 39 (114 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Okay

Distance: 3.5 miles (jog)

Time: 46:38

THURSDAY – This was supposed to be one of my easy jogging days. But when you live on one the highest spots in the Lake Michigan bluffline, it’s hard to run anywhere without having to run back up at some point.

After my pleasant run on the flat and uniform track yesterday, I got to thinking about hills and the 13.1 miles I’m getting myself into here. The half marathon I’m shooting for in October follows a course from Good Hart to Harbor Springs, Michigan. There are a few short uphills along the route, but the biggest hill is just about a mile and a half down the shore from my house.

So, I thought it was time to embrace the hills as I used to when I was into cycling some years ago. I know this hill pretty well, having biked it many times and run it a few times. My plan was to trot down a path that traverses the steep bluff between my house and Lake Michigan in order to get on the road (Lower Shore Drive) that will be part of the half-marathon course.

I figured I would just jog the flat shore road nice and easy, climb the hill and just turn around and come back the way I came. On Race Day, the course levels out after that long bluff-traversing road, and there will only be about 3 more miles to go. However, if you go the other direction at the top of the bluff-traversing road at the end of the biggest hill of the half-marathon course, you get to climb hills almost all the way back to my house.

Something inside me, just can’t stand go out and coming back the same way. It seems too much like a commute (which I have avoided for most of my adult life). I like circles, loops, circumnavigation. So, when I got to the top of the half-marathon hill, I didn’t turn around and I didn’t run back into town. I kept climbing up and up and up.

I certainly didn’t set any land-speed records, but what I did find was my lowest “keep going” gear. My gentle job turned into one of the toughest runs I’ve taken since the hilly Redneck Run 5k. And maybe that was worth the 46 minutes and 38 seconds it took me to circle around back home.

 

Crud Continues 6/21/11

DAY 44 (109 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Cruddy

Distance: 2 miles (treadmill)

Time: 22 minutes

TUESDAY – I’m having a heck of a time getting better. Chest crud has become sinus crud, but I’m still more or less functional. I tried taking it easy for a few days, but that hasn’t made much difference.

I’ve got a little bit of time before dinner, so I take my daughter with me to Tim Bondy for a quick workout. I get her all set up with her V-Reader, some toys and books, and Tim himself hooks her up with a couple of exercise balls.

I’m beginning to feel a lot stronger in my legs and my lungs (when I’m not hacking up flem, that is). I feel so ready to run, but I try to hold back. My knee is feeling pretty good. I pick up my cadence to 6 mph ( a 10 minute a mile pace). I feel ready to run, but is that just my tight biking shorts talking.

AARRG! Yep. It was just the compression pants. Out of nowhere, I have just pulled my left calf muscle after just over a mile. I take it down a notch and see if I can run through this exciting, new pain. Nope. It still hurts, and stretching doesn’t seem to be the right thing either for the time being. I call it a day after 2 miles on the treadmill. That will barely get me out of the Good Hart village limits in October.

I think Damon does massage, too. Maybe I can limp my way back in a day or two.

 

Footstrike Fun 6/24/11

DAY 47 (106 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Out of commission

Distance: 0

Time: Too Long

FRIDAY – Staying home sick … no workout … but time to reflect.

One of the cool things about my work as a marketing consultant and copywriter is that I get to dig into some new subject almost every week.

Before pulling the covers over my head and staying in bed for a few days, I had the chance to write for a client that makes a nutritional supplement for endurance athletes called EPO-Boost. Not that my 2-4 mile runs constitute anything like an endurance sport, but I am trying to work that way.

This particular project was an “advertorial” – an advertisement written and designed like a magazine article. The client asked for an interesting approach. This supplement, which is supposed to be a safe, legal, and healthy alternative to blood doping, stimulates the natural production of a harmone called erythropoietin (or EPO for short).

EPO is produced in the kidneys whenever there is a decrease in oxygen levels (like when you travel up to high altitude). And EPO helps produce more red blood cells (RBCs) throughout your body, so that your body can naturally adjust to lower oxygen. More RBCs equals more oxygen-carrying capacity.

Anyway, the client asked me to write about something called “footstrike Hemolysis.” This is the fancy word for RBC destruction from an athlete’s feet striking the ground with every step. Footstrike causes some RBCs to burst like water balloons. This happens all the time with any impact sport, but with long-distance athletes the problem can lead to a kind of anemia because so many RBCs are ruptured during racing and training. Over time, distance athletes start to run on a deficit, and their bodies can’t produce enough RBCs to replace the ones lost during intense training and races. Not good, since they need as much oxygen-carrying capacity as they can possibly get.

This isn’t much of a factor for someone like me, but for those of you serious, distance runners, cyclists, and even swimmers, you might want to check it out at www.epoboost.com. It takes about a month of taking the supplement before you will see the benefits, but the athletes who have tried it have seen dramatic improvements in their times.

 

DON’T RUN! 6/27/11

DAY 50 (103 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: Horrible

Distance: 0

Time: 5 days down

MONDAY – I had the opportunity to talk to a local doctor today for help with this all this crud. He had the usual medical answers for what ails me (take this, take that), but we got to talking about my modest efforts at running.

I thought he would encourage me to stick with it for long-term health benefits. His emphatic response, “Don’t Run!”

“You mean don’t run until I’m feeling better?” I asked.

“No. Don’t Run, period. You’re too old and too heavy. People come in here all the time complaining about their knees, ankles, feet, and legs after they start running. Do something else if you want a good cardio-vascular workout.”

He went on to describe some exercise machine that’s like an escalator going down that you walk up. He told me about a female friend of his about my age who was in great shape until she started running, then hurt her knee and took weeks to recover.

Not exactly the pep talk I was hoping for.

I’m not saying his opinion isn’t correct and wise, but what I am saying is that it is just an opinion. He didn’t examine my knee or compare my weight and leg strength to what it was before I started this in May. And his anecdotal account of a handful of patients doesn’t have to be my experience, either. Nearly everyone I’ve spoken to about taking up running at my stage of life, has an anecdote about someone they know who was out of shape, took up running, and got into great shape.

So, thanks for your opinion, but no thanks.

 

PAUL REVERE RUN 7/4/11

DAY 57 (96 days to the Finish Line) –

Feeling: A lot better

Distance: 3 miles (race)

Time: 33:30

MONDAY – I decided to celebrate Independence Day by entering Harbor Springs’ annual Paul Revere Run. I’m finally getting over this crud after about 10 days of laying low. UGH!

If anything, I’m pretty well rested.

This is a huge run with hundreds and hundreds of runners. Near the start line, I run into some friends of my approximate vintage and we decide to run together more or less. Will’s cousin Melissa is all wired up with some kind of running computer that attaches to her arm with a sensor attached to one shoe.

We decide to shoot for a similar pace of 11 minutes per mile, and stick with Melissa. The course is flat and it’s a gorgeous morning in downtown Harbor Springs, with the town full of summer people and tourists preparing for the day’s festivities.

Joe is also there. He talked with the same doc I did, and got the same advice, “don’t run.” But what’s the fun of being a biped, if you don’t get up to speed every once in a while.

I try to do a lot of stretching beforehand, but it takes a long time to get registered. They don’t even bother trying to keep track of all the 3-mile runners. The other race that starts before us is a 10-miler – some day, but not yet.

We’re off! There are so many runners, that it’s easy to keep it under control at the start. I’m feeling good. No hacking or snoot streams. My knee feels good, and I’m not breathing too hard. At about the half-mile mark Melissa checks our pace – probably too fast at 9:40 per mile. But it’s fun running in the crowd and it pulls us forward.

Some runners pass us by, but we start to pass a few ourselves.

Joe moves ahead and I’m torn between keeping it steady and wanting to go faster. I go in between, letting Joe move on and keeping just ahead of Will and Melissa.

I’m feeling great at about 1.25 miles, when I feel it — that left calf muscle starts to pull. I slow it down a tad and just focus on trying to run loose, and see if it will chill out. It’s not a horrible pull and I can still keep running with some discomfort. I figure, if I drop out now I’ve got a long, painful walk back to my car and the finish line anyway, so I might as well keep moving while I still can.

Then, the lead runners appear coming back from the half-way mark. These guys and gals are flying at an almost-full-on gallop. Most are pretty young, but then I start to see a few fast-flying grey hairs. I decide to keep running … the half-way mark is just ahead.

Some runners begin to fall by the wayside … not giving up entirely, but slowing down to a walk. There are a lot of kids, running and a couple of little guys have an interesting technique. They whip by me at nearly a sprint and run for about 50 yeards, then stop and walk for a while. Some couples start walking then running, too. If I stop for a walk, though, I’m not sure I can get going again.

With about a half-mile to go, Will and Melissa catch me and start to move ahead. I’m sucking wind pretty well now, and my calf is still hurting. But I’m almost there …

The finish line is packed and I cross it at about 33:30! Despite the calf, I’m glad I did it. Now, I just have to figure out how to do this running stuff without hurting myself. Any suggestions?