hello little hamstring....

tonight was a midweek walk, planned to go for about 30 minutes or so, probably around 2-3 miles. Got on the road late, it was already after 9 as I had a long day at work and a session with a client after.

What a beautiful night for a walk, the temp was cool, the first real inklings of fall are in the air and there is a crispness that wasn't there only a few nights ago. I decided to head out around the neighborhood to the landmark turn around points that I know well, so off i went past the playground and soccer field, down to the slice gate and out onto the main road of lake monticello. about 5 minutes into the walk, I was feeling really good, the cool air felt great on my face and my lungs were really enjoying the walk, so i decided to try a little jog. As i took the first few strides, i noticed that i could actually feel normal while jogging, so i focused on my breathing and decided to see how far i could take this thing. After about 3 minutes, i was feeling a little winded, so i decided to drop back to a quick walk. I walked for about 4 minutes and decided to try it again. Off i went again for another few minutes, jogging a good pace (though probably about the same as my normal walking pace), this time i decided not to time it but just to keep it for as long as it felt comfortable. Once i started to get winded again, i slowed down to walk and tried to keep up a brisk pace. I made it all the way to the 1.5 mile marker and had to make a decision of if i would keep going or turn back to head home. although i felt like i could have gone another good distance, i decided to turn back as i didn't want to overdo it with the endurance walk/jog on saturday. on the return trip, i was making even better time than on the way out. looking at the time, i was realizing i would probably make the best time yet.

As i rounded the turn on to bunker, about 3/4 of a mile from home, i felt a little twinge in the back of my knee. i took a few more steps and felt it again, this time a little louder. i decided to stop and stretch out my legs to see if i could get it to release, staying only for a few minutes in order to not lose too much time. I stood up and got back on my way only to have it twinge again and this time hold for a little longer so that there was the sensation of something grabbing the back inside of my knee. Realizing that this was just going to keep happening until i stopped or fixed it, i took the next few minutes to really stretch out the muscles. I am noticing that my flexibility is greatly improved in the time i have been walking, in fact i stood with my feet just beyond shoulder width with my toes pointed in to stretch my glutes and bent over into a forward hang and put the flat of my palm right on the ground! i haven't ever been able to do that without a good amount of stretching first.

so, after stretching the legs, i got back on the road, and made it the rest of the way home. although i didn't break any records for time tonight, i did the whole 2.5 miles in exactly 40 minutes, so even with the break, i am holding it around 15 minutes for a mile. plus, the shoes were comfy, no signs of shin splints tonight, the lungs are holding up well, and i even got some jogging in. all in all, i would say a successful outing :)

cross training?

yesterday i went to the gym to get a midweek walk in and decided to break in the new shoes. i hopped up on the treadmill and started plunking in information, hit GO and started my walk. this was the first time on the treadmill since hurting my back several weeks ago and definitely since i had started with the longer distance walks. about 6-7 minutes into it, i decided that i was really glad that the race was going to be outside, because i was so BORED!!!! i have decided that i really don't like walking on the treadmill for several reasons....
1) you can't just change your pace as you need to. if you decide to jog a little (which i did by the way), you actually have to push buttons to move up the speed, and if you get tired, you have to push them back down.
2) if you lose the knot in your shoe, it is a LOT harder to stop and tie it.
3) walking in the A/C is chilly and makes me unhappy
4) the TVs are really distracting and i almost fell off the stupid treadmill when i saw Brittany Spears looking crazed on Access Hollywood
5) i miss the trees and the birds and the breeze, it's amazing how much energy you get from seeing the beauty of nature
6) i don't push myself as hard or i push too hard. if the pace is too slow, i slow myself down to the pace of the machine. if i then try to speed up once i realize i am doing this and tire out, i am afraid i will fall off and look ridiculous
7) they are noisy. i have enough noise in my life...

so after about 22 minutes, i quit. i slowed the silly machine down and got off and went over to a cross training machine that is somewhere between a recumbent bike and a stair stepper and did about 15 more minutes of cardio to get my heart up. then i stretched for a while and went home. once i actually got home, all i wanted to do was take a real walk. so i leashed up the dog and went once around the block for her health and my sanity. i guess, if the weather really looks nasty, i will work out at the gym as needed, but as much as possible, i think my future walks will be the old fashioned kind, on a path.

check em out!

i did it, i did it, hot diggity, i did it!

yeeee-haw, i did my first TNT group training today. i walked when the rest of the group (6 or 7 other people) ran, so i was dead last, but i did it! it was my first hill training, and my shins were making some fanciful cries of displeasure, but by the half way mark, i was doing okay and found a good stride. Brent, the coordinator for my area, walked with me the whole time and we chatted about life and training and shin splints. he is doing his first TNT event in just under a month, he will be running a marathon, and even though he is a strong runner, he is feeling the pressure which made me feel a little better. my coach seems really cool, we didn't spend too much time together as she was up with the faster folks, but she seems really down to earth and i think she will have some good stuff to share with me. Plus, she brought refreshments for after the training, bagels and orange smiles and gatorade, and she found muppet racing designed dixie cups which i complimented her on. so she has a pretty good sense of humor and an eye for detail, i like that in a coach!

so, in all, 3 miles in 43 minutes (14.3 minute mile even with hills, hooo-rah!), really tight shins tonight, but up and mobile, and after finishing the whole training by 9:30-ish, i was back in my car headed to the office to do 3 massages including a 90 minute myofascial session. and i live to tell the tale!

i did however decide that now that i am committed to the process of learning to get fit and get my walk, and possibly future run, on, it was time to invest in good shoes. so i consulted with Barb, the personal trainer at the gym, and went down to the Charlottesville Running Co. to check out what they had. they did an analysis of my gait (with a treadmill and a video camera, it was cool!) and then checked out my arches and gave me some suggestions. turns out i have a neutral landing, am turned out a little with my left foot, likely from my injury 2 years ago, and have really low arches. they brought me out 3 different shoes and i tried them all on, but the 1st pair was the best. as soon as i put them on, i was in foot love. they have a nice low achilles support, so no nasty blisters, but they hug the heel really well which gives tons of stability to prevent wobbly ankle turn outs. they are kind of a weird seafoam/teal color which should prevent them from being stolen and/or matching with any normal piece of clothing, and i subsequently bought 2 pairs of wicking blister free sox in a clashing moss green color for accent. i think tomorrow on my recovery walk i will wear them with a plaid shirt and pin-striped running tights!

oooh, kinda scared.....

talked to Brent from Team in Training today, got to hear all about exactly what they offer as well as the amount I need to raise to do the race in January. I will meet with them on saturday to get all of my start-up stuff (their kick off meeting was in August, so they are already underway for the winter season) and they are having a 3 mile run/walk. Not sure I will be fully ready for 3 miles at that point, lungs are still protesting basic life, and work keeps getting in the way of recovery rest. But I will meet with the coach and get some advice there and see what the morning brings me.

As a side note, having a little bit of "fat kid in gym class" fears sitting in my belly, i know this is a big step for the process, but personally it is a HUGE step for me to be willing to meet with people in my current fitness level. Brent asked me what size shirt I needed and I told him XXL would probably be best, though if i went with an XL, the logo would be more eye catching (though probably slightly pornographic). He said he would bring a few options as the shirts run on the big side and i said, "good, so do I, but hopefully not by january"

slight stumbling block

well, after almost 2 weeks on my training schedule, i woke up yesterday with a slightly runny nose and a bit of a cough. was feeling a little tired, but just figured it was a result of having 2 whole days off to myself and the crazy dance party that was saturday night. i thought about whether or not to exercise with the feeling that a cold might be coming on and ran the idea by my friend jon who is a crazy workout guy. we discussed the pros and cons of going and i decided that the fresh air and the increase in basal body temperature might bump off any cruddies growing in my body. well, i decided to go for the speed walk (3 minute warm up, 25 minute at a PRE of 7 and 3 minute cool down) but to only go at a PRE of about 5, which with the beginnings of a cold probably was closer to a 7 anyway since i was perceiving most all activities as difficult. at any rate, i suited up in my workout wear and leashed up the dog and headed to the track. the walk itself was good, mostly uneventful, and when i got back i decided to make some soup since i wasn't really in an eating mood (definite sign of sickness by the way!) although the soup looked good, it went uneaten as i had lost all desire to eat at this point.

at this time it was about 3 pm and i was starting to feel a little worse, the stuffies had gotten much stuffier and i was feeling pretty short of breath even just sitting still on the couch. Over the next 3-4 hours, I realized that I was quite feverish and was coughing pretty hard and my ribs were starting to get sore. I put myself to bed around 8:30 and tried to get some sleep as i had class to teach in the a.m. as each hour passed, i would wake up with bigger bouts of coughing and wheezing and was starting to expel some pretty ugly stuff. The worst part was that it felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest and all of muscles had become exhausted from coughing, so even to blow my nose was more effort than my obliques and intercostals could stand. By 6 am, i knew i wasn't going to work, so i called off and tried to go back to sleep, but my bed was really soaked with sweat and i was super stinky so i got up and took a cool shower. i then moved to the futon and tried to drink some fluids which was unpleasant.

at noon, i went to the doctor to get checked out and it turns out i have bronchial pneumonia. more unpleasant is the fact that it was caused by asthma that is probably brought about by exercise and being outdoors in the allergens. I told my doctor about the training and he recommended taking at least 5 days off to let my body heal and then moving back into training slowly. I am glad that the doctor figured out what was going on with me and that we are working out a plan to get my asthma under control so that I can safely continue to train, but I am a little frustrated with the setback. this is the second time that I have had a medical issue get in the way of progress and it is hard to not be able to perform the way that i want. i know that i have to respect my body and let it find it's own way, but i just want to be strong and healthy and it is a little frustrating to not be able to move forward the way that i would like. of course, i would also like to be able to run 13 miles tommorrow and that isn't a realistic goal either, so i guess i just need to have a bit of a reality check.

oh, one side note, it seems that the lower lobes of my lungs had seized and that was why it felt like there was an elephant sitting on me. fortunately, a few hits of an albuterol inhaler and some high dose prednisone and that let go some. i am already feeling the relief of the medication. plus, now that shelby and i are on the same meds, i can really relate to what she has been experiencing. poor pup :(

cat's outta the bag...

so finally everyone knows that i am planning to do the race in january. i was holding off to make sure that i could actually commit to the training before deciding, but since the last few weeks have gone even better than i expected and that i am actually enjoying myself, i am ready to commit to it.

update from friday, i actually felt really good when i woke up saturday morning except for a little tightness in the plantar fascia in my right foot from not stretching thoroughly enough the night before. since it was supposed to be an easy "recovery walk" day, i wasn't too concerned with when i would get my walk in and headed out in flip flops and jeans. well, i never made it home until late at night, but i definitely got a good bit of exercising in. 2 of my friends/former students were going to take their national boards for massage therapy on saturday and i went with them for moral support. both of them did very well (as expected) and passed the test. in celebration, we decided to go to Ikea for some retail therapy. since it has become a habit to wear my pedometer when i walk, i didn't really think too much of the fact that it was on my hip when we commenced shopping. after several hours in the store going aisle by aisle to make sure we didn't miss anything, i looked down at my pedometer to see that we had been walking about 2 miles. i felt pretty good about this, getting a good walk in but not stressing too much on time. after returning to charlottesville, we went out to dinner and cocktails on the pedestrian mall (more walking) and then ended up at a dance club (not really walking, but there were steps involved). after quite a bit of rigorous dancing, we finished up the night and i was excited to see what the total number of steps for the day was, but unfortunately my pedometer was not on my hip. at some point in the club i had over-boogied and managed to shake my pedometer right off. At last count, i was at 8650 steps for the day which translates to a little over 4 miles, and that was at least an hour before the end of the night. i'm thinking i probably made ti to the 10,000 if you include the walk back to the car on the other side of the mall. alas, we will never know for sure, but maybe my pedometer will find a new owner who gets inspired to take some steps!