<p>Ran a mile on the track today with my son. There was a soccer game going on in the field so we got some free entertainment. Wore long pants and a cotton t-shirt as a tech shirt might have been too cool. The stiff wind made for a big difference on the two sides of the track. Also did a bit of free weights at home. I spent quite a bit of time today sleeping as I was only getting six hours a night during the week. I’m trying to decide on going to the Y to do the weight machines.</p>
<p>Total of 25 miles for the week. That’s better than the previous two weeks.</p>
<p>Wow, wow, wow, everyone! Congrats MoWC on a successful walk and idad on losing 5 pounds–12 times!! Good job to all our hikers, bikers, runners, walkers and nappers.</p>
<p>I got a call this morning from my sister-in-law asking me if I’d do a race tomorrow morning with my niece. Brother has a bum leg, sil has a bad foot and the 12 year old really, really wants to run with her friends. It’s a 5 mile course; adult does the first 2.5 and kid finishes. The bad news is the first half is almost entirely uphill. With a grand total of one 5k under my belt, when did I become the go to gal for road races?</p>
<p>And did I mention my thighs are really sore from doing eleventy seven thousand squats at the gym this morning?</p>
<p>It must be because of how you look in those cute running shorts after doing all those squats. With legs like that, everyone just assumes you are a runner!</p>
<p>I hear ya about the sore legs. I had to take a break from Spartacus because all the squats and lunges had me sore in every place on my thighs and butt – except for the back of my thighs, which the pyramid intervals on the Airdyne took care of.</p>
<p>Thanks for the heart rate information. I am not sure that the monitor on my treadmill is very accurate, because I have to slow down and grip the bars for a good five seconds for the thing to work. I did 20 minutes at 3.5 mph and my heart rate, according to the monitor, was about 125. I could have stood a more intense experience (at least for a little while) but I am not coordinated enough to walk faster, and I could have jogged a bit except I am concerned about the impact on my back. I did some google research on raising the incline and opinions seem to conflict about whether that is a good idea for someone who has had a back injury. Some sources say the treadmill should be flat, because an incline throws off your center of gravity, while other sources say an incline is good (and I am not sure why). I probably need to go talk with my doctor about the back issue.</p>
<p>That sounds about right. That’s a 17 minute mile pace on a flat treadmill. I walked at that pace outdoors on a flat track (17:42 per mile) for 43 minutes and saw an average heart rate of 72% and a max of 80%. The max was towards the end as my heart rate slowly increased over time. It takes a while for me to get to 70% walking on flat terrain. Treadmill is a tad easier than walking outdoors.</p>
<p>Walking uphill can mess with your mechanics (knees, back, etc.), but probably not so much until you get up to 5% incline. I have a knee that gets unhappy on a 10% grade, unless I’m warmed up. I sometimes feel it on the first steep hill on my route.</p>
<p>Wow, Idad! I’m in awe. Congratulations on the weight loss and and overall fitness improvement!:)</p>
<p>MOWC, congratulations of your restraint. Given the way you love to run, that can’t have been easy. I guess I’m going to have to go back and read about your hamstring injury. I hope it isn’t too serious:(</p>
<p>It is a serious injury because it is upper hamstring tendinopathy with bursitis. Started as a hamstring strain, but once it gets into the upper tendon, since there is limited blood flow, it is extremely hard to get well. Rest alone won’t do it. It takes a combination of rest (i.e. not aggravating it) and retraining the surrounding muscles etc to take the load off of it. If you push on your sitbone (in your butt-not the tailbone) that is where it hurts now. It hurts to sit and really bothers me driving. Bucket seats are terrible. It is not an uncommon injury and there are tons of threads on the internet and lots of info.
I have had 2 epidural steroid injections (that did fix a pinched nerve in my back which didn’t hurt but led to weakness in the left leg which could have led to the hamstring strain) and 3 cortisone shots directly into the bursa area. I’ve finished with all that and now need to be patient, do my exercises and not do anything to mess it up like sitting in the wrong chair (or running).
I’ve only gained a couple of pounds over last year- and in marathon training last year that was pretty light for me- but I need to really get the eating in check or I will not be able to stay at this weight. The other forms of exercise just don’t generate the calorie burn for me that running does. Well-the 5 hours on a bike did, but that’s over for the season.<br>
I’m doing OK right now mentally, but a lot of my social life revolves around my running friends and I’m watching races go by that I entered awhile ago (you have to enter some of these 6 months out). Today is Steamtown Marathon in Scranton which I am not running. I actually was able to give my entry (you aren’t allowed to do this- she has to run as me) to a friend who lives up there who is an ultra-marathoner. I told her that she better not win anything (she’s about 12 years younger).</p>
<p>It’s not that hard to take your own pulse with a little practice. All you need is a clock with a second hand (or digits) and then you can do this when you don’t have the electronics around.</p>
<p>My tennis elbow is generally giving me fewer problems. This could be due to: playing less tennis (once a week), a bit more weight training, using my left hand for more things or just unconsciously not doing things that aggravate it. I hope that it drops to the point where I can do regular weight training again. I can’t do pullups, curls, or tricep extensions which is something that I used to enjoy doing quite a bit.</p>
<p>bceagle: my tennis elbow is feeling a bit better too (got it from golf last summer and it has not gone away even though I don’t play anymore!). I really miss the weights too. And this is the second year that I had to say no to our local women’s bowling league. And no to golf. And no to kayaking. Anyway, every time I think it’s OK, I re-aggravate it and it feels like I’m back to square one. Injuries are frustrating!</p>
<p>I’m going to wait for quite some time before trying the weights again; anything outside of five pounds that is. It is very easy to reinjure. I’m taking fewer painkillers too - mostly because I forget to take them. I’ve known tennis players to play with their non-dominant hand because of TE. It’s frustrating though, because your non-dominant hand is never as good.</p>
<p>I’m glad that I can still play once a week without issue. I may have unconsciously changed my strokes or my game to avoid things that damage the arm or it might just be getting stronger because of the weights that I can do.</p>
<p>The weight machines really, really help as I can work about 85% of the muscles that I care about with their assistance.</p>
<p>Idad, your knee issue reminds me of my knee. Thinking back, I realize that over the last several years, my one knee had experienced pain when I walked up steepish hills and that I had to be careful in kickboxing classes because twisting movements would make it twinge. It was never very much pain and it never followed me outside of exercise so I just ignored it. When I started running, it kind of blew up and became continuous, serious pain, even when just walking, and for some reason, the other knee decided to join in. I haven’t researched bursitis too much, so I don’t know if it’s something that can be lurking around and as long as you don’t overdo, you don’t realize it’s there.</p>
<p>MOWC, I feel so bad for you. I know from past experience how it feels to be sidelined from something you love to do. I really hope your recovery time is short.</p>
<p>sounds like everyone has been very busy. To our newcomers and lurkers - welcome! This virtual gym is great! We have quite an assortment of members. Some people are hard core exercise junkies, others are re-acquainting themselves with their former, fitter selves, some are dabblers, others are techno-fitness zealots, frankly we are an odd group. There are no fees here and the gym is always open. </p>
<p>I think what I find helpful is that you can find someone else who is your stage of fitness (or injury). And even those of us who are just in the unending battle of maintaining fitness (against the twin devils aging + gravity) need encouragement. </p>
<p>So, I am back from an all too brief vacation. Lots of walking like a normal person, but not much in the way of vigorous exercising. The timing was perfect. I had trained really hard for the race in NYC and a little rest was in order. It is gorgeous here in PA today, so I will be hitting the road in a couple of hours. </p>
<p>By the way, MoWC, no snickering from me. When I go somewhere with DH, he reminds me to walk like “a normal person.” This past week, we did a lot of normal walking and it was great for my soul.</p>
<p>On a serious note, I have been genuinely concerned about your injury. I had a bout with an upper hamstring injury - not as severe as yours - and I know how painful it can be. I would wake up in the night with pain. It took a good two-three months to heal and as I said - it was not as severe as yours. My injury was the result of picking up cartons of books for one of my workshops.
When I feel even the slightest twinge now, I stay away from hills for a couple of days because I don’t want to re-injure myself. </p>
<p>It sounds like you are now taking rehab as seriously as you normally do when you train for an event. Hang in there!</p>
<p>Any opinions on the Garmin 205? It seems like a cheap way to track runs. The thing that I would really like most is instantaneous speed although I’d like the run time, average pace, etc.</p>
<p>It’s been over 6 months. It was about March 25 when I decided I actually had an injury. However, I ran a lot in June and August, so it has not had the rest it needs. The frustrating part is that rest isn’t enough. I do see some improvement. I don’t hurt at night anymore and while I still hurt IN the car (even with the cushions), I can get OUT of the car and actually start walking without hobbling. I think the last cortisone shot might be helping since I didn’t override it with running a half marathon or anything.
I had a bad SI joint (similar to this) rotation injury in the late 90s and had to carry around a lumbar roll and tennis ball (to sit on) to all my business meetings and depositions. This too shall pass. (I don’t get to whine about it at work, because my wonderful 47 year old boss is having surgery Tuesday to remove a rare cancerous tumor from behind his eye- and he will lose the eye. We are all in shock and it puts things in perspective somewhat.)</p>
<p>I have a question about this racewalking. I watched a video series on the basic technique and I’m trying out the whole arm thing. When I get going, it feels like my arms are moving at a 45 degree angle with my hands coming to a point about in the center of my body out in front of me (rather than straight forward and back like pumping the arms of an elliptical). Is that correct?</p>
<p>Secondarily, I gather the real goal is to get the hips rotating with each stride, so the right hip is moving forward as the right arm pumps forward. Is that correct?</p>
<p>Regarding walking hills, if where you’re walking is wide enough, if you ‘S’ as you’re coming down a hill, it’s less stressful on the knees. But I realize not all paths/trails are wide enough to do that.</p>
<p>I did a new weight lifting routine on Friday as we’re starting to introduce some new moves that help strengthen areas we don’t always focus on. Although I’ve never done any rotator cuff strengthening (not directly), my trainer says it’s the best way to increase your weight load on bench pressing. He’s very adamant about allowing tendons and ligaments enough time to catch up to what the corresponding muscles can handle to avoid injury. Anyway, did some new stuff on Friday and was very sore yesterday (very rare for me). Of course, now (Monday morning quarterbacking) I’m realizing I shouldn’t have pressure washed the siding on the house and retaining wall in our backyard yesterday because I’m moving really slow this morning… and have another training session in an hour! I’ve already texted him and warned him to be nice!</p>
<p>Was watching the Chicago Marathon on TV (I know a number of people running it), and am totally convinced that I was born on the wrong continent! Those winners cross the finish line looking like they could run another 26, and it’s currently 76 degrees here (low humidities this year as opposed to three years ago when over 300 people were taken to hospitals for heat stroke).</p>
