<p>The ankle stiffened up overnight and is very tender this morning, as in just barely hobbling around tender. It’ll be fine. Not black and blue. Not terribly swollen. Go figure huh? I spend the week swinging dumbells between my legs and doing one-armed t-pushups and crazy Spartacus stuff that really could hurt something and then I go out and gets hurt walking down [a</a> paved country lane](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/ssje/3594667281/in/set-72157619236407860/]a”>EH_Road_08 | SSJE | Flickr). Sheesh.</p>
<p>I guess my ol’ fat guy motto is no longer, “I couldn’t walk to the mailbox without getting winded.” From now on, it’s, “I couldn’t walk to the mailbox without falling down and spraining an ankle.”</p>
<p>Falls hurt. In Dallas much of the year we didn’t wear much clothing when we ran. When I fell, I tended to wipe out knees, elbows, hands, hip and shoulders all in one fall. It could be pretty spectacular and the only part covered by clothing was the hip.<br>
It was a year ago that I feel twice in the Whistestop Marathon. The first fall I did land on my face and cut my lip. The 2nd one I landed with my arm under me and bruised my ribs really badly. I thought I might have broken one, but I didn’t. I finished the race and did well, but trying to lift my suitcase into the trunk of the rent car was absolutely painful. I wasn’t OK for about a month. Falls hurt, but bike falls are worse.</p>
<p>You are probably right. I better stay sitting. </p>
<p>I thought about grabbing some dumbbells and doing a few presses while watching football in the recliner, but the way my weekend is going, I figured I’d probably drop one on my head.</p>
<p>110 minutes of doubles today and about half an hour of weights. Will do a bit more with the weights with my son tonight at home. The doubles today stressed my body a bit more - a few more sore spots. The guys that I hit with today have better serves than the guy that I usually play singles with so I had to dart left and right more. Doubles can be more effort on the joints as you serve and then come in to volley and you often have to stretch wide for the return.</p>
<p>Son has been complaining about knee pain with his running - I told him that I’d give him a new pair of running shoes. It’s time for me to replace mine too. The tennis shoes feel so much better than the running shoes right now.</p>
<p>I also have a callous or blister or something on a foot around the middle of the metatarsal area. It only hurts when I put pressure on it. I checked out the callous remover at the supermarket today - it’s made of 17% salicylic acid (aspirin). I’m not sure how you apply it though. Not sure how good it is for the bottom of the foot - the example in the directions is for the top of a toe. My alternative is to use a single-edge razor blade to cut off the skin. That might be a bit more painful and messy.</p>
<p>It’s fine for the bottom of the foot. It’s used for “plantar wart” removal – warts in the bottom of the foot. No problem. It will just slowly eat away layers of skin (in a good way).</p>
<p>CHINTZY!!! Way to go! How awesome is that!!! WOW! You inspire and motivate me to keep going. Your success is just what I needed to hear after having a bad weekend. Congratulations on your achievement of good health and athletic success. You go Girl!!! :)</p>
<p>My son was complaining of knee problems when he ran recently so I broke out a new pair of running shoes for him. I had a look at his old shoes (about 4.5 months old) and they were really chewed up. He should be more aggressive about replacing them. I also pulled out a new pair for me this morning. We have a shoe-recycle box at the office and I need to bring several pairs in.</p>
<p>This morning I did some stretching and abs work. The abs work was 80 crunches in a fairly short period of time. The last time I did these (probably about a month ago), it took a bit of effort to complete them. This time it was pretty easy. The difference is my abs work at the gym - there’s an abs machine at the YMCA. When I don’t do abs for a long time, I lose a lot of strength and I usually start back up at around 180 pounds and then work my way up to 250 pounds (max on the machine). It normally takes a few months to get up to that weight. But about ten crunches on that machine gives me the strength to do 100 regular crunches.</p>
<p>I also noticed that my son’s arms are getting bigger. When he is at home, he works in the basement on his labs and every once in a while, he’ll work out with the barbell and dumbbells next to his desk. I got him to try the military press over the weekend and he didn’t have any problems with it (at 60 pounds). My arms are getting bigger too - pretty amazing how easy it is to add strength.</p>
<p>I’m going to try running today. Playing tennis twice over the weekend was tough on my knees and they were a bit sore this morning. They feel a lot better now.</p>
<p>I’m trying to figure out what kind of workout my tweaked ankle will allow today. It’s fine, but still just a little tender.</p>
<p>I’m hoping to dive into iPod nazi Phase III, which goes into 3-exercise SuperSets: one weight lifting, one core, and one aerobic – done back to back without rest. For example, one SuperSet is:</p>
<p>30 sec: lunge walk with lateral raises
30 sec: Pushups (with feet on the stability ball)
1 min: Jumping Jacks</p>
<p>rest 60 seconds and repeat a second set.</p>
<p>The full workout has four different SuperSets, two sets of each, with 2 minutes rest in between SuperSets. We’ll see how it goes. There are a whole bunch of new exercises that may have a learning curve. If I can physically do the exercises, I think I’m ready to tackle these workouts. Spartacus has helped me begin to deal with weightlifting and body weight exercises while panting like a dog! There’s always the PAUSE button.</p>
<p>Did you get that ankle support? If I’m worried about an area, I usually try to either reinforce it or do isolation work. I also take anti-inflammatories to try and prevent further problems.</p>
<p>I did my running workout today. I ran a mile, which was surprisingly easy, walked, ran a half mile, then 10 minutes on the armless elliptical. I was soooo tempted to just stay home this morning. After being away for 3 days, I kind of got off my routine, but I made myself go, and now I’m happy that I did.</p>
<p>chintzy, yay you!! That is an amazing accomplishment.</p>
<p>I had to go look at a project in a new neighborhood today. Since I don’t have any pressing deadlines I thought, it’s a gorgeous day, why don’t I just walk around here? Did about 2.5 miles and found a new pond I’ve never seen before. </p>
<p>Amusing neighborhood - how many ways can you put additions on to the same basic split level design?</p>
<p>Wow. iPod nazi Phase III is going to be a bear. I was happy to have a gimpy ankle as an excuse to ease up on the lunges, jumping jacks, and burpees. </p>
<p>This phase introduces a couple of killer exercises:</p>
<p>a) not a new one, but split squats (one leg forward, one back, like a lunge) with heavy dumbells get the old thighs burning like crazy. It puts all the force on one leg.</p>
<p>b) Side bridge with a twist. A lot like the T-pushups, start with a side bridge, one arm extended up with a dumbbell, then twist and reach under the torso with the dumbbell, then back to the extended position over head, all while maintaining a side bridge. This is a great exercise!</p>
<p>c) Pushups and roll-in on the stability ball. Hands on floor, feet on stability ball. Do a pushup, then after coming back up, bend the knees and roll the ball into the bum, then extend back until the legs are straight. Repeat.</p>
<p>d) One leg hamstring roll in. OMG. This feels like a charlie horse cramp in back of the leg. Lie on back on floor, fee up on stability ball. Raise hips, lift one leg off ball, use the remaining leg to roll the ball into the bum and back out, keeping hips off floor. Instant burning in the thigh. 30 seconds, then switch to the other leg. Probably the most painful exercise I’ve done. This one is going to take some work.</p>
<p>OMG…Chintzy…wow…you are AMAZING. Congrats!!</p>
<p>Just got back from a trip visiting family in NY state. Awesome leaves up there right now. Did some great hikes and biking. And I’m now the proud owner of a twisted ankle. Can’t believe it IDAD…must be something in the air. So we stop to admire a gorgeous view and I turn around and fall into a deep ridge…and we still have 2 miles to go. Hurt REALLY bad but then calmed down pretty quickly. It was tender today and didn’t hurt too much in the morning. So we biked 15 hilly miles and hiked another hilly five. I’m convinced that was probably not the smartest thing to do…but it was gorgeous out!! It’s a bit more swollen now and feels kinda numb… </p>
<p>Sitting with it elevated and icing it tonight. I think I need to get one of those braces.</p>
</p>![http://img.runningwarehouse.com/big/BMIZN-YE-1.jpg]Brooks](http://img.runningwarehouse.com/big/BMIZN-YE-1.jpg%5DBrooks){kind=link}
