<p>Good lord, BC, are you training for a marathon? Congratulations on your 30 miles!</p>
<p>I don’t know how you guys do it. I jog for 2 minutes and my tongue is hanging out and I’m panting like a ol’ dog. I’m not going to be running 30 miles in a week anytime soon!</p>
<p>Speaking of jogging, are there any exercises that can help counter the potential for harm to the knees? I understand (I think) that some risk of damage is inevitable given that jogging involves bringing all of your weight down on each knee, but might strengthening some muscle group or another help?</p>
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<p>Pray and knock on wood?</p>
<p>Seriously, though. I would say that the standard lower body exericses – squats, deadlifts, hip lifts. The pros would say that ankle and hip mobility/flexibilty are really important to protect the knee.</p>
<p>Amesie, you might need to analyze and adjust your gait. I noticed that distance runners never slam their feet into the ground; instead, they almost glide along the trail. When I run, I never lift my feet too high off the ground, since vertical motion is a waste of energy. Instead, I propel my feet slightly up and then forward. This way, I minimize the pounding and weight loading of the knees.</p>
<p>Got about ten hours of sleep and I still feel tired but it’s cold (59
degrees) and rainy out which makes for a refreshing feeling this
morning.</p>
<p>I didn’t hear anything about tennis in my email so it looks like I might
not do anything today (which would be fine with me).</p>
<p>On knees - for me, there’s some amount of damage over five miles in a
day and the ability to run the next day is decent if the damage is
repaired overnight which it mostly has been this week. The repair rate
at higher weight levels is longer so I really couldn’t do something
like this a month ago without increasing levels of pain everyday.</p>
<p>The idea on chondromalacia is that it is due to an imbalance in the
knee muscles just above the knee where the stronger muscle pulls the
kneecap to one side which results in cartilege wearing away. Cartilege
grows back very slowly so a decent amount of rest can get rid of the
pain. Sports that do twisting motions on the knees (like tennis,
basketball, skiing), can aggravate the kneecap/cartilege problem.</p>
<p>I think that this is why you see so much use of Kineseo tape on tennis
players knees (you see it on shoulders too). I see a lot of players
also using devices similar to the Chopat Strap or just regular
bandages. Even Djokovich is using a device on one of his knees and
he’s a really young player.</p>
<p>On running - I used to play a ton of tennis when I was younger and I
was very light but I couldn’t run more than a half-a-mile. The reason
was due to running too fast and not doing it regularly. I only relaxed
enough in my 30s to run regularly and to not run too fast so that I
could run longer and longer distances.</p>
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<p>Your weight workouts are probably a lot tougher than running a mile but
it’s just channeling energy in a different way.</p>
<p>I have 400 miles on my current set of shoes that I use for running (they
are cross-trainers, not running shoes) and it’s time to replace them. I
hope that there’s another pair in the closet. I need to head down to the
New Balance Factory Outlet to replenish our supplies (I think that there
are only three or four pairs of new shoes in the closet right now and I
don’t know if they are tennis, cross-trainers or running shoes). I find
that good cushioning is very important and always go with aftermarket
insoles.</p>
<p>I don’t plan to do 30 miles in a week anytime soon - I think that 15 a
week is a more realistic number. 30 miles/week crowds out just about
everything else. I may do a bit more when I get my weight down a lot
more. I don’t plan on running any races more than a 5k for the rest of
this year. I’ll leave the long races for the real runners.</p>
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<p>I go by the principle that us ol’ geezers should never do the same kind of exercise two days in a row. Whether it’s weight lifting or bike riding or jogging or practically anything, give it a day in between sessions for recovery. I suspect that is extra important for running/jogging.</p>
<p>The few times I’ve violated my own rule (hill walking multiple days last summer or chinup sets every day this winter), I have really started to feel accummulated soreness.</p>
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<p>No question. I had the same experience hopping on a bicycle, even after months of pedalling the Airdyne. It’s amazing how different various types of exercise tax energy systems. Plus, endurance is unlikely to ever be my strong suit. I’m sure that 38 years of smoking took a toll on my lung capacity. I’m just grateful for whatever cardio fitness I can achieve. I have an on-line buddy who quit smoking around the same time I did. Late 40s. She’s now on oxygen full-time with advanced COPD. I think of her a lot when I am huffin’ and puffin’ up a steep hill. I’ll take the huffin’ and puffin’.</p>
<p>Took a trip to Modell’s yesterday and bought a swimsuit, a good jump rope, a medicine ball and a pair of 6 lb free weights (I was going to get 5 lb but the 6 lb ones were my favorite color, so…).</p>
<p>Things I really should get in the habit of doing again: swimming. I was a state-ranked synchronized swimmer in middle school and on the varsity swim team in high school, but somehow I never got into the habit of making up my own workouts that are anything other than “Swim laps until you get tired.” And my college gym has a nice pool, too.</p>
<p>But I’m also not sure how realistic all this is once I actually get back to school. I’ll have a club sport practice 2-3 times/week, I’m taking a dance class 2 days/week this fall, and on top of all that I somehow want to get to the gym or run 2 times/week and swim 1 time/week.</p>
<p>Amesie, when I was having knee problems last year, my doctor had me work with a trainer for exactly that reason. I have a whole series of lower body and core exercises, and also warm up and stretching stuff. The warmups and stretching are things I would never have taken the time to do before, but I have become a convert (pain will do that to you.) She also had me do some upper body, because at that point, why the hell not I guess. </p>
<p>It’s basically dead lifts, squats, variations of lunges with weights, and some squatting side steps with an exercise band. Core is mainly planks and side planks, with added hard things to do as you progress. If you want more detail I’d be happy to share specifics.</p>
<p>I’m starting to really enjoy the medicine ball. It has taken a little while to get the hang of it, but it is really fun to be super aggressive and slam something into the floor or the wall with all your might.</p>
<p>I’ll have to break out the jump rope again. The last time I tried, it was hopeless. </p>
<p>Good for you on dumbbells. I believe that starting on a regular resistance training program is a really key step in fitness. Everything, including maintaining body weight, is so much easier with a solid base of lean muscle.</p>
<p>9.1 miles done. It was VERY hot and humid, even starting at 6:30am. Didn’t look at my mile splits until about mile 6 because I wanted to keep the effort comfortable and not feel any pressure. The last few miles were tough with some rolling terrain (no bad hills), but I made it! Sitting in my car is still really bothering my glutes, even with all my cushions/lumbar support etc. I literally have to stand up every few minutes while I am driving. My weight was NOT low after the run, which means I didn’t dehydrate, which is good, although those low scale readings are always nice…
H is off riding his bike with 1500 of his closest friends in our big ride “event” here. Lance came in for it, so it attracted more people than usual. I was glad not to participate this year. The mass starts terrify me.</p>
<p>Re: knees and running. I haven’t tended to have many knee problems (except for the fracture from skiing), and I also tend to keep my feet low to the ground. It is important to take small steps and not over-stride. Danger with that is that you trip. :)</p>
<p>I almost forgot the most important thing, Amesie. Make sure you get the right running shoes. Go to a running store and have an experienced shoe person fit you. I am convinced that the shoes I bought last year were the primary cause of my knee pain.</p>
<p>Glad to hear that you were able to get in a decent run again, MOWC.</p>
<p>I’m with you on the sore glutes. I’m doing the absolute most basic glute exercise (a plain old [hip</a> brdge](<a href=“Hip Bridge : www.BeYourTrainer.com - YouTube”>Hip Bridge : www.BeYourTrainer.com - YouTube)) in my new iPod nazi core workouts, but – unlike when I did them in my first ever workout 16 months ago – I’m able to do them correctly with the glutes, instead of the hamstrings. As a result, I’m really feeling it for the next day or so.</p>
<p>iPod nazi has a good way of coaching this with a count of four:</p>
<p>Squeeze
Lift
One
Two</p>
<p>Squeeze
Lift
One
Two</p>
<p>The sqeeze part fires the butt muscles.</p>
<p>This simple little exercise, that can be done at home in two minutes, may be one of the things a lot of us most need to do.</p>
<p>Phew. 7.1 miles averaging 8.1 min pace. Not bad. I had a late start waiting for the dryer to finish its job. One of my sneaky cats made her way into the master bath, chewed on the palm plant and threw up all over the bed. Yuck. I just could not leave the mess alone.</p>
<p>MOfWC, excellent job on your run!</p>
<p>IDad- I’m going to try the hip lift that way. My glutes hurt from the injury, but maybe that will help. My PT wants me doing that roller glute machine at the gym…</p>
<p>Thanks, BB. At least I could do it!</p>
<p>Teenage_cliche – have you checked out masters swimming in your area? I have several friends who swim masters and who never compete, but like the push of structured workouts, the technique coaching, and the socialization with other swimmers. (Other friends are super-competitive masters swimmers who compete locally and nationally, so there seems to be room for all in these groups.) We have early morning and evening masters swim groups at a couple different pools in town.</p>
<p>I spent about 25 minutes doing some plyometrics with the agility ladder. That’s all I’m doing for a workout today…</p>
<p>What was supposed to be an 11 mile run, turned into a 9 mile run with the last 2 miles a power walk. Sadly, my power walk isn’t even that much slower than my training running pace…</p>
<p>Needed to take it back to a walk, because my IT Band decided to make itself heard. Because I am very familiar with this, I know there is no point in trying to run through it —I will do the usual stuff and see what happens. I am just happy I am not currently training for anything so I don’t need to get stressed out over it. My next long run will probably be under 10 miles though, just to play it safe.</p>
<p>Okay, I feel really feeble reporting this after reading everyone’s fantastic running efforts, but I was able to jog 2 miles. Outside, with wind, up and down hills. I feel really good in spite of waiting until the end of the day to do it. </p>
<p>Went to the farmer’s market this morning and had an overload on vegetables. Beautiful radishes, beets and carrots. Had a good look at some other items, including “salad bar” beef and lamb. I think that means it’s grass fed. I didn’t buy any as I didn’t have a cooler but I may try some next week.</p>
<p>Went to the Y (son wanted to run) and worked out on the Cybex machines. I tried a bunch of machines that I’ve never used before - the machines are smoother than the ones at my regular Y and provide a better workout - I could feel the muscles targeted instead of ancillary muscles, which in my case, is good.</p>
<p>I checked out the pulley system and it is a Hoist system. It was in use about 70% of the time I was there. I walked over to it to check it out when it was free but I couldn’t figure out how to do the exercises that I wanted to do. I know how to do them on my home Y.</p>
<p>Will do free weights this evening at home and some stretching.</p>