<p>I did weights today, and added in some single leg deadlifts, cause they sounded so fun. I tested my leg with a little run/walk around the group exercise room. No pain or weird feeling, but that I’ve learned that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healed.</p>
<p>I have a question that maybe hops_scout or someone who’s dealt with a muscle injury can answer. I’ve read that you should rest the injury until it’s healed, but you also have to worry about adhesions forming, which apparently leave you vulnerable to future injury. So you’re supposed to rest it, then massage it, but don’t massage it until it’s healed, and then slowly use the muscle again, but not until it’s healed (my head is spinning). </p>
<p>Anyway, how do you know when it’s healed enough to start using it or massaging it? Twice my calf has felt perfect for days, so I jog a little and it feels great for 5 - 10 minutes, and then out of nowhere it hurts. I’ve used the foam roller and that makes it hurt for a few hours, so I stopped that. Obviously it needed more time, but now I’m kind of gun shy to do anything, but I sure don’t want no stinkin adhesions.</p>
<p>I think my head’s spinning after that paragraph too! </p>
<p>Typically we’ll start with ice and light stretching for the first 24-72 hours. After that point, we can start trying some heat. I like to start the massage process 48-72 hours after injury. The first couple of days we may not be able to be too aggressive with massage and get more aggressive as you’re comfortable. </p>
<p>Then to get back to activity, you just have to try it. Start slow and build as tolerated. Muscle injuries are so hard because we just never really know…</p>
<p>Well, I got the pleasure of both goblet squats and single leg deadlifts today. I’m not an animal these days, so I only used 30 lb DBs for the goblet squats. 40 lbs for the single leg deadlifts. When, I’d doing those well (and some are better than others with anything that requires an ol’ (formerly) fat guy like me balancing on one leg!), I really feel it in the glutes.</p>
<p>I had a cat that insisted I scratch his belly with my free hand while I was doing side plank with my feet in the suspension straps. Just what I needed… :)</p>
<p>Thanks, but I’m fine. I have a very big respect for heat after 28 years running in Dallas. I don’t take chances. I’ll have lots of water stops and shade tomorrow and will walk if I have to. 5K on the 4th concerns me more! This is just very unusual weather for here. Today was the all time high EVER here. 109. My car read 114 when I came out of work.</p>
<p>Wow. 109 was the highest ever here, too. We went to a happy hour after work that day, and the cheese platter the waiter brought us… looked like fondue.</p>
Well, that didn’t go so well. I didn’t get started until 6:45 (too lazy to get up earlier). I figured out pretty quickly (i.e. before I started) that I might not be running 10 miles! I felt decent through 5 and did NOT look at my mile splits up to that point and just tried to keep an easy effort. Wound up still being too fast and my heart rate monitor is broken so I didn’t have that guidance. The wheels came off at 7 and I had 2 to go back to the car. I don’t think I really dehydrated- it just felt like my legs couldn’t move and I was hot. It went from 78-88 degrees while I ran. I had to stop about every 1/2 and then 1/4 mile to regroup in the last 2 miles. I finished just in time- it would have been time to give it up and walk. Drove to Sonic for a 44 ounce iced tea.
<p>I’m doing wheel loss prevention today. Rest. My at home workout yesterday left me a little sore in new spots. I realized last night it’s been a while since I did a no exercise day - no jogging or at home workout. Today is that day.</p>
<p>Wow, I stumbled across an awesome series of videos for anyone wrestling with some aspect of obesity, diabetes, cholesterol/lipid issues, coronary heart disease risk, and so forth. This is a series of discussions (literally filmed around a table) put together by a medical practice in Reno. Apparently this practice has a contract with the city of Reno for their firefighters, police, etc. and they use these video discussions as part of their lifestyle education – convincing firefighters, for example, to cut the carbs to lose weight and improve their cholesterol markers. </p>
<p>Anyway, this series features two guests in a roundtable discussion and they are two of the most interesting experts on this stuff I’ve ever listened to. The first is [Thomas</a> Dayspring M.D.](<a href=“http://www.fhit.org/faculty.html]Thomas”>Les Départements Français). He’s a New Jersey doc who is an expert in everything related to cholesterol and cholesterol testing and insulin resistance and the impact of diet (and statin drugs) on all of that. He’s an awesome speaker.</p>
<p>The format is simple. The doctor moderating the discussion sits at a table with the two experts and simply shows them a food item and asks if this would be a good thing to tell their firefighters to eat. That’s all the prompting Dayspring and Taubes need.</p>
Glad you survived. It’s hot here today, but nothing like that. I think I’m going to go for a hike again.
Deborah:
I’ve learned that I have to force myself to take at least one day a week completely off from exercise or I really start wearing down. The body needs that recovery time. I take it a step further and try to alternate workouts so I’m never doing the same kinds of exercise two days in a row.
<p>Nice 4 mile hike at the Audubon Center again this afternoon. I explored some of the same trails and some new ones. Terrific place to hike. Incredible how few people use it. For the most part, the trails are old fire roads – one-lane dirt roads in deep forest, covered in pine straw, lots of rocks and roots. There are some places that would be OK for trail jogging (not on my agenda today), other places where just walking requires paying attention.</p>
<p>I came close to breaking a toe as a I stubbed my big toe on a rock embedded in the trail! I just wore my Brooks running shoes. It’s kind of borderline. Some of the narrower rocky hilly bits would probably be better for my nasty red/yellow North Face trail shoes. I would definitely wear those if it were wet and muddy.</p>
<p>It’s really crazy to see my change in fitness. It was hot today, and I was walking at a pretty good clip (Garmin says I averaged 3.5 mph). I worked up a pretty good sweat, but never saw my heart rate go up, even on the hills. I saw a peak of just 71% of my max. My legs are definitely feeling it though, which is good. That’s kinda the point!</p>
<p>I saw several people walking dogs. And, there is obviously a lot of horse traffic on the trails. There is one area of grassy trails mowed in open fields (that would be fantastic for jogging intervals…) where dogs are banned.</p>
<p>The only other wildlife I saw was a very large (3 feet) black snake crossing the trail to the lake. Kind of an unusual sight around here as we are too far north to be snake country and there are essentially no poisonous snakes in the entire state of NH. The only one is the timber rattlesnake which is all but extinct.</p>
</p>
There is one area of grassy trails mowed in open fields (that would be fantastic for jogging intervals…) where dogs are banned.</p>