Running the Road to Recovery - 1

As I've outlined in the first post of this series, I'm working my way back to where I was in June -- able to run 3-4 miles at a decent (OK, mediocre) rate of speed. A secondary infection to my knees derailed my training. But only temporarily.

After a final round of tests and blood work, both my GP and specialists agree -- I had something, but it's going away, and we're not quite sure what it was.

So, with a clean (but somewhat puzzled) bill of health, it's time to start running again. Since it's been a while, I'm going back to the beginning of the Men's 4-Miler training program. If it seems too easy, I may skip ahead, but it seems like a good place to start.

Today was 1 minute running, 30 seconds walking for a half mile. Not too bad. It felt good running again, although some leg muscles that hadn't had to work hard in a while complained a little.

Since this is the first time I've added running to the mix, I've renamed the series, and started the chart over again.

Date	Time	Distance	Run/Walk	Rate
7/30/12	13:30	.80k	1 min./30 sec.	2.88k/h

Walking the Road to Recovery - 1

I was training for the Men's 4-Miler when I was derailed by a kidney infection. All of a sudden I went from running 10-12 miles a week, to complete inactivity . And I missed the race.

But that's not  the end of the story. The infection's passed, but not before my body went sepsis. My knees are now swollen and painful to bend. I think it's a secondary infection, but my doctor's not sure. We're ruled out Lyme's Disease, and there's no sign of any residual infection. He thinks it might be rheumatoid arthritis triggered by the infection, but I'm skeptical.

First, rheumatoid arthritis isn't in my family history. Second, it appeared suddenly, and initially the joints were warm to the touch. Well. we've made an appointment with a rheumatologist. The earliest available time? October 11. So this condition I've had since June 14 will go undiagnosed and untreated for another 12 weeks.

I don't think so. I'm not sitting around waiting that long. I've started taking glucosamine, which is s supplement that's supposed to be good for joints. And beginning today, I'm exercising again. For a while I'll just be walking in the mornings, we'll see about running later.

Although the knees hurt, it feels more like a stiffness, so I'm planning to keep them loose through physical activity. I'll be keeping a log of my exercises to monitor my progress.

Will any of this be effective? I don't know. But it's better than just sitting around waiting until October 11.

July 2
Walked 1.44k/21.3 7

Hey- it's a start.

Men's 4-Miler Training, Part 10 - Race Day

I'm chronicling my efforts to get back into running after a long absence. To start, I'm participating in the Men’s 4-Miler Training Program offered by the Charlottesville Track Club. 

 If this were a movie, then I would be out at Scott Stadium, moving my body through sheer force of will, making myself complete the four-mile course. But it’s not. So I’m having to sit out the race. While the kidney infection has mostly run its course, I’m still quite weak, and a secondary infection has settled in my knees. So I not only don’t have the energy to walk, but it's painful to do so.

 I’m forced to sit this race out, but I’m not done yet. Once I’ve recovered (and I intend to fully recover), I’m going back into training. Even if I have to start back at the beginning of the four-miler training program, I’ll do it. This is the second time my running has been sidetracked by illness, and I’d like it to be the last! Good luck to everyone who’s running today. I’m with you in spirit.

Men's 4-Miler Training, Part 9

I'm chronicling my efforts to get back into running after a long absence. To start, I'm participating in the Men’s 4-Miler Training Program offered by the Charlottesville Track Club. 

This has been a rough week. A kidney infection has kept me from running at all this week, and today I just don’t have the energy to do the run. We met at Scott Stadium to do a practice run for next week. I’m hopeful I’ll be able to get back into it. My fellow runners with some experience assure me that after seven weeks of training, I shouldn’t drop back to the beginning, so the setback might not be that bad.

I did show up to the meeting, though, and while others ran the course, I walked the parking lot – just to see how much I could do. I was able to keep walking until the first runners returned, but only just. This week its rest and recuperation. I’m determined that even if I just walk the course, it will be worth it.

Men's 4-Miler Training, Part 8

I'm chronicling my efforts to get back into running after a long absence. To start, I'm participating in the Men’s 4-Miler Training Program offered by the Charlottesville Track Club. 

This was the penultimate week of the training program, and the last at Charlottesville High School (where every direction is up). Next week, we do a trial run over the actual course.

The goal this time was 3.5 miles, and for the first time I felt pretty good about the run. I accepted the fact that I would be dead last, and with that out of the way, concentrated instead exclusively on my breathing. My goal was the recommended rate of one breath (in and out) for every five steps.

For my purposes, I counted each half breath as a beat, meaning I needed to do two beats for every five steps. As a trained percussionist, I've had a lot of experience playing odd metric combinations against each other, so this one was pretty easy. The breath "2" simply falls between steps 3 and 4.

If you want to figure it out for yourself, the process is pretty easy (especially if you read music). Just find the lowest common denominator, write out all the numbers, and align both patterns up against it. Play it for a while counting the pulse, and once you get the feel of it, you're ready. Here's how it works:

Breaths
1                  2
Pulse (Common Denominator)
1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Steps
1      2      3      4      5

so:

Breaths/Steps
1                  2

1      2      3      4      5

It worked. Sure, I was last and pretty quickly, too, but my first mile was 16.47. The second mile was 16.25. I should have also worked on the pulse, because the first mile was a little fast. My third mile was 17.02. But the last half mile was exactly 8 minutes.

And while I was running, I got into the rhythm. We were running for 3 minutes and walking for 1 minute, and soon I was surprised to hear it was time to walk. In previous weeks I lived for the walk mode! And as we dropped further back, I kind of lost track of the time and found myself running for 4-5, occasionally even 6 minutes at a stretch. With no shortness of breath, and no undue fatigue.

I think I've finally hit on a race strategy. We'll see how this week goes!

Men's 4-Miler Training, Part 7

I'm chronicling my efforts to get back into running after a long absence. To start, I'm participating in the Men’s 4-Miler Training Program offered by the Charlottesville Track Club. 

This week we moved up to 3 miles. I've been struggling the past few weeks -- not in my legs, but in my chest. The schedule calls for three running sessions throughout the week; Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Since I run early in the morning, Wednesdays are out (I leave at 5AM to do my weekly radio show on WTJU). So I've been shifting the Wednesday run to Thursdays. This week, I moved it to Tuesday, and did the Friday run on Thursday, giving me a day of recovery before the Saturday effort.

Well, it sort of worked. I still trailed the pack, and I was still wheezing for some of the course -- but things were better. First off, I was doing 16-minute miles. My very first race I kept a 17:07 pace, so there's been some improvement. The last race I ran, my pace was 16:19.

For most runners, of course, that's terrible. But I look at it this way -- I'm still improving. Especially as my last mile was today was 15:50.

And I know what the breathing problem is -- I'm going to fast. Once I slowed down, my breathing rhythm improved and so did my pace. Just the way the coaches said it would. So the challenge this week is to work on breathing, while pushing myself to stay under 16 minutes/mile.

Onward!

Men's 4-Miler Training, Part 6

I'm chronicling my efforts to get back into running after a long absence. To start, I'm participating in the Men’s 4-Miler Training Program offered by the Charlottesville Track Club. 


The goal today was to run 2-1/2 miles on the road. The training sessions take place at Charlottesville High School, and as one of the trainers remarked, no matter which direction you go, it's uphill. My weekly runs are also pretty hilly, but I've been struggling with the Saturday runs. (or rather, run/walks - we're still doing a minute of walking for two minutes of running)

The problem is breathing. According to the coaches, fighting for breath means I'm running too fast. I need to slow down the pace to where I can breathe and talk comfortably while running. I wondered if another problem was my body was working too hard. I normally don't eat before I run, but on Saturday I do. This time I skipped breakfast (opting for coffee and orange juice), to see if that made a difference.

It did. I still came in last -- by a wide margin -- but I was able to get the breathing under control. I did feel really fatigued when I finished, though. So my stamina isn't quite where it should be. Still, as someone pointed out, no matter how slow you are, you're still lapping the people on the couch!

I'll keep that in mind this week.

Men's 4-Miler Training, Part 3

I'm chronicling my efforts to get back into running after a long absence. To start, I'm participating in the Men’s 4-Miler Training Program offered by the Charlottesville Track Club. 

Now we’re at the point where I’m starting to feel like I’m challenged. This time we covered a full mile, still 60 seconds running and 30 seconds walking. I really shouldn’t be feeling it – I’ve run longer distances before. 

But that was pre-illness. 

This is the level where I am now, and so one mile is the distance I had to push a little to complete. We’re still just making circuits around the track, but I understand that changes next week. Fortunately, where I run at home I have a lot of hills, so transitioning to uneven terrain won’t be that bad. 

Folks how are used to reading real racing blogs, such as Ken's Milestones  have probably noticed the absence of times, paces and other data in these posts. There's a reason for that -- right now, they're still rubbish. When I have something to talk about, I will!

Men's 4-Miler Training, Part 2

I'm chronicling my efforts to get back into running after a long absence. To start, I'm participating in the Men’s 4-Miler Training Program offered by the Charlottesville Track Club. 

Today was the second meeting of the Men’s 4-Miler training. We ran (actually walked and ran) three-quarters of a mile, which was an increase over the previous week. But that’s the idea – to build towards that 4 mile race on June 17, we need to keep building up strength and building up the distance.

I felt pretty much the same this time as I did last week after the session. That is, I was just shaking the rust off. My joints were fine. I didn’t feel especially sore or tired -- at the time. However, I finished a 3 hour-session on my riding lawn this afternoon. When that was over, I felt pretty stiff.
Youch! I'm thinking next time I’ll need to take more breaks and keep the joints loose.

Men's 4-Miler Training, Part 1

I’m starting a new adventure today – kind of.

I signed up for the Men’s 4-Miler Training Program offered by the Charlottesville Track Club. For a modest fee, volunteers from the club hold weekly group training runs and supply a nine-week program schedule to help men go from not running at all to being able to complete a 4-mile run.

I had just started running when I had to go into the hospital for an extended stay. By the time I got out, I had lost most of the muscle strength I had built up. After a few tries, I decided the best course for me was a more structured program – so I signed up for the training.

The first session today wasn’t bad at all. All the volunteers are encouraging, and the run (this time) was easy – just twice around the track for a distance of a half mile. And it was a combination of running and walking (30 seconds run/60 seconds walk).

I felt good after it was over, and actually was looking forward to the week’s schedule of runs and exercise. We’ll see if I can sustain that attitude!

A Life Less Sedentary

Long-time blog readers have noted the relative absence of Ken, my writing partner. Ken's been busy with a number of different things, some of them outdoors and away from the computer. His personal blog, "Milestones" chronicles his training regime as he prepares for the Boston Marathon.

And he's also become my coach as well. He's inspired me to become more active, and after about a half century of relative inactivity, I took to the roads this year, preparing for the Charlottesville Men's 4 Miler.

So how did I do? I didn't come in last (although at 1:08:28 it was close). Ken kept stressing that for this race, personal performance was what counted, and he was right. I walked rather than ran most of the four miles, but I did keep up a good pace (for me), and although the runners in the 80-year-old and up class left me in the dust within the first quarter mile (as did everyone else), it didn't matter.

And it didn't seem to matter to either the other runners or the folks along the course. Everyone was encouraging, and everyone seemed appreciative that even though I was the cow's tail for most of the race, I was still hanging in there.

So what next? I'll start in next week working towards the next race. Can I get down to a 15-minute mile? We'll see. It's certainly something to shoot for. I've got a lot of lost time to make up (several years worth, at least)!

- Ralph

Day 169 of the WJMA Web Watch.