Why 2010 Sucked And What I'm Doing About It In 2011.

2010 was a disappointing year for me.  I started off the year with high hopes.  I had a relaxing December 2009 and kicked off the new year by giving the 30-30 Challenge(30 runs of at least 30 minutes for 30 consecutive days) a second(really a third) attempt.  I got through January with one of my highest mileage totals since I had started running again, even eclipsing the heavy months of my marathon training the previous summer.  All seemed to be good.  My legs felt great, I was splitting time between my Nike Frees and my Vibrams and I went into February with a solid plan laid out for my Long Island Marathon training.  I even had two 5k races mixed in there.

February went well and I had a stellar 10-mile long run and an even better 12-mile long run where I managed to drop my pace the last 2 miles to what I anticipated I would be race pace on May 2^nd.  I entered my first recovery week feeling good.  I knocked out an easy 8 miles.  My calf felt a bit tight but it wasn’t bothersome during or after.  My next run, which was to be a tempo run, is where my year went completely downhill.  I was approaching an intersection on a downhill and was slowing up because cross traffic had the green.  I was 20-feet away from the intersection when I felt the pain that would haunt me almost the entire year.  It was my left calf again.  It felt like any other calf strain I’d had in the past year.  I was out in shorts on a chilly day and in an effort to avoid hypothermia, I turned around and started a slow jog back.  That slow jog is probably was truly did me in, but having no cell phone to call for a ride and not wanting to hitch I followed the only option I had.  I got home and my calf was tight and sore.  I figured I’d give it a few days.  That turned into a week.  The pain seemed to be gone, but it came back.  I saw my sports doc, got an xray, was denied an MRI and started with a treatment plan.  I was on and off with running.  The pain would go away, I’d run a few days and it’d come back.  I changed my marathon entry to the half, lost money on another half and a 15k and resolved to get myself to the start by whatever means necessary so I wouldn’t lose another chunk of change.  I ran the half, wearing my Brooks, which had only been used a handful of times.  I suspected part of the problem was my minimalist footwear.  7 miles in the pain returned.  I altered my stride and managed to finish the race.  I was hurting.

A long time coming...

I haven’t written a blog in a really long time.  This is due mostly to my inactivity through the end of December and part of January, but also because I am currently in class to earn an Advanced EMT certification.  It requires 3 hours a night, 2 nights a week of classroom time, plus a half-hour commute both ways.  On top of that, it also requires 139 hours combined of clinical rotations in a hospital setting and ambulance ride time(I already ride an ambulance as a volunteer but this is additional time with a certified preceptor who evaluates my skills/help me become proficient in them).  The clinical time adds up quickly, but it’s still a tough pill to swallow when you’re working a full time job, trying to maintain an exercise, SLEEP, and spend time with your girlfriend.  My cats are in protest too with one pretty much ‘becoming’ the girlfriend’s cat and the other displaying is vocal prowess anytime I am home and not paying direct attention to him.  That being said, I am glad to be in this class.  It’s a challenge to me, as it involves fields that are far outside my daily realm of skills and in the end I will be able to provide a higher level of care to those who live in my fire departments coverage area.   The course has just over 3 months left so it’ll be over before I know and I’ll get to stick annoying patients with needles until my hearts content.  Kidding…mostly.

So what have I been up exercise wise?  Well, a new gym opened up right near work; a 3 minute drive away.  It’s a LifeTime Fitness, so it’s one of those fancy schmancy gyms that costs an arm and a leg and maybe your left nut too.  Being a fancy schmancy gym, it has everything you could want.  There are 2 indoor pools, an outdoor pool with separated lap lanes, an armada of cardio machines, every type of weight machine possible, free weights, a yoga and pilates studios, a tiered cycling studio, martial arts studio, rock climbing wall, basketball and volleyball courts, locker rooms with private showers, and the list goes on.  It’s fantastic and it’s expensive but with what I am able to do now, I find that it is worth the cost.  Oh and they are FiveFingers friendly.

So what am I doing there?  Well, since it opened I’ve been doing a consistent weights and core routine most days of the week during my lunch hour.  I can shoot over there, get in a 40-45 minute routine, return to my office and eat lunch with in about 75 minutes.  My boss is thankfully cool about me just working 15 minutes later and taking that extended lunch.  I’m doing a lot of core and stability work to try to decrease my chances for injury this year as I get back to running.  More on that later.

I’m also...wait for it…swimming.  Yes, me, the man with bum shoulders is swimming.  And not just a little bit of swimming.  I’m going 3 or 4 days a week, and swimming anywhere from 1000 to 1600 meters.  I never thought I’d be swimming for fitness.  Most bouts of swimming generally end in my subluxing my left shoulder.  I’ve found that swimming with proper form and technique is actually no problem for me.  I’m definitely not proficient and the whole breathing part has been the biggest battle, but with continued consistent swim session things have gotten substantially easier.  I’m also doing spin classes, though not as much as of late.  I was trying to attend the early morning classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays but it’s harder than it seem.  Being in class until 10 PM those days doesn’t help me either, and the girlfriend didn’t like the alarm going off 2 hours before hers.  I was doing a Saturday morning class as well, but with the weather improving I don’t plan on spending my Saturdays indoors much longer.  I haven’t done any rock climbing yet.  I need to schedule a “training” session for the auto-belay devices.  I also might sign-up for a personal training session or 2 so I can learn a few more exercises to add to my routine to help build leg and core strength and give me a full body workout.

On the biking front I’ve been using the nice set of rollers I got for Christmas and have been either doing easy efforts while watching TV, or entering the world of Sufferlandria and kicking my butt to the tune of Sufferfest training videos.  I’ve have 4 of these videos and have used all of them so far.  The 2 hardest ones I have are Downward Spiral and Revolver which are intense interval sessions.  If you’ve never heard of Sufferfest then check them out at www.thesufferfest.com.  All the video and music is licensed and at $10 or $11 a pop, you just can’t go wrong.  It’s a nice way to vary your workouts, or fill in a gap should the weather turn bad.  My efforts on the rollers have been pretty helpful in finding weakness in my peddle stroke.  I find I have a huge gap in my right leg when reaching the end of the stroke and trying to start the next, and that my left leg is quite a bit better.  I’ve been working on a higher cadence as well, with my efforts showing during my first outdoor ride last weekend.  Last summer I spent a majority of my rides in the mid-80s for my average cadence and last Saturday I managed a 93 average on my first outdoor ride of the year.  Not a bad improvement.  This has brought along a relearning of my gearing as I’m used to using the big ring almost exclusively.

I laid off the rollers this past week because I’ve been having some man issues due to the constant pressure of my perineum area on the saddle.  It started to become bothersome then neared painful and I had one instance where sensation was absent for almost a day.  Yeah…not fun!  I’ve ordered a trial Adamo Breakway saddle made by ISM from TriSports.com.  I have it for 7 days, so I will be putting in a lot of hours on the bike this coming week.  Many people who have the saddle report an adjustment period since the saddle utilizes ones sit-bones over the perineum for load bearing.  The result is some muscle soreness during the initial rides.  I’m looking forward to getting it installed today and getting in a numb-free ride in on the rollers and then getting out for a ride tomorrow to continue tweaking it.  I don’t suspect the soreness will be an issue for me.  A little muscle soreness beats a numb body part any day.

As for running, there’s been none.  Actually that’s not true.  I did run on Tuesday and went 1 mile.  This was 100% intentional and on track with my plan to only run very short distances for the first few weeks of returning to running.  I don’t have any races planned, but will most likely do the NY State Park Summer Runs Series starting in June.  Plenty of time to get back in shape for 5 and 10k races.  I hope that I can find a sweet spot this time around and bring myself back into decent running shape and avoid the same nagging calf injury that’s plagued me for almost a year now.  I’m going to stick to Vibrams only.  I’ve been doing all my weight routines in them and want to stick to what I feel will work best for me.

So that’s my long awaited update.  I’m going to try to give some more frequent but shorter updates.  Next post will be about my race plans for this coming year.