Project Exercise

Last week I got in 5 days of running for a total of 25 miles.  I did a spinning class at the gym too.  I have a new found respect for those workouts.  The instructor varied the pace and even provided intervals.  This went on for an hour.  I also had an open water swim for 2200 meters.

The knee is holding up on the runs.  The dull pain still exists, but I have learned to live with it.  I will continue training at my slow pace until the knee gets stronger.  If my knee holds out, I would like to do some full-on sprint intervals at the end of next month.  For now, however, I need to keep strengthening the knee.

Despite my knee injury, I have been able to run a bit more.  Although I can’t run fast due to the injury (btw, I am slow in the first place), I have been able to run consistently without any serious sharp pains.  While I still have the dull pain in my left knee to remind me of the injury, I have been able to run 5k distances without any incidents.  The downside is that I can only muster up between 11 to 12 minute paces.  I can occasionally go around 10, however, my knee feels a bit unstable at that point.  It may just very well be mental, but that sharp knee pain is no fun.  I am just happy that I can slowly get to 5k.  I was able to get 5ea 5k sessions done this week.

I have also been doing the exercises that I did while in physical therapy.  My PT told me that if I strengthen those muscles around the knee I would be better able to keep my knee on its track.  For additional strength training I logged 3 days of basic upper body lifting and core work.  I wasn’t able to get any swimming or cycling done this past week, but that’s okay.  I just want to concentrate on my running.  I think I will hang at 5k for the next few weeks.  If my knee can handle another 6 weeks at this pace and distance I will try to pick up the speed and my distance a bit.  I know… 10% per week at most.  I learned a big lesson during marathon training.  My meatheadedness caught up with me.  Well, at least it didn’t catch me until my 50′s!!!  Man, you folks should have seen the knuckle head things I did in my 20s!!!

So last week I didn’t commute to work on my bike. We are having a typical weather pattern for this time of year. It rains in the wee morning hours like around 3:30am until around the time the we get daylight. It has to do with the way the island land mass cools faster than the ocean in the evening. During the evening hours, the clouds move over the islands as the land mass cools faster than the ocean. When the sun comes up the land mass heats and the clouds move out to sea and we get sunny hot days. When I commute on the bike I usually leave the house before daylight so I can get to work by 6am. Every day last week it was raining in the morning. Most of the time it was light rain and while the rain itself does not bother me much, its the traffic environment that concerns me. I mean it is slippery out there and its dark. Cars are on the road and it just adds another unsafe layer to the commute.

Ok, since I didn’t get any cycling done I attempted to pick up my running volume. I was able to run 5 days last week. All the runs were only 5k, but as some of you know, I am somewhat limited by my knee injury. So for me, it was a big deal. I mean, I am not doing 10+ mile runs like I did during marathon training, but this is the highest weekly volume that I have done since my injury last November. I would be happy to just remain at 5k for a while as long as my knee holds up. Ice is my friend. The knee hurt a bit so I made sure to take a couple of days rest. Hey, who knows, maybe I will do a 5k event after football season.

I only got a couple days of swimming totaling 4000 yards and strength trained 3 days. Oh, btw, I completed my 4th round of P90X. I don’t think I will do another round for a very long time. I want to continue with Tabata workouts and some traditional lifts. Most importantly I want to continue running.

I am sure many of you folks have seen the movie “A Few Good Men”. Well, check out this re-enactment of infamous court seen. This guy is awesome.

Just watch and weep!

Wow, I  know it I have been falling behind on my blogging.  My life is not that exciting so there isn’t too much to report.

Well, this week I was able to log about 60 miles on the bike, about 5000 yards swimming and a couple of 5k runs.  My left knee gave me a bit of a problem on the runs, but I am sort of used to it.  The dull pain is tolerable.  It is when I get the real sharp pain that kind of creeps me out.  When I come off the curbs I try to come down straight and stable, however, if there is any torquing motion I am reminded that my knee injury is permanent.  One thing about having this on-going injury is that I have to really focus on how I run.  It sort of takes some of the fun out of just getting out for a pleasant run.  I am like that 56 Chevy with all the original parts.  The car runs, but the parts are old and can go out at any time !

I also got a couple of strength training sessions done last week.  Since I completed a 4th round of P90X, I did Tabata sessions with weights..

I have been getting the itch to begin triathlon training.  I miss having a “race” for which to train.  If I can get my knee to consistently hold up for 5k runs then I can, at least, do sprint triathlons.  The danger, of course, is that I will be tempted to buy a new bike!  However, I may have to put off training until January since I have committed to coaching Pop Warner football.  That is a 6 day a week commitment!  I have been trying to run scenarios in my head as to how I could still train.  If its not possible to do I will just wait until January and just do some sort of fitness maintenance until then.

Boy, this has been a busy summer for me.  My grandchildren and my parents have been coming to O’ahu (from the island of Molokai) every other weekend.  I have to admit that I really enjoy having the grandkids at the house.  Those times are precious.  They were here this weekend and I will be seeing them again in a couple weeks.

I got some cycling time in this week due to my bike commutes.  It has been a great way to get some extra cardio done.  I also got to go out on a couple of short 5k runs too.  Although it is still slow going, my knee held up well so I am going to call it a good week for running.  I was also able to get my P90X strength workouts done as well.

I am struggling with my nutrition and as a result I am gaining weight, or more importantly body fat.  I have to get my lifestyle back to wear it was last year.  I can still get decent workouts done, however, I am sure I could perform better carrying less body fat.  I don’t need to get down to 8.5% like I was last year, but  I would like to get down to 10-12%.  Ok, so the food log starts tomorrow.

Today, I took the family to the Pacific Aviation Museum.  It is located on Ford Island at Pearl Harbor.  The exhibits are located in a renovated hanger just a few hundred yards from the Arizona Memorial.  As some of you may know, the Arizona is a battleship that was destroyed by the Japanese Navy during the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Many of the crew are still trapped within the ship which lies underwater.  Next to the Aviation Museum is a control tower that still has bullet holes from the raid.

Cycling to work has been a great boost for my training.  Normally, I like to get training rides on my road bike, however, I need a more sturdy bike for commuting.  My route to work sometimes take me to roads that are a little rough.  The mountain bike’s bigger and sturdier tires handle those roads well.  I also have to carry a bunch of stuff to work like my laptop, change of clothes, lunch and some other little items so I carry them in bags that mount on my bike.  Another reason I like to use my mountain bike is because I don’t like to use clipless pedals while in the hairy afternoon commutes.  I want to be able to get off my pedals unimpeded.

Bike with bags - Ala Moana Beach Park

The picture above  shows my bike loaded with my bags.  This was taken during today’s commute.

My mountain bike weighs a considerable amount more than my road bike.  When I add the gear I carry in the bags I would say that I am pedaling nearly 40 pounds more than when I ride my road bike.  I try to pedal a 90 rpm cadence so with all this weight I am getting a great workout.  I try to ride between 10 to 15 miles each way.  During the ride home I am usually pedaling against a pretty strong head wind (thanks to our tropical trade winds) and I get some hill training when dealing with the ride up Diamond Head crater.

I can definitely feel the benefits of my daily commutes.  Now, pedaling the road bike is a piece of cake.  The most dramatic improvement is pedaling my racing bike up Diamond Head.

View of the entrance to the Ala Wai Boat Harbor

You probably can’t see it very well, but there is an outrigger canoe just above the seat of my bike.  Outrigger canoe races are big here.  Folks from all over the world come here to compete.  It takes a lot of endurance and upper body strength to take these things out on the open ocean.  I used paddle about 20 years ago.  We used to paddle 20 miles on training days.

The picture above shows how I topped off my week by spending the day with my grandchildren.  We were at the football field where my son was playing football and my granddaughter and I were enjoying a treat before the game.  It doesn’t get much better than that!

The week did not start out that great, though, as some of you may know, I ended up crashing my bike avoiding a runner (don’t flame me, I happen to like runners) and getting a good dose of road rash.  However, the week got progressively better as the days went by.

I continued to commute to work on my bike.  I also did my P90X workouts.  I was supposed to do a cardio type workout today, but I decided to put the workout on the back burner because my grandchildren were in town (or more accurately, they were on the island).  They live on the island of Molokai so it is a great treat when to come to O’ahu.

Ok, grandpa has to go to bed now so I can be fresh for tomorrow.  My son, Brendan, is playing more football tomorrow.  We are in the playoffs and the kids get to play in the “Aloha Stadium”.  That is where the NFL Pro Bowl is played.  So more good times with football and grandchildren!!!  Oh, and my Dad is here too.  He is also from Molokai.  So I get to spend father’s day with my Dad!  Pinch me… I must have died and went to heaven.

This morning’s cycling commute was interesting.  I was riding along the Ala Wai Canal this morning.  It is a great place to ride because there is a nice bike lane and it is a long, straight stretch of road.  I can actually get moving pretty fast along that portion of my morning commute.  Along the canal there is a running path.  I have run this stretch more than a few times myself.  It was a typical morning.  There were a few people doing their early morning runs.  As I got passed a line of parked cars a runner jumped out into the street to cross.  She came towards me at an angle and I had to steer inward towards the curb to avoid hitting her.  My bike tires hit the side of the curb and down I went.  I was moving at a pretty good clip at the time so the crash was YouTube worthy.  Anyway, the woman was pretty shaken up and asked if I was alright.  Other than the road rash I was fine.  I kept apologizing and I told her that I was ok.  I think she was more shaken up than I was.  She said she was looking for cars and when it was clear she jumped off the curb.  I had just passed a bunch of parked cars and I saw with a woman running at me.  I am glad I did hit one of the cars.  I mean, I would have done some damage to the vehicle.  There were a couple of problems that led up to the incident.  First, she did not cross at a crosswalk or intersection.  Second, she said that she was only looking for cars, she was surprised when there was a cyclist bearing down on her.

When I got to work I had to scrap all the little rocks out of my road rash.  I used soap and water to clean up then I used hand sanitizer to disinfect.  That stung like crazy!

Yesterday was a state holiday, “Kamehameha Day”.  It celebrates a Hawaiian Monarch that is credited with unifying all the islands nearly 200 years ago.  Well, that is not exactly true, he wasn’t able to get the island of Kauai under his control.  However, he is revered by the people of Hawaii.  Ok, enough of the brief history lesson.

Since I had the day off and Teresa is out of school for the summer (she is a high school teacher), I thought we could take my son and go out for a family hike.  However, my son’s “Summer Fun” group was schedule to go to the ice skating rink so he wanted to go with them instead.  I was kind of bummed out, but I would have made the same decision at his age.  I mean, let’s see… hike with a couple of old people or have some rip roaring fun with his buddies.  No contest.

I was cool, though, because Teresa and I could go out on a date!  So we headed off to Makapu’u.  Here is some information about Makapu’u from Wikipedia…

“Makapuʻu is the extreme eastern end of the Island of Oʻahu in the Hawaiian Islands, comprising the remnant of a ridge that rises 647 feet (197 m) above the sea. The cliff at Makapuʻu Point forms the eastern tip and is the site of a prominent lighthouse. The place name of this area, meaning “bulging eye” in Hawaiian, is thought to derive from the name of an image said to have been located in a cave here called Keanaokeakuapōloli. The entire area is quite scenic and a panoramic view is presented at the lookout on Kalanianaole Highway (State Rte. 72) where the roadway surmounts the cliff just before turning south towards leeward Oʻahu and Honolulu.”

From Makapu’u one can see my home island of Molokai across the channel.  It was a beautiful day for a hike.

In this photo you can see a couple of tide pools at the bottom of the hill.  It is located in the center of the picture.  In the next photo you will see a close up of the tide pools and people swimming in them.

Swimmers enjoying themselves in the tide pool…

View from the lookout.  Sea Life Park is located in the center of the photo.

Another view from the lookout – Rabbit Island.  There are no rabbits on the island, but from a different angle it kind of looks like a rabbit.

The lighthouse.