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.

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.

Aloha everyone…

This is supposed to be my P90X recovery week.  Well, actually, last week was supposed to be recovery week, but I moved it up a week.  Anyhow, I will lay off the strength training this week, but I will continue with cardio, HIIT via Tabata training, and core workouts.  That is basically how it is done with P90X.  I will modify the P90X recovery week with my own routines that basically covers the same ground as P90X.

Ok, so today I did a slow 5k run.  I see these runs as a sort of rehab for my injured knee.  While there was a bit of pain in the knee during the run, I, again, got through it without that sharp pain I sometimes get.  Usually the pain subsides a bit by the end of the day, however, this evening my knee is feeling a bit more pain than normal.  It will probably be ok by tomorrow morning.  I know… I should ice it.

When I got home I did a few rounds of Tabata training.  I did the obligatory kettlebell swings and mixed it up with plyo movements.  I also dedicated a few rounds of Tabata using core movements.  For core I used the Tower 200 for wood choppers and cable pull-downs.  I also incorporated movements from the P90X+ Abs Core Plus workout as well as movements from ARX… can you say Mason Twists.

Annie, of “The Amazing Shrinking Girl” asked for where she could get some info about Tabata Training.  There is a great site called “Interval Training” which outlines all sorts of HIIT (high intensity interval training) routines and the science of HIIT.  They also have a section that covers Tataba Training that you can find if you click here.  There is also a woman from Ireland who publishes YouTube videos quite often.  She has a site called “MyOMyTV.com” where she journals her workouts.  She has been using the Tabata Protocol for most of her exercises.  Here is her latest video below…

Where does it say in the P90X manual anything about running and swimming.  Quite frankly, it doesn’t say anything about those activities.  However, anyone who has done P90X knows that there are cardio components to the program.  There is also a variation in the book called “doubles” where you add extra cardio (of your choice) to the program.  Ok, that said, I ran 5k yesterday.  Although I have a knee injury, I just don’t want to completely cut running from my fitness lifestyle.  So instead, I have been slowly trying to bring running back into my regiment.  The runs are short and slow, but for now, that is what my knee can tolerate.  Who knows, maybe I can strengthen the muscles around my knee to hold the knee cap on track long enough to get 10k someday.

This morning I did legs, back and ARX.  I substituted some of the P90X leg routines with those that my physical therapist had me do while rehabbing my knee.  The PT exercises are actually pretty intense.  For abs, I did a plain vanilla ARX (Ab Ripper X) workout.  I didn’t sub out any of those exercises this time around.

After work I headed to a beach near my home that is located just east of Diamond Head.  It’s a good place to do training swims because there is a good amount of chop.  It defines a “rough water swim”.  I am considering doing the Waikiki Rough Water Swim this September so I may as well train in similar conditions.

From time to time I bring up the problem I have with my left knee.  I would like to give new visitors to my blog some background information regarding the issue with my knee.  Last August I began training for the Honolulu Marathon.  Things were going pretty well and I was training a bit ahead of schedule.  Although I knew that increasing mileage more than 10% week can lead to injuries, I ignored the advice because, well… that’s the way I roll.  My Neanderthal-like, over achieving ways finally caught up with me.  The same Neanderthal, “take no prisoners” approach served me well at sports when I was a youngster. It allowed me to push through and qualify to serve with a special unit in the military.  That “gut busting” attitude allowed me to return to base after tough missions.   Jeff, calls this the “meat head” syndrome.  Yes, it has served me well through the years, but alas… this high mileage body finally gave in.

By the time my long runs were at 15 miles, my left knee started giving me a bit of a problem.  I hung at 15-16 mile long runs for a couple of weeks, but my knee was getting progressively worse.  Instead of throttling back, meat head syndrome set in and, of course, I added mileage.  When I was doing 18 mile long runs, my knee would collapse and I would actually fall.  I was able to stand the steady state pain, but I was getting extremely sharp pains as a precursor to my knee collapsing.  I saw a sports medicine doctor and the diagnosis was chondromalacia (runner’s knee).  You can look up chondromalicia on the internet, but the short story is that it is a break down of the cartilage under my knee cap.  It can also cause the knee cap not to track properly… hence, “fall down”.  I can actually “click” my knee back onto the track.  For some, the injury can be minimized almost to the point of normalcy.  However, the cartilage under my knee cap has suffered extensive damage and, unfortunately, for me it is a permanent injury.  She prescribed physical therapy.  So what do you think I asked her?  Yep, you guessed it… I asked if I could still train.  (Insert long pause here so you can shake your head).  She told me that her experience with athletes is that you can’t tell them they can’t train so she said, “do it as long as you can stand the pain”.  My physical therapist said that if I strengthen my leg muscles, it would help keep my knee cap on its track.  Well, I tried to continue training, but during an 18 mile run I actually fell on the pavement around 3 times.  Well, that was the end of my serious running.

Ok, now that I got the background information out of the way, I will post today’s workout.  I’ve used too much of your time already so I will try to keep it short.

I did a 5k run treadmill run at the gym today.  The good news is that my knee did not collapse nor did I get that sharp pain that I often get on runs.  However, the steady state pain was still there.  My knee still hurts a bit this evening.  That is pretty normal though.  I hope I can continue these short runs.

After my run I did P90X chest and back.  Since I just finished my run, I didn’t have to warm up.  I went right into the exercises.  I did the routine in the gym.

When I got home, I wanted to work on my core.  I also wanted to do a few rounds of tabata training.  So I did a mix of kettlebells, body weight and abs/core circuits.  I love these tabata intervals.

I ran 3 miles today.  Well, actually I had to walk a few times because of the pain in my left knee and the run was probably more of a jog.  Anyway, the whole run was completely in the aerobic zone (duh).  It really sucks to have knee problems.  Even though I am doing P90X I need to add cardio workouts to the mix.  I hope to get an open water swim done this weekend.  My son is having his birthday party tomorrow so maybe I will be able to jump in the ocean on Sunday.

Later in the day I did legs and back.  Since I had run earlier, my legs did not feel 100%, however, I got through the workout ok.  I crushed the back workout.

Yesterday I did a run and after just 1 mile my knee gave in with a sharp pain.  I had to limp back to the house.  After some ice and walking it off it felt a bit better.  I am really disappointed because I wanted to give the Tin Man Triathlon a try, but I don’t think my knee can handle the training.  I may start a walking program along with P90X leg workouts to see if I can rehab it.

Instead of doing the 100 pushup challenge workout today I did P90X+ Upper Body Plus.  It was a good workout.  I felt strong.  I wanted to layoff hard core pushups because I am really going to try to get my 100 pushups this weekend.

After the P90X+ workout I cycled for about 30 minutes to try and loosen up my knee a bit.  I had low grade pain in my bad knee all day.

I have seen a few videos of folks doing 100 pushups, however, for the most part they are not very strict.  I don’t bad mouth them though because just doing anything for 100 reps is tough.  Personally, I like to do very strict pushups.  I came across this guy who did 87 very strict pushups.  Towards the end of the set he takes breaks at the top much like I have to do.  Trust me, when you do them with strict form, you will be sore.