Project Exercise

I took Jeff’s advice and ran on the treadmill to give myself a easier surface on which to run.  Its good advice.  While I don’t particularly care to run indoors, the surface is more forgiving on my knee.  I wore my HRM strap today.  The cool thing about my Polar HRM chest strap is that the treadmill at the gym actually picks up the signal and displays my heart rate on the console.  I don’t even have to wear my watch.  I had a pretty good session.  I didn’t push too hard.  My goal for now is to build my base.

According to the HR formulas, the aerobic zone for my age is 127 bpm.  Honestly, it is not difficult for me to hit 127.  Shoot, my heart rate spikes way over that when they flash Nancy Pelosi’s face on Fox News.  All the articles say that one should not be tempted to go over the aerobic zone (127 for me) while base training.  They say just stick to the program and it will make me a better runner.  Heck, I could not keep my HR below 127 no matter how slow I ran today.  Further, my knee is still having issues so I don’t have very good running form.  I tend to favor the knee and run with a sort of unbalanced stride.  I am sure that alone is good for a few more bpms!  Anyway, I feel more comfortable running around 135 – 140.  According to the MAX HR formulas, my max is supposed to be 167.  Of course, the generic formulas are not accurate.  Last summer when I was running quite a bit, I sustained heart rates above this number.  I know the only way to get a good number is to go and get cardiac stress test or a VO2 Max test.  I suspect my max HR is really around 178 to 182 (just a guess).  So I will be building my base using RPE, although I will wear my HRM just for correlation.  I am tempted to go balls to the walls on my bike and see if I can top out my HR and sustain it for a while to determine my max.  I am not sure that is a good measurement, but it is probably better than the general formula.

Here is a self test for finding my max HR…

I woke up early and headed to the man-cave to do a i30x5 Biceps and Triceps workout.  I must admit that I kind of cruised the plyo portion of the workout.  I could have put out more effort, but I was sloppy.  Rounds 4 and 5 were pathetic.  However, the actual biceps and triceps part of the workout was strong.  I guess I should have just done a traditional arms workout instead of doing i30x5.  The plyo was kicking my behind.  It does not make me feel good about admitting it.  At least I got a terrific pump from the arm workout.  I used my Tower 200.

After work I ran around Kapiolani Park a couple times for a total of 32 minutes.  You might wonder why 32 and not 30.  Well, it’s on the workout schedule that I am using to help me build my conditioning.  People a whole lot smarter than myself created the training plan so I follow it.

Ok, I am really frustrated with our so-called leaders in D.C.  Check this out…

This morning I headed to the gym and did an i30x5 chest and shoulders workout.   I think the folks in the gym must have thought I lost my mind.  I tried to do the workout in a lower traffic area so that I wouldn’t be too disruptive with my lifting and plyo intervals.  For plyo I set up jump boxes.  There was a set of four with different heights.  I was pretty wasted by the time I started round 4.  Round 5 was a mess.  I got a great pump though!  i30x5 is a heck of a workout.  My shoulders may pay the price during my swim tomorrow.

After work I went for a run.  I am trying to rebuild my running base.  I completely lost it after the knee injury.  So I decided to get on a triathlon training plan (olympic) that allows me to build my running base as well as allowing me to continue swimming and biking.  The plan is based on minutes rather than distance.  It works well for me because I won’t push my knee to make a distance.  I know how long each run will be and I can plan accordingly.  Of course, I kind of blow the whole schedule because I was supposed to run 24 minutes, but I went 30.  I think that is ok, though, because it is not a whole lot more.  Again, I don’t have plans to run a particular race, I just think it makes it easier for me to follow a training schedule to help me build my endurance.

Ok, I usually embed a video here, however, embedding was disabled for this particular video.  Anyway, it shows a guy who does a 100 yard freestyle in 40.92 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbBggbTMd1M

I was going to do a swim this morning, however, when I got up I noticed that it wasn’t raining.  We have been having morning rain lately.  So I decided to put on my running gear and take off running.  I wanted to work on lengthening my stride since my knee has held up on the last couple runs.  I am really slow so I hoped that I could lengthen my stride to cover more distance for each step.  So I am feeling pretty good as a start out my run.  I feel a little low grade knee pain, but that is normal for me.  I look at my Garmin and I notice that my pace is better than normal.  I normally have a choppier stride because I favor my bad knee.  My right hip also gets kind of sore since I am compensating for my bad knee.  In short, I have bad running form.  Anyway, about half way through my run it starts to rain.  In fact, it begins to come down fairly heavy.  Being the meat head that I am I figure I may as well keep going because I am already wet.  Well, being a bit over-confident about my knee, I take my long strides and I hit one of the rectangular diamond plate covers on the sidewalk.  Of course, it is my left leg (my bad side) that hits it and I begin to slide.  Next my knee gets a sharp pain and I go down pretty hard.  It was about 5:20am and there wasn’t anyone around so nobody got to enjoy the free entertainment.  It was, however, one of those YouTube moments.  You know… old guys goes down like a buffoon.  The good news is that my pride wasn’t hurt too much because there wasn’t any witnesses.  The bad news is I got some cool road rash on my elbows from trying to avoid a face plant.  My knee also hurts like hell!

Here is a video of a guy who had a similar experience…

I got up early this morning to pound the pavement.  Ouch, my knee hurts when I say that!  Seriously, I could feel some low grade pain in my left knee during my run.  As I try to get into a weekly running routine, I want to minimize the chances of having my knee stop my running cold like it did during my marathon training.  So I am slowly building my base running in zone 2.  Although I could feel some pain in my knee, the good news is that it didn’t lock up on me.

The next time I run during a week day, I am going to have to take my cold knee wrap to the office so I can ice my knee a bit.  The low grade knee pain that I got during the run lasted the whole day.  It’s okay, though, because I am happy that my knee actually held together for the run.

When I got home I strength trained my chest.  I used a combination of dumbbell bench presses and my Tower 200.  It is hard to wrap your brain around these resistance bands giving one a good workout.  However, when you attached multiple bands to the handle, trust me, you get plenty of resistance.  I got a pretty good pump out of the workout.

I worked from home today because my son had to stay home from school.  He wasn’t feeling well.  My wife also fell sick this morning so I ended up staying home to watch both of them.

Late this afternoon I was able to get a 5k run done.  I was pleasantly surprised that my knee held up through the run.  There was some dull pain, but no sharp pains or lock ups.  I ran the entire time in zone 2.

I was also able to get do a biceps and triceps workout.  I was supposed to be on a recovery week from strength training.  I will just do it next week.  It was just an excuse to play on the Tower 200.

Ok, I gotta keep it short this evening.  So I will leave you with a video of an angry cat.  Reminds me of a guy at the gym who has roid rage.

I have a cardio workout on the schedule today so I decided to do a 5k run.

I decided to do my long run this evening (Friday) instead of doing it tomorrow.  It is midnight and I just got back from a long run.  I was scheduled to do a long run as part of my marathon training.  I wanted to do 20 miles, but that just wasn’t going to happen.  I started out ok.  I really concentrated on my running technique to protect my knee.  I even decided to run without my hydration belt to get rid of the extra weight or any sort of issues with balance.  I carefully selected a route that would take me to water fountains.  I did pretty well up to around mile 8.  At that point my mind wondered a bit and I must have lost focus on my running technique.  I got a pain in my knee.  However, I didn’t go down.  So in order to protect the knee I walked for about half a mile and resumed running, again focusing on protecting my knee.  I was running real slow, in fact, I dropped to 13 minute miles.  At mile 11 I got that pain again.  I walk a bit to rest the knee.  When I tried running again, within 100 yards, my knee buckled.  I rested at the side of the road and massaged my quads and knee, then tried again.  About a quarter mile later I got the sharp pain and down I went.  I was at a park so I walked to a bench, sat for a while and massaged again.  I then decided to walk for a mile.  I started a slow run, now down to 14 minute miles because the pain in my knee was worrying me.  While I was running, I was wondering how long my knee would hold up without just breaking past the point of no return.  After a slow run for about a mile, I ran/walked for a few miles.  During that time my knee buckled once more.  I actually ended up calling my wife to pick me up because I was down hard at this point.  I looked at my Garmin and it read 15.2 miles.  Doing 26.2 miles is not realistic at this point.  I have decided to remove the marathon from my bucket list.

I am having mixed feelings about the whole thing.  I am angry and depressed for obvious reasons.  However, I am also sort of relieved because I made a decision.  Not my first choice, but probably the best choice.

I am not sure where I go from here and I don’t really want to think about it right now.  My legs are sore and my knee is hurting.  I am iced up and I am too beat to think.

Ok, so I am done… stick me with a fork!

Btw, thanks to all of you who have supported me through the training and thank you for your advice.  Those are the things that inspire me and motivate me.  While I will not be doing the marathon in December, I will continue with some sort of fitness regime.

I got up early to do a test run this morning.  I did 6 miles, however, at about 5.5 miles I got that sharp pain and my knee buckled.  I walked it out for a bit then ran off the rest of the run.

I also had PT today.  Man, my legs got a killer workout.  You know I am learning a lot at PT.  I am definitely going to combine the exercises that I am learning with my own leg routines.

I was watching a guy at PT doing plyometrics type exercises today.  He was rehabing a bad knee.  So I tried to do plyo when I got home, just to see if my knee could handle it.  I really tried to concentrate on landing squarely to keep my knee from buckling.  I was actually able to get through the workout.

Ok, so here is the deal.  I told my PT about my runs and having my knee buckling.  One of the problems with chondromalacia is that once you have it, you always have it.  When I was in the service, my knee colapsed while running an obstacle course.  This was about a hundred years ago when I was a very young man.  Anyway, I was diagnosed with chondromalacia back then.  However, I did not have an further incidents.  I thought I beat the injury.  I didn’t know chondromalacia is a permanent injury.  Looks like it came back to haunt me.

The PT asked me when the last time I did leg training.  I had to admit that I stopped training legs since I began marathon training.  She gave me a look of total disgust.  She told me that the only way to keep my knee cap in its track with chondromalacia is to have strong quads.  She further told me that I can run a few miles while concentrating on running straight and true, however, once I get fatigued and lose concentration, the knee cap can come of its track and cause the sharp pain and buckling.  She said that some folks with chondromalacia can continue running if they strengthen their legs.  Strong quads helps keep the knee cap aligned.  She also said that my goals of doing an Oly distance triathlon is within reason with this knee injury.  Of course, long endurance runs are another story.  She didn’t say it couldn’t be done, but she wasn’t sure we could get my legs strong enough by the time I the marathon comes up.  The marathon is becoming increasingly unlikely.

I am wondering if it would not be wiser to just take time to strengthen my legs and prepare myself for the LavaMan Triathlon.

Oh, btw, I was able to secure a brand new “Insanity” workout still in the box.  A friend of mine bought 2ea “Insanity” dvd workouts, one for himself and one for his sister.  His sister decided that she couldn’t do it so I bought it for $75.  The box was still sealed.  Am I going to do it?  I don’t know, I have to see if my knee can handle it.  One good thing is that, unlike my long runs, the workouts are only one hour long.

I went for a 4 mile run today.  The beginning of the run went pretty well.  There was some dull pain around the knee, but not too bad.  It seems that resting the knee is paying off.  However, as I passed the 4 mile mark, I felt a sharp pain.  My knee buckled and I went down.  This has happened to me before.  I found out that this is not unusual for those who have the knee injury, chondromalacia.  Honestly, though, I think my knee is recoverying, albeit not fast enough for me.  Going out on these little test runs are helping me gauge my progress.  Of course, it is also slowing my recovery.  It really shows me that I need to keep my aerobic conditioning up with non-impact training like cycling.  I just feel I need to keep my legs conditioned to handle a long run like the marathon.

This evening I did a chest and back workout.  I find that I kind of miss doing P90X.