Exercising While Injured

In the past, I'd always shied away from exercise while recovering from an injury, but today, I decided to just do it!!

I hopped on the recumbent bike and guess what happened... The recumbent bike did NOT hurt or strain my calf muscle at all!!  I biked for 30 minutes and even went up a couple notches on the resistance.  Today, I stayed off my feet all day.  I don't know if it was the best thing to do, but the pain and stiffness in my calf has subsided greatly.  Hopefully, as I continue to baby this thing, it'll be better be completely healed in a couple weeks.  Today's workout stats:  30 minutes/4.5 miles.

I did a bit more research and I think I'd call this a Grade 1 Calf strain.  Here's one of the articles I read...  "Dealing with Calf Strains"

I'm going to be cutting back on my portion sizes while I recover from this since I can't even walk as much as I was before.  I'll still be doing resistance training, just skipping the calves for a couple weeks.

Tomorrow is weigh-in day.  Here's to hoping that my injury hasn't reversed my progress.  This is a "one day at a time" journey.  I'm not going to get there overnight and I'm certainly not going to reach my goals without a few challenges.  This is one of those times.

My only issue is slowing down enough to heal, but not too much to lose momentum.  Finding that balance will be the key.

Finding the Balance

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Short post...

Well, I'm just gonna check-in real quick today.  My calf was stiff and hurting all day today.  Since the workout for today was lower body, I just did quick quad, hams, & abs sets.  Most stuff (like standing) made my calf hurt more.  Motrin and ice baby, oh yeah.  And a bit of sports creme to work it from the outside in.

Food intake was just ok - splurged a bit for dinner, but had fairly light calories all day.  Water intake wasn't great and I didn't even realize it until I got home from work and still had practically a full bottle.  I guess I need to eat "drier" foods to make me thirsty.

Started my thyroid med today.  Then had stomach cramps and a headache for the rest of the day and just felt... weird.  Let's see if it happens again tomorrow.

And so I leave you with a Thursday funny...

Do you stretch BEFORE working out?

I never have, but it appears I may have to now.  Today, I was not really looking forward to the C25K work out, but I still wanted to do it - if that makes any sense.  So I got everything all ready.  Water bottle - check!  HRM on and working - check!  Good to go!!  Check check!!

Started off doing a warm-up walk at 2.8mph for 5 minutes.  Next, I started jogging at 4.5mph.  I started feeling the lung burn and wondered if I was going to have to cut it back to 30 seconds instead of a minute.  But no, I was already 55 seconds in - why stop now?!?!  So, back down to 3.0, then 2.8 for the 90 second walk.  Then 7 measly seconds into the jogging portion, something stabbed a hot poker iron into the back of my left calf!  Ok, not literally, but it sure felt like it.  I couldn't even walk it off at 2.0 mph.  So I stood on the outer rails of the treadmill and waited for it to stop.  I walked (barely) over to a chair and sat.  I tried massaging the calf muscle a bit, but the pain didn't subside.

I hobbled up the stairs and grabbed the ice pack out of the freezer and a couple motrin.  Sat for a few minutes with my leg up and the ice pack under my calf - feeling extremely frustrated.  Uugggghhh!  Why?  Why now?  Seriously?  Those are the thoughts going through my head.  For the first time in my adult life when I actually WANT to run, I can't?

So, the old me - the one who use to work out like crazy, drop the weight, then gain it all back again because something in life happened that made me lose focus - that person, would use this as an excuse.  THAT person would say "Well, screw it!  Apparently I'm just meant to be fat."  And quit working out altogether.  And quit eating healthy just for spite.

But this new me - this person who is determined to, come hell or high water, lose weight and live a healthy fit lifestyle - THIS person will not quit!!  I WILL NOT QUIT!!

Maybe I went too fast too fast.  I felt ready, but maybe the ol' body wasn't.

Maybe I shouldn't have tried to go from 5 years of barely running to walking for only 5 months then trying to run again faster than before.

Maybe I shouldn't run on a treadmill where I can't change my speed at the drop of a thought.

Maybe I should try warming up, then stretching, THEN running, then walking, then stretching some more?

I'm not sure what the problem is, but I know the solution is NOT to quit.  I'll baby my calf for a week and keep taking motrin, then try easing into it again.

I'm still frustrated, but at least now I have a plan.  Oh and turns out, as I'm writing this post and researching pics, that maybe it's not my calf per se, but possibly the achilles tendon?  Here's a pic... green spot = size and location of my stab wound pain.  Center of the back of the lower leg, I was thinking calf, but who knows?

Feel my pain?

Outside of that, my day was good.  Ate well and still drinking water.  Have I mentioned lately that I haven't partaken of the Weekly Wednesday donuts in SIXTEEN WEEKS!?!?

Also, I started taking the new meds I mentioned yesterday.  I forgot the thyroid pill, I'm going to have to set a reminder at work and on my phone for that one.  I'm so accustomed to taking meds at night that it's going to be difficult remembering a morning one.

I wish the doc had never told me that I should be feeling tired.  Today, while I did only get 5 and half hours of sleep last night, I felt tired all day long.  You think it was psychosomatic?  I do.  Somebody, please tell me that I ought to feel completely energized and the doc is full of crap.  Maybe I'll start feeling all hyper lol!!

Well, that's it for now.  Hope your day was happier than a camel on Wednesday =P

Lab results are in...

Remember the 12 hour fasting lab work I mentioned before?  Well, the results are in...  I haven't done any research on this stuff yet, but i think some of it makes sense.  I don't have specific numbers, or at least, I don't remember them, but all of these are "borderline" - meaning that I'm not quite into the range, but I'm within like a few tenths of a point from it so I might as well be.  That about clear as mud?

Anyway, the word is that I'm slightly anemic - low iron; vitamin D deficient; and like a tenth of a point from hypothyroidism.  Given all that, the doc is like, "so, you must feel pretty tired a lot."  Uh, no.  Not really.  But apparently each one can make you feel tired - put 'em all together and I must be dragging all day along, right?  Well, still no.  Maybe I just got use to it?

The answer to all this?  Supplements - vitamin D and iron.  The hypothyroidism thing needs another pill.  The doc also mentioned that all these can affect metabolism.  Hmmm, interesting.  I did tell him that I've been working on getting healthy and working out and such.  I'm still averaging 1 pound a week.  He thought that was great.  I'm like, huh?!?  He says that 3-5 pounds a month may seem slow to me, but it's really good and it's more likely that I'll maintain easier once I reach my goal.  That was encouraging.

Oh and the original reason for going to the doc was to get help for super dry skin due to being here in the high plains desert of Colorado.  Every time I go back to a humid environment, it clears up instantly. What is surprising is that the vitamin D deficiency could also be related to living here.  Even though we get like 350 sunny days per year, it seems that people here at this altitude tend to be deficient in vitamin D.  I'm thinking I should just move back to the south!  Two problems solved!!

Next for me is looking for natural alternative remedies to the pills because I really hate taking pills!!  Maybe if I find a bunch of foods with vitamin D and iron?  I have no idea what can correct hypothyroidism, but hopefully losing weight will help.  Oh speaking of that, my sugar levels were also at the pre-diabetic stage.  I think weight loss will definitely help with that one.

One the bright side though, my bad cholesterol is down 10 points from last year and the good stuff is up!!  YAY!

And finally, for the health and fitness portion of our show today...

Food - good, water - ok, workout - done EARLY!!!!  Woot!

Labor Day Weekend Fun

Food intake this weekend was off the charts!!  Well maybe not too off, but quite a bit off at any rate.  But, we knew that was going to happen, didn't we?  My birthday was awesome!  And I think my daughter enjoyed hers too.  We shared an choc/van ice cream cake.  It was soooooo good!  

I'm slowly reigning the food back in though.  Today I had a piece of whole wheat French toast and some ultra thin bacon with a small glass of milk and a cup of coffee as well.  I had to go shopping today, so I made my list while turning my nose up at a few of the Week 4 selections and making substitutions for sales and whatnot.  I ran some other errands then went to the grocery store.  Guess what I'd forgotten to do first?  Eat.  I realized this about halfway into my grocery shopping.  So, my normal grocery bill is around $100 a week depending on what I'm restocking.  This week, it was slightly higher - possibly due to the lack of food.  I didn't shop too much off list, but the good news is what I did get was on sale!!  YAY!!  

After shopping, I got home and put away the cold stuff, then immediately grabbed the daughter and out the door we went to grab some lunch/dinner - it was almost 4pm!  Why else do I call it lunch/dinner?  Well, because I ate enough for two meals, I may as well call it two meals, right?  We went to a Mexican restaurant and had... do I even need to say it?  Yep I do - chips and salsa!  This time, though instead of grabbing for the whole chips, I went for the smaller pieces.  I always have ice water now - I don't know if it's the cheap skate in me, the calorie watcher, or the disliker of all things soda, but water is it.  I was under pressure when ordering because I'm always helping my daughter figure out what her pickiness will tolerate.  When the waitress asked if we were ready, we had just decided what SHE would have, so I said YES!  I don't like putting off the ordering of the food because you never know how long it'll be before they come back!!  So, I covered my unpreparedness by asking questions about what comes on this or that and then ended up with a beef enchilada (very small), what has to be the world's SMALLEST tostada with shredded chicken (it seriously couldn't have been more than 3 inches across), with black beans and finally a beef empanada.  I didn't finish it all, but even with the small sizes, I was very pleasantly full.  No room for dessert, but no need for dinner tonight either!  

Once we got home, I decided I needed to walk some of that meal off!!  So I threw a leash on Coal and off we went.  I used the Map My Walk app and after 40 minutes, we had walked a 2 mile loop.  Nice little after dinner stroll.  

Map My Walk/Run/Ride apps are really cool.  But when searching for something else today, I came across their website.  I'm really impressed with these folks.  You don't even need the smart phone apps to plan your walks now!  You can create a free account on their website and then create a route using their map of your area.  It's so easy, just click on the map to make a starting point and then click along the route you want to use.  It even has an option for elevation gain so you can see the hills along the route (and maybe plan away from them when necessary).  This is from my phone, but here's the route from today's walk - the website looks very similar...

The little "tail" on the left was an oops!
We can't go that way due to a big concrete
drainage ditch - no fun to cross.

Ok, enough advertising for Map My Walk - they aren't paying me!!  

One final note, I've decided to give my kids new names for the purpose of this blog and for their own privacy.  I figure it's better than always referring to them as "my son" or "my daughter" or "my teen" or "my picky eater".  So from this day forth, my son will be called "Drew" after my dad who passed away many years ago, but will live on in my heart forever.  And I gave my daughter the opportunity to pick her own name and she came up with "Claire" - hmmm, interesting.  So Drew and Claire it is.  They are my blog children =P

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Labor Day Weekend!  

Ran for the first time in years today!!

Birthday weekend YAY!  Not really the yay part though.  I don't want to get older, but I am happy to have an even number again as my age LOL!  I know, crazy right?

But what's age got to do with fitness some of you youngsters might ask?  Well, let me tell you.  The older you get, the harder it is to lose weight and get into shape.  NOT impossible, just more difficult.  That's NO REASON to give up though, is it?

So, while I'll probably gain 5 pounds this weekend, it won't bother me and you won't hear me complain (much) about having to lose it all over again.  I say this simply because I want to have my cake and eat it too!  I've already cut half the calories - my daughter's b-day is the day after mine, so we usually split a cake.  SEE?  Half the calories!! LOL!

I'm still working out and drinking plenty of water (well, actually today I didn't drink much H2O, but tomorrow I will!).  It's just the meal plan going on hiatus for the weekend.  Well, of course, I'll try very hard not to go too crazy, but wouldn't you know it, TOM showed up yesterday!  Seriously, how's that for timing?  Well, good news is that I can take care of b-day and chocolate cravings ALL IN ONE WEEKEND!!!

Alright, it's late, but I still want to get in a quick workout.  I'm going to jump on the treadmill and see what Week 1 Day 1 of C25K is like - gonna hit the treadmill, be right back...

Butt is officially kicked.  Yep, so here's the play by play...

Started out with a 5-minute "brisk" walk to warmup.  I did a 2.8 mph pace and about halfway into it, bumped it up to 3.2 mph.

Next up, 60 seconds of "running."  I went to 4.0 then to 4.5 which was a decent jog for me.  I was surprised to see that I made it the full minute!

Walking for 90 seconds was next, which I gladly did while checking my HRM and sipping some water.  HR was around 140 right after jogging (btw, my resting HR is around 68 and walking at 3.0 is around 120).

I did this cycle of 60/90 until around the 15 or 16 minute mark and started cutting back on the running to 30 seconds - no pain, just couldn't seem to suck in enough air.  After a couple of those cycles, I went back to jogging for a full minute...

That's when disaster struck.  Apparently, my daughter has never seen me "run."  She chose this moment to slowly approach from behind and to my left.  I saw her out of the corner of my eye and she had this look of total shock on her face.  I tried to wave her off (I had my music in my ears and was kind of getting into a groove, ya know?).  I was hoping she'd understand that I didn't want to be interrupted at that particular moment.

Yet, this is the moment where disaster chose to strike - when I was waving her away, my left hand caught on my headphone cord in front of me, as it was swinging back and forth with the running human it was attached to.  Well, the new earbuds work so well that instead of getting violently yanked from my head, the suddenly taut cord yanked my phone off it's comfy resting spot on the treadmill.  Well, of course, I can't possibly let THAT fall!!  So, I catch it, but doing so completely throws off my balance and... I almost fell.  ALMOST!  I didn't, but it was close.  What I DID do was get an massive cramp in my left calf!!  OUCH!  I tried to keep going, at least walking, and I did for a couple minutes, but then it started getting worse.  Better to call it now than cause injury, right?

Anyway, I iced my knees (although they weren't hurting) and my calf, and now I'm grabbing a quick shower and hittin' the hay!  Whew!  Rough first day.

Nite everyone!  Have a most spectacular Labor Day Weekend!!

5K in Oct and Half Marathon in 1 year

How's that for some goals?  I was checking out this local running club website and was amazed at how many events are in this area.  I could race every week if I wanted.  Well, I don't want just yet and most certainly couldn't afford.  BUT I now have a goal.  AND I have a friend or two who may join me.  How cool is that?

The 5K is on the 27th of October.  That' gives me around 2 months to train.  I'm looking forward to training for this.  I'll be doing the couch to 5K that I've mentioned before.  Even better though is that the proceeds go to the restoration and maintenance of Waldo Canyon.  The fire there last year made national news and the restoration efforts are ongoing.  Nature bounces back fairly quick, but we humans and our structures tend to take time.  Anyway, this event is called "the Waldo Waldo 5K" - if you live close to the Springs, message me and we'll do it together!  Oh and did I mention that most everyone dresses up like Waldo of "Where's Waldo" lol!!  Check this out...

The marathon is held on Labor Day weekend every year.  It's got a 5K, a half and a full marathon plus some relays as well.  It looks like a gorgeous trail - and is called The American Discovery Trail.  And I want this T-Shirt!!

Of course the date on my shirt will have a "14" but training starts NOW!

Other Fit stuff:
Did a quick upper body work out tonight and threw in some "wall push-ups" for good measure and finally, some quick stretching.

Eating was just ok, as was water intake.

Tomorrow, I'm planning on starting the first day of c25k.  I'm gonna take a pup with me each time so they can get use to the running/walking too.  I'm thinking it'll be lots of fun training with them!

Oh and I picked up one of the book from my list today.  I placed them on hold at the library - and the first one was available today.  It's "Daniel's Running Formula" and he's been called the World Greatest Running Coach by Runner's World Magazine.  Funny thing is that his name is actually Jack Daniels!  I'm thinking it's a different Jack Daniels though - besides, this one has a PhD after his name.

I'm just over halfway through "Born to Run" so it should be too long before I start the new one.

Well, I hope everyone's Friday is FANTASTIC!!

Nite All!