Stretching For Lower Leg health...

I may take an extra day off from running this week. Actually, adjusting the schedule a bit to move my last day to Friday. My shins were killing me yesterday during the walk. Not as much as the previous session, but they're still very tight. If I don't fix this now it could develop into a more serious problem, like shin splints or a fracture of the Tibia.

The Anterolateral muscles tend to be much less developed than the calves & other attachments. Since the calve pulls the foot down & this opposing muscle group pulls the foot up, running & walking tend to overwork one area & continually strengthen the other.

I had this issue when I was doing the 10k step routine & was able to fix things by adjusting my stride & adding the ankle rotation exercises and extra calf & Achilles tendon stretching. I should have been doing these the entire time because my calves are notoriously tight and overdeveloped compared to the other musculature in my lower leg. I'll add the rotation movements & the Achilles stretches into the pre-run routine as well.

The ankle rotations are very easy. Simply complete counter-clockwise & clockwise rotations of the foot. This will stretch and flex the arches as well. A good warm up and cool down is 10 to 20 reps per direction and per foot.

The Achilles stretches are a bit different. If you're familiar with traditional "wall" stretches these are similar except the foot placement is a bit shorter. With the wall stretch, that back leg is FAR OUT THERE. The further the better to stretch the calve & hamstrings. With the Achilles stretch however, the rear foot is in closer. You want to be bending forward at your ankle. There are differet variations & you can get more aggressive as you get the tendons more flexible...






Imagine squatting down... but NOT rising up on the balls of the feet. You just allow the Achilles to stretch. The front foot stabilizes & controls the amount of weight (pressure of stretch) you're placing on that back, stretching leg. If you've spent anywhere near the time that I have working your legs (especially you calves) YOU ARE GOING TO FEEL THESE! These will not only help in your running and walking regimen... but if you actually do barbell squats, they are a godsend! They'll really improve you flexibility which means better form, more control & ultimately... working with more weight.

You are of course going to include the other basic calve, hamstring & quadricep stretches as well. I'm talking about the Achilles and the anterior shin (Anterolateral) because in my own case, this is the weakest link. My calves have always outpaced every other bodypart as far as muscular development goes. They're probably my single genetically gifted bodypart.


The Walking Site

Cool Running

Session Five...

It was much cooler today. It was in the 70's today rather than the 90's. I had a much better cadence today than Sunday. It's still going to take me awhile to even it out though. I remembered to wear the Asics this time & the New Balance shorts are great.

I got down to the trailhead early today. There wasn't much of a crowd. I was leaving just as it was beginning to get busy. Yes, still driving to McMillin. I'm going to wait to start using the other trail until I get a bit more time running. I'm still slogging at an uneven gait & not moving all that smoothly. I don't need the extra resistance just yet. It's only been a week.

I think that once I get to where I'm doing the full 5k runs I should be able to start doing the nicotine inclines & declines as the next phase. One bite at a time... I'm back on the patches as well this week. I think that made a difference. I really felt like I was breathing better today not having smoked. I actually felt better throughout the day... though there were a few times where the 'Jones' factor was getting to be a bit strong. Just the ritual segments where I can get out of the lab for a while or while stuck in traffic coming home. Right after the run... ha! Yeah, that one nearly killed me the other day.

I believe that it was a wise move to begin this at the same time. Feeling myself having to work a bit to get a breath those first few days got me taking the quitting more seriously. If I can make myself link one to the other I'm hoping that it will keep me honest. If I keep smoking it will short circuit the physical training. If I fail that I'm not going to be ready to enroll. All these things hinge on each other.
It keeps coming back to the issues about how serious one is to attain their goals, how hard their willing to work, taking small, logical steps in order to maintain momentum. Ultimately, how many people are consciously willing to throw away their future for the daily habitual nonsense? This can be the cigarettes. It can be eating garbage as your regular diet. It can be avoiding exercise.

Live how you want to live by all means. Just don't set down and start telling me how you'd "like to weigh what I did in high school"... because that's a load of crapola! You want no such thing. If you actually wanted it, you'd be taking at least some steps to make it happen. It doesn't even matter if they're the wrong steps. At least you've put yourself in motion & if you're persistent, you'll eventually figure things out.

Without movement towards the goal, it's nothing more than a topic of conversation. It's utterly pointless to present it as anything else. It’s also dishonest. The ultimate insult here is having the tendency to minimize and occasionally sabotage the efforts of others. I’m not even willing to waste my time ranting about this aspect except to say that I find it a pathetic statement of a person’s overall psyche when I observe such antics.

Yes, I have digressed… but I was thinking about this today. Do you have any idea how many times I simply wanted to stop moving my feet, slow down & slump back to the car? It’s a battle. There are “plenty” of people who would read this and make some kind of idiotic statement about how “obvious” I’m being. So how come such a large portion of the population hasn’t figured it out? That’s okay because the people who are honest will readily admit that it IS a battle. The jackass commentator probably hasn’t managed to accomplish much beyond logging on today.

You have to MAKE yourself do it every day. At first you’ll probably have to MAKE yourself take every individual step. Your body will want to quit. Your mind will want to slow down & spend time in front of the television. Your system will want to take the most effortless path that it can find. If you plan on getting anything productive and positive done… you’re going to be in for a fight. This will be more of an issue with some than with others obviously.

Personally, I’m… envious (?) of people who don’t seem to have such a conundrum when it comes time to get things done. I suppose that even these people may have some situations or activities that are difficult for them to be motivated towards. So I can see those people occasionally being envious of those others who seem content to set on their laurels as the world drives past them… and they deteriorate into their graves.

So for me… for right now… it’s going to be a daily thing. I’m going to need to remind myself just why I’m doing all of this. I’d really “prefer” to come home, set on the back porch with a bag of chocolate, a six pack of beer and a pack of cigarettes. Of course, I don’t think I could look at myself in the mirror once I topped 300-pounds and that size-48 pant. I wouldn’t be able to look at myself if I cast aside yet another opportunity either.

This isn’t about “failing”. It’s about willingly avoiding the challenges that make life more than an existence. Failing indicates that one actually tried. That’s a far different situation from avoiding the conflict altogether and slinking back into the shadows. By all means fail. Fail gloriously and often. It means that you’re not giving up. You may be the absolute worst at what your attempting… but you’re still better than the one who’s unwilling to attempt.

Week Two of Interval Training...

So this was session number four. I was somewhat disorganized this morning. I actually put on the wrong shoes. I left my Asics at home & had the old New Balance pair on. Not good. I didn't even realize it until I got to the trailhead. I could tell the difference. The pair of New Balance are worn down from continuous, daily wear. Not so cushy! I went for it anyhow. The weather was significantly cooler today.

Not too bad overall. The running increments have increased to around 90 seconds. So you're doing the same time, a similar distance but running more than the previous week. This would have been more comfortable wearing the Asics. The old shoes don't have adequate cushion... so my feet were landing harder than normal. Still, my cadence & cardio function are improving. I'm dropping weight fairly quickly as well.

Yesterday, while out & about with the roommates, we drove through Celebration Park in Federal Way because they have a trail there that I wanted to check out. It's much closer to home that the McMillen trailhead. I didn't use it this morning because I want to reconnoiter it first. At first clance it looks to have a significant amount of hilly terrain & I'm not up to hill running yet. Great training mind you... but I'm barely started on this thing & need to work up to it.

So this afternoon I'll take a drive over there and check out the trail as well as the parking stuation. It looks like the nearest parking lots are several hundred feet from the actual trail. I may take along a camera & snap a few photos as well.



View Larger Map

This set of trails follows the powerline grid & apparently stretches all the way to Tacoma. This will be good once I get into longer distances. There should be fewer streets & intersections to deal with. I'm just not sure how level it is & at least for now... I don't want to be doing the return leg (1.6 miles) all uphill.








Yes. It is fairly hilly. I went about a mile down into the trail to take these. I saw virtually ZERO bicycle riders, which is a plus in my book. I'm getting a little tired of hordes of these baffoons blocking the entire trail when they stop to gab or ramming into me as they ride past... occasionally even when they're coming towards me. I did see several neighborhood walkers... & one or two homeless "camp sites". Also it's in Federal Way so no packing a firearm. (Yes, that ordinance IS illegal but I don't have the $50k that would be required to challenge it after my arrest.)

There is a small parking lot just across the street from the trailhead. It has about a dozen spaces including two handicapped one. It was virtually emptu today but I imagine that it's full in the afternoons. So parking next to the balls fields and hiking ot the trail may be my only option.

It's rather ironic that my Functional Handstrength e-mail today talked about including running in ones strength program. I'm not interested in doing marathons or any dedicated distance running. I'm not interested in that type of endurance running. I am interested in rebuilding my cardiovascular & aerobic conditioning as well as FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH. A more aggressive & challenging course won't be a bad thing. I've said that I'd like to include hill running & adding some miles ot this particular trail will mean a variety of terrain as opposed to the valley floor that I've been walking and running on. Something like this will be eneficial to the more advanced Fartlek training. There are some soccer fields within the park coplex where I may be able to do sprinting.

Then there's the fact that I can be nearly done with my run on this trail where I would likely be just pulling in to the parking lot at McMillen. The conditioning here is going to be tougher. It will be especially gruelling if we have many more 90-degree days. It looks like I'll be investing in that CamelBak solution sooner than I'd planned. I will probably be buying more running gear as well.

Once again I'm looking at how I can manipulate my schedule to fit all of this in. I know that I'm going to need at least one full day of rest per week. I should also start goping to bed an hour earlier. I'm not sure if I can get to sleep that early, but I suppose that once I begin adding exercise nearly every day, exhaustion is going to catch up with me.

The Spring Krav Maga session ends this coming Thursday. They have yet to update the calendar, but I'm hoping that they will begin a fresh cycle within the next two to three weeks. I'd like to begin that training as well. I'll have to change my running schedule around a bit. I may end up running Friday, Sunday & Tuesday for a while. I want to keep the three-times-per-week at least through teh 9 to 10 week cycle of this program. Once I am up to runnin a full 5k thrice-per-week I may adjust things a bit. As I said before, I may drop to two days per week & then begin to lengthen the runs. A 10k run should take me about an hour in the afternoon or evening.

"Wanting" To Do...

One of the blogs that I subscribe to is published by Israeli Krav International. The latest June 5th article was a short but relevant offering entitled “The Things We want To Do”. It voiced the same sentiment that I have been talking about over the last several months. As described in the article, too many people voice desires about things that they want to do “someday”, yet never take the necessary steps to bring such things to fruition.

If only I'd made money every time I’ve heard that statement, both from family and from friends. It’s sad in a way but I'm not the one to bring judgment upon these people. I am only now beginning to understand the difference between the “dream” and the “goal”. I’ve written about it here before. In the past I would have been one to opine regarding things that I wanted to do. Now when I hear this, I tend to listen to it somewhat differently.

I notice that such conversations are rarely approached from the perspective of accomplishments, to be achieved. They are, for the most part, only “dreams”. I do not recall a single person ever bringing up such conversations and then going on to describe the steps they are taking to reach these goals. It is as if there’s some psychological disconnection from ones current reality to their desires. It is as if they have already accepted that they will never actually realize such things and are now satisfied with using them as conversational filler material. Never has anyone ever presented such topics as a plan.

This perspective is severely flawed but it is also understandable. In a society which has become ever more instantaneous, very few individuals have any idea how to approach the problem of planning and achieving anything meaningful. It should come as no surprise that so few people are satisfied with their condition. They’ve settled for less than what they are capable and less than what they truly crave.

Even more tragic is that our society has conditioned these same people to accept as fate, the mediocrity that represents their labor. I recall a cartoon someone e-mailed me once. It was a dog drinking from a toilet. The caption said “It doesn’t get any better than this!” Not bad for a dog… but the joke should be obvious. I know that a lot of good people settle for far less than they are capable. One could argue that people get what they “deserve”. From the viewpoint that none deserve any more than that for which they are willing to work, I would agree.

I am hopeful that in my own case I will no longer settle for less than that of which I am capable. I “deserve” precisely what my level of dedication, planning and effort gains me. I honestly do not know the limits of my own capabilities. I do know that for a good portion of my life I have allowed myself to achieve far less than I am capable. So my station is effectively what I "deserve".

It has been said that anything worth having is worth working for. I think that the more accurate assessment is that anything worth having REQUIRES work. Not only because things of value carry their own intrinsic worth, but also because those things are what they are due to the work required to gain them. This isn't only represented by physical property or possession, but also by the wealth gained by the act of the accomplishment.

People who strive, fail & then succeed are far stronger individuals than those who are never tested. Those who become accustomed to ease of life are the ones who will fail when they are tested. They will also have little appreciation for anything they have. They will have no respect for their benefactors. They will have no respect for the property or the lives of others. They will have no respect for themselves.

Inexplicably, I'm becomming one who wishes to rise to the task. I'm beginning to surprise myself. Ultimately I wish to be ready when the things that I desire come into focus to meet the challenge. I certainly don't want to fall short due to lack of planning or metal.

Interval Session Three...

Ugh! It was 93-degrees in Puyallup this afternoon when I rolled up to the trailhead. Crimany! It didn’t feel that hot at first. It actually looked like some overcast was going to come in and cool things off. WRONG! That was only to taunt me. As soon as I hit the trail the sun was back out… beating down. I didn’t notice it on the way out, but on the way back it began to get extremely uncomfortable. I’d chugged about 16 ounces of agua before setting out. I figure I burned that off in about 10 or 15-minutes. Then I was running dry.

I’m still not jazzed about dragging a water bottle along during these short jaunts. If I were doing something akin to a 10k… then I would definitely want to have a decent sized bottle. Heck, I may even invest in a CamelBack vest. However, running in a vest means adding more weight and insulation, so it’s a trade off. I just don’t like the idea of having to either hold the bottle in my hands… or endure it banging about while I run.

I've found some other options like the stainless water bottles, which I like but again, you're dragging that thing around and with 32 ounces of liquid it's not going to be light. I suppose I need to look into some of the harness and strapping systems. The belt systems look too much like a nerds fanny pack. Also, the bottles stillslam around. I'd prefer something that gets the load up aboe the waist and hips. Hence the CamelBak vest idea. The original versions are fairly small and unobtrusive.

Back to the run:

I noticed once again tha my gait is becomming smoother and more balanced. I actually felt like I was running today as opposed to tromping with a pogo stick attached to each leg. My steps are beginning to roll more rather than dropping. Within another week or two I should have things down fairly well.

Something that I failed to mention before... I've managed to lose 30 pounds somewhere between January and now. How I don't know. I have been drinking a lot less beer, but I though I was making up for it by eating utter crap every other week or so. Apparently I have not entirely pooched the healthier eating habits. That's around 10-pounds per month without even working at it. Gee, imagine what I can do if I'm actually trying to get healthier. Idiot!

Now I'm REALLY looking forward to the Krav Maga session starting up again! Doing that two nights per week should kick things fairly hard. I think that I may need to decrease the frequency of the runs and lengthen the distance. So I might be running 7 to 10 kilometers, twice per week. I already have a fairly good idea where the 10k marker is on the trail that I run. I've walked it many times.

The running is coming together very well. I can already feel the difference from day to day. Once I start the additional training I'm going to be nigh unto death... for a while. Then when it kicks in I'm going to be nearly unstoppable. The last piece of the puzzle is going to be the strength training. The strength training... and figuring out how in the heck I'm going to get any rest. On that note, I have noticed that even with this heat, I'm sleeping better and feeling more energetic at work. I'm not falling asleep in front of the television any longer.

One last thing: I pulled out a pair of my old Rudds lycra shorts to run today. Actually, my legs look pretty good. It's the load above them that's frightening! Those things were GREAT though. It's unfortunate that the company went out of business. They were certainly a lot more comfortable than the sweats would have been!

I Never Thought I'd Say This...

... but I'm going shopping for some running gear Friday afternoon. I already have shoes. I have a decent pair of Asics that should last me another month or so. They're virtually brand new. What I really need is some shorts. It's been scaring teh crap out of 90-degrees the last two days & I only have long sweats. That's fine for Spring & Fall... but in this type of heat it's ridiculous.

I hate to shop there, but Sports Authority has the best selection & price... & they have a HUGE store right down the road at the Stuper Mall. I'd rather go some place more "local" but that means Big 5 & every time I go there it's like a few hundred people hace already been through every rack.

I want something synthetic... with a danged liner. The lighter the better. I've seen some pretty cheap varieties down there & I should be able to pick up several pair for only around $20 a whack. It's a bit too early for me to be sporting tank tops & such. I refuse to subject anybody to that show. Besides, I'm wearing the Carhart T-shirts so I can keep the MP3 player in the breast pocket.

My Second Interval Session...

What is true with strength training session is also true with other training: The one you decide not to skip will be a good one. (I can only say a good one because this is only my second day at this...) First off, it's getting hotter around here. I've been saying since December that I thought we were going to have a very hot summer. We were ROBBED last year, having only two real weeks of decent "summer" weather.

So it hit the mid-80's around work in Redmond today. I had told myself that if the roomies were not home this evening (currently in Las Vegas) I would go ahead & use the treadmill. I made god time getting home & I thought that since the house was a balmy 85, I'd just go ahead & make the trek down to the trailhead. When I got to Puyallup the thermostats downtown said 89 degrees. Uhm...

I'd brought water but I hate trying to carry that crap. Besides, it's only a little over three miles, right? Sheesh! I felt dehydrated about 1/2 mile into the jaunt. I should have MADE MYSELF chug more before I started out. I survived though.

I was actually fairly still in the calves and quads when started out. My first jogging interval was... stiff. After that I was fine. The first jogging interval was also where I had the most problem catching my breath. After that I seemed to kick into the rhythm. I ended much more evenly this time cadence died off almost exactly where it began as far as landmarks.

Thursday will be the end of the first week. This will be my last week smoking. I came to the conclusion the other day that, for myself, quitting has nothing to do with "wanting to quit". Hey, I like smoking. Not the stench, the expense or the inconvenience... but just the action itself. So once again, factor in the pros versus cons. True, there really aren't any pros, anymore than there are with heroin addiction. I already mentioned most of the cons. With the new tax increases, it's nearly $2300 per year. That's insane!

Ultimately, spending the money & having a lump or crap in my lungs where more air would go isn't a positive thing. What's going to make the difference for me though, is just how those detriments add up to kill my momentum for course preparation. I want to be physically "ready" when I apply. I'm nearly at the $3k mark on savings right now and the 2010 schedule should be out in September or October. Two more weeks & I'll have the deposit saved. That's going to be an eye opener. I still cannot believe that I've actually managed to get this far.

I want to be in passable physical condition by September or October. If I can manage to get my derrière into the Krav Maga class, that will add an additional two days of hard training per week. Two additional days that I will hate myself for. Right now I feel like I took a beating. I can imagine feeling this way EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK for a while.

I'm sure that I'll acclimate to the training though. Today’s “run” felt better than the one on Sunday. I’m certain that the one on Thursday will feel better than today’s. Once I begin getting used ot that the Krav classes will start and I’ll acclimate to that as well. I’m probably going to drop one of the running days once I get through this basic 5k training. I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to manage all of this & still get enough rest. I may have to start going to bed an hour earlier every night. That’s a bad idea anyhow but the heat is making it difficult to get to sleep.