HMTD9: A Wun? Or a Wog?

Either of those titles just sounds like I have a speech impediment. But I would say today's 41 minutes of exercise is worthy of being called a continued day of training.

Today I got up as planned (well, a half hour later than planned) and went out for a walk. I intended to run and walk alternately, keeping my breathing and jarring on my body controlled, and that's what I did for 3.3 miles. For the most part I walked a quarter mile then ran a quarter mile.

I forgot about sidewalks not being cleared, so I ran in the street on Montgomery. On Columbia, I was at my walk time and had a good time trudging through the snow. As soon as I could, I turned back into a neighborhood. The edges of the streets were slick so I had to be careful. And it wasn't as bright out as I thought it would be, despite the snow and F'Ertle lights.

I continued on through the neighborhood. I cheated some times, running longer than .25 mile. I felt pretty good. For the last half mile in my neighborhood I ran the entire way. I got chased by the dogs of the guy at the end of the street who has all the cars. Wait, that doesn't really narrow things down does it. The guy next to the fire station who collects old cars. Ha.

So far so good. Now it's time for a hot shower. I'll see what my rib tells me throughout the day before I get too excited about this. But it felt very nice.

Update

Today I am sore from walking. Interesting. My lower back muscles hurt and my shins hurt. I suppose it's good and bad. Mostly it makes me worried I have lost more fitness than I hoped. I feel like a big sack of sand.

Tonight I'm skipping the spin cycle class at the Trek store. I'm bummed, but there will hopefully be another class next week and I'm sure it will do me good to rest. My rib definitely hurts more this Monday than it did last Monday. And I do not wish to repeat whatever happened Wednesday. I'm not saying it was because of Monday, but a coworker today thought I did too much too soon. She said I should rest for two weeks, but I know I won't do that. I think it's just that I need to do less. The run/walk thing was fine I think. Maybe later this week I'll get on my bike and ride easy.  I'm very very happy that the pain is back to an Advil management this evening. I woke up pretty uncomfortable and took a Darvocet...I think it's sleeping, there really is no comfortable position in the bed. Tomorrow morning I am going to get up at 6 and walk/run in the neighborhoods. If there is still snow on the ground, there is plenty of light out there. I am still planning to run the Heart Mini. I can do it, right?

Patience was never my middle name.

Today I feel like a caged animal. I'm frustrated and sad. I'm out of control, alone and feel left behind. 
I went on a 2 mile walk with Harley and it certainly felt good to move and I felt a little better. At the circle turn around, we jogged. Then one more time before approaching the house. There was no rib pain while jogging, but I know I should take it easy. Maybe short run segments during walks is what I should start doing for my sanity.

I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back...RIBS

So the whole rib injury took quite a turn Wednesday. After sitting down and talking for a while, suddenly I could barely get up from the table. Huh. So much for a test run.


That night, it was hard to sleep, as I could only be in one position. Any attempts to move made me yell out in pain. Crap! In the wee hours of the morning, I found old Vicodin and took it. It expired in 2004, but I soon was in a blissful happy state, smiling as I laid down in bed to rest some more. I felt like I was wrapped in foam.

I got up a little later and called the Urgent Care I went to, explaining the 600 mg ibuprofen they had prescribed wasn't going to cut it anymore. The woman I talked to said the doctor would call something in. I asked what I'd be getting and tried to request Vicodin. She said she didn't know what I'd be getting. How do you ask for Vicodin without sounding like an addict? I guess maybe you don't.

I waited around for her to call back so I could get the new mystery pain pills, but it was taking too long. So I made my way to the smelly flavor house thinking my expired Vicodin would get me through the day and by the end of the day, the new Rx would be ready. Perhaps that first pill I took was the only one with anything left in it; despite taking pills every 4 hours, I was in a helluvuhlotta pain all day. First, cleaning off my car was awful. Driving hurt. I couldn't turn my wheel in the parking lot. Walking hurt. I couldn't talk very well and the biggest problem was I couldn't take a decent sized breath in without searing pain. Ug. At the end of the day, cleaning off my car again after the snow all day had me in tears. I couldn't reach the scraper in the back seat. I had to sit down (aagh!)...bring my legs in (uggg)...reach over (oh god!!)...and then hoist myself out of the back seat (cue the tears). I really don't know how people live with chronic pain.

I picked up my Tylenol 3 prescription. Looking online, it is a step below Vicodin in pain treatment. Dammit, I wanted to be knocked out! I took it as soon as I got home. Then I painfully fed the dogs, put in No Country for Old Men, and sat up straight on the couch to try to relax and let the medicine work.

More pills around 9 and then bed. PAINFUL. I wish we had a recliner – that is what I needed. It hurt so bad to lay flat.

I keep taking pills every 4 hours and am very very happy to say I think it's getting better! Most importantly, I can breathe!!!! That alone has made this day 200% better than yesterday. What a horrible feeling only being able to take painful shallow breaths. It still hurts driving and parking and walking and moving my arms in general. But I think it's getting better, and the less I move the better I feel.

That being said, damn I'm disappointed I can't move!! I'm already thinking: what about Monday night for biking? I can't, I shouldn't – even if I feel better. I think I should just have a solid week of doing absolutely nothing or I'll make it worse again. This is very very hard. I got on the scale this morning and I've already gained a pound. WTF. I guess I need to cut my calories down to sloth-like amounts. Sloths probably only need 500 calories a day to slllooooowwwly mooovvee arrrouuunnnddd....

So. It's OK. Just a week. Don't worry about it, Steph. It'll be fine in a week...

HMTD8: Lifting

Today I didn't have to be at Givaudan until 10:00, so I thought I might run in the morning. It was warm, and there was a break in the rain. But I ended up deciding against it. I figured giving my rib a little more rest wouldn't be a bad idea. It's going to be warm tomorrow too...maybe I can squeeze it in in the morning. I lifted instead...carefully. It went OK, there were only a few moves that hurt, so I didn't do those.

Walking hurts a little. It's the jarring effect. Last night when I trotted to my car to get stuff out of it for the bike class, I felt my rib. So I'm imagine running might be painful. I will take it slow and see how it goes.

I just emailed my broomball team that I won't be playing Saturday. I don't think it's a good idea because the most pain happens from pressure. So if I was to just get pushed on my chest, which is likely to happen, that would be bad. I'm bummed, but it's not the end of the world. I'm hopeful that it's all getting better, despite what I've read about cartilage fractures. Even if there is a little pain while running, that's ok if it's manageable. We'll see. Perhaps you could call it denial. Running has been very challenging and straight up emotionally painful the past few months. The setbacks are hard, but in some ways make me even more motivated. I'm not sure if that makes sense.

Anyway, here's hoping that a quick run goes well tomorrow.

HMTD7: Spin Cycle Class at the Trek Store

Monday nights at 6:30, the Trek store in Blue Ash offers "Spin Cycle" classes. A couple of weeks ago, I had written a post on the Trek Store facebook page asking if the stores were doing any group trainer rides this winter. To my delight, a couple of weeks later, they said they were! I wasn't sure what to expect - video or instructor. Turns out it will probably be a little bit of both. Last night it was a video.


I arrived early because I had to buy a mat and I wasn't sure what traffic would be like. After paying way too much money for a mat, I started to set everything up: mat, trainer, block and bike. It took a couple of trips from the car. No one else was showing up and that made me a little nervous. I really wanted there to be multiple people for distraction. I wasn't sure how I was going to do. Cyclists in general are pretty intense. I haven't been working out that much...and there's that whole fractured rib thing...

It ended up being just me. There were 3 guys working in the store: Matt, Nick and the guy that was going to run the class. I think it might have been Keith or Kyle or something with a K, so I'll just call him K for now. K set up and we got started a little early.

We watched a DVD called Downward Spiral. It was an interval training video that had a little bit of humor to it. The structure was a warm-up, the set of intervals, a 5 minute recovery, another set of the intervals, then a cool-down–all totaling an hour. The DVD had words on the screen for instructions. Every time you heard a horse whinny, that meant you better look up at the screen for instruction. There was also a lot of banter about how hard it was going to be and you were going to feel like you were going to die. Kind of funny.


The warmup was a video of a single track extreme mountain bike course. It basically looked like a twist on a BMX track. We just spinned and watched. All of the video was from the perspective of a rider, with an on-head/helmet camera. The next part was pack racing. Here we had to sprint a few times to "catch up" to the pack thanks to the ass-hole that left a big gap. This was all the verbiage on screen. K mentioned he hated being that guy on the end of a pack that just kept getting yo-yo'd off. I can imagine...but I had no idea what he was talking about really.


That was the warm up. I was happy to notice that K was sweating just as much as me. I figured I would at least look like I was holding my own OK.


The intervals were the following with equal amounts of recovery after each:  2:00, 1:45, 1:30, 1:15, 1:00, :45, :30, :15.  Each time the horse whinnied, "3-2-1-go!" would come up on the screen and K and I would change up a few gears and start working. I only went up two gears in the first set of intervals, thinking I was probably going to die. The video was part of the Tour de France, from Paris to Roubaix...which is on cobblestone! Nutso. On the recoveries, I wiped away sweat and drank.

I chatted with K a bunch about various cycling topics which was fun. He is a really nice guy, more granola than roadie. He is a mechanic and has been for 7 years I think he said, but leaves for Portland today to go to mechanic school for 3 weeks. He started out road biking and racing, but now does more mountain biking, specifically endurance racing. He does 24 hour races that are hundreds of miles long, on trails. Between each you can't do anything for a few weeks, so he has to carefully plan out the season and only gets to do about 3 races. Kind of comparable to marathons (for mortals, anyway). He ran in high school and college but now has too many issues from running, so bikes full time.


Towards the last interval of the first set, I tried to push harder. 45 seconds means sprint, right?! The 5 minute recovery was nice and allowed for my legs to stop burning and more chatting with K. Then it was time for set 2. Same stuff, but they thankfully changed up the scenery. The 7th interval flashed "uphill!!" on the screen. K was out of his saddle and I thought I might as well push it as well. He was encouraging and said nice job. Same happened for the 8th...towards the finish line 15 second sprint out of the saddle. Then the screen said something like "we don't think you pushed hard enough," and the countdown for 15 seconds began again. K laughed at my shock–he knew it was coming. Then... again...some smart ass comment appeared on the screen and we had to do it again...and again...and a fifth time before we were finally done. Whew! I made it though.



The cool-down part of the video showed guys on fixies doing all of their tricks, which made us talk about Danny MacAskill - the amazing street rider that does anything and everything with his bike. K used to ride a fixie and remembers building one for a guy before they were actually sold. Now you can actually buy a fixie in a bike shop, which is really funny. It is a new type of bike that is sold and marketed now. K is planning to sell his because he doesn't use it and has a hard time switching back and forth. It reminded me of the first time I went spinning and nearly ripped my legs off when I tried to coast.


So, all in all, it was a great experience. The best part is I was able to breathe hard without discomfort during the video. Afterwords, my rib was sore. But I took 800 mg of Advil when I got home and it was fine. I'm very happy about that! It was a big pain in the butt to load all of the gear into the car. But I think once a week is really worth it. I rode soooooooooooo much better and feel like I got a really great workout in! And, I can make it harder as I get better, simply by changing into bigger gears. For the next weeks, Matt is going to lead the classes and it might be video or he might lead it like a spinning class with music. That should be pretty awesome! I'm looking forward to the next classes and getting in better riding shape. I do hope more people start coming though.

HMTD6: Broomball Does Count

Last week was really horrible in terms of working out :(  I only biked once and never ran. Boo.

Today we had our second broomball game and it was a pretty good game overall. We lost 1 to 0. We played a team that has jerseys and full equipment...all supposedly paid for by the company they work at. Fine fine, that doesn't make you a great team, fancy-pants.

Physically, it was a brutal game–they were really rough. And they cheated. For a few face-offs, they'd start a person on our side. Really? That small of a rink and you think that's necessary...and not obvious? When confronted about it, the girl just giggled. Dumb. Aside from that, the girls on the team were pretty physical. Ada got creamed in the beginning. Sarah was tangled up with a girl and after the girl fell, she grabbed Sarah's foot. ?! I got checked into the wall so hard I had to come off the ice. Really, people, this isn't hockey. We aren't in full gear. Checking wasn't allowed in CBA so I'm sure it isn't allowed in this league. My chest/rib pain was so bad by the time I got home, I decided I should go to the doctor to make sure I can still run, etc. I know that if you break a rib, there's really nothing to do about it except wait, but I just wanted to make sure I could still do things. After being poked and prodded, the doc found the painful spots and determined I have fractured the cartilage where the ribs connect to the sternum. It's cartilage there, while the ends of your ribs are calcium. Soooo... the loosey-goosey diagnosis is take a lot of Advil and don't do anything until I feel better.

Poop.

HMTD5: Slow Biking

I rode for 42 minutes this morning while watching another episode of 30 Days. I can't ride to music until the new receiver comes. The current receiver, from the 70s, seems to be pushing a lot of bad noise through any speakers we have hooked up. Even when everything is just on and nothing is playing, crackles and static comes through randomly. Last week I thought for sure the speakers I was using were blown...the tell-tale blaatt! came out during a song that had bass. But upon further testing (hooking those speakers up to the good receiver in the living room), Greg thinks the old receiver is the culprit. SO that's good: speakers are fine. While all this was developing, Greg also found a new receiver he wants. He's been wanting a new one for quite some time. It's ordered. Convenient timing. Soon I will be able to listen to music again, as we'll replace the old 70s receiver with the living room receiver. I think I've said receiver way too many times.

So anyway, 42 minutes of Morgan Spurlock in a coal mine. It was interesting. I kept the biking easy. My heart rate was up but I wasn't breathing hard. My legs hurt. Not sure if it was the last of the broomball soreness escaping or what. And climbing the steps to my studio this morning hurt too.

I really need to look at my bike. I am pretty certain my chain is too dry. Last night I was hoping to go to a free bike clinic that Cycle Sport is putting on. Tuesdays at 6 they have a different subject they cover for different levels. Last night was general bike maintenance. It got canceled because of the weather, unfortunately, but supposedly will be rescheduled. Next week is how to fix a flat, which I can also very much benefit from since I suck/fail at that. Then the following week is chain maintenance - how to recognize chain wear, how to clean and lube, what products to use, how to use a chain tool, etc. Sounds awesome, but I think I'll lube up my chain prior, the way I've been doing it. I don't think it can go 2 more weeks.

HMTD4: Does Broomball Count?

Friday was a crazy day for my schedule. I didn't get to run as I had hoped. But Saturday morning was our first broomball game...so that counts for something, right?

Well it must count for something because I am ridiculously sore. With only 4 girls, I played nearly the entire time. But our games are only like two 10 or 12 minute halves. I guess it was 20 minutes of sprinting off and on, but damn. I feel like I fell out of the back of a truck.

Starting with the most sore to least sore: legs, butt (especially the right glute which I find interesting - I didn't know my butt cheeks worked so independently of one another), left shoulder, back, forearms, abs, elbows (from falling), palms of my hands, neck, ankles.

Pathetic!!

It was 5º when I got up today. I will see about getting on the bike and riding easy while watching something tonight. Hopefully that will help with the hurt!

HMTD3: Running with Dead Legs

I took Wednesday off completely. It wasn't exactly intentional, but I knew I'd take either Wednesday or Thursday off. So today, I had to get back out there and decided to do a run.

At first I thought I'd do 4 miles since I had so much time in the morning. I had a 10:00 meeting and nothing to do prior, so that gave me a good amount of relaxing time to fill. I think most of my days are going to be like that coming up soon while I'm at Givaudan (which will be awesome as long as work loads allow for it!) Then I decided maybe I should just do 3. I'm a little paranoid about my IT band flaring up as I'm getting back into the distances.

Three it was, and it was cold. My face was freezing, the rest of me was fine. I saw two women running in my neighborhood as they turned up Townsley right before me - ah! running friends, wait! They were going my pace exactly, but I couldn't catch up to them. I was bummed, it would have been nice to chat with them a bit.

Soon after I turned on Montgomery, my legs stopped working. They were absolutely dead, it was pretty funny. I thought to myself: oh well, this is good practice for pushing at the end of a race! Because that's how I felt. It was bad. I guess the spinning session took a lot more out of me than I thought. I wasn't sore, but just had no power at all. Meh - to be expected as I get back into the swing of things I suppose.

Other than my dead legs, the other notable thing is my abdomen. Wow is it sore. I can't remember if I wrote about it after Tuesday's run, but I have a really bad pain deep in my lower left side - it feels like ripping. Sneezing and coughing (which I tend to do a good amount of) is awful. I can't seem to find it or rub it, but it's there. I'm not sure what I did - maybe breathed too hard or something? It's odd. I hope it goes away soon.

A very hot shower felt very good after that run. I'm glad I got out there despite the unwelcoming temperatures. Having something to train for is definitely helping a little bit with the motivation. And now, I've done three activities this week already which makes me very happy.

HMTD2: Trainer

Last night I spent a lot of time picking out songs to make a playlist on YouTube so I could have good music and videos to watch while I rode on the trainer. MTV music just isn't cutting it. I got the playlist to 23 songs, which is longer than I'm riding right now. I will probably go back in and edit the playlist into a second one later. And I also think that I should make a Foo Fighters playlist...I'm kind of seeing that their stuff works really well for spinning–at least for me it does.

Here is what I rode to:

Brandi Carlisle: The Story  -  3:58
A favorite warm-up for me

Muse: Uprising  -  4:32
Easing into things...

Airborn Toxic Event: Sometime Around Midnight  -  5:03
This is an awesome building song. I started out spinning easy at a normal cadence, then just upped either the speed a little or the resistance during the entire song. It was pretty fun.

Queens of the Stone Age: No One Knows  -  4:18
I've never seen this video. QOTS wasn't how I had them pictured, especially the lead singer. I have to admit I love love love watching Dave Grohl drum. I just rode steady during this song, gawking at the screen.

Black Eyed Peas: I've Got A Feeling  -  4:52
I thought this song might be a little cooler to spin to than it was. It was ok. I picked up the pace during it.

MIA - Paper Planes  -  3:25
I most likely had a puzzled look on my face during this song, as I just couldn't stop looking at MIA with her blue eyeshadow and really weird 80s outfits. She still makes me think about the performance she did on some music awards show while she was pregnant... days before her due date. It was so funny seeing someone rap with a belly.

Killswitch Engage: My Curse  -  4:04
Nothing notable during this song...thing I must have just ridden with the pace upped a bit.

Foo Fighters: DOA  -  4:29
This is my benchmark song for how in/out of shape I am :)  During the chorus I stand up and run to the beat with heavy resistance. The first time I did this, I pooped out in the second one. I'm happy to say I made it through all of them this time, though I was taking it pretty easy in the middle. Ah to think about being strong again... sheesh.

System of A Down: Chop Suey  -  3:27
Love the song, but there was something really interesting about spinning to it. I think it was because the chorus is slow and melodic while the other parts of the song are the crazy fast aggressive parts. So it was almost opposite of how most songs work. Ride during the build up and then, bam, do something hard or fast when the chorus hits. Interesting.

Queens of the Stone Age: Go With the Flow  -  3:11
Just rode steady to this as a cool down of sorts since I was approaching 9:00 and had to get ready for a 10:00 meeting at Lux.

Overall it was very fun! Adding up the times it was about 41 minutes. I think I'm going to have to move songs around and play a bit before I get a really tight session in. That is a lot of work trying to pick songs: deciding if they'd work, thinking about what the song would drive you to do, trying to make a good mix of everything you want to do... more difficult than I thought it would be. I think I need more songs too. I've gone online to spin instructor sites to see if I could find any easy "set lists" out there. I haven't been able to find anything that isn't all about unknown upbeat music or mixups. License blah blah. I have 13 more I picked out that I'll try next time and see how those rate.

I hope I'm sore from this. I should be if I did it right. I was certainly breathing hard for most of it.

First Run of the New Year. Or Heart Mini Training Day #1. Or HMTD1.

Today was supposed to be warm...42 or something like that. Maybe it was the 60º on New Year's Eve, but it didn't feel nearly that warm outside. Alas, it was sunny, and I opted for an afternoon run in the 30/40s rather than the morning teens.

It was a nice run through Landen. I started slow and fell into a pace around 10:11. Breathing was easy, but I was tired. I felt the very little hills on the way back. To be expected right now.

I am super happy I did 4 miles with such ease. I have been trying to run more than 3 for a couple of months now... this is the farthest I've ran since the half in October. What a great way to kick off the new year and Heart Mini training.

Happy New Year

It's a new year! Which means new plans and new goals- yay! A clean slate to start training is refreshing. 

I have never really been a New Year Resolution maker, but I do like it in the running context. I get a kick out of making plans for running, which I suppose aren't really resolutions. I simply like to think about what's coming up in the next year - what fun things lie ahead to look forward to as well as what I hope for.

First up is the Heart Mini Marathon March 20th.
From now until then I'd like to:
- get a good base on the bike trainer
- get my running mileage back up
- lose some weight
- get into a strength training routine

Then, May 1st is the Flying Pig Half Marathon.
I'm really excited about this race because Daryl and Jessica are going to come down to run it and that means it's going to be a very fun weekend running with friends! I very much enjoy doing races with other people. I want to do well at this race and take my time down from October's half as well. That is my only goal. Well, not so secretly I'd like to not be last among the friends. Oh so sick of being a turtle... We'll see what can be done about that in the next months.

As for the rest of spring and summer, I'm not sure what I want to do. Maybe there will be more biking, or maybe more duathlons. When it was 60º on New Year's Eve, I felt the urge to get outside for a ride. I can't wait to ride on the road again. This year I am definitely going to try to immerse myself more in  biking groups. The Monday night rides were really fun, pushing me way more than I push myself. Plus it's just way better to ride with someone. In the fall, I think I would like to do the Columbus marathon again. That was such an amazing experience. We shall see... For now I'm just going to think about the Heart Mini and getting my routine down!

And now a toast...
Here's to a fantastic year ahead. May it be filled with a lot of fun experiences, happy happy smiles, and good times! (pun intended, haha)