The old running guys

This has been a week to think about growing old.  I'm not talking about myself, at present anyway, despite an aching knee and limited mobility.  Considering that I won't have a "real" job for about a year and a half, I feel young and ready to get started.  That aching knee will be healed in another few months, if I play my cards right now.  What I mean is that a series of coincidences in reading and observing have made really think about aging, both in terms of the future and in terms of how those thoughts might change my present actions. 

In my neigborhood there are a group of men -- old men -- who seem to be out running constantly.  One is so thin and his skin so slack that he is nearly cadaveric.  He runs every day, shirtless in the summer, wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt at other times.  I see him walking with his wife and dog at other times, and he seems to be enjoying himself although I've never seen him smile.  Another lives only a few houses down, not so thin, but is even more dedicated.  He shuffles, hunched over, for hours at a time.  He often runs with his son, who slows his pace to allow the father to keep up.  He's not so old, perhaps, but he runs like it, so in this context it counts.  There is a white-bearded man whom I see less frequently, because he lives in a different part of the neighborhood.  He seems really old, and although his gait is steadier and stronger than the other two, his muscles hang from the bones.  You can see traces of what must have been a strong frame.  There is the still-very-fit but aging man who runs bolt upright with a dog tag on.  His flesh is in no way slack, and  I would like to have him on my side in a fight, if the idea of me in a fight weren't so patently ridiculous.  Finally, there are dozens of other old men who run in and around my neighborhood, whom I don't know but I'm sure have running stories just the same.


I read a fantastic article in the New Yorker (the link is not to the article but to a poorly written "abstract" of it), an essay by the poet Donald Hall, as he considered his own aging from his armchair looking out of his window.  I also came across a great how-to-live-your-life-from-the-perspective-of-the-deathbed essay by way of a Facebook posting.  The subject is trite but I was touched.  It wasn't about aging, per se, but was about the regrets that people have before they die.  Aging is a bit of a foreign territory for me; although I am a physician and have helped people through the processes of aging and dying, the vast majority of my training and experience are with children.  I suppose as anyone's parents age this becomes a little more familiar, but for me it is only just starting to really seep into my everyday consciousness.

Where does this leave me?  Certainly not thinking about mortality yet, but thinking a little bit more acutely about how I want to live life.  As my faithful readers will know, creating and inhabiting a home has been at the forefront of my mind, especially as we (my wife and I) are still recovering from too many moves in too short a period, and as our children grow into personhood and develop their own sense of home.  I realized today in the car that up until now I have been framing this as a question of living in the present -- i.e. if I could only live in the present more fully, none of the moving around and uncertainty about the future would matter so much.  But perhaps I should frame it in the opposite way:  I am focusing so much about living in the present that I lose sight of thinking about the future in a meaningful way.  Watching the old men run brings the future back into focus, for a time.

Life from the couch

It has been a week since my knee surgery. The operation went pretty much as planned (I will scan and post photos sometime soon), with some degeneration but no actual tear of my meniscus. The whole problem was that the meniscus was abnormally shaped to begin with ("discoid" - a flat disk rather than a wedge or saucer shape), leaving it more susceptible to injury and more biomechanically abnormal than most. Could this explain the longstanding pattern of right-sided injuries in my past?

In any case, I have progressed from spending most of the day on my couch with occasional crutch forays about the house, to spending most of the day at work with plenty of couch time at home and occasional walking without crutches. It is a bit of a struggle to keep the knee rested when not doing PT, but frequent icing and elevation have helped. It is satisfying to have tangible and daily progress in how much I am able to do and tolerate, although the slow and incremental nature of the progress makes it very hard to picture a return to "normal" activity. As a friend said to me yesterday, though, I do have the rest of my life...

The side benefit of being less active at home is twofold. First, I have had some of the most pleasurable reading time in recent years, including a bicycle repair manual, journal articles for work, and luxuriously long New Yorker articles on random topics. I have to grudgingly admit that there has been some attenuation of my attention span due to Facebook, Twitter, the iPhone, and other information streams; so now it is nice to be able to (or really, to be unable to do anything but) read. Second, the current situation has opened up new ways of interacting with my children. Today we spent some truly fun time just lounging on the couch and watching a movie together. Less fun is when the three of them squeal as they run off with my crutches, brace, ace bandages, ice packs, etc.; even so I secretly revel in being able to watch them have so much fun.

Finally, I have to point out how generous, caring, and wonderful my wife has been through the process. The first few days after surgery I could do almost nothing, so I got to be there for whole days to watch and listen to Jess as a mother: a patient, creative, effective, and energetic parent. This, in addition to taking care of a fourth "child" who just happens to be her poor postoperative husband.

Not exercising is a challenge, but the longer I am able to make peace with limitations now, the sooner I will be back out there.

Retrospective and Resolutions

I conceived of this post as a 2011 retrospective, with some 2012 resolutions thrown in.  Having looked back on the year through iPhoto, Facebook timeline, and this blog, I came away with a few surprises and a few memories.  Current state probably influences memory more than the past events themselves, so I will say that after a wonderful few days at home, a great afternoon, and a cold beer in the backyard while the kids played, the year's memories seem pretty darn good.  I don't think that's far from the truth.

As far as fitness goes, this was an odd year.  My knee has been "acting up" since October 2010 (and was probably injured about a year before that), so my running has been just weird.  I had a good training cycle through the fall of 2010 despite the knee, and this paid off big time in February 2011 with a P.R. marathon here in town.  Running since then has been spotty, and I am in fact having surgery on my right lateral meniscus in three days.  I do think there is a good chance it will help, and look forward the the post-rehab "Don't call it a comeback..."  The beauty of an injury, in truth, is that it helps you focus on other things.  In no particular order, I have spent a lot of time on yoga, lifting, and road biking.  A highlight of the year was traveling to Georgia with my good friend Gary and riding the Three Gap Fifty, the mini-version of the Six Gap Century.  Yoga has acted as a semi-spiritual bridge between working out and meditation (a need previously fulfilled by running).  Lifting continues to feel good.  Currently, I have also sprained my right wrist, so all my activities are limited, but that, too, has its place and time.

Food has been another focus of the year.  As with most of us, I have been trying to get ride of that "last" 5 or 10 pounds for quite a while -- don't worry, I don't think I'm fat, but I know my weight and body shape when I've been really fit.  After some unsuccessful and perhaps fairly insincere attempts to eat better or less, I finally gave the "Paleo" concept a try, and holy shit, it worked.  For six weeks, six days a week, I ate only meat, vegetables, fruit, beans, and nuts/seeds.  Beer was allowed.  The seventh day was "cheat day."  By the end of the six weeks I had lost 7-8 pounds, was fitting into pants I haven't worn since 2004, and definitely noticed an improvement in energy level.  I try very hard to avoid proselytizing diets (or anything, for that matter), and I am still working to integrate this into my everyday, permanent life -- perhaps cycling the diet for six weeks on and two weeks off -- but it has been quite a good thing for me at this time.

Although this has been primarily a "fitness" blog - a little more varied than in 2010 since I haven't been able to run much, there are more important things in life than fitness.  What else has happened this year?  I continue to enjoy and treasure my family - my wife and our three children - as we grow and develop a sense of internal home-ness. Slowly but surely we are moving forward from the utter shock (and awe) of raising young children after a fairly active and free single and early married life.  We are fortunate to be living near my parents, and to be involved in a wonderful church (not coincidentally, the church I grew up in).  It has been challenging to continue moving around while I complete (slog through?) medical training:  challenging to develop a true feeling of home, challenging to nurture friendships and relationships, andchallenging to feel settled.  We do have wonderful friends here, wonderful friends elsewhere, and a large and loving extended family.

Our major vacation this summer was a long road trip to visit old friends and see family, and it was a true highlight of the year.  This was actually an awakening to what adventures we are capable of in this (still) new phase of life.  While the road trip may have been a crystallizing event, gardening has been the slow-burn, everyday reminder of family togetherness, growth, creativity, and fun.  We are fortunate in Florida to have two growing seasons per year, and although the productivity may not have been high, it has been a tonic to prepare the earth and plant with the children, to eat fresh herbs every night with dinner, and to go and inspect the rows every evening.

Looking forward by first looking backward:  how did the resolutions for 2011 hold up (the first list was of general goals, the second list was fitness-related goals)?
1) Presence.
   --> sometimes2) Develop the less cynical, humbler, and less judgmental self.
  --> still needs to come out3) Meet Jess's needs and wants before my own.
  --> I hope this happened enough, but I want to make it happen much more.4) Garden and eat the food!
  --> Yes!!

1) Maintain consistently healthful diet - devise a sustainable way to deal with temptations, convenience, etc.

  --> Finally, yes.

     - This includes reducing caffeine intake to a reasonable level.

          --> A cruel joke.
2) Regular yoga to lead to meditation alone.

  --> Not yet, but working on it.
3) Real periodization of training. (i.e. approach it like real training!)

  --> Some success

3) Regular cycling and leg strength training to begin after February marathon, to prevent recurrence of knee injury

  --> Happening

4) Regular speed/tempo training (running).

  --> For the future.

6) Repeat p90x with Jess!! (Start date: mid-March)

  --> Not interested for now.

7) Plan +/- train for ultramarathons to progress to 100 mile run.

  --> For the future

8) Less drama about getting up for pre-dawn workouts - just do it.

  --> Unsuccessful.

So what about 2012 resolutions?  Here is what I had come up with as of New Year's Eve:
1. Bike to work consistently.
2. Less caffeine.
3. Regular time of day for exercise.
4. Focus on injury prevention
5. Tolerate more "chaos" at home -- a combination of being present and controlling anxiety!
6. Continue cycled paleo diet.
7. Make a career decision (i.e. get a job versus further training) and don't look back.


But, just today I saw that a friend had posted Woody Guthrie's 1942 New Years Resolutions, which summarize the heart of the matter far better.  So, I leave you with that.

Training - Proof of Concept // Roadkill

First, the roadkill: on the bike this morning conditions were perfect for the ripest collection of roadkill I have ever seen and smelled. I'm not sure what made all of the animals run out onto the pavement last night but the humidity was perfect for transmitting the odor of armadillo, possum, and other creatures. Yuck.

Now for the meat of the post: for years, I trained without a particularly scientific approach, except for trying to run, bike, or swim frequently and for nearly as long a distance as I would need to travel in the upcoming event. I would even say I was stubborn in this approach, since I read and spoke with many people using better and more scientific training methods. I think I accomplished a few neat things, but it wasn't until 9 months ago that I really applied some novel (to me) training techniques. Specifically, in December I got a fancy new GPS watch with a heart rate monitor. In testing out its features, I did a bunch of interval workouts, though certainly not an intentionally designed interval training program. The marathon I ran in February was a personal best, by quite a bit, beating an 8 year record for me. Not much else was different in my training, other than an injured knee and less overall training mileage. I was able to start at and maintain a faster pace and had a great race.

About six weeks ago a good friend suggested we ride an upcoming hilly road bike race in North Georgia (no, not the Tour de Georgia, but the Six Gap Century--really we haven't decided between that and the kiddie version, the "Three Gap Fifty", but I have a feeling we may say fuck it and just go for the gold). So, with little training time and few substantial hills around here, not to mention a busy work schedule, I decided upon a simple training schedule: one longer ride weekly, and one interval ride weekly, as well as some lifting, yoga, and light running. The interval rides were either a short Tabata protocol, longer power intervals on the indoor bike, or, once, 10 repeats on one of the better hills in town (Chestnut Hill). The amazing part is that today, on a short shakedown ride two days before the race, I can feel the difference in a big way. My average speed is faster, I want to ride in a higher gear, and I felt great--not really the result of tapering as I haven't been training "hard" enough for the concept to have meaning.

To some of my faithful readers this will come as no surprise, but to me it was almost a revelation: the last two training cycles produced good results with the introduction of a minimal amount of interval training. So yes, I may be the last convert, but here I am. We'll see how the ride goes, in the beautiful mountains of north Georgia and through the very mountains and gaps that loom large in my memory after many great hiking trips in that area. One in particular I remember because Jess and I had stopped there to rest and watched a sheet of driving rain pour down the mountainside, pass over us, and recede up the other side.

Finally, my knee has been quite good for the last three weeks. I have run once weekly and haven't felt pain during or afterward. It is getting stiff lately in the mornings, though, so if there is no lasting improvement after the steroid wears off, I guess I'll talk to the surgeon again...

More after the ride.

Knee update

I've put this in a separate post, so please skip it if you are not interested in my knee.

After 10 years of chronic intermittent knee pain that I attributed (incorrectly) to my IT band, about 8 months of worsening knee pain that I thought was in the joint but was very hard to pin down, and about 3 months since I've really run at all, I got an MRI after physical therapy did not help.  The MRI showed the suggestion of a minor medial meniscus tear and some cartilage wear just under it.  So last night I saw a PM&R doc at the orthopedic center who specializes in running medicine last night, expecting to talk about whether I need surgery for this minor tear.

Instead, after a thorough (and very instructive) history and exam, he told me very convincingly that my pain, both acute and chronic, is due to poor patellofemoral tracking, with the superolateral undersurface of the patella rubbing against the bottom of the tibia.  This is near but not identical to the where the IT band attaches, and it explains almost all of the knee pain I've ever had in this leg, from my first run-stopping episode in 2001, to the very localized stiffness during the first few hundred yards of a run that I've been feeling for the last five years or so, even to the vague pain radiating from the back of the patella to the back of my knee.  The abnormal MRI findings?  Purely incidental, as no amount of directed knee grinding could actually elicit pain.  What did elicit pain?  Him putting his finger in a certain spot and having me flex my quads.  That, my friends, elicited a lot of pain, and convinced me more than anything that he had figured out the problem.

So, basically this is a case of longstanding patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) or runner's knee.  The good news is that it can be treated with physical therapy, maybe a brace, maybe a joint injection, and very unlikely to require surgery.  I'm very confident that I will be back running soon enough.

Thoughts on running, injury, and the real challenge.

So it's been over two months since my most recent marathon, and I feel like my body has been betraying me.  My knee is perhaps a little better than it was during the peak of training, and I've even had a (single) nearly pain-free run.  But, on Saturday I was severely punished as I tried to keep up with some friends who were faster.  I have no problem working hard to keep up, but after about four miles (and a water break perfect for stiffening up) I fell quite far behind and my knee hurt a lot.   To top it all off, when I went over the handlebars on my mountain bike a few weeks ago, I tweaked my shoulder pretty well.   Even yoga yesterday morning put too much strain on the shoulders.   So, currently, not only can't I run, but I can't lift or do push-ups or pull-ups.  Luckily cycling seems ok, and stadiums steps aren't too bad.  That along with some core exercises and stretching (as well as non vinyasa-based yoga practices) are still within reach.  Still, given that my goal a few years ago was to develop better overall fitness, I have had more injuries over the past 16 months (neck, wrist, both knees, shoulder) than in the past 7.  In addition, I am about 8-10 pounds above what I consider my ideal weight, and with about half my fitness activities inaccessible due to injuries,  I am having a bit of trouble trimming off the fat.

Is this a case of my body "trying to tell me something," a way of expressing that despite some really good progress in developing overall fitness I need to find a way to acknowledge and work within my physical limitations?  Is this just age catching up?  Is this, as my physical therapist would say, just my poor flexibility and very tight iliotibial bands making their presence known?  Is this a somatic manifestation of emotional stress, which has certainly been higher recently?  What does this mean......?

I take some solace in the fact that even elite ultrarunners get injured, as I discovered by chance right before starting to write this post.  I've decided to take a full 30 days off running (meaning the soonest I will be "allowed" to run is May 25th, after some time concentrating on physical therapy, maintaining basic fitness, and reconnecting with my bikes.  More importantly I think this will be a nice opportunity to reset and build my training from the ground up.  When I start running again it will be nearly June, well into our beloved hot and humid season.  So, as I start the heat will limit me as much as my true "fitness," and my hope is that I will be able to rebuild with good form, improved strength and flexibility, and the incorporation of regular speedwork.

In the larger sense, though, I have to look at this 10 year running journey and ask "what if I simply can't run long distances regularly anymore," or even "what if I can't run at all anymore?"  A small thing, but the reality is that I think running saved me from a life of being overweight, out of shape, and probably less happy.  In summer 2001 I was 195 pounds and unfit; over the next year I dropped to 157 and ran my first marathon.  I have gotten into some cool stuff since then, and although I have had fun with triathlon, cycling, skiing, lifting, yoga, and other things, I have never forgotten my running roots (hence the title of this blog).  So, if I can't run anymore, can I still maintain a healthy life?  Can I still trim the fat -- both physical and metaphorical?  I think so, but the nagging fear especially with a leg injury is that I won't be able to keep it up.  I know this is a relatively minor injury, which will probably improve after PT (or worst case: MRI, surgery, then PT!), but the nagging fear is there to be dealt with.  That is the real challenge.  I can hop on the indoor bike with a DVD in as easily as going on a run, but I think some of the joy will be lost until I can put on shorts, lace up my shoes, and step out of the door and run down the road.

Trail of Payne and more

My March postings in this blog have been lacking,  though not for lack of desire or (at least mildly) interesting thoughts to share.  I've been busy, mostly with work.  Here is a run down of the month's activities so far:

GARDEN
We planted our family's Spring garden, and our first garden in Florida.  This is our most ambitious one yet, a 12 x 12 foot patch in a sunny part of our backyard.  I tilled the soil with hand tools, took out some roots, and added topsoil, peat moss, organic fertilizer (mostly chicken shit as far as my nose could tell) and some cow manure.  Our own compost will be a periodic addition once it processes a little bit more.  Cadien helped me dig the soil, and both Rowan and Cadien helped plant seedlings today - many herbs, tomatoes, cucumber, beans, blueberry, strawberry, watermelon, broccoli.  We'll add a few more things, and then see what grows well!

RACE
Jess and I ran a trail 10K - the "Trail of Payne" through Payne's prairie - yesterday.  It was a perfect morning, about 60 degrees, and a nice trail.  It was really nice to run a race with no pressure or expectations - in fact we ran together for four miles and then I split off for a couple.  At the finish we ran into people from several areas of our life - work, church, running friends, and other acquaintances.  Brunch afterwards was gut-busting, but fun.

TONY
Jess has started P90X and I am doing it with her, as my knee and work schedule permits.  Maybe this will be the push I need to start getting up early to exercise before work!  (Of course when I did P90X two years ago it was supposed to do the same thing, but I just ended up doing a lot of the workouts in the evening!)  Burpee war has also started again - an Ides of March tradition.

KNEE
Still painful but recovering.  Definitely improved on this recent trail race versus trail runs a few months ago but still quite painful.  Hauling 50 pound bags of soil didn't help.  I'll give it another month or so and perhaps see someone.

DIET?
My weight has crept up to about 10 pounds over my "race weight" - the highest it's been in a long time and probably a good signal to focus on healthful eating.  A good friend of mine fasts once a week but I'm not sure this would work for me.  Just more attention to both quality and quantity.

That was the scattered update.  Life is good.

Back in the game

Today: Core, pullups, and back - calisthenic workout

Fun recovery workout in sunny 60 degree weather with a breeze!


Yesterday: 22 mile run (3:37)

This was a great run for me.  The time and pace were much slower than I was targeting when I created my training plan months ago - rather than shooting for a PR in the upcoming marathon I will have to struggle to bring it in under 4 hours -- but in light of my trick knee and the painful last long run I had, it was a blazing success.  (And now, ladies and gentlemen, the reprisal of "Jeremy's injury blog").   As you may know, for the last three weeks I've been trying to let my knee heal from the mysterious acute-on-chronic intraarticular injury that has ranged from annoyance to show-stopper.  This has probably been my most successful such "forced rest" period ever, both in execution and in result.  I limited workouts to yoga, upper body lifting, and fairly light cycling, running only once early this week to test out how things were going.  So in three weeks I've run exactly once.  I also took a good anti-inflammatory course of ibuprofen, and have been icing at least once daily.

So, yesterday I ran with a group of about six people whose pace was a bit slower than mine but who made great company.  The weather was in the mid 40s, and as the sun rose the temperature stayed cool, making for ideal long-run conditions.  I ran a mile or so to the park where we started (good old Westside park!), then about 10 miles with the group, 3 miles with a smaller subset of the group, and then 8 miles on my own.  Ever since Thanksgiving I've really enjoyed the format where I run part of a long run with a group, and then more on my own.  With this group and the outstanding conditions, the first half of this run felt like an easy and carefree stroll through the park.  There is nothing like good conversation on a run, especially when it involves a friendly but vigorous debate -- I admit that I took the bait and jumped in on this one.  Although my knee hurt on the downhills, for most of the first fifteen miles I didn't feel it at all, and it didn't really hurt until the last two or three miles of the whole run.

The second, alone, part of the run was equally nice, complete with a nice loop, cool weather, and a fruitless search for water at an elementary school.  I guess they have to keep a fence around the whole school these days, but it sure isn't good for us runners...  During the last few miles I took a loop around the neighborhood I grew up in, and I thought about the story of each house and the family that inhabited it.  I have to admit that, physically, I felt really good for the vast majority of this run.  The last few miles required a little pushing and my knee did ache, but this is familiar territory.  Beyond sheer good luck, I hope this has something to do with the base-building I did back in October and November.

The really remarkable part of the run was the mental calm, and the lack of struggle.  Despite a multi-loop run which passed nearly by my house three times (a setup for early bail-out), I didn't once think of stopping, walking, shortening the run, or not doing the upcoming race.  These thoughts are the norm for me in any run longer than 15 miles or so (and many runs shorter than that!), and part of the satisfaction and challenge of running is dealing with them and continuing.  If I were to try and explain why this one was different, I suppose I could come up with a few concrete things:  a virtual taper because I was resting my knee, careful attention to nutrition/hydration/salt, starting the run with friends, perfect weather.  But, I won't try to over-explain, and will count this as one of my favorite long runs in recent memory.  The pace was slow (and looking over my splits I really can't blame this on the group I ran with!), but it felt so good.

The happy day-after note is that my knee still feels good.  Good is, of course, a relative term, but I think it is getting better regardless of what I do, and I am looking forward to a good marathon.

--

On a side note, I have to mention that I have been struggling quite a lot with not only my professional direction but the whole notion of who I am, how to live my life, and how to truly place my family first.  I suppose we all entertain thoughts and doubts periodically, but this has been a time of particular up-and-down emotion.  I have to wonder how this intersects with running and training, considering that it came to a head shortly after a very nice holiday break (that culminated in a challenging long run) followed by two weeks of fairly hard work with absolutely no running.   There is always something of a let-down after a good race or even long training run, but the effect was amplified many times by life and emotional substrate.  Food for thought.

Long rambling post / feelin' great

Tuesday, December 21:
One hour of yoga outdoors in the warm sun.

    I think this is how yoga was meant to be practiced.


Wednesday, December 22:
Running speed intervals (warmup,  4 reps x 3 min high effort with 3 min easy, cooldown - total 4.5 miles),  using the fancy new GPS/HR watch as well as new lighter running shoes ("minimalist").

    This was a great run, with an interesting realization -- that I can run much faster than I thought at just above my lactate threshold.  This run set me off on a quest to understand and learn more about heart rate-based training - seeking advice from friends (see The Blog of Sean), and checking out a whole bunch of books out from the library.  Some, such as Tim Noakes Lore of Running, try to debunk the notion of a lactate "threshold," while others (such as Friel's Triathlete's Training Bible) give methods of calculating it.  Regardless, the useful concept seems to be identifying the highest effort or heart rate that is sustainable for 20-60 minutes (depending on level of training).  It is an ephemeral concept and a slippery number to pin down, as its noninvasive measurement depends on subjectively recognizing the point JUST BEFORE WHICH you are huffing and puffing and working so hard you will have to slow down in a few minutes.  It's nice in a way to tune in to your body and situational awareness so you recognize the state of being and clues to reaching "threshold" before you actually get there.  Alternately, you pin it to heart rate (though varies by exercise modality) and pay attention to the number.  Or both.

   So, I am off to incorporate some heart rate concepts into my training.  Just as interestingly, while at the library I discovered some very cool books on training, endurance racing, and barefoot running.  Expect quasi-reviews once they are read.


Thursday, December 23:
Rest day


Friday, December 24:
Run 12 miles, 1:51 (~9:15 pace)

   This was meant to be an 18 mile run - the first 12 with friends and the last 6 alone, but I stopped after the first segment because my knee hurt.  I realize that since I started this blog a year ago there have been only two or three months where injury didn't play prominently into my training (or posting):  January, and August-September.  My injuries from last winter (neck, left wrist, and left knee) have more or less healed up, although I still favor the ulnar side of the wrist during lifting.  A few months ago I twisted my right knee somehow, so that in combination with being somewhat tight to begin with, it has been bothering me on uphills and downhills.  (Fortunately this is an atypical year for me.  I attribute the injuries to two things: not enough cycling anymore, and incorporating new workout modalities in 2009-2010).  In any case, I ended this one early to avoid the all-too-familiar injury-reinjury cycle as well as the on-again off-again training that led to poor marathon performance in May.  My plan was to re-evaluate my commitment to the marathon and potentially scale back if the knee didn't recover soon.  On the plus side, this run was easy for me and I didn't feel tired at the end.  I missed out on the chance to push the last 6 miles at my own pace, but have completed enough long runs to not worry too much about it.

   On the nutrition front, we enjoyed a traditional Italian seafood dinner with shrimp, squid soup, red snapper, and anchovy pasta.  Aside from the pasta, this was the closest thing to a "Paleo" meal that I've had.  I have to admit it was a nice meal that didn't leave me unpleasantly stuffed afterwards.

Saturday, December  25:
One hour of yoga

   This was a new workout that emphasized slow, static movements with a focus on forward bends.  Not what I was expecting, but nice.

   Christmas has always been a very family-oriented time for me (not that this is unique!).  We enjoyed the true blessings of our family - in our own house in the morning, and my parents' house in the evening.  It was amazing to bring our own children to a dinner with people with whom we have been having dinner since I was only two years older than my oldest child.  It also brought an especially interesting perspective to the passage of time, and aging, to see an old childhood friend that I hadn't seen in fifteen years!  For me, that is a long time.  The reality is that I am a lucky man, with an incredible wife, three healthy and happy children, a brother as well as many siblings by marriage, and three sets of parents that I love.   The only downside to Christmas is in the overconsumption, in the form of a literal mountain of presents.  To reveal my own inconsistency, I enjoy giving and receiving presents, but as a family we seem unable to moderate!


Sunday, December 26:
Resistance training (pullups, pushups, biceps):
  Repeat x 6 sets:
    8 x 1 pullup and 2 pushups with bars
    bicep DB (1 & 4: standing curl; 2 & 5: concentration curl; 3 & 6: static curl)
  Bonus: 5 pullups, 10 pushups, bicep DB strip set

   This was a really fun workout, with good results in terms of soreness!  I have no idea if it is more effective to extend the number of pullups by doing many small sets vs. several moderate sets, but I certainly reached near-fatigue and got a good workout.


Monday, December 27:
Run to stadium (2.5 miles)
Stadiums (x10) with 5x10 pushups between

   This has become a nice weekly routine with a good friend of mine.  The run was really nice too, as I found myself cruising along at about an 8 minute per mile pace -- a pace that was previously my top-shape cruising speed (we're talking 8 years ago) but has eluded me for quite some time.  The way I felt during this quick warm up run made me think (hope?) that this pace is somehow intrinsic, and I just haven't been able to access it.  Perhaps with more speed training, mileage, and some luck with regards to injury I will attain or surpass this as a sustainable pace once more.  First things first, though, as I have a ways to go to get there.  Currently I think my own personal sustainable pace is closer to 8:55, but I haven't done a long run alone in quite a while to put this to the test.  Hmm.

   My knee barely hurt during the run or the stadiums, so my thoughts drifted back to the marathon after this run and workout.


Tuesday, December 28:
One hour of yoga (vigorous).

   Adding yoga to my training and life has been tremendous.  I started this in the fall of 2009 through p90x, and kept up with the yoga -- for a while nearly daily, now when I can manage and far less often than I would like.    This is the closest  to meditation and expansion of awareness I have come in years.   My core is stronger than ever, and my flexibility and balance are improving.  Yoga, as well as increased resistance training/lifting, are going to be lifelong changes.

Today (Wednesday, December 28th):

8 mile run - relaxed and hilly (for Gainesville)

   Ideal weather and conditions.  This was a test run in many ways.  If my knee hurt, I was planning on giving up on the marathon.  If not, I would commit and do it.  Well, it felt ok (not perfect), and I felt great after this run, so I am going to sign up for the race immediately after this overly lengthy blog post.  To my brother-in-law who is training away (we'll call him "Yosef"), I will see you there, my friend.  To my friend with whom I am scheming about future ultramarathons, let us make the the plans and enter the arena.

COMING SOON:

Future fitness goals and New Year's resolutions.

Stay tuned for the first anniversary post of  B.D.J. Runs.