Venture to Walk and Don't Run

After much convincing on my part, I finally got Ileana to come with me and join our running group. She is not a runner. Not yet, anyway. No walkers showed up this morning, so I stayed behind and walked with her. Frankly, I don't know why I did this. She has never wanted to be in shape, and hasn't even used her gym membership once this year. I guess I am just trying to see if we are compatible at ANYTHING. And I did not want to give her a reason to complain about yet another thing. Of course, being on the "injured reserve" list didn't hurt either, as walking turned out to be much better for me than even a light jog.

The walk was fast and brisk, but the impact was minimal, so therefore, it turned out to be a good day. We went a little over 3 miles, and got a good aerobic workout on this nice, sunny day. Knowing how far the members were going to run, and how long it would take for them to come back to the meeting place, we turned back and almost ran into them blocks from the finish.
There she met Brenda and Carol, Andy (short for Andrea), Tom, Marguerite (from at the beginning of the run), Lori who wizzed by us in Forest Park, Bonnie, and Jack, who was dressed in shorts and a tank top!!!!

Tomorrow begins my gym regimen. My doctor told me that I should not run for about a month. Okay, I'll listen. Tomorrow night, I'll be at the gym. And starting Tuesday it will be lunch and dinner. I might not be able to run, but I will do stretching exercises to strengthen my calf muscles (which the doctor also said). I know I'm sounding a bit angry (and really it's towards myself for not hearing my body better), but I will be damned if I remain sedentary. I am currently 159.8 right now, and I need to get stronger too. Walking in the pool, hamstring curls, abs, torso rotators, bench press, elliptical, you name it. I am going to be in the best shape of my life by the time my Long Island Half Marathon rolls around. There is NOTHING that I am going to let interfere in the way of my training.

Last night, I bought a 2 month supply of Biotin to help metabolise carbs, protein and fat. I also started taking Viactiv Calcium supplements twice daily. I think they were made for women, but what the hell, they taste great. Then, of all the vitamins I've seen, the most potent ones are the Centrum Silver Chewables. And between that and my potassium supplements, I should be well loaded for now.

Sleeping. I've been averaging 6.5 hours of sleep per night. That's going to change. Starting tonight, 8 hours and not a REM-sleeping second less.

"Ain't no stopping us now" is playing as I write this. I'm pumped!

RICE = Rest Icing Compression Elevation. For treatment of my injury.
ELMO = Eat Less More Often. For better metabolism, and keeping weight gain off.
ALEX = Achieving Lustful EXcellence. (Okay, I made that one up...Doh!)

Regarding RICE, here's an article taking from the sportsmedicine website:

The R.I.C.E. Method of Acute Injury Treatment Includes:
Rest: Resting is
important immediately after injury for two reasons. First, rest is vital to
protect the injured muscle, tendon, ligament or other tissue from further
injury. Second, your body needs to rest so it has the energy it needs to heal
itself most effectively.
Ice: Use ice bags, cold packs or even a bag of
frozen peas wrapped in a thin towel to provide cold to the injured area. Cold
can provide short-term pain relief. It also limits swelling by reducing blood
flow to the injured area. Keep in mind, though, that you should never leave ice
on an injury for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. Longer exposure can damage
your skin. The best rule is to apply cold compresses for 15 minutes and then
leave them off for at least 20 minutes. (Read The Proper
Use of ICE).
Compression: Compression limits swelling, which slows down
healing. Some people notice pain relief from compression as well. An easy way to
compress the area of the injury is to wrap an ACE bandage over it. If you feel
throbbing, or if the wrap just feels too tight, remove the bandage and re-wrap
the area so the bandage is a little looser.
Elevation: Elevating an injury
reduces swelling. It's most effective when the injured area is raised above the
level of the heart. For example, if you injure an ankle, try lying on your bed
with your foot propped on one or two pillows.
After a day or two of
R.I.C.E., many sprains, strains or other injuries will begin to heal. But if
your pain or swelling does not decrease after 48 hours, make an appointment to
see your primary care physician or go to the emergency room, depending upon the
severity of your symptoms.
Once the healing process has begun, very light
massage may improve the function of forming scar tissue, cut healing time and
reduce the possibility of injury recurrence.
Gentle stretching can be begun
once all swelling has subsided. Try to work the entire range of motion of the
injured joint or muscle, but be extremely careful not to force a stretch, or you
risk re-injury to the area. Keep in mind that a stretch should never cause pain.
For proper stretching technique, review Flexibility
Exercises.
Heat may be helpful once the injury moves out of the acute
phase and swelling and bleeding has stopped. Moist heat will increase blood
supply to the damaged area and promote healing.
Finally, after the injury
has healed, strengthening exercises can be begun. Start with easy weights and
use good form. See Strengthening
Exercises.

I read an article last night about the potential ill effects that can be caused by breathing in the fumes from a bag of microwave popped buttered popcorn. Apparently studies show that diacetyl, a naturally occurring element in burning butter, is sprayed in a flourocarbon base onto the inside lining of the plastic coating of the popcorn bag. Advice? STAY AWAY FROM ANYTHING INVOLVING PLASTIC AND MICROWAVES! According to the study, people have come down with "popcorn" lung. Inflamed bronchial tubes, shortness of breath, and even cancer. Nasty stuff. Staw away from it. Play it safe, and just go for the air-popped popcorn. I used to eat microwave buttery popcorn for many years, until a couple of years ago. God help me.

The NYRR club announced that due to "concerns from the Brooklyn community" the Brooklyn Half Marathon is being pushed back from Saturday, April 26th to Saturday May 3rd (Good catch, DebbieJRT !!!!). So, if someone had registered to run in that race, plus the Long Island Half Marathon on Sunday, May 4th, then you are essentially looking at a marathon's worth of running that weekend. Truthfully, it is something that I would have definitely tried, prior to this injury. At this point, it will be lucky if I could do one, let alone both. I am registered for the LI Marathon (which I will be downscaling to a half), so it looks like I'll be missing another Grand Prix this year....Oh Well.....