Blech

Well, after last night's first ever night time tennis at Wimbledon, I slept in this morning and didn't exercise.. again. Still having trouble walking too. And had a tooth break off last night. Suboptimal in many respects. Meh.

Peace. ... Steve

Not sure

My calf muscles don't seem to be cramped anymore.... but it still hurts pretty seriously whenever I push off the ball of my left foot. I'm thinking I may have partially torn the muscle from the Achilles tendon. Looks like it will be a while healing.

But the elliptical works OK as long as I keep pressure off the ball of my foot, and just drive my heel downward. So still getting a reasonable level of exercise, thankfully.

Peace. ... Steve

Another way?

Maybe I'm going about this all wrong! According to this NYT article, I could get the same results by doing brief, very intense stints of exercise for 20-30 seconds, 4-6 times in a row, three times a week. Nah. I'd be too slack on the "intense part". Plus it'd probably give me a coronary. Keep on keepin' on. Wish my calf would heal though. Someone else was on the elliptical this morning (there is but one at the hotel), so I was relegated to the stationary bike. I hate the stationary bike. Meh.

Peace. ... Steve

Making do

Calf muscle still stays right on the edge of cramping and gets worse the more I walk. But fortunately it doesn't seem to be affected by use of the elliptical exercise machine, so that's been my alternative for the last couple of days. Boring, but it's something.

Peace. ... Steve

Setback

Woke up this morning and felt pretty good, so decided to walk to Hyde Park and then go 2/2 once there. By the time I got to Hyde Park, the calf was feeling very tight, but I proceeded with my plan to jog anyway. And it didn't feel bad at all as long as I was jogging. But the walk back to the hotel was tough, just hobbling the last half mile or so. Walking to AELTC from Southfields, it kept hurting more and more. Took forever to get to the venue. So, I will take it easy for a few days and hopefully it will heal. I just can't seem to find a way to stretch out the cramping muscles.

Peace. ... Steve

Holding pattern

Some progress.. walking fairly comfortably. Used a muscle relaxer yesterday which eased the tightness but had trouble staying awake most of the day, so won't do that again except overnight. Will try to spend some time in the hot tub tonight, and see if I can't get in some exercise tomorrow morning. We shall see.

Peace. ... Steve

Still sidelined

Leg cramps perist. Using ibuprofen to try to ameliorate the cramping, and overnight used Flexeril as well. Cramping is less severe as a result, but still lurks.. feels like it is ready to seize up at any moment. And the Flexeril seems to make it hard for me to concentrate at work. C'est la vie. Hopefully it will ease before long.

I did walk, slowly, from the venue to Wimbledon village for dinner last evening and thence to Wimbledon station (1.4 miles total). And walked in from Southfields station this morning. As long as I take it very easy and don't push off with my left foot, the cramping doesn't quite fire. So that's something.

Peace. .. Steve

A hitch in my git

Major bummer. We were walking from AELTC to the Southfields tube station last evening when my left calf muscles started cramping. Couldn't stretch them out enough to help, and they just kept getting tighter. Hobbled the rest of the way, took some ibuprofen. Got up early to exercise before work, but muscles siezed up walking from the bed to the bathroom. Looks like this is going to take a while. Sigh.

Apparently cholesterol lowering meds can increase propensity toward cramps, so may have to investigate that. And increase consumption of potassium and magnesium as well. We shall see.

Peace. ... Steve

Lollygagging

Slept until 7:00 this morning.. too late to exercise and still be ready to head to Wimbledon at 9:00. Found that it's about 0.8 mile from hotel to Hyde Park, not as close as I'd thought. But at least a couple miles worth of walking both yesterday and today. Not terribly aerobic, but activity nonetheless. Sigh.

Peace. ... Steve

One last time...

...before flying out. Actually, I'm thinking that some cooler weather may very much encourage me to persist while away from home. Outlook for the next 10 days suggests a welcome change of pace from NC summer.

The two minute segments of jogging seemed to be a bit easier today v yesterday but I think that was mostly because I stayed at a very slow pace.

Well, no progress yet on the weigh-in front -- still stuck at 224. Yeah, I know, I need to take up that ELF diet. That part is harder than getting more exercise.

Peace. ... Steve

Run Walk Lunch

Another 2/2 outing.. and I am definitely ready to walk after two minutes of jogging. I may just attempt to maintain at that level for the first week in London. Assuming circumstances are such that I exercise at all. But an outstanding BLOT for lunch afterwords! Mmmm. Along with three glasses of water and a 12 oz soda. I do sweat profusely.

Peace. ... Steve

Two by two

So today was the first day at 2/2 - all the way up to running (jogging) 50% of the time! Ooooh. Was definitely hard work though.. and mid-80s muggy conditions took their toll. Not a lot of fun. But Kat joined me, which was nice, though she quickly got to the point that she needed to run farther and faster than her father. Good for her. Still some work to do to lay down that good aerobic base, much less build on it.

Leaving Saturday for 24 days in SW19. Quite likely to be a substantial setback fitness wise. Great other than that though!

Peace. ... Steve

Sneaking one in

Took a longish lunch break and used it to hit the trail, thinking that the heat index at lunch wouldn't be as high as the heat index in the evening. But with dew point at 70F, it was still a very sultry experience. After a weekend of church and family dinners I was feeling loggy.. it was much more of a struggle than the last couple excursions. Time now to amp it up to the next level... we'll see how that goes.

Peace. ... Steve

Two successive days

Today is the first time I've done run/walk two days in a row. No biggie (but then I'm still doing more walking than running). Nice day for a circuit around the lake in Apex Community Park. Between that, a couple hours of yard work, grandkids spending the evening here... I'm likely to savor the joys of a lie-in tomorrow morning.

I'd probably be making more progress in the waistline war if I didn't do things like treating myself to a Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat when I got back home. On the other hand, I would have had that Dog even if I hadn't circled the lake.

Peace. ... Steve

Keepin' on

Went for a 2/3 run/walk between showers. Part of my usual trail was too muddy, so did a double traverse of the usable part of the greenway. After an inch of rain in the past 24 hrs, the air was really sticky but fortunately not too warm (72F) so it was a fairly comfortable experience. And my capacity does seem to be coming along nicely, which is encouraging. I haven't been sure what to expect at my age. I was going to use the Polar HR monitor, but its battery is dead. Maybe next time.

Peace. ... Steve

So far so good

Well, the 2R/3W went better than I had feared. By the third run segment, I was jogging quite a bit slower than usual and I was puffing hard on the last (sixth) leg. Should probably wear the Polar heart monitor next time. Using the favored HRmax = 205.8 − (0.685 × age) formula (per Wikipedia) my HRmax = 166. I feel like I was probably pretty close to that today.

Anyway, my legs and shins hurt less today than on Monday, so that was a welcome surprise.

Peace. ... Steve

Graduation

Had a great weekend in Blacksburg celebrating Tracy's graduation from the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine, then sending Tracy and Kat off to Las Vegas where Tracy will spend three years as a resident working on Nellis AFB. Not so great from a dietary perspective, of course. Lost a bit of ground in the waistline war. But I did actually get off my duff for 46 minutes of run/walk (1 min/3 min), so that was good.

Tomorrow I ramp up to 2 min/3 min. Not sure how that will go, as I am really blowing pretty hard after the run part of 1 min/3 min. We'll see. So far so good though!

Peace. ... Steve