Injuries are Annoying

I think I can safely say that I've become a runner. No - that gives the impression that I move fast, and I don't. Maybe I can safely say that I'm a jogger? Still, no - "jogging" has a connotation of moving swiftly . . . I can safely say that I'm a meanderer? I move about. I think, by the definition of the word "run", when it comes to speed-walking, that I'm actually running as there are times that both of my feet are not touching the ground (a qualifier for disqualification in a speedwalking competition if my "watching the Olympics while eating potato chips" education means anything).

Yes, I can safely say that I've become a meanderer, though my body tells me that I'm "running" during these meandering sessions (turns out that working out and writing really aren't any different for me). But, qualifying whatever the hell I'm doing isn't the purpose of this post (there's a purpose?). I hate injuries.

A few weeks ago, I made my first bicycle commute into the office. My schedule these days is a bit more complex than it was at one point -- I have symphony rehearsals on Mondays, teach bass lessons on Tuesdays, have band practice on Wednesdays . . . oh, and I have an infant son with a newborn daughter expected to join us before the summer really turns up the heat. So, I haven't gotten to bike into work much -- and the one fateful May Thursday was awesome. While my times were truly horrendous, it was just great to get biking again -- and I told myself that it was going to become a weekly occurrence. Then Friday hit. I went for a walk around the office -- wasn't really paying attention & stepped funny on the sidewalk. My left ankle "popped", but I kept on going with some discomfort.

That night, I got home, took off my shoe, and said "oh, dear", as my ankle was quite swollen (though not entirely painful, yet). The next day, I could barely walk, and I could barely walk on the damn joint for almost 2 weeks. Just as I was starting to hit my stride with my workout regimen, getting to enjoy the old (cycling) and the new (meandering), I had to put the brakes on.

The ankle took forever to heal - after a week, I made myself go to the doctor, just to ensure that there wasn't something seriously wrong (it never felt too bad, but a full week without any recognizable improvement lead me to worry). After some poking & prodding, I had the doctor stumped. See, I could walk on it, which generally means that nothing was broken. But, it was really, really swollen, and the epicenter of the pain said "this might be a bone issue". I mean, the doctor actually pulled out a plastic model of the foot bone structure - not to demonstrate what I had done to myself, but to try to figure out what was done. After some x-rays, it was confirmed that there wasn't anything really wrong - I was just being a baby with a really swollen joint. The final diagnosis is that I sprained the joint, but sprained it in an area that nobody ever sprains their ankle.

So, I went several weeks with barely working out. I did start a new rule -- as I've been overcome with conference calls at work, and I close my door for every conference call (so as to not irritate anybody in hailing distance to my office), I force myself to do pushups when I close and then open my office door. I also cleaned off the cat stuff from my weight bench & started lifting a bit -- I was simply going stir-crazy without being able to do much in the way of aerobic exercise.

Well, the ankle swelling is nearly gone now. Every now & then, I'll notice a little twinge, and apparently I still have a bit of a limp, though I've gotten back into running. I managed four miles on Friday after spending much of the day driving, four more on Sunday before heading out for an all-afternoon band practice, and then four more this morning before work. No real complaints (aside from a bit of soreness) from the joint, so I don't think I'm doing too much harm.

So, the rest of this week will hopefully see me fully back on track with the plan, though the dog-walking has already started in full-force once again. Eating, I've actually been pretty good throughout the injury recovery -- fruit + yogurt for breakfasts, salads or leftovers for lunch, snacks of fruit throughout the day. As this is national "bike to work week", I am hoping for three commutes (Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday - which is "bike to work day").

Running

So, I've been running more & more, and I'm afraid to admit that I'm kind-of enjoying myself. What used to be "get out the door, force myself through a mile, walk a bit until I could push myself more, get through those three miles come hell or high water" is really turning into a pretty fun time. Part of it is simply my body getting used to running, methinks.

Things actually started during a run not too long ago. I had finished listening to Born to Run: A hidden tribe, superathletes, and the greatest race the world has never seen, which is just an incredible book, breaking down some of the secrets of the Tarahumara, an indigenous people of Mexico who run these great, great distances. The author (Christopher McDougall) does a great, great job breaking down the stories of individual events into mini-stories, all culminating in a race set up by a gringo living with the Tarahumara which happened to involve some of the greatest ultra-distance runners in the world.

I can go on & on & on about the book, but I'm going to stick with one story -- one of the runners, who comes across as quite annoying, runs near barefoot. See, he really enjoyed running, but had back pain whenever he went a great distance, so he ordered truly expensive running shoes, only to have his back scream in pain after a relatively short run. He took off said shoes and ran home barefoot without any back pain. After some research, he really thinks that running shoes do more damage than good.

I don't know about harm done by running shoes, but I was on one of those chore runs and hit a ton of back pain after the first mile (this could be because I'm a fat man running around an asphalt track who didn't adequately stretch before heading out). Rather than kick it in, I kicked off my shoes with the plan of getting an additional .7 miles (the length of this track). Only, after the first lap, I was feeling pretty good, and proceeded to run for another 8 laps . . . at the end, I was still feeling good. See, this track is .7 miles in length, around a community park -- I had already done a lap in my shoes to see that there weren't any surprises around, so I just continued at a slow pace, running on the grass. Honestly, I felt like a kid.

I haven't gone barefoot since then, but I've been out in my Keens, which offer very little padding - and I've yet to be truly fatigued. Now, I'm not running fast (my mile times range between 9:00 and 10:00), but I'm enjoying myself . . . kick my music up and just go. It's kind of cool.

The 5k is this Sunday -- we'll see if longer distances come forth in the future.

My history with running

If you know me, you know that I'm a bit tall. If you've known me since I was little, you know that "little" is a relative term. A substitute threw me out of class in 4th grade because she thought a high school student was having a laugh. Why am I telling you this? Well, I've always been tall, and with that comes odd injuries and very long legs.

In 6th/7th grades, I was able to run long distances (for a 6th/7th grader) with ease. My legs, being quite a bit longer than most normal-sized kids' legs, simply took me further with each stride. I certainly wasn't in better shape than any of the other kids - I just was able to do more with the same amount of effort. Of course, when 7th grade turned to 8th grade, everybody started catching up to me (I'm still tall, just not freakishly tall as I may have once been considered). Nowhere was this more detrimental to my athletic well-being than the sport of basketball, where I went from the sure-rebounder who got all of the "put back points" to being just another kid on the court. But, I digress . . . having to put actual effort into being faster than somebody was not very attractive to me - and I stopped running almost completely.

So, fast forward through the years -- in high school I played some basketball and threw stuff for the track team, and tore my ACL. College saw me put on a ton of weight, as drinking lots of beer with little exercise is wont to do. Senior year, I started working out & eating healthier, and actually lost some weight -- funny how that works.

After college, I was living on my own for awhile . . . um, yeah, that was fun. At one point I joined a gym and immediately proceeded to sprain my ankle. Well, I'm not really sure what I did -- I stepped out of bed & landed funny -- essentially, I stepped on my own foot, with only one leg. Anyway, without further describing the limits of my clumsiness¹, the gym membership didn't last long. Then I met Duffy - and it was wonderful . . . I had just bought a townhouse, she moved in, and we instituted the "candy drawer", which was just that -- a drawer full of candy that we'd eat whenever we felt like it. We'd also buy those great big pretzel barrels filled with snackfoods -- and go through them a bunch.

So, my general health sucked, and then I started working out & eating this crazy diet -- I didn't really have a plan, just sweat as much as I could & eat as little as I could in order to comfortably get through the day. It worked that time, though, and I looked good for my wedding pictures. Without a plan, though, it was destined to fail, and it did as soon as I no longer had a goal in mind.

As soon as the weather got warm after my wedding, I tried running, and just never got into it. Obviously, I discovered cycling somewhere in here, but even when I tried running (6 or 7 times in the past 3 years, I've tried running), it didn't do it for me.

Then my friend Megan posted this silly Facebook status asking who would run a 5k with her -- 5k is three miles, which I can do, literally, without breaking a sweat on the bike. So I said that I'd join her . . . and then started with the "Couch to 5k" program. Thus far, I'm digging the program -- as opposed to every other time that I've tried running, the program doesn't expect the world from you right out of the bat -- warm up walk, and then running in increasing increments. The goal is to get you from "nothing" (couch) to running a 5k within 9 weeks. I'm only two weeks in right now, and am still walking more than I'm running, but I feel myself getting stronger in my strides -- by the end of the second "run" portion, I don't feel the need to head back to walking (though I do it, just for fear of burning out). So far, this gets my highest endorsement . . . though I know week three seems to be the weed-out week, so we'll see after that.

The 5k we're running will be the Susan G. Komen "Race for the cure" on April 25. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please do so here.

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¹There are no limits to my clumsiness.

Relaunch

I'm relaunching this blog -- no longer cycling only (it's not like I was actually posting to it previously, so I'm not sure why I need to state why). I just want a forum where I can hold myself accountable for my strives to make myself healthy. I've noticed little things: I might be slightly winded after walking up 3-4 flights of stairs, I've been resetting my alarm clock more & more when it goes off in the morning, I've been allowing myself a coffee roll anytime I refill my gas tank (sometimes stopping at a Sheetz or Turkey Hill when my tank is 7/8 full).

Diet Plan

I'm not doing anything like Weight Watchers. At it's core, I actually really like the Weight Watchers approach (I know many in the HAES community (and I count myself among the HAES supporters) don't think it's a good program -- but I think anything that makes you think about the food you're putting into your system is a good thing -- sure, I think there are downsides by selling processed foods & I'd love to see them concentrate less on "weight" -- but it's an easy to follow program that I believe can do anybody a lot of good if you make sure that the "points" you're eating aren't empty and you don't ever weigh yourself), primarily because I don't give a shit about my weight. If I weigh 350 pounds, so be it, as long as I can do the things I enjoy doing (walking the dogs, cycling, and I'm sure that will include playing baseball/basketball with my children once they're actually able to play) without having to take a break every few minutes.

My plan for eating is going to be quite simple:

• As much fruit for breakfast as I want. For the most part, I'll go with in-season fresh fruit -- I love it, and to quote a line from The Biggest Loser (a show that I'm quite ashamed of myself for because I started watching it), nobody ever became obese from eating fruit & vegetables. If fresh fruit is prohibitively expensive, I'll allow applesauce. But, for the most part: citrus in the winter; berries/cantaloupe in the spring; peaches/plums/berries/watermelon in the summer; apples/pears in the fall; grapes/bananas all year long.
• Reasonable lunches (one of the biggies at the office -- if I'm having a crappy day, I tend to take it out on my stomach): vegetables (carrots, tomatoes, celery, broccoli, peppers, cucumber) with hummus, guacamole, tuna salad, peanut butter, cheese, soup, or anything else that isn't overly processed. Here, I'll think about my portions, but I won't limit. When it's truly nice out, and I've biked to work, I'll allow myself whatever I'd like from wherever I want -- as it's a 2 mile walk to the closest restaurants (that's after biking the 20 miles to work).
• Fruit/vegetable snacks throughout the day as needed.
• Keep gum at my desk if I realize that I'm dealing with oral fixation but am not hungry
• However dinner plays out, it plays out. I'll be conscious of what I'm eating -- trying to limit fats & excessive portions, always piling on veggies when possible.

My hope is that the morning fruit will curb most all of my sugar cravings, and some discipline at the office will keep me from snacking on "snackfoods" throughout the day (goldfish crackers have been my weakness thus far this year). I do not want to get into the eating plan I was in prior to my wedding (see details here). I did really, really well on that plan -- but once I deviated from it in the slightest, I had a really hard time righting the ship. My goal for the office - fruit & veggies in abundance . . . all other options should be "mostly healthy" and in moderation.

Workout Plan

Those of you who know me know that I'm not exactly a n00b to working out. I bicycle. I bicycle a lot. On a good week, I'll log somewhere between 200 & 300 miles on the open road. On a really good week, that number climbs to 500 miles. But, I'm not sure I'll be able to keep that up with an infant in the house & newborn on the way. So my plan here is simple: some measurable physical activity each & every day. Walk the dogs every morning, except when the weather says that it's not possible (don't yell at me for not walking the dogs when the weather is crappy, they want to walk in the rain & snow even less than I do). Bicycle to/from work when it's feasible. Alternate running & spinning for days that it's not . . . and for those days when my body continues to say "you need more sleep", allow the dog walking to suffice. I know that leaves open those days when my body protests & it's raining out, but I'll navigate that tripwire when the time comes.

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So, welcome to the blog. Hopefully, I'll keep this running.

Been Awhile

So it's been awhile -- I've been biking a whole lot - just not blogging about it at all, which is kind of a shame, as I've enjoyed blogging - it's just that what started as a tool to keep me motivated turned out to be a tool for a task that didn't need to be done. Fortunately, I've been quite self-motivated, and hence, no blogging necessary.

That said, I rode the Three Creek Century ride yesterday & thought I'd share the details.

The 100 mile ride started in Carlisle, and was three loops of 50, 25, and 25 miles, meandering around the Conodoguinet, Yellow Breeches, and Big Spring creeks at 7AM -- when it was 37°F (that's less than 3°C if I have any followers across the pond). Yet, as the anticipated high of the day was 80°F (27°C for my friends across the pond), I went out in my normal riding gear (cycling shorts (well, to be honest, I wear "bib shorts" which are shorts that have two shoulder straps that make you look like a wrestler from the 80's -- Duffy thinks these look funny), short-sleeved jersey, gloves that didn't cover my fingertips). After riding the 3 miles to the start, I was thinking that I may have made a mistake.

Fortunately, there was a very, very short registration line (I literally walked up, said "I'm John Batzer" and then left to ride), so there wasn't too much time for my muscles to get cold - and that first 50 mile loop started out with a mid-grade climb, so I got the beginnings of a sweat going. Throughout the first 50 miles, I kept the pace a little faster than normal, if only to allow my body to combat the cold - yet, it was sunny and soon enough I had feeling in my fingertips and toes. The 20-22 m/h pace, however, would not last the whole day.

As the entire century was, the fifty mile loop was beautiful - it actually went right past King's Gap, without climbing it (I did consider adding the 12 mile detour, as King's Gap has only one road, so you come down the way you go up so it wouldn't require any rerouting -- but the entire ride would have been under tree-cover, and it was C-O-L-D at the time, and I still had 90 miles to pedal when I made that decision). There was a rest stop in Boiling Springs, and I stopped - got myself some grapes & a banana and went back on my way . . . played "catch me" with a group of other riders (they had me on large inclines and straightways, but I greatly outpaced them on gradual inclines).

Checked back in after the 50 mile loop before beginning the Opossum Lake loop (the "more challenging" of the two 25 mile loops) to restock my Gatorade & water, and eat some banana and a few really great butterscotch chip cookies. Hey - I was biking 100 miles, I can afford some cookies before 10AM.

The 25 mile loop was, well, challenging -- it actually goes almost directly in front of my house, which caused a bit of a problem for me. I have a TON of different rides that I take from my house - and it just so happens that the cues for this particular loop took me down a path that I've never, ever gone -- so I had a fun little 1 mile detour when I realized that the cues ended - stupid muscle memory. Any way, the tour took me to Opossum Lake, which was pretty (everything on this ride was pretty/beautiful/spectacular/you name it), and included some "biggish" climbs. Immediately after, that, though - there were two climbs - each between three-quarters and a mile in length, but each with a grade of 15% -- these, um, took a fair bit out of my legs. Still, though - managed to get through it all and checked back in for more butterscotch chip cookies.

The last of the 25 mile loops was a relatively easy one - although I was dealing with leg fatigue there -- I came close to bonking at about the 18 mile mark and had to stop and drink some water (I actually rode my bike off the path - fortunately, this was in a path that had no traffic at all -- I may have simply been paying too much attention to trying to catch up to the rider in front of me, but I wasn't taking any chances) before completing the ride, where my straightaway pace had gone down to 13-18 m/h (depending on how steep the previous incline had been).

I got back to the check in, collected my T-shirt, spoke to the ride organizers about this versus other long rides and some of the challenges that the established rides are dealing with (large bike clubs sign up all of their members & encourage everybody to post their best times, which turns rides into races), had myself a hot dog, some cookies, and a PB&J sandwich and rode the 3 miles back home. While I'll admit that I'll constantly measure my performance to other riders, and try to catch up with somebody ahead of me, just to see if I can do it - I'll never do so at the risk of safety -- I will only ever pass on the left, I'll only ever pass when there is absolutely no question that there is no other traffic, and I'll only ever pass when the rider in front of me knows that I'm passing.

A few observations from my ride:

• Central Pennsylvania is really, really beautiful in some areas.

• I believe I'm significantly heavier than everybody else who rode the full century - my body seems to like this weight - and the fact that I was able to ride 100 miles in less than 7 hours, without feeling like I was going to die at the end, leads me to think that I'm in better shape than I give myself credit for.

• While I don't believe I'm stronger than most people, pound-for-pound, I have a lot more pounds (and at least a few more inches in height) than most people. When last I weighed myself, I was somewhere between 240 and 250 pounds (108-110 kg or 17-18 stone for my friends across the pond), and I believe that's why I'm able to outstrip most everybody on a gentle incline - it takes more power for me to keep up a reasonable pace without incline - and before the "graving is trying to pull me back down the hill" force becomes too, too great - my it's not all that much more difficult for me to keep the momentum going than it is for somebody who doesn't have as much momentum (mass * velocity).
• I love, love, love seeing families out for a bike ride.
• Bikes will never, ever move as fast as cars -- riding behind a cyclist when there is ample room to pass freaks us out. Glaring/yelling as you pass because we "shouldn't be on the road" makes you an asshat.

Now that it's the day after, I'm still feeling pretty good - I had a VERY, VERY tight left hamstring yesterday (I generally push harder with my left leg on a steep incline - no idea why I do this), and it's still not happy with me today, but I think I'll be fully back to normal tomorrow. I'm feeling VERY good about helping support a good cause & getting through everything. I'm NOT feeling guilty about eating an entire order of General Tso's shrimp and four beers last night. Oh, and I slept like a freaking log.

First Real Ride of the Season

Just got back from a great ride -- while I was able to sneak out once before, I don't really count it . . . it was more to make sure that my legs were still working and just to enjoy an unseasonably warm day. Today, I think, is the official start of the riding season for me. The temperature was in the 60's, a consistent breeze was blowing and everything just went about great.

I decided to start with Sterrett's Gap -- a relatively short but very aggressive climb (some grades reaching 15%), just to get my legs under me. It turns out that I'm a little rustier than I would have liked -- I was wearing my heart rate monitor and had to stop twice as my BPM climbed north of 190 -- once it was for two minutes to get things back to a more reasonable 130, and the next it was for about 5 minutes to get things back to 100 BPM, before the really, really crazy part of the climb. After that climb, though, things went swimmingly.

I decided to follow 944 up to McClure's Gap and then wind my way back into town -- I was actually going to follow Waggoner's Gap back up to 944 and retrace my steps to go back home (and add between 10 and 15 miles to what turned out to be a 25 mile ride), but a few raindrops were starting to hit me, and I figured that I had a good enough ride for a first ride.

After getting guilty emails all winter long reporting no activity, I turned on TrailGuru for this ride -- a few highlights from the service:

This is the altitude reading from the ride -- you see the Sterrett's Gap ascent -- it's the obvious one . . . I really like the whole ride, though, because aside from the biggie, there aren't any hills that you really need to save stamina for, but you're constantly either climbing or thinking about the next climb -- it keeps things interesting.

Experienced riders can probably draw this map from the altitude reading . . . isn't it funny how, when you're climbing you go slower?

Map of today's ride

If you're interested in all of the crazy technical details about the ride, check out: My Trailguru Report. I think I'm going to continue using this service - even on the very, very boring rides to & from work . . . if I have the iPhone battery life, why not?

For anybody following what I'm listening to, I started Fluke (or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings) by Christopher Moore. I still think the first Moore book I listed to, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff (Christ's Childhood Pal), may be my favorite book, ever . . . since then, I've gone through Coyote Blue, Bloodsucking Fiends, and You Suck: A Love Story. I've enjoyed them all immensely -- but a little bit less each time -- I'm hoping it's just because I didn't like all of the rules he created in his vampire world -- so a story about sex and whales might be what I need.

And a new season begins

And with an unusually mild day in February, my 2009 season begins. I made it out yesterday -- a nice little hilly sixteen mile ride during a windy 50-something degree day. It was awesome. Of course, I don't have a lot to report here - just that it feels great to be on the road again /Willy Nelson starts running through my head.

Unfortunately, I wasn't quite in as good of shape as I may have been. While I've been pretty diligent about hopping on the stationary recumbent bike this offseason, we've had some problems with it. First, a few weeks ago, we lost the ability to change the resistance -- we could say "1" or "8", but it would just give us something in the middle . . . then, a metallic clang came about last week and there was no resistance what-so-ever. That was kind-of cool -- push the pedals and watch them turn & turn & turn. However, "kind-of cool" does not make for a good workout. As such, we bought a spinning bike off of eBay . . . I set it up on Saturday, and haven't yet gotten on it (because I went actual riding on Sunday). Yay, stream-of-consciousness tangents! What I was trying to say was that I have a bit more around the middle than I should, and my average speed on the flat portions was closer to 15 miles per hour than the 20 miles per hour that I'm used to. At the end of the ride, continued into today, my hamstrings are screaming at me -- but I'll be back to normal after 2 or 3 rides like that. If I can be regularly commuting by April, I'll tackle the Waggoner's Gap / Doubling Gap ride by early May. Once I manage that, I'll be ready for anything.

My hope is to drop my two primary bikes off at the local bike shop (LBS) sometime in the next week or two, as I have a free tuneup for each of them. After that, should the weather hold, I'll be back to commuting in March - hopefully working my way up to 4 times a week by April. Then, of course, there is the Tour de Cure in late May, and SAGBRAW in early August. With all of that on top of random weekend rides and the commuting, I really think my goal of 5,000 miles in 2009 is quite attainable. Of course, check in here for updates.