Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Post half recovery.

I took off from exercise Monday except for using the foam roller and the stick on my calve and hamstring muscles. I bought a "stick" on Saturday when I was picking up my race packet and I have been using it four or five times a day, I like it better than the foam roller and I can take it to work with me which is a plus. Tuesday I resumed walking at lunch time with a one mile walk and I did the same today. Tonight after visiting my mother I mowed the back lawn. My calf muscle feel good, I will continue walking and hope to run a little in the Parkway this weekend.

Monday, April 26, 2010

My first half marathon

Yesterday I achieved a life long accomplishment by completing a half marathon, here is a picture of me with my biggest fan, my wife, after the finish.





I had planned on walking the first mile to warm up my torn calf muscle but could not because I did not want to get in the way of the runners behind me so I ran the first half mile then walked until the two mile mark. My leg felt good so I started running a little and alternating some walking. Here I am walking on Martin Luther King Blvd.






Once I got into the Parkway and my leg still felt good I set my interval timer to one minute run and one minute walk and continued on all the way through the parkway back onto Martin Luther King and made the turn onto St. Elmo St. which was the ten mile point. I was concerned about not making the cutoff time but at that point I was safe and my leg was still OK so I decided to run for one mile and walk one minute which I did until there was only one mile to go. Here is a picture of me entering Cedar Beach just after crossing Hamilton St.
With one mile to go I decided to keep running as I felt good, just at the entrance to the stadium I felt a little stab in my calf so I walked about fifty yards and then ran/limped in to finish the race.






Here I am just before the finish line at J. Birney Crum Stadium. My chip time was 2:39:10, a few weeks ago I was hoping for 2 hours or a bit longer but I am still happy that I finished and that I am reasonably well.







After the race I celebrated with one of my other fans, my daughter Jessica,
by having a few Black and Tans.



I was very thankful that my daughter and her husband Steve came up to the Lehigh Valley from Tampa Florida just to watch me run and my son Joseph also came home to watch and take videos even though he had to make a final presentation for one of his MBA classes the next day.

Today I felt a little stiff and my calf is sore but other than that I feel fine, I had a good time during the race and I enjoyed the training along the way. The race directors put on a great event and I will definately be back again next year.


























































































Sunday, April 25, 2010

Leaving soon for the half.

I am ready to leave soon for the race, have to put my contact lens in and go over my "injuries" with the stick. I bought "the stick" yesterday when I was picking up my runner's packet for today's race. The people selling the sticks gave me a demo and then I went to look at the other vendors and started to leave, I suddenly realized how good my calf felt and I went back and bought one. I had a foam roller but I wanted to try the stick because it looked easier to take travelling and to work etc. , I did not think it would work better but it did, I will report more on this as I have more experience with it.







Sunday, April 11, 2010

Rose Garden

Went for a walk to the Rose Garden to see the "improvements", mainly they are paving the cinder track :( , not so good for me because I like the cushioning effect the cinders provided. Also there are more bicyclists and kids on scooters and the path is narrow so I see this as an accident waiting to happen, I will be running in the Lehigh Parkway.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

I am not discouraged.

OK, I went for a walk today one week after injuring my calf muscle, it didn't feel good so I came home and mowed the lawn. I am not going to try and run today, I will see how walking goes tomorrow. I talked to the race director for the half marathon that I am entered in and he said the course will be open for three and a half hours so I may just walk it and if things feel good run a little, hopefully staying ahead of the cutoff. I am a bit disappointed that I will at best complete the race and not have a very good time but I am in better shape than I was last year at this time, I did get to run over nine miles, I have lost about eighteen pounds so far and in a couple of weeks I will have a time for the half marathon that won't be too hard to improve on in the future.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Tai Chi, pushups and situps,

are the order of the day while I wait for the calf muscle to heal. I am going to wait one week until next Saturday then try walking a mile and running a few hundred yards, if there is no discomfort I will take it far as I can up to one loop in the parkway (6miles), until then I am "tapering" , steeply!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Calf pull

I was just about a mile from completing my 10.6 mile long run yesterday and I felt a little pain in my left calf. Since I usually experience some pain during a run that works it's way out after I relax that area and it was not getting any worse, I continued on. Well, I was just about to stop running and start the walk interval and I experienced a sharp pain in my calf so I slowed down and walked home. I was on a 10 minute pace but ended up doing 11.10/mile for the entire run. I am icing the injury for a few days and then see what happens, my next day of running would be Tuesday so I will see how I am then before proceeding. With three weeks to go before the half marathon I realize there is not allot of time to heal and I also realize re injuring the muscle is probably worse than abstaining from running a week or two.

I am disappointed but not discouraged. This is just a little setback, I have made much progress toward better fitness; lost weight, increased my endurance and have improved my diet. I have been running further distance during my training than I have for over 35 years and I have worked through a few injuries. In closing, after my run yesterday we went to my Mother's house for a visit (we are the primary caretaker's for both our mother's) and as I was stopped for a traffic light a disabled man hobbled across the intersection. I could see the man hurry to beat the light, his head constantly looking around for a car about to run him down, his ability to sprint out of the way not much of an option; yes, I could be much worse off.