Canuxican

Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!

A few weeks into my training program for the Cap10K and sure enough, the shit hits the fan. I woke up Tuesday morning with a crick in my neck. Actually, scratch that. it didn’t really hurt right when I got up. I noticed it when I got out of the shower. So all day my neck hurts. This isn’t extremely out of the ordinary for me, but it has been quite a while since it last hurt. I’m almost certain that it started when I injured my neck 2+ years ago when I slipped on some ice and landed smack dab on the back of my head. My hands and shoulders didn’t even hit the ground before my head. My head was literally the first thing to hit, and I fell from a small set of stairs, so it was even worse.

Anyway.. so Tuesday it hurt like hell. Wednesday it hurt so bad that I went to see the accupuncturist and I took the second half of the day off work. I thought that would help, but it really didn’t help a whole lot. I did get some medicinal herbs  from her though and I have been taking those. Thursday  I took off from work as well. I ended up calling my chiropractor and went to see him. He did an adjustment and did some range of motion tests and tested a few things like tilting my neck in certain angles and applying pressure different ways. He said it was behaving very much like I had a “disc bulge”. Basically, this is a herniated disc. UGH! He said he wants to see me the next day. So I went back again today. I am definitely gaining some range of motion back. The first day I could barely turn my head left or right at all. Today is a lot better, but still can’t turn my head normally, and it still hurts a hell of a lot. I got another adjustment today from him and I am going back on Monday. I can tell that it is helping, but it definitely still hurts a lot. He said he wants to treat it for a few days before sending me in for an MRI. If it starts getting better, we won’t need to pay for the cost of the MRI. So, I’m basically holed up in bed, and walking back and forth to the freezer to ice my neck every 20 minutes. Not fun.

Needless to say, I haven’t run since last Friday. Sucks sucks sucks. Unless it gets better soon, I don’t see being able to run the Cap 10k. That said, even if I can’t run in that race, I intend to keep running and working out. I’m on a good kick and I will finish out the 10k program I am on, regardless. And then I’ll start another program. I am still 100% committed to completing the program. I just might have to put it on hold for a week or two (hopefully no longer than that).

I’m royally pissed that this had to happen now, of all times.

-Bummed

Yeah, I missed one day last week. But I did all of the long days. I don’t feel so bad.

Here’s what I am doing this week:

Week 4:
5 workouts this week.
Day 1: warm up, then: 1/2 mile jog, 1/4 mile walk, 3/4 mile jog, 1/4 mile walk, 1/2 mile jog: total 2 1/4 miles. go home.
Day 2: warm up, then: 1 mile jog (4 laps) 1/4 mile walk, 1 mile jog. total 2 1/4 miles. go home.
Day 3: warm up, then: 2 1/4 mile jog (9 laps) NO WALKING! Day 4: Repeat Day 2
Day 5: Repeat Day3

Monday
Location: Track
Runs:
1/2 mile: 8:16 pace
3/4 mile: 8:49 pace
1/2 mile: 8:58 pace
Max HR: 186
Avg HR: 159 (includes walking sections)
Max Pace: 7:03

Today
Location: My block
1st mile (clockwise): 8:22
1/4 mile walk (not measured)
2nd mile (clockwise): 8:56
Max HR: 185
Avg HR: 176
Max Pace: 6:49
Avg Pace: 8:37

Awesome! So cool to see progress. It will be nice when I am running full miles from here on out. When I am doing that, I’ll track pace in a spreadsheet or something. Hard to compare pace so far because a pace for a half mile is very different than a pace for 2 miles. I’m trying to keep it consistent though.  I also am going to try to ONLY measure therunning sections with my watch. I need to go calibrate it again, it is definitely slightly off, so those paces under Max and Avg might be slightly off. The ones where I indicate how fast for each distance are accurate though since I am using stopwatch. The others are calculated by the footpod. We’ll get that totally accurate in the next few days and I’ll post. I’m also going to do the “Fitness Test” that the watch does. It measures your VO2… That is the capacity of your body to utilize oxygen. So it is a measure of seeing how fit you are. I’ll post that. I am also keeping track of my weight, fat %, muscle weight, etc using our scale at home. I’ll post that too, what the hell, maybe it’ll keep me honest.

So today, I walked at lunch, after running by Academy to buy some Under Armour tights (for cold weather). Who knew those were so expensive!? $75 for a pair of long tights and a long sleeve tights shirt!!! So I walked at lunch, then ran after work, and just now worked out too. I’m doing just a short series of supersets for working out right now. Just to get my body used to it, then I’ll start really training with weights. Good stuff!

So this is actually pretty embarrassing, so I thought I’d share.

I did a set of 20 crunches, 20 side crunches (20 each side), and 20 leg lifts TWO DAYS AGO. And my abs are still sore.

That should be motivation enough to stick with this and get in shape.

Here’s what I’m doing this week:

Day 1: Brisk 5 minute warm up walk, then: 1/2 mile jog, 1/4 mile walk, 1/2 mile jog, 1/4 mile walk, 1/2 mile jog. total 2 miles. go home
Day 2: 5 minute warm up, then: 3/4 mile jog (3 laps) 1/2 mile walk (2 laps) 3/4 mile jog. total 2 miles. go home.
Day 3: 5 minute warm up then: 2 mile jog (8 laps) NO WALKING!!! Catch your breath and go home. good job.
Day 4: Repeat day 3
Day 5: Repeat Day 2.

So I did Day 1 yesterday, and I did Day 2 tonight. It’s tough. Hard to tell if it’s getting easier or harder. Tonight felt slightly easier. Last night felt harder.

I’m running approximately a 8:30 pace, but that’s not in full mile stints yet. Tomorrow I have to run 2 miles straight, so it will be a good measure of the actual pace I can keep up. I’m going to guess that it’s going to be a 9:30 pace. We shall see.

Oh, and here’s some random stats:

Tonight: 28:29 minutes

1st 3/4 mile: 6:18 (8:24 pace)

2nd 3/4 mile: 6:52 ( 9:09 pace UGH!)

Max Heart Rate: 190 (102%)

Avg Heart Rate: 161 (86%)

Max Pace/Mile: 6:56

 So here is what I am doing this week.  I know it’s Wednesday, and this is my first run this week, but I am supposed to do this 4-6 times this week. So if I run Thurs-Sun I will be at 5. I’ll likely have to skip one of those days due to rain anyway. So I will get 4 runs in this week. I’ll just make em count. Tonight was fairly rough. And cold b/c it was breezy.

Couch To 10K | Birmingham Track Club
Week 2:
4 to 6 days per week Start with a 5 minute warm up walk, then alternate walking & jogging and walk only half the distance of each jog, as follows:
Jog 1/4 mile one lap then
Walk 1/8 mile 1/2 half lap
Jog 1/2 mile 2 laps
Walk 1/4 mile 1 lap
Jog 1/4 mile 1 lap
Walk 1/8 mile half-lap
Jog 1/2 mile…go home