Injury-prone’s Fitness Blog

Nightly stretching on New Year’s Eve

Today I completely rested my body from any cardio activities. Just did foam roll and stretching at night for my piriformis, hamstring, and calves.

End of the year data

Just like I did a year ago, I’ve collected some numbers for this year… Less cycling means less cross-training and more running! What a wonderful year, only 4 injuries, only 4 weeks of complete stop from running, this is the best in the last 5 years ever since I started running. All other weeks I ran at least 5 minutes, and even one mile per week was much better than the previous 4 years.

As for the 4 injuries, this is just a number of injured spots and not the duration. I suffered from nerve pain for almost 12 months this year… meaning really all the year round. The intensity of pain varied from time to time: it was bad from the beginning of the year and worsened, reached the worst and I was limping in spring. I was long frustrated and suffered when I couldn’t run for more than 2 miles at a time for the first half of the year. I volunteered in races when I couldn’t run even 5K. I went to see a new podiatrist, sports doctor, and physical therapist. Then the intensity of nerve pain got better in summer. Then I learned to run with nerve irritation and thus weak one leg. I’ve been always slow, but never pain/irritation made me even slower than ever. Yet I kept moving one step at a time forward. I felt severely solitary and inferior when I was so slow and left alone far behind in group runs, but I didn’t quit. I started trails and hills for the past month. The tricky footing is causing my ankle pain again, but so far not too bad. The sciatic nerve pain got worse for the past half months, but I’m still running and moving.

The highlight of the year was Army Ten-Miler in October. My 3-year dream came true. At that time I had severe nerve pain AND the unbearable ball of foot pain that affected walking and standing in my essential daily life, AND I caught a cold that lasted until the race week. But I enjoyed every moment of it. I was slow, walked every couple of minutes, and finished in almost 2 hours, and yet I was happier than ever before. The photos prove it; I was smiling to finish, unlike my usual race photos that look struggling. So much inspired by Army, especially by wounded soldiers. Even now, when I want to stop or walk or quit, I remember about them and tell myself “Run strong, Run Army strong!” It was a good running year. I want to run more in the coming year, as well as to do many of my favorite sports.

Workout:

• Type: Flexibility
• Date: 12/31/2009
• Time: 20:30:00
• Total Time: 00:30:00.00
• Calories: 55

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Holiday mid-day swim

Warm-up Breast stroke x10 laps
Leg float/arm drill x10 laps
Freestyle x40 laps
Cool-down Breast stroke x10 laps

Workout:

• Type: Swim
• Date: 12/30/2009
• Time: 11:20:00
• Total Time: 00:47:00.00
• Calories: 207
• Distance: 1,750 yd
• Average Pace: 2:41.06/100yd

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Spinning

I tried the Star Track Spinning bike for the first time. Not sure what the benefit of it comparing to the regular stationary bikes, but I liked the messages constantly appeared on the screen to remind me of form, hydrate, increase the resistance, etc.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 12/30/2009
• Time: 11:00:00
• Total Time: 00:40:00.00
• Calories: 469
• Distance: 13.99 miles
• Average Speed: 20.98 mph

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Foggy Tuesday mid-morning run

The ankle ache that lasted for a day or two was gone by this morning. And my muscles that I was afraid from last night’s strengthening exercise were not sore yet (perhaps it may take more time to sore?). So I was able to run this morning. It was very foggy, frosty and chilly. I’m off from work this week, so I started a little late. Walked 3.5 min to warm up and started running very slowly. The fog started clearing and the sun came out. I walked briefly at a turnaround, then ran back, and walked 3.5min to cool down. I was slow and my legs were tiring, but I felt so good when finished.

Afterwards, the left ankle ache returned. I’m icing and elevating my left foot on the desk as I type this. I hope this doesn’t get prolong or worse. No more injuries for me in 2010!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 12/29/2009
• Time: 09:15:00
• Total Time: 1:07:00.00
• Calories: 477
• Distance: 6 miles
• Average Pace: 11:10.39/mile

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Monday night Pilates (or Debilates) class

The regular Pilates instructor was on vacation, so there was a substitute lady waiting for us. She said she couldn’t teach Pilates, and instead was going to teach us other core strengthening exercise. She used weights, loud music, lots of woohoos and shouts, and burned us all out. I normally don’t do upper body weights, and it was really tough. However, I survived in 60sec and 90sec planks! After the class, I asked "so, what is this exercise called?" and she said "Debilates" for Debi’s Pilates kindof.

Workout:

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 12/28/2009
• Time: 20:35:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00
• Calories: 100

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Hilly trail group run

The overnight on/off rain stopped, and the sun came out by the time we started. Many people showed up for today’s hill/trail run. I was afraid that some of them were very fast, but we nicely split to fast, medium, slow subgroups. There was even a BQ (Boston Qualifier) runner. She was nice enough to run with all of us– she stopped frequently to take photos, then ran effortlessly to immediately catch up with the fast people. The continuous uphill was hard. But once we reached the top, the view was great, and the rest was almost downhill, except some more climbs. I was fast on downhill, but immediately left behind on uphill. I’d better train more for uphill.

I think I sprained both of my ankles. My right ankle felt a sudden sharp pain when I started running; it was the same kind of pain I always had about a year ago. The trail was narrow, wet, not even, dip in the middle with mud and water and slippery, sides mounted with grass or roots. Some areas were rocky. I wore Asics trail running shoes, different from my regular shoes for paved flat runs. Just like last time I wore this Asics, today also my right toe got very painful after some miles of running. And now, hours later, my left ankle is even more achy than the right, though my left ankle seemed fine while running. I think the tricky footing did it. I iced both ankles.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 12/27/2009
• Time: 09:30:16
• Total Time: 1:31:01.93
• Calories: 531
• Distance: 7.01 miles
• Average Pace: 12:59.22/mile
• Max Pace: 7:26.1/mile
• Ascent: 2,865.74 ft
• Descent: 2,842.49 ft

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Cloudy Saturday mid-day swim

There’s no long run today, so I went for a long swim. The air was about 50F and cloudy all over the sky. The water was comfortable.

Warm-up Breast stroke x10 laps
Leg float/arm drill x10 laps
Freestyle x60 laps
Cool-down Breast stroke x10 laps

Workout:

• Type: Swim
• Date: 12/26/2009
• Time: 12:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00
• Calories: 264
• Distance: 2,250 yd
• Average Pace: 2:39.8/100yd

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Frosty icy Christmas morning run

Mid to upper 30’s and cold. It was already after 8AM, but the grass and roofs were still white and frosty. I even saw ice in the water dip. I saw a good number of runners and walkers on Christmas morning. One runner was wearing shorts, wow.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 12/25/2009
• Time: 08:25:00
• Total Time: 00:55:00.00
• Calories: 394
• Distance: 4.94 miles
• Average Pace: 11:07.9/mile

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Mid-morning swim after 2-hour waiting

After almost 2 hours of waiting, the pool finally became available at 10. By that time, my body was already tired and hungry, but I sucked up a gel and got ready, since I hadn’t swum for a while and really wanted to. I kept a very slow and steady pace; initially with long glides but then I really got tired and my strokes got choppy. A very fast lady came into my lane when I was about to finish. I looked at her and wondered if I could be like her if I was swimming consistently for the past 30 years. My swimming has been very inconsistent, sometimes I have months or years of break. I still like swimming more than any other sports, but I find running is far more consistent, since there is no time-space constraints like pools. Anyway, I’m glad I was finally able to swim.

Warm-up Breast stroke x10 laps
Leg float/arm drill x10 laps
Freestyle x40 laps
Breast stroke x10 laps
Freestyle x10 laps

Workout:

• Type: Swim
• Date: 12/24/2009
• Time: 10:10:00
• Total Time: 00:55:00.00
• Calories: 242
• Distance: 2,000 yd
• Average Pace: 2:44.96/100yd

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Treadmill walk while waiting for the pool

When I called the gym yesterday to inquire about today’s schedule, the lady said there was no class today. So I thought I could swim at 9, but it turned out there was the aqua fitness class and all lanes were taken for another hour. I walked on the treadmill to loosen up my legs from cycling and further waiting for the pool to be free.

Workout:

• Type: Walk
• Date: 12/24/2009
• Time: 09:20:00
• Total Time: 00:30:00.00
• Calories: 97
• Distance: 1.7 miles
• Average Pace: 17:38.82/mile

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