Every Run is a Great Run!

PT in the morning, same type stuff as Friday. Foot felt a little worse over the weekend but Von had told me I might hurt a bit after the first few PT sessions. But today I feel the best I've felt so far, maybe my 80 yr old walk is down to 75 yr old.

Also 40 minutes on the bike at the gym at work. Felt easier than last week and I was surprised to see my HR work it's way up near 150 by end.

I will be glad when I'm done with this round of Prednizone. I don't like the way it makes me feel, anxious and stressy. Also seems to bring out the mental basket case in me. I thought it was ironic that the 1st song that came on at the gym was Basket Case. Thanks Kim for being patient and understanding with me.

Another weird thing at the gym. I was listening to My Sharona on the headphones and I notice the guy next to me is jumping rope exactly to the beat.  I was sure he would get off after a few seconds but he stayed on beat the whole time he was jumping through 2 full verses of the song. Kinda strange.

45 minutes on the bike. Don't think I can stand going any longer than that on the bike. Hopefully in another week or 2 I can add on some eliptical minutes.

Foot is feeling pretty good today, I may even be down to a 70 yr old walking gait. Also pleased to see my weight hanging around 139-140 the last couple of days.

Feeling good today. The prednizone-aided funk I was in the last few days is gonzo, hopefully for good now that I'm done with the steriodial meds.

Went to PT this morning and hadn't planned on doing anything else since I've been buried at work, but I had a bit of a breakthrough work-wise, so I decided to do a quick 30-minutes on the bike.

Felt great, dare I say I actually enjoyed the bike? Guess it was only 30 minutes and it helped that the tunes I was listening to were mostly upbeat and cheery to go along with my sunny disposition.  All the Small Things (Blink-182), Rise Above This (Seether - I like the line "I'll mend myself before it gets me"), and Cheer Up Boys (FooF). Also some slow, trippy Pink Floyd tunes.

Was able to work my HR up into the high 150's.

45 minutes on the ex bike. Not as enjoyable as yesterday's workout but not too bad. Been fighting a headache all day. I think the biking is helping the foot healing process move along a little quicker. Maybe getting more blood to the injured area?

Had some good tunes going including some songs I like to listen to before races or during a race to get some motivation to endure to the end or pass that guy just in front. Today's running song-of-the-day is "Just A Job To Do" by Genesis, a fine 70's/80's band.

The song is about a hit-man but a few choice lyrics apply nicely to racing...."I got a name I got a number, I got a line on you.....I got a name, I got a number, I'm coming after you!"......"cause the harder they run, the harder they fall, I'm coming down hard on you"...."Keep runnin keep runnin"......"the footsteps close behind"....

Almost at 4 weeks now since the injury. Went to PT this morning. Von had me do an "exercise" for the 1st time if you can call it that. More like a game. I'll call it the lost-my-marbles game. Pick up marbles with my toes and put them in a cup. Of course Von couldn't give me a regular size cup he had to super-size it. I was significantly better with my right foot than the left. Not sure if that was because I'm right-footed for because the left is the one with the big tear. Maybe a little of both. I think I'll time myself next time and establish my baseline PR.

45 minutes biking at the gym. Notable bands/songs on the playlist today include GrooveLily - Are We There Yet? and Rewind (Calling All Aliens?), Journey - Be Good To Yourself , and finally that fine band Queen with this little song that pretty much describes by present training regiment.

Yahoo - the foot is feeling great today! I think I'm walking pretty much normal now and I can put full weight on the left foot. Went to PT this morning to do the usual routine (US, E-stem, marbles, massage, ice) and talked with Von about whether I should try anything beyond the bike. He suggested we wait 1 more week then try some upbeat treadmill walking next week. Sounds good to me. I surely don't want to be too aggresive and re-tear and be back to square 1.

46 minutes on the exercise bike. Felt good. Playlist include Cake, AC/DC, Van Halen, Billy Squier and this fine little running ditty from Tom Petty.

47 minutes on the bike. Still feeling good. Mostly newer, post-80's tunes on the player today. Lots of greasy kids stuff. Green Day, 311, FooFighters, Weezer. This Collective Soul song wins the prizy today for capturing the spirit of the good vibes I had going.

45 minutes on the bike. Crazy busy at work I was lucky to get away at all. Almost kinda hoping for the layoff lately.

47 minutes on the bike. Wide variety of tunes today. Starting to hear the same songs over again so I must have just about covered my whole play list.

Today's workout tune-of-the-day is another fine one-hit-wonder 80's tune by The Vapors. Dale may question why this is on my playlist and I'm really not actually sure how it got there. It's in honor of my son Camron who is currently visiting Japan, and who interestingly enough actually turned Japanese on his mission (in a good way :)). 

30 minutes on the bike at the gym in our SG condo complex. Wanted to go longer but that's all I could handle on this type bike. It looked brand new and expensive but it was one of the exercise bikes where you pedal with legs horizonal rather than vertical and it strained my back and quads in a way that I couldn't get into any kind of rhythm. Would much rather have run with Kimi on the bunny trail this morning.

Absolutely beautiful day today in St. George, especially during the morning hours. Haven't been able to bring myself to ride the bike today but I did do a little walking this morning on the river trail, about a mile. Some while Kim and running then the last 1/2 mile or so with Kim as she cooled down. Nice to see that sunshine, don't get any of that on the exercise bike.

Also probably walked another mile or so during the course of the day. Nice to be able to do that now although Von (PT) didn't want me to do much until Monday. Hopefully tomorrow the feet will be forgiving. I feel OK now but my left foot does get tired pretty quick. Not really painful but more just feeling of weakness.

Been enjoying the Ogden race reports. Congrats to everyone who ran, sounds like the conditions were ideal.

Maybe I'll walk over to the clubhouse where Kim and the girls are playing racquetball and watch them as I pedal the exercise bike a little :)

Walked 1 mile on the TM (whopping pace of 17 min) then 45 minutes on the bike. No tunes today so it was tough battling the boredom factor. No pains in the left foot while doing stuff other than a pain on the non-injured outside edge which I'm sure is a just a side effect of walking too much on the outside of my foot over the last 5 weeks as I've babied the injured area.

I'll stick with the walking/biking routine this week then mid-next-week Von is going to have me try some pool running.

Trying to decide if I should count walking miles or not? I haven't bothered with trying to figure out biking equivalent miles and logging anything besides the big goose egg since the injury.

About the same as yesterday. But also tried a minute each at the end on stair machine and elliptical just to see how it compared to last time I tried a couple of weeks ago. Much much better. No pain at all where 2 weeks ago I new immediately it wouldn't work. 

I think I'll slowly start adding in the stair/elliptical minutes and back off the bike and get to where I getting around 80 minutes total workout with 20 minutes each on bike, stairs, elliptical and walking. I've promised myself that I won't attempt any running (besides pool) until after our cruise at the beginning of June.

I think I'm starting to see the light at the end....

20 min walk on TM (1.2 miles), 40 min bike, 5 min each both stair machine and elliptical. Watched Sherlock Holmes.

70 minutes of various stuff. 20 min TM walking (incline = 7), 30 min bike, 10 min stairs, 10 min elliptical.

TM Walk - 20 min, Bike - 20, Stair - 15, Elliptical - 15, 70 minutes total. Watched most of the the movie "Jumper".

Went for a 20-min walk outside with Kim. Weather was unsettled but it was nice to be outside and nice to have Kim with me.

Had a great time with my daughters on our daddy-daughter overnighter last night. Went with John and Nate (3 daughters each) up to Nate's parents ranch up in Elkridge. Girls had a ball riding horses and 4-wheelers.  Probably ate a bit too much but what the heck.

Had planned to do an 80-minute gym quadrathlon including TM walking, biking, stairs, and elliptical, 20-mins each. But when I got to 20-min on the stairs some guys were still hogging all the elliptical machines so I ended up with 28 min on the stairs and 12 on the elliptical.

Legs feeling good and foot still improving week to week. I'll likely try my first steps of running in a couple of weeks. Looking out the window at the snow I was thinking that if I have to be stuck in the gym during May, then cold and rainy/snowy May 2010 is probably a good one to choose.

Opted for the radio today. Channel surfed but mostly listened to K-Love.

Pressed for time today. Crazy under pressure at job. Did 60 minutes XT split across bike, stairs, and elliptical. Hopefully it will work to go for a walk tonight.

PT in the morning. This will probably be last session unless something flares up or goes south in the next while. Everything is looking good and Von gave me the go ahead to try a little running starting in June!

Later I did 60 minutes of XT at the gym. Got wild and crazy and mixed up the order: Elliptical 1st, then bike, then stairs. I'll go for a walk in the evening with Kim.

60 minutes XT (stairs, elliptical, bike). Listened to a little bit or reggae & calypso music to get me in a cruise mind set. Then again we're going Mexican Riviera this time not Caribbean. So maybe mariachi would have been more appropriate.

Same ol, same ol - 60 min XT (bike, elliptical, stairs). However that is 3 or 4 days straight now where I've mixed up the order of activities.

Watched a good old-fashioned John Wayne western. Not sure what the name was. John and his bros saving the family ranch and hometown from the evil dudes in black trying to buy up and take over the county using underhanded methods. Good stuff.

I've been taking walks at night most of the week also but haven't always been logging it. Last night I walked 2 miles. I'll probably walk 1 or so tonight then maybe 4 or 5 tomorrow morning.

Walked out to Osbournes and back plus just a hair more for a total of 5 miles. It was nice to be out on a cloudy but beautiful Saturday morning. Also nice to chat with the SF runners if only for a bit.

At Osbournes I met up with Steve K who had also switched to walking mode since his hamstring was acting up. So it worked out nicely to have a walking buddy for most of the walk back home.

Everything feeling good as far as the feet. No pain. Only pains are in muscles mostly above the knee that haven't been used much for 7 weeks.

Heading out today to travel to LA to get on the big boat so this will likely be my last blog entry for a week or so. Time for some serious R&R!!  And when I get back it will be time for some NON-serious first running steps!

Day at sea on the ship. In the morning did what would be the usual routine throughout the week. 60 minutes XT (bike, stairs, elliptical) with some walking around the track on Deck 11.