Proceeding with Caution

Most importantly - I am running again!!!! In somewhat related news, I am re-starting week 3 of 100 push-up challenge tomorrow as well. I will also be running four miles tomorrow after my "rest day" today.

I ran 3 miles yesterday (though I said I wouldn't run before the 29th) just to get a feel for my capabilities and to see if my femur was healed/healing.

That was my first run of ANY distance in 6 weeks and it felt great to hit the streets again!

Here are the notes I entered in my running log:

11:17
8:33
8:02

I promised myself before I ran that I would do 3 miles MAX as I am "allowed" to start running on 7/29. During the run I felt winded during lap 2 and heavy limbed during 3rd lap. It was hot, I am out of shape (after 6 weeks of no running whatsoever) and I am on a carbohydrate restricted diet.

My plan is now to run every other day the first week with 4 miles each day and a long run of 8 on Sunday.

Speed work & 12 week program for the Flying Monkey begin on September 1, 2008 (no speed work before 1Sep2008)

Diet & 100 Update

I found this ACME Label Maker at http://www.acme.com/labelmaker/



I've nearly completed the first week of the low carb madness (successfully)...
Net Carbs:
day 1: 20
day 2: 14
day 3: 7
day 4: 17.25
day 5: 15
day 6: 20 (including a dinner at an Italian restaurant w/ friends and bakery baked birthday cupcakes)

I faltered in week 3 of the 100 challenge. I'll repeat week 3 next week. It is difficult!

Low Carbs, Low Reps

Okay - new goal created (below). Saturday morning I weighed in at 170. 170!! I weighed as little as 159 this year. Taking this much time off from running (due to femoral stress fracture) has taken its toll.

New goal - Fatty decided while on the scale that I would weigh 150 before my next marathon. I have decided to run The HHFMM as my next marathon. I will try to break 2:50 in Dallas and am updating my goal tracker post to reflect.

Why 150? I ran a 3:07:28 in Memphis in 2007 @ 163 lbs, pre-injury. By following the curve (about 0:58/lb) established by a weight/performance predictor I automatically get a 2:54:53 @ 150 lbs (thanks time calculator).

DANG - Here is the thing. As part of the Saturday decision I started a low carb diet I have historically mocked incessantly. I ate what I wanted Saturday and drank plenty (and caught a RiverBats game from a luxury suite) before the work began on Sunday.

DANGONIT - I have been unable to do the push-ups I used to do since low-carbing it. According to a certain book, I am supposed to eat < 20 carbs/day. I have lost a little weight in 3 days (and drank copious amounts of water to ensure it wasn't water weight). Am I losing muscle and not fat?!?!

I will try stay with the low carb diet as I resume running and hopefully train my body to use fats more easily and make my body an efficient fat-burning marathon beast.

Sunday - 20 net carbs
Monday - 14 net carbs
Today - 7 net carbs

...Feel free to stay tuned for this unscientific experiment as I continue to drive & work light-headed and begin training (July 29th) without carbs.

29th seems possible

After I had 3 ice cream cones at Homemade Ice Cream & Pie Kitchen ($.75 total, check out ad to the right) I went shopping with my wife for a few hours, enjoyed good food & drink at Havana Rumba, and stopped by the T-Mobile store (where I received a new SIM card to try to fix a problem that may or may not be battery related -- but the SIM card was from Voicestream which dated it to at least, what, circa 2002?)

The net result is my leg feels great! Meaning I don't feel it at all. The last few months have brought general aching (up to throbbing) while relaxing after a day of walking or other activity. The stress fracture feels like it is healing. Maybe it was the calcium therapy from today's ice-cream session.

Okay - I had to look that up. It was at least 2002 according to below snippet (source)

2002

• Hello, world! VoiceStream Wireless officially becomes T-Mobile USA, launching service in California and Nevada. Even as the T-Mobile global brand debuts in the US, internationally acclaimed actress Catherine Zeta-Jones signs on as the global spokeswoman.

goal tracker

[This post will be periodically modified to capture declarations, updates, and results of goals disclosed in other posts]

last modified: 04Aug2008

Newest to oldest...

*** goal ***
[finish Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon in Nashville on 23Nov2008 (Dallas prep. race)]
22Jul2008 - goal created
26Jul2007 - ran 3 miles (1st run in 6 weeks!!)
04Aug2008 - ran 6 miles without stopping at beginning of 2nd week of my comeback following the 6 week hiatus for stress-fracture

*** goal ***
[weigh 150lbs by 23Nov2008 (Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon)]
17Jul2008 - goal created
17Jul2007 - 170lbs
27Jul2008 - 165.8lbs
04Aug2008 - 166.6lbs (oops - coming off low carb - probably water gain associated with water stored along with replenished carbohydrates)


*** goal ***
[sub 2:50 marathon in Memphis Dallas on 0714Dec2008]
11Jul2008 - goal created
22Jul2008 - changed from Memphis to Dallas which is on 14Dec2008 (and not in Memphis)


*** goal ***
[100 consecutive push-ups by 16Aug2008]
06Jul2008 - goal created
11Jul2008 - 1 / 6 weeks successfully completed
22Jul2008 - 2 / 6 weeks successfully completed. Week 3 is not going well. Perhaps due to low carb intake?
27Jul2008 - 3 / 6 week failed. Will repeat next week. Latest exhaustion test = 50
02Aug2008 - 2nd attempt of week 3 / 6 failed. Will repeat next week. No new exhaustion test.

Push Up-date

I've completed the first week of the One Hundred Challenge.

Five more to go before I attempt 100.

Two more weeks before I try to run again.

I'm returning to Memphis in December. It was the last marathon I successfully completed and the first marathon in which I qualified for Boston. After the BQ, I couldn't get motivated to run as hard as I had been running before. I wasn't really in shape for the BQ and pushed a bit harder than I should have been necessary for someone who had properly trained -- it took a psychological toll more so than physical. After too much lackadaisical training, I did 3 days of speedwork in a row, creating a shin splint in early April I only had diagnosed in July after running 20 miles of a marathon, an off-trail race, and other ignorant training attempts.

I'm looking to break 2:50 in Memphis with only 18 weeks of training. It is all part of a larger personal goal that I may reveal later this year.

goal: 100 consecutive push-ups by 16Aug2008
goal: sub 2:50 marathon in Memphis by 07Dec2008

One Hundred Push-Ups

A fellow runner sent me a link to the 100 push-up challenge site. I had been trying to do 100 push-ups since mid May and plateaued around 45.

My interest is elevated now that I can't run until July 29, 2008 and have gained nearly 10 pounds since mileage terminated.

I just took the "initial test" and hit 42 which places me in the middle of level 4. The goal is to be able to do 100 push-ups in 6 weeks (deadline 16Aug2008). Hopefully this will make me a stronger runner as well (when I begin to run again).

goal: 100 consecutive push-ups by 16Aug2008

Returning July 29

I will return to running on July 29, 2008. I have been diagnosed as having a stress fracture in my right femur. The lower part of the femur, near the knee.

I had long believed this was IT Band but the symptoms weren't always 100% consistent with IT Band. I finally consulted an orthopedic surgeon at my wife's insistence. On July 2nd, he relayed the results of my bone scan.

My first drop-out: I dropped out of my seventh marathon this April (mile 20) after excruciating pain could no longer be ignored and the sentimental 18 mile mark at KDF was reached.

I just reviewed my running log to find I have been battling this injury since April 1, 2008.

It looks like the injury occurred during or after the 3rd day of speed work where tempo and interval runs led to consecutive days of 5 miles - each with average paces between 6:34 and 6:42. Average paces included recovery jogs.

My last run was 5 miles on June 17, 2008. A 7:53 average was painfully achieved so I could remember specifics of pain to communicate to orthopedic surgeon (the pain had diminished and I was relatively certain I had an IT Band or some other related problem). Had I thought a stress fracture was realistically a possibility I obviously would not have been that stupid and would have been back in action sooner.

Six weeks added to June 17th = July 29th. On that Tuesday, I will see how a test jog feels.