Building A Better Bumblebee

nkrichards wrote:

Mark B wrote:

nkrichards wrote:And once again we can always count on Mark and Doug for entertainment...and solid running advice as well.

Ha! Thanks, Nancy. 

In honor of our struggle to stick with core training, here's what I did today. 

1x40 each, each side: clamshell, side leg lift, leg circle
3x10 each side: single leg bridge (oof)
2x50 each side: single leg lift
1x7 minutes each side: single leg stance 

Must be feeling all that varied terrain yesterday (including hurdling logs), because this felt tougher than usual this morning. The single leg bridges kick it up a level, too. Oof!

My coach wants me to do those single leg bridges while balancing on one of those red playground balls.  It takes a while to gain the strength and then some practice to be able to balance but boy are they effective.  (I'm not able to do them right now but I got there during marathon training.)

That's a tough workout!  Not sure I'd have the determination to stick to that many reps.  My regular core/strength workout is much more varied...not sure if that's good or bad.  This cardio challenge thing has been fun.  The free/reduced price classes are a blast.  We're all trying new things...and it seems like most of them involve at least some core work so I'm getting even more variety.

 Well, doing a single leg bridge with your supporting leg on a red rubber ball sounds extraordinarily challenging, but it is astounding to think such a thing is possible  from where I am right now. At same time, I can see how it would be very helpful in building core strength. Even on my run this morning, I could feel the difference from the core work I have done up to this point. My legs keep wanting to go faster, and my core is pretty much just saying "giddyup!"

Mixing in different core exercises is probably a great idea, since it would help work other minor muscles and perhaps more importantly keep it from getting too tedious.

Birthday Shoes Run! 5.2 km (3.23 miles) run progressive style

Weather: Overcast, a rain shower, 57. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T, jacket and hat peeled off just in time for the rain to start.

Happy BD to me! I missed out on my "birthday shoes" (aka barefoot) run last year due to a nasty cold, so I was excited about getting out there this morning. The fact that it was wet and rainy made it even more appealing.

Since the odometer now reads 52 years, I decided to set my goal at 5.2 kilometers (3.23 miles). Since it wasn't overlong, I decided on the fly to see if I could do it as a progression run, too, clocking each mile faster the the one before. I kept an eye on the HR to make sure I didn't overrev too soon, but this was *not* intended to be a low HR effort.

Progression runs are fun for this sort of thing. Nothing like marking getting older by getting progressively faster with each mile.

How it went:

Mile 1: 10:04 (HR 139 av, 162 max)
Mile 2: 9:17 (HR 155 av, 161 max)
Mile 3: 8:33 (HR 166 av, 174 max)
I pushed until I hit the 5K distance then eased way back until I got to 3.24 miles.

It was a fun challenge. I didn't hit the harder breathing zone until I passed 165 bpm, and I never really hit the "sucking wind" point. Good to know!

Average HR for entire run: 154 (!), Max 174 with room to spare

Mark B wrote:Birthday Shoes Run! 5.2 km (3.23 miles) run progressive style

Weather: Overcast, a rain shower, 57. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T, jacket and hat peeled off just in time for the rain to start.

Happy BD to me! I missed out on my "birthday shoes" (aka barefoot) run last year due to a nasty cold, so I was excited about getting out there this morning. The fact that it was wet and rainy made it even more appealing.

Since the odometer now reads 52 years, I decided to set my goal at 5.2 kilometers (3.23 miles). Since it wasn't overlong, I decided on the fly to see if I could do it as a progression run, too, clocking each mile faster the the one before. I kept an eye on the HR to make sure I didn't overrev too soon, but this was *not* intended to be a low HR effort.

Progression runs are fun for this sort of thing. Nothing like marking getting older by getting progressively faster with each mile.

How it went:

Mile 1: 10:04 (HR 139 av, 162 max)
Mile 2: 9:17 (HR 155 av, 161 max)
Mile 3: 8:33 (HR 166 av, 174 max)
I pushed until I hit the 5K distance then eased way back until I got to 3.24 miles.

It was a fun challenge. I didn't hit the harder breathing zone until I passed 165 bpm, and I never really hit the "sucking wind" point. Good to know!

Average HR for entire run: 154 (!), Max 174 with room to spare

Add 3 minutes to each mile and you have my splits.

Oh, that picture of you and your feet?  Looks like you have enough space between the big toe and the 2nd toe to add another toe!  Maybe Nike has an extra toe laying around?

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:Birthday Shoes Run! 5.2 km (3.23 miles) run progressive style

Weather: Overcast, a rain shower, 57. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T, jacket and hat peeled off just in time for the rain to start.

Happy BD to me! I missed out on my "birthday shoes" (aka barefoot) run last year due to a nasty cold, so I was excited about getting out there this morning. The fact that it was wet and rainy made it even more appealing.

Since the odometer now reads 52 years, I decided to set my goal at 5.2 kilometers (3.23 miles). Since it wasn't overlong, I decided on the fly to see if I could do it as a progression run, too, clocking each mile faster the the one before. I kept an eye on the HR to make sure I didn't overrev too soon, but this was *not* intended to be a low HR effort.

Progression runs are fun for this sort of thing. Nothing like marking getting older by getting progressively faster with each mile.

How it went:

Mile 1: 10:04 (HR 139 av, 162 max)
Mile 2: 9:17 (HR 155 av, 161 max)
Mile 3: 8:33 (HR 166 av, 174 max)
I pushed until I hit the 5K distance then eased way back until I got to 3.24 miles.

It was a fun challenge. I didn't hit the harder breathing zone until I passed 165 bpm, and I never really hit the "sucking wind" point. Good to know!

Average HR for entire run: 154 (!), Max 174 with room to spare

Add 3 minutes to each mile and you have my splits.

Oh, that picture of you and your feet?  Looks like you have enough space between the big toe and the 2nd toe to add another toe!  Maybe Nike has an extra toe laying around?

Ah yes, the photo:



That somewhat horrifying gap between big and second toe makes my feet fairly prehensile (not quite opposable, however), with the ability to pick things up, open drawers, turn off lights, etc. It also makes my feet a "difficult fit" when it comes to shoes, unsurprisingly.

Short related story: I was doing a testing session at Nike a couple of years ago, they decided to do a 3-D scan of all our feet. So we trooped down to the "last room" -- where they make lasts for shoes, custom or otherwise -- and submitted to scanning. It was pretty routine until they got to me. The two lab guys were fascinated. As in, "Hey, Dave! Come and look at this!" Then they got distracted rummaging through their files trying to find a shoe last shape that'd actually FIT the shape of my foot. (The other test subjects looked confused, bored and then irritated with all the attention I was getting.)

The closest one they could find was the last for a discontinued version of the Nike Free (the 5.0 v4). So that meant, basically, that don't make a shoe for my foot shape. I could have told them that.

Oh! I just realized that you're seeing my left foot in the photo. The toe gap on my right foot is even more pronounced! (Told ya I was deformed.)

I sometimes wonder how well I'd have be able to run if my foot bones had actually pointed the standard directions. Still, I'm pretty satisfied how it's gone, considering.

So, I guess your mouth has adapted to your feet?

ounce wrote:So, I guess your mouth has adapted to your feet?

Yes, so it seems.

Band Sherpa: Walking, hauling gear. About 6.5 miles total.

Weather: Overcast at first, then lots of rain. 60s.

At the University of Oregon Festival of Bands, doing "pit crew" duty for Skyview High School.

I reprised my role as "conga man" -- delivering conga drums to the practice and playing venues from our band camp out in the middle of the parking lot at Autzen Stadium. All the pit (percussion) gear was on wheels -- except the conga drums, except when they were in their shipping crates. I got away with rolling them in that (not easy in a gravel parking lot, or on uneven sidwalks), but every other haul required the pick-up-and-carry technique.

The drums weigh about 30 pounds each, which doesn't sound like all that much... but when you're carrying them a half mile? They start to feel heavier. At times, I had a helper so only had to carry one. Other times, I was carrying one in each hand. That was more difficult, as was carrying them after my arm muscles had turned to jelly.

I've got bruises all around my knees where the screws that tighten the drum head kept hitting me as I carried them. (Carrying them away from the body works for a short distance only.)

When I was starting to have trouble double fisting the drums, a marimba player volunteered to spell me while I helped with the marimba. A couple of hundred yards later, I heard "So! Ready to switch back now?"


My nemesis. Well, one of them, anyway.

I tracked all our walking as we shuttled back and forth from the camp to the field and practice areas, and we probably did about 6.5 miles total during day. Thankfully, only about 1.6 of those miles involved carrying drums.

We had decent weather for about half the day, but rain came in during the evening and we all ended up soaked. Good thing we packed dry clothes for the 2-hour drive home!

All in all, quite an event... and a heck of workout.

One downside of playing conga sherpa (bet those two words have never been put together before) has become painfully evident in the past day. It takes the form of large bruises around my knees, thanks to the metal flange that holds the head on the drums, and the steel posts used to hold it in place. Carrying one in each hand meant those things kept bouncing off (or digging into) the side of my knees.

The result has been technicolor bruises on both legs and actual honest-to-gosh swelling on the outside of my right knee. I'm glad I know it's just a superficial soft-tissue injury, because it looks worse. Functionality is completely unimpaired. Still, I'm going to skip my run today and give my body a little more time to recovery. (My upper body is still pretty creaky, too. It's funny how fatigue makes things get heavier with time.)

Mark B wrote:One downside of playing conga sherpa (bet those two words have never been put together before) has become painfully evident in the past day. It takes the form of large bruises around my knees, thanks to the metal flange that holds the head on the drums, and the steel posts used to hold it in place. Carrying one in each hand meant those things kept bouncing off (or digging into) the side of my knees.

The result has been technicolor bruises on both legs and actual honest-to-gosh swelling on the outside of my right knee. I'm glad I know it's just a superficial soft-tissue injury, because it looks worse. Functionality is completely unimpaired. Still, I'm going to skip my run today and give my body a little more time to recovery. (My upper body is still pretty creaky, too. It's funny how fatigue makes things get heavier with time.)

WORKERS COMP!   WORKERS COMP!!!!!!

You should come up with some fancy moves with the congas to show to the band director.  After all, if Ricky Ricardo can do it, so can you.  Maybe get a couple of the students to beat on those congas with you in between them!  That'll make you forget your knee pain.

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:One downside of playing conga sherpa (bet those two words have never been put together before) has become painfully evident in the past day. It takes the form of large bruises around my knees, thanks to the metal flange that holds the head on the drums, and the steel posts used to hold it in place. Carrying one in each hand meant those things kept bouncing off (or digging into) the side of my knees.

The result has been technicolor bruises on both legs and actual honest-to-gosh swelling on the outside of my right knee. I'm glad I know it's just a superficial soft-tissue injury, because it looks worse. Functionality is completely unimpaired. Still, I'm going to skip my run today and give my body a little more time to recovery. (My upper body is still pretty creaky, too. It's funny how fatigue makes things get heavier with time.)

WORKERS COMP!   WORKERS COMP!!!!!!

You should come up with some fancy moves with the congas to show to the band director.  After all, if Ricky Ricardo can do it, so can you.  Maybe get a couple of the students to beat on those congas with you in between them!  That'll make you forget your knee pain.

What I *really* ought to do is start a fundraiser to by them a wheeled cart for the damned things.

So when I said functionality was "completely unimpaired," I was premature. I trotted down the driveway this evening and that side of my knee did NOT like anything about it. It didn't give out or anything, but it made sure I knew that wasn't a great idea at the moment.

Core/Calf Work

1 x 40 each, each side: clamshells, side leg lift, leg circles
3 x 10 each side: single-leg bridge dip
2 x 50 each side: single leg heel lift
1 x 5 minutes each side: single leg stance, less support this time

I approached this tentatively this morning: Not only am I still black and blue from my sherpa duties, but I also tweaked my back yesterday. So I didn't know if I'd be able to do it. As it turned out, I was. I did everything I usually do, though I cut back on my single-leg stance (I've been up to 8 minutes) in favor of trying to do more of it unsupported. I think the muscles are strong enough to make them more responsible for keeping me from toppling over.

Won't have time to walk this afternoon, so this will have to do it for the day.

Your tentativeness, the body's visual damage, and subsequent ability to execute reminds me of the Richard Pryor movie where his car and passengers gets lightly tapped in the rear by another car.  Pryor yells inside the car, "WHIPLASH!!!  Everybody's got WHIPLASH!!!!!

Well done, hey boy.

ounce wrote:Your tentativeness, the body's visual damage, and subsequent ability to execute reminds me of the Richard Pryor movie where his car and passengers gets lightly tapped in the rear by another car.  Pryor yells inside the car, "WHIPLASH!!!  Everybody's got WHIPLASH!!!!!

Well done, hey boy.

What is "California Suite"?

I'll take obscure Neil Simon ensemble comedies of the 1970s for $200, Alex...

(I much preferred the Pryor-Wilder duo myself.)

---

The "ability to execute" probably means that that whatever it is I tweaked is *not* something I've been strengthening in my core exercises. Which kind of makes sense, when you think about it. Still hurts to sit for an extended period. {sarcasm}Gosh, good thing I don't have a job that requires lots of sitting.{/sarcasm}

Anyway, the back should settle down soon. It always does. It'll give the area around my knees time to recover from the battering they took on Saturday. (I'd post photos but you really wouldn't want to see it.) I haven't been this bruised up since I studied karate back in college! It would have been no big deal if the bruising and swelling wasn't on a joint, but it is. It's just swollen and tender enough to make it uncomfortable when I load the knee while moving. Bah.

(Let's hear it for healing processes!)

Walk: 2.5 miles

Weather: Sunny/hazy. 50 degrees

A huge lunch at work inspired me to take a chance and find out if my tweaked back and battered knees would allow me to at least go out for a walk. They did! Woot! It was a beautiful autumn day, with nice views of a placid Columbia River framed by changing leaves. Nice.

Now that's an injury I don't believe has ever been mentioned on this site to date!

Glad it felt well enough to allow you to get out for a walk in the beautiful Autumn weather.

nkrichards wrote:Now that's an injury I don't believe has ever been mentioned on this site to date!

Glad it felt well enough to allow you to get out for a walk in the beautiful Autumn weather.

What? So you're saying that "conga drum contusions" are not listed among common injuries? Hm.

Well, at least I'm consistent with the oddball problems.

Yes, the weather is very pretty right now. Trying to get used to the cooler mornings (it was in the 30s today), so I may have to actually dig out gloves and tights and whatnot before too long. Quite the change! Still, after this slow-cooker of a summer we had, I'm glad for it.

Still erring on the side of caution, but I thought I'd put up a couple of photos that shows the location of my "conga contusions."



They don't look very impressive, I know. The one on the left (my right leg) isn't very discolored, but it's swollen in the muscle and tendon on the outside edge of my knee. The bruise on the top of my left calf is a bit more colorful and unfortunately goes into the muscle. You can't see it, but there's a bruise above the knee, too. Sheesh.

Combine those things with my tweaked lower back (last time I vacuum around the #$@! litter box that way...) and discretion seems the better part of valor right now. Even though it is gorgeous outside. Oh well. I'll get back out to play soon enough.

Poor baby.  Yeah, I can see that swelling and it'll take its sweet time reducing, too.  It's a shame "Hey, BOY!  Git me another beer, while I'm crippled!" doesn't work anymore.

Just think of all those muscle fibers healing and that incremental loss of being in shape causing your HR to spike, initially!!!

ounce wrote:Poor baby.  Yeah, I can see that swelling and it'll take its sweet time reducing, too.  It's a shame "Hey, BOY!  Git me another beer, while I'm crippled!" doesn't work anymore.

Just think of all those muscle fibers healing and that incremental loss of being in shape causing your HR to spike, initially!!!

Suppose so. It was kind of good timing for me to get that lower back/upper butt (?) spasm, because it's keeping me from experimenting too much. Probably better to heal, though I'm starting to climb. the. walls.

Trail Run: 3.34 miles

Weather: Autumn! Party cloudy, cool and damp. 47° Gear: Lone Peaks, shorts, T, jacket, hat.

It's been more than a week since my last run, thanks to me battering my ITB with a conga drum last weekend. It's still bruised and swollen, but I had to give it a shot. I headed to the trusty woods, where I had the ability to cut things short if needed... and where I found a new sorta-secret secret single-track trail! I say sorta secret because it's on a map ... but it's on a map you can only find deep in the heart of the forest. Gotta love that.

Anyway, the trail was littered with branches and patches of mud, and lined with holly and ferns, so I ended up muddy and a little dinged up. When I got back to the main trail, it felt like a superhighway.

My ITB started to make itself known after a while, so I decided it was time to call it good and not push my luck. My bruised up calf on my other leg (conga drum again) and tweaked back (note to self: let somebody else do the vacuuming under the stairs) were fine. Whew!

Walked first and last 5 minutes. Average HR for entire run: 128

A couple of photos from the exploration:









Nice to get out there again.

Walk: 2.6 miles

Weather: Overcast, cool, breezy. 46°

A walk along the Columbia River, with a real sense of November in the air.

Earlier in the day, did core work. (1x40 each, each side: clamshells, side leg lifts, circles; 3 x 10 each side, single-leg dips.) Didn't get a chance to do calf work.

We haven't had temps less than 51, yet, with 72 degrees seem to be the upper threshold, now.  56-64 is the average range.  76 is a seasonal high.

Are y'all enjoying El Nino rains?

Good to see you're out and about again.  Enjoy the weather and the scenery.  I have a feeling winter is on it's way...

Oh, and nice job on the core work.

Walk: 1.5 miles

Weather: Partly cloudy, cool. 54 degrees.

Didn't have much time at lunch but needed to get outside. I'm very much enjoying this new area they opened up near my office that gives access to the Columbia River. It used to be a mill, but it's been cleared away and prepped for some fancy-schmancy waterfront development.

ounce wrote:We haven't had temps less than 51, yet, with 72 degrees seem to be the upper threshold, now.  56-64 is the average range.  76 is a seasonal high.

Are y'all enjoying El Nino rains?

We've had a touch of frost on the roofs already, but nothing significant. That'll come soon enough. We've been getting some decent rain, which is nice, and temperatures low enough to start putting some snow up at high elevation, which is better.

El Nino is fine by me, as long as it's not too warm. We need snow in the mountains, and not just for the skiers.

nkrichards wrote:Good to see you're out and about again.  Enjoy the weather and the scenery.  I have a feeling winter is on it's way...

Oh, and nice job on the core work.

Thanks, Nancy! It's nice to get moving again. Crossing my fingers on winter.