Training going fine. Celiac Run soon...

This morning I was up early and went for a 55 minute walk/run. My knee walks fine now, and I can run on it a bit. I still have a 'hitch in my giddy-yup' as they say, but it irons out more and more as I work on it.

A week ago I was in Wisconsin for a family reunion. I was able to hold the bronze medal one of my relatives won in Beijing. That was inspiring, and it helped me through my 2 1/2 hour workout (mostly walking) there. The cooler weather didn't hurt either.

The Celiac Awareness Run/Walk is coming up soon, soon, soon. I'm looking forward to spreading the word.

Three Sport Day

The doctor cleared me to run (just on the treadmill) yesterday! I made it a goal to run today. Pretty funny. Day started at the pool, because my son wanted to go swimming. After we came back and had lunch, I cleared out the garage, dug out the treadmill, and plugged it in.

I honestly didn't know how it was going to go. I "ran" one mile in 19:10. I thought my knee was pretty tired at that point, so I stopped. Long way to go.

Then I realized I could make it a three sport day, so I went upstairs and rode a bit.

It feels so good to be back in the swing of things. It's been so long.

Lows and Highs - Independence Day for Celiacs...

With marathon training season upon us in Houston, this Celiac was feeling a little down as I tried to schedule my July 20 appointment for post operation review. Every time I had, the scheduling screen did not show up, leading to delays while the clinic staff consulted with the tech support, etc. I told them that not running was absolutely killing me (see my post on the Ironman).

Finally, the answer was that the doctor was going on vacation, until the 29th. Three hours of "Oh no..." and then - "If you can come in tommorrow, he'll see you." Sweet - please pray I get cleared for at least jogging.

In other big developments - The rumor is that Jason's Deli will roll out gluten free bread system wide! This weekend! I'm so excited - the only thing is that you have to ask for the special prep area. Happy July 4th.

Almost Straight...

It's been exactly a month since the surgery and my knee is almost back to being able to be straight. That's important, because if my knee can be straight, it can lock and support my weight through the skeleton instead of using my weak muscles.

The trend is generally very good. Tiredness is no longer a general concept. There's upper body (rare), lower body (more frequent), hurt leg (pretty frequent) and supporting muscles (very frequent). Bicycling seems to help a lot

The surgeon cleared me Friday to be in the pool (yay) and do aquajogging (yay, but he did give me a funny look on that question). I have just six little cuts/holes around my knee, and all the steri-strips are off now. The worst thing on Friday was that he reiterated the four months to jogging on the street/trails. That would have me waiting to be on the road until July 25.

I've really eased off the Tylenol - none so far today in fact.

My body has put on a few pounds, which I anticipated because of my solution to the nausea, but now would like to see melt away. Of course, nothing "melts away" - so it's diet and exercise for me. I really miss exercising outdoors. I was built to move, and this approach lacks camaraderie and actual moving through space. Maybe that yearning will ease up when I start swimming again.

Resolution Run 5K in 24:23

My wife spotted a midnight 5k on the news that had fireworks, so of course I had to go run in it. Never mind that my legs were not recovered from the 21 miler and I have a marathon coming up. Did I mention fireworks?

A front came through right before 2010 and made its appearance by slightly chilling temps to 52 degrees and then boosting a 25 mph wind out of the North. It was a dark and stormy night... Seriously.

The run was brisk and cold, and I pushed very hard at the end. (Ask me about a funny story there sometime...)

Anyway, the result was 24:23 - not my best time, but there was some speculation that the course was measured to the curb and not to the middle of the road -- some GPS watches had us running 5.5k - a full 10% farther.

Weirdly, there were some really fast runners in the crowd. I eventually figured out they were running to set a time. So I guess that for a few hours at least, I had one of the top ten fastest times in my age group for the state of Texas in 2010. Well - it was good Christmas present while it lasted.

Met a Celiac on a 21 miler today

What are the odds of that?

That's the longest run before the Houston Marathon. Kinda glad its over.

Annual Goal Setting today

Usually toward the end of the year, I tend to get a bit contemplative and evaluate my life. The idea is that I just want to make sure my Christian values are lined up with what I am doing on a day to day basis, and that I am doing the things I love.

This year has been quite odd in that the mood struck me much earlier than the usual Christmastime/New Years. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the new job(s). Or it might be that we just came off our family vacations (Disneyworld!). Or that my training is ahead of schedule and I am doing the mileage now that I would normally be doing in December. Or perhaps it is because we successfully completed another Celiac Awareness Run/Walk a few weeks ago.

Whatever the reasons, it is a very good exercise to be clear about what one wants to do and what one does not want to do. I have found it especially useful to have priorities about those "to-do's." The biggest differences between this year and those prior are the sharpness of focus and priorities. I also have fewer specific goals and more goals focused around process. This year, I hope to think (and analyze) less and do more.

Revisited Soccer Last weekend

When I was in high school and college, I really loved the sport of soccer. I haven't played hard for a long time, until last week. Our church put together a festival for the Hispanic festival and I signed up. Fun.

Of course, the next day, I found muscles that I hadn't used in a long time. Still fun.

Yesterday, I made sure I took my first opportunity to get a flu shot -- not the swine flu one, just the seasonal one. It always knocks me back a step, but I figure it is good insurance against something worse, especially around race time. I was feeling a little bummed lately that I've been pretty distracted and my training has suffered, but my wife pointed out that I am well ahead of schedules from previous years, when I haven't been nearly as serious. That made me feel better.

Adjusted to the heat

My body has finally adjusted to the heat. It's still blasted hot to go running here in Houston, but at least the sun plays less of a role. This morning I did four miles with some hill work in the middle. Although my shirt and shorts were soaked through by the time I got home, at least it was a reasonable round trip.

I have a small swimming success to note. Yesterday at the pool, I did a push off and went nearly the length of the (25M) pool, underwater using a dolphin kick. I was on my side and noted that I was passing people. It's definitely faster than swimming on the surface. There is so much about swimming that is completely counterintuitive. I don't do every push off that well, but I figure if it happened once, it could happen again.

California = Triathlon Mecca

I recently traveled to California. The first night that I was in Carlsbad, I realized why this area has so many triathletes. I took a run down to the beach. The weather was about 70 degrees with moderate humidity, and it stayed that way at night for the next two weeks. Unbelievable! I was about a half mile from the beach, and every day there were people enjoying the sun and surf. By the middle of the stay, I enjoyed trying to learn to surf. (I did more falling than surfing, but I think I have the basics down). And then I did an open water swim with the San Diego Tri Club -- fun fun.

About Tuesday of the second week, I realized I had been going hard every day for over a week, so I took two days off. It was so nice there. Then I came back to Houston, where it was over 100 degrees every day. Let's just say that over the last week or so my body has told me in no uncertain terms it would rather be where the temperature doesn't top 85. The schedule is out the window. I still need to adjust to the heat, but I'm doing longer and longer stints outdoors. Maybe I can try to get back on schedule this week.

Started Marathon Training today...

I recovered so well from the 5k on Saturday that I decided to start my marathon training early. I was going back over my training log and realized that I wanted to drop some serious time off of my marathon this year. If I use the pace calculator, my 5k times would translate to a very good improvement, so I've figured that the best way to go the distance would be to start the program and then take "backup" weeks if the training became to hard on me. It will leave me with about 4 or five times where I can take a break from the schedule if need be, but still be ready in January.

Swam downhill on National Running Day

Yesterday was National running day, but it made more sense to focus most of my workout efforts on swimming. The workout was bike to the Y, short run on the treadmill (just to say I did), go to masters swimming, and then bike home.

We were working on breast stroke technique yesterday. I like to use breaststroke in triathlons sometimes, because you can get a really good view in an open water swim if conditions are rough or sighting is difficult. I thought I was pretty good at that stroke, but during the drills, the coach came up to me and said, "Michael, you are very flat in the water, which is good, but I want you to try something. On your entry, really push your shoulders into the water, like 8-12 inches under. It's not permanent, but I want you to try."

I'd been getting across in 7 strokes or so, and as soon as a tried it, I dropped to 5. Huge.

There are two ways to get faster in swimming - technique and yards. Technique is more fun.

Now if I could just get a tight flip turn...

Should ear drops for swimmer's ear be gluten-free?

I haven't been posting for awhile, because after I started swimming again, my increased efforts resulted in a truly nasty bout of swimmer's ear. Very painful - very annoying - very tiring. So I was back out of the pool for a couple of weeks. Here's what I learned:

• I should have been using earplugs to keep out the water
• I should have used a half vinegar/half rubbing alcohol solution and dropped that in my ears before and after the workout. Evidently, the vinegar is the correct PH while the alcohol kills the infections before they get started.
  
• q-tips can irritate your ear canal, so don't go there
  
• Antibiotic ear drops were, bizarrely, very hard to acquire, resulting in an extra day of totally unnecessary pain
• I really didn't care if my ear drops were gluten free or not (but should I?)

That extra day of pain reminds me of the (thankfully infrequent) times when I am absolutely miserable and am asking a pharmacist if the medication is gluten-free or not. You'd think that this information would be readily available, but it isn't, and it's especially aggravating on the weekends when the manufacturer is closed.

It makes me wonder when the pharmaceutical industry is going to wake up on this topic -- probably not until people start reporting adverse reactions...

Anyway, I'm thrilled to be back in the water today.

Swimming more lately

I've started hitting the pool a lot more lately. I've joined up with a masters swim program and am trying to make it to the workouts more frequently than I did in the past. The noon workouts used to be pretty inconvenient for my schedule, but are less so now. I've already learned a few tricks to lower my stroke count, and I'm building water endurance. Win win.

Awesome celiac/run day.

I had a good chat today with one of my friends in the Celiac Awareness business. We talked about various strategies and tactics to get doctors more likely to diagnose Celiac. It was a great call.

For my run, it wasn't an auspicious start - I barely had the energy to get out the door and mostly walked to the track. Somewhere, I learned it was a good strategy to just get out the door, and then just try to walk, then jog, then run, then do the workout. That worked today, despite a late start and an initially tired start. I was supposed to run 2 miles twice at 8:34 pace, but it seemed easy. My last mile was probably around 7:50, and I finished not breathing hard. Now if I just ice my legs and get to sleep, the day will have ended up pretty good.

Old school/New school

I'm preparing for a half marathon on Friday, but I got reacquainted with the Nordic Trak today. I had a "honey do list" sort of day, and by the time it was time to run, it was too late to go out to the Y or even hit the pavement (tornado warning/thunderstorms passing through). I keep a Nordic Trak from the early nineties around to do low impact workouts. I haven't been on it seriously in years, but tonight was the right night. That's the old school workout.

The new school workout is that I got a Wii Fit for my birthday. I love it, especially those balance games I am absolutely terrible at. The yoga has been a regular feature for about a month now and I've started adding in the strength workouts. I'm making progress.

Sleep deficit

The Summer Olympics are over and it's time to get back on a regular sleep schedule. Training has been nice and boring, which is exactly how I like it. No injuries, no problems, just steady progress. I felt very good for a nine-miler on Saturday.

4 miles fast

Nice, crisp 4 mile run today. GIG newsletter came, too.

I think my offseason is over

Lately, I've really been itching to get back on a regular workout scheme. Last night, I was free on a Wednesday for the first time in a long time. I was bored, so I created a running workout schedule. I guess I'll be starting that up with some more biking.

My GIG Celiac Conference note came in the mail today, too.

Finished 6 week program last night

Last night, I finished a 6 week training program that was on Wednesday nights. It was put on by the local bicycle shop and was a good core workout, a little spin work and followed by a quick run through the park. The weather was nice and cool, making the run one of the most enjoyable I've had in a long time -- nothing like my 54 mile bike, 2 mile run brick workout on Saturday.

One of the things I didn't elaborate on in the last posting that maybe I should have is this concept of being "solid." After I was diagnosed and starting feeling better, I started feeling more solid. It showed up in funny ways. I would accidentally break things, like tree branches or furniture, that I bumped into or kicked (where before they had always won, and I ended up hopping around with a bruise).

Last night, as I was out running, I saw a new picture of what this "solid" feeling was like -- and it involved less weight and more core strength. I know it's pretty vague, but I thought I'd share because I think its a good result.