Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 131)

Allison.....I totally agree!  We are about the same pace and I averaged an 8 min/mi at my half mary in May.  Mile 8 was the magical mile when I had to start concentrating on keeping my pace.  I can't wait to see how you do!!!!

Ha ha ha!!!!  Seriously, duct tape is the best stuff EVER!  I don't have a picture.  It's not cold for me yet.  Just pull out the insole of your cycling shoe and put duct tape over any holes you find in the bottom.  Replace your insole.  Easy peasy! 

Brenda thanks for early anniversay wishes and asking about the taper. So far I am on target as far as my taper goes. All systems are a go for this weekend. It will be my first HIM and I am pretty excited about doing the race and spending a few days out there with my wife. I feel great, my mind is in the right place and I am ready to do this. I will control what I can not worry about the things I can't control and just have fun on Sunday. Hopefully it will be enjoyable day.

I hope you enjoy your dinner and time spent with your family today.

Tracy thanks for the cold weather riding gear tips. The duct tape tip is a good one. Will have to check out the Gore apparel too but will probably take a pass on the pink socks

Karl just because I grew up in Michigan doesn't mean I can stand the cold.    Seriously, I have been asked often that question of "didn't you grow up in Michigan?!" because I always have on layers when others don't.  I prefer hot weather to cold. Which is why I don't really like the fall, because it means cold weather is coming!!!  I can't really compete with Tracy's cold weather advice but for me, it's layers.

On a different note, the scary people mentioned reminded me of advice I once received from a resident Detroiter.  It may not pertain to the situation Tracy mentioned, but thought I'd mention it anyway.  This Detroit teacher told me that if you're walking down the street (obviously this is in regards to when you're feeling like you're in a less safe area or you see a scary-ish looking person), always make eye contact with the people who are walking towards you.  If they see that you are avoiding looking at them, they could see it as an opportunity to get you (my words) since you are seemingly not seeing what their actions are until it's too late.  I don't know if it really does deter a potential situation from happening, but because of who the advice is coming from, I've always kept it in mind.

Oh.....come on!  You know you want to rock the pink socks! 

I think that is very good safety advice.  I always do that.  I even asked the scary people if they needed help so I could get a good look at them.  I still shuddering.  Blech!

Tracy I would do them no justice at all and I'm sure you look much better in them then I ever could.

Karl that may be true. I know for IMNY the wristbands given to the volunteers to sign up for 2013 were transferable. The only catch was that you had to register in person. I checked the site and they usually don't put that info up until race week.

This is a very good thing to do.  I also suggest that people walk with their heads up and make eye contact because the would be thief/perp will be less likely to accost someone that can identify them readily.  Also walking with your head up display confidence in yourself and can send a message to the would be attacker that you will not go down easily, and they typically aren't looking for a fight.  Rather, they are looking for easy pickings.

I like Brenda's idea of carrying pepper spray for the added safety for you ladies.  I feel confident that the chump that attacked the runner this past weekend would not have had quite as much courage had a guy been running through there.  I actually run the area the lady was attacked in for every long run I have done over the past 3 years and it is pretty secluded but not so much so that there isn't any foot traffic there.

In the end if they catch this moron I say castrate him! 'Nuff said!

I would love to do this if it were next year.  Meaning to race in 2014.  That should be about where I would like to enter the IM world.  That would also make me get my training for IM in line whit where it should be.  My plan has been for a while to wait until at least 2014 before training and racing IM so I could get my girls into college and have more personal time and not take away from them.

I sounds like you have what Tracy had a short time ago.  I would advise that if you can, you get out and do whatever you can despite having a bug.  You should keep it light and easy for sure but it may be something you can work through.  Do routes close to home so you can ditch the WO if you have to.  Obviously get plenty of rest and move to a different neighborhood to do so.

You are getting pretty close to the critical point of training that time off is going to have big problems.

That's too bad you're having surgery for a couple of reasons.  I know you have been planning this second surgery for a year now but it seems like the time between your surgeries has been really fast.  Hopefully this one will go as well as the last one and you'll be back to swimming and running ASAP.

The other reason it's too bad is that we just booked a room on I-65 just east of Columbia for Oct 2 for one night.  I would have loved to meet you in person too.  Lis and I planned to drive to at least Nashville on Tuesday night of next week but I wanted to be just a little farther past the rush traffic we could encounter in the Nashville area in the morning as we head farther south.  As we head back north toward the Smokey Mountains we will be veering toward Chattanooga at Birmingham and won't get back toward Columbia again.

I do have a question for you though;  When you were rehabbing your other shoulder you couldn't run but you did some work on the treadmill walking inclines, could you describe that one more time.  I am looking at doing some thing like that for a week or so to help rehab my heel so I can reduce the impact of running and I thought it might be a good way to keep the weight off of it and maintain some level of run fitness. 

Jeff good luck w/ your shoulder!  What did you do to it?  How long will you be out of commission?

Jo, I hope you get better soon.  My wife had the same thing, several rounds of antibiotics, finally a breathing treatment and some type of steroids finally did the trick.

We had a security class and if someone comes close to you and you just don't feel comfortable, one trick they old us is to ask them how there mother is doing.  Tell them you haven't seen her in several years etc etc..  This will make them think 1. you are friends w/ their mother and 2. you will be able to ID them.

JoAnne I'm sorry to hear that you are still under the weather. I hope you are feeling better soon so you can back to your training for the MCM.

Jeff good luck with the shoulder surgery next week. I hope that goes well and hope you are not sidelined that long.

If it weren't that one particular day, I would be able to see you!  Oh well, next year perhaps.

My treadmill routine: 

get the walk speed up to the fastest walk you can maintain before something has to give and you need to break in to a jog.  I find it's between 4-4.5 mph.  Walk that a minute or two to become acclimated to the brisk pace.

Then begin to add incline.  Add it in stages until you are uncomfortable (but mildly!).  You will notice your HR goes through the roof.  Much higher than you see when running, yet you aren't nearly as winded.

I've done either 4mph at 15% or 4.5mph at 15% for 30-60 minutes at a time, and seen 160 for the duration.  You will feel the work being done by the calves and glutes in a way that running never does and I have to think that will be good for your speed in a sprint and for great power if/when doing short bursts of up hill running.  Note I'm not claiming you will run faster 5ks or 10ks.

A note about your heel.  If it's plantar's fasciitis, walking an incline could aggravate it.  Because you stretch it when the heel is down and the toe is up, then you strain it as you lift the heel and stand on the toes. 

But other times PF seems to be more about the pressure on it, than the stretch across the fascia.  If that's your case, then this may not hurt you at all.

The only thing unusual about the way you describe your pain is that PF will almost always feel most painful in the morning when you step out of bed.  And if you run, the pain goes away and doesn't generally come back later in the run at all, just after you stop.

I have another bit of advice for you.  One of my saving graces was this product I'm going to link to.  A coworker of mine has been dealing with PF for about 6 months and I finally convinced him to try these and see if they helped and he has raved about how much they have helped.  So, it may also be helpful for you. http://www.superfeet.com/activity/office/Men_s_3_4.aspx

Yes, they are hard plastic.  But they are amazing.  Whatever shoes you wear to work all day, remove the insoles and put these in.  Or if you don't want to spend $ on something that might not work, I can send mine to you in the mail.  I'm not having PF problems anymore so can spare them for you.  I never ran with these, but running didn't really trigger my PF, it was my day-to-day walking/standing.  Even though they are hard plastic and 3/4 length and are not marketed for use when running, I think they could actually be worn that way as long as the shoe was snugged up properly.  Your choice.

I tore my rotator cuff at least 10 years ago when I was doing heavy duty training in the weight room as well as boxing.  Too much for my shoulders.  The tear was painful for about a year but then got better and I've been living with a partial tear since then.  I also have inpingement in the tendon space in the shoulder.  It feels reasonably fine and I can certainly live with it like this, but it makes weird sounds when I do certain movements and it will only sit there being a ticking time bomb until some time in my 50s or 60s.  So since I'm still young enough to make a 100% recovery, I'm going to have it done now.  The surgeon will cut out bone from my shoulder that will create a nice open space for the tendon to travel through and will reattach the torn portion of the tendon to my humerus.

I'm out of commission for 6 months.  But that's the Dr's official thing.  What that means is that the tendon won't be fully reattached to the bone for 6 months.  Then I can do nearly anything safely.  Until that time I need to watch it.  So beginning at 3 months, I will segue from the rehab exercises in to light weight training....and I mean really light.  And will ramp that up from months 3-6 to full strength training.

I'm also under orders not to run or ride a bike outside for those 6 months because a fall could tear the tendon loose.  And after tearing the tendon loose you won't have 100% recovery.  There's 1 shot to have that full recovery then not so much...because the tendon keeps getting shorter and shorter each time as they trim away frayed tendon.

But as I did last time, I will ride the spin bike with my sling on as soon as I can stand to get myself dressed and to the gym. 

As soon as the bandages are off and I can get the incisions wet, I will go to swim practice and grab a lane next to the swimmers and just kick for an hour.  Last time I was actually swimming freestyle by 3 months and competed in a swim meet then.  Dr. didn't know!

As for running....once I realized that all his dire warnings against running were based on the fear of a fall, I began running with my arm in the sling.  I've got a lot of practice on a treadmill and as long as I'm not on the pain meds, I will be steady and won't fall.  And even when I am on the pain meds, I can run on a track because the surface is smooth with nothing to trip over.

So all in all, I should miss 2 weeks of training and about that time begin to introduce spinning, kicking and incline walking...with running starting around the 4th week.  That's if there are no complications.  Last time I was at the 1 week mark and got hit with a violent episode of vertigo that was followed by flu-like something and I was in bed a full 3 weeks.

I LOVE Superfeet!  I've been using them in my running shoes for years!  They are hard but you don't even notice them after a few days.

I agree.  I does sound similar to what I had.  That illness really wiped out my energy.  That's why I decided to write off September and just do workouts as I felt enough energy to do them.  I'm slowly building back up but not because I'm specifically try to.  I just feel better each time I do a workout and add about 5 or so minutes each time.  My cycling is the only thing I'm doing intensely.

Dirk....since your bringing up the "critical point of training" in regards to time off....what is the magic number weeks of downtime that prevents you from getting back to training at a similar level to where you left off?  (Did that question make sense?)

Dirk, did you see the feature in today's USAT e-newsletter??  Treating heel pain!

http://www.usatriathlon.org/about-multisport/multisport-zone/multisport-lab/articles/self-treatment-heel-pain-092512.aspx

This board is always so busy on weekdays.  I have a hard time keeping up on Monday and Tuesdays when I'm not at a computer all day. 

Jo, I hope you feel better soon.  I can't believe you're still feeling yucky.  I talked to one of the ENT docs around here, and he said that most of the stuff going around right now is viral (so antibiotics won't help) and that it's lasting up to three months.  Get lots of rest and take in lots of fluids.  Let's hope this passes quickly!

Jeff, good luck with the surgery.  It sounds like you have your recovery planned out very well.  I'm sure that you'll be faster than ever when you return. 

Thanks for all of the support and advice for my race this weekend.  I can't believe it's only 4 days away.  I'm getting so nervous.  I'll let you guys know how it goes.