back in the saddle again

well, the four fractured bones in my left hand are healing nicely and physical therapy is going pretty darn well. my therapist said a week ago that i could ride whenever i felt i was able. having been on the trainer on my cross bike just a few days earlier i knew i wasn't ready for that bike (shifting was quite painful).

it occurred to me last week that i might be able to ride my mountain bike with it's SRAM grip shifters so yesterday i took advantage of the wife and son being gone to assemble the bike in the 90 degree mid-day heat! went pretty smoothly and i took it for a short spin into town and back to the house.

let me tell you, it was *great* to be back on a bike with the wind on my face...

did a little iphone app dev learning when i got back then, after learning the family would be out and about for a while longer i decided to throw on the bike gear and take a proper ride - back to the scene of the crime (injury). you know what they say about falling off the horse and getting right back up again. in this case i thought it fitting since i have never had any injury that impacted my daily life as much as these broken bones in my hand.

went on the same route to water dog lake park and with my heart rate higher than it should have been for my effort, rode right across the bridge that caused me so much grief. with fat tires it was no problem and i finally to go hit the awesome switchback uphill singletrack i was heading to on my cross bike last time...

figured i'd take it easy and just do a perimeter ride, avoiding too many uphills/downhills or really technical terrain. well, it was longer than i thought but it was a blast. hand was tired today but that's physical therapy! ;-)

coming back from overuse injury

after breaking my hand on my first ride back on the bike during the TDF i eventually took up running again and started to really enjoy it again. so much so that, in typical jeff fashion, i overdid it and ended up with two overuse injuries.

that was three weeks ago. three weeks of moody, weight gaining, too much beer drinking agony. well yesterday i got back on the treadmill - determined to be very moderate in my running program to avoid injuries: http://slowgeek.com/ru/jnichols959/1611364535

baby steps back: eliptical trainer

Tendinitis has improved but I'm not yet 100%. Really need to get some
exercise so I went into the gym and tried the eliptical trainer. Turns
out those things are harder to user than I thought!

Anyway, got into a groove and was able to get my heart rate up above
80% but man was it boring! Now I know why those folks plug into the
tv feeds...

injury leads to (gasp) swimming laps

Lots of drama since my last post... Injury and the inevitable search for a substitute form of exercise. This injury was my left Achilles tendon and it got pretty bad before I got my chiropractor (and masseus) working on it.

Months later and we're still "stripping the calf" (read: intense painful deep tissue massage on a tender set of muscles) and things are getting better.

Got so desperate as I saw my three months of hard work fading away (losing some of the 15 lbs. I lost on the treadmill) that I even considered a personal trainer to set me up with a weight training schedule... In the end I signed up for a masters swimming class at a pool by my work. Hardest exercise I've done in a long, long, long time...

Might end up doing some elliptical trainer along with it to burn more calories. My form needs some work before I can really maximize my workout in a group laps setting. :-(

And then my buddy Jay Watson gets back on the bike for real (gasp!) and I'm tempted to fuck with my calf recovery just to burn some calories in a way I'm comfortable with!

We'll see what happens...

running 2009.01.24

Sat 2009.01.24 - 50 minutes (5-6 miles?)

did an easy run through downtown san jose. am not used to running on anything but a treadmill really... it was nice in it's own way but different, and i imagine my pace was not as consistent as it is on the treadmill (duh).

not knowing really how far i went brings up the issue of tracking my runs. i haven't even looked into that kind of gear really... have nikes now so i considered that Nike+ thing only to realize it doesn't work with my iPhone (WTF?!?!). a quick glance at "running watches" seems to indicate you can easily spend a few hundred dollars - sigh...

running 2009.01.23

Fri 2009.01.23 - 5 miles

my left achilles was still hurting but i had a hint that it might be getting better after only two runs NOT using my wacky asics nimbus 10 shoes with the tilted left heel cup (don't think it was the shoe design, just a defect in the left shoe). time will tell but i'm very hopeful. i'm also amazed that i'm no longer maintaining or gaining any blisters with my nike zoom vromen 3's (or whatever they're called). for whatever reason i never thought nike made "serious" athletic shoes other than basketball. thinking now it was clearly some wacky old bias i had...

did a "short" 40 minute run with my newly shortened 3 minute warmup and 5 minute cooldown. standard 10 minutes at 6.3 mph (~9:30 mile) then decided to just stick to my sustainable 7.1 mph (~8:30 mile). i noticed that longer strides seemed to stress my achilles a bit so i just took it easy. i also noticed that i can comfortable do a faster rate "shuffle" type thing with shorter strides and it is still comfortable. wouldn't work at 8 mph or above but it was interesting to try.

running 2009.01.22

Thu 2009.01.22 - 5.2 miles - "new shoes"

had a post i wanted to do but family drama makes me want to throw my computer across the room.

so i ran on the treadmill and the new shoes are nice. for now.

weight control plan #173: running

what is it with guys and their weight? i feel like this is the type of thing that only women worried about back in the day. well, it seems guys are more image conscious these days and i have a whole (poorly used) blog about it so go figure...

in any case i've been busy with work and the family. my riding has been neglected and i'm okay with that. it was a matter of priorities and i made a conscious decision to not ride if i couldn't ride as much as i wanted to.

well, now i've put on a few pounds (maybe 25!) and i just can't take it.

enter running.

i ran a bit in high school and here and there since then. i actually really like it - but i always get hurt. moderation in sports is not a great strength of mine and running - particularly as you get older - seems to require it for most folks.

so, i've been back out pounding the pavement, errr, uh, the treadmill (gasp!) and am really enjoying it. i started to lose some weight and feel better about my body. i've already collected a number of stories around it but, for now, i want to start "logging" my runs here.

i think a record will be good down the line so i'm starting now and i'll try to back-fill some of the startup stories and problems as i go.

got motivated to lose some pounds before the impending maui trip...

rode my cross bike in the hills of los gatos (st. joseph's hill and kennedy trail) last saturday for about two and a half hours. i was slow but heck, i put no pressure on myself and just enjoyed it.

then on sunday (father's day) we took an impromptu trip up to my sister's house in petaluma where i snuck out for about two hours and went to Helen Putnam Park which was tiny but still beautiful and good for a fatty like me :)



then on monday i rode in to work. felt beat down but just trying to burn calories.

rode in again today and was dog-ass slow. i've been eating less and eating better. less beer too. less calories at night. in the end i really think that was the biggest reason for my lack of energy to get into work in any reasonable amount of time...

but hey, this is not some optimized training regime, it's caloric WAR!