Thursday, October 7, 2010

Let’s get this goin’ again

Wednesday night I got on the bike trainer. It was the first time on the bike in 2 months, and really the first leg workout in 5 weeks. As you would imagine, it wasn’t very impressive. You have to start somewhere and for me it was 30 minutes of spinning followed by 15 minutes of ankle exercises. I was wondering if the ankle was going to disagree with the biking. I think if I pushed harder it may have been a different story but as it turns out, it was no worse for the wear. So it looks like I’m going to start putting on some miles on the bike.

I may try running this weekend. The ankle is definitely improving. I don’t feel the tendon roll unless I make a quick turn or a strong push off. I’m still hopeful that eventually that will stop happening. The doctor last week seemed confident that it would but did say that I should come back if it’s still an issue in another 4-6 weeks.

So what to do about the NYC marathon? Part of me thinks I should attempt to get onto some sort of running plan and see how it goes the next 3 weeks. Heck, my ankle might let me know it’s not possible after a couple of runs. I guess my thought is I’ve got my entry, if I can run without doing any damage it is worth doing. Because who knows if I’ll be around to run it next year.

The other part of me thinks what a waste of time. I’m not at my goal weight, or fitness. (I was dying at yoga Monday night) So really it’s kind of a throwaway race. Can I enjoy that? Or am I wasting the “magic” of the NYC Marathon crowd, or the fact that you only get one “First” marathon. Do I want to run it this under-trained?

I don’t know but that’s what’s been going through my mind lately.

My momentum of getting back into swimming has been quashed by the fact that the water at the pool destroys my sinuses every time. Last Friday, it took me almost 18 hours and about 6-8 uses of the neti pot to get back to feeling normal. I think we are going to look up the other pool’s schedule. Until they change the water in this pool, I think I’m going to have a problem. (it’s been over a year since they’ve changed the water, not sure when it will happen).

This break from training has been interesting. I’ve discovered a few things these last 5 weeks. I had thought that the reason I feel asleep on the train so often was because of all the training. Turns out it’s me just following in the footsteps of my father and grandfather’s anytime naps.

I also found it odd that I am finding it harder to wake up only to get a shower, than it was to go swim or run.

Dialing back the eating took way longer than it should have. It’s tough to change gears that quickly.

I am someone that likes to be doing something all the time. So here I had all this “free” time, I tried to fill it with things I liked doing in the past. Poker, Reading, Stocks, Photography… I still enjoy all those things but what I noticed was that those things were not as relaxing to me as a workout. It’s because those things aren’t giving me a mental break. I guess during a workout, I get to zone out and just focus on the physical aspect of life. Perhaps it’s much like meditation?

Well, I’d like to think this is the start of getting back onto a regular schedule but I’m probably getting ahead of myself. Let’s just see how things go.

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