injury & recovering.

July of 2022 and after nearly two and a half years of generally slouching, working from home, catching (and mostly recovering from) COVID, discovering a knee injury, and slugging out a lazyaf training plan (just barely) with the excuse that world had gone to shit, I decided I needed to turn it around. For reals.

This is what I am doing to get some...

active feets.

... a kinda blog about healing, restoration and recovery.
1 year ago

I hate being a guy who obsesses about weight.

Almost ten years ago we went on a trip to Disneyland and while I've never been a slim guy, the photos of me that showed up in our vacation album were the last straw (in a greasy fast food bag full of straws) to lose some weight.

Over three months of careful eating and methodical exercise and dedicated tracking of it all, I dropped twenty pounds. (Then I dipped another ten or so while doing some hardcore marathon training, though that ten promptly came back a few weeks after the race ended.)

But that twenty stayed off... for about six years.

Then the pandemic hit.

My running slowed. I worked from home and the combination of walking less, running less, working long stressful hours on pandemic communications for the government, and snacking though the stress of it... well, I gained back about ten of those pounds in six months.

Steady again for another year or so, but... knee injury.

Not being able to run and cranking the stress and snacking against the lack of exercise yet again... another ten pounds.

So here I am, in early January with a Marathon eight months away and...

I need to drop about twenty pounds.  Not for vanity. Not to fit into my expensive suit which I bought in my "thin" phase.  Not to look better in vacation photos (tho that is an added benefit.)

Rather, I need to drop twenty pounds to spare my joints the added strain from upcoming marathon training. For my health. For my confidence to do those long distances. For my heart and my lungs and my blood pressure and my I'm-not-getting-any-younger body.  For my knee, if for no other reason.

"Studies have shown that each heel strike produces a force that is equal to 3 - 4 times your bodyweight." So, that extra twenty pounds equates to 80 pounds of force applied to my knee with every step.  That's significant.

A much as there are a million diet advice websites out there (and this is not intending to be one) there is just one method that works (and that most diets are just trying to simplify or subcontract or outsource) ... willpower.

You need to eat less energy and/or you need to burn more energy, and you need to make all the decisions, everyday for months and months until your body, which has no intention of changing from steady-state, is overcome by the force of your mind and willpower.

So, that's where I am. I am making myself accountable. I am tracking my goals. I am setting boundaries on what I consume and I am making deliberate choices about movement, exercise and using energy day-by-day.

And right now, my status is... 0 down, 20 to go.

1 year ago

According to the date stamp on this blog, six months and one week ago I wrote a post about taking on a challenge to refresh and tackle my fitness level. I also started the recovering & rebuilding category on this site, bought a rec pass, and started writing more, all of this with the intention of turning the summer of 2022 into a personal fitness refit for myself, to get back into marathon shape, and shed some covid pounds to boot.

Do I need to mention the knee?

Well, shucks. That knee injury.

Six months later and I've been running for two weeks again after a long, slow, physiotherapy-driven recovery and healing process.

About eight months from now I need to be marathon ready for the Chicago 2023 Marathon.

That won't happen by wishing for it.

That won't happen without some serious motivation.

That won't happen without losing about fifteen pounds.

That won't happen without hitting some drop-dead distance targets.

That won't happen without strength training.

That won't happen without a plan.

That won't happen without work.

It sounds like the refresh effort, paused for six months due to injury, is back on.

That does involve a plan.

That does involve some serious motivation.

That does involve working, tracking, training, and improving every day, with very little room for error.

It sounds like I'm going to be putting some words back into this website again.

1 year ago

But. But, I've been running for nearly two weeks now.

According to my Strava log, and as of last night, I've logged a meagre total of 25k in the last two weeks.

Not much.

But also, not bad, because that's about 20k more than I did in the total second half of 2022.

Not bad because I'm running at least three times per week right now, logging at least 3k per run and slowly (SLOWLY) building back up the endurance and strength I used to have.

Again, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but…

But I seem to be on the mend.

Mending.

Mended.

Enough to run a bit, and hopeful for a chance at that Chicago 2023 start line.

That does mean I may have something to write about in the coming weeks and months... something besides griping about my sore knee and my lack of motivation to do anything because of my sore knee.

I might get to do some writing about recovery, rebuilding, retraining, and re-racing.

I don't want to get ahead of myself, but… I might be back.

and more.