Fitness: Dealing with Illness...

So, I've come to develop a little technique over the last couple of years. I don't really have a name for it, but I'm sure it will be in fitness books in 50 years.

Let me explain. Everyone gets sick every once in a while, even if you get all your vitamins and eat the right foods and exercise regularly--it just happens. And, as far as fitness goes, it's a total bummer. It can really mess up your progress, particularly if you are sick for more than a couple of days. Sometimes, if you just have the sniffles, you can still pump some iron or go for a light job, although your results tend to be a little sub-par. But if you get smacked with something a little more potent, there is often no way you can avoid simply lying around in bed.

There is, however, usually a kind of buffer zone between healthy and sick. There is a moment when you can say with near certainty that you WILL get sick. It is not a question of IF, but WHEN. This is where my technique comes into play. When you feel that soreness at the back of your throat, and your body begins to feel tired, head to your gym or workout area of choice, and give yourself a final workout! It's not that doing so will have some sort of supernatural effect on your ability to recuperate, it simply ensures that you get one last workout in before you are confined to your bed.

I actually did this yesterday. It was our anniversary, and we were heading out to the Cheesecake Factory (should I even MENTION that place on a fitness blog???). Toward the end of the workday, I could feel the sickness coming. At this point, I had a choice: I could squeeze in a workout before heading out for dinner, or I could wait until afterward. With impending illness, I decided to suck it up and do my scheduled workout for the day: Plyometrics. Ugh. It was tough, but I was SO glad I did it. At dinner later on, I had no appetite--kind of lucky, because it spared the thousands of calories you can easily amass at that restaurant--and there was no way I would have been able to do my workout later that night (let alone walk across the room).

I'm doing a bit better today, but I may end up having to skip my workout altogether.

Thanks to my buzzer-beating workout yesterday, however, I don't think my loss will be as terrible as it could have been.

Moral of the story: Don't get sick.

But if you do...

Deal with it.

"What's Your Heart Rate? Check Your Zone!"

I don't have a lot to say for this post.

Check that.

I actually have a ton to say for this post. But there are a plethora of perfectly understandable reasons for me not writing a whole lot right now, some of which I will quickly enumerate:

1. I am at work. I should be working. But it's hard when we Web guys get into work an hour before everybody else. There is just a gleeful demon that possesses you when you're sitting in a corner cubicle with a silent, empty office. By the way, I have a new job; perhaps that can partially account for the dearth of posts from me in, like. half a year almost. I now work as a web developer for a scrapbooking company called QuicKutz (no jokes, please). It is an awesome job, which I should be doing right now.

2. Along with my change of employment, I've started realizing that when you aren't working for a health magazine, you aren't in the habit of coming up with unique fitness perspectives all the time. In fact, although my daily exercise and attempt at healthy eating has remained fairly constant, I would have to say that fitness occupies a much lesser portion of my brain's daily capacity.

3. In some ways, I really abhor blogging. I mean, it's pretty much the most self-centered thing an individual does. Think about it--we write all of this meaningless, diary-worthy stuff, and then have the gumption to post it in a place where all the world can see it, hoping that people will read our banal, meandering thoughts. Fact is, nearly all of us are such terrible writers, that the only interest our posts spark in other individuals stems from the hilarity of poor syntax and altogether odd word choice.

Anyway, I'm writing again, just to say that I'm deep into my second go-round of the popular fitness fad program P90X. Now, I am actually kind of wrapping this post up, so I'm not going to take the time to tell you all about the ins and outs of P90X, nor will I even so much as give you a link to their site. Google is alive and well, and I'm sure you can type four letters (No! Not THOSE four letters!) into an input box and hit ENTER. (If you're over about 45 years old, by the way, you may not have learned the impressively simple concept of filling out an input box--a password or something in a search engine--and merely hitting ENTER, rather, than using your mouse to click the "Search" button. My mom is still getting the hang of this. Try it, folks. Love it.)

P90X, in short, is an extreme home workout program that primarily uses dumbbells, a pull-up bar, a yoga mat, and tons of swearing and sweat to get you through hellishly intense exercises. It is based on the concept of muscle confusion--essentially you change up exercises so frequently that your body is continually adjusting to the new workouts, which reduces plateauing.

The first time I did P90X, I dropped a little over 20lbs, lost 3 1/2 inches in my waist, and increased my overall strength. After gaining a portion of that back over the last year and change, I have been working my way back into "supersonic X shape", and have lost 1 1/2 inches of waist and about 7 lbs of fat.

My basketball skills have been improving, as well. Last night I balled it up, and I was able to go up and hang on the rim without too much of a problem. Not bad for an almost-26-year-old, 5'9" whitey. The dunk still eludes me, however...

Oh, well. Till next time!

It's Hard for Me to Say This..."I Have Plantar Fasciitis!" (And no, it's not contagious!)

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. It's a few pieces of advice to people with desk jobs who think they are heroes just because they spend a little time working out after a long day in front of the computer.


Be careful!

Although I can't fully say that I regret my 10-mile run (see the post before this one), I must warn you that just because one or more parts of your body are conditioned to handle a more strenuous workout than usual, doesn't mean ALL of your body is ready for it.

Case in point: My run last week, although completely do-able for my muscles, took a very wicked toll on my feet (or foot, rather). I developed a condition that I believe is called plantar fasciitis, although I have not been to a doctor to confirm my suspicions. Basically, plantar fasciitis is a foot injury, where too much stress/wear is placed on the parts of your foot that support the arch. It is common in long-distance runners, couch potatoes-turned-weekend-warriors, people who spend a lot of time on their feet at work, people who don't spend enough time on their feet at work and then try to exercise, overweight individuals, and people with extremely high/extremely low arches in their feet.

Unfortunately, I fall under the "desk job/super-high-arch" category. I also tried running twice as far as any of my normal runs have taken me. This put me at risk.

My foot has been healing, to be sure, but it has prevented me from doing much good running since last Tuesday. I tried running about a 5K last Saturday with my wife, and I just about died from the pain (although I DID finish, which speaks both to my strong will and my stupidity).

Anyway, it's starting to heal up, and I'm able to do plyometric-type exercises where I stay off the back of my feet, leg lifts that don't put a lot of stress squarely on the feet, and the elliptical. Tomorrow, I might try to run again.

My advice to anyone who is planning on upping the intensity in their workout--particularly a workout that involves a lot of running:

1. Increase the intensity of your workouts gradually. I got really excited to take off on the longest run of my life, but what I didn't realize is that although my muscles were quite prepared for it from my "mix-it-up" routines I love to talk about, my bones, tendons, and ligaments were not prepared for the pounding of tens of thousands of steps.

2. Make SURE you stretch your legs and feet before a big run! This is especially important if you are normally sedentary throughout the day, like me. You need to warm up AND stretch well before running, so that your plantar fascia (look at my big terminology!) are loose and ready to support you throughout your run.

3. If your feet are hurting like never before, you should probably switch to walking. There is a difference between a dull ache and a feeling like you've got a switchblade in your shoe. If you feel sharp pains that are beyond the normal range, you are only going to set yourself back in the weeks to come while you take time off from your workouts to heal. My only exception would be in a race-type situation where you are planning on recovering for a few weeks anyway.

4. Where proper shoes! My shoes aren't amazing; I can feel every little pebble as I run. As soon as I get a few bucks I'll probably drop $100 or so for some decent ones. If you overpronate (usually people with flat feet) as you run, you'll probably have to spend even more for decent ones.

5. Try to run on a nice, level surface, or change up the angle on which you run. I was warned about this, but didn't put much stock in it before my big run. If you "follow the rules" of running, and stay on the left side of the road, facing traffic, during your entire run, you are putting more stress on the left side of your body because of the slant of the road. I did that, and now the left side of my left foot is injured, but my right foot is just fine. If there are stretches when no cars are around, be a daredevil and switch to the other side of the road.


Well, that's all folks.

Taking the Next Step (or 14,000) Towards Mixing It Up...

As I have mentioned prior to this post, one of the most enriching things as far as boosting my personal workouts goes is continually mixing things up. I don't like to get into too much of a routine--something that seems to go against everything most of us have ever learned about fitness.

Hold the phones! Let me clarify: I think routinely working out is a great thing; indeed, for our unfortunately obese nation, we have to constantly REMIND ourselves to work out each day. We have to meticulously track everything we eat. We have to SEEK OUT healthy foods like an octogenarian combing the beach with a metal detector. In other countries, healthy food tends to be cheaper, walking is the most common form of transportation, and if someone gets fat, it is a rather unusual sight to behold--at least, that was my experience last fall in Bulgaria with my wife; WE were the fatties over there.

At any rate, I think it is important to keep my body guessing, so that it can get the maximum possible gains with each workout.

With this thought in mind, I took the next step--or, as I mentioned, 14,000 steps--toward mixing things up: I went on a 10-mile jog around Utah County. Now, let's not kid ourselves here--there are plenty of people for whom 10 miles is hardly a challenge. I spoke with a worker at a running store where my wife (plug for my wife's blog HERE) bought some new running shoes. He routinely runs between 100-140 miles a week. (PAUSE to pick my jaw up off the floor. Again.) So 10 miles is nothing, right? Well, up until yesterday, I had only run around 5 miles at most, with most of my runs falling somewhere in the 3-4 mile range. But something convinced me that this was a good idea.

I have to mention here that a good portion of my thunder was stolen by the reality show The Biggest Loser, whose pleasantly plump contestants participated in a half marathon for the week's challenge. My 10-miler (and my pride) was severely weakened as I watched a crowd of obese men and women go 13.1 miles. But that's another story...

So, to get to the point--how was my run? Well, the first 5 miles--my normal run range--were quite a breeze, although I must say I did not pick the easiest 10-miler to run; you tend to exclude things like elevation gain when you're staring at a MapQuest-powered image, planning out your runs. There was a lot of uphill. I also didn't realize that many of the roads I chose were both shoulder-less, AND had little to no lighting, so much of the 10 miles was trail running.

At about mile 6, I started to feel a sharp pain in my feet. It wasn't so much the balls of my feet as it was the outside-bottom part. This pain continued for most of the rest of my run, but it wasn't enough to make me walk it out.

At around mile 8, my joints started feeling it. You know that place where your leg and hip join together? That socket, if you will...? It started hurting there quite a bit with each step, which was unfortunate, because running requires a good deal of STEPPING. Then my kneecaps started to ache, which was kind of random; it felt like I banged knees with someone in a ball game...

Okay, so I'm making this sound a little over-dramatic. The truth is, changing things up and going for a long-ish run was a wonderful experience. I ran on a road for 2.8 miles and only had one car pass me that whole stretch. The night was uncharacteristically pleasant for this early in the year. And there were moments in the poorly lit area I was running in where I just looked straight up at the sky and was mezmerized by the stars and the dark shadows of the mountians around me.

I will NEVER be a guy who routinely runs 100 miles a week. I said it already--I HATE routines when it comes to fitness. But I WILL regularly seek out a way to break my routine by ditiching the gym in favor of one of these long runs on deserted back-roads, with my cloyingly randomized selection of Ipod tunes to accompany me on my journey, and a half-empty--NO, half-FULL--water bottle sloshing in my hand.

Shifting into a New Gear: The importance of mixing it up in my workouts

Today I had another intramural basketball game, and I've noticed a MAJOR difference in my speed on fastbreaks. I'd like to think that I could attribute it to my recent workout regimen, which--aside from weight lifting--includes a combination of plyometric workouts and runs various speeds.

In my limited experience in the world of fitness--or, at least, THINKING about fitness--I have learned one major thing: mixing it up is GOOD thing. I know a lot of people who have a routine that they repeat day after day, week after week, month after month, etc. And while I can't argue that they are still receiving a large number of health benefits from such consistency, I think they are missing out on potential fitness gains.

On my website, my profile lists three health goals that I have: 1. Dunk a basketball. 2. Run a mile in under 5 minutes. 3. Get my body fat under 8 percent. I think those are all good, quantifiable goals--abeit perhaps a little unrealistic, at least with the dunking. I'm 5' 9", and I don't know much about anything, but I DO know that there aren't a lot of guys my height throwing down tomahawk jams over 6'6" opponents. And it's not that I have a long way to go--I can sometimes throw down a miniball, so I'm right there, but I've been "right there" for about 9 years now.

I wish I could say that my new workouts have propelled me to incredible heights, and that I jam the ball down the other team's throat, but that would be inaccurate. Honestly, I didn't even ATTEMPT to dunk the ball. I DID, however, notice a lot more bounce in my step. I think I had about 8-10 rebounds in the game, and I was able to push the ball quickly up the court and get some easy baskets. I felt like anything was possible for me (that's called an endorphin high...;).

That's pretty much all I have to say about that, but I just wanted to reiterate the point that in my workouts, the key has been MIXING THINGS UP. I'll run just 1 1/2 to 2 miles on a breakneck speed on the treadmill one day, and then do plyometric workouts and leg lifts, and then another day go for a 4- to 5-mile run another day. It really helps me to gain cardio benefits one day, and explosive quickness the nest. But whatever workout I choose to do, I always make sure to get a good 48 hours of rest between rigorous exercises with the same muscle groups.

The 5-minute mile goal is coming--I can feel it. In fact, I wouldn't be suprised if I could run it right now; I just need to find a place where I can test it out--a high school track, for example.

The body fat percentage goal won't be attainable until I ascertain exactly what my current body fat percentage is, but I'm fairly certain I have a few percentage points to go there.

And the dunking goal, well, I have to go to work on this one. Most people get their first dunk in high school, not a year or two after graduating from college, so I realize that I only have so much time to accomplish this goal before it becomes increasingly more difficult.

But if I keep mixing things up, I feel like anything is possible.

"The Mystery of the Marathon Runner: Unlocking the secrets of the endurance athlete"

I consider myself to be in decent physical shape.

I can get up and down the basketball floor with relative ease. I finally got my Body Mass Index lower than my age (although I suppose if you wait around long enough, that one will take care of itself). And when I spend a day in the weight room, I'm usually not too concerned about waking up the next morning feeling like I was unwittingly volunteered to take on Evander Holyfield in Match 1 of his final Heavyweight Title run.

Yet, as I become more and more entrenched in the world of free weights and plyometrics, protein shakes and PowerBars, I find myself increasingly inspired, not by the gym-lurking masses of muscle who could snap my wiry frame in two without much effort, but rather by the lanky, long-legged speedsters who can be found jogging up mountain trails, zigging and zagging between pedestrians on crowded urban streets, and ultimately pumping their fists high in the air after finally reaching the finish line.

I am amazed by the long-distance runner.

These guys are incredible. After 3 or 4 miles, when most "regular athletes" would be calling it quits, these guys are barely beginning to find their groove. For the endurance athlete, there is only one number worth remembering-26.2 (that's miles, to the laeity)-and they will forget their own birthday before letting it out of their consciousness.

Bearing in mind that I have probably never exceeded 5 miles in my "long-distance" ventures - and that most of humanity is in the same boat - I thought it would be intriguing to find out how marathoners go about training for such a huge expenditure of energy. What kinds of things do they do differently in their preparations for a race, than, say, a college football running back, or a high school track and field high jumper?

Brian Casaday, who at the age of 24, has already completed 10 marathons and 4 half-marathons, modestly offered his training regimen: "My training program isn't very complex, nor professional. What I do to train for a marathon is to go running three times a week in the morning, about 3 to 4 miles, and then a long run on Saturday." 3 to 4 miles a day! I thought, now that is certainly do-able!

Of course, it gets longer. Brian continues: "I'll start my long runs about three months before a marathon, started 7-10 miles, and add a mile or two each week. . . "I work it out so I do one very long run two or three weeks before the marathon (20-22 miles) and then a 10-mile [run] one week before. I'm fairly active, so my cross training is usually replaced with hiking, Frisbee, swimming, other sports, and occasional sessions in the gym."

That's it? I had to wonder. That's the big secret to running long distances--you just run? Other than dabbling in some cross-training-type activities, and minimal time in the gym, the secret to running is…well…running. And it's not running 100-mile weeks, as I had feared, but, for the most part, starting with manageable distances, and then increasing the length of the run slightly each week, with a few rest weeks.

Convinced that the 10-time marathoner was overly simplistic in his advice, I spent some time reading about various training programs on www.RunningPlanet.com, an excellent authoritative resource for runners of all types.

The 24-week program for beginning marathoners listed on the website was eerily similar to the one Brian supplied me with--a simple system of slowly increasing the distance run each week, with period recovery weeks, which prevents the body from shutting down.

So if preparing for a marathon is simply a matter of running more and more each week, then why is it that after 4 miles I'm done, every time? Well, for one thing, it requires consistency. Most of us simply aren't willing to run every day, or we think that we run more frequently than we actually do.

But there is a simpler reason for my lack of long-distance proficiency.

Brian explained that he believes it doesn't have nearly as much to do with fitness or training in this case, but psychological conditioning. "I believe that anyone, if they can run three miles a day consistently, is physically fit to run 26.2 miles. Don't mistake this to mean that if someone can run three miles a day, they can go out and run a marathon on-demand. I believe they already have the strength and endurance to do so--they only lack psychological training," he said.

So the truth comes out. It isn't so much that my body lacks the proper ratio of slow- to fast-twitch muscle fibers (although that certainly could be part of the problem), or that I don't have a clear concept of what runners do to prepare their bodies for a race.

I just lack the psychosomatic know-how, that je ne sais quoi that keeps approximately 99.9% of Americans from ever seeing the final stretch of those 26.2 miles. Somewhere, deep within me, is a long-distance runner waiting to explode--no, cruise--into reality, if I can only learn to master myself. All I have to do is work toward unlocking the mystery of the marathon runner.

One step at a time.


Take the Marathon Quiz!

Now THAT is what you call Valentine's Day!

If you've watched the right channels on TV lately (and by "right", I mean sports-themed) you have seen the commercial featuring "The Girlfriend".  If you haven't seen it and are too lazy to click on the link to watch it, it features a scantily clad young woman--The Girlfriend--describing her ideal man with her foreign accent.  "I like guys...a little bit fat.  A little bit...hairy back.  Who watch a lotta football."  (She is, of course, simply outlining the target demographic of the bourbon-making Jim Beam company.)  She is, in essence, billed as the quintessential girlfriend.  

I bring this up, not for the purpose of getting more people to drink their Jim Beam bourbon, but rather to illustrate that I had my very own "The Girlfriend" moment, and it went something like this:

Hollie (my wife): "I don't really feel like going out for Valentine's Day."

Me: "You don't?  What do you feel like doing?"

Hollie:  "I don't know.  Honestly, I feel like just making something at home and watching NBA All-Star weekend."

???????

There aren't too many of these moments in a man's life, so I was honestly taken aback.  If this were an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, it would be Deborah setting some sort of trap for Ray to fall into.  But my followup questions revealed that it was one-hundred percent genuine; my wife just wanted to sit back on the couch and watch the slam dunk competition.

And so we did.  

To be sure, there is something to be said for the high-maintenance gal, who carries herself high and proud in her designer jeans and perfectly coifed hairstyle.  

But nothing is sexier than a hottie who ALSO is interested in your ball games.  On Valentine's Day.  

So, while you other guys enjoyed your fancy-pants 5-course dinner with hard-to-pronounce foods and finished off the evening with some sort of predictable chick-flick, Hollie and I were kicking it in sunny St. George on the couch with two monster steaks, watching Nate Robinson dethrone Superman for the 2009 slam dunk title.

I wish I could say I felt your pain this Valentine's Day.

P.S.  Did you see those dunks by Nate?  He is generously listed at 5'9", and in one of his dunks, his head was just inches from the rim, which means his running vertical leap is somewhere around the 48-inch range.  Insane.  I'm working on mine, and will let you know how the intramural ball game goes down tonight!