Roller 2

Rollerbladed for almost 2 hrs. Went all the way to the Richmond Oval, via the new Skytrain Bridge, No. 3 Rd., and Alderbridge Way. Would have been easier if the recreational path that follows River Rd. and the dyke was finished, but sections of it are still not paved. Signs say it'll be done in September or so.

I have to rotate my wheels real soon.

New Activity

Ankle is still kind of busted-- going through the range of motion at a particular angle and I get a sharp pain.

But!

I put on rollerblades and I skated for an hour. Feels a lot more strenuous than running, and methinks it's lower impact.

Well, it's only a summer activity, but hey. At least I can still exercise even with a busted ankle.

Injury, revisited

Didn't see a small rock in my path on the gravel field. I ended up landing on the outside edge of my foot and sorta twisted my ankle. It's a little swollen. At least I can still walk...

Goddammit. Maybe I should take up swimming instead.

21st Run

• 20' 34"
• 12 laps (field)
• 3.72 km
• 10.85 km/h
• 60 m sprint finish

Hmm. I'm impressed. I'm getting faster.

20th Run

• 12 laps (field)
• 20' 51"
• 3.72 km
• 10.71 km
• 60 m sprint finish

19th Run

Wow, I really can't count my laps. I vocally state the lap I'm on when I exhale now. But on the 5th lap I'm pretty sure I neglected to change the chant "lap 4 ... lap 4 ... lap 4" to "lap 5...". It might have happened a second time.

Well I hope that's why my run's time is a lot longer than usual.

• 23'53"
• ? laps
• ? km
• ? km/h
• 60 m sprint at the end.

18th Run (lapse)

Ugh.

I wish Blogger would have a calendar view so I could see all the holes in the days where I fell off the wagon and chose to be a lazy moping cesspool.

Last run was June 1st. Holy christ it's the 22nd.

Anyway.

• 22' 34"
• 11 or 12 laps of the field. I lost count.
• abbreviated the stretching/warm up/cool down routine. I don't want my 20 min. run to be an ordeal of a whole hour.
• 60 m dash at the end.

Haven't done push ups or sit ups either.

I will get back on the wagon.

Week 2, Day 1 (lapse)

Yes, I've been skimping on my exercised program.

Paid for it. I will have to redo this session's push ups. I made it through 3 of the 5 sets. I'll eek out the last two tonight. See how that goes.

Completed the sit ups no problem though.

17th Run

• 12 laps (field)
• 21'45"
• 3.72 km
• 10.26 km/h
• 95 m dash @ end

Minimal stretching, just up and ran.

Seems like my time just gets slower and slower. Ugh.

Week 1, Day 3

Really got to work on that mental focus, still catching myself losing count of both reps and sets. Yeesh.

Anyway, wasn't as challenging as I thought day 3 would be.

Was supposed to run yesterday but wrote the day off. Been getting out of bed consistently before 7:30 a.m. all week, but I slept in and got out of bed at 11:20 a.m. yesterday. Took another nap and woke up around 5:30 p.m. Was feeling pretty demoralized.

Tomorrow, run!

Week 1, Day 2

Damn. What I thought was easy on Wednesday sure does not feel like it now. Can definitely feel a mild soreness about my pects. And I'm sure I'll feel my abs tomorrow during the run like I did yesterday.

And holy jeez. What's up with my concentration? I am again having difficulty keeping track of which set I'm on out of 5 sets. ... on top of remembering and keeping track of how many reps I've done during a set.

Am doing different stretches with my legs during the rest periods between sets. Helps me keep track of which set I'm on.

16th Run

• 12 laps (field)
• 3.72 km
• 21' 12"
• 10.5 km/h
• pushed on last lap, 60 m sprint at the end

Definitely feeling less gusto than two days ago. Definitely felt the effects of the PUs and SUs (push ups / sit ups) from yesterday (i.e. affected muscles were not at 100%). This is a good sign, because I thought that the workout yesterday was too easy.

The thing is, the number PUs and SUs increase each workout day. So that first day is deceptively easy. I can imagine I'll be writing about how I barely made it through Day Three of the SU/PU challenge.

I've been facing debilitating fatigue by late afternoon the last couple days. After dinner, I'm pretty much toast. I'm hoping that I will eventually adjust and remain functional in the evenings, rather than melting into a lazy pile of goo.

I am paying attention to the carbohydrates I'm taking. More during the day, less at dinner. Increase proportion of meats & veggies, decrease carbs. Maybe that explains my lack of energy in the evenings.

Gotta watch that I'm not pushing myself too hard lest I lose my resolve and throw my motivation out of whack.

Week 1, Day 1

Started the 100 push ups / 200 sit ups.

2nd column in each. Last set: 8 p.u., 12 s.u.

Hope it's not raining tomorrow so I can run.

15th Run

Feeling a little more energized today so I put a little more in today's run. Amazing how mood can affect things.

• 12 laps (field)
• 21'03"
• 10.6 km/h
• 15 min Warm up run/stretch
• accelerating sprint last 300m
• 26 min Cool down walk/stretch

Total time: 1hr 2min

14th Run (Newmarket, Ontario!)

Did a 20 min run in Newmarket, Ontario with Bonnie.

Don't quite know how far we went, but man can she run! I had to push real hard at the end just to keep up. No strength to sprint at the end or nothin'.

The route was on pavement and peppered with small hills making it different than what I usually run. Will have to ask her to map out the route later on.

13th Run

Tried something new to keep track of my laps. Like a mantra, I kept repeating the current lap number in my head. [laugh] even then, my thoughts would stray. But I'm more confident that I'm accurate this time.

• 11 laps (field)
• 20' 13"
• 3.41 km
• 10.12 km/h
• 60m Sprint at end of 10th lap

So there's a couple websites by a guy named Steve Speirs that provides six week training schedules towards a goal of 100 push ups or 200 sit ups. I'm gonna take up the challenge for both. I'll add the links to the right.

12th Run

Jeez. I'm gonna need to hire an official to properly count how many laps I'm doing around that field. I thought I did 12 laps, but that would've meant I was running 10.5 km/h. No way.

Then again, my first lap was 1' 44". If I multiply that time by 12 laps, it's 20' 48", which fits my 21' 04" total time. And I did kind of push myself.

Meh.

Well, let's just say it was 11 laps to be on the safe side.

• 11 Laps (field)???
• 21' 04"
• 3.41 km
• 9.7 km/h

Small Notch

Tonight, just now.

• 8 push ups
• 15 sit ups

Don't really know what I'm doing with these, but these numbers are ugly.

I never got around to learning about reps and sets. Like 3 sets of 10 reps or something or other. I vaguely remember that you can use different combinations of reps and sets to focus your training on either strength or endurance.

I did glance at a some websites out there instructing how train to eventually do 200 sit ups or a whole bunch of push ups or whatever. Should look into that.

11th run

Walked to the park (~5 min), light stretching (~5 breaths/muscle stretched), ran the field. Brisk walk home, more stretching.

I'm still having difficulties keeping an accurate lap count. Gotta work on that concentration.

• 10 laps (?)
• 20' 03"
• 3.1 km
• 9.28 km/h (?)

I know I've gotta ease up on my pace for fear that I might get shin splints again, but I want an intense workout, dammit! Lousy shins...

• 8 push ups.
• 12 sit ups.

I've really got to improve those numbers.

10th run. Ctrl-Alt-Del

Finally got back out to do a run today.

I suffered a lot of pain from what I believe to be shin splints after that last run two weeks ago, so today I dialed it back a little and ran no more than 20 min rather than 40.

From what I've gleaned on the web, my pain was caused ultimately by my flat feet. What happens is that when I apply weight on my feet, they tend to roll inward because they lack arches. There are muscles that are supposed to act as shock absorbers every time my feet hit the pavement, but because my feet roll inward, some of these muscles become prematurely overworked from over-compensating. Once they become fatigued, they lose their shock absorbing properties. The shock then gets absorbed by my tibia (the larger of the two shin bones) which it isn't designed to do, which in turn causes the pain.

...

Or rather the tendons which attach said muscles to the tibia absorb the shock, which again they're not supposed to do, and they get damaged, hence the pain.

Or something or other.

The rolling inward motion is called pronation. People with flat feet tend to have feet that over-pronate.

If this continues, I will have to consider getting arch supporting inserts or shoes designed to give more support to the arches so that my feet don't roll inward when they hit the pavement.

Hopefully, it's more of a training error (I increased the duration of my runs too quickly) rather than a purely biomechanical one (meaning I'll have to fork out the dough for specialized shoes/inserts).

Anyway. Here's the stat's for today's run:

• 10 laps (field) (probable miscount)
• 21' 35"
• 3.1 km
• 8.62 km/h

I was being vigilant and could actually feel my feet rolling inward due to my flat feet so I slowed down the pace somewhat. Increased the pace for the whole of the last lap.

9th Run

~1 p.m.; CBC.ca read 11C with a 60% p.o.p. Didn't rain though.

Was able to run the field today, but I had a companion. Did my best not to disturb her.

Anyway. I did 19 laps today. It was 36:36 by the time I reached 17 laps, so I carried through to keep the run at least 40 min.

• 19 laps
• 41:00
• 5.89 km
• 8.62 km/h
• 60m sprints at the end of the 9th and 14th laps

8th Run

Got up real early this morning 'round 6. I woke up to take a leak, but I found myself in an unusually energized mood on account of having consumed dark chocolate before going to bed and having a vivid dream.

So I decided to run. CBC.com reported it was 5C out there so I put on jogging pants, two shirts and a fleece hoodie. I never used jogging pants before, but the last time I ran in such cool temperatures I didn't like how cold my legs were even after my run. I reckon it's not good for my joints or perhaps my muscles.

Some dude was doing tai-chi at the soccer field, so once again I had to run around the park instead. He had the whole field to himself- the whole park for that matter, but decided to do it right at the edge of the field, so it would've been in my path. *shrug*

A-nyway.

• 6 laps
• 39min 19sec
• 5.82 km
• 8.66 km/h
• 100 m 50% sprint on 2nd and 5th laps

...

It's really strange but I often find that I have difficulty keeping track of how many laps I did. It's a lot worse though when I'm running the soccer field as I tend to run over 15 laps there. But 6 laps was around 40 min last time so the results should be correct.

7th Run

There were kids from the local elementary that were using the soccer field, so I ran laps around the park. It's not my preference as the park itself lies on a slope and I'd rather run on level ground.

The last time I ran this course I went clockwise around the park. This time I ran counter-clockwise, as I reckon that would give the run a shorter, steeper downhill segment and a longer more gradual uphill segment.

According to this google maps distance calculator, a lap around the park is 0.97 km.

• 6 laps of the park
• 40min
• 5.82km
• 75% sprint for the last 200m
• 8.7 km/h

Notes:

My runs so far have been every other day but I wussied out of yesterday's run.

I can still feel soreness from those 10 measly push ups from last time.

Did feel a little nauseous on the last couple of laps.

6th Run

This time I did some research, and figured out that the soccer field that I've been running around is around 310m. Tools used can be found here and here.

• 36min 16sec
• 17 laps
• 5.3km
• 60m sprints at the end of the 9th and 14th laps
• 8.7 km/h

Also barely managed to do 10 push ups afterwards.

5th Run

• ~35 min
• 15 laps of soccer field non-stop
• 10 sec sprints on 9th & 14th laps

4th Run

Approx. 21 min.

10 laps around a small gravel soccer field.

3rd Run

Again, didn't bother to note the details. But it was at least 20 min.

2nd Run

Another run. Can't recall the details, but it was another ~20 min.

1st Run

5 min, then 15 min of running.