Housebound

My foot has finally recovered enough that getting from the locker room to the pool, and back again, no longer seems like an impossible feat, so I’d decided to try swimming this weekend. But, alas, 11 or so inches of snow has foiled my plan. The main roads may be clear today, but my driveway is not, and there’s still the pool parking lot to navigate. About the last thing I need to do is fall and break something else! So, my return to swimming has been postponed. I’m about a half mile short of my revised, as of mid-November, “distance swum” goal for 2009. Of course, under normal circumstances, those few yards would be accomplished easily; but the longer I’m away from the pool, the more daunting they become. And the weather just makes it easier to be like a bear and hibernate.

New Shoes

The big boot in which my left foot and lower leg have been encased for the past three weeks has been replaced with a smaller ankle brace that is designed to be worn with regular shoes. It’s certainly less cumbersome than the three-pound boot, but I had no shoes, except an old pair of bedroom slippers, that I could comfortably fit my foot into with the brace on. Since I doubted I could wear the slippers every day for the next six weeks, I had to go shoe shopping. I figured a slightly larger size in a wide width would work. When I entered the store, I expected to find an array of wide size shoes in their own special corner -- after all, women’s clothes are organized that way, but I soon discovered that while wide sizes were marked with a green “W” on the box, they were mixed in with all the other sizes, according to style. I also learned there were not many wide shoes in small sizes. If only I wore a 9, or a 12, instead of a 6. And since I was at a discount store, there were no helpful clerks to facilitate my search, but eventually I found some pseudo “running” shoes to try on. Of course, the companion shoe for my right foot was much too big, so I decided I should buy a second pair in my regular size so my feet would match. I didn’t really care what my feet looked like, but I was concerned walking would be more difficult with different type shoes on each foot, and they were on sale. Then I had to search for that pair. There weren’t any in my actual size, however, so I compromised with a half-size larger that’s a little long in the toe, but seems to fit okay otherwise.

The best thing about having shoes on both feet again is that riding a stationary bike is much easier. I cycled twice last week wearing my boot, managing an average speed of about 6 mph – 4 mph with both feet, 8 mph right foot only. Today, my pedal strokes were much smoother and I averaged 10-12 mph with both feet. That I soon might be riding my own bike on a trainer seems much more possible.

Considering 2010

Race schedules for 2010 have been announced, and there are a plethora of events to choose from. I could do one triathlon a month – maybe one a week – between March and October if I wanted to, but I think I’ll aim for 3-4 Sprints, starting with the Smithfield Sprint on March 27, and 1 Olympic. Set-up has eliminated the Patriot Olympic in September, but they’ve added a new Tidewater Olympic in June that will take place in the Buckroe Beach/Fort Monroe area of Hampton. My other option for an Olympic is Rockett’s Landing in July, but I don’t relish having to swim in that part of the James.

Keeping On

Several years ago, my dad had emergency surgery, and there were complications during his recovery. Shortly after he left the hospital, he rented his crop land to a neighbor and sold his beef cattle and thoroughbred horses. When I suggested he perhaps was being too hasty in his decision, he said there hadn’t been much to do while lying in his hospital bed but think about how it was time for him to quit farming.

As I’ve hobbled around with some difficulty for the past 10 days with my broken foot in its boot, and spent more hours than usual sitting, I’ve contemplated whether it’s time for me to quit my training regimen. One of the scarier aspects of being injured is that it points out a disadvantage of living alone. Friends and co-workers have been very helpful, but I don’t want to impose of them too much. My children, of course, would come to my aid if necessary, but I hadn’t planned to burden them with my infirmities for at least a few more years. So, while I expect my foot will heal eventually, I’m worried about incurring some other injury that might be more incapacitating. I’ve brushed off past falls while running or biking, but now I’m wondering if I’ve reached the “Age of Decline,” where I should be more circumspect about my choice of activities. That sense of unease will put a big crimp in my training, but not training at all would leave a large void in my life.

My dad’s self-imposed retirement didn’t last long. Within a few months, he bought two Angus cows. Then he bought three more, and soon there were nine cows in the pasture where once there had been nearly 50. Every morning he goes out in his pick-up to check on his “herd.” His day has a purpose, and he still feels like a farmer.

I still want to feel like a triathlete. I still would like to do an Olympic distance triathlon as a solo entry. So last night I did some strength training with a focus on upper body work and cycled for 20 minutes on a stationary bike wearing my boot. I hope that by the time indoor cycling starts on December 1, my footwear will be less cumbersome, but if it’s not, I’ll do what I can to keep tri-ing. Since I won a complimentary entry for the 2010 Pink Power Sprint at the TG brunch, I know there’s at least one event in my future.

Fate or Coincidently Clumsy?

All fall I’d contemplated doing the Richmond Marathon 8K on Nov. 14. It’s a fun event, I was feeling more confident about my running, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend money for the entry fee. I kept putting off signing up, and last night, the decision was made for me. I somehow wrongly stepped off the edge of a slate sidewalk and hurt my left foot. I knew immediately the injury was most likely not an ordinary sprain, but I put some ice on it and figured the bad news could wait until morning. Today my foot was bruised and swollen and putting weight on it was difficult. After a few turns around my kitchen using a bar stool as a “walker,” I decided it was time for a trip to Patient First. There I learned I’d probably fractured a tiny bone along the little toe side of my foot (there was some discussion between the doctors as to whether the break that showed on the x-ray was new or old, but they decided to treat it as “new”). They put a splint around my foot and ankle, and gave me a pair of crutches and a referral to an ortho foot specialist. I don’t really mind not running the 8K, but I am sorry swimming, biking, and strength training are also temporarily curtailed while I hobble around.

One Lap Wonder

“I’m not as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.” I recalled that line from a country music song last week when Coach G. had us run timed 400s. She told us to do the first one “as if” we were only doing one, so I traveled around the track as fast as my stubby legs would take me, hoping I could break 2:45. My actual time for the lap was an amazing (for me) 2:30! Then G. told us we were doing two more 400s. I intentionally slowed my pace for the second one, but still did it in under 3 minutes. I tried to go all out again for the last 400, but was seven seconds slower than the first one. G. says we will be doing more timed 400s periodically during the off-season. I’d like to think my times would improve, but I already may have been as fast as I’m going to be.

Cooking the Numbers

In this month’s edition of Runner’s World there’s an article about how some numbers are truer measures of weight loss than others. For example, we all know that muscle weighs more than fat, so what the scale says we weigh can be misleading for persons who have muscles. The article suggested several alternatives to determining fitness other than by weight only. The one that caught my attention was whether an article of clothing that fit when the scale said you weighed less still fit.

I tend to keep my clothes, even though I don’t wear them anymore, and so I found a dress in my closet that I’d bought many years ago when – despite a lack of exercise and a diet of coffee, Milky Way bars, and the occasional homemade biscuit with real butter – I weighed at least 20 pounds less than I do now. The dress is a one-piece sheath and buttons down the front. From the waist up, it still fit perfectly. From the waist down, not so well. It buttoned, but it was too snug to wear in public. Maybe I could say I just have more muscles in my thighs now, or I could admit I should lose some weight.

I’m not sure I can fit more exercise into my life, so that means paying more attention to diet, and that means I might actually have to cook real meals. I do not like to cook, but prepared food from grocery stores or restaurants is expensive and often lacking in nutrition, so, is there really a choice here? The same article said a healthy runner could expect to go two seconds faster for every pound lost. Well, I need all the help I can get to increase my speed. Twenty seconds would put me much closer to my goal of a consistent 12-minute mile. My goal for the off-season then is to cook.