I've been sick for the last week or so, but got back to exercising some this weekend. I did 1 hour on the stationary each day.
This weekend I watched the Pac-10 champs at Cal. I missed the marquee event (men's 1500), but the rest of the meet was very good.
The best story of meet was actually the men's long jump. I was standing right in front of it, but not knowing much about long jump I wasn't paying much attention until they announced that Ashton Eaton was passing his jump, and was currently in the lead. Then a USC jumper got a few inches past his mark on the next round, and Eaton had a sloppy-looking jump that did not improve his mark. In the last round there were no improvements until the last jump, and it was Eaton. Now I stopped to really pay attention, since one of the best athletes in track and field at the moment was standing right across the track from me trying to win the event on his last jump. He ran down and had a really big-looking jump, but I heard one of the Oregon coaches (I had unintentionally picked a spot right next to where Oregon was hanging out) say it was 7.75, an improvement, but too short to beat the 7.80 that was leading. Eaton himself was staring anxiously over the official's shoulder as he measured the jump. There was a moment of tension, and then Eaton leaped up in the air pumping his fist, and they announced 7.81. Even I broke into a smile seeing that.
The distance on the day was Chris Derrick and Luke Puskedra in the 10,000. The whole field ran 71/72 until Derrick took the lead and started pushing it with 6 to go. It quickly went down to 5 guys, then to 4 with a mile to go. Puskedra was following behind three Stanford guys (Derrick, Elliot Heath, Jake Riley). With 400 to go Puskedra moved to the front, but it wasn't a very serious challenge and Derrick passed him back easily on the back stretch, as did Heath. Riley came past him with 200 to go, and when the Stanford guys realized they were clear for 1-2-3 they pretty much cross together in 29:10 with Puskedra a few seconds back. The women's race wasn't very interesting - Blood waited behind the other top runners until 2 to go and won easily.
The second day I watched with Ryan. Eaton won the high hurdles easy before taking second in the 100. An Oregon woman ran sub 51 in the 400, and the men's 400H was very fast (2 under 49, I think). The 800 was a fairly easy win for Wheating, who started moving up on the back stretch of the second lap, but didn't take the lead until 100 to go, but moved away from the field pretty strongly on the homestretch. The women's 5000 was a really tight race. The early pace was not fast, but they started flying in the second half. Blood stayed at the back of the lead pack, and didn't cover every move immediately. Going into the last lap she was about 7m back of the leader (whose name I forget), who was still looking good in front. Blood made it up to come up on her shoulder entering homestretch, but they battled all the way to the line before Blood narrowly won. The men's 5000 was pretty much a repeat of the 10,000, except AJ Acosta and Michael Coe were in there. When the same 3 Stanford guys moved in the same way, Acosta hung on to take third in a hard, fast race, beating out Riley, and Puskedra again faded (low 13:40's for Derrick to win, and everyone was doubling).
The men's 4x400 was good too, until the USC stud anchor came from behind to win it over Arizona State.
Definitely fun to watch some good track again.
May 15, 16, 2010 (Pac 10 Champs)
Thursday, May 6, 2010 (60 minutes stationary)
I was intending an AM/PM workout, but I wound up working until 12:30 AM. Did 60 minutes on the bike in the morning.
Saturday May 1, 2010 (60 minutes bike)
Up Claremont to Grizzly Peak. On the way up, I decided that the first reasonable "you're there" landmark would be where I turned around, but for some reason I don't understand at all, when I got to Grizzly Peak I turned left and kept going up a ways longer (to the stables).
My heart rate was in the high 180s the last few minutes approaching Grizzly Peak. I don't think Will's can even get that high.
PM - 15 min core, 15 min lifting, 30 min easy stationary bike
Saturday, April 24, 2010 (50 minutes stationary)
I'm going to try to walk as little as possible, the opposite strategy to what I've been using recently. I've been walking the two miles to work (and back) each day in hopes of exercising my foot, but since I get a dull pain after about half a mile of walking, I'm thinking it's more likely that I'm just keeping myself from healing efficiently.
I'll have to fix my bike, though. One of the spokes is basically tearing out of the wheel's frame - the frame itself actually has a tear in the metal. It's also rough and bumpy everywhere, and I get flats at a ridiculous rate.
Today I did some core, a little lifting, and 50 minutes on the stationary. My heart rate got up to 170, which I take to be more a sign of how out of shape I am than how hard I was working.
Friday, April 23, 2010 (1 X Bolota Asmerom)
I got a call from Ogliore claiming there was a quality track meet going on 400m from my apartment. Turns out he was right. I went to the track the way I usually do, through the gym. It turned out this was the athletes' area, so I jogged through it trying to look like a track star and fortunately no one asked any questions. Ryan and I proceeded to mock all the fast people for a good while.
Afterward I went for a jog on the baseball field. Even though my foot felt good in Pasadena, it felt bad again tonight. Actually the area of pain increased, so I may have to go see someone. On the plus side, after I ran two laps Bolota Asmerom walked out. I ran past, looked back, stopped, and said, brilliantly, "Are you Bolota?" (I have no idea whether I pronounced it correctly.) He chatted with me for a few minutes as I helped him set up some hurdles to do drills. He personally recommended the Vibram shoes to me. Then I ran a couple more laps and stopped because my body hates me.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
30 minutes or so of core, 30 minutes on the exercise bike, lunges.
This is a very modest workout, but it was enough that I felt good leaving the gym. Kevin Dick came by and chatted for a while, too, so that was nice.
Saturday, March 6, 2009 (10 minutes)
I haven't yet resolved my foot problems, and after today I feel like I have not even made any significant progress.
After ten minutes of running, it's still difficult for me to say just what it is a feel in my left foot. It's not really pain, but it's decidedly strange. It feels like stuff is stuck on the bottom of it, so that I'm stepping on a clump of mud stuck to the ball of my foot with each stride. When I check, there's nothing there. That's just the way my foot feels at the moment.
Currently, I can walk about a mile before my foot starts to get sore. I frequently walk further because the soreness is not very significant.
If my foot doesn't improve in another month, I'll probably feel like it's time to go see a doctor, but in the mean time I don't believe they'd have anything substantial to say.
I noticed recently that when I sit at my computer I tend to put a lot of weight on the ball of my left foot because I sit on an pilates ball, and it's too big, so that I can't put both my feet square on the ground at the same time and sit on top the ball. I wind up putting my left foot out in front of my pushed up against the wall, and that might be contributing, because it feels like a lot of pressure. So I'll get a smaller ball.
My weight is 160 pounds now after a relatively long period of relative inactivity, and that extra impact can't be helpful. So the other part of my recovery has to be to go to the gym and do some regular cross training, and at least feel that I'm physically fit, even if I'm not going to be running 90-minute long runs in the near future.
Foot problems
The bottom of my left foot is swollen. After running just one mile tonight, I stopped because my left foot was feeling strange. The feeling was as if a clod of grass or mud had gotten stuck on the bottom of my foot, but there was nothing there causing it. When I stopped a little longer and looked at both my feet, I could see how different my left was from my right. When I pressed against the ball of my right foot, I could feel the fatty pad, muscle underneath, etc. On my left foot I could feel basically no structure at all. The texture of the skin was different, and it was difficult to curl my toes on my left foot.
I'm not sure what all this means. I would go to a doctor, but I'm not ready for that yet because I suspect they'll have nothing useful to say. For the time being, I'm going to wait it out a little longer and see if this persists. I don't know whether the foot swelled in response to some other damage, or whether the swelling itself is the problem.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
I walked maybe six miles to get to my MCAT class today (teaching, not taking). Even that bothered my foot enough for me to be worried about it. I'll hit up the pool before physics class tomorrow (taking, not teaching).
Fri/Sat Jan 22/23
I got about 10 minutes in on Friday before the ball of my foot started to hurt, so I stopped short. Saturday I did some good gym work, but nothing else.