Working Hard, or Hardly Working?

I'm taking a break from watching my Redskins get beat up on by Dallas to update you all on the past few weeks of my life and preview the next few as well. To start off, I had a fantastic albeit long trip to and from Clemson, but they put on a great show and I got to enjoy some quality time with a close friend so that did a lot to give me an emotional boost. Physical therapy has also been going great for me and I've had some noticeable progress in terms of my strength and movement capabilities. I'm still far from where I want to be, but I'm glad that the exercises have been working. My doctor at Fort Bragg put me in for some more weeks so I will be able to continue to progress under their supervision and guidance. I can't thank the kind folks at Viquest enough. Sadly I can't be in Clemson this upcoming weekend to see them take on the 'Noles, but I'll definitely be cheering them on!

Both Damarius and myself have seen some gaps in our training lately, but my travels to Clemson and then Fall Break are to blame. Let's call it a Fall Training Break. Before the break, he had two good sessions and then a fantastic one. First I had him 4 x 1k @ 4:00 with 2:30 rest, followed with 4 x 400m @ 1:15 with equal rest. The following day, I had him do 12 x short hills, followed by 4 x 200m @ 33 with 60 rest. Of course he went a little fast but those were both quality mixed sessions. That Wednesday before break I had him repeat a previous session; 6 x 300m @ 800m pace off 2:00 rest followed by a 150m fly @ 400m after 3:00 rest. Previously he had averaged 51.5 and ran 19 low. I wanted him to average 50 and hit 18 high. He averaged 48.5 and went 17 high. Very good session.

As for myself, I took a break from the elliptical but I started back Thursday. I didn't go over the weekend but I'll be sure to get in plenty of sessions during the week while I'm on campus. I'm back to doing 30 minutes per session but I think I'll be able to get in several double days over the coming weeks, so that has be excited about improving my fitness slowly, but mainly maintaining and dropping my weight down. In addition to getting in more weekly training hours, being here consistently until Thanksgiving will allow me to do my physical therapy exercises on a regular basis, to improve and speed up my recovery. A lot of the things they have me doing will benefit me even after I'm fixed, as it focuses on strengthening your core, sometimes dynamically. 

My diet should be an easier thing to improve. I've been drinking water like a fish and an striving to cut out junk foods and fast food when at all possible. I picked up some weight loss shakes and shake mix this weekend but I'll be getting a non-soy powder next, as research on soy protein has shown to have some negative side effects. While obviously shakes are usually used for muscle gain, I'm looking for meal replacement and additional ways to get nutrients. It will be difficult cooking more regularly and turning down all the fast food and restaurant requests from my friends, but I need to work on self discipline in this regard. However, cutting out sweet coffee isn't going to happen. I'll just to have work harder on the elliptical to counteract my obsession for Starbucks. I need to work hard or this plan will be hardly working.

I had two midterms last week in my history courses, but I feel like I did pretty decent on them, BECAUSE I didn't study and stress out about them. I actually relaxed over Fall Break and let my mind unwind and just took the tests cold, preventing my mind from being stressed. Hopefully my strategy works out. I have to start planning out what should be my final undergraduate semester here at ECU, as well as start my graduation preparations and start work on applying for graduate school and taking the requisite tests. While I don't want to get started on all that, it will be well worth it when I have my diploma in hand and an headed to my first Masters course.

Well it looks like the Redskins are making a bit of a comeback, hope you enjoyed the read, catch up with you later!

Stress and Eating

Today was a stressful day for me. I had to discuss the Athenian General and Archon Aristides in my History class this morning, despite not actually reading the passage on him (oops). Following that dreadful situation, I had a 55 questions multiple choice test in Introductory Anthropology. I'm not used to multiple choice tests, and having to decide on an exact answer was a little different but I felt like I did okay enough. I checked my grade and seeing a 78 revealed just that. My second test of the day came in Western Civilizations, in which I wrote a 4 page essay about Minoan and Mycenaean culture, the Greek 'Dark Ages', and the transformation of political systems in Greece, namely Athens. As I have a class on Greek History, that essay wasn't too terrible but it definitely had me stressed out. I also had 7 identification terms to write a sentence or two about on the test, but those were quite simple and straightforward.

As soon as I got the essay test, and even more so after I completed it, I felt like a load had been taken off of my shoulders and all the stress and anxiety I had been experiencing over the weekend went away. Just before the test I even began to feel nauseous (though that could have been them having the heat on in Brewster -_-). While I was able to get a healthy breakfast in of two servings of oatmeal, the rest of my eating today has suffered as I've tried to calm my nerves and give myself energy. For lunch, I had a Sun Drop (soda), a french vanilla, and a king size each of Reese's, Twix, and M&Ms, and some chocolate cake donuts too. Lunch of Champions. Not to be topped, for dinner I had 7 soft tacos from Taco Bell, and a large Baja Blast (delicious). I'm on a dietary roll!

I need to in general, eat healthier and smaller portions, but also limit my binge snack eating, as days like today don't provide me the energy I want and don't actually improve my emotions the way I want them too. I think I'd have been a lot happier and felt better had I hydrated better throughout the day, and had a sandwich and water for lunch. As I'm now up to 185 pounds from the limited exercise and slowly improving diet, I need to make more concerted efforts to control my weight and improve my fitness.

Speaking of that fitness improvement, two weeks ago I started using the elliptical. I was able to get 4 days of work and 30 minutes each day. Last week I did 3 days, doing 40 minutes each session. Thursday, I put it on the interval setting, 2 minutes on, 2 minutes off, working my rate up to 160 and building to 190 during the on, and bringing it back down to 120 or so at first, but later only to about 140. Hard, but fun session. Friday, I did a 30 minute tempo, slowly increasing the difficulty as my heart rate climbed from 150, to 160, to 170, to 180, and finishing the last 3 minutes or so at 190. Very hard but a great feeling afterwards. I'm hoping to get four 40 minute sessions in this week, but that might be difficult looking at my schedule.

Wednesday, I have my first physical therapy session in the afternoon, with my second one on Friday morning. Last Monday, I went over and had my evaluation. While taking the bus to Brody School of Medicine was easy, I didn't expect it to be a 3 mile walk to the clinic. I definitely need to look into the Vidant bus schedule before I head back Wednesday afternoon. They told me after my evaluation that they noted I still had a lot of strength, but a severe inability to flex my leg. They could visibly see the bulge in my back, and corresponding inflammation on the right side of my spinal cord. The PT student who actually did my evaluation, under supervision of course, said that she wanted to do a lot of core strengthening exercises, not only along my posterior chain, but also in my abdominal and oblique region to stabilize my core. So I'm pretty excited not only about improving my condition, but strengthening my core for my (Don't Call It A) Comeback!

As I wait to get healthy and cleared to do my own running, I've continued coaching Damarius in a variety of workouts, ranging from Mile pace ladders on the track, 1000 meter repeats on the grass, to running a 400 meter time trial. He's definitely improved his running fitness and is adapting to the workouts. I'll probably cycle through them again soon to see how much he is improved since we have begun. Today I had him do 3 sets of (400m, 300m, 200m). He averaged 75 seconds, 54 seconds, and 33 seconds. The rests varied a little but averaged about 75 seconds after the 400m and 300m, with 3 minutes after each 200m. Tomorrow we are going to do some stadiums or some short steep hills, they take him about 6 seconds to go up and are about 40 meters long. Wednesday, the last day he will workout this week, we are looking to do a workout on the fields behind the Belk Building across from the track, probably doing 8 x 400m averaging 1:20 with 1:40 rest.

I'll be headed home Friday afternoon and heading to Clemson this weekend to catch my first ever Tigers game in Death Valley. While I'm a massive Notre Dame and East Carolina fan, the Tigers are fun to watch and I'll get to spend some quality time with one of my closest friends and favorite people. Hopefully my physical therapy sessions have me feeling a little better so the long car rides won't kill me.

Look for me to update you guys on things in about 2 weeks over Fall Break as I begin figuring out the rest of my semester, next semester, and my future school plans!

August In Review

Hey Everyone! It's been a hot and humid HUMP DAY and I wanted to give everyone an update on my last few weeks. I moved back up to Greenville on the 14th, into a single bedroom apartment just a few blocks from campus. The short walk back and forth is good exercise for my leg, especially after having to sit in those uncomfortable school desks. I'm mostly settled into the new place as it is starting to feel more like home to me. I should be able to start physical therapy soon, maybe even next week if I'm lucky. Pain wise, it has migrated into my back but my joints in my right leg are feeling the lack of activity and have been popping a lot and giving me pain as well.

I had left for basic training at around 189 pounds, after several months of lifting I had gained a bit of muscle. I returned home at 172, due to the loss of muscle and a lack of sugar in my diet. But after a month of indulging in snacks and being unable to exercise, I'm back up to about 180. I need to start doing more walking and try out the exercise bike or elliptical before I balloon, as well as watch my eating now that I've got my cravings out of the way.

While I obviously haven't been able to run, I've continued doing more research into training methods, plans, and workouts in an effort to optimize my coaching abilities and my own training. Recently, a friend of mine ran two workouts I prescribed for him and they both went to perfection. First, he did a 8 x 400m session, at 80 seconds with 90 seconds rest. At the end, he finished progressively faster and averaged 80. The next session was 6 x 300m, at 54 seconds with 2:30 rest. He ended up averaging 51.5 seconds, and we threw in a fly 150m at the end, in which I wanted him to hit 21 to 22. He hit 19. So two great workouts already, good start to my coaching career.

Hopefully the next time I post, I can tell you all about all the improvement I've seen through physical therapy. Thanks for reading!

Training Philosophy

While individual training plans can differ by athlete due to a wide number of things, including goals and injury history, there are some major concepts that remain constant inside any training plan. For me, this philosophy can be more easily described as a "Strength Based" training style. The major concepts in this philosophy are the long run, thresholds, and hill training. Coupled with high mileage and/or many cross-training hours, the aerobic system can become highly developed, allowing for greater physiological changes when doing "speed work".

The long run is a distance running staple as it provides the body with a stimulus for running longer than it is normally asked too. The body hums along as a nice steady pace, training itself to use fat for fuel and to be more efficient when covering longer distances. You should perform a long run once every 7 to 10 days and it should make up roughly 20% of your weekly mileage, trending slightly lower for a Miler, and trending higher for a 10 Miler or above. Ideally this long run would be performed at your easy pace, though during base training or earlier parts of the season, short pickups, a tempo section, or a progression could be used for added stimulus.

Threshold workouts can come in various forms, from long continuous steady state runs, to broken up tempo intervals. For a 20 minute 5k runner, a steady state run is a run between 6 to 15 miles at 20K to 30K race pace. A tempo run would be from 2 to 5 miles at 10k to 10 mile race pace. Tempo intervals would be from 1 to 2 miles each at 8k to 12k race pace. Performing one to two of these workouts every 7 to 10 days throughout the entire training cycle in some form or fashion is crucial.

There are two kinds of hill work. One is doing long runs, easy runs, or the continuous strength work up multiple or one long hill. It doesn't have to be steep, but going uphill even at a slightly slower pace will strengthen your legs, decrease the impact forces on your legs, and provide your systems a added stimulus without having to increase turnover. During the base and strength oriented phases of your training, one to two of these runs should be included every 7 to 10 days. The other kind of hill work is hill sprints, which can vary in speed and length depending upon the slope of the hill. The slope itself doesn't have to be steep. A hill with less of an incline can be used for longer hill repeats at 5k to 8k effort (10k + pace), whereas a steeper hill can be used for shorter harder efforts of Mile to 3k effort (3k to 5k pace). Not only do these sessions assist with neuromuscular adaptation and leg strengthening, they can be used in conjunction with other workouts to simulate tired legs.

Maintaining these three components in a training plan will help increase the aerobic strength of an athlete, which increases the maximum yield any tradition speed work can have. Being a high mileage or big cross trainer can add to those aerobic gains with more heart rate and wattage workouts or just more easy miles (or minutes), though you should be careful not to add too much to your plate because with degrading form and freshness thrives increased risk of injury. Good luck with your training!

P.S. Still suffering with my bulging discs and sciatic pain, but I saw a doctor who put me in for both a Physical Therapy and Orthopedic consult, so I'm getting closer to fixing this thing!

Home

Home Sweet Home! I've been home for just shy of two weeks now and despite all my pain and discomfort, it has been incredibly relaxing. I've been able to enjoy coffee, soda, tea, beer, and even some wine. I've eaten reese's puffs, powdered sugar donuts, twix bars, and reese's cups. I surprisingly came home weighing in at 172 pounds, as opposed to most of the other guys who left weighing in 10 pounds heavier. I'm assuming it was the lack of junk food and my upper body muscle weight leaving that has caused my weight loss. But I've gained a few of those pounds back from eating all these snacks and sweets.

I tried to use the exercise bike to get a small sweat going and get my leg working, but after two 10 minute sessions, I realized that my pain was too sharp when trying to both sit and pedal. I don't have my first appointment until August 7th and I have no idea how much longer after that all the other appointments will take, so I have no time table for my return to any kind of training. Instead, I've been reading all the articles on running websites, and watching videos on Flotrack, while doing more research into training methods and workouts.

I still have to link up with my National Guard RSP to finish my discharge process, they haven't made themselves available yet to report to. When I do head up in their direction, I will have to find an apartment in Greenville so I have a place to stay for when school starts. This is a time when being far away from your school, 2.5 hours in my case, really hurts you.

Good luck with your training, eating, and life :).

Planning is Key

Having a plan, and a back up plan, and a back up to that back up plan, is an important part of life. Without a plan, you'll probably end up wandering aimlessly and end up no where in particular. And without back up plans, you'll be confused and rushed when things don't go your way. Luckily, that isn't the case for me, but it may be the case for you.

Successfully completing my training to become a soldier has become another adventure in failure, due to injury which shouldn't surprise me or anyone close to me. While this is the most serious injury I have dealt with, I've dealt with injuries before that derailed my short term plans, mainly my training plans. I've been 3 months without running, biking, or being on an elliptical now, so my cardiovascular fitness is probably in the bottom of the barrel. And it may be a few weeks more before any of those things can become options to me again. But I have a plan.

First, with all this time to sit around and think, I was able to get my fall schedule situated and now will be taking 15 hours worth of coursework as I inch closer to graduating. I also accepted my financial aid and will have enough to cover tuition and an apartment and food. From there, I looked into get a job and a car, both things which I have decided to delay getting until later this year. With joining the Army no longer my primary plan after college, I've shifted my research into graduate school, and I hope to stay at ECU to get my masters in either History or Security Studies.

But my major concern is getting healthy, either through surgery or through physical therapy, and then getting back into shape. I know I've put on a few extra pounds since I left home, but I'm not too bad off. My plan is simple, burn off the fat with large amounts of aerobic base work, using the elliptical and bike at first until it's safe for me to start running. The cross training will help me shed the pounds and get a little bit of fitness back before I start running at a lighter weight to prevent any more injuries.

Outside of the elliptical, cycling, and eventually running, other things I plan to include in my training plan are: 2x a week upper/lower body lifting sessions, pullups/pushups/dips on non-lifting days, ancillary drills/strenghtening, and core strenth sessions. Possible additions to this plan include swimming, pool running, and ruck marching, those these would be less frequent.

I've been trying for years, but hopefully coming off this injury, I can maintain my health and get a lengthy period of base work in. I'm not sure how long the cross training phase could take, but once I start running regularly, I want to do about 3 months of basework before starting to do any speedwork. I also want to get my weight down under 180 for starters, with a further goal of pushing it closer to 170.

Now, I just need to get home to get started on all these things I've had time to plan out. While I would love to be home sooner, it looks like I get to leave here on the 17th, which gives me about a month before school starts to get some of these things done, primarily finding a place to live and getting my back fixed so my leg regains full function and flexibility.

What You've Missed

My L4-5 and L5-S1 discs are protuding to the right, pinching my nerve, causing pain that shoots down my legs. I can even feel it slightly in my back when I try to expand my spine. I'm currently in the process of getting discharged from the Army; hopefully I will be home 2 weeks from now. But here is how we got here:

I flew out on April 30th after packing up everything at my apartment hurriedly. I got to Fort Benning late on that Tuesday night and started process immediately. I pushed through the pain for a few days, but the following Wednesday I admitted to the Athletic Trainers of my gaining unit that I had a lot of pain and an inability to flex my leg/back completely. That Friday, I watched my company ship downrange while I got sent to RHU(Retain and Hold Unit) down the hill. After 25 days of sitting around as a holdover down here, I got brought back up the hill to ship. I had already had an x-ray and been given muscle relaxers and pain relievers but I had yet to get my MRI. My processing company, Bravo Company, took me to my x-ray on my 3rd day back with them, and after the weekend, I got my results back. I was both relieved to know that what I was feeling was real, but floored at the prospects of recovering from such a serious injury. I'm now on my 22nd day back at RHU, having already signed my packet and simply waiting for it to make it's stops at Battalion and Brigade before Trans gets it and I get a ship date. That should be the 17th of July. I've never wanted to be home so bad in my life, but if I can push through these final two weeks and get there, I will be eternally greatful for the supportive friends and family I have in my life.

This long period of inactivity has me quite out of shape but hopefully through PT or surgery I can heal quickly and ease back into training before too long.

This has been one of the most unexciting and painstaking adventures in failure I have ever had, and hopefully it will come to a close before I know it.