It just never ends.

It's like a bra for feet.

While I have more awesome decorated table photos I could share (and probably will), I decided instead to update on my ongoing foot rehabilitation. Because, YES! my orthotics are in and I have been working up to full use of them.

But, before I get to that, more on the ongoing discoveries of my personal biomechanics. My foot was hurting less within a couple of weeks of starting Coach’s ankle strengthening exercises. That just amazed me, really. But then I discovered, during a Pilates class I was taking with my husband, that that same leg is really weak and underdeveloped on the back side. As I strengthen one part, another weak part gets exposed. So I started isolating that leg in weight lifting, and the disparity was wild.

So then my orthotics came in, and after the PT heard about all these developments, she added a 1/8″ lift for my right (never hurting, strong!) foot. I had to phase in the new shoe insoles, and have only run in them for 10 minutes so far; all the rest has been walking in longer increments. My legs are certainly working differently! It’s tiring. But it began as soon as I added the lift to the bottom of my right shoe, long before I tried running in the orthotics: the added 1/8″ on the right resulted, while running, in a noticeable increase in ankle and knee movement on the left! That is just so weird. Those muscles are getting an all-new workout.

I would be such a happy, optimistic camper, but of course it can’t stop there for me. Oh no! Last week in that Pilates class, we were doing some twisty core things, and that compressed disc in my back began complaining. I thought the chiropractor had pretty much fixed that, but it’s way worse now. No more twisty anything for me! In fact, I just became a proponent of the medieval rack: nothing sounds better right now than being pulled apart from head to toe. I won’t let it stop me from running, though; just from Pilates! And any ab work that involves twisting.

My 2 mile run is July 4, and I may sign up for the Derby Days 5k  in late May as a walk/run, so I persevere!

I can see for miles, and miles…of milestones!

FIRST: note that my 50 before 50 has another first highlighted! Yes, I enjoyed my first professional massage as a non-food reward for dropping below 180 and staying there. I felt like butter softening. And it had turned out to be a rather stressful day, too, as my oldest had the transmission go out on his car, two states away, and we were trying to work the whole issue. Ahhhh! Relief!

NEXT: I got not only my 5% award at Weight Watchers tonight, I also made my second 5 pound award! Lots of milestones. Current weight 175.8.

Now for the numbers…I only alotted myself 24 points a day, instead of 25. I feel safer that way. I ate 220 points, which included my 168 points, pretty much all my 35 weekly points, plus lots of my 34 Activity Points. I think I’m still being pretty conservative with those APs, but I actually hope to exercise a little more this next week as I further prepare for my Someday 5K. I made some poor decisions early on in the week that I feared would cost me my goal (like the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet, where at least I didn’t eat all I *could*), but the last few days have been filled with better choices, so it all worked out in the end! Truly, this journey is a marathon, not a sprint, which is a good thing, as I’ve never been a good sprinter.

Back on Track

High five to me! Last weigh in was down 1.2 pounds. My total loss on Weight Watchers is now 8.7 pounds, but my actual total loss is 12.7 pounds. I am less than a pound away from losing 5% of my body weight! I am going to do SUCH a good job with my tracker this week, because I don’t want to jeopardize that milestone at all. That said, last week was a lousy tracker week. I had a lot of trouble keeping up, and didn’t get Sunday tracked at all. So I can’t really say what my points totals were. Sorry.

Today, Coach adjusted my 5k training program, and I am really looking forward to the new challenge! She also added in some ankle workouts. That should be interesting. I think I am already feeling the workout in my ankle. 🙂 I still have three weeks until my orthotics are in, so I am counting on these exercises to help me as I move up in intensity on the rest of the program. I start Saturday morning, and I can hardly wait!

I’ve been slacking off some on the Bible study/devotional time. L3  That is me kicking myself in the rear to get back on track in THAT aspect of my life. Still really loving God and in a green space spiritually, though. I am so grateful for this Sabbatical year. I don’t even have words to adequately describe how desperately I needed this time to get my heart and body right. I started last May feeling like a wounded soldier abandoned on the battlefield. I haven’t even completed my year, but already my heart is full. I don’t just KNOW I am loved by God; I FEEL loved by God. I am getting connected to people in spite of myself, especially with BSF and Relay for Life. I’ve got my second wind!

Weighing in

Up .2 pounds, which considering the time of month and those delicious irresistible evil Girl Scout cookies, I am not going to complain. I lost my tracker halfway through the week and only managed about 25 AP points due to extreme busy-ness, so seriously, a maintaining weight is not going to throw me. I just can’t let it continue is all. That could be tough with celebrating my hubby’s birthday tomorrow, but I will do my best!

The foot saga continues…

When you know your business, it really shows, eh?

My insurance won’t let the chiropractor/sports dude fix my foot. It has to go through my PCP.  She sent me to a Rehab/Phys Therapy place for orthotics, and the lady THERE rocked my socks! She heard all about my foot: where, when, how much. She asked lots of clarifying questions. She looked at my bare feet standing and watched me walk. That was apparently interesting, and led her to ask if those tennies were the ones I run in (which they were). So she had me put them back on and jog on the treadmill, while sharing her wisdom with the college student she’s training or some such. The conclusion?

My GOOD foot has a pronation, not too bad, but definitely there. My BAD foot, which has no such thing, is compensating with a funky step. Unfortunately, while the bad foot is actually good, it has a lousy ANKLE. LOL! All this time we’ve been looking for what is wrong with the foot, when actually it’s under a weak and unstable ankle. That is why the faster I go, the worse it gets, because it becomes more and more unstable. It also explains why going counterclockwise on the track is many times more painful more quickly than going clockwise: that ankle takes the support of my whole body on the curves, and it’s not up to it.

You can probably tell I found all this utterly fascinating. She made plaster casts of my feet, and some place in New York is going to make me some custom inserts for my running shoes. Then I’ll take them to the one shoe store in the area that personally fits your running shoes based on your gait, and buy the best ones for my pronation. And in the meantime, I’m supposed to ask Coach for exercises to strengthen and stabilize my ankle.

I just might get to run in a 5k yet! Ever the optimist…

Figuring Activity Points for a varied workout program

This week I logged 33 activity points. That sounds like a lot, but I think I’m actually calculating conservatively. I’m training toward that 5K goal, and a typical workout for me lasts between 50 and 70 minutes. It includes 45 minutes to an hour of cardio, usually alternating brisk walking and jogging in 1/10 of a mile increments. By July 4th I expect to jog a whole 2 miles! It also incorporates the elliptical, treadmill, and expresso bike. Then four days a week I have ab work, and one day a week I do weight training, but much less jogging.

Since these aren’t Weight Watchers workouts, but they are a big mix of activities, how do I figure my points? I use the formula in this Weight Watchers article. It tells me what heart rate for me qualifies as moderate activity and what crosses into intense. The whole sweat test doesn’t cut it for me, because it is way too dependent on the coolness of the gym, the fans blowing, how dry the air outside is, or what if I’m doing River Running? Heart rate tells how hard my body is working, and I like that. I then figure what my AVERAGE heart rate is for any portion of my workout. This allows me to incorporate the two or three minutes of warmup as part of my workout, instead of as 2 minutes of brisk walking, which is no points at all. If I spend 15 minutes warming up, then jogging 1 lap and recovering for 2, I am working out at a moderate average heart rate. If I then add 15 minutes of jogging 1 lap alternating with recovering for 1 lap, that kicks it into an intense average heartrate for me. And 10-15 minutes on the elliptical is pretty much ALL intense.

So there you go! And with 33 Activity Points this week, I just have to wonder WHY I’m not assured of losing that .1 pound that kept me away from the reward star. I work very hard to be looking at a scale that has hardly moved. *sigh*

I’ve put it off long enough…

True confessions about weigh-in on Thursday:

I didn’t. I took a pass. I CHICKENED OUT.

Because I knew full well the consequences of sipping and snacking as a medicinal treatment for a very sore throat: an extra pound. At least. I’ve been sick for a week (finally feeling good today!), and all the nibbling and sipping cost me most of my weekly points. And I only managed 11 activity points for the whole week, which isn’t even half of my usual. I really was sick! Too bad it wasn’t the kind of sick that causes you to LOSE pounds.

But, I am proud that I went anyway. AND I kept tracking. AND I did go in and workout when I could, as much as I could. Obviously that wasn’t much, but it certainly was better than nothing! Today I head back to the rec center and try to manage a whole workout. It will certainly take longer, but I’ll take my time and hang in there. Wish me luck!

Ahh…relief! And encouragement!

My Weight Watchers weigh in last night exceeded my wildest dreams: 182.6, down 2.4 pounds!! That’s a huge amount. You can check my Wednesday Weigh-ins and see for yourself; I’m not exaggerating what a victory this is.

I checked with my doctor about my foot, and she gave me a stronger anti-inflammatory and recommended water running. I guess I could do that. I vastly prefer River Running at the water park in the summer, but I could push past my prejudice of indoor pools and sub that for part of a couple of my workouts. Just until my foot gets better.

Anyway, things are looking up for me! Hey, Beth!! Yoohoo! Check out that weigh-in! God hugged me with that.

Not again!! ARGHH!!

As I sit here writing, I am rolling my left foot over a frozen water bottle. My plantar fascitis is acting up again, whether from one leg being longer than the other as Coach suspects, or the foot never quite recovering from the fall a few weeks ago. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that something, anything, is YET AGAIN getting in the way of my 5K goal! I am SO frustrated. I adopted this goal more than 5 years ago, in my 30s, and with one injury, strain, (even overtrained heartvalve!) after another, I still haven’t even run in my first Fun Run. Now I’m in my 40s, and it made my 50 Before 50 list. I am bound and determined!

Coach says to take out the jogging from the program for one week. And I will; I follow her instructions to the T. But I’m mad about it. Mad at my body, I guess. I was having so much fun.

*sigh*

The Little Engine that Could

That’s me. I hope. I told Coach I have a new goal. I want to run a 5k! It sounds crazy, I know, but I would love signing up for some of those little fundraising runs. And I really think that, like a musician works harder to perfect his art if he knows he has a performance before him, I would work harder for a “performance” as well. I’m not interested in competing at all; just finishing. And eventually bettering my own time.

I love, LOVE the program Coach worked up for me! It really makes me feel like “I think I can!” My first week on it was this past week, and it was hard, I’m not going to lie. Each day of the four different workouts I reached a point where I wondered if I was going to be able to get through it. Each time I just hung in there and told myself, just this much more, and then, just THIS much more! I felt so awesome to be able to get through these workouts! And best of all, Coach really knows what she’s doing when it comes to training to run, so I know these workouts will get me there. I’m looking for a 1 mile Fun Run for the spring, which is a lot harder to find than you would think. I’ll be sure to post when I have one to aim for!