The Streak Goes On

Today will be day 27 of my walk/run streak.  To recap quickly, I’m committed to walking and/or running a mile or more every day through at least the end of August.  It’s like a running streak, but allows walking in the hopes of avoiding burnout and injury.

And it turns out that walking can be harder than running, particularly on the day after a hard workout.  Running produces a biochemical stew including adrenaline and endorphins that dull pain and tap into energy reserves.  Walking isn’t intense enough to do that, so there’s nothing to stop the sensations of dragging a tired, achy body around.

But walking is enough to loosen up the body and get things circulating, which flushes out waste and gets nutrients into areas that aren’t well served by blood vessels.  It’s restorative without doing further damage.  Other activities such as Yoga are also helpful, but since I can’t track mileage when doing Yoga, I go for a walk.

With a few walk days during the week, there’s now more contrast between my hard and easy workouts.  This seems to be working very well, but since I’m still coming back from injury and bronchitis it’s too soon to tell if it’s the walking or simply my body remembering some of its former level of fitness.  Either way, my pace has improved from glacial to slow at an astounding rate and my resting pulse is back under 60.

By doing something every day, the weekly mileage adds up very quickly.  I’m eager to get back to doing a long run over 10 miles once a week, but right now that would ramp up my weekly mileage too much too quickly.  It’s a completely different experience to be holding back on pace and distance compared to trying to go further and faster than the body is really ready for.  Exercise is fun again.

The streak is almost a month long and becoming established as habit.  Now it’s time to start focusing on adding in some strength training and maybe even some yoga, in addition to maintaining the streak.  Adding variety instead of increasing mileage feels radical.  It’s not something a runner does naturally.

Bought a Prius

Yesterday we picked up our brand new Prius!  Of the cars I have owned, this one by far has generated the largest number of questions, odd comments, and quizzical looks, which is saying something considering I once owned and autocrossed an orange Chevette.  As a convenience for my family, friends, coworkers, and other acquaintances, I present this convenient FAQ:

Q: When did you develop a man crush on Al Gore?

A: I didn’t.  This car is not a political statement.  It’s not going to save the planet.  It’s still consuming resources.  Only rather than burning a lot of oil from unstable countries with despotic governments, it’s made from many rare elements which are mostly concentrated in other unstable countries with despotic governments.  The motto of hybrids and electrics should be “Killing the planet a little more slowly and in different ways”.  If I really wanted to save the planet, I’d move closer to the office and walk/run/bike to work.

Q: So why did you buy it?

A: Two reasons.  First, I have a long commute and typically spend a couple hours each week crawling along slowly in bumper to bumper traffic.  The Prius is ideal for this kind of driving.  It can crawl slowly on electric power alone, which is exceedingly quiet and it doesn’t have a transmission that’s constantly changing gears like a modern 6+ speed automatic.

Second, I’m an engineer, and the technology of the Prius is fascinating.  I tend to avoid complicated cars, but will make an exception in this case.  While it’s complicated, they’ve also eliminated a lot of the failure points and maintenance items in other cars.  There is no accessory belt.  All the accessories (including A/C and water pump) are electric.  This means they can run independently of engine speed, and since they don’t need to function from 600 RPM to 6,000+ RPM are in theory less failure prone.  So how many readers have I lost by now?  Okay, I’ll skip the bit about the lack of a normal transmission.

Q: Why do you need 5 cars?

A: I don’t have 5 cars.  We have 4.  Two are new-ish daily drivers which are reliable and in good condition, and the others are both 17 years old and driven infrequently.  They old ones are a luxury and a means of coping with the long commute.  When I get bored driving the Prius, I’ll hop in a gas guzzler for a couple days, have fun, then at the first traffic jam quickly remember the reasons for getting the Prius.

Q: How much did you pay?

A: About $500 too much, like any other car, so so it feels.  With the internet, there isn’t much negotiation left.  I end up paying at or near invoice price, plus taxes, registration, and dealer fees, minus rebate and trade-in.  I suspect the invoice is slightly inflated by advertising fees and such.  With the holdback, the dealer ends up selling the car “at cost” and pocketing about $800-$1000 dollars, plus whatever other incentives go directly to the dealer.

Q: What’s it like to drive?

A: Surprisingly like any other car, with a couple exceptions.  The first portion of the “gas pedal” travel uses electric power, so to get it to really accelerate you need to push past that, and past the “efficient” zone.  It’s set up for economy, not to feel like a fast car.  Need to get up to speed?  Lead foot it.  Also, the brakes are used to recharge the battery, but the regeneration works best at speed.  As you approach a stop, the regeneration quits working and you need to push down harder to engage the friction (normal) brakes.  It’s a bit disconcerting until you get used to it.

Q: How often does the engine shut off?

A: Any chance it gets.  At speeds below about 45, the engine will shut off every time you take your foot off the gas pedal.  Driving behind someone who is going at an unsteady speed, or in traffic where cars are frequently slowing down to turn, the engine can cycle off and back on many times per mile.  It’s very well done.  Many times, you can only tell if the engine is on or off by the “EV” light on the dashboard.

Q: Is it quiet?

A: Yes and no.  At low speeds, it’s either on electric power or the engine is turning slowly, so it’s very quiet.  At speed, there is a surprising amount of tire noise.  It seems sound deadening would add weight and reduce gas mileage.

Walk Streak

Walking is underrated, but I’ll get back to that in a moment.  First let me document my fall from running grace.

First there was the physical therapy, then the bronchitis, and in between lots of snow and cold.  I’ve had virtually no quality running this year, and now I’m ready to ramp things back up just in time for hot and humid weather.

There something else I must confess.  Even at my peak of fitness a year ago, it was very difficult for me to do an “easy” run.  A slow shuffle on a cool day would put my heart rate in the middle of the “vigorous physical activity” range.  (note: beware the age-based formula for determining maximum heart rate, it’s a statistical average of multiple people and doesn’t work for individuals).

Any attempt to run what feels like a natural pace gets my heart rate well above the vigorous range after a couple miles.  I got very good at running with a super high heart rate, but the reality is that if the heart rate is that high, it means the body is producing a lot of adrenaline and probably cortisol.  This might explain why I never became particularly fast and tend to break down when attempting to train for a marathon.

Thus, I’m starting a walk streak.  I intend to walk and/or run at least one mile every day until the end of August, and then decide if it’s worth continuing.  It’s like starting a running streak, only there’s no shame in walking if the body isn’t ready for a run on a particular day.  And of course, if there are running breaks in the middle of a walk, it still counts as a walk.

Doing this will require checking my ego at the door.  I really enjoy running.  I also enjoy being seen by others as a runner.  But my ego has a tendency to make me push too hard.  To try to keep up with other runners who are either more genetically gifted, or in the process of forming their own chronic injuries.

The real goal here is to establish a habit that can be maintained for decades, and not just for a few years.  Walking is much lower impact than running, but still serves the purpose of elevating the heart rate and getting the bodily fluids circulating (fun fact: there’s twice as much lymph as blood in the human body).

And so I am on day 5 of my walk streak.  Who wants to join me?

The Bronchitis Experiment

Purely in the interest of science, I decided to catch the nasty bronchitis bug that’s going around so the effects of exercising with bronchitis could be studied.  It’s a service I selflessly provide, because nobody else in the history of the internet has ever tried to run with a chest cold and posted about it online.

And the results are mixed.  Exercise can make symptoms better or worse, depending on how bad the symptoms are to start with and how intense the exercise.  As an extreme example, when my symptoms were at their worst, walking to the bathroom exceeded my exercise capacity.

On the bright side, some heavy breathing can be a great way to get congestion moving out of the system.  If it’s done gradually, it’s possible to increase the intensity of exercise as the lungs clear out.  If it’s done too abruptly or symptoms are simply too severe, it’s a recipe for out of control coughing.  Nothing makes me look more athletic than being bent over on the side of the road coughing up my lungs.

Which brings up the downside.  Exertion can irritate the lungs, which makes the bronchitis worse.  So there’s a happy medium, where breathing is heavy enough to clear out the lungs but not so bad as to leave them hyper-sensitive and inflamed.

You may have noticed the use of the terms “exercise” and “exertion” instead of “running”.  After taking time off to rehab my knee, then further time off while bronchitis was at its worst, the best I can manage at the moment is a brisk walk up a slight grade, and maybe a mild jog downhill.  It’s not really enough to improve my fitness.

So why do it?  Because the weather is beautiful outside, and nothing feels so good as a brief burst of speed carefully stepping from rock to rock on a muddy section of trail, during that brief moment when you can breathe deeply and comfortably.  For a moment I am healthy, and perhaps it’s a bit naïve, but how can that moment possibly be bad for me?

Meditate with Mucus

After days of laying on the couch with a fever, a trip to the doctor, and several doses of antibiotics, I finally awoke this morning feeling rested and normal.  A perfect time to meditate for a few and focus my mind on fully returning to the land of the living.  And so…

Breath in deeply, feeling the lungs expand.  Exhale gently, feeling the flow of air through the nose and hearing the gurgling and bubbling sounds emanating from the chest.  Breath again and don’t just hear the sounds, but feel the congestion resisting the flow of air.  Note the reluctance to exhale fully, in an attempt to avoid the unfamiliar and creepy sensations.

Focus on the sensations of breathing, but try not to react to them.  Note that the ribs are tender and sore from days of intense coughing.  Note that the teeth are clenched with the tongue in between.  Calmly place the tip of the tongue to the roof of the mouth and return the focus to the breathing.

Write about the experience on your blog.  Pause to think about what to write next and notice that gurgling is still there, despite having left a sizable amount of mucus in the bathroom.  Wonder how the tongue found its way back between clenched teeth.

Realize that meditation is not automatically calming.  It is the practice of observing but not reacting to sensory input and thoughts.  Calm is the absence of instinctive reaction.  Focusing on the breath usually leads to calm because the brain does not think “OMG, I’m breathing normally!”

But when you mediate with mucus, new and novel sensations result from the act of breathing.  The brain tries to determine if this is a threat.  A sudden urge to drink water arises.  Fluids are good for thinning mucus.  Adrenals are activated.  Why focus on breath at a time like this?  Getting water is the single most import thing in the world.

The urge must be resisted.  Give in, and the brain will create a dozen new urges.  Realize the urgency is a result of adrenal involvement.  Make a mental note to get some water later, and look for the adrenal off switch.  Sadly, it’s located in the room marked “focus on the breath”.

Off to a Slow Start

I suppose this is my first official run after finishing up PT for my knee, and the good news is my knee is still in pretty good shape afterwards.  However this run involved a lot of walking and won’t be setting any speed records, but that’s oaky.

My main purpose in running is to aid my mental health.  Considering this and the fact I’m coming off an injury and a cold, and hucking up a loogie every mile or so, no pace is too slow today.  14 minute miles?  No problem.

Although I don’t really “run” a 14-minute mile.  I run a sub-10 pace for a bit, then walk a 17-minute pace for a while.  Rinse, lather, repeat.  This is actually what my long and/or easy runs should be at this point.  Unless I’m having a fantastic day, my recovery pace is walking up a slight hill.

I’m suspicious the my injury is the result of me trying to run a steady 12-minute pace, instead of doing the run/walk thing.  Running slower than what feels natural just seems to be an invitation to poor form and injury.  So I’m planning to do my own ad/hoc run/walk plan.  Jeff Galloway might be proud.

As I’ve got no major races planned for 2014, I think I’ll take this opportunity to train by getting out on my feet and running or walking at whatever pace puts me at a good, easy training effort.  Perhaps I’ll be able to cover the entire midstate trail this way, or cover my commute from work to home in 5 mile segments.  There’s lots of opportunities to amuse myself why simply moving on my feet.

And finally, what seems to work for me right now is getting out for some quality time and distance no matter what the speed.  I’d rather walk 8 miles in two hours than run 6 miles in one hour, and I’ll probably feel fresher afterwards, have burnt more fat, and have less systemic inflammation.  It’s my experiment of one.  Stay tuned for the results.

How to Listen to your Body

I’m adding “listen to your body” to the list of marginally useful advice that gets doled out regularly, along with “don’t stress”, “think positively”, and so forth.  The problem with any advice that has been condensed down to five or fewer words is that it doesn't give any subtlety about what it actually means.

So let’s think about listening to our bodies.  I’m not sure about your body, but mine speaks a sort of foreign language that I’m not totally fluent in, and can sometimes be a bit reactionary and blow things out of proportion.  So even though I listen I don’t always get the message and that’s why my knee is in rehab now.

My advice is to not just listen to your body, but start a conversation with it.  Do some exercise, notice how you feel.  Intentionally do a little too much exercise, how does that feel?  Now do the same easy exercise routine 5 times and be a bit surprised that your body feels differently each time.

I highly recommend against intentionally injuring yourself, but sometimes the only way to know when you’re injuring yourself is to get an injury and remember what it felt like.  This is particularly true of overuse injuries, where it’s difficult to differentiate between your body saying “I’m tired” and “I’m hurt”.  Runners are used to interpreting pain as “I’m tired”, and 99% of the time we’re right.  The other 1% when we misread the message, then people look at us as if we are masochists and tell us to listen to our bodies.  Gee, thanks.

Try different exercises.  My current benchmark is the single leg press.  On my right leg I can put too much weight on the machine and my muscle simply isn't strong enough to lift it.  On my left leg, my knee starts to hurt before the muscle has reached its limit.  Ah-ha!  I've just found a way not only to expose my injury without making it worse, but I can also put a number of the state of my knee: how much weight I can lift without pain.  That number has been increasing, which is a good thing.

I can and have done short and slow runs recently without aggravating my knee.  However I now know not to push the pace because the knee will give out before the muscles complain.  When the limiting factor in the leg press is the muscle and not the knee , that’s when I’ll be ready for unrestricted running.

And this has truly been the benefit I've found in going through physical therapy.  It’s counseling for me and my body.  We’re getting back on speaking terms and fixing up our relationship.  I've learned how to politely ask how my knee is doing, and can get a useful response without it throwing a two week tantrum.