Sunday, May 10, 2020

The Comeback Trail - Major Milestone Met in May!


I stopped jogging due to hip and back problems.  It was either 2015 or 16. In 2014, I was doing lots of tris.  My last martial arts class was Feb 2013. 

In Jan of 2018, I got a new hip which seems to have solved my back problems. During 2019, I tried with some success to get back in shape and while I did make progress on my weight and in other areas, every jog left me weirdly breathless.

Convinced something was wrong, I got a full heart and lung workup in Feb and March 2020 only to learn that I'm fine.  So in March and April, I started doing faster walks with intermittent jogs. I steadily increased the distance working through the feeling of panic and exhaustion that I hit in the first two minutes of a jog.  Let me say that despite my athletic background, the "wall" of exhaustion is just as terrible (if not terrorizing) for me as anybody with no athletic background. Comebacks, getting in shape, is hard. Respect it!

Ancient Roman Milestone Marker

Last week, I jogged a solid mile at a ten minute pace. Then I walked for a mile. Then I jogged another mile home! That was Thursday. On Friday, I did the same thing. Today is Sunday, same thing!

 It's for real, I can jog a mile. Not to be too literal or too  metaphoric but I consider that a  major life milestone for me!  I'm as proud of being able to run a mile in my 60s is I am having finished a marathon in my late 20s (I was a tag-along in Boston in 1986. 3:20!).

I track my training on Strava and I just found that I can share my training record.

Dares't I articulate my training goals for 2020?
- Be able to jog a 5K
- Up my standard swim from 2 x 10 laps to 2 x 20 or 25
- Do a triathalon sprint without walking on the run
- Play tennis and set up some regular games
Yoga Pam with John - BBat50 - as model

- Get back to being able to do 4 x 20 pushups and 5 pullups
- Weight under 200 all the time.
- Should I try some martial arts? I badly miss it. I've always wondered about jiu jitsu. Should I try five private lessons?
- Stay healthy with sensible goals, massage, stretching, and yoga. 

Yoga; I'm now known, to my yoga crowd, as Barstool John (because of my performance on utkatasana -  the chair pose -  where I initially didn't go low enough and instead of looking like I was on a chair, looked like I was sitting a bar stool). Yogi Pam is my instructor.  

Here's two run-walk times. Both had two one mile runs in them plus walking!