Fitocracy

I joined a social networking site called Fitocracy last week as extra motivation to get workouts in and vary my activities. Fitocracy provides tools for you to log your workouts, which are shared publicly with other users. You can "follow" other users and get followers of your own, so you can get a sense of the types of workouts other people are doing. You can also give "props" (basically "like") workouts are make comments. The site awards points for each workout based on the difficulty of the exercises you perform, duration, weight and sets. As you gain points you also gain levels, which gives you something to work toward over time. Although logging workouts with a lot of different exercises takes some time, it’s a nice way to create a log to remember what you've done. The public aspect of the site and the gaining of experience and levels is good for motivation. It also keeps track of your personal bests on all the exercises you log, so you'll know when you hit a new max.


My main gripe with the site so far is the point system. It gives huge rewards for lifting a lot of weight and relatively piddly rewards for cardio activity and certain low weight exercises. For instance, I ran 2.75 miles in about 24:10 last week which netted me around 330 points, I noticed someone else had logged 1 squat with 500 pounds for around the same amount of points. I feel like the points should be adjusted so that cardio and lifting are equal and rewards should take into account other factors like weight, gender and personal bests.


Despite its flaws, it has been fun to track workouts and it has motivated me to incorporate more types of exercises into my routine to grub for points.

Time Flies

Wow. I can't believe it’s been almost three years since I made a post! Time for a recap.



I finished the 2010 twin cities marathon with a not-that-great time somewhere around 4:40. I continued running and trained harder for the 2011 marathon, but I ran out of body salts about 2/3 of the way through and ended up walking 6-7 miles to avoid a total cramp up situation. My toe was and continues to be a nagging issue and some other concerns, mainly creaky knees, have crept up a bit. I decided to skip the 2012 marathon and have yet to sign up for or train for 2013. At the moment I run about once, maybe twice a week at the most and do other supplement my cardio with other things that aren't quite as hard on my foot like biking, swimming, miscellaneous aerobics and using a heavy bag.



My old Teva sandals have just about hit the end of their useful life. I still refuse to get rid of them, even after 2500+ miles and a right heel that is worn down into the soft padding. They have served me well, and I still slip them on for yard work sometimes, like mowing the lawn. I have since replaced them with a pair of modern Tevas that are somewhat looser and less comfortable overall, but they have, at least, allowed me to walk and run to some extent without the same discomfort produced by normal shoes.



I continue to lift 3 days a week, focusing on body-weight exercises. My typical regimen is a two sets each of 30 pull ups, 30 parallel chin ups, rotator cuff exercises, 15 handstand pushups and then some miscellaneous ab exercises, one set of 30 dips and a set of 65-75 elevated foot pushups. At the moment I'm doing lat pull downs with a resistance band instead of my normal pull ups due a bicep injury in my right arm, but I'm still able to do parallel bar chins. I've been doing this same work out consistently with a few variations here and there for last 3.5 years or so. It’s been effective at keeping me in good overall shape, although I've not been progressing at all.



The reason I decided to post again after so long is that I'd like to begin running a bit more and getting in better shape and there's nothing like an imaginary Internet readership to keep you motivated! If I can even boost my exercises by 5 reps or get one more cardio workout in a week, that would be a victory.




Let's turn up the heat!

Still Alive

Its been a couple months since I made my last post, but I am still alive and still training. Training has been progressing well--I haven't made a true training schedule, but I've been continuing my 3 day a week lifting routine and doing 3 days of cardio. I've been running 10 miles on Saturday mornings and ran 13.1 last weekend; I felt energetic enough to go another few miles, but I stopped because it was quite hot and I was worried about my hydration. I ended up going out for a 10 mile bike ride later that day. I also did a "sprint" triathlon over the course of a few hours on a different day. My brother and I went biking for a bout 17 miles and decided to go swimming afterward. I ended up swimming about 750m so I figured I'd finish off my backward triathlon by running a lap around Lake Calhoun which just a bit over 3 miles. My legs felt a bit odd running right after the swim, but I still made miles just under 9 minutes. My toes have stayed healthy during the last few months thanks to running in my sandals; my sprained ankle has progressed slowly, but it is not bothering me much. It looks like all systems to go do some runs of 15 miles+ over the next couple months and look for that four hour marathon time. My half marathon time last weekend was 2 hours 3 minutes but I wasn't pushing hard at all because I thought I might go for 16-20 miles.

Keeping it Together

My running for the past month or so has been hampered somewhat by my lingering ankle injury. I went for a 10 mile run last weekend, which felt OK, until about mile 6 when my ankle started feeling a bit weak, I was on pace to make it in 1.5 hours but slowed up a bit and ended up going in 1 hour 32 mins. On the plus side, my toe hasn't been bothering me and the sore bursitis/bunion spot has also been fine. Maybe being forced to rest my feet for a while was a blessing in disguise. I've continued doing my upper body routines and started doing some cross training in the place of straight mileage. Saturday mornings I am doing my longer runs, with short runs and other cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm starting to realize that straight mileage isn't necessarily the answer for longer distance training. Sure if you want to be an Olympic class runner, you need to pound a lot of pavement, but I'm finding that cross training activities are actually improving my cardio and running more than running itself. For instance, I did the 100 burpee challenge yesterday (7:13, woot) and after that I hopped on the treadmill and it felt like I'd already been on it for an hour. It was like I skipped the laborious first 30-40 minutes it normally takes to get warmed up on a run and really start working the cardio side of things quickly. I've come to the conclusion that long runs are what's most important. Those 13-20 milers are what you really need to prepare for a marathon. All the 3-5 mile runs could probably be replaced by a mixture of other high intensity cardio and cross training activities without losing too much. I'm hoping that by limiting total mileage for a while, I can get my ankle back up to 100%.

Back on my Feet

I spent the past two and half week substituting biking for my cardio workouts while my ankle healed. After a couple of days the swelling actually increased and after 3-4 days bruising appeared along the bottom of my food and in my forefoot. Thankfully I could walk and bike without much difficulty, although I tried running a couple of times and immediately discovered it wasn't time. Through all of my past injuries I can pretty well tell the difference between superficial discomfort and pain that might cause further injury or set me back. A couple of days I ago I decided to run on the treadmill to test things out and I was able to go for 3.5 miles without much discomfort at all. Heartened by this, I ran again later that day with my GF for about 3 miles outside. The pavement was not as forgiving as the treadmill, and it probalby wasn't a good idea to jump in so fast with 2 runs on one day, but it wasn't too bad and I'm feeling good today. My legs are uncharacteristically sore today; I can tell I've taken a little time off. I don't mind though: soreness just means your body is getting stronger!

Old Habits Die Hard

The long snow thaw I had anticipated was dispelled by an unexpected week of warm weather. The snow melted in early to mid March which is much earlier than usual; especially surprising considering the large accumulation of snow. I'm quite pleased that everything is clear now, and the weather has been 45-70 lately, which is great for outdoor running. My training progressed slowly through March and the beginning of April as the sore spot on my left foot kept me from doing anything too long or fast. With some more research, I think it might be bursitis and not a bunion. Bursitis is an inflamed bursa (a sac or pad that develops to lessen impact) but by being more conscious of my running form and trying not to favor the outside of my left foot, the discomfort is gone for most part. Just when I was thinking I could start ramp up to a 10 mile+ run I got a rude reminder: my ankles suck, especially in my old running shoes. I went out to play disc golf a couple of days ago with some friends I haven't seen in 4 to 5 years and afterward we played hacky sack as a throwback to our youth. Long story short I came down wrong on my right ankle and now I'm going to be off my feet for a week or two. I heard a popping or snapping sound, but I don't think anything is broken though, because I can still put some weight on it to hobble around. The incident has reinforced what I already know: shoes are magnets for ankle/foot twists. Its like wearing cinder blocks on your feet and if the block comes down on edge, it might roll the wrong way and take your leg with it. That's the last time I'm playing hacky sack, that's for sure.

As discouraging as it is, I think the sprain is not quite as bad as I initially thought it might be, because the swelling and pain is more in my forefoot than the ankle itself. I can move the ankle forward and back without discomfort; side to side and supporting weight is more difficult. I will hit the bike for my running workouts until I get back on it. I've got plenty of time before I need to get serious about training again.

The Long Thaw

Spring is upon us and with it a welcome friend: outdoor running. I've gotten four or five short outdoor runs in so far, and its been a nice change despite the wet socks and cold legs. I get a few weird looks running in shorts and sandals at 38-40 degrees. Its probably the sandals. With snow melt, there is a lot of standing water on the paths and it takes considerable concentration to avoid getting my socks soaked. My feet feel very warm so long as they are dry. I did one run in my Vibrams, but I developed a sore spot just below my little toe on my left foot, which I'm hoping isn't the start of a bunion, since they run in the family. As long as I'm in the sandals everything feels good.

There is a lot of snow an ice around this year, so the thaw will likely take longer than usual, but the forecast is 40's for the next week, so that should help speed things along. I hope to be ready to do a 13 miler by the time the paths are dry.