Let the training (and pain!) begin

January 25, 2011

Week 1

So to knock off a bucket list item from my life's "to-do's", my wife and I decided to embark on a ten week journey to train for the Richmond 10K this April.  I blog this in an attempt to share the agony and joys (?) of such an endeavor.

First some background:  Since I've been re-married, life has been one never-ending party trying to catch up on the 15 year absence between the last time we saw each other back in our college days.  Nine years of drinking and eating has put on a 40 lbs bulge that just doesn't want to go away on it's own.  Hanging with 20-somethings that can eat and drink whatever they choose doesn't make for good role models, although we try our best to teach them how it was done back in our glory days in the 80's.  Now we're in our mid-forties and trying desperately not to age before our time!  But the old waist line isn't forgiving to the abuse I've bestowed.  And then to see my friends of all ages running in these races, I'm like "Why can't I do that?"  I was an athlete once upon a time!  Of course my body hadn't seen any regular exercise other than the occasional, and very sporadic trip to the gym since the last time I played a real game of basketball in 1991!  An early marriage and 3 kids kinda of put a damper on stuff like playing sports for fun.

So with the urging of one of our 20-something friends whose been running these things for a few years after experiencing similar issues (the names have been omitted to protect the innocent), we paid our fees and made the decision to see this thing through until the end.  My brothers birthday, January 22nd,  was our official indoctrination to the Sportsbacker's 10K Training Program at the ungodly hour of 8 am on a Saturday morning at the downtown YMCA, meaning no Friday night drinking!  Egads!  Add to it, the weather was a balmy 19 degrees.  Oh what fun!

I was fairly surprised to see 300 or so other participants in our "Novice" group join us to get the low down from our trainers and do some warm-up calisthenics.  We did some stretches, some deep knee bends, some jumping jacks; standard fare to get the old heart pumping and to ensure none of our sinews snapped once we dared the cold to run a slow mile.  Now I hadn't run ten feet in the last 20 years so attempting an entire mile had me a tad nervous.  The warm-up alone had my thighs burning and sweat dripping inside my 3 layers of clothing that I was told to wear.  I was hoping that was the extent of the morning's training but no.  So I actually enjoyed the blast of Arctic air to cool me down when I walked outside.

The first part of the morning jog along with 300 others was downhill so I was psyched into thinking this was gonna be a breeze.  Once I got free of the jam of people I settled into a nice easy pace leaving the wife and some other female friends to fend for themselves.  I was on a mission!  Even when we headed uphill to the only major intersection we had to face I was still breathing easily.  No sweat.  Once across we made a lap around Monroe Park and headed back down toward the "Y".  It was this return lap that my left calf began to alert me to the fact that I hadn't properly stretched it fully.  My repaired right Achilles tendon from a volleyball fiasco from a few years ago was feeling just fine.  Meanwhile my left was tightening up quicker than a used rubber band!  My breathing was definitely becoming more labored and the stop at the intersection was my saving grace to recoup for the final quarter mile push.

Despite the brief respite and the downhill portion of the final quarter mile, I hit the proverbial "wall" when I had to run the last 100 yards uphill.  I was spent, beaten, screaming for air and a leg splint!  I doubt it took more than 15 minutes to make the entire mile lap, but I felt like it was 15 days.  I had no spit in my mouth.  My lips felt like cracked tissue paper.  My heart was beating faster than a hummingbirds.  My legs screamed in agony of having 250 lbs. repeatedly pound them into the ground.  Only my feet wrapped in glorious $100 brand new running shoes gave me no grief.  The rest of me was a complete wreck!

I sipped a bit of water although swallowing was now a real chore.  I stretched repeatedly while waiting for my wife to show up, cursing the condition I had allowed my body to become!  By the time I had cooled down my legs didn't want to work properly as I tried to get to my car a few blocks away.  The pain would become a dull throb for the rest of the day and it wasn't even 9 am yet!

So last Sunday was an "off" day to rest and recuperate although house chores still held sway.  Re-tiling and caulking the pantry was already on the "to-do" list with painting still to come.  The wife took care of the tiling since she's a regular Tim the Tool man Taylor.  I was on a ladder for two hours in a 5x5 space caulking every separation between ancient lumber.  If it weren't for Aleve, icy-hot and Xtend bodybuilding supplement I don't think I would have even gotten outta bed.  It was all we could do to make it upstairs to bed by 10 pm, looking and acting very much our age.

Funny thing was Monday I felt way better than I would have thought, knowing that we were suppose to run another mile on our own as part of the ongoing training regimen.  I had slept like a baby and actually beat the alarm by a few minutes.  My legs, and in particularly my left calf/Achilles, felt a WHOLE lot better so I was actually looking forward to seeing how long it would take me running before my body reminded me that I was a complete idiot for trying to damage me anymore beyond what it had already warned me about last Saturday.  Wifey and I hit the indoor track at the gym around 6 pm since it was already dark outside.  We did our stretching exercises, mimicking all the 20-something gym-rats who looked like they needed to eat more and work out less!  How come you never see any fat people in a gym (except me, of course!)?  Everyone in there looked like they were putting on their finishing touches for their Vogue modeling shoot the next day.  And yet they were burning every last calorie out of their tiny bodies. Wasn't anybody other than me hungry?  It was dinner time for Pete's sake!

It's 8 laps and change to run a mile on this track, depending on which lane you run in.  I was determined to run the whole distance without stopping.  Wifey decided to run/walk the thing so not to overdo it as recommended by our coaches.  So I counted my laps by repeating in my head every lap I was currently running on every fourth beat.  Ten or so minutes later I was amazingly exhausted, sweat-drenched, parched like the Sahara but finished nine laps without stopping!  I can ride a stationary bike for 30 minutes clocking six or seven miles and never felt this spent.  It took me five minutes of stiff-legged searching to find a damn water fountain, which of course was downstairs and hidden in an obscure corner.  By the time I returned to search for my wife (who I lapped three times while she walked/jogged) she was finished and looking for me.

We had both finished our first training item on our ten-week course since the initial meet and greet (and run).  Yes, my legs were again jello as we made our way back to the car, not a half and hour since I parked it, but feeling like I had just worked out for days.  More Gatorade, Xtend and Aleve followed as part of our dinner.  My legs slowly warmed to the idea I was helping to medicate them and sleep was never so wanted in all my life.  All I wanted was to put my legs in a position where I wouldn't have to move them (or at least FEEL them) for the next eight hours.  Mission accomplished!  Today is a rest day and again my legs are not killing me but they do let me know occasionally that they are not happy with me.  Tomorrow we up the distance to 1.5 miles (horrors!) and Thursday is a cross-training day--anything other than running.  All this to lead up to the TWO mile run on Saturday.   I can already hear my body wanting to strike.