So picture this. Batter up! The batter comes to the plate. Runner on third. No outs. The pitcher throws the ball and POP! The ball goes to the short stop. The guy on third comes barreling into home plate. The short stop throws the ball to the catcher. He catches it for just a second and then WHAM! The runner dives head first into the catcher. The world is spinning and the catcher flips over the runner and lands with a thud on the ground. After the dust settles. The catcher knew something wasn't right, but he tried to get up. He couldn't. His teammates pick him up and and he tries to put some weight on his leg. Pain screams through his leg and he now knows what is wrong. It's broken.
Pretty cool little story huh!. Problem is. That catcher was me. The break was a bad one. A Tibal Plateau Fracture. ( here is a link if you are interested).
http://www.sportsmd.com/SportsMD_Articles/id/322.aspx
After the guys on my church softball team got me loaded into the car. My wife Angie looks at me and says. "I think you have officially retired from softball." Who was I to argue that point! That happened in 1998. Sadly, I have not played softball since.
You maybe asking OK, what does that have to do with anything at all. Well, I am glad you asked! About two weeks ago, I went for another run. Was doing great! Was once again up to the 2 mile mark. Got home, went to bed. Everything seemed fine. Got up the next day and took one step down the stairs and ouch. My left leg, the one from the story, started hurting again. Next step, same thing. It has been hurting for the last couple of weeks. Especially going up and down steps and up inclines.I did the smart thing and decided I probably should not run. So I got an appointment with an Orthopedic doctor to take a look. Well thankfully nothing is broken but because of the kind of break I had, the fact it broke at a joint and the fact I have not been active enough. I have mild arthritis in my knee. I am only 38. To hear Arther(as my mom calls it) mentioned makes me nervous. I also might have a Meniscus tear in my knee but we aren't going down that road just yet. So does that mean no tough Mudder for Trav? Nope! I am still determined to do this. If some former military guys with no hands can get through this. How can I complain about some knee pain! Needless to say it could be worse but I am not going to be able to run for a while. I can however, ride a bike, which is what I will be doing. The doctor thinks I should be OK in a month or so with some rehab. I started that today. I have been a little down about the whole thing and have not held really well to my diet and exercise but I will climb back on that horse tomorrow! For now though, I need to strengthen up my left leg so that the muscles around it can hopefully help prevent some of the pain. That also explains why my right leg was always so stiff after the runs. I was over compensating with my right because my left leg was not as strong.
The moral to this story... If the doctor tells you to stay active on your leg or any other part of your body. DO IT! Don't ignore him like I did. Get up and do something!
Well, enough complaining and back to training! Have an awesome week!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Holy cow is it HOT!
First off, I would like to say THANKS to those of you who have FB'd me and asked why I have not posted in a while. Just so you know, I have not given up on this challenge but the heat is surely trying to kill me before I can get started!
So here is what I have been up to!
So two weeks ago I was bustin' it hard. I have dropped ten pounds and was feeling awesome. Then the heat index started kicking in. We had heat indexes at 105+, temps at 97-99. After talking with a few folks who run all the time, they suggested not running in this kind of heat. Especially since I was still having issues taking in air! So instead I started Jillian Michael's 30 day Shred video. Some of you maybe be laughing right now, but I tell you what. I dare any of you guys to do the first leg of this video and not me you feel like you are dying! I think I would have rather run in the heat! She is one tough broad! Josh did it with me. I do wonder if he really wanted to do the exercises or look at the girls in the video, but I digress! :) We got done and I had a rough time getting off the floor! The rest of the week was weights and sit-ups and push-ups.
The next week started with my kids away at church camp for the week. Now you might think WOW, you had a ton of time to work out. Well you would be wrong. Besides a couple of dates with my beautiful wife. We were cleaning up the pit, also know as, Josh and Daniel's room. No big deal, a couple of hours . . Well you might not have met my kids. Four and a half garbage bags full of broken toys, fast food toys and various other items that we deemed time to throw out later, we saw the floor! It literally took 3 days to get that room clean. We had planned on painting it as well but decided that could wait for another time. So long story short, I did not do anything last week. I have still been limiting what I eat. And I think for the first time in a long time, I can stop eating before I am full! I am pretty happy about that! I have stopped drinking everything but water, all day and coffee in the mornings. I even stopped drinking iced tea, which I absolutely love! Especially sweet tea!!!! But I really want to do this competition. So some small sacrifices here and there and I can hopefully reach my goal!
A FaceBook friend told me once I got started with this it would make me focused in ways I might not realize. Well, while I'm not a Bi-athlete and likely won't ever be, I am very focused on this. So tonight I started my running regimen over from the beginning. I took a different route tonight and though it had a couple of bigger hills, I was able to complete it and end up right at my driveway! Yea me! As a character in Brad Thor's novels says "Never give up! Never surrender!" That is the attitude I have about getting ready for this!
Have a great rest of the week! Trav
So here is what I have been up to!
So two weeks ago I was bustin' it hard. I have dropped ten pounds and was feeling awesome. Then the heat index started kicking in. We had heat indexes at 105+, temps at 97-99. After talking with a few folks who run all the time, they suggested not running in this kind of heat. Especially since I was still having issues taking in air! So instead I started Jillian Michael's 30 day Shred video. Some of you maybe be laughing right now, but I tell you what. I dare any of you guys to do the first leg of this video and not me you feel like you are dying! I think I would have rather run in the heat! She is one tough broad! Josh did it with me. I do wonder if he really wanted to do the exercises or look at the girls in the video, but I digress! :) We got done and I had a rough time getting off the floor! The rest of the week was weights and sit-ups and push-ups.
The next week started with my kids away at church camp for the week. Now you might think WOW, you had a ton of time to work out. Well you would be wrong. Besides a couple of dates with my beautiful wife. We were cleaning up the pit, also know as, Josh and Daniel's room. No big deal, a couple of hours . . Well you might not have met my kids. Four and a half garbage bags full of broken toys, fast food toys and various other items that we deemed time to throw out later, we saw the floor! It literally took 3 days to get that room clean. We had planned on painting it as well but decided that could wait for another time. So long story short, I did not do anything last week. I have still been limiting what I eat. And I think for the first time in a long time, I can stop eating before I am full! I am pretty happy about that! I have stopped drinking everything but water, all day and coffee in the mornings. I even stopped drinking iced tea, which I absolutely love! Especially sweet tea!!!! But I really want to do this competition. So some small sacrifices here and there and I can hopefully reach my goal!
A FaceBook friend told me once I got started with this it would make me focused in ways I might not realize. Well, while I'm not a Bi-athlete and likely won't ever be, I am very focused on this. So tonight I started my running regimen over from the beginning. I took a different route tonight and though it had a couple of bigger hills, I was able to complete it and end up right at my driveway! Yea me! As a character in Brad Thor's novels says "Never give up! Never surrender!" That is the attitude I have about getting ready for this!
Have a great rest of the week! Trav
Saturday, July 9, 2011
And so ends week 1....
Well, it has officially been one week since I started training. I would say I am training for Tough Mudder but in reality I am trying to get in good enough shape to start training for Tough Mudder. http://toughmudder.com/ So when last we left off I had found an app called C25K to help me get started. This has been a big help. Day 2 of the app was awesome but before I talk about that I also did other things this week. So on Tuesday I did a bunch of laps in the pool at a friends house. I could feel that when I got done let me tell you. The next day I didn't run but did some dumbbell work , sit ups and push ups. One note on the push ups. Ouch! I have not done them in so long I could barely squeeze out one. So I started some reps with 12lb weights I have instead of trying in vain to do more push-ups. One in each hand. I would try to explain what I was doing but I have no idea. After about 45 reps each in about 5 different positions, I decide to try the push-ups again. I got through 10 and then did another 10 later after the sit-ups. It might not seems like a lot to some of you but for me it was huge! So to recap I got about 22 push ups in (yes, twenty two, no I don't know why!) 40 sit ups(really crunches), which still hurt by the way, 45 or more reps with weights in different positions and some stretches. Plus, a ten year old personal trainer who is very encouraging. It does help to hear. "Come on Dad you can do this!" That and the giggles about how red my face gets when I do this stuff! Oh well I can live with that.
The next day I decided to do my run at night. Let me tell you this was my best night. I covered 2 miles that night. I was so excited! I could not believe it. I have never been able to run a mile much less two. I was beat, breathing heavily and felt like I was going to die but I did it! Yea me! By the way, having music is a great motivator!
On top of all this I have been scaling back what I eat and going back to a lower carb diet. I did Atkins for a year and dropped 30 lbs but that is hard to sustain. I figured I would modify that, add a few more acceptable carbs like a piece of wheat bread with a meal and try to avoid the bad stuff. I was able to avoid the Krispy Kreme trap set by a co-worker yesterday and that is a big deal for me. I love those things!
So that brings me to today.
I was thinking day would be a breeze. I have made it through the same two mile stretch and everything else has been going great this week. Well that didn't happen this morning. Maybe I wasn't feeling it this morning or maybe I wasn't in the groove because my stupid Pandora app on my phone wasn't working right, or maybe it was because Josh was with me and I could concentrate. I dont' know what it was but I wasn't able to push through this morning. I was having a hard time getting started and it affected the whole run. I still got thru 2 miles but missed the last leg of the run. I walked maybe the last 1/4 mile. On the up side, Josh was beat. He thought this would be a breeze because he runs about 40 laps in the gym at camp. After we got done he said "This is hard Dad!" Yep, I couldn't agree more! I was pretty bummed by the time I got back to the house. I'm still trying to figure out what happened but I probably never will. I will chock this up to a bad day and move on. I get to go swimming here in a bit so I will still be sort of working out while relaxing with some good friends. I am confident that will make me feel better! That's all for now and if you have any tips on how to get over the bummed out feeling I would be grateful! Have a great weekend!
The next day I decided to do my run at night. Let me tell you this was my best night. I covered 2 miles that night. I was so excited! I could not believe it. I have never been able to run a mile much less two. I was beat, breathing heavily and felt like I was going to die but I did it! Yea me! By the way, having music is a great motivator!
On top of all this I have been scaling back what I eat and going back to a lower carb diet. I did Atkins for a year and dropped 30 lbs but that is hard to sustain. I figured I would modify that, add a few more acceptable carbs like a piece of wheat bread with a meal and try to avoid the bad stuff. I was able to avoid the Krispy Kreme trap set by a co-worker yesterday and that is a big deal for me. I love those things!
So that brings me to today.
I was thinking day would be a breeze. I have made it through the same two mile stretch and everything else has been going great this week. Well that didn't happen this morning. Maybe I wasn't feeling it this morning or maybe I wasn't in the groove because my stupid Pandora app on my phone wasn't working right, or maybe it was because Josh was with me and I could concentrate. I dont' know what it was but I wasn't able to push through this morning. I was having a hard time getting started and it affected the whole run. I still got thru 2 miles but missed the last leg of the run. I walked maybe the last 1/4 mile. On the up side, Josh was beat. He thought this would be a breeze because he runs about 40 laps in the gym at camp. After we got done he said "This is hard Dad!" Yep, I couldn't agree more! I was pretty bummed by the time I got back to the house. I'm still trying to figure out what happened but I probably never will. I will chock this up to a bad day and move on. I get to go swimming here in a bit so I will still be sort of working out while relaxing with some good friends. I am confident that will make me feel better! That's all for now and if you have any tips on how to get over the bummed out feeling I would be grateful! Have a great weekend!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Happy 4th of July!
First off, Happy 4th of July! I hope all of you have a great 4th and remember why we celebrate today! Now on to my next post. By the way, I have no idea how often I will post a blog but being that this is a holiday weekend, I have a little more time on my hands!
So Day 2, how should I recap Day 2? Well I guess I should start back with the end of Day 1. So I got a chance to go see U2 in concert here in Nashville. (Thanks Paul!) It was an awesome concert by the way. After sweating at least 5 lbs off in the humidity that is Nashville in July and walking from and back to my car(about a mile each way). I was a little beat on Sunday. I didn't get home until about 12:15 AM. Now, I am not a night owl, so being up that late coupled with running for the first time and heat and humidity, well I could not pull myself out of bed early to run the next day. So I got up about 8:30 or so, got the boys up and went to church. Angie and I went to a friends house to go swimming with our small group after church and swimming we did. I must have been in that pool 2 or 3 hrs. So I am counting that as day two! :) By the way I now have a few more guys who are crazy enough to do this competition with me now!
Day 3- This morning I got up and I am sore all over! My arms are sore, my feet are sore, my shoulders are sore and so on and so on. So what did I do this morning? I actually got up and went running again. Well actually, I put on a cup of coffee, loved on the cat, the dog and then sat down on the couch contemplating whether or not I wanted to run again. Hey, I have to tell the truth! Anyway, I grabbed my phone and thanks to a cool app called C25k, I now have a good little running program to follow (thanks Gene). So I do the warm up and start walking, then run for one minute and walk for 90 seconds. This alternates for about 30 minutes but guess what, I finished, well almost. I walked the last minute I was supposed to jog but in my eyes that is huge. I did better today than I did on Saturday. Pretty good for a guy who still hates to run but is trying. Now I need to start fitting in some sit ups and push ups and hopefully I will be on my way. Happy 4th!
So Day 2, how should I recap Day 2? Well I guess I should start back with the end of Day 1. So I got a chance to go see U2 in concert here in Nashville. (Thanks Paul!) It was an awesome concert by the way. After sweating at least 5 lbs off in the humidity that is Nashville in July and walking from and back to my car(about a mile each way). I was a little beat on Sunday. I didn't get home until about 12:15 AM. Now, I am not a night owl, so being up that late coupled with running for the first time and heat and humidity, well I could not pull myself out of bed early to run the next day. So I got up about 8:30 or so, got the boys up and went to church. Angie and I went to a friends house to go swimming with our small group after church and swimming we did. I must have been in that pool 2 or 3 hrs. So I am counting that as day two! :) By the way I now have a few more guys who are crazy enough to do this competition with me now!
Day 3- This morning I got up and I am sore all over! My arms are sore, my feet are sore, my shoulders are sore and so on and so on. So what did I do this morning? I actually got up and went running again. Well actually, I put on a cup of coffee, loved on the cat, the dog and then sat down on the couch contemplating whether or not I wanted to run again. Hey, I have to tell the truth! Anyway, I grabbed my phone and thanks to a cool app called C25k, I now have a good little running program to follow (thanks Gene). So I do the warm up and start walking, then run for one minute and walk for 90 seconds. This alternates for about 30 minutes but guess what, I finished, well almost. I walked the last minute I was supposed to jog but in my eyes that is huge. I did better today than I did on Saturday. Pretty good for a guy who still hates to run but is trying. Now I need to start fitting in some sit ups and push ups and hopefully I will be on my way. Happy 4th!
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Am I crazy?
So, My name is Travis. I am 38 years old. I'm about 5' 7"ish and around 240 lbs. Its that 240 lbs mark that has been bothering me. I got to thinking the other day about how out of shape I am. Which to be honest is not a stretch considering how much I hate to exercise. Anyway, I was looking thru my facebook account and ran across an event that caught my eye. The name of the event is the Tough Mudder. http://toughmudder.com/ As I was looking at the website I realized something. I wanted to do this! I dont' know if maybe I have started a mid-life crisis mode early or what. Am I crazy? Well, my wife Angie definitely thinks so! Any way. I started asking a few folks if they would be interested in doing this with me. One said sure, another said he would rather hike 40 miles on the Appalachian trail, another is thinking about it and a few have not yet returned my messages. What has so far drawn me to this is the fact it is a team competition. I love that kind of stuff or so I used to. A little running(yuck), some obstacles(Whoohoo) a little more running (out of breath already) and more obstacles (Yea!!!???). Get the picture? This is the kind of thing that would keep my attention! The problem is the course is anywhere from 7-10 miles. That means more running(bleh....) and I am not in the best of shape. So like every other person on the planet, I decided to blog about this! This is hopefully going to be how I track how I am doing and let you know my struggles and accomplishments. I figure it this way. I am pushing 40 and have not really had a decent goal in years. The two big goals in my life, getting married and having kiddos is already behind me(that is another adventure in and of itself) but I don't have a personal goal to work toward. As of today, I do. So without further ado.... Here is how day one of training has gone.
Day 1- Woke about 6:15, rolled over looked at the silent alarm clock and wondered why in the world I am up this early on a weekend. I woke up Angie and said lets go. 20 minutes later we got up and got ready to run. Now mind you I loathe running. Always have. To me it is the most boring thing in the world. I hear people say things like" you feel great while you are running" or " if you run outside you see all the beautiful things God has created while you are running" After this morning.. I ain't buying either of those! So we take off and I decide to use a run walk pattern to build up endurance. That is the best why to do it, so I am told. So I walk for 4 minutes, no big deal, then the phone goes off and tells me its time to run. So off I go. I am supposed to run for 2 minutes. Well I got about 1 1/2 minutes in before I had to quit. Apparently 240 lbs does not run well. So I am breathing heavy and back to walking and trying to pull oxygen into my lungs. Now mind you I am not running full out. I figure I would have to be insane to do that. but I am at a decent pace. Luckily, Angie knows about running so I have a great coach while I am killing myself. I start again after the 4 minutes is up and this time it is a little easier. Still can't make the 2 minutes mark but I am not dying this time so I am feeling OK. I did this about 3 more times and much to my dismay I am doing OK. I apparently still can't breathe after the running but I am running and I don't feel like I am dying, too badly anyway. Did about a mile this morning and I feel pretty good! Considering this is day one I feel OK. I made it back home in one piece and I don't feel like I need to pass out on the couch! So this is day one and I am on my way to do this crazy competition. Yes, I am crazy but I intend to have fun while I am training for this!
Day 1- Woke about 6:15, rolled over looked at the silent alarm clock and wondered why in the world I am up this early on a weekend. I woke up Angie and said lets go. 20 minutes later we got up and got ready to run. Now mind you I loathe running. Always have. To me it is the most boring thing in the world. I hear people say things like" you feel great while you are running" or " if you run outside you see all the beautiful things God has created while you are running" After this morning.. I ain't buying either of those! So we take off and I decide to use a run walk pattern to build up endurance. That is the best why to do it, so I am told. So I walk for 4 minutes, no big deal, then the phone goes off and tells me its time to run. So off I go. I am supposed to run for 2 minutes. Well I got about 1 1/2 minutes in before I had to quit. Apparently 240 lbs does not run well. So I am breathing heavy and back to walking and trying to pull oxygen into my lungs. Now mind you I am not running full out. I figure I would have to be insane to do that. but I am at a decent pace. Luckily, Angie knows about running so I have a great coach while I am killing myself. I start again after the 4 minutes is up and this time it is a little easier. Still can't make the 2 minutes mark but I am not dying this time so I am feeling OK. I did this about 3 more times and much to my dismay I am doing OK. I apparently still can't breathe after the running but I am running and I don't feel like I am dying, too badly anyway. Did about a mile this morning and I feel pretty good! Considering this is day one I feel OK. I made it back home in one piece and I don't feel like I need to pass out on the couch! So this is day one and I am on my way to do this crazy competition. Yes, I am crazy but I intend to have fun while I am training for this!
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