Suspending my running

I haven't posted on this blog since January, and it is now June.

Today, I thought I'd just drop in and let my followers know what happened.

In January, I had every intention of running through the entire winter, but it didn't work out that way.

On January 15, at about 15 minutes into what would have been an hour run, I felt a pain in my left foot. It was a very specific pain, and that is what worried me. The pain was in the arch of my foot, exactly where I had injured it on mile 20 of a marathon that I ran back in 2000 in Los Angeles.

I had damaged a tendon in my arch in that marathon, and what made it worse was that I didn't stop running. By that point, I was feeling aches and pain throughout my entire body and one more bit of pain in my foot didn't seem to make much difference. I finished the marathon.

However, because I didn't stop, I damaged that tendon even worse. When a doctor checked it, I could give no resistance as he pushed against the foot from the side.

This sidelined me from running, and it took years for the pain to go away. My weight slowly creeped up as I worked two jobs and became more sedentary.

When I started my latest running effort in the summer of 2010, it had seemed that with good shoes with special inserts and the foot and knee braces, that I could run without pain. I had beaten it.

I made a lot of progress. I dropped about 20 pounds. It seemed I had rediscovered my love for running and that this would carry me back to a healthy weight.

But when the pain returned in January, I knew I had to take a break.

The specific pain in the arch went away after a few weeks, but the weight crept back on. This was followed by a slowly increasing general pain in my feet.

I'm wearing the foot braces almost all the time now. I don't seem to be able to do much without them on. What is obvious is that my extra weight has taken a toll on my feet.

I've recently come to terms with the fact that I can't run anymore with all this extra weight.  I have to lose the weight without running. I also have to strengthen my feet.

Here's the new daily plan, which I started doing at the beginning of this week:

1) Half-hour on the exercise bike in the morning.

2) Half-hour on the real bike. I've decided that for now I will do the real bike riding by doing laps around Country Estates, a loop neighborhood nearby with little traffic and lots of hills.

3) 20-minute dog walk.

4) Half-hour on the exercise bike in the evening. I've found I can't do more than half-hour at a time on the exercise bike. It just gets unbearable like that. So, I break it up into 30-minute sessions.

5) Cut out as many fats and carbs from my diet as I can. Eat more roughage and vegetables -- celery, carrots, etc. I'll still eat whole wheat bread, but I've been eating cereal without milk, cutting out the margarine on toast, and cutting back on cookies. (But I'll still eat Oreos. They seem to be a low-fat treat and will make it easier than cutting everything out cold turkey.) These are all meant to be slow, gradual changes but hopefully will be a healthier way to go. I said goodbye to red meat a long time ago. I don't really want extra diet advice or special plans. I have done research and have a good idea of where I need to go. I just need to find a way to get there that works for me.

6) I need to resume the foot therapy exercises I learned after my injury.

7) Try to keep more active. Fortunately, I have a good list of projects to tackle around the house.

The bottom line is that for me this is NOT as much fun as running, and I will not lose the weight as quickly as I would if I were still running. But the fact is that I was relying on the running to do it all for me. I didn't change my diet very much because the running was more than canceling out the need to make other changes.

But now, if I have any chance of running again, I need to lose the weight first. So, all the other changes have to happen now, and maybe the running will be possible someday.

So, unfortunately, it will be a while before I resume this running blog. But now you know why.

Thank you for all your support.

Ed Bond

A Long-Overdue Update

So, it's been about two months since my last post. I'm sorry about that. To bring you up to date:

• I returned to running in November. Jack's sickness was finally diagnosed as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and it ultimately had to do with a lot of stress from playing trombone in the school band. With medication, a change in diet and the removal of Jack from the ensemble performances, he's gotten much better and has been pain-free for about a month and a half.
• In late November, I started running every other day again, or at least three times a week, weather permitting. Fortunately, the weather has been very mild this year, especially through much of December. I had a couple of good runs around Christmas, but the holidays derailed the routine. 
• I also wore out another pair of running shoes around Christmas, and it took a while to find a new pair. The outlet stores were all out of my style of shoe on our trip to N.J., so I didn't find them until after the first of the year. But this time, I bought TWO pairs, so that when I chew through the current pair, I will have a backup pair at the ready.
• I've also worn out the knee braces I've had for the past year and a half. Parts of them are falling out, causing them to lose support and I could feel a slight strain in my left knee on my run today. I need to get another pair from Walmart.

So, today was my first run since around Christmas, and it was GREAT! I felt strong. I ran well, and best of all it was a great day for a run. The temperatures were in the 50s, which is wonderful for early January.

For me, winters are miserable. I get depressed with the short days and the sub-zero or single-digit temps that keep me inside. To actually get out and run in January was a big boost for me, and my hope is that this will help carry me through the winter. 

We've had only a couple of days of bitterly cold weather, and my hope is that the temps stay in the 20s or 30s most of the time. If that happens, I should be able to keep running regularly. I am at the point that it feels like I can run easier when the temp is around 30. 

So long as I cover up with sweats, all I need is a couple of minutes to warm up, and then the weather feels perfect. 

For Christmas, Amy gave me a knit hat I can run in. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I am looking forward to it.