And I ran ...

For the first time in my 39.75 years on earth, I ran, sustained, for 3 miles. I completed the loop around the Jackie O reservoir twice in about 33 minutes. My leg felt fine during the run, but it's been a little sore since.

http://bit.ly/fmnnUK

Needless to say, I'm proud of the run and I'm looking forward to more once the pain goes away!

Until next time.

A real pain in the leg II

Since we vacationed at the Sanctuary on Camelback earlier in the month, I've run only once on the treadmill. That was two days ago, and so far things seem OK. I iced my leg that night and it's still a little sore. I'm afraid that the only way to get the pain to dissipate entirely is to stop exercising altogether for two or three weeks. I'm not sure I'm ready to do that and I think I can live with the soreness by icing and taking the occasional Aleve.

Today will be a visit to the elliptical with group 1 strength training which should keep the load off the adductor for the most part. I'm also going to try to swim on Saturday AM, but that still remains to be seen.

More to come!

New sneaks!

Going for the third workout with these today! More to come ...

Ice, Ice Baby

So I've decided to try to take some action on getting the soreness in my right, lower, inner thigh to go away. It's been a few weeks since the pain started, and I think I've got a program to get it to stop. The program consists of icing the sore muscle after exercise and to stay off it for running for a few weeks. I'm getting a pretty good workout on the elliptical (600 calories cooked in 45 minutes) and keeping off the leg during strength training.

I got turned on to the application of ice by our tennis hitting partner yesterday. After we finished playing a somewhat vigorous 90 minutes of doubles, Bobby saw me rubbing my adductor longus and offered me a bag of ice. I applied the bag of ice for about 30 minutes and, bam! the pain subsided. It felt pretty good all afternoon, so I'm sold. Let's see how things go today as I've been applying an ice pack for the past hour and I'm about to go out and see how it holds up.

A real pain in the leg

Well, after two days of not going to the gym, I'm going a little crazy. When I started this regimen a couple months back, I ignored the one piece of advice on every fitness website, piece of equipment, gym wall, gadget, and cocktail napkin when considering starting a new fitness routine: consult a doctor. I mean, who actually does that? I suppose I should have, considering my current situation.

When I started running on the treadmill in earnest in February, things felt great at first. After a while, the lower muscle on my right inner thigh began to get sore. I figured it was just me being out of shape. However, after a trip to the spa that consisted of a lot of tennis, swimming, and gym time along with a nice massage, I'm hurting a little more than I was before. My diagnosis is that it's a strained adductor longus. That's my diagnosis anyway.

So today I'm going to try some light work on the elliptical and I'm going to do some strength training just to cook off a few calories and to try to stay limber. I'm playing doubles tennis on Saturday ("V shift! V shift!") so that will be a test of the adductor. I think I'll try to pickup a thigh compression wrap/sleeve before I workout today. Hopefully that will be an adequate substitute for a doctor today!

First post

This is going to be the site where I post my progress on getting fit. I've been at it since last year, but really I kicked it all up in January 2011, coincidentally the same year I turn 40. Classic entrance into midlife, I know, but it really is time I got serious about this.

So, as a result of a Facebook post by @MarkShandrow a few months ago, I joined Lose It! The site is pretty good, and one of the things that I really liked about it was that it focused on transparency of progress and accountability through active tracking of food intake and exercise, coupled with peer support. So with this in mind, I thought I would add to the transparency and put up a blog that outlines my overall progress and serves as the forum where I discuss my experiences with trying to get fit.

I will end this post stating my fitness, weight loss, and diet goals that I'm attempting to achieve this year. They are as follows:

1. Weigh no more than 200 pounds by June 14, 2011
2. Be able to do 10 consecutive overhand, unassisted pull ups by December 31, 2011.
3. Join the NY Road Runners Club and complete a 5K road race by October 1, 2011.
4. Swim a mile in 45 minutes by July 31, 2011.

Until next time ...