Week six?

We're already half done! The P90X train keeps rolling and I will admit that I am seeing improvements in my arms. Getting those nice short-sleeve muscles ready for the summer! I can always tell that my strength is improving when I get to a point that my girlish forearms start to become a limiting factor. They are just too week and tiny to support any significant increase in weight. Sigh.

I feel your pain

It's been a crappy week mentally though. Although I am enjoying not feeling like a total sloth anymore my achilles started to bother me again this week and so I was reminded anew that I was still not running. It's May and I am still not running. Seven months later. I've done everything right and yet I am still not running.

We are heading to a wedding at the end of July in San Francisco and I was really looking forward to being able to run through the city. There is no better way to see a new city than to run through it; that way you get the whole experience. And I was psyched to tackle some killer hills. There are two types of runners, those that love hills and those that will go out of their way to avoid them.

Adidas gets it

But now, who the hell knows. I am continuing in running limbo. I've been getting mad about it, not just frustrated or annoyed, straight up angry. I'm tired of being told to just wait, to have patience. Screw your waiting, I want to run!

334 days until the 117th Boston Marathon

P90X Week Three

Week three of P90X has begun and boy have I already seen some dramatic changes!

Alright, that's totally not me. But one can dream!

Definitely feeling stronger and better than I have in a while though. It sucks getting up before the birds to work out but it will all be worth it in the end. Right? Gotta keep repeating that to myself.

As far as losing weight I can confidently say that I have lost a grand total of

Well, maybe not that bad, but I have not been great with my diet, as if that is something new. So onwards and upwards! I'll just keep plugging away until I can get back running. I got out with Melissa and Rose this weekend for a 90 minute bike ride. I am enjoying the bike rides, it's nice to be outside exercising again on a good day.

Marathon Pics

Here are some pictures from the 114th Boston Marathon. I claimed a patch of asphalt in Wellesley where 135 meets 16, just past the halfway point of the race. I think the heat kept most of the more "interesting" runners out this year so there really wasn't much in the way of characters.

  The calm before the storm

 

Here come the women

Followed by the men

The infamous Don Burke!

The entertainment

Tom Rooney giving Michael Gilio terrible directions (hint: follow the other runners)

 Kim and Vin "Team" Greene stop off for some oranges

Taking a break to borrow my cell phone for a quick call

Taking in the sun, cheering on the runners

P90X Day 3

I can no longer move my arms. They are frozen in a permanent position and will violently scream in pain at any attempt to move them. This must mean that the program is working. As a matter of fact, I am actually writing this with my nose because I can't raise my arms.  awfhnafasnifqpwoie4gnfpoweaingf'[adsfmk'

Excuse me, I sneezed.

P90X

Now that Easter is over and I have consumed a good amount of sugar I figured that it was time to try and reclaim a semblance of fitness again. The fact that I have a checkup today and my doctor is probably going to laugh at my jiggly mid-section had nothing to do with this decision at all.

Vile Sugary Temptress!

Since I am still not running (insert appropriate grumbling sounds here) I thought about my best options for getting back in shape. Swimming? No pool. Biking? Still too cold for my taste. Modern pentathlon training? Tempting, but my horse is in the shop. What can I do at home, with minimal equipment? Hmm; I got it! P90X! I've done it before so I should easily be able to do it again.

Seriously, he will

Seems I forgot about that part. This post alone has taken me three hours to write due to the fact that I can only move my arms in a 12 degree arc. P90X doesn't have an adjustment period at the beginning. You just get out there and start banging out as many reps as you can. It would be like training for a marathon by running twenty miles every day without ever building up to it and occasionally doing it backwards just so you don't get burnt out. Oh, and yoga. Goddamn that yoga.

But I will persevere! Summer is coming and the current state of my body is scary. I'll keep working out and getting stronger. For now though, most workouts will probably end up like this:

Same sh...stuff

Different day.

Yesterday was the highly anticipated appointment with the podiatrist to come up with a plan on how to fix this nagging Achilles issue. Two months of waiting just to get to see her and I was confident and ready that we could begin to put this long ordeal behind me. Huzzah! progress!

Yeah, not so much. She looked at it, confirmed that yes, there was still some inflammation and that the x-rays definitely showed a slight bone spur. But it's a mild case so let's just go ahead and give it another six months. Umm, excuse me? Your advice is to do more of nothing? Exactly what I have been doing for the past 5 months and haven't seen any improvement in the past 3? Sorry but that is just unacceptable. So I pushed back a bit and  we talked about the surgery option, which while minor definitely is a huge step to take. But at least I wanted to get it out that I wasn't too happy about sitting around waiting.

Finally I just straight up said that I have Boston to run in 2013, I don't have time to sit around not running. I explained that not running it was not an option since it was the first time I have qualified. That made her feel a bit bad so she knocked the waiting period down to three moths. Still, that sucks. I'd hoped to be back on the roads by now to give my self a full year of training. Each month that goes by puts me further from where I hope to be come April 2013. Luckily the days are getting longer, the weather warmer and biking has no ill-effect on the foot so I can get out riding. A poor substitute for a good run, I know, but I've been lucky enough to get out and do some riding this past week and it has been great to be out exercising again.

So the frustration with this situation continues unabated and I am continuing to look for ways to speed up the recovery. Mostly though it is a struggle to come to terms that no matter what happens my 2012 running season is effectively cancelled and at best I will be fit enough to start training again sometime in the second half of the year.

Obligatory Whiny Post

Last month my PT and I came to the same conclusion, there was nothing more she could do for me. I was better than when I started but progress on the Achilles had all but stopped. So we bid each other a fond farewell and I went off to revisit the Ortho to see what could be done. Several X-rays (now in digital!) later she pretty much said that I was a good case for some minor surgery. Ok, not pretty much, she flat out said that it was the best idea at this point. So I walked five feet over and made my appointment with the podiatrist happy that I could finally move forward and fix this. Except that her first appointment wasn't for another two months. God dammit.

Two freaking months. Which of course means that I would get to see her in two months, then there would be another huge delay to schedule surgery, if she even recommends it, then the time to recovery. Which means I'm looking at some huge amount of time still not running.

Well screw that, I'm going to start call around to other doctors. So I did. And every single one was a longer wait than the last. WTF. You gotta be kidding me here. Seven months after I began treating this thing and I still have to wait at least another two months for a chance to fix it. I hate doctors with the passion of a burning star.

Well, not these Doctors of course