Lessons In Wisconsin

I just spent seven days in Waterloo, Wisconsin with my parents and siblings, visiting my cousin Cs, her husband Cp, and new born baby DJ. Our time spent was great. I could go on about how cute DJ is, but this is a running blog not a baby blog.

Oh who am I kidding, let’s talk about the baby a bit. She is growing super fast. From the day we arrived to the day we left, we could really see a difference. She’s about three months old now and while we were there she discovered that her hands are the most fascinating devices in the world. It was amazing to witness this cognitive development; suddenly she wanted to grab things- blankets, fingers, jewelry, etc… The baby also is on the brink of giggling. She already smiles a lot. And when DJ gets fussy, she doesn’t start crying. I can see her trying to communicate, as if the words are stuck in her belly and she cannot force them out. She burrows her eyebrows, concentrating hard to form words or some kind of coherent sound, but nothing comes out. So close.

[caption id="attachment_40" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="DJ, fascinated with the world"][/caption]

Ok, back to running… I am very fortunate to have a cousin who is a massage therapist that married a man who works for Trek Bicycle and has a Wii.

My cousin Cs knows all about trigger points. We discussed what Coach Michael has already done for me and she took it further. She let me look through a couple of her text books from school that described pain, the cause of pain, and the treatment. “The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook”, by Clair Davies. I recommend this book to all athletes… well, actually, everyone should read this regardless. Cs then gave me a session on my right leg and holy moly did she find some trigger points. Intense, liberating pain.

My running mileage was not nearly what is should have been the last few days because of my issues. But Cp helped me out by borrowing a demo bike from the local Trek store in Madison. He was able to size me up and fit me properly as well. The day of my sub-mile frustration run, I took a 2009 Trek Madone 5 series out for a nice 15 mile ride in farmland. Sweet bike. The ride made me feel better about my lame legs; at least I got in a good workout. I think I’m pretty much hooked on cycling. Cp tells me, “I shouldn’t have given you the Porche of bicycles to test. I should have started you with a lower model.” Perhaps he’s right. I cannot drop the $3,900 or so it costs to get one. I’ll definitely have to start with a cheaper bike. Perhaps I can find a good, used “Toyota” somewhere.

[caption id="attachment_51" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Lance Armstrong\'s busted bike from 2003 Tour de France"][/caption]

My brother, sister, and cousin also asked that I put together a running program for them. Cs has some running experience. Bro and Sis do not. I created a 28 day program that will get them running three miles comfortably. We went to the local high school track on Sunday and tried it out. It went well. But as any runner knows, consistency is the key. They will have to stick with this to make it work and only they can do that… though I’ll be signing Bro up for a 5k in the autumn as motivation!

So I ran a bit here and there and I had that nice 15 mile ride. I rolled my quads, got some therapy done to my legs, and tried to rest. And I played with the Wii Fitness game. It gives you a serious workout. I am impressed. I did a bit of Wii yoga which helped me be more conscious of my balance and posture. There were some good strengthening exercises, and fun games to play to improve balance. But the real gem was Hula-hoops. Awesome core workout. My abs and hips are still sore (my record is 321 spins, in case you were curious). I think I may buy a hula-hoop for working out.

Tuesday night I went back out on the track to test my legs. The cork surface softens the impact so I thought it would be good to take advantage of it. It was a nice run. I averaged about an 8 minute per mile pace and made it 4 miles without pain. I stopped around 4.5 miles. Yesterday I spent 15 hours traveling back to NY in a Ford Excursion, checking emails, and getting my legs stiff. Then I hopped into another vehicle and drove 3 more hours back to Brooklyn.

Today I will run again, my “easy” 5.3 mile loop in good old Prospect Park.