Exercising away the pain

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

“I thought the whole point to your writing your boring log was that I wouldn’t have to hear about your exercise pains anymore,” Holly said.

Oh yeah…THAT’S REALLY FUNNY…

So I complain a little when I hurt…which is all the time…and I complain a lot…so?

I had been with my son, Jack, at the track the evening before (he had decided to go up and do a time trial in the 400 – just for kicks. I think he’s starting to get into the track thing…) and had mentioned I was sore from my ride.

“How could you be sore from all the working out you’re doing? Shouldn’t you be feeling good by now?”

So I tried to explain the different kinds of workout pain without the boring physiology lesson. I told him how I was tired sore tonight…which is just how you feel when your thigh muscles have done something like fire about 10,000 times as they do when you ride a bike for two hours (80-90 revolutions a minute for 120 minutes). Then there’s lactic acid sore, which gets into the muscles and can last for up to 48 hours and is the result of doing an activity close to all-out for around 60 seconds. There’s also that great mitochondrial muscle tearing and rebuilding that goes on when you use muscles that haven’t done an activity in some time (how you feel after a game of pick up baseball or touch football after a five year layoff), which also lasts a couple of days. Finally, there’s the injury. The unusual soreness in a specific spot that often brings sharp pain. It’s the one to look out for and avoid.

Well…today it was the pain in my ass. I’m thinking it was from the back to back running days followed by two hours on a bike. Could do it. I had too much time in the car today – driving, sitting and waiting. Probably six hours. By the time I was driving to the park for my run, I literally couldn’t sit. I kept pushing my feet against the floor of the car and getting my butt airborne to relieve the ache. I sprung from the car and quickly changed into my running gear upon arriving. I couldn’t wait to get started.

Here's the cool thing. I knew I was going to feel better as soon as I started exercising. It really works! As the muscles warmed and stretched, they were going to feel better and I was going to have a good run. I was sure of it. It didn't start that way though...

The first one hundred yards must have looked like I’d escaped from an assisted living home. My ankles hurt with each step. My butt was twitching with pain and my left leg gave out a couple of times, causing me to stumble and almost fall. Generally speaking, I felt like shit.

By the time I reached the top of the first hill though, things were loosening up as I knew they would. I was planning on running the course Reza and I had covered in 56 minutes on Sunday and I was determined it would be quicker. I prayed I wouldn’t run into him again – there was no way I was talking through this run.

Though extremely tired – my thighs were so heavy – the run went well and I finished in 53:30 or two and a half minutes faster than Saturday with Reza. Talking slows you down. I’ve got a long way to go, though. I’ll be running this course in 48 minutes in a month if I can stay healthy. It’s a park perimeter run that I will return to as a time trial – just to prove to myself that I’m getting better.

Holly met me after the run and we hiked for another 45 minutes. Reza and Jimmy came running by and I told Reza how much faster I’d run without him to slow me down. He’d won that 5K he’d run on Sunday – probably the intense run with me on Saturday that had set it up. I’ll save information about Jimmy for another day. He deserves a couple of chapters.

Run duration: 53 minutes. Hike duration: 45 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 140 running. 75 hiking.

Calories burned during workout: 900 running. 275 hiking.