Tuesday, January 3, 2012
I met with Bill Bodnar, another of my Rite Aid runners, to perform the fitness test and write his program for completing the half marathon in May.  He’d already been reading my blog and when he’d seen the entry about watching the documentary ‘Baseball’, knew that I was a diehard.  “I play on an ‘over forty’ team and wondered if you’d like to play with us,” he asked.  And I would love to.  I’ve still got a pretty good arm, can run well enough…but my hitting’s for shit. 

“Actually…I’d love to play again.  But there is no way I’m going to do it unless I’m ready and there’s no way I can commit the time I’d need to get ready…and play the schedule…if I didn’t give up something from my routine…and that’s something I’m not willing to do,” I said.  The thing I enjoy the most about the way I work out is that I’m on no one’s schedule but my own.  I like to put in long rides through the summer and to be able to take impromptu trips to the mountains for camping and climbing.  All that would change if I committed to a baseball schedule…but I admire the old farts like me who are still playing baseball…like Bill.

In fact, it was during games when he was trying to make the run from first to third that he first became aware of his shortness of breath.  He mentioned it to his doctor who did some testing, which eventually discovered he had 70% blockage in a coronary artery.  Bypass surgery was recommended.  “I didn’t like that diagnosis, John, and so I went to another guy who suggested I make some significant lifestyle changes…like the ones suggested in the book ‘Eat More, Weigh Less’ written by the cardiologist, Dean Ornish.   He stresses regular exercise and a plant-based diet and has shown that people can reverse coronary artery disease.  I’ve been following it since last July and I’ve lost 20 pounds!”

He began running after a 27-year hiatus from the sport, but got back into it quickly.  He wears a heart rate monitor during all of his exercise and makes sure to keep it below 85% of his age predicted maximum…which may mean that he needs to stop running at times and walk a distance until his heart rates returns to his suggested rate…a good precaution for a guy with 70% blockage.  Still…he’s determined to avoid the surgery…and run a half marathon.  All that…and he plays baseball at age 57.

Kim and I took on the snow and freezing weather so she could do a final Survival Workout before returning to Florida and her graduate studies.  We found ourselves parking in a different part of the park…they still don’t know to plow my spot at the bottom of Ox Lane so I can begin my work out there.  Lost the memo again, I suppose.  We were both wearing boots, which made running awkward but made every step through the snow that more challenging.  They also tend to get in the way for climbing poles, leg lifts and abdominal work, and hopping up and down on things I’m not supposed to hop up and down on.  We did climb out of the valley on the steep hill behind the Oak Pavilion and then slipped and slid down the other side, trying to avoid smashing into a tree and stay on our feet as we descended.  There must be 20 ridges and ravines in the North Chagrin Reservation and I intend to take one Saturday this winter and climb in and out of everyone.  It should be a killer workout…something I just love.

Most of the rocks we used were frozen to the ground and when I broke them loose, I brought frozen earth with them…which added considerably to their weight and the ability to hold and balance them.  I found it necessary to cut some of my reps and look for other things to lift…but there’s a pretty endless amount of things to do in the woods to get a work out if you just use a little imagination…something I seem to have in large quantities.  Can’t let a little snow chase me away from my workout. 

Survival Workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150.
Calories burned:  600.