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First Anniversary of RA Training Log (Read 778 times)

    Hi guys and gals,

     

    I'm a week early, but I just realized that I'm coming up on an important (for me) anniversary: my first RA logged workout was a year ago next Thursday, March 22, 2011.  Woohoo!

     

    In August of 2010, I had what felt like a heart attack.  Turned out to have been something else (never did really find out), but boy, it hurt, like 17 on a scale of 1 to 10.  I had no idea you could be in that much pain and still be alive.

     

    At the hospital, they ran a bunch of tests, including cardiac catheterization.  Turned out I had a 50% blockage in one of my main arteries; not enough to do a stent, but enough so that I'm officially classified as having coronary artery disease.

     

    My "bad" cholesterol wasn't so bad (130), but the cardiologist told me that for someone in my condition, it needed to be much lower, like below 100, preferably closer to 70.  He wanted to put me on Lipitor, but I really hate taking drugs, so I told him I'd like to try lowering it myself, with diet and exercise.  He was dubious, but agreed to let me try.

     

    I completely changed my diet (steel-cut oats for breakfast, no more buttered rolls) and joined a local gym.  I was attracted to a specific one, because they had a racquetball court.  I played a lot of handball as a kid, so I thought I'd enjoy racquetball.  It didn't take long for me to realize that I, ummmm... wasn't in good enough shape to play racquetball.  So I headed upstairs, determined to spend enough time on the elliptical machines and stationary bikes to get myself into shape for racquetball.

     

    And there, believe it or not, I fell in love.  Not with an elliptical, not even with a woman, but with a treadmill.

     

    I LOVE TREADMILLS!!

     

    Okay there, I've said it.  Most of you find treadmills boring, but not me.  I don't know why, but I love climbing aboard a treadmill, starting her up, and cruising along for the ride.  Maybe I'm crazy, but it works for me.

     

    Don't get me wrong.  I love running outside, too.  But last October, after running five days a week on the same (cambered) road, I developed a bad case of ITBS, so bad I had to stop running for almost two months.  I couldn't run even a mile, not on the road, not on the treadmill, not anywhere.  That was a pretty depressing couple of months.

     

    Then, a friend mentioned that he'd seen an ad for an IT compression strap that you wrap around your leg, just above the knee, that was supposed to relieve the pain caused by ITBS.  Long story short... IT WORKED!  Wearing my compression strap, I can run again, pain free.

     

    I've got my (meager) mileage back up where it was before I hurt my leg, but I'm still very slow.  Anyway, I don't care!  As long as I can run a little bit six days a week, I'm a happy camper.

     

    A GREAT BIG THANKS to RA.com!  I know for a fact that my training log keeps me on track, 'cause at the end of the week, there's no way I want that log to call me a slacker, and if you slack off, you can see it in black and white (and green and red and blue and purple, too).

     

    So... here's to another year of (almost) daily entries in my RA training log.  Woohoo!

     

    P.S.  To my cardiologist's amazement, I got my "bad" cholesterol down to 70, and my "good" cholesterol up to an eye-popping 89.  No pills, just diet and exercise.

    "It's hard to dance with a devil on your back, so shake him off, oh wo-oh!" - Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine) - Shake It Out


    Queen of 3rd Place

      Now THAT is a great story! Congratulations!

       

      However, I think you're more than a little strange for loving the TM. Wink

      Ex runner

      Wing


      Joggaholic

        Congrats on your cholesterol numbers. They are great motivators Smile

        Davidmack


          well done!!!! Brilliant example of what people should follow. Forget drugs and get exercise!

            Well done. Keep it rolling!

            Runners run

              Every year or so, my wife and I go down to Wainscott for a few days. Maybe we could steal a few early morning miles!  Congrats on your progress. 

              "If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus

                Great story!  Well done and thanks for sharing.

                TeaOlive


                old woman w/hobby

                  Very good.  Congrats!

                  steph  

                   

                   


                  Feeling the growl again

                    Awesome job.  And I hear you on the whole cambered road vs treadmill thing.  

                    "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                     

                    I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                     


                    jfa

                      Nice !

                       

                       

                       

                       

                       

                       

                        When we believe we can change our lives, our lives change. 

                         

                        Awesome first year, seadrive.  I might think you're a little crazy for loving the treadmill, but it's the good kind of crazy :-D!

                        "When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly has developed in more ways than physical. Is it raining? That doesn't matter. Am I tired? That doesn't matter, either. Then willpower will be no problem." 
                        Emil Zatopek


                        Tomorrow will be worse

                          No more crazy than the rest of us.

                           

                          My buddy the other day: "You know they've invented wheels, right? "

                          Turbolegs


                            Fantastic stuff !!

                            I dont sweat. I ooze liquid awesome.


                            I'm Betty if you're Al

                              Awesome job Seadrive!  Love the enthusiasm! Smile

                              "I would rather have high expectations and fail then have low expectations and succeed." DB

                              zoom-zoom


                              rectumdamnnearkilledem

                                Somebody has to love treadmills! Smile

                                 

                                Your #s are amazing.  Doctors need to share stories like this with patients.  Some folks need these drugs, regardless, but a regimen like yours could at least lower the dosage required to keep them healthy.  You've got a great testimony, right there.

                                 

                                One year down, many more to come! Big grin

                                Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

                                remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                                     ~ Sarah Kay

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