Failure is the only option.

Where did the last year go? Now I'm on to bigger and hopefully better things which is causing me to rant on a different topic than in the past. Anyway, here we go.

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor”   -  Truman Capote

As parents, we don’t want to see our kids fail, well at least not in public. But as we look back on the events in our lives that taught us the most, the majority of people will say that they learned the most when they failed.

The Love and Logic Institute teaches to set boundaries for your children and allow them the fail. They go further to qualify that the boundaries should be set so that when children actually fail the effects of the failure are manageable.  As we grow older, the effects of failures become more substantial, more complicated and more costly. Causing an avoidance of failure as we get older and leading to the saying “You can’t teach on old dog a new trick”

.

History is full of examples of failure. Thomas Edison didn’t succeed in his first attempts. He considered his failures as discoveries. Discoveries on how things don’t work is just as important as discovering how things work. One thing is common in every discovery ever made; they all start with an idea. Ideas that fail, get refined, fail again, and get refined again over and over until they work. Then the good ones will continually get refined.

What can we take from this? We just need to start.

Will we fail? It is guaranteed that we will. But when we succeed, the flavor of the accomplishment will be sweet.

When the statement is made that you can’t judge Student Growth and Achievement by a single test score, I have to question then “How should student growth be measured?” Is student growth a function of how well they learn the basics (math, reading, writing, social studies) as well as a student’s social skill? Are there any additional factors?

In a recent blog post, our superintendent made an argument that you can’t judge the effectiveness of a teacher based on a single graph showing student growth and achievement. I agree. There is more to it that what can be shown on a single graph. He went on to define other areas that he felt needed to be included to determine if a teacher is effective. I bet he didn’t realize that in this he actually set up the equation that can be used to measure teacher effectiveness.

It was stated recently that test scores are only a part of the picture and there is more interest in the development of the whole child. Great, now define what that means, measure it, score it, test it for those factors that make an impact, eliminate the factors that don’t, and repeat. 

We have data from the NWEA, M-STEP, and internal assessments. If those are the factors that are going to be used for student growth and achievement, create an index combining these three legs. Don’t try to correlate the data. When you have two or more measurement systems that are measuring the same thing, you correlate them. When you have multiple factors, you weight them and test them to see if there is and confounding of the factors, refine your equation to come up with more robust equation.

What are we missing? Like in any discovery you have to start somewhere. We just need to start knowing full well there is a great possibility that at first there will be failure. The failure cannot be the end, but the beginning of learning experience, a refinement and a new and better way.

Is that the end all? No, that is only one small part of another larger equation, which is only a small part of another. Students are evaluated, teachers are evaluated, administrators are evaluated, etc. Can the entire district as a whole be scored this way? Yes. 

Coming up is the Superintendents Parent to Parent book club. The first book that they are reading this year is: Gift of Failure by Jessica Lahey. Without reading the book I am willing to be that the measage is to go out try things, fail, and learn from your failures. Should any action come from this? Yes, And if there is no action, then why go through the excersize.

Quick Update

Okay for some reason it happened again. I've spent the last month injured and unable to run. I did force myself to go for a ride last Friday and the pain was bad in the beginning but subsided by the end. Yes, I still was in pain, but it was manageable.

For now it is one day at a time and with no events planned I can ease back into it.

My son wants to build a gravity catapult so that is on the project list. He is also very into robotics and we have a number of them around the house with more joining us all the time. My challenge is keeping things infront of him that interest and challenge him. Seeing that he is only 6, it is not as easy as it seems.

Thank god for Lego Mindstorm.

Down Time

Well, its been a week. I took last week of just for a rest and to catchup on a few things. That only means that my exercises was down, but I was able to concentrate on eating better. Low and behold, I dropped a couple pounds. If I can keep that up, and get exercising again this week, the results have to be much better.

This week is going to be busy too, but I should be able to get some walks in. I may even try for later in the evening or go back to early in the morning. The morning workouts didn't last because of the hockey playoffs. Now that the Red Wings are playing in Chicago for the second round there should be no more 10pm start times.

I can't wait, the most recent app that I've down loaded was an interval timer. I've got it set to run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute. I'm thinking that is a good interval to start with. After that the plan is to up the run time by 10 seconds a week until it hits 3 minutes then drop the walk time by 10 seconds until that hits 30 seconds. That should take me out 9 weeks. At that time it will do me good to re-evaluate before I either take the run longer or the walk shorter. Time will tell

Live Beyond The Ordinary
Dream Without Limits

Keep on Trucking

Well, I wanted to include a picture or two of some of the fauna that is found during my lunchtime walks, but my phone died and I didn't bring a cord to charge it. So I guess I'll have to add them next time.

I was able to get a 34 minute walk in at lunch. After informing my wife that i would be running to the store at lunch she told me that she would do it because she had other things to get. So I went for a walk instead of going to the store. The weather was a bit cooler then last week, but the sun was out and so were the small animals.

After the walk I had to run and get gas for the automobile and then back to work. This allows me to workout and still get a lunch in at my desk when I get back. Today was leftover jambalaya with some chicken and shrimp. Not bad for a rice dish. this kept me away from fast food which is a good thing. With the addition of some fruit and pumpkin seeds my cravings have been met or thwarted.

I got a good map of my route today. Using Map My Run I was able to map it, but that also is on my phone which is dead at this time. But my calling up Map My Run on the computer, it looks like I am not far from running out of dirt and ending up on pavement. One of these days I will, but for now it is slow and steady.

There is another app that I was testing on my phone and that is from Gymboss. It is an interval timer that I had set at 2 min on and 1 min off. I wasn't sure how it would work and if I would be able to hear the signal to switch over the music or what ever I was listening to at the time. Well, the signal was definitely audible. I couldn't hear anything else when the timer expired. It actually was annoying when I was talking on the phone, but it did work. I'll have to use it more for my run/walks that I am planning for the future.

This week is going to be a tough one. Not only is it Teacher appreciation week, but we have 2 mid-week soccer games, swim lessons and a meeting with the superintendent of schools all to juggle. That is after I cancel two other meetings. this is going to be a high stress week if there ever was one.Just trying to get the things done that need to be done is one thing, but with all the additional items to accomplish luck is needed.

Well that is enough rambling for now

Live Beyond The Ordinary Without Limits.

Just Keep Going

Okay now we're up to five days in a row. How many times do you have to repeat a task for it to become a habit? I've heard as little as seven and as many as 21. I'm at 5 so I'm either almost there or just getting started. If I were to place a bet it would be that I am just getting started.

My walk today was outdoors again. Now that the weather here in the Midwest is getting warmer it is much better for my mood if I get outdoors.

I walked the same path as I did yesterday. Rather then listening or half listening to a podcast, I switched over to music with no intention of concentrating on the words. Instead I just took in the surroundings.

The trail is a two track for the most part with little single track side spurs. Being an urban environment, there are plenty of squirrels, birds and ground squirrels running around.  I can't count the number of times that something startled me as I walked by it. There are still a number of oak leaves on the ground that just amplifies any movement. Flowers are just now starting to bloom and I am having a hard time believing that earlier this week the trees were still in buds. Now the maple leaves are bigger then a silver dollar and is happened over night. It never ceases to amaze me what this warm weather can do. It won't be long before the view of the lake will be obscured by the leaves so I need to enjoy the view while I can.

The only thing that brought down my walk was that I turned my GPS watch off at the halfway point when I was thinking that I triggered a lap. Oh well, at least I know how far I went because it was an out and back walk.

After the walk I ran to the local health food store and got a green smoothie from their health bar for lunch. I am sipping from it as I write this post. This is one way for me to eat healthier. I anyone has suggestions of how to break away from the families normal foods and eat your own. The hard part is that I don't believe that we should be preparing multiple meals to be put on the table at one time. What one eats, everyone should eat. As it is, the kids eat differently from my wife and I and I don't want to add to that complexity. My only option may be that I just need to do it and not worry about it. Easier said then done.

I do believe that everyone should eat healthily, but for a time being, I am going to an extreme. Should I back that off and just prepare meals for my wife and myself that are healthy and not that extreme? If I answer my own question, it would be small steps are better then no steps so just back off for yourself and bring the others along. If we eat and healthy well balanced diet, then the kids will begin to emulate us and start requesting better food. I can't wait for that to happen.

Time to get back to the business at hand.

Live Beyond The Ordinary And Without Limits

It's A Beautiful Day

Yes, its a beautiful day out. I stated in an earlier post that I was planning on getting up and heading to the gym first thing in the morning. Well, since I've planning on doing that, I've run into a couple of issues. One is Hockey Playoffs and being in the Eastern Time Zone an my team playing 3 time zones away puts the games late at night. A second issue is I've developed pain in my right knee so I've taking it easier then normal. And third is that the kids are requiring a chauffeur a couple days a week.

Even with those situations, I've been able to string some days together with workouts. Walking a couple days then having to switch to a swim and today it was back to a walk. At lunch today, I hit the local park and actually found a nice trail through the woods. Half the trail is paved that runs along a road and the other half is gravel and runs through the woods around a lake. Life couldn't be much better.

I got a 35 minute walk in that couldn't have been much better unless I wouldn't have had to go back to work. That being said, I have no idea how far I went and don't care. Will I find out? Yes, but that won't be until I download the data from my Garmin. The goal here is to get out consistently and not to worry about how far or fast I go. Just that I do go.

Eating is eating at this point. What should I do for tonight? I've got some spinach, apples and that is about it for fresh veggies. There is also frozen veggies that could get steamed on the stove seeing that the microwave is still broken. Anything else in the house is not going to be good for me and I don't have time between work and picking up the kids to shop. And by the time I get the kids, there is not enough time to shop and cook but that looks like what I'll have to do.

Question: Could one of my kids not like a lot of the foods because he has anxiety? From experience it is very hard to when your stomach is in knots. How do I get him past it? Should I find something that he will eat and make sure we have a lot of it on hand. What is out there to calm his stomach? I feel that is the reason he is so fussy about what is on his plate. At what age do they start eating better?

I have come up with more questions then answers so it is time to cut out.

Live Beyond The Ordinary
     and
Live Without Limits

Taking It Slow

Okay I'll admit it. I didn't get my sleep last night. Hockey playoffs began and the Wing's were playing in California. Short of going to the game which I wouldn't mind, I stayed up late to watch it. With the game not starting until 10:30 pm eastern, it doesn't end until about 1:00 am. That means if I am going to get up in the morning to work out then I will only get about 4 hours of sleep. So, I slept in. Shame Shame Shame.

Instead, I left work for lunch a few minutes early and hit the gym then. Due to the pain I felt in my knee yesterday, I figured that swimming would be a good cardio workout and give my knees the break they need. In my gym bag I always carry my goggles and a swim suit so that when I do make it to the gym and I'm not feeling up to it, I can always get a quick swim in.

With my swims this season, I've been working on my breathing. Never knowing what you will run into during the swim in a triathlon, I try to breath efficiently from both sides and not favor one side over the other. So my swim is spent breath from both sides equally. I started with 100 yds breathing bilaterally, rested for 45 seconds and swam 200 yds breathing half on the right and half on the left. nest was 300 yds split equally between right, left and bilateral breathing. The last 200 yds were split between right and left giving me a total of 800 yds in just about 18 minutes.

I noticed during my time in the water that I need to spend the next few sessions working on technique. I've swam that the current speed for a number of years and now it is time to improve the technique therefore improving the speed. Being able to breath comfortably from both sides is fine and will not suffer with extra work on technique. So after my interest in the hockey playoff is gone, I can swim in the morning before work and concentrate on drills.

My abs are feeling a little sore due to the work I am doing prior to getting on the treadmill. I am trying to follow the Legendary Abs II routine. This is a quick ab workout that only takes about 6 minutes to complete. With the back issues I've had over the years, getting ab working is crucial and this is the best focused set of exorcises that I've found to date.

My food intake hasn't changed as fast as it should, but I am going to be patient and take the time needed to make it. If I can change one thing a month then I'll be happy and this month I am going to concentrate on working out.

Live Beyond the Ordinary
   And
Live Without Limits

Training Log

For those that have stumbled onto this blog, I am a little scattered and not very good at keeping up with it. I rarely flag anything and when I did there was more traffic. But seeing that I am not doing this for the traffic, who cares

If I put in my head that this will be a record of my training with some of the other stuff mixed in then I'll probably do better so here we go.

I am still working on Z2 or as it used to be called LSD. Today was an early morning trip to the gym to use a treadmill. Since the treadmill in my house is worn out and the motor won't stay constant, I've given up on it an head to the gym. Maybe I should look into fixing it seeing that my wife won't let me replace it because it works for her. With that aside, back to the workout. I planned on 40 minutes of Z2 cardio and was tooling along fine until the 26 minute mark. At that point my right knee began to bother me so I called it at 30 minutes. The problem I've run into in the past is that I over do it and these little nagging injuries keep me from making any real progress. So to stay in it for the long haul, it was better to end it at that point.

On the food front, yesterday and last night were good. I didnt' overeat and what I did eat was well balanced. Not as many vegetables as I wanted at lunch but I think dinner made up for that.

For dinner it was a green smoothie. My son helped to make it and chose what ingredients we would put in. We started with a blender full of spinach, added a banana, some cherry tomatoes and apples. He loved watching the blender shred things. I tried to get him to lick it, but that didn't go over well. By the time he stopped running I had already poured it into a bottle. We did end up with a little extra fiber in the smoothie due to being over zealous with a wooden spoon. Needless to say the spoon is shorter and I am sure I've ingested the majority of it.

Breakfast has been oatmeal and some Fig Newman's again, only enough to curb the appetite. Now to just keep it up.

I was just thinking about my moods lately. In the past, co-workers would ask me why I was in such a good mood and my quick response was always the same thing. "Today I am going to change the World". That response was because I believe that even very small contributions can make an impact on the world. Recently I haven't been living with that type of attitude. That was until I heard someone describe the participants in the Boston Marathon as people that "Live Beyond The Ordinary". that phrase immediately struck a cord with me and I had to write it down less I forget it all together. I like it so much that I plan on designing a T-Shirt with it and hopefully will have a poster in each of my boys rooms with that on it.

Okay back to real life and time to stop rambling.

Go out and make a change today and remember "LIVE BEYOND THE ORDINARY"

Back At It

Just a quick post. I can't believe that this is my first post of the year and that I only posted twice last year. Let's change that by makeing them quick and as short as they need to be. Who know's maybe I'll just ramble until they are as long or longer then before......

After going I got in bed the other night, I felt a pain in my chest. A very minor pain but a pain nun the less. This was after I had stayed up late that night to watch a hockey game and I was the last one to go to sleep in the house. This was one of those moments where you come to realize that something must change.

With two young boys, I want to be around awhile. My last physical was good, but my cholesterol was a little high. With heart desease running in my family something has to be done about this. In the past I've relied on excersise to get my numbers down and I plan on the same thing but I also plan on getting my diet in order.

The young boys aren't making it easy to clean up the diet. They are fussy eaters so the menu is limited. If I am going to do this I must break away from the family and eat my own food.

Here's the plan. I want to change the balance of food on my plate. Instead of a hearty portion of meat or protein, I plan on substituting vegitables. I am also looking to eliminate wheat from my diet. This means the elimination or the replace my beloved plain pasta with gluten free varieties. The holes and questions I have are; Do I give up beer? Should I eliminated Dairy and Wheat completely or just limit the consumption of them? For now, I am just going to limit them and see how that goes.

The other part of the plan is going to be the old tried and true activity of cardio excersise. I haven't completely stopped my cardio workouts, but life has gotten in the way recently and I've fallen off the wagon. I started the year out good and was making progress. That progress is gone. Normally I would just start back in where I left off, but I need to change something about my cardio or I'll just let life get in the way again and stop. So this time it is back to the basics. LSD or Z2 training is where it is going to be. That means that today for my half hour cardio workout, I kept my heartrate down in Zone 2. This ment that I only was able to walk at a brisk pace. I am good with that for now. In the near future that may not be the case but it is good now. Some people say limit your workout to the point where you question the value of it.

I am also going to change when I workout. It's been relatively easy to get a half hour in at lunch time, but I would like to stretch that out to an hour. To do that it looks like I'll need to head out of the house early in the morning and hit the gym and if I am needed at home to help get the boys off to school then I'll need to run home after my workout. If I start early enough than that shouldn't be an issue.

So in summary the workouts are going to be longer and early in the morning. The diet is going to change to become a majority of vegitables if not completely. I really want this to work for me and my family, So Wish Me Luck.

Wild One Restore #2

Day 2 of the restoration. My son go up bright and early saying "Dad I am ready to work on the car". If it were up to him, then it would have been completely done already. None of this waiting around stuff. Today we pulled out a copy of the original instructions and tore down the front end. The goal was to see how much wear the parts had suffered and to clean everything up real well. By the time we got started, we didn't have too much time to do more.

The spindles for the front wheels are showing some wear. It looks like the bearings were sliding on the spindle and left a couple grooves. Can we go as is or should we replace them?

Before we begin reconstructing everything, I need to get to the hobby shop and get some thread lock, grease and oil for the shocks. Originally, there was no plans on tearing down the shock, but with the car being 26 years old now, we may have to tear into the shocks and fill them with oil.

Doing a search on the web for a chassis so we wouldn't need to repair the one we have I found one for a Tamiya Fast Attack Vehicle. The Fast Attack was reintroduced last year and has the same chassis as the Wild One. We will just need to paint it black vs. the sand color that is comes in. Not a problem because that is how the current chassis was made. This will also save some time which is very important to my son.

There is another question that is out there. Should we restore it to as original as possible or should we modify it, or paint it for a different look. The original is a black body with a red roll cage. My son says we should paint the roll cage for a chrome look. I am all for that, or we could paint it black to match the rest of the body. Either way, we are having a good time working on it together.

Tamiya Wild One Restore

Seeing that I’ve been negligent in posting to this blog, I decided that I would post on a little project that I’ve been putting off for a few years. Yes, just a few years. I purchased a Tamiya 1/10 scale electric R/C Wild One back in 1986. It was used a couple days a week after work where a few of us co-worker got together and run them around a dirt track and have a few beers. After the factory that we worked in was closed and a few of use were transferred to other facilities, it use had been reduced to the occasional weekend run around the yard. I am not even sure of the last time that was used.

So I final pulled it back off the shelf and with my 5 year old son, started to tear it down and plan to restore it. He is so happy that he gets to help and can’t wait until it is up and running again. As you can see by the picture, my work area is a mess. As this and other project progress, things are getting cleaned up. Just last week, there was not enough room on any flat surface to park this car.

A month or two ago, I started to take the body off the car only to realize that I never removed the batteries from it. The picture below shows what a 20 year old battery does to a batter pack.

Mud is caked on the body and the dust cover for the electric motor has seen its last day.
With the body off we started to remove the roll cage. We then found out that we needed to remove the motor and the gear box. I used to do this all the time. One of the problems with the Wild One’s gear box is that the gears tend to slip. I had rebuilt that gear box more times than I cared to count. Actually I got pretty proficient at it.

Once the gear box and motor were out, we pulled out all the electronics. All of these are original and will get used again when the restore is done..

One thing that I am trying to teach my son while we are doing this is to take things apart slowly, and mark things as you go. We are bagging all the small parts and labeling the bags.

One of the things that we have to over come is the condition of the bath tub frame. This is actually the second frame that the car has had. The first one cracked to a point that it needed to be replaced. This one is almost in the same condition.

I don’t think that super glue will hold. There may need to be some backing pieces added to give it some additional strength in the end. For now I just want to get the cracks sealed up and the plastic bonded back together. The crack on the right side is worse the will not flatten out. The secondary crack is protruding and I have not been able to force it back into position. To get it back into place, a small hole may need to be drilled to relieve the pressure, but then what can be used to fill the hole?

For only working on it only long enough to keep my son’s attention, we did pretty good in getting it torn down to the frame. The sub assemblies will be the next things that we are going to tear down.

Mount Rushmore

Well, lets get this thing documented. Yesterday I went to physical therapy. I spoke to my therapist about the tightness and weakness in my left hamstring. After putting me through a few new moves and checking a couple more things out he tells me it is the stiffness in my back that is the root cause. The pulled hamstring that I suffered should not be causing any issues the long after the original injury. So we've switched our focus from the legs to the back.
After running me through a routine, he sent me to a table for some stretching. There was nothing new with any of the stretches, just having someone push and manipulate you in the proper fashion made a big difference. As of today, I am still sore from some of the stretches. It is now my assignment to continue with the stretching routine on a daily basis. I'll try to fit it in every evening when the family permits me too.

As I write this, I am listening to Mike on the Dirt Dawg's Running Diatribe podcast episode #101. He referenced the Books on the Nightstand podcast episode #156 and about creating a "Literary Mount Rushmore" of books that have influenced you. He has taken the exercise and done it a couple of different ways. The first time he referred to the people who he would put up on Mount Rushmore for influencing him in his life and a second time with the Running books that have influenced him.

I have asked a question for years that some people thought odd and others thought interesting. Who, living, dead or fictional would you like to have dinner with and why. The answers that people have given me have varied. Some have surprised me and others where right along the lines that you figured they would and matched their personalities.

I ask this. Who would you put on Mount Rushmore, why and if you could have dinner with them, what would you want to talk about?

Recovery Continues

Trying to get back at it is not easy. After pulling my hamstring during a pickup Hockey game 8 weeks ago, I've been making weekly trips to the Physical Therapist. For the first time, I got on the treadmill during lunch today to start running again. I've wanted to for the last couple weeks, but have not gotten the motivation to actually do it. Well, I did it and I feel good now.


My workout was for 15 minutes. The first 2 were walking to warm up, the next 3 were at a jog. While jogging, my hamstring tightened and felt really weak. I'll have to talk to my therapist in the morning about that. With the 2:3 intervals, I was able to get a mile in over those 15 minutes. Yep, slow, but I am just getting back at it. I'll try again in a couple days.

Would You, Could You.

An idea has been bouncing around in my mind for a while. It is a question that I would like to pose on Twitter or Facebook. It is just that I am not quite sure how to phrase it. So I'll try it here.


If you could travel back in time to witness any event that occurred in history, where and when would that be? The key word here is "Witness". You could only be an observer and have no ability to change and can not affect history in any way. So would you go back in time and could you do it without trying to change things?

I've been trying to come up with my Top 3 events that I would like to see. As of right now, here they are

1. The Assassination of JFK
2. Custer's Last Stand at Little Big Horn
3. The Discovery of Fire

What would yours be?

Blogger Month

I didn't know this was Blogger month. Wow, I am behind on posting a blog every day. I'll just have to jump right in now and go for the balance of the month.


On top of it being Blogger month, it is also National Novel Writing Month. That is tow things that I should be doing but am not… If I can finish strong with the Blog I'll be doing good.

It has been a while since I've posted anything. For now, I am in physical therapy due to a pulled hamstring suffered while playing hockey. It is difficult to find the time to do my exercises at home but if it can be kept to 30 minutes I'll be able to get them in. On top of the PT I am trying to incorporate an old Ab routine called Ultimate Abs II. Each night I can feel it in my Abs even without moving up to the next level. They say that it should take at least a month one each level before you advance. So far that is definitely the case.
With the therapy and the Ab workout, there has been no change in the weight. As my hamstring recovers and recuperates, I'll eventually get to do more cardio and the weight should start coming down. For now it is rest and recovery.

A Brand New Day

Okay I promise to update more often. For now I am tying to doitfrommy mobile phone so please excuse the typos.

It's been a while. I started out the year okay but quickly found myself unmotivated. I even entered the Running Fit T-Rex Triathlon series trying to finds motivation. That has not worked. All that happened is Ive done the races under prepared. So what now?

Well, I do enjoy the three sports of triathlon. So, I plan on continuing that part of my life. I'malso looking for another challenge. A few weeks ago I started to think about doing an event for charity. There may be more to come on that in the future.

For now I'm looking to get in better shape and a whole lot heartier. This last weekend was a new start to my transformation. Looking at where I am starting from. A normal BMI for a male is 25. I am starting at over 28 and this is classified as overweight. To get to where it is recommended for me to be is 25 pounds. This can't happen unless I make a lifestyle change. Being that there are more then just myself in the household, it will be no easy task. For the interim I'll settle for losing half the weight.

My goal for this week is to run 3 days. If I can do that it will be a step in the right direction as far as accrediting goes. The other goal I have for the shot term is to get more vegetables on my plate the meat. If I can do this for most of the week I'll be off to a pretty good start.

Two Updates In One

This update is a couple days late. I was unable to get time this weekend to update this blog so now is the time. Saturday was set as a day for a long or in my case just a longer run. The goal was to go for 50 minutes and get some time on tired legs. That definitely worked. At about the 45 minute mark my legs felt heavy but in total I went for 55 minutes. Also, there were sessions for inversion both before and after the run of 5 minutes each and with 12 inverted sit-ups each. After that, my back was feeling really good. An additional benefit is that my right hip that has been bothering me is feeling better also. I am too chicken to have the Doctor check it out for fear that he will find that the socket is so worn down that a new hip would be needed. My brother has gone through that and I don't want to. I am still going without the glucosamine and am not feeling any ill affects from it. There is just the normal soreness that comes with the beginning of any training after an extended rest period. That is good.




Today it was up early for another 35 minutes on the rat wheel. This time upping the pace a little from last week. The plan is for periodization with a 10% increase during the weekly runs for three weeks then backing down on the fourth. The pace was a little quicker then last week in the same amount of time, with my heart rate staying the same if not recovering quicker. These are all goods signs. On another note, the inversion experiment is off. I will be looking for other means of loosening up my back and neck. So for now it is back to the crunches and planks for core work.



Let Pain Be Your Guide

Improvement Already

Day 3 Session 2




My legs were a little sore when morning arrived yesterday so the best thing for me was to skip the workout. There has been one thing that I was going to track along with the inversion therapy and that is the elimination of Glucosamine from my dose of daily supplements. It is kind of by accident that that happened but I figured why not give it a go. Glucosamine has been part of my daily supplements for years. Matter of fact, I can't remember when I first started to take it. I ran out a couple weeks ago and from past experience should start feeling it by now.



My history with Glucosamine started when knee pain started to affect my playing basketball. Someone recommended it and so I started to take Glucosamine/Condroitin supplements. After a couple weeks of taking in and apparently having the glucosamine build up in my system, my knees started to feel better. From then on I've taken it with rare exception. Those exceptions came when I would run out and just be too lazy to go get more. After a couple weeks of being off it, my knees would give me issues again and I would then head out for more. About a year ago, while reading up on Glucosamine a number of studies pointed out the lack a evidence that the Condroitin had any benefits. They also stated that Glucosamine Sulfate showed slightly better results then Glucosamine Hydrochloride. At that time I switched to strictly Glucosamine Sulfate with no adverse affects and a slightly lower out of pocket expense. And that is where I'm at to date.



Today with the inversion, I stuck with 5 minutes inverted broken into two sessions, prior to running 2.6 miles on the treadmill. I forgot about the inverted sit-ups prior to running but was able to incorporate some movement of the lower back, upper back and neck. During this I could feel some loosening in the neck and upper back and it appears to be heading in the right direction. The reason for breaking the inversion into two sessions was that the stress on my ankles was more severe then previously. Next time I will be looking at how the cuffs are fitting and aligned.



During my run, there was not the usual leg stiffening that occurs during my early morning workouts. This is a very good sign. Once again after the run, I rested and then inverted again for two sessions totaling 5 minutes. This time I remembered the inverted sit-ups and was able to complete 10 of them with deterioration in form so I did not increase the reps.. With the sit-ups and the twisting of the three regions the time flew by.



So far today there has been no soreness or stiffness. I can crack my neck and upper back when there is a need to alleviate that tense feeling. That is one of the side effects that I was looking for. As the therapy continues, hopefully the need to "crack" my back decreases as the alignment and loosening of the vertebrae improve.



As a side note and I doubt if it is related to the inversion, I've started to have some G.I. issues. Hopefully it is from an external source but only time can tell.


Maybe next time I'll post some pictures of the inversion table and the movements. That is if I can get someone or someway to take them.


Let Pain Be Your Guide…..

Inversion Therapy

Over the years I've suffered from back pain. Recently the thought entered my head as to if I was loosing leg strength due to the impingement of the sciatic nerve from my back injury. So after a little research, I set out to purchase an inversion table and do a little of my own decompression therapy. Well, my wife put an end to that stating that it was not something that she wanted around the kids. Therefore, of to plan B. I borrowed an inversion table from my buddy Dan. Thanks Dan. And seeing that Dan is probably the only one that reads this blog, here to ya…. My plan is to document what I am doing, feeling and planning to do for inversion therapy. Most days it will be very short, some days, I'll get long winded, sorry for that.



A little background: the injury to my back occurred years ago when I was young and dumb as opposed to be old and dumb now. While water skiing after a couple pops, I took a nasty wipe out that bent my ankles back up to my shoulders. When the pain didn't go away after a few weeks, I started to seek medical advice. Diagnosis was muscle spasms and muscle relaxers were prescribed. After a couple more weeks of no relief, I went to a chiropractor. There he found my lower back, upper back and neck all had issues. So off we went for alignment session 3x a week for 6 weeks. My neck and upper back started to feel better, but my lower back was feeling worse when I walked out of the office then it did when I walked in, so I stopped. I lived with and got used to the pain for years. Finally a medical doctor had a MRI done and that showed a severe herniated disk at L5S1. To avoid surgery I went through a special back pain physical therapy course which finally started to help. To this day, I still do some of the exercises. That was until began to wonder about the loss of strength. This brings us back to date.



Day 1



This morning was not just the beginning of my inversion therapy; it is also the beginning of my training for the summer triathlon season. So, after setting up the inversion table I got on it and flipped to a complete inverted position. There was a instant feeling of relaxation in my lower back, but no change in my neck or upper back. I hung like this for about 5 minutes before I did 10 inverted sit-ups. The sit-ups caused a little muscle sorness in my back so I laid back down and hung inverted for another minute. I then got off the inversion table and got on the treadmill for 35 minutes of intervals. That was 2 minutes walking and 3 minutes running. During the walk my heart rate would drop to about 120 bpm and during the running it would get up to 158 bpm. The intervals got me about 2.5 miles on the rat wheel. I then sat down for a couple minutes to cool down before getting back on the inversion table for another 5 minutes and 10 inverted sit-ups. This time my back did not tighten up during the sit-ups and still no difference in my upper back and neck.



Going forward, the plan in to increase the inversion time by a minute each session and do an addition 5 inverted sit-ups every session. Once I can get to 30 minutes and 50 situps life should be good. The other indicator I am looking for is the ability to crack my back and neck. While training for the bike legs, my neck has been getting stiff and feel like it needs to crack and I haven't been able to crack it to get any relief. Hopefully the decompression during inversion loosens things up and allows more movement. Time will tell.



Disclaimer:



I am by no means a medical professional. Everything I do here, I am doing at my own risk and only to myself. I have discussion this with my doctor and he said I could be an experiment of one. His final words were "Let Pain Be Your Guide" so if I start to hurt more, I'll change things up or stop completely. If you try any of this there are no result guaranteed or implied.

New Year and a New Start

I'm getting a late start on this year's workouts. the work schedule has been crazy until now so hopefully here we go. The "Plan" is to get at leat 30 minutes in at lunch 3 days a week for the next 3 weeks. After that a weekend workout will be added.

The good news is that this year the Holiday weight was less then last year. But being a year older, means it is going to be harder to get that weight off. Got to try anyways.

So off we go and let's pray this old body holds up....