2012 reflections & what will we do with 2013?

Merry (belated) Christmas & Happy (belated) New Years to my family, friends & coworkers:

First, I would like to say how happy I am to be sending you this greeting, which means we survived the Mayan apocalypse on 12/21/12!...but from a purely non biased perspective I'm happy to say this month I've become a grandfather for the first time!  It certainly adds a new perspective on things.  A dear friend of mine asked me "do you know what grandchildren are?....they're a reward for not killing your children!"  With that said, my advice is "don't kill your children!"

It may seem odd to be sharing New Year's thoughts with you at the END of January, but I thought it would be appropriate to let the NEW part of New Year's wear off a little. (I can tell the new is wearing off when I see the parking lot at the gyms start to thin back out again)

New Year's day, I had the blessing of sitting down with my wife and four children to look back on 2012 (it's been a challenging year in our family) to see what we can learn from it.  Then we shared with each other our goals for 2013.  My daughter had the insight to say she'd like to have us all share what their favorite part of 2012 was and what we were looking forward to most in 2013...what a great idea.  If you haven't done the same yourself, give it a try.

As I reflect back on 2012 & look forward to the year ahead, there are several thoughts/quotes that mean a lot to me.  Hopefully you will find some or all of them useful (or entertaining) as well. 

1) The founder of Team Health (the Emergency medicine staffing company I've been blessed to work with since 2005) Dr. Lynn Massingale shared with me several years ago, "I've never had an original thought in my head, but I know good ideas & people when I see them."  I certainly have found this to be a great form of advice: Surround yourself with good ideas & good people. It will most likely bring the best out in you, especially when you consider the opposite.

2) I want to treat my body like I'll live forever and my soul like I'll die tonight.

3) New Year's resolutions.  It may sound like splitting hairs, but I prefer to set goals for myself, not make resolutions.  Over the past couple of years I've tried to sit down with my family so we can share our goals with each other.  This gives us a degree of accountability and a support system at the same time.  My desire is for us to have goals in the "4 foundations of daily life": family/relationships, spiritual, professional/financial and physical.  These goals need to be achieveable & measurable (example: "I want to run a 4 minute mile" unachieveable or "I want to run faster" unmeasureable).  I like to put them down in writing and look at them say 3-6 months later and see how I'm doing. If I need to reassess or readjust, that's ok.  But without goals or direction, you will fall prey to "if you shoot for nothing, you will hit it every time".

4) The Bible describes 3 men in the New Testament that I need in my life to keep me balanced.  (If you aren't familiar with these men, that's ok, but I would encourage you to read about them...like us they were far from perfect, but God used them in mighty ways): A Paul, a Barnabus, and a Timothy.  My "Paul" is someone more mature and wiser than myself who can share with me their successes and failures in a way to guide me in my own life.  My "Barnabus" is someone at essentially the same place in life as myself who can relate to my situation and encourage me as I do the same for them.  My "Timothy" is someone that I can be a Paul to; sharing my successes and failures to guide them along & invest in their growth/development.

5) The longer I live, the more I've been guilty of looking back and saying this has been a "good" or "bad" year, when in fact the "bad year" may have been full of many good things.  I have tried more of late to look at life as "seasons" with some being full of difficult winter storms and others peaceful springtimes.  Every season has it's purpose and they come without my control, so I will try to make the best of each one I live through good or bad, easy or hard, happy or sad. 

6) I want to get in better shape whenever possible, but there are 5 exercises I want to avoid: Jumping to conclusions, Flying off the handle, Carrying things too far, Dodging my responsibilities, and Pushing my luck.

I'm sure you may have more and better ideas/thoughts than these.  I'd love to hear them, so feel free to share.  In the meantime, good success as you move through the beginning of 2013!

The bee's knees....and why mine hurt...IT band friction syndrome

How many of you suffer from joint aches and pains?  Specifically knee pain?  More specifically lateral (outer part) knee pain?

As I plummet headlong towards the half century mark in my life, I look at aches and pains somewhat differently.  Most notably of late has been knee pain as noted in my last post.  For the past several years, my right knee develops a "tightness" after heavy exercise which usually eases up over the following days of recovery.  This past year I began to experience a new and more specific sharp/stabbing pain on the outer portion of my left knee that came to it's full glory while in the middle of my first marathon in December.  After discussing this with my friends in the medical/orthopedic world and online research, all signs were pointing to IT (iliotibial) band friction syndrome.  Being a family medicine/ER physician (which means a bad patient) and not sure where I wanted to go for orthopedic evaluation, I set myself up for xrays and MRIs of both knees ($5,000 for both before insurance....ouch!  Man that could go towards a REALLY nice tri bike!)  I shown below a 2 view xray of one knee (including my own goofy reflection) and one slice of the MRI through the knee.

The REALLY exciting thing about both of these studies is both were essentially normal except for evidence on both knees of IT band syndrome.  No bony, cartilage or ligament/tendon destruction!  The only thing I can think of better would be no knee pain.  I have done a fair amount of research on treatment and prevention of IT band (friction) syndrome that affects so many endurance athletes.  I will update with you as I work through these, but the one key piece of information I would like to share for now is this:

***The majority of IT band syndrome treatment and prevention information seems to be fixed on STRETCHING the IT band...which is important.  But as one writer put, much of the IT band is like leather and will not stretch that much.  Thus, STRENGTHENING the IT band PROPERLY seems to be of even greater importance.***

I have read more lately from and about a young triathlete/coach Ben Greenfield who is among a growing number of athletes and coaches ascribing to higher intensity and shorter duration training methods for endurance sports/competition such as Ironman triathlon. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is rapidly growing in popularity and in my opinion is a sound approach to general fitness.  More on this later with another post.  In my review of Ben's blogs/posts/products, I ran across his discussion of similar knee problems he had in the past.  This lead him to research and ultimately package the "best" (in his opinion) methods for treating IT band syndrome AND preventing knee injuries in his product Bulletproof Your Knee.   I have purchased Bulletproof Your Knee  which is a series of 13 modules/videos outlining exercises/treatment/prevention.  As I review this and put it to use, I will give feedback. 

In the meantime, train hard and live well!

To follow:  2012 reflections & what will we do with 2013?

                 HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)

Forces of nature, the next big step, and my first marathon...

It certainly has been an eventful 3 months since my last post (personally, professionally & physically) with a lot of stressors in all 3 areas...mostly good/normal stuff, but stress is stress.  By definition: A stressor is a chemical or biological agent, environmental condition, external stimulus or an event that causes stress to an organism. In nature, stress can NEGATIVELY cause things to wear down, bend, break or POSITIVELY reshape, move or strengthen.  The question is how will I (or you the reader) allow stressors to impact your life?

Athletic events since my last post:

Having fun with my son.



10/18/12: Take Your Girls Night Out 5k: This run in Jackson, TN was a breast cancer awareness event.  I had a great time doing this run with my son.  My time wasn't that great, but fun anyway with LOTS of PINK.

11/19/12: Registration for Ironman Arizona:  The next BIG step in my athletic bucket list.  In 2009 my wife & I watched the "Where are they now?" episode of  The Biggest Loser where I watched Matt Hoover compete/complete the Ford Ironman World Championship triathlon in Kona ( Matt Hoover at Ironman World Championship ) He missed the 17 hour cutoff by less than 3 minutes, but he FINISHED!  I turned to my wife and said, "I want to do that!"  Thus began my middle age fitness journey & triathlon fever.  I told myself I would try and not be foolish, but to push myself in ways I've never done before. This was not only to better myself, but in hopes of inspiring my family, friends & maybe even strangers to get outside of their comfort zones.  My plan was to slowly & steadily increase the distances (& hopefully speeds) with a goal of doing an iron distance triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run) by the time I was 50.  At this point in my life I have ridden a bike over 100 miles, but I've NEVER run a marathon (see below), and my swim distance record is 1.4 miles (with a few breaks).  Last Christmas my wife gave me a copy of You Are an Ironman by Jaques Steinberg which fueled the fire even more. I highly recommend the book, even if you have no plans of doing an Ironman.  The event & setting in Tempe, AZ seemed to me the ideal location for my first shot at this distance.  The only problem is it fills up fast!  Last year registration online for 1600-1800 spots for Ironman Arizona (IMAZ) filled in amost an hour.  Ironman Florida 2013 spots filled in under an hour less than 2 weeks ago.  So I put myself in front of the computer at 12:55 that afternoon hitting the refresh button every few seconds with my heart pounding as the 1:00pm open registration time approached...1:01pm the "registration not open" message remained & I began to panic.  Hitting the refresh button one more time, there it was!..."register now".  I clicked immediately and hammered through the fields and paid the obscene amount to hold my place.  I later found out open registration for IMAZ filled in 40 seconds!  Stay tuned as I embark on this journey.

11/22/12: 8th Annual Turkey Day 5k: Thanksgiving day run in Jackson to raise money for RIFA.  My wife & both had good times (literally and figuratively).  23:03 for me, my fastest since college.

11/23/12: Raquetball with Grandpa Ron: My 73 year old father taught me to play raquetball 35 years ago. We get together 2-3 times a year usually with a couple of my kids and enjoy a 3 generation match.  He can still beat my 16 & 20 year old sons, (but just barely).  It gives me hope for the future to see my dad stay active and for us to all enjoy this together!

Smiling "before" with my wife in the 34 degree morning air.

Smiling "after" in the warmer afternoon, sore but thankful.

12/1/12: St. Jude Memphis Marathon:  The good news: I survived the event & had a great time.  The bad news: I did not run the whole time, experienced the worst knee/orthopedic pain I've ever had, and finished at 4:59:10 (11:25 min/mile pace)...well below my goal of 4 hours.  The harsh reality: If you don't train properly and prepare (as for almost everything else in life) you will suffer needlessly and not perform up to expectations.  Last year the St. Jude event was my first half marathon, which I trained for and finished under 2 hours, followed by 2 more half marathons in Feb. & March of this year with progressively better times.  In April I was in New Orleans for the Ironman 70.3 event with a slower half marathon time but on the tail of a 2 mile run & 50+ mile bike ride (swim was cancelled due to bad weather/waves).  Since April my longest run/training was 11 miles (due to lack of discipline & nagging new left knee pain kicking in at the 8-10 mile mark every time).  Rather than address the knee issue & rehab it properly, I complained to myself and others, "piddled" & ultimately paid the price.  On race day, I felt good until 11 miles & the knee pain kicked in suddenly like a spike under my kneecap.  My brain starts loudly advising that I should make a right turn shortly ahead and cruise on in with the half marathon group.  My heart says to me "your pain right now is NOTHING compared to what many of the kids at St. Jude go through as they are treated for cancer", so run/walk on. As this internal argument went on, I decided to push on with the thought that anything past 13.1 miles is a personal best for distance running.  That seemed very reasonable except I had no idea what I would do should I have to stop in regards to getting back to my wife (running the half at the same time).  Each mile marker/rest stop I would get something to drink and experience increasing pain in the side of my knee which worsened every time I stopped to walk & for 30-40 seconds after resuming a run.  With this pain I would replay the sign I saw last year held up by a St. Jude patient as I ran through the campus: "Thanks for running, since I can't!"  Crossing the finishing line at a slow run with a smile, I was spent but so glad to look up and see my wife (who finished her half marathon run long before) waving from the front row of the stands.  I'm thankful for the chance to have done this & share the experience with so many others.

Next post: "The bee's knees...why mine hurt so badly"

My apologies....for a 5 month disappearance...BIRD!!!

Well, I've fallen prey to the procrastination monster terribly.  I keep putting off posts because of the things I want to share and then something else comes along.  One of our family's favorite quotes from the movie The Spiderwick Chronicles.....is "Bird!" shouted by one character always in midthought/midsentence whenever (easily) distracted by a nearby bird he'd love to eat.

I WILL update in more detail, but athletic events since my last post:
3/31/12: Andrew Jackson half marathon
4/7/12: Tour de Griz
4/22/12: IM 70.3 in New Orleans
5/12/12: Strawberry Festival 10k
5/19/12: Memphis in May Sprint triathlon
5/20/12: Memphis in May Olympic distance triathlon
9/1/12: Sunrise Century bike ride in Clarksville, TN
upcoming: 9/8-9/12: MS150 bike ride in Tunica, MS

Life has certainly been busy, which has gotten me off track somewhat training wise, and I have also "fallen off the wagon" with MyFitnessPal over the past few months....guess what?...pounds started creeping back on.  I look forward to bringing more detail to these updates, even if for my own recollection, but I still hope and pray others will benefit from the struggles and successes they read about here.

See you soon!

Andrew Jackson half marathan and more......

Well, the half iron race in New Orleans is now 24 days away and I have to confess my resting pulse rate is running 10-15 bpm faster just thinking about it!  It's a mixture of excitement, fear of the unknown (I've done all of the disciplines at the needed distances and more, but NOT at the same time), and self beating thinking "I should have trained more!".  But my wife in her wisdom reminded me gently "isn't this supposed to be fun?", translation: do the best you can and enjoy the process.  Even if I'm not "fully" prepared (and I've never met a competitor that felt they were), it has been a joy to grow, learn and develop. 

This past week I was reminded frustratingly of something that occurs all too often among folks trying to get in shape.  You define a plan, you stick to it, you start to see results, and BAM!!!, you get sick or injured.  All in all, I've been pretty pleased with my training regimen, but had big plans for this past week.  I just came off of a 3 night shift stretch and the morning after, felt kind of draggy and just slowly got worse.  This was joined soon by nasal congestion, sneezing, headache....some of the worst allergy symptoms I've experienced in a long long time!  I have a half marathon coming up this weekend and haven't run much in the past 2 weeks, so I made myself do a 7 mile run on the treadmill.  It went fine form and time wise, but took much more out of me than it would have normally.  Just a gentle reminder from above, that I'm not the one in control.  My take home lesson: do what you can, even if sometimes you may not feel like it.  Conversely, don't overdo when you are ill/injured and be prepared to take a break even if it's unplanned or longer than you had anticipated. 

In 2 days 3/31 I will be attempting my 3rd "official" half marathon, the Andrew Jackson (marathon, half marathon, and 5k) to benefit the Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse.  The bad news, my wife's knee is giving her a lot of trouble lately and she is unable to run the half (still trying to decide if she'll try the 5k).  The good news, my 15 year old son is now signed up to take her place and attempt his first half marathon.  Since he's never run over 7 miles at one time, I've outlined a plan for him to try run 4 miles, walk 1, run 3, walk 1, run 2, walk 1, run in the last 1.1 miles.  He's really quick in the 5k, so I think the hard part for him will be pacing and trying not to go too fast.  My youngest daughter will be doing the 5k.  So I'm obviously tickled to have another "family" sporting event.  These two kids are also in the middle of a busy soccer season with our local high school....GO BULLDOGS!!!

I've slacked off on my entries to MyFitnessPal.  A few days I got a nice email from them reminding me of the benefit of continued accountability and last night I went ahead and entered the day's eats/activity.  Will try to stay on track.  My weight has remained stable, but one can never be too careful!  Accountability is a valuable thing not only with physical fitness, but also in just about every other area of life: financial, spiritual, emotional...  Just something to think about.  Don't you think it's a whole lot easier to let areas of your life "slide" in to trouble areas whenever you don't have someone/something to keep you accountable?  If you have experienced that, pick an area and find someone you trust and ask them to help you.  It's certainly tougher at the onset, but can provide huge benefits over the long haul!

Just keep swimming....swimming swimming swimming!!!

With just over 40 days until IM 70.3 New Orleans I'm starting to run out of "peak" training time as I prepare to "taper" in hopes of not being injured/worn out before the big day. 

Swim:  One of my biggest fears/challenges/concerns is the swim portion in triathlons, especially as the distance gets longer.  I have slowly increased my practice swims to the 1,900meter/1.2 mile distances I will have to swim in the actual race.  After reviewing previous similar event results, the "middle of the pack" for men 45-49 is about 45 minutes.  Anything over 1hr 10min will take you out of the race before you ever get on the bike.  Last summer I was able to swim a mile in about an hour.  I had a good swim 3 days ago and was able to get 1,900 meters in just under 54 minutes.  Immediately afterwards I was able to do 2x50 meters at 1:00-1:10 min.  My goal is 45-50 minutes for the swim portion and I feel I should be able to reach it without being completely shot for the bike and run.

Bike:  My wife and I continue to use our indoor (Kurt Kinetic) trainers for bike riding even though it is FINALLY starting to warm up outside.  We have several of Troy Jacobson's "Spinervals" dvds and I've found them to be very useful for keeping our bike workouts interesting.  The trainer has also allowed me to "tweak" the settings on my (first) tri bike which hopefully will make my outdoor rides more beneficial and comfortable.  I'm on my last day of a 3 day work stretch and hoping the weather will allow me to ride outside this week.  I'm quite anxious to see if the indoor training has paid off.  The bike portion of the half iron (70.3) tri is 56 miles.  My goal would be to finish in 3 hrs, but that is averaging 18.7 mph for the entire ride...which I've never done for that distance before.  More realistically I feel I could do 17mph which would put me done in about 3hrs 20min.  See below for my next "big" bike workout/brick.  Will keep you posted.

Run:  Unless I sustain an injury between now and April, my goal of finishing the half marathon portion in 2 hours or less remains the same.  February 25th was a big day for my wife and I as we travelled to Oxford, MS for the Run for Hope 5k/half marathon.  Less than 2 weeks before the run my lovely bride decided she wanted to do the half marathon (she was signed up for the 5k, and her furthest training was 7 miles) even if it meant walking large portions.  After my "concerned doctor/husband" warnings, she persisted and I agreed to switch her over and cheer her on.  The bad news: it was COLD (30's starting temp/high 40's finish), and HILLY.  The good news: we both accomplished our goals.  She was a champ over the whole distance and finished in just over 2:50 running across the line after a 0.6 mile hill at the end.  I'm really really proud of her!  I was able to finish in just over 1:52 (7th out of 24 in my age group).  More importantly for me, it was 5 minutes faster than St. Jude in December with a lot more hills....thanks to continued training since December in all 3 areas.  This was much needed encouragement.  I'm not an immensely competitive person, but I have to confess I enjoyed passing 2 younger guys in the last 100 yards of the run (one in his 20's that passed me a half mile earlier before the "big hill").  My pace was right at 7mph or 8:33min. mile.  I certainly don't plan on running that hard/fast in New Orleans, but hope my speed/pace will be more steady on the flatter course.  My next big training goal is in 3 weeks: Andrew Jackson 5k/half/marathon in Jackson, TN.  My plan is to integrate at least 20-25 miles of cycling BEFORE I run that morning to prepare my body/mind for doing all three a few weeks later.  Here's hoping all goes well!

A "brisk" 33 degree start of the Oxford, MS Run for Hope 1/2 marathon!

My "champion" running to her first half marathon finish!!!

Less than 60 days until Iron Man 70.3 New Orleans....injuries & more

With less than 2 months until my first half iron distance triathlon, I have to confess I've experienced excitement, anxiety, anticipation & frustration.  At this stage, I hope to keep it all in perspective as I continue to train. 

While doing some cross training with weights 2 weeks ago, I bent slightly at the hips and leaned over to put down a barbell (at the same weight I've used for weeks/months) and felt a "POP".  Almost dropping to my knees, I was very painfully reminded of how important good body mechanics are.  The old saying I've told my patients for years, "lift with your legs, not your back" was ringing in the back of my head.  It took almost a week to recover 80% range of motion and completely shut down my other training for a while.  Talk about frustrating!  The good news is rest, ice first for 1-2 days (then heat), anti inflammatories and gradually increasing range of motion got me back on track.  I'm still having some discomfort, but that's ok, just glad to be moving again.

I FINALLY was able to get into the local university aquatic center and have been building up my swim distance/endurance.  This in my opinion will be my greatest limiter (weakness).  My goal is to finish the 1.2 mile swim portion in 45 minutes or less.  Right now I'm doing well to finish in an hour.  I have a lot of work to do!  I'm hopeful my technique will improve as well as endurance.  It just gets frustrating to be able to bike for several hours or run for 2+ hrs without too much difficulty, but wear myself out swimming for an hour.  At this stage I'm reminded painfully of another famous triathlon quote: "You won't win a triathlon on the swim (by swimming 2-10 minutes faster), but you can sure lose (by wearing yourself out)!"  I've been hitting the pool about twice/week and really need to be in the water at least 3 times.

Running update: I had a nice 10 mile training run last week (and a long swim the same day), without too much next day soreness.  Tonight after work, my lovely bride and I will drive to Oxford, Mississippi for the Oxford Run for Hope (http://www.oxfordrun4hope.com).  The original plan was for me to do the half marathon (as a training run) and she was going to do the 5k (with hopes to do the half next month in Jackson, TN).  I'm proud to say she has slowly increased her mileage (often doing run 5 minutes/walk 1 minute method) and wants to try the half tomorrow!  Hopefully I'll check in soon with a picture of us both smiling with our medals together.