SDS

Sudden Deceleration Syndrome has been a serious problem for me my entire life. I never got hurt falling, it has always been the stopping that left the scars, tears, concussions, dislocations and broken bones. I was born without the mechanism that says "you probably shouldn't try that" when other kids were backing off the ledge I alway stepped up, much to the chagrin of my body.
Now at 38 all of these sudden stops are starting to catch up with me. My wrists and shoulders ache chronically, but worst of all, my right knee is junk. It was about 16 years ago that I severed my posterior cruciate ligament, I fell asleep at the wheel of my pick up truck and came to an abrupt stop at the base of a cliff, on a dark, quiet, back road in Vermont. The dashboard of the truck hit me just below my knee tearing my PCL in two.
Unlike your anterior cruciate ligament the PCL does not need to be fixed, strong quadracept muscles can hold your leg in place, with just a bit of wiggle. That bit of wiggle ruined my meniscus cartilage and 3 years ago I had it fixed, the meniscus and PCL, it was a terrible experience. I slowly recovered and eventually got back to jogging. Jogging was not a good idea, after a year of jogging my meniscus began to tear again and eventually, like before the big operation, I found it hard to get through the day with out my knee swelling up.
Two months ago I went back and had my meniscus trimmed again, this time I walked out of the hospital the same day and with in six weeks was playing golf and chasing kids. I did not even need crutches, I used a cane for about three days and then dropped that. The arthroscopic surgery was simple and my knee felt better almost immediately.
I had one follow up visit with the surgeon about a month after the procedure. During this visit I asked him if and when it would be possible for me to start lumbering again. It was obvious by the look on his face that he had no idea what I was talking about so I explained, "Lumbering is one speed slower than jogging."
His response was not what I wanted to hear, "You only have thirty percent of the meniscus cartilage you were born with in your right knee and you should not waste it lumbering." "Go by a bike" was his advice.
Sudden Deceleration Syndrome has finally caught up with me and it makes me feel old.

waste land

The tutu boutique blog has become a lonely place. I very rarely post anymore and I am not exactly sure what has changed. The business is booming, I marvel at the traffic that flows through there, close to 1,000 people a day are looking for tutus, who knew? not me. We have grown over 100% in the last year.
On the home front Merry has settled in very nicely at kindergarten, she really enjoys it. David is at pre-school three days a week. Thomas is home, helping Mom get Merry and David to where they need to be.
The bug business is experiencing a shortage of help that we are feverishly trying to fill. Interviewing souls, holding their future is not fun. I find it very stressful, first I need to hire the right people and second I do not like having to say no, especially when I can tell that they really want the job.
After taking the summer off from jogging I have started back up. I heard Jamie Foxx explain his work out routine as "old school calisthenics"jogging, push ups and sit ups. I am hoping for results. The jogging is a bit easier, I went for my annual check up and got some medicine for the jogging induced asthma, it is working great.

Jogging

Where has my motivation gone? This jogging once every six days is not cutting it. The mornings have been tough this last month or so. I do not want to get up. I feel as though I have the touches of a respiratory infection. I blame it on the air conditioner. They grow stuff inside of them and then blow it on you all night.

So I had a brainstorm last night, spray some of the melaleuca oil on the filter. Who knows the stuff is supposed to kill fungus and bacteria, maybe it will help.

Anyway, I woke up this morning at 6:20 and got ready to jog for the first time in a week. The cough and runny nose are still present but only in the morning. I looked at my watch when I was walking out the front door and it read 5:40. Ouch. Maybe I should have put on my glasses before I got out of bed.

Too late to turn back, Maxwell the dog and I headed out for a jog. It is a great way to start the day and I resolve to get out there more than once a week.

What is Happening?

Thanks for asking, not a hell of a lot. Thomas is talking in paragraphs that only his mother understands. The kid goes on and on and on. If you can't actually here him you might think what he was saying made sense. It does not, his cadence is on but his pronunciation is terrible. All of his gestures and facial expressions let the listener know that the kid has conviction, he just doesn't make any sense. He is a lot of fun to talk to.

When David isn't crying he is singing about superheroes. He comes up with all types of lyrics about his favorite crime fighters, and when he comes across a phrase he likes he repeats it over and over and over.

Meredith has learned another important lesson at pre-school. She is now an expert teaser. "Na na nana na, you can't have it" has become her mantra and she is teaching it to her brother's. It is one of Thomas' most understandable phrases.

Me, I am heading to N.H. on Thursday night and then Friday morning Tuckerman's Ravine. Should be one heck of an adventure, I am bringing the camera and will post some photo's.

The jogging has been going well. I stopped keeping track of the time because , "My name is Peter and I am a ten minute miler" that felt good. At this stage in my life it is not about how fast I go but how long. Thirty-five minutes of jogging is about all I can take and some days, like yesterday, it is more.

I picked up Jackson's ashes at the vet's the other day and it feels good having him back in the living room. He is in a discreet little wooden box that looks fine on the book shelf. Maxwell is hanging with me now. We run or walk almost everyday and he comes to the office with me. We are partners.

Spring

As much as I want to avoid it, I think it may be time for some spring cleaning around The Old Blue House.

Now here is something completely different.

The weather was beautiful yesterday afternoon and I attempted to jog after work. Jogging after lunch did not work out. Maxwell and I got about two miles out and the onions on the chicken wrap I had consumed four hours prior made me so uncomfortable that we walked the rest of the way home.

Sad really, having to walk after only two miles, it was a gorgeous day and it was nice to be outside and I learned a lesson. Run in the morning on an empty stomach or eat a very light lunch. So I got that going for me.

Dog Jog

Jogging with Maxwell has been great, the dog is in worse shape than me and gives me a good excuse to slow down and even walk at times. We started the day we put down Jackson and have been going strong since. When Maxwell hears the tearing of velcro associated with me putting on my knee brace his tail starts to wag and he heads towards the front door.

In the past Maxwell was a giant pain in the butt when he walked on the leash. He would pull to the point of distraction. After watching a few episodes of the Dog Whisperer I got him under control and he is easy and well behaved. I used to let him charge out over the electric fence, now I make him sit and walk out under my leadership. We are a team on the march, focused and traveling, it feels good being part of a team and I think the dog enjoys it as well.

It will be even more fun when the snow banks melt and the sidewalks clear. Fewer obstacles and less danger mean more focus on moving down the road. I think our performance and Maxwell's stamina will improve over time. I can not emphasize enough how nice it is having a partner who slows me down. The jogging has been easy and my ego has been bolstered.

Here is to future miles and fun.

Waves of Sadness

The tears roll in from I don't know where and engulf me, I let them flow threw, I do not attempt to hold them back and they pass on to where they came. I hope the storm passes quickly, I think that it will, today feels better than yesterday and I suppose it will get better every day.
Maxwell spent the last year keeping Jackson company, Maxwell is a bit messed up waiting for Jackson to come home. I have decided that it is time for Maxwell to get in shape. He came jogging with me yesterday and this morning. I figure if he is tired he won't have the energy to be sad.

Fun

Merry looked out the window of the Old Blue House Saturday morning and declared "Daddy, it's a winter wonderland out there!" and you know what?

She was right.

Friday night we got two or three inches of a wet sticky snow that with the falling temperature was like cement on Saturday morning. Merry, David and I ate breakfast,got dressed and headed to Heidi's Uncle Dougy's. Uncle Dougy is Grampy's brother and he has an awesome hill for sledding.

Grampy met us there and the four of us sledded our asses off. We sledded all morning and through lunch. We broke all kinds of speed and distance records, we went of jumps and had wipe outs, it was great. David and Merry are even big enough to walk up the hill under their own power, most of the time.

We were all pooped but Merry had a play date, her bestest friend was coming for the first sleep over at The Old Blue House. Everybody had a great time and went to bed at a reasonable hour. The interesting part of the sleep over story is that our guest is afraid of dogs. Odd to go to a house with two large dogs for your first sleep over when you are afraid of dogs. In the end, it worked out fine.

Sunday, I dusted off the jogging shoes, the last time they saw action was 1/13, 21 days ago. It was nice, nice and cold and tough, hopefully it will not be 21 days until I get out there again.

Sunday night I watched the Super Bowl home and alone, the children were in bed and Heidi was working the tutus. The commercials were fun, the game was tough. Rex Grossman was terrible and the Colts finally finished their season with a win. No more Peyton can't win the big one talk. Thank goodness.

Time Flies

Where has the time gone? The last day I jogged was 1/13/2007 that is over a week ago. The reason for my lack of exercise is the weather. I have a very difficult time getting out the door when the temperature is below 20 degrees. If it has not been freezing there has been precipitation. Jogging in a freezing drizzle is not at all appetizing.

Winter has officially arrived and I am begining to worry that I am going to fatten back up. I do not want to fatten back up, I also do not want to go to the gym. First I do not belong to a gym, second, when I work out it is best done alone. There are tons of snots and sometimes, most times, vomit.

Mrs. Jones does not need to be subjected to the fat guy on the tread mill next to her shooting snot rockets and hocking lung butter. Not to mention retching in the trash barrel. These types of bodily fluids are best dealt with alone, in the dark, in anonymity. Not at the Y with everyone looking on, if I can ski in the cold, I can jog in the cold.

I am done complaining, I resolve to dress up nice and warm and get out there. No more excuses.

Trying to Run

I am trying to run and it is not working out. The reason is the breathing. The breathing is bad, as I have stated before it feels like I am drowning. Today while I was retching at the top of the last hill an analogy popped into my head.

My lungs feel as though there is a layer of swamp mud settled at the bottom of them. Running up hills disturbs the mud and sets me to fits of coughing to dislodge it. After two or three episodes the foul matter is removed and I breath much easier.

I have decided running is sub 8:00 miles. If I can finish my three miles under 24:00 that would be good. A goal even. I read a description that the difference between a runner and a jogger was racing. This is probably true, if it is then I will remain a jogger for some time to come.

Correlative

This correlation may seem obvious to all of you, however, to me it was quite a revelation. It became painfully evident to me this morning.

The more glasses of Cabernet, the more difficult the jog the following morning.

Urgh! I made it but just barely. Forget the watch, I really do not want to know.

Training

My cousin left a comment on the post titled "On Jogging" He had some good advice and sent me to Runner's World to read up on what I am doing. I got discouraged reading through the articles because I have no desire to compete, I just want to be healthy. I would love to plug in my routine and see what it means, maybe Bobby will come back and let me know how I am doing.

A few weeks back, I upped my every other day mileage to three. Depending on the day and how I feel, my pace is somewhere between 8 and 10 minutes per mile. On the weekend, either Saturday or Sunday depending on how the every other day falls I run four. I do not have a stop watch, I time my jog by approximation. I left about 6:30 and I was back in the living room by 7:00. I wheezed and stretched at the front door for a minute took the trash barrels back to the shed, lets call it 8:45 per mile. Last week I jogged 13 miles, three threes and one four.

Reading the articles and skimming the site has left me thinking I may need to take this jogging up a notch. Get a watch and time my runs, maybe mix in some "Indian" running. In high school we would run hard for two telephone poles and jog one. Why they called it "Indian" running I have no idea. It is good for you though and I think it is what Bobby meant when he mentioned "Interval" training.

The next thing I think about when I start to consider getting more serious about jogging is time. I do not necessarily want to spend more time exercising. I wake up at six, jog my three miles, stretch and do sit ups, shower and get ready to go to work, it takes an hour and a half. Now that I start at six instead of five the kids catch me before I leave for work. This means I have to help with the morning routine, which is nice, but time consuming. Instead of being on the road at 7:30, it is 8:00 after putting on clothes and starting breakfast. I do not want to wake up at five or five thirty and it is not in me to exercise in the evening.

On today's jog I actually felt like I was close to running, what I am going to do is start timing my jogs. This will give me an idea of where I am and what I need to do to improve. I have resisted for three months, I can not resist any longer, I need to know. How slow I am really going.

On Jogging

My body does just fine while I jog, my lungs on the other hand are not doing any better. I have trouble processing oxygen. It sucks, literally. I can not get the air through my lungs cleanly. I get the air in and it does not get processed, I gasp for more and it does not get processed.

This feeling of drowning is the worst at the top of the hills along the route. The journey down the other side is spent trying to recover from the trip up. I spend the downs recovering and trying not to hurl. Good times, good times.

You Better Be Good

The Holiday season has officially begun at The Old Blue House. The Christmas trees are up, that is right, plural, we got a Charlie Brown tree for the kids and another for the Mom. The kids have taken over Mom's tree too.

All of the boxes were dragged from their resting place in the attic, their contents are displayed around the home and it is good. I love to bitch and moan but the finished product is great. The Carollers, Santa's and Angel's are all happy to be back on display.

I got the fireplace set up for another season of fires, and I started splitting and stacking the wood. Even had a fire, the first of the season. Burning firewood heats you up three times. First, when you split it, second, when you stack and third, when you burn it.

I jogged Sunday morning further than I have jogged in 15 years. I went all of four miles, 25% further than I have been jogging. It just about killed me, that one extra mile felt like ten.

The Patriots beat Detroit by the hair on their chiny, chin, chins. Heidi brought the Tutus to a home show in town. Merry, David and I watched Micheal Baryshnikov(?) dance the Nutcracker on PBS. Merry loved it and David was entertained watching Merry copy the dancers moves. Bedtime was a breeze.

Then sitting in my chair, watching Sunday night Football on NBC, in front of a blazing fire, I was overtaken by a terrible chill. It rocked me right to my core, the kind of chill that has terrible illness associated with it.

I staggered upstairs, put on my sweats, brushed my teeth and along with my daily vitamins took a "Get Well Soon" pill. I was under the covers by 8:30 pm. It was an uncomfortable night, alternating between sweats and chills. When the alarm went off this morning I felt fine, catastrophe avoided. Thank you, Arbonne. I sort of wonder what is in those pills, sort of.

Report on Jogging

The weather has turned. Thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit this morning when I went for my jog. It is odd the things you notice when jogging, today I was fixated on the fact that the only part of my body that was cold were the backs of my hands. I love the body awareness that comes from exercise, I can not remember a time before this morning when I thought about the backs of my hands.

Bought a new pair of running shoes this weekend. My last pair were Puma's that I got when Heidi and I were working out to get in shape for our wedding. The pair I bought are the same brand I wore on the cross-country team in highschool. Nike Air Pegasus, they felt pretty good. I have remained consistent in my exercise routine and now have my mileage up to three miles three or four days a week.

I am approaching a strange place with this jogging, that place is a sad feeling on the days that I do not get out there. It is odd that I miss it when I miss it. Two months ago I never gave it a second thought. Why the infatuation with something that I am so bad at? This morning I had the dry heaves to the point that I thought a spike was going to shoot out my spine through the back of my head. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Jogging is like life, you do not know what kind of jog you are going to have until you get up and take it on. Some days start out great and finish poorly or maybe there is a rough patch in the middle or it could start out awful and you may think that the end will never come and then out of the blue you catch a wind and finish strong. The fun part is finding out and you can not find out unless you start.

I started Operation Lose Weight / Lower Blood Pressure to lose weight and lower my blood pressure. It has become more than that and I am thankful for it. That is what I get for getting started, life and jogging really are like a box of chocolates, you do not know what you are going to get until you bite into it.

If I can do it you can do it. If you have been thinking about getting started exercising and need just that little push to get started consider yourself pushed.

Good Morning Power Walker

As I was jogging this morning I tried to conceive a post for today. All I can think of when I jog is to remember to breath. Then as a made my way through the mean streets of my small town I realized the only people who do not say hello are the power walking women.

There are a surprising amount of people out at 5:30 in the morning, some walking their dogs, some jogging, some running, some on their way to the train. Most of these people are very cordial, except for the woman in their workout outfits, arms pumping, chins and noses high in the air, legs maximizing the length of each stride.

I work hard to gasp out a "good morning" in between breaths and they march by. This happened twice this morning and I am not sure why. The woman walking their dogs say "hello", the woman walking, not seeming to be concentrating on their form say "hello", it is only the power walkers who ignore the greeting.

Maybe they are concentrating so hard on their form that they don't notice the big mess (me) passing them on the street. Maybe their ipods are turned up and they can't hear my greeting. Maybe they have a lot on their mind. It just seems to be more than a coincidence that the power walkers ignore my "good morning".