Peglegs & Pirates

I realized there was only one sensible thing to do for this Halloween - make a peg leg.  I got some serious double takes at a local carnival, even had a kid ask me "are you holding your leg up?"

1 mile - its all about the speed

So I finally ran 1 continuous mile, no stopping, no walking, no crashing.  I had to take a knee, thank my God, shed a tear ( seriously ) and catch my breath.  :-)

Some of the recent changes to the running foot have made it possible for me to go considerably slower.  Running at a slower cadence, and shorter stride keeps me from becoming anerobic so quickly.  So ultimated its a combination of training, prosthetic changes, and running slower that has allowed me to push the distance up fairly quickly.

More on the news front, I'm scheduled in early December to go help with a research project at RIC.  They are building and studying the best way to control a powered prosthetic leg controlled using the targeted reinnervation's that were done when my leg was amputated.

1200m

When I arrived at the track Rainier's C team was warming up for a game - decided to run anyways.  There were some very serious looking clouds quickly heading into town.  On the third lap it started to rain and wow was it cold.  I forgot how much that cold air burns the lungs when you are breathing hard.

I was pretty destroyed after the 1200, while walking back to the car I was pondering if on my next trip to the track I would shoot for the mile.

2 x 800

I was foiled yet again by the Rainier football team - they had a JV game that was not on their posted schedule.  So after a diversion to Yelm HS track I was able to run 2 x 800m.  Slow but steady improvement.

I've got my eye on the mile mark now.

Plyometrics & It still hurts

Plyometric sounds all fancy but basically I've been repeatedly pushing on the floor of my car.  The idea being that my thigh muscles have significantly atrophied and need to be rebuilt.  They have atrophied so much that they don't store much energy, an a large number of the energy producing mitochondria have gone bye-bye.  The plyometrics is just a way that I can exercise my leg while driving.

So I've been doing that for a couple of months now - hence no updates, its kinda boring.  This evening I went out to the track in Yelm ( after finding out that the Rainier track was in use ) and ran a couple of 400's.  They felt some amount easier than previously but I still got anaerobic rather quickly.

I am hoping to get to the track at least once a week, and will keep at the plyometrics.

I've emailed Robert Gailey, and hope to meet with him later this month when he is in Seattle.  He's one of - if not the top expert on amputee running. See here.

Finally felt like "running"

I only ran for 600m this evening, but for the first time I actually felt like I was running.  It felt great!

I had my mind set on going 1/2 mile, but I ate track, o-well.

Its been difficult to not push myself really hard, I felt guilty leaving the track after only doing that much.  I've always battled in my head, not wanting to cop out and quit before it gets really hard - and in the past I've almost always won that battle and pushed really hard.  So on one hand It feels like I'm giving in and not working hard -- but I want to enjoy running & I want to enjoy the rest of my evenings with the family, sans headache.

Back on the horse

So I brought the headaches up with my doctor - being cautious he asked that I not run until we rule any really bad stuff out.  So after an MRI, chest X-Ray & exam nothing turned up except that my heads empty, chest is full of lungs and I've still only got one leg.  He referred me to a neurologist, but I've decided that I'm just going to deal with it and hope they go away.

I went for a 'lunchtime' run on Wednesday, 2x400m.  I decided not to push it very hard, hoping to not return to work with a headache.  For the most part it worked, only a mild headache and some stink on return to work.

On Thursday after work I did another 2x400m on the track at Rainier, and only got a mild headache again.

Feels kind of pathetic to call half a mile a run and consider it a workout...