Really good progress on the running front. I worked too darn much in Ohio so I didn't get to run for almost a week. But I continued my rehab exercises and stretches. I ran my 4 mile route yesterday again with no pain. I went a weeee bit too fast and ran it in 26:12. Certainly too fast. I'll discipline myself to get back onto the Hadd plan and running at 128-132 HR.
The good news is that today I passed all my flexibility and strength tests to begin running everyday. I'll run 2 days on and 1 day off for now. Then hopefully in 2 weeks I can be running 6 days a week. Still keeping my runs to 30 minutes. Then once I can handle running everyday I can slowly build up my miles.
Tom had told me once long ago that once I found the right stretch or just the right exercise my problem would go away pretty quickly. What the doctor explained to me is that my tendon had been so injured that it was near tearing. So in defense it torqued down my quad and hip flexors. So no stretching would help release it until my tendon healed. The Platelet Replacement Therapy and Prolotherapy did that. So now it's on to fixing the problem that created my imbalance in the first place.
The doctor thinks that 6 years of riding 350+ mile weeks on the bike, plus sitting at work, gave me a pretty clear case of "Anterior Pelvic Tilt" He said usually people get it from sitting too much. But mine was worse because I actually used those muscles in their shortened state while cycling. So it made them short and very, very strong. So it was going to take some serious work to strengthen my glutes/upper hamstrings and release those hip flexors.
Well....I've been doing the serious work. Tom was right. Once I healed the tendons I was able to find that exact stretch that does it for me. In 2 weeks after doing that every 2 hours for 12 minutes (that's a TON of stretching). I'm seeing great improvement.
Here's my miracle stretch. Before I stretching a little different way and it was hurting another tendon. Once I inserted this one into my routine instead everything improved dramatically.
A song for you all.
Friday, October 25, 2013
27 Main progress
The last 2 weeks have been good to me. I wasn't able to run last week because I was too busy. I went home for the weekend and got a lot done on my building. I installed a new toilet in Shirley's apartment. Installed a new vanity, sink, and medicine cabinet in Fermin's. I climbed on the fire escape and cleaned all the gutters. Then I did a lot of cleaning of the 3rd floor. Here's some pictures .....
Still a lot of cleaning to go. Everything is a trip down 2 flights of stairs, then dumping it in my truck, then driving 1/2 way around the block to dump in my dumpster, or put in my basement.
This week I made a deal with Carlos. He was $517 behind on his rent, water, etc. So I gave him work to do on our building. What he "earns", instead of paying him, we'll remove from what he owes. So far he as cleaned the stairs, painted the stairway and hallway walls and ceilings, painted the walls in the 3rd floor (the pictures are from before he painted). Next he'll finish cleaning all the beds, couches, microwaves, tv, etc from the 3rd floor. I wanted to build the laundry room in the basement, but I wasn't prepared for that. I still have some planning to do
I did some research on putting in solar hot water heat. I did all the measuring and got quotes. $35k to have it done. I think I can build it myself for around $12k. Now to research what plumbing inspections are required and what the codes are for my town. I also met with some folks to look into future investments in our town. Everything we looked at just didn't make mathematical sense to me. Better to invest in solar.
Also while I was home I cleaned and organized my aunts garage. That gave us room to begin shuffling. I need to clear out her attics to pull up a few boards and blow in insulation. Once the garage space cleared up I was able to remove some things from my mom's apartment and put them into the garage. Then I sanded all the drywall....ooof...that job sucks. After I got everything done and the mess all cleaned up I grouted the tiles we had installed in the kitchen while mom and aunt painted the walls. Everything is mostly done there now. So now I'll have to arrange some friends to carry in her stove, refrigerator, microwave, etc. and hook them all up for her.
Good progress all around.
Still a lot of cleaning to go. Everything is a trip down 2 flights of stairs, then dumping it in my truck, then driving 1/2 way around the block to dump in my dumpster, or put in my basement.
This week I made a deal with Carlos. He was $517 behind on his rent, water, etc. So I gave him work to do on our building. What he "earns", instead of paying him, we'll remove from what he owes. So far he as cleaned the stairs, painted the stairway and hallway walls and ceilings, painted the walls in the 3rd floor (the pictures are from before he painted). Next he'll finish cleaning all the beds, couches, microwaves, tv, etc from the 3rd floor. I wanted to build the laundry room in the basement, but I wasn't prepared for that. I still have some planning to do
I did some research on putting in solar hot water heat. I did all the measuring and got quotes. $35k to have it done. I think I can build it myself for around $12k. Now to research what plumbing inspections are required and what the codes are for my town. I also met with some folks to look into future investments in our town. Everything we looked at just didn't make mathematical sense to me. Better to invest in solar.
Also while I was home I cleaned and organized my aunts garage. That gave us room to begin shuffling. I need to clear out her attics to pull up a few boards and blow in insulation. Once the garage space cleared up I was able to remove some things from my mom's apartment and put them into the garage. Then I sanded all the drywall....ooof...that job sucks. After I got everything done and the mess all cleaned up I grouted the tiles we had installed in the kitchen while mom and aunt painted the walls. Everything is mostly done there now. So now I'll have to arrange some friends to carry in her stove, refrigerator, microwave, etc. and hook them all up for her.
Good progress all around.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Friday, October 11, 2013
Wonderfully sore
My knee seems to have turned the corner (fingers crossed). I haven't had pain for 2 weeks and I run 4 miles 3x last week without pain. I was a little too aggressive with my stretching and injured something behind my knee. The doctor showed me how to massage it and said keep on going. That it would heal itself.
So far so good. I happily have been venturing out into the rain and running my 4 miles in the trails. Doing all my stretching and my strengthening religiously, etc. but wow!!! 12 miles a week has me pretty sore. won't be able to move up anytime soon. Hope my body adapts.
Everything with Inna is progressing along. I bought tickets to go there December 24th returning on January 5th. I'll spend a week in Kherson getting to know Vitali and then we'll all go together for a few days to Yalta on the Black Sea. There we'll do some fun excursions and go to a formal dinner party for New Years.
We had a bit of a fight recently. It was mostly fear. I worry that if Vitali doesn't want to move to the US, or if her ex-husband won't let him, or if he doesn't like me.....What will that mean for our relationship. Of course.....she can't really honestly answer any of those things until they play out. So I basically was asking for reassurance. I didn't express my fear very well and it was taken the wrong way. She's a little used to attacks from ex-husband so she went a little too quickly into defensive mode. We pouted for an evening, communicated, and now are moving along. Legitimate fear not erased, but agreements made to handle it as it comes and be flexible and communicative.
Some funny things about language. When I type Vitali....my phone changes it to Vital I. When she sends me a note that I don't understand and I pop it into my translator it translates Vitali as Acne. I don't think I'll tell the teenage boy that my computer calls him acne. Another funny thing that it does (luckily I know the word and don't need translation) is that when she says "I miss you"...it translates as "I'm bored of you" I could see how if I didn't know the language this relationship would be quite difficult.
ok...another treehugger type video.
So far so good. I happily have been venturing out into the rain and running my 4 miles in the trails. Doing all my stretching and my strengthening religiously, etc. but wow!!! 12 miles a week has me pretty sore. won't be able to move up anytime soon. Hope my body adapts.
Everything with Inna is progressing along. I bought tickets to go there December 24th returning on January 5th. I'll spend a week in Kherson getting to know Vitali and then we'll all go together for a few days to Yalta on the Black Sea. There we'll do some fun excursions and go to a formal dinner party for New Years.
We had a bit of a fight recently. It was mostly fear. I worry that if Vitali doesn't want to move to the US, or if her ex-husband won't let him, or if he doesn't like me.....What will that mean for our relationship. Of course.....she can't really honestly answer any of those things until they play out. So I basically was asking for reassurance. I didn't express my fear very well and it was taken the wrong way. She's a little used to attacks from ex-husband so she went a little too quickly into defensive mode. We pouted for an evening, communicated, and now are moving along. Legitimate fear not erased, but agreements made to handle it as it comes and be flexible and communicative.
Some funny things about language. When I type Vitali....my phone changes it to Vital I. When she sends me a note that I don't understand and I pop it into my translator it translates Vitali as Acne. I don't think I'll tell the teenage boy that my computer calls him acne. Another funny thing that it does (luckily I know the word and don't need translation) is that when she says "I miss you"...it translates as "I'm bored of you" I could see how if I didn't know the language this relationship would be quite difficult.
ok...another treehugger type video.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
This is water
I've done a good bit of writing here about happiness and how society has come to equate that with material wealth. I've also done some posts about societies need for constant stimulation. Here's an interesting video that deals with this nicely.
Just spent a wonderful week in Odessa with Inna. For those that didn't get my email, but want to see...my photos are posted here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98622421@N06/
I'm off to replace the clutch cable on my motorcycle.
Just spent a wonderful week in Odessa with Inna. For those that didn't get my email, but want to see...my photos are posted here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98622421@N06/
I'm off to replace the clutch cable on my motorcycle.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Rain Party
Had a pretty good week last week. Between Skype, phone calls, Facebook, and texts Inna and and I have been able to share our lives together as best as possible. She'll fly to Israel on the 14th of August and stay until the 23rd with her friend Vika. She'll stay in Ra'anana at her friends house. She hasn't seen her for 3 years since she moved there, so they're quite excited to hang out, catch up, and do some tourist stuff. Her birthday was Sunday and the card I sent arrived Saturday...delivered by mom the evening of her birthday. Perfect timing. Mom said she cried with happiness reading the poem I wrote :-)
I guess the 1/2 century ride I did with mom got me going on cycling again. I need to do something and I was so frustrated with physical therapy that I just couldn't make myself get started on that again. 4 months with no improvement :-( I figure now I'll just ride for a bit and give it a go again this winter when riding outside sucks. Of the 1/2 dozen rides I've done so far each has been a real smack in the face. The first group ride I lasted 35minutes and got dropped like nothing. The 2nd I lasted 70 minutes of a 90 minute ride, then next 80 minutes. Each of those 3 rides saw me pulling out all the tricks to keep up. I'm experienced enough in the peleton to know the wheels to follow and I know the route well enough to know when you just have to go...no matter what, and when you can rest.
This week I did the Tuesday nighter and was a totally different rider. A bit of a man possessed I guess. I took offense to a move by another rider on a dangerous descent. In the past ride we took that descent gentle, regrouped, then hammered. He used the hill to his advantage. Totally acceptable in a race on a closed road but really dangerous in traffic and with a mixed bag of rider abilities. Beat us because you're stronger....not because you care less if you make it to work tomorrow. Anyway...I made it a bit of my mission to show that fellow how his lunch looks on his cycling shoes. Each time he went for a sprint I'd attack after. Each time he reach for his bottle or drifted off a hard pull I'd give a little surge. Death by a thousand needles all of which he wasn't smart enough to notice. Then I "won" the ride attacking the birdfoot climb and leaving them. 2 weeks of riding...and they're all mid-season with an entire winter of base under them. Take that!!
The next day I went to Haymarket for the big boy ride. Having done the wimpier Reston ride pretty much all out the day before and carrying that fatigue into a ride with my old teammates who were sure to make me suffer.....had me figuring I'd be dropped over the very first climb. Again I surprised myself and hung in some very tough riding. It rained for a while really, really hard and I had hoped that would slow us down and let us recover but they never let up. Then it hailed and 4 of us got caught in a cross-wind and dropped. Luckily the group had a bit of infighting leading up to the sprint point. As they slowed to jockey for position it allowed the 4 of us to catch back on. After that I was basically cooked though and I got dropped over the last climb. By then we were nearly 2hrs into the ride so I was still pretty happy and even more so with my solo effort over the last 20 minutes back to the shop. Jared and the fellow's waited for me at the crossroads. Nice to ride with the old gang again...and glad, other than poking fun at my hairy legs, that they didn't feel a need to torture me.
I took Thursday and Friday off from riding. Went Friday to a movie premier with Michael and Melissa. We watched the new movie about Anton Krupicka "In the High Country". Pretty awesome. I don't suppose the average guy gets it quite as much...but for me, watching....that was my life. The fellow lives in his truck and just runs. That's the life of the distance runner. Really good look into his life. It's a short film, I really recommend it.
Saturday I did some repairs in the house I'm living in. Replaced the dryer vent that was so full of lint and water that the weight had pulled it from the wall. Whew...rotten lint is stinky. I saw the break in the weather for a long ride didn't come until around 6pm so I waited and ate well and headed out with my lights for a night ride. Did a nice easy tempo. Only went hard a bit on the way home going through the section where that cyclist got the gun put in his mouth, was beaten, and robbed last month. I tore through that hilly dark section with much haste.
I had an interesting detour during my ride. After about 5hrs of riding it started to pour just as I was touring the monuments before the 90 minute push home. It really unleashed just as I was going through the mall. I gave thought to scurrying over to the metro station and just taking the metro back to East Falls Church (1/2 way home) and hoping the rain had stopped when I got there. It rained so hard however that I only made it to the snack bar on the other side of the mall. As I parked under the roof I saw a bunch of others running for it too. Turns out a local band was just wheeling their equipment to the metro for their trip home. Instead they setup under the awning...and we had a bit of a party. It was a really fun and neat way to wait out the rain. We sat there 50 minutes before it let up and we all went on our way. They sang a LOT of Joanna Newsome. Now I can't get this song out of my head.
3 rides for the week. 2 really hard, 1 long but really easy. No pains or hurts so far. Here's some more Joanna. Wish I knew the name of the local band that scurried over and gave me a free concert. They gave me their phone number and an invite and for some reason it didn't save in my phone. Here's more of their favorite artists. It was really fun singing along, normally I feel self-conscious about singing but they were so fun and the circumstance so peculiar that we really belted out the songs in the rain :-).
I guess the 1/2 century ride I did with mom got me going on cycling again. I need to do something and I was so frustrated with physical therapy that I just couldn't make myself get started on that again. 4 months with no improvement :-( I figure now I'll just ride for a bit and give it a go again this winter when riding outside sucks. Of the 1/2 dozen rides I've done so far each has been a real smack in the face. The first group ride I lasted 35minutes and got dropped like nothing. The 2nd I lasted 70 minutes of a 90 minute ride, then next 80 minutes. Each of those 3 rides saw me pulling out all the tricks to keep up. I'm experienced enough in the peleton to know the wheels to follow and I know the route well enough to know when you just have to go...no matter what, and when you can rest.
This week I did the Tuesday nighter and was a totally different rider. A bit of a man possessed I guess. I took offense to a move by another rider on a dangerous descent. In the past ride we took that descent gentle, regrouped, then hammered. He used the hill to his advantage. Totally acceptable in a race on a closed road but really dangerous in traffic and with a mixed bag of rider abilities. Beat us because you're stronger....not because you care less if you make it to work tomorrow. Anyway...I made it a bit of my mission to show that fellow how his lunch looks on his cycling shoes. Each time he went for a sprint I'd attack after. Each time he reach for his bottle or drifted off a hard pull I'd give a little surge. Death by a thousand needles all of which he wasn't smart enough to notice. Then I "won" the ride attacking the birdfoot climb and leaving them. 2 weeks of riding...and they're all mid-season with an entire winter of base under them. Take that!!
The next day I went to Haymarket for the big boy ride. Having done the wimpier Reston ride pretty much all out the day before and carrying that fatigue into a ride with my old teammates who were sure to make me suffer.....had me figuring I'd be dropped over the very first climb. Again I surprised myself and hung in some very tough riding. It rained for a while really, really hard and I had hoped that would slow us down and let us recover but they never let up. Then it hailed and 4 of us got caught in a cross-wind and dropped. Luckily the group had a bit of infighting leading up to the sprint point. As they slowed to jockey for position it allowed the 4 of us to catch back on. After that I was basically cooked though and I got dropped over the last climb. By then we were nearly 2hrs into the ride so I was still pretty happy and even more so with my solo effort over the last 20 minutes back to the shop. Jared and the fellow's waited for me at the crossroads. Nice to ride with the old gang again...and glad, other than poking fun at my hairy legs, that they didn't feel a need to torture me.
I took Thursday and Friday off from riding. Went Friday to a movie premier with Michael and Melissa. We watched the new movie about Anton Krupicka "In the High Country". Pretty awesome. I don't suppose the average guy gets it quite as much...but for me, watching....that was my life. The fellow lives in his truck and just runs. That's the life of the distance runner. Really good look into his life. It's a short film, I really recommend it.
Saturday I did some repairs in the house I'm living in. Replaced the dryer vent that was so full of lint and water that the weight had pulled it from the wall. Whew...rotten lint is stinky. I saw the break in the weather for a long ride didn't come until around 6pm so I waited and ate well and headed out with my lights for a night ride. Did a nice easy tempo. Only went hard a bit on the way home going through the section where that cyclist got the gun put in his mouth, was beaten, and robbed last month. I tore through that hilly dark section with much haste.
I had an interesting detour during my ride. After about 5hrs of riding it started to pour just as I was touring the monuments before the 90 minute push home. It really unleashed just as I was going through the mall. I gave thought to scurrying over to the metro station and just taking the metro back to East Falls Church (1/2 way home) and hoping the rain had stopped when I got there. It rained so hard however that I only made it to the snack bar on the other side of the mall. As I parked under the roof I saw a bunch of others running for it too. Turns out a local band was just wheeling their equipment to the metro for their trip home. Instead they setup under the awning...and we had a bit of a party. It was a really fun and neat way to wait out the rain. We sat there 50 minutes before it let up and we all went on our way. They sang a LOT of Joanna Newsome. Now I can't get this song out of my head.
3 rides for the week. 2 really hard, 1 long but really easy. No pains or hurts so far. Here's some more Joanna. Wish I knew the name of the local band that scurried over and gave me a free concert. They gave me their phone number and an invite and for some reason it didn't save in my phone. Here's more of their favorite artists. It was really fun singing along, normally I feel self-conscious about singing but they were so fun and the circumstance so peculiar that we really belted out the songs in the rain :-).
Friday, August 2, 2013
Historical building pictures
I found a photo of James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley speaking in front of my building in Geneva. It was the dedication of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on August 4, 1880. That monument was later moved to the corner of Eagle an Park streets and now sits at the opposite corner of Park and Broadway.
Mine is the 3 story building on the left. Pretty cool!! This photo was taken from the center of Broadway, South of Main street. The drug store you'll see in the next photo would be directly to the left of the photographer.
This is the view on Main Street and Broadway. My building is directly across the street from the Drug store you see in this picture. So my building would be to your right and around the corner if you were standing where this photo was taken.
This picture is from farther North on Broadway. You can still see the drug store on the corner in the center of the photo. From here you would walk South on Broadway to the corner. Turn right on Main street and my building would be the 3rd on the right.
Mine is the 3 story building on the left. Pretty cool!! This photo was taken from the center of Broadway, South of Main street. The drug store you'll see in the next photo would be directly to the left of the photographer.
This is the view on Main Street and Broadway. My building is directly across the street from the Drug store you see in this picture. So my building would be to your right and around the corner if you were standing where this photo was taken.
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