Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Tues morning pickleball group. First Tues session I've been able to attend in at least a month. Not the greatest competition but everyone knew how to play the game at least, so the games were reasonably enjoyable. I played 1.5 games left handed to give my right elbow a little rest.

First snowboarding of the season. I'm working at Bristol tonight, so I came down an hour before I was scheduled to go on, to get a few runs in. Conditions (on the easy way down, anyway) were quite good, and the weather was gorgeous -- 30 degrees or so, sunny, and no wind.

I did OK -- no falls. A bit shaky at first, but my second run felt much more solid and a bit faster. I only did two runs, partly because of time constraints, and partly because my right knee (now my most problematic one) didn't seem real happy about the idea of snowboarding (but no less happy than the idea of going up or down stairs, so it wasn't terrible).

PT session with my PT therapist. He gave me multiple new exercises to do. One of them caused a bit of pain in my right knee but it didn't seem to get worse during the 10 reps x 3 sets that I did; hopefully that means I'm not doing any harm at least.

Doing everything he has now assigned me will probably take 45 minutes a day vs the 20 minutes (estimated) it had previously taken, and some will require a trip to the fitness center at the Webster Rec Center.

C • If it gets you 2

Monday night pickleball group. 12 people playing, perfect for 3 courts. Problem was there was a huge range of ability, with about 3-4 people intermediate (around my level), and about 4 people very very beginners, and not picking it up very fast. I had two games that weren't a lot of fun, with a weak beginner on each team, then two very enjoyable games with 3 people that were roughly my level (one guy, Mark; his sister, Pat; and an Indian lady who I hadn't seen before who is very solid).

Unfortunately, my right knee, which was grumbling during one of the PT exercises earlier today, was again not too happy either during the games or afterwords. I'm becoming suspicious that that exercise (partial leg presses on a weight machine) may be doing harm rather than good to my knee.

Skiing at Stowe again. Extremely nice conditions for the first couple of hours, then not terrible but not as supreme as early morning. Towards the end of our day, some snow and wind kicked up causing some visibility issues at the top; we were definitely ready to quit when we did. Then we went into their older lodge and listened to an excellent bluegrass group from New Hamshire for about an hour and a half (mandolin, upright bass, guitar, and fiddle, with all of them contributing vocally).

Also, once again my FR track isn't right -- see trailsnail's for the right track. I finally figured out the problem -- my FR was set to take a reading every second, which is fine for up to 3.5 hours, which includes virtually any activity I would be likely to do other than a marathon, climbing Pike's Peak, or climbing Mt. Marcy. But not enough capacity to let it run for 5 hrs straight while skiing. Need to change to "Smart Recording" for long sessions.

The total distance and time was still right (as might be expected), but the vertical distance appeared to only cover the part of the track that was saved. (also makes some sense). I changed the vertical distance to what trailsnail's log said.

I pulled the actual distance and time spent going downhill out of trailsnail's log and have corrected the time and distance and vertical in mine.

Skiing at Stowe, VT, with Cheryl and trailsnail. Actual time spent going downhill is much less than recorded time; I'll try to parse that out late.

Overall, a very nice although challenging day. Some fresh snow which was good, but made it more physically tiring. Some sections of very poor visibility near the top of the mountain.

My FR apparently got inadvertently turned off for a while in the morning, missing two runs up the gondola and back down. See trailsnail's log for the actual tracks, time, distance, and vertical.

I pulled the actual distance and time spent going downhill out of trailsnail's log and have corrected the time and distance and vertical in mine.

No skiing today; weather not terrible but supposed to be warm with a decent chance of rain today, and tomorrow sounds like it should be better. So no excuse not to do my assigned physical therapy workout.

Skiing at Stowe, VT, with Cheryl and trailsnail. Decent conditions, and not all that crowded. Most of the lifts had essentially no line; the most popular express chair lift and the gondola had about 3-minute lift lines. Conditions were also decent; quite good early in the morning, less good but not terrible by the time we quit.

I had three mishaps, one very trivial, one potentially a bit more important, and one a little worse, could have been much worse, but hopefully the aftereffects will be small rather than large. The very trivial one (although annoying) is that I neglected to bring my Forerunner with me to the slopes; I always enjoy seeing a track of where we went, how many vertical feet we skied, etc.

The medium one is that I lost, and then found, the key that I had to the apt we were staying in. I realized it when we got back to the apt from the ski slope (another person had a key, so no really major disaster). Cheryl suggested driving back to the lot at Stowe Mt where we had parked, so I did that. Sure enough, after hunting for 5 minutes or so I found the key on the ground, very close to where we had parked our car. It apparently came out of my pocket when I pulled the car keys out.. So all ended well -- just a 14-mile, 25-minute error.

The larger one is that my skis got tangled up with another person's skis getting off of the lift, which led to a slow, knee-twisting fall. My binding finally released, before my right knee released, fortunately, but it gave it a pretty good wrenching. First time I've fallen getting off of a lift in at least 30 years, I suspect. I skied for another hour or two and my knee didn't bother me until the very last run we took, but later it was (and still is) a bit more problematic.

C • Keys 6

Afternoon walk with Cheryl and partly with trailsnail, in Stowe village, after skiing. Right knee was grumbling most of the way, but not terribly. Not sure if I'll be up for skiing tomorrow, though.

More PT to try to address knee issues.

Good group of 7 people at 1 pm at the Rec Center. Cheryl, trailsnail, Paul, Jayne, Richard, Joyce, and me. I played right-handed the whole time; it will be interesting to see how my elbow feels tomorrow. I put a bag of ice on it immediately after getting done playing, so I'm hoping that may have helped a bit ...

Physical therapy (leg exercises and stretches).

Had an appt with my primary care physician today, mostly to check in on the cardiac issues I've noticed, and the tests that have been done (echo cardiogram and stress EKG).

We talked briefly about my knee issues, and he warned me that it may be that my running days have come to an end, and I should consider taking up another form of exercise, like swimming (major gag!!!) or biking (which I could be reasonably happy doing in nice weather, but I can't imagine tolerating stationary biking long enough or often enough for it to be my primary form of exercise). (Nor can I imagine biking outdoors in the winter, even though I do see people doing just that.)

I do have more faith in whatever I'll learn from the ortho doc (who is known as a knee specialist) in terms of whether running is still indicated or not. I'll need another 6 weeks of PT then a follow-up appt with him to get any sense of what he concludes might be ailing my joints.

Semi-long walk; didn't bring GPS and didn't even run my watch, so the time and distance are both guesses.

Monday night pickleball group at the Rec center. 10 people; very wide range of abilities.

Physical therapy, at Clinton Crossing. An ortho Dr examined and x-rayed my knees, and didn't see anything that abnormal. So his recommendation was 6 weeks of PT, then he'd re-access the situation. I'm not all that optimistic about PT helping my knee issues, but I can hardly refuse to follow his recommendations. So I'm going to make a concerted effort at doing the exercises and stretches daily that the physical therapist assigned to me.

Mid-afternoon walk with Homer; some bushwhacking, some trails, some roads. Made a few stops for picture taking; subtracted out 10 minutes for an estimated time.

Snowblowing the driveway and sidewalk, before church.

Snowblowing the driveway and sidewalk once more, after church.

Snowblowing is way less of a workout than snow shoveling, I've concluded.

C • How about, 1

Walked Homer through the woods at the end of Woodland. Pretty strenuous; we were breaking trail (through 6+ inches of fresh snow) for the whole woods trail.

Sat. morning pickleball at 8 am, which doesn't draw nearly as many people as when we played at 11 am or so. Four of us, for the second week in a row (and the same 4: Jayne, Paul, trailsnail, and me). Played right handed about 2/3 of the games, floundered around left handed the other 1/3.

Mid-day walk with Homer; some bushwhacking from the end of Woodland to the bike path hear Maple, then into Finn Park, a loop around the field, then headed home.

Treadmill walk, with a tiny amount of running mixed in, at the Webster Rec center.

Walk with Cheryl and Homer, at the Gosnell Woods.

My knees (esp. my R. knee, which previously had been my problem-free knee) complained on the uphills and downhills, and my heart/lung system complained on the uphills, from being totally out of shape.

Monday evening pickleball group. Haven't played with them in quite a while. Attendance was on the low side -- 7 people total. Wish I had managed to talk Cheryl into coming; having 8 people is infinitely better than having 7!

Playing tonight were: Mark, Paul, Linda, Deb (a very new player; it was her 2nd time playing), Sharon, Richard (not sure of his last name, but not Richard Henzel), and me.

Skiing at Bristol, with Cheryl and trailsnail. Conditions not all that great -- pockets of loose snow mixed with areas of ice. Upper Rocket was the best of any of the slopes we skied; Upper Northstar was the worst, with lower Meteor a close second.

GPS was accidentally stopped at some point, so not totally sure of how many runs or how many vertical feet we skied.

Saturday morning pickleball. Only four of us (trailsnail, Paul, Jayne, and me), but we had some nice games.

I played approximatelay 75% of the games right handed; 2 games left handed.

Stress test at Strong cardiology center. No distance recorded; probably not anything significant anyway. But the climb might have been somewhat significant.

It started at a leisurely pace for 3 minutes, then they gradually increased the speed and the incline, to a maximum of 4.2 mph at 16% incline. I was definitely working at the end, even though the speed wasn't impressive. I don't know yet what was found.

The two ladies administering the test didn't sound alarmed at any point, at least! They were reluctant to convey any details of their observations, although when I asked if they saw anything, they both said, almost in unison, "We saw lots of things." It's up to the cardiologist I'm working with to give me an interpretation and suggestions for the future. I don't have an appt with him for a month, but they said if I called him, he could give me a summary of the results.

Late-morning walk with Homer, to Finn Park (with a stop for a swim (for him, not for me) in the fast-moving creek). 50 degrees, partly sunny, a bit of a wind from the west. All in all, pretty decent walking weather for early February.