Run Rocky Run…Rocky Balboa 5K (Philadelphia)

“You're gonna eat lightnin' and you're gonna crap thunder!” – Words of inspiration spoken by one of the hardest and toughest trainers the world has ever know, Mickey Goldmill, the trainer of champions. He takes average men and turns them into fighters by pushing them to their limits and going outside of their comfort zone. The only thing is, he really doesn’t exist, he is the tough trainer from the first Rocky movie played by Burgess Meredith, who incidentally played the Penguin in the 1970’s Batman show with Adam West. What does this have to do with the Rocky Balboa 5K in Philadelphia? Other than some tv/movie trivia, it really doesn’t have much of a place for this blog except a sort of witty and informative opening.

With that, it is a good quote from a great inspirational movie about a man training and struggling with life in order to be something. All he wants to do is accomplish what he sets his mind to, and with the great support of his trainers, friends and family; he can, will and does do it. Its one of those movies that is not just for men to watch for some rite of passage out of puberty, but a great movie for both men and women to be inspired by and push through anything.

The first annual Rocky Balboa 5K/10K run was held in Philadelphia on a cold and windy November day with a sellout participation of 7000 runners. This was going to be my second run back since my ankle decided to give out and it was feeling pretty good. I had been training since the last run every other day both cardio and weights and I had discovered the now my left shin and ankle were hurting a bit because I had been putting more pressure and supporting all the weight on it when running on the treadmill. So I was a bit worried, but I figured once I started stretching and getting warmed up it would be ok.

As I was driving down to the Museum of Art where the race would start and finish, in Rocky fashion, I began to think about the last race and what pitfalls I ran into. Now you remember those depression stations I talked about, well that wouldn’t be an issue this time because I had forgotten my GPS watch. I had debated turning around and getting it, but I thought about those depression stations and kept driving on. I also started to think about how I had to start walking before I could run and I thought about how I started way I the back of the pack; I wasn’t going to do that this time.  

After I had gotten down to the Art Museum and found my parking spot I started to get geared up and made sure I had everything I needed for the long walk over to the start point. Have I mentioned that it was freakin freezing out at this time of the day, if not I am now. I kept rethinking if I should have worn running pants instead of just my running shorts. However once I arrived to the area set-up for the event I saw a rather plump gentleman in his tighty whiteys dressed like Thunderlips (Hulk Hogan) from one of the Rocky Movies, oh and he had a life size Rocky made out of balloons, very creative. After seeing that I had zero right to complain about being cold.

As the time ticked by I kept stretching and testing my ankle and it was hurting and I figured I would do the normal walk then start running. When the race was about 15 minutes from the start we all began to line up at our respective running time area, as I was nursing the ankle I opted for the 10 minute mile instead of the 8 minute mile I had originally signed up for. The thousands of people began to filter in who were running the 5K the more anxious I got and the more my ankle hurt, or at least I thought in my mind. Finally the countdown began 5…4…3…2…1 and we were off and running. Yep, I said to hell with it and just started running instead of the walking start I anticipated doing.

The course was pretty much flat and straight with some minor obstacles of curbs and pot holes along the way. The only difficult part was that there were so many people it was hard to pass and with so many new runner s they didn’t know the runner etiquette of making sure to stay out of the way for faster runners. It’s a pain, but at I have to look at the lighter side and at least they were out and running. The course continued and I liked the fact that they had mile markers along with the way with the time lapse. I felt good and my ankle wasn’t hurting as much as I had thought it would, it still hurt a bit, but it felt good. I only walked a couple of times but I knew I had to do the final push once I saw the 3 mile marker loom ahead. The competitive nature within myself and the desire to push myself kicked in and I began to book it as fast as I could. I rounded the end and up a small hill to see the Art Museum come into view and it was beautiful. I then pressed harder and ignored whatever pain I had in my feet and passed one person after the other, there was the finish line and then I saw the clock, 28:15. That couldn’t haven’t been right, there was no way I ran than fast with a bad wheel and not feeling 100%, but whatever I just ran and I ran fast. I crossed the finish line and I saw my friend tony there waiting for me and he had been cheering me one as I crossed the line. I grabbed my medal and walked around a bit to catch my breath. I hung around a bit cheered on Tony as he began his 10k and I made my way back to the car.

Once at the car I started it and let the heater thaw me out and I began the drive back home. I felt really good that I completed under 29 minutes and since my normal time is between 25-27 minutes I knew I would e back to normal in no time, I didn’t realize how soon that would be. I had gotten home and began to rest when I got an email telling me the times had been posted. I just needed the confirmation that I did it under 29 minutes so I logged on and check out the times. What I saw next shocked me and excited me, I had actually completed the race in 27:37…I was not expecting that. I forgot about I started way in the back and the clock and gun time were different. I just couldn’t believe it, but I was and am still thrilled.

So now what? Well I keep running that’s what. I keep pushing myself and I get back to my original goal of 25 minutes and less. Now I seem to have a permanent lump on my ankle which I am going to have checked out and my ankle still hurts pretty good every now and then, but I now know I keep do this and get back on the path. I am going to keep pushing myself and I am going to beat my personal best. So for everyone with injuries that took them out of running, you can get back into this game and you will get back into this game.

Have fun and safe run,

JB

Back at it again…watch out for depression stations

I could easily start this with the classic Ghostbusters line when they walked out of the courtroom after being tried for making a hole in the middle of the street and capturing the Scolleri Brothers. I could do that, but I wont; not because people may not know what I am talking about, but more so one 5K does not equal me to being back. I consider it a step in the right direction towards getting back to where I used to be and to then go the next step in this journey of running.

What am I talking about? Well I ran my first 5K since the destruction of my ankle, this run was called the Macoby run and it took place near Green Lane, PA. This course is in fact mapped out on a golf course, a very steep hill golf course. I digress and I shall start where all stories should start; at the beginning.

This run has sort of become mine and my mother’s run to do each year now as our bonding moment of sorts. So the week before the race I was in the gym and I was pushing myself both cardio and weights to the point of exhaustion with a day or rest in between each. I knew if I tried to do it every day I would end up hurting myself more than I already was. I was determined to make sure I was able to somehow in some way run this race with my mother, I knew I was going to have to walk some of it, but I needed to run some of it as well.

As we drove down the familiar road that would lead us to our final destination of the race registration I was feeling pretty good, my ankle wasn’t hurting that bad and my knee was doing good as well. The sky was clear and blue however it was freezing out with the wind whipping at a pretty good speed so I was glad that I wore some warmer running clothes, but I did realize I need to invest in some light gloves to just keep the chill off of them. As I was saying we parked the car and went up to race registration and got our numbers, mine happened to be bid 14 which last year  was bid 13, not going to lie I was hoping for 13 again. We then headed back to the car and started to prepare for the run. I got my running shoes laced up, my ipod qued up, downed some water, ate a banana and then had to go to the bathroom, lol. Those pre run nerves sometimes kick in pretty early and I am just grateful they don’t kick in during the run because that would be an issue worse than spitting during a run. So after my bathroom break I went outside to start stretching and I was nervous because by this point the ankle was beginning to hurt, no whether it was really hurting that much or I was psyching myself out I am not sure. I took the stretching gently and did what I could to loosen up and prepare myself. Now I like to do a small little jog before the run to get the blood going, like so many other runners do, so why should this time be any different? Well this time I planted my right foot, the bad one, to push off and it hurt, but I kept going a few paces. It was around the 3 foot mark I was in pain and it was then and there I knew I was not running this one, I was going to have to walk it. Let depression station number one set it now due to this set back, there will be more depression stations coming as I will explain soon enough.

As the runners started to line up my mother and her friend headed towards the back of the pack and I went with them. I have always been pretty proud of myself to start one maybe two back from the starting line, but this time I was about 50 back from that point; depression station number two has just arrived. As I stood in the back of the pack I waited for the ever popular words to be said “runners…get set…go”, and as those words were spoken and the pack began to move I did exactly what I said I was going to do; I began walking. It was a good 20 feet till I crossed the starting line and for about 50 feet after that I was walking a bit faster and then something in my head said “to hell with it, lets do this”, now whether it was the song on my ipod, the desire to run or a combination of both I do not know, but what I do know is I started moving at a 10 min pace light jog. I got into my zone and tried not to think of my ankle and I also tried to make sure I wasn’t landing everything on my left foot.

The breeze of the nice cool fall air felt good as I kept my pace and kept planting one foot in front of the other. I started to pass some people and Im’ going to lie it felt pretty good. As I trekked on and on the golf cart paths that marked the race route I met up with my old friends slippery leaves. I started freaking myself out a bit, but I stayed calm and ran over them gingerly and then across the bridge to my next test. You see the golf course is mainly uphill and these hills are brutal. I just engaged and pushed on up the hill, now I was a bit irritated not because people were walking, but because I had good momentum and people were walking side by side the width of the path and not moving for those who were running. To me when running I apply the rules of the road, stay to the right and pass on the left, so I had no point but to try and find a way around which wasn’t easy and ultimately ha to stop and walk behind them as others had to as well. I don’t think I was going to make the second part of the hill, but it was the point of the matter, just common courtesy that’s all.

As I continued on the path I was sweating, I was cursing and I was thirsty, thankfully the water station was just around the corner. I attacked the course with interval running of walks and running and it did me pretty well and in return my ankle didn’t give me that much of a problem thankfully. So as I kept my 10 min pace I did something that I highly recommend people not doing if it is their first race back, especially if they are used to a certain pace and time, I looked at my watch and good ole depression station number three arrived and kicked me straight in the gut. I looked at my watch and it was reading 20 minutes and I still had at least another mile to go, that’s not what I wanted to see. Yes, I know I wasn’t going to be at what I was, but I got to anxious about my pace and how good I was feeling. I kicked it out of my head and just kept moving forward and pushing onto the finish line.

After all the hills and all the depression stations I passed mile marker three and knew the finish was right at the bottom of the hill; I have never finished a run at a slow pace I have always pushed that last bit to beat whatever seconds I could, it’s the competitive sports person in me. I started to book it and I didn’t care about my ankle, I didn’t care about my knee, I didn’t care about the pain…I cared about me claiming that finish line once again. I crossed that line at 31:45, was it my best…hell no, was it my worst…hell no, did I finish that race…hell yes. It felt good and all those depression stations along the way, well they can kiss my ass because they were unnecessary to have even popped up, I should have been more confident in myself and not worried about. I know this now and in the future I will not let this happen again.

When it was all said and done I felt good and I was proud of myself, but I was more proud of my mom who kicked some butt of her own in her finish, we also got out traditional selfie. So those with injuries, take your time and don’t let those depression stations rear their ugly heads, because it just isn’t worth it. You can push through anything, just put one foot in front of the other.

Be safe and keep running,
JB

Run, Conqueror, Ice, Eat…Repeat

So has the self pity party for myself and the soap operatic style on my life as it relates to running and the trials and tribulations I am going through mentally and physically ended?

Nope…not at all, but its getting pretty damn close to ending thankfully.

So since my last post I have cut back on the crappy food and drink, although I do have my fried mac and cheese bits a couple times a week still, and been making some food to come home to and eat. The one night I made a crockpot recipe of Chicken thighs in a pesto and ranch sauce, then added some long grain brown rice and broccoli and BAM good healthy diner and some lunches. I am a huge fan of the crockpot recipes and cooking in general and I have Pintrest to thank for getting me back into it. Oh yes, so back to my tales of woe and heartache.

As I was saying this past week since my last post I have been also working out again and pushing myself a bit. I will admit that I was pumped and pushing myself physically and mentally all the way to the gym. My best friend and true brother in life Anthony, who I don’t know how the hell he puts up with me after all these years, through text message punched me in the face and said do it…so I did it. I walked into the gym confident and ready to kick some ass and take back what was rightfully mine, that being my ability to run and be fit. I unpacked my bag, put my braces on, qued up the ipod on some Emigrate and with my water in my hand I strolled confidently to the treadmill. And that’s when it happened, I got scared…I was nervous and my brain went into overdrive telling me it was going to be painful and I was going to hurt myself even more. In all that macho self hype up it took just one face to face look at that treadmill to turn me into nothing more than the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz. I froze and stood there and debated what to do next, just do some light weights or test my ankle and what it can do? I figured I wasted the gas to get there so I might as well give this a shot, that’s right economical logic is what got me on the treadmill. I took that first step gingerly up and placed my water and towel into the cup holders and pressed play on my ipod. This was a make it or break it moment for me for there was no going back or if I did I would look really stupid…more than I normally do. I pressed “quickstart” and the belt began to move, I put the speed up to 2.5 and felt good so I increased it a bit more to 3.0 and then to 4.0, I was moving at a good pace and the whole time I was thinking about my ankle and waiting for it collapse and give off and excruciating pain.

As I walked at a 4.0 pace and the minutes went by I felt my ankle hit a plateau of discomfort and then ultimately the discomfort pretty much went away. Yeah I felt it and I was nervous, but so far it wasn’t that bad. I also wanted to be mindful to not rely completely on support of my left foot because that would have messed that one up and hurt me more in the long run. At about the 6 minute mark I psyched myself up to try and do a light jog and really see where I stood with my ankle. So once the timer clicked 8 minutes I increased the speed up to 5.0 and then to 5.5 and did a short choppy jog, this was the equivalent of a 15 minute pace per mile. To my thankful surprise my ankle felt only minor discomfort, nothing more than I had been feeling since stepping onto the treadmill. I was beginning to sweat and breath deep and it felt good, but I was still trepidatious about the whole thing. I am not an overly optimistic person at times and so my pessimistic nature kicked in and said I better go back to a walking pace or risk never running again, I can be a bit over dramatic at times too. I cranked the treadmill back down to 4.0 and looked at the clock and saw I was just doing the light jog for about 4 minutes straight, needless to say I was shocked and proud in a small way. My ankle really didn’t hurt and I was feeling good, you know that “good” when those endorphins kick in from running…yeah that “good”.

So I kept walking for a few more minutes and I figured well that felt good so let’s do it again, and I cranked up the speed and run another 5 minutes at a light jog pace and then backed it off to not over due. I was really starting to feel even better now, I was really sweating and really smiling. At that point in time I decided to really push the envelope I want to run a bit at more than a 15 minute mile pace. I took a swig or water and prepared for the worst and then I cranked it up to a 7.0 which equaled about a 9 and a ½ minute mile. I was in shock, I was happy, I was definitely nervous because I was scared it would give out at a moment’s notice. However I couldn’t get over the fact that I was doing it, I was running again; the deep breaths and the sweat pouring and the tunes kicking…this felt really good. I did this for about 5 minutes and slowed back down to a walking paced this time at a 4.5 level. I ended up doing this a few more time and the last time I could feel my ankle become weak so that’s when I hit the “cool down” button and walked the rest of the time, which turned into a nice 50 minute cardio session for me.

As the time counted down and the belt of the treadmill slowed down to a complete stop my ankle was sore, not hurting but sore. I grabbed some water and looked through the details of the run on the machine for my own curiosity. As it cycled through the data of times, calories and mileage it had a feature to see how long it took me to essentially run a 5K…37 minutes. My normal 5k time is around 25-27 minutes depending on terrain and other factors, so this meant I was only 10 minutes away from my time zone? I am pretty happy about this and in a way proud, granted its not my personal best, but I thought it would take me a good 45 minutes to come close to an even 3 miles. This gave me hope and while I continued to work out the rest of the night I threw in some ankle strengthening exercises to keep it limber and build it back up, but I kept coming back to my run. I thought about how I feared it and how it almost defeated me and my own thought s made me self destruct and bring upon self doubt in my own ability and self worth.

So I have to be completely honest with you about this whole event, for while this was an exercise onto myself and to get my a$$ back in gear and running I did have an ulterior motive behind the whole thing. You see my mother does 5Ks every now and then, there is one 5K that I consider to mine and hers despite if our friends and family join us for this was the first 5K we had run together and this is our 5K. The Macoby Run is held in November each year and I always look forward to it and running with her in this race. So I did run for myself, but I ran for the ability to run with my mom. She may beat me this time around, and the gold course hills will destroy us but at least we will get our selfie together and bond.  Oh and BTW I was sore as hell the next day after my workout, but it was totally worth it.

So be safe and run hard.

JB

On the injured list…the saga of the sprained ankle.

So it’s been a few weeks now since I had sprained the ever living hell out of my ankle. The swelling has gone down considerably to the point that it’s all pretty much gone as well as the bruising is no longer visible. The other good thing is that I am walking on it better and doesn’t hurt as much, just when I am standing on it all day due to my work. I have been soaking in Epsom salts and doing stretches to keep it lose and limber in hopes of it now healing stiff. The only bad thing about the situation is that I can tell it is far from strong and there is no way I can run on it at this point in time. And that is the thing that is killing me the most.

I never realized how much I would miss running and have fallen into a bit of a slump. In this nice cool fall weather I can think of nothing more than I would like to do than that of lacing up my sneakers, strapping on my Nike watch (cheap plug) and hitting the pavement to push myself mile after mile. To have those thoughts half way through a run “why the hell am I doing this?” and then to be thrilled and excited at the end and ready for another run…runners are weird and we are damn proud of it.

So my slump would be ok so long as I wasn’t such an emotional eater and consuming mass amounts of things that I should not be, i.e. fried macaroni and cheese bites…although they are mighty fine tasty goodness. Oh and I cannot forget the mass quantities of pizza and burgers with diet soda thrown in for good measure. Yeah I have completely fallen off of my clean eating standard for the past few weeks, but when I can’t do the thing I love and desire to do I fall back onto food, I guess that really is the true meaning and nature of comfort food. Oh and I cannot forget the Popeye’s chicken, 5 spicy drumsticks in one sitting, let’s not judge me on this shall we because I do that enough o myself. I will say that for breakfast I am eating my bananas and I do drink about a gallon of water a day, so I am not completely off the wagon, but still not as good as I was.

So what do I do? How do I workout and keep active to the point that I don’t injure my ankle even more and to make sure I am ready for a run? Best way I found out is to hit the internet, talk to fellow runners and talk to medical professionals. So after doing some research I have found some tips for working out with an injury and some work arounds, now again I am not a trained professional in this stuff and what I am doing was after research and talking to my doctor so see your doctor before attempting to make sure you are good to go.

Since this is an ankle injury obviously you can work the legs so what can you do? Well that’s easy, you work the upper body because that’s the part not injured. Some of the exercises recommended to me were using the rope pull-down machine and the hand bike. I wish I had a hand bike at my gym because I would’ve used that like crazy. Heck you could even do some push-ups if its only one leg injured, just cross your legs and go to town also work on your core, do abs exercise that do not make you use your legs or in my case ankle, so I prop my feet on a weight bench and crunch my heart out plus if you look online or even pintrest you can find tons of exercises to help you in this regard.

Ok so now for me that was the easy part, getting my but in gear and motivated to keep active has always been a strength of mine. However there is that pesky issue of the food situation. As I said before I am a total emotional eater and so my food reflects my mood, when I run and am feeling good I am eating clean and healthy, and then when I am down and out…well…you read the menu earlier. The hardest part for me is to get away from the convenience of quick ready unhealthy food. I need to stay true to good eating with the occasional “bad” food mixed in…because I will not be denied pizza every now and then. So these cravings come to me usually on my drive from work and the safe guard I have put in place are to have a bottle of water and a Larabar (another shameless plug) in my car and ready for me so as I sit in traffic I am not thinking about those mac and cheese bites.

Now for some the exercise part is hard and the food part is easy. Well no matter what is harder or easier the thing I have realized is that you cannot give up what you have accomplished, because the only one to blame is yourself if you faulter. You can think back to when you hurt your ankle and you can think of the thousands of ways you could’ve protected yourself from doing it, but its done and over with…move on and push forward. Also, good friends to help keep you motivated are sometimes very crucial in keeping your mental state clear and on course.

So stay strong and push forward…it will heal and it will make that first run miserable, but also fantastic all at the same time.

Be safe and run hard,

JB