Awesome morning

Boot camp was awesome this morning and I had a bonus 25 minute run afterwards at ~13:30 pace. Coach Merlino took it very easy by his standards and ran with me. It was fun to pick his brain, talk about running, about nutrition. Turns out coach and I share something in common, a love for the running community and a passion to see more people get off the couch and get moving.

I haven't run since last Wednesday and it felt great to get the blood pumping this morning. I've got a ton of work to do on my push ups and on my core. I've got to get more consistent. I'm still on my knees with my push ups and for my planks but that allows me to keep good form and get more reps/seconds and that's what it's about right now. I hope coach doesn't wonder, "What's he doing?" when I deviate from his instructions. For instance, he uses a band for lunges and squats. I find that my 300 (298) pound frame offers PLENTY resistance for those moves so I don't use the bands. Also, we did some one-legged hops across the field over about 20 yards. With my ankle problems, I substituted a less stressful "skip". Coach Steeeve used to prohibit one-legged hops and even skipping for me back in the day after my ankle surgery. I think the skips this morning did the trick just fine.

From the onset, I had my doubts about the run. When I started, my legs felt like jello, very weak. But interestingly (to me anyway), after about a half mile, I started to feel pretty good, REALLY good in fact. Don't get me wrong, I probably couldn't have run for an hour+ or done any kind of pace work but a good 25 minute @ normal training pace did me just fine. Not too much but enough that I KNOW I worked out.

My ankle has been "whispering" to me. Not "yelling" just yet but I'm developing that nagging little pain again. I made an appointment with Dr. Hasenbank today to get a plan for really getting this thing knocked out once and for all. Of course, I always struggle with going the non-traditional route (chiropractic, etc) vs. the medical route (podiatry). We'll see how it goes.

See you at the park!!!