Medical Monday: Better Knee And Good Head!

   *giggle*
   Okay this is a Saturday but for the purposes of clearly delineating what this post is about and allowing the reader to either sit there, rapt, or move quickly on, I present to you another Medical Monday post! 
   I could almost have actually posted this on Monday but I really wanted to wait til at least Tuesday because that was the day I was getting the results of the excisional biopsy they did on my head three weeks ago. There was a spot on my left temple which an earlier punch biopsy had determined was squamous cell skin cancer. The excisional biopsy (a considerably larger removal of tissue around the affected area) determined that there were, indeed, no remaining cancer cells! So...basically...YAY! What I will have as a reminder of this procedure is about a 2 inch scar along my hairline (which will in the future be known as the "knife fight in the alley" scar!) I will now return to regular visits with my dermatologist and the adventures of The Old Man And The Sun will continue. I use a very light tone when talking about all this but, essentially, and as nice as it seems with its warmth and ability to gladden, the sun is a fucker....
   Now, back to my right knee.
   My physio appointments have ended and it is now my job to take care of and assess my knee on my own. It is quite clear to me that the knee is fine for hiking and trail-running, so that part is all good. What has not been so clear is whether the knee will hold up under the duress of sprinting and/or sports.
   

My taped right knee. I've learned how to tape
the knee so that the kneecap is tracking securely.

It was the nagging suspicion that it might break down while running full-out which took me to physio in the first place but I've had a hard time finding a way to test it comfortably. Some of this has been due to the weather, more of it has been due to the psychological barrier I've set up around possibly injuring it all over again.
   This past weekend, I decided to head to the nearest football field and try my damnedest to run hard on it. I wanted to run on grass---something has been telling me that if the knee gives out while I'm running my fastest on a hard track then I'm gonna be in much worse shape than if I'm on a soft, grassy surface.
   It sort of worked out okay.
   I headed to nearby St. Thomas Aquinas high school, slipped on a pair of football cleats, measured out about sixty metres, warmed up a little, and then tried running hard.

Where I ran--football filed at Thomas Aquinas

 
   The knee didn't give out and I was running faster than I'd run in the last two years. This was encouraging. There was no pain, just a nagging sensation that a part of my body was being asked to do something it had almost forgotten how to do. I am hoping that this sensation eventually goes away, with more training and practice. 
   However, I was not running at full speed. I was running very fast but not full speed and that is the remnant of the psychological barrier I was just describing. I have the funny feeling that I actually need to have a reason to run at full speed and I suspect this will only happen by getting re-involved in some kind of sports.
   Maybe ball hockey...
   Finally, to cap off the week that was, I made it out on to the Thames Valley Trail on Monday for a hike with my co-worker friend, Philip. Philip followed my last summer's tales of hiking the Trail end-to-end and was intrigued enough to purchase the guide book and also join the Thames Valley Trail Association. His plan is to do the trail as part of his Type 2 diabetes recovery so more power to him!
   

Philip's first visit to Kains Woods!

We met at the Kains Woods section of the trail, near the Oxford Street entrance, and left Philip's car there. We then drove to the other entrance off of Westdel Bourne and hiked the trail from there. It was pretty summery and an excellent day for hiking! We took a couple of water breaks and another break for munchies along the way. It was wonderful to see the very beginnings of the plant life starting to re-appear. It was also possible to see the aftermath of recent, almost historical, flooding in the area. Sections of Kains Woods go right through the Thames Valley flood plain and it was very clear that where we were walking was clearly underwater not all that long ago. The bases of the trees off to our right (the river was on our left) had piles of debris gathered around them, from where limbs, leaves and branches had been swept downstream and gotten caught. Quite the sight, really!

Piles of debris at the bases of trees!

   At the end of the hike, Philip seemed to have managed well and we agreed to get together again and hike another portion sometime soon. Looking forward to it!
   
   

A Bit Of An Update And Something New!

   I haven't posted anything on Ragged Cap Runner now for about the last three weeks.
   Basically, this has been because there's been very little to post about---no running, no hiking. This has been due to a couple of things---Christmas and what seemed like a month-long chest cold. On top of everything else, winter descended with a vengeance and I was not quite prepared for it. 
   At some point, about a week ago, the lungs began to cope a little better and mentally I felt like I was ready to get back into a more athletic existence. Co-incidentally with the arrival of winter, I was given a wonderful opportunity to try out the new snowshoes my son, Ben, had given me for Christmas.
   I've never had the snowshoeing experience before so I decided just to head for the backyard and give it a go, no-one else around to watch me flounder. Although I didn't actually flounder, my inexperience with tightening the bindings properly led to one of the snowshoes falling off and me being unable to get it back on securely. Lesson learned. I then ended up spending a few days before another opportunity to try them again presented itself. 
   I headed to Springbank Park here in London, determined to give them another go. I'd thought long and hard about putting them on properly and finally was out there, snowshoeing about, for the first time. Unfortunately, in the meantime, we had had a bit of a thaw and the deep snow was mostly gone. After the thaw, it had gotten really cold again and so there was all this crunchy shallow snow to walk on. It was still fun, though, and I learned a lot in a short amount of time. Almost fell once or twice because one shoe was on top of the other as I was attempting to take a step but I imagined that this was the kind of thing all first-timers likely experience.
   The other thing I started doing once I felt better was return to the gym. Before Christmas, I had "re-activated" my extremely under-used Goodlife Fit4Less membership and had been  going somewhat regularly. This fell by the wayside for the same reasons the other things did. Feeling better now, though, and I'm right back at it, at least every other day. I'm now at the point where I really look forward to it so today I headed there even though I was just there yesterday! Unheard of!
   

Finally (and this is sort of big news), I've taken the step of joining the Ontario Masters Athletics (OMA). This is a provincial association which runs track and field events in Ontario for athletes who are over the age of thirty and all the way up to people in their nineties!
   Why I've done this is that one of these days I want to sign up for a short sprint, like, say, anywhere from fifty to a hundred meters. I've always wanted to do this (almost desperately) and joining OMA will give me this opportunity. As much as I enjoy distance-running, there is something about running real fast for a short distance that has always appealed to me. With this membership, the chance to do so will be right there. If I decide to take it. This has given me a little more impetus for getting in shape, hence part of the reason for hitting the gym more regularly.
   Now, having said all this, I have a bum knee. I injured it street-running back in April and I've been working on it ever since. I'm able to run through the forest pretty quickly and it feels quite structurally sound but I'm just not sure what might happen if I went full-out. We've had quite the thaw lately and today I stopped back in at Springbank to try and test it out. I was certainly able (after a warm-up) to run at about 75% but was afraid to go any faster. The legwork at the gym has been somewhat irritating it so I've at least momentarily eliminated that part of the training. I have a physical next week and will talk to my doctor about the whole process and see what he suggests.
   In the meantime, there is an OMA mini-meet coming up on Feb. 11 in Toronto which I would really like to enter, as they have a 60 meter sprint division. This would give me a bit of an idea where I'm at, sprint-wise, with all the other guys in their sixties and also tell me just how much more training I still need to do. As long as the knee holds out...

P.S. I wrote this post a couple of days ago and, after that little bit of running I did, things are now not well with my right knee. Positions I was once able to get it into comfortably are now no longer comfortable and entering athletic events any time in the near future is likely not too feasible. This has me understandably frustrated and depressed. However, I know people who are unable to walk and who would be extremely happy to be getting around with a sore knee like mine. I salute those people and know that my little knee problem is really nothing.  BB
   
   

Welcome to "SprintFit"!: Part Two

      Last night I took part in the second (and final) installment of  SprintFit, teaching sessions hosted by Canadian Olympic heptathlete Jessica Zelinka and Western University sprint coach, Derrick Johnston. The sessions were being held at TD Waterhouse stadium and are designed to complement training for any multitude of other sports. You can read about Session 1 right here, if you'd like.
   I got there a little late as I'd neglected to bring along my packed gym bag when I headed off to work in the morning. The other participants were in the middle of stretches and I just kind of joined in. We then actively reviewed a few of the warm-up routines we'd learned last week, this time out on the football field.

Andrew Parr, Jessica Zelinka, me, Derrick Johnston and Paul Whitty. Lots of knowledge here, folks!

   I thought this was cool, being out in the same field that the Western Mustangs use. We would do these sprint exercises out to various yard-lines and on the way back I'd imagine running pass patterns....but I digress.
   This was the fun part, basically just running. After a bit of a rest, Jessica and her cohorts then started us in on plyometrics. If you're not sure what "plyometrics" are, you can Google it or you can just think "jumping", in various forms. 
   At this point, they took us off the field up into the stands. The first plyometric they had us practise was something called a "depth drop". Now, at my age, the hearing is going just a touch and the first couple of times Derrick said "depth drop" I was pretty sure I'd heard "death drop" and I was somewhat steeling myself for what lay ahead.
   As it turned out, a "depth drop" is really nothing much more than jumping off a step and trying to land in a balanced and athletic sort of way. This was fairly easy.
   The next thing they had us do was not as easy. There was a technical name for it that I'm unable to remember but what it entailed was hopping, from a standing position, up the stadium steps, one by one (or two by two, for the younger and more athletic of us). We would do this for about eight steps and then walk back down and do it one more time.
   I saw disaster all over this. I envisioned what it would be like to not quite make the top of the step and it was not pretty---lots of blood and possibly stitches. I made the first eight steps with no major difficulty but then, when we were given the option of jumping two steps at a time, I made the careful decision not to. Or I chickened out, you choose.
   At this point it was back down to the track. We did something called a bear crawl (I think) which involved crawling along the track on all fours with no other body parts touching down. This was hard work, but do-able (and safe!) Then, it was on to hurdles.
   This was not hurdling as you see it in  track and field. What it entailed was five or six hurdles placed close together and all you had to do was get over them, pretty well any way you could. 
   This was possibly the most problematic thing I'd attempted to do in either session. The big issue with me was flexibility and my ability to get either of my legs over the hurdle from a standing position. I almost tipped over a couple of them, almost falling down at the same time. Just a touch embarrassing!
   Finally, the group was introduced to Andrew Parr, a former Canadian pro golfer who is now devoting his time to helping athletes fine tune their performances in whatever sport they're involved in. Andrew and Jessica will be getting together to co-host a "Star Dust Performance Camp" on August 18th. Andrew led a short group session where we all stood in a circle and sang kumbaya with our arms outstretched at shoulder level. The idea was to eventually feel the discomfort of this and learn to work through it, essentially by controlled breathing. This was hard and my arms are actually still hurting today. At this point the evening, and SprintFit, came to its conclusion.
   I had a lot of fun doing this, and afterward picked Derrick's brain a little as to how I might continue to get sprint training, as a Masters athlete. He gave a me a couple of suggestions and I'm going to try and follow up on them. We shall see!
   Finally, a few words about Jessica Zelinka. In my last post, I believe I referred to her as a "sweetheart" and she did nothing last night to disprove this. At one point last night, after we had warmed up and done a couple of drills, she walked up to me and asked me how I'd felt after the previous week's camp. The fact that she had taken even this small amount of time to check in with me only made me feel that much more positive about being there in the first place. With the group of us, she was supportive, playful, energetic, and funny. There were a couple of times when the other coaches slipped into "coach" mode and Jessica had to subtly re-direct them, aware that we, as a group, were not "high performance" athletes and were there to learn, for sure, but to also have fun doing it. Several times, she would perform running drills for us to copy and then, almost because she needed to, would end up way at the other end of the field, doing her thing briefly. It was always sort of strange, to remember that you were watching (in a little bit of a starstruck way) an Olympic athlete in her element. I also found myself wondering what it might be like for her, as an Olympian, to be watching the current Games from a distance. As much as I think we all enjoyed spending a couple of Thursday evenings with her here in London, it would have been just as cool to watch her representing Canada again in Rio! You can read a little about her poignant transition at jessicazelinka.com. I look forward to following her exploits in the future and am sure that anyone who has the same good fortune of crossing paths with her will be enriched as much as we all were!

Coaches and participants, milling about after a hard evening workout!

Where we did the "death drop"!

Running pass patterns, in my head!

   
   
    
   

   
    

Welcome to "SprintFit"!

   Okay, if you have been following this blog really closely over the years (and I mean really closely) then you might be aware that, given a choice, I would actually rather be running fast over a short distance than running slowly over a long distance. If you want to find out just how I feel about it then just read this wonderful post from 2014.
   I did at one point contact the track club at Western University here in London to inquire about sprint training but then the communication sort of petered out and I've only thought about it sporadically ever since.
   Then, this past Wednesday, a golden opportunity to get involved in sprinting landed in my lap. Literally, in my lap as I happened to be reading the London Free Press at the time when I found out about it!
   There was an article about local sports hero, Jessica Zelinka. Jessica is one of Canada's all-time best heptathletes and you can find out a little more about her accomplishments on her website. Please check it out! After competing in the last two Olympic Games, this year Jessica found herself outside of being able to qualify for Rio. She came home and did a little soul-searching and then finally decided that what she wanted to do was share a little of her expertise and put on a clinic for anyone who was interested in learning how to sprint and perhaps apply some of its principles to whatever sport they played on a regular basis. She sat down with Derrick Johnston, Western's sprint coach and devised a two-day clinic (on consecutive Thursdays) that would touch on all the basics of sprinting. The decided to call it, aptly enough, "Sprint Fit"!

The article which caught my eye...

   The clinics were open to all comers---any age group, any amount of experience. When I found out about them, I immediately went into "should I or shouldn't I" mode. It then occurred to me that I can talk all I want about my desire to run fast but if I then go and pass up an opportunity that is almost handed to me, I should probably just forget about it forever. So I took a huge breath, got out the credit card, and registered. I spent five minutes thinking what the hell have I done and then I just let it go. A little later on that evening, we all received an e-mail confirmation from Derrick thanking us for signing up. In it, he mentioned that people as young as 12 and as old as 70 had registered and that made me feel a little better.
   When I got to TD Waterhouse stadium, there were a handful of people just milling around inside the front gate. I started chatting with them, just to confirm that we were all here for the same reason. After about 5 minutes, this young woman comes bounding up from the far end of the track to collect us and it turns out to be Jessica. We then all follow her to the workout area.

Autographed pic from our swag bag!

   Things had already been a little surreal (for me, at least) but as we all sat down to get ready for roll call and introductions, Jessica informed us that the one single runner who was already out on the track and occasionally whizzing past us was Damian Warner. I then had one of those holy shit moments---Damian Warner is Canada's decathlon representative in Rio, won gold at both the Commonwealth and PanAm games and is arguably the best athlete in the world! And he was practising right beside us! As a group, we gave him a little cheer every time he passed us. Then, just to top things off, the Western Mustangs football shows up on the field. The Mustangs are annually one of the top college football teams in Canada and here we were sharing the stadium with them. Yes, just a touch surreal!

Damian!

   Introductions over, we then started to learn how to do sprint-specific warm-ups and drills. Much attention was placed on leg and foot movement and arm and head position. From there, we headed over to the other side of the field and practised  starting positions and foot placement as you head down the track. 
   So much to remember! It kind of reminded me of taking a golf lesson, having the instructor tell you ten important things, and then trying to swing your club while attempting to remember those ten things all at the same time! Presumably, though, the idea is that in time many of those ten things will become second nature and will only need (hopefully) minor tweaking.
   Jessica, by the way, is a sweetheart. She's one of those bubbly, energetic, funny, and non-pretentious sorts of people who you feel instantly comfortable being around. She and Derrick played well off of each other and it was kind of fun watching them learn as things went on. They were assisted by another athlete named Paul (didn't catch the last name, sorry) who himself had been a champion hurdler as a junior and he as well had all sorts of valuable insight.
   The group of participants was about as eclectic as you could get. The age range was 12 to 70, there were about as many females as males, and the skill level seemed to be pretty disparate (although I was paying way more attention to myself). At the end of the evening, I think we had all had a pretty good time and I know that I, for one, am looking forward to next Thursday. After that, I know that I am still going to want to be sprinting somewhere and will need help with a plan for that. And what better time to ask?!



   

My Non-Forrest Moment and a Strange Click in My Hip!

   Yesterday afternoon, I played my first game of ball hockey in about two and a half years. Because it's been so long, there was a fair amount of trepidation on my part as to how I would perform and how my body might react.
   I was pleasantly surprised!
   In my last blog post, I described my concern that, at full speed in the midst of a game, my body might disintegrate. I've been doing lots of running over the last couple of years but none of it has been at full speed and I was worried that parts of me might actually fall off, a la Forrest Gump's leg braces, if I ever actually got up to full speed.
   Well, there were a handful of times yesterday that I at least almost obtained full speed and nothing really bad happened, it pretty well felt like any other time in my life when I've run hard. My other concern was that perhaps my hand/eye coordination might be off as well but even it didn't seem too bad.

Well...it was to HIM anyway!

   I'm on a team called the Outlaws and it seems to be a whole bunch of guys who've never played together before. And they're almost all young, so young in fact that a few of them could technically be my grandchildren (though perhaps not realistically).
   This is not a new situation for me, I'm the oldest player in the league and pretty well always have been. You can look like and be the oldest player in the league but the trick is to not play like you are. I kind of think I held my own today, not sure what the other guys were thinking.
   So I felt okay yesterday and I felt okay last night but I'm kinda feeling it this morning. One thing I did learn yesterday is that a lot of distance running is not necessarily going to prepare you for the stopping and starting, twisting and turning, and bumping into guys at high speed you experience playing ball hockey.
   On top of it all, my hip now clicks.
   I got home and showered after the game and then sat and watched T.V. for a bit. The first time I stood up and walked across the room after that, my left hip was clicking. It didn't hurt and but I could feel it and it was loud enough that Doralyn could hear it as well (and it kind of grossed her out!)
I immediately went to Google, typed in my symptoms, and it appears as though my IT band is snapping across my hip bone, to dumb it down a little bit. At least the description of this exactly matched what I've been feeling and hearing. I will let this go for a little bit (my usual way of dealing with physical ailments) but if it continues for too long I may seek medical advice, or at least check in with Zeinin, my chiropractor.
   This was obviously my first time playing with this team but I have pretty good feelings about it. The talent level seems to be there but what I appreciated even more than that was they seem like good guys. This is always more important to me than how much talent there might be. I've played on some extremely talented teams in my day that were awful to play on simply because of nasty personalities and over-inflated egos but, so far, this doesn't seem to be the case with this team. The next game is tomorrow and I hope things have loosened up by then---I can't imagine having to play again today! So we'll see how it goes and I'll let you know!
   

My Possible Forrest Gump Moment

   I'm a little worried that I might have a "Forrest Gump" kind of moment this Sunday afternoon.
   I've managed to land myself on a ball hockey team for the summer, after about two and a half years of non-playing (but gazing longingly from the sidelines). We have our first exhibition game this Sunday and here's what I'm worried about.
   I haven't run hard in that same two and a half years.
   I've done a hell of a lot of running but I haven't run hard, as in all-out-like-you-were-being-chased-by-a-mountain-lion hard. So I don't know what might happen on Sunday the first time I need to turn it up a notch (or ten).

Will this happen to me?

   Remember that scene from "Forrest Gump", when a young Forrest, with all his leg braces, starts to run as hard as he can from all those bullies? And, in the midst of doing that, the braces begin to shatter and break and fall off ?
   Well, that's kinda my fear for Sunday, that I'm going to be running as hard as I possibly can and things will simply start to fall off. Or seize up. Or tear. Or disintegrate.
   We shall see.

Running Fast

   Here's the thing.
   As much as I enjoy lacing up and heading out for a long run, one of the things I find problematic is the feeling that I am constantly pacing myself. I find that I am necessarily holding bits of energy in reserve simply so that I can finish whatever run I happen to be on. Along the way, I do enjoy the feeling that I am slowly becoming stronger at what I do, that perhaps I seem less tired at the same point of a run than I was last week, at that same point. What I find I want to do, however, is run fast.
   I'm not talking fast in the sense that I might manage to whittle a couple of minutes off my 5K PR. No, I'm talking fast as in make-the-younger-guys-jaws-drop-as-I-run-past-them-on-the-the-football-field fast! I'm talking the 61-year-old version of Usain Bolt fast! I'm talking sprinter fast!
   Yeah, I kinda want to lace up some sprinting spikes, find a track somewhere and let it all out, occasionally. In the past, several other running bloggers have done posts about their track workouts and when you're mired in up to three feet of snow it's hard to resist the allure of a pristine running track in the warm sunshine.


How I would like one of my
races to start someday...

   I have never run track in my life, apart from the very rudimentary instruction I might have gotten in public school and then later on in high school. My impression of myself back in those days was that I was a chubby kid with no athletic talent. Long past my chubby days I was still unable to shake that mental image of myself (this a problem with anyone else?) and that's why the idea of participating in any kind of track and field event seemed unthinkable. It wasn't until I was in my twenties and started playing in a touch football league that I realized just how fast I was. Of course, that was almost forty years ago.
   In the meantime, the only benchmark I have is that I've played ball hockey for many years against much younger men (boys, some of them) and I have held my own quite handily. I have never competed against men my own age so I'm wondering how I might do out on a track.
   Unfortunately, this is not a situation where I can just head out to a track and start doing my thing. Like I said, everything here in London is covered in snow right at the moment and the only indoor track I can think of is at Western University. Not really sure I can just barge in on a bunch of Western track athletes and say "excuse me, I'm just gonna use this lane for a half hour or so"!
   I also would like to get a little bit of actual coaching. I would like someone to tell me how to train (as a man in my sixties who's never done it before) to run track, of all things! I think this would be cool!
   There are a couple of different track clubs here in London and my plan is to contact them and explain what I'd like to do. They might simply laugh at me (hopefully politely and in a non-condescending kind of way) and tell me to get lost realistic about the whole thing. It could well be that you continue to do track in your sixties, you don't start to do track in your sixties.
   At any rate, I will keep you posted!