Today marks my return to pseudo-normality. As much as I've missed the interaction with people of late, I felt like I needed more of a zen-like run today. I decided to forego run club and run someplace new. Beckley Creek park in The Parklands was my target. The Parklands of Floyds Fork are an amazing privately funded project to link some 4-5 brand new large parks together with an interconnecting path that's part of the Louisville Loop. The Loop path is a 6-8 foot wide, brand new, silky smooth concrete path that winds through the parks, by and over Floyds Fork creek. There are hilly bridges with spiral ramp ups and others with switchbacks. What a beautiful park system and a wonderful place to run. There are even trails. Some cinder, some rock, and some mulch. I need to find a way to run here more often!

One item I really liked(imagine how I'd like it if I had a dog?) was the Parklands dog park. Check out the name. (BTW looking at all those fire hydrants makes you need to find the facilities before you can run)...

Run: 3.14 miles: 10:41 pace, 174 spm.  Went for a very easy run today as we ease back into things. Ran in my Altras. The first 3/4 of a mile was very unkind to my calves. They burned like crazy. After that cleared up the legs felt pretty darn good. It may just take a bit to get used to a zero drop shoe but even at this slow pace my cadence is dialed at >170

Chakram Routine
One legged balance: :30 each leg
Twisting Lunge: 6x each leg
Single-leg Deadlift: 5x each leg
One legged Alphabet spell: A-M each leg

Dumbbell Y Raises: 1x10 @15lb
Dumbbell T Raises: 1x10 @15lb
Dumbbell W Raises: 1x10 @15lb

Dumbbell Bench Press: 3x8 (55lb dumbbells). 
Pull Ups: 1x10, 1x5, 1x4 w/70lb assist 
Push ups: 3x10
Bodyweight Squats: 3x15

What I want to see when I look in the mirror.....

What I think I see.....

What the world actually sees....

I've started shedding the weight I gained during my exile. Only a couple excess pounds left from that and then we can start working on the drop under 200 goal again. I've seen little other changes at all in months. The shrinking has stopped as I ran out of fat to lose around most places but the midsection. I have this dream of the arms and chest growing but thus far had little luck. Unfortunately being an endurance athlete (can I call myself that yet?) is rather counterproductive to building muscle bulk other than the Popeye arm looking legs (and I'm eating spinach for breakfast as we speak) which have begun to form.

8/8

Weight - 204.2

Body Fat - 19.2

BMI - 28.3

Shoulders - 46

Neck - 16

Chest - 43

Bicep right - 12.5

Bicep - left - 12.5

Waist - 39

Hips - 38

Thigh - right - 21.5

Thigh - left - 21.5

Episode 42: Yoga is not a creamy breakfast snack with fruit in it

In preparation for the release of Nerdfitness Yoga (which I will subscribe to), I decided to try out the 4 poses from Steve's blog (link at bottom). After all, I'm a runner so that kinda shit should be easy right?  Yeah, um, NO!  I feel it in my arms, core, calves, quads and my ITBs feel like Gumby. I was surprised that I was able to perform them all. it seriously cranked my heart rate up as well.. I'm rather sore (in the good way).

I've always thought yoga was kind of hokey and of no value to me (While still maintaining my affinity for female yoga instructors). I now see the error in my ways. It doesn't take a rocket scientist (which is good news because that skill set doesn't seem to appear in my scholastic profile) to immediately see the benefits to running (and nearly everything) that Yoga provides. I'M IN!

Let's get started....

The Pretzel Pose (I wonder if they do Combos?)

Check out the NerdFitness Blog on NF!
A Nerd’s Guide to Yoga: 4 Movements to Try TODAY

The short of today's story is this...

Actually bored enough on a Friday that you want the gritty details?

Well, the lab results came back. I now know why they were holding me off the extra week. Surgeon found something suspect and was waiting on the lab. It turns out they didn't remove a rock from my knee but a Glomus Tumor. It's a very rare tumor that usually appears under fingernails and on feet and most often in women. For a man to get one on his knee is one of those buy a lottery ticket type occurrences (and I did)

The good news. It's non cancerous, is benign and highly unlikely to come back. My stitches are out and I've been cleared to return to work and resume all previous activities as discomfort allows. There is some discomfort/light pain if I press on the area but it's considerably less than when I pressed on the lump before surgery so I'm in better shape than when we started already.

I jumped the gun and went out and ran 3 miles last night. The legs felt awesome!

This morning the nurse asked me to remove my bandage and describe the incision to her.  She said I'm having a remarkably fast recovery and they will bring me in Wednesday to remove the stitches at which time they expect to clear me to return to work and return to running!! YAY

Here's pics of the incision(Icky stuff ahead, but not really).. The shininess is glue. They glued up the whole area.

In the end, it wasn't all that bad of an experience. My knee pain is gone forever (well at least that part). We still don't know what the thing was in there but it's not there anymore. Hopefully the lab will decide soon. They did manage to charge over 700 bucks so I do expect an answer.

....and today's thought of the day:

...ITCHING!!!!

Ugh. I feel like a giant sloth...

Up a good 5 pounds this week. My water intake is low due to the being home on recovery thing messing up my routine. This is probably a bit of water weight and I'm not going to stress it.

8/3

Weight - 207.1

Body Fat - 18.6

BMI - 28.7

Shoulders - 46

Neck - 16

Chest - 43

Bicep right - 12.5

Bicep - left - 12.5

Waist - 39

Hips - 38

Thigh - right - 21.5

Thigh - left - 21.5