For the last couple of months, I’ve slowly been adding running back into the mix to see how my back holds up and how I feel. I miss long-distance running and I was hoping I could get back to hour-long runs. I got up to ~45-minute trail runs, but I decided it just isn’t worth it. My back is not loving it I am ready to say goodbye…

I love running, but it is hard on the body. And, with an annular disc tear and a new found love of biking, I’d rather ensure I stay healthy for that and bike adventures. I am going to see what I can do around other bits for more high-intensity stuff.

Goodbye running.

I’ve been running or working out with Suunto watches, heart rate monitors, and food pods since 2007. I’ve been feeding data into their online platform called Movescount for a VERY long time. I decided I was done when they announced they are going to shut down Movescount without any way to get your data out. They also don’t sync with popular services, which annoyed the hell out of me. They are supposedly moving it all to some shittier version of Movescount called Sports Tracker, and they wanted to force me to use my phone to sync or something silly. Software is hard, especially when you sell great watches but don’t invest in why your customers buy the watches.

Anyway, I switched over to a Garmin 945 and couldn’t be happier. I was already using them for a bike touring computer so all good there!

I was diagnosed with an annular disc tear in 2014 and I had to take a lot of time off so that could heal. I stopped running completely, and I really miss it (the pounding is just not the best for the injury…). I really want to find something that is as mentally rewarding as running and I am going to try mountain biking and some bike touring…

I am doing a couch to 50km bike training challenge I found online. The goal is to get in better shape and spend time on a bike :). I am just about to start week 3… so far so good. I did bust up my knee last week on a mountain bike trail, but that was also the closest I’ve gotten to the calm zone running can bring. The intense focus of going really fast downhill doesn’t let you think about anything else. Running for a long time is like that but a little more flowy.

My goal is…

1. Get in better cardio shape. Especially so I can ride longer, and at higher elevations since I live in Colorado.
2. I want to do the Danube Cycle Path at some point in 2018. So that would be a 600+ mile ride, and I’d want to do ~40 miles per day. If that is fun I want to do more of those long-distance cycle paths.
3. Hiking/walking is awesome, but if I bike I can go a lot further and see a bit more of the world. I want to get comfortable doing trail rides of 20 to 40 miles a day and see how that goes.

PS. You can download the 8 week program for couch to 50km here too. If you want a slower plan just double it and do week one for two weeks. I did that with a marathon training schedule many years ago too.

For 2016, I did a total of 166 hours of tracked workouts. January was a total wash, but by February I was in Colorado and doing a lot more hiking (especially with Daniel). I moved into our house in Boulder in July and LOVE the surrounding trail network. I also started riding a cheap exercise bike I got late in the year and making sure I am doing “big” workouts 3x to 4x a week. It feels really good to sweat again :). Fun stats:

I hiked/walked 299 miles this year.

I biked for 25 hours this year (I just got started end of year).

Over the entire year I ascended 45,997 feet, which is less than last year but not too bad given I walked about half what I did in 2015.

I’d love to pick up Yoga again, I was doing it 3x a week, but medical peeps told me to lay off for now. I am starting to think they don’t know what they are talking about though. Ditto for running, they told me at the start of the year after another MRI that I shouldn’t ever run due to the pounding. I think I am just going to have to figure this out on my own.

What are my workout goals for 2017?

1. Continue my big workout + foundation training 4x a week (and do them before I start work). Plus my daily rehab practice.

2. Figure out what I can do that isn’t going to tear up my back further (and that I hopefully enjoy as much as running). I would be ecstatic if I could do 3 to 5 mile trail runs, but that might not be possible. I am going to talk to a trainer and see if I can find someone who has experience with annular disc tears.

3. Think on a big bike or walking trip and what I need to do to prepare for that. I am thinking about getting a folding mountain bike and doing a big ride in Europe toward the end of 2017 possibly.

Past years: 2014 and 2015 workout summary.

2014 was a pretty tough year on my normal workout routine due to injury and health problems. 2015 was much better but still very challenging. For the first half of the year I was only doing rehab and walking. Slowly I was able to add back in biking and running. I had hoped to do a lot of yoga, but with Lindsey and I traveling it fell by the wayside. It didn’t help that the first eight months of the year were pretty stressful and I just didn’t have as much energy left as I normally do.

For 2015, I did a total of 254 hours of tracked workouts. 226 hours of that was hiking/walks, which was especially boosted by the big Hardrian’s Wall hike I did. Fun stats:

I hiked/walked 727.9 miles this year for exercise!

I biked a mere 115 miles, I didn’t get enough biking in for the 2 months I had a bike. About 50 miles of that is one ride.

Over the entire year I ascended 58,000 feet walking (which isn’t very much when you think about it).

My rehab to make my core stronger didn’t go great this year, but it has gotten better. Most months I managed to do it every other day. I should be hitting 80% but it is hard to build that type of routine in when the exercises are so boring. I’ll get there.

What are my workout goals for 2016?

1. My main goal is to do Yoga 3x a week. I did a ton of Yoga in Nov/Dec 2014 and want to pick it up and make it a habit. It helps my core stay strong and it is very relaxing. I need more core strong to take more of the impact off my back and keep my annular disc tear from ever bothering me again.

And, two smaller goals.

2. I wanted to be able to start running, but the doctor said it was not good for my back. So I am working to switch over to biking, esp mountain biking. I am aiming to do a bike workout 3x a week while I explore that option.
*Goal shifted late Jan 16.
3. I want to build up to be able to do 10 minutes non-stop on my core rehab ball workouts. That is going to be tough.

I posted one of these for 2013 so why not 2014!

In June I was diagnosed with a pretty bad sports injury, combined with some other medical problems it was a pretty limited year in terms of running. Because of this I modified my workout plan to instead be how many hours I get in, and how many days in the month I workout. Then I can just focus on what I can do, rather than what I can’t… Right now I can do yoga, rehab, swimming, walking, and up to 30 minutes of biking as long as its stationary or on flat surfaces. I’ll find out how the injury looks in a week or so, they just took a 2nd MRI to see how it is healing :).

In 2014 I ran 168 miles with my longest run being 7 miles before I had to stop in early June :(. Over the course of the year I worked out for 85 hours total, which compared to the 3 years previous wasn’t very good, but it was in line with the years before that. And, I feel pretty good about it considering I had a really difficult year with surgery, major sports trauma, and some huge stresses. I am going to try to do a lot better in 2015 though, and get better about a daily workout practice.

So what am I planning on doing for 2015?

1. Rehab, I need to keep my core strong to support my back injury for the rest of my life. I don’t count this as part of my workout and I track separately.

2. Yoga, this is a great core strengthening exercise and I am really digging it. In December I went to 9 Yoga sessions and I am going to keep that up wherever I go. It is making me stronger and I like the meditation part.

3. I’ll just keep doing what exercises I can… I should be living next to the ocean by summer, and I hope to do a lot of swimming combined with a lot of walking. I am going to try to find a gym to do stationary bike too.

Otherwise I am just waiting for the Doc to let me know what I can do after this MRI coming up in a week…

About 2.5 years ago I got hit with a pretty bad injury that caused intense pain in my buttox / lower back. It has gotten better over time but I could never figure out what was going on too well. I went to a sports doc in Australia and got MRIs but he just told me to keep taking IBUprofen and go to a doctor when I got home. I was doing my own rehab which helped a little but nothing was really fixing it. It turns out the aussie doc missed a huge tear on my disc on the MRIs and a really awesome doc on Fayetteville walked me through the problem today. And I have a lot of rehab to do.

So… I can’t do anything for the next 3 to 6 months except swim and walk. Which sucks. I’ve been running since 2007 and I am going to have to relax that for the rest of the year which really sucks. It is a good thing I love treading water, now I just need to find a pool or move the ocean to me.

No running :(
No ultimate
No hiking
No kayaking
No boxing
No biking
Etc…

Sucks, but I am really excited to be fixing this. They gave me some pills to help with the inflammation and my pain is almost gone, which has made me realize how much pain I was in.

For 2013 I ran 713 miles over 111 hours, with my longest run being 15 miles. That is a real slow mile pace but that is partially because when I do treadmill workouts my watch can’t track mile splits and just divide the miles over 10 min which isn’t really accurate. This was a pretty weak year since I was traveling so heavily. I also had a really weak end of year because I did a walking pilgrimage, got injured, didn’t want to run in the icy wind of Scotland the last few months, and then a cold. 2012 was about the same for similar reasons.

I’m looking forward to running in 2014 and having a little more routine :). Apart from just building up a bit more my only plans are to enter some races, and trying to bet my fastest mile time. And the first annual Ben-Joel-Jester race at the end of year :)

I spent August in Freiburg Germany exploring the Black Forest. Some pictures below:

German Trail System…
The German trail system is the most amazing I’ve ever seen! I biked over 120 miles and ran 100+ miles and I barely touched what was available. Beautiful dirt/gravel trails with off shoots everywhere for smaller harder climbs. I really hope more cities in the USA start expanding their trail networks through nearby national parks, rail lines, and canals. The closest thing I’ve seen in the USA is the DC canal path that goes up to Maryland. IMO, the most important part is that the trails are away from cars, you get so relaxed and meditative when running in the quiet of the forest.

Mountain Biking…
I really enjoyed Mountain Biking and it was a nice switch up as you can only run so many days before you need a break. Freiburg has some steep climbs though, sometimes I would be climbing thousands of feet for an hour or more. It sucks when you look at the odometer and realize you can run faster than you are going up the hill. Of course when you are going 30mph down the other side you realize you can’t run 30mph… Near the end I figured out it was a lot more fun to find small difficult tracks and go up those for a 30 min climb and then back down as fast as possible without injuring myself too badly. I’m looking forward to doing a lot more moutain biking back home and hopefully coming back to Freiburg since I docked my bike there for a year.

I didn’t get in as many rides as I wanted, but I forgot how sore your ass gets from a bike seat when you haven’t ridden one in over a year :).

Culture Shock…
Funny enough Germany was the first place in many many years I exp some culture shock. How? In Freiburg no stores are open on Sunday, and they close really early during the week. Quite a few times I was left eating almonds for dinner because I didn’t plan out groceries and nothing was open. And since I do a lot of phone calls in American hours it usually was too late by the time I finished to grab something. The only thing open in the entire town was a Turkish pizza place (luckily really really good just not very healthy)… Every other place I’ve visited in the last 5+ years has grocery stores or at least corner stores where I can buy some eggs and bread near 24/7. Or at least a sandwich. Germany/Freiburg is definitely more protective of their workforce but also somewhat annoying to an American not used to planning out his grocery shopping times…

I also spent an absurd amount of time trying to find Clean & Clear face wash with these little micro beads, I have developed a serious addiction to the stuff and its about the only thing I require when traveling… Germany doesn’t seem to have it available and I’m guessing it is illegal due to the micro beds (they stupidly make them with plastic instead of sand which is causing problems in lakes with fish)? Regardless it was quite weird given that I’ve been able to buy them in Peru, Panama, Argentina, Chile, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa, Romania, etc etc.

All these things might sound ridiculous but when you are someplace new its a bit of a weird feeling when something so routine is so different. Plus, IMO Germany is one of the few places that has defended itself against the rise of the new “global culture”. Places like Croatia, Australia, and South America have such a strong immigrant population or tourist focus or global business outlook that large swaths of society have tapped into the new global culture. And when traveling to those places it is much easier to feel at home if you don’t deep dive under that layer. Freiburg is a smaller town and feels a lot more “German” than Berlin or Frankfurt or Munich too.

Short Story…
In late October 2011 I was having some pain after running and it wouldn’t go away, pretty sharp pain in the top of my lower back and deep in either ass cheek. I ended up taking a pretty light month in November running but it wouldn’t go away and turned more dull. I did a few sessions with a Chiropractor that helped but didn’t make time to see a doctor as I was heading to Central/South America. Plus I figured I could just run through it combined with rehab exercises and stretching. And it turned into a pretty solid 24/7 dull pain with spikes of further pain from time to time.

I took January 2012 off to just give it a rest since I believed at that point that inflammation was pinching my sciatic nerve. It got better but not great, and I was back to running in Feb and just trying to live with it. I never really thought about seeing a doc in south america as my spanish sucks, and plus the wine in Argentina is AMAZING. And then I got to Australia and had gotten used to it.

So what the hell caused it?
I went through a lot of testing but I’m 90% sure at this point it was due to a change in my work environment. My normal work environment is a standing desk + a HM chair I’ve had for 5+ years. But with me going abroad for a few years I had moved that into storage and had been sitting in a broken chair which was pulling a lot of muscles off + I was now staring down at the laptop screen (pulling all my neck and back muscles up). And then while traveling I never had my screen even with my eyes until mid way through Australia. And I just kept inflaming the same muscles and never game them time to heal (16+ hour flights don’t help).

Summary: Stupid, Stupid, Stupid (don’t do this).

What I noticed about 24/7 dull pain:
– It turns me into even more of an asshole. For the first 4 to 6 months of it you get really frustrated since its preventing you from running and other sports. And it makes you cranky and you lash out way quicker.
– You get used to it, after 6 months its just there. That is nice since as you get old you will only be an asshole if you really are one or for short bursts as you get used to increased pain levels. So that is nice to know.
– Ibuprofen is an amazing drug.

I woke up a few days ago and the pain is a mere 1% to 5% of what it once was, which is awesome. I attribute this to a better work environment the last few months + a foam roller + a lacrosse ball. And maybe a little magic?

And of course I made a doctor appointment now with a sports doctor now that the pain is so much better. I just forgot before :).

PS. I’m sure I will look back on this post when I’m old and laugh my ass off thinking I even knew what chronic pain was like. If I make it that long. My brother tells me its cancer, and he is almost a doctor.

I run a fair amount and over the last couple years I’ve bought a wide variety of socks from SockGeek, running stores, Zappos, etc in an effort to find a good pair that will last.

I am ready to crown a king! The Darn Tough Run – Merino Wool No-Show Cushion are the winners by a long shot. I first bought 3 pairs of these back in 2009 and they are still freaking awesome, not a single won has worn out or anything. They are great for trail running, street running, normal wear, cold and hot weather, and they never smell. Crowned!

2012 was a decent year for running. With all my travels I didn’t run as much as I wanted and my long runs went into a decline. I took January off to nurse an unrelated injury (sciatica from a bad work chair incident in late 2011 – me being stupid), plus I was in Cusco Peru at 12,000 feet altitude and missing my dear friend oxygen.

For 2012 I ran 780 miles in 122 hours, my second best recorded year. My longest run was 23 miles on Easter Island, and my best month was March in Buenos Aires where I ran 123 miles (awesome trail running park near my apartment). I’ve slowly been building my runs back up over the year in Australia…

For 2013 I want to beat my 2011 record year (1,198 Miles). I’d like to get my monthly miles above 100 miles each month and do at least one 20+ mile long run monthly. My time in Australia is up May 30th and I would like to do some running tourism in Greece, Romania, and other countries. One of my 2013 goals is to be active a minimum of an hour a day so that will help get me out of the house and off my butt.

Holy Pollution! Santiago Chile is a mess, went for a run for what is my 2nd day here and I had to stare at my feet as I ran because you can see the smog just looking down the road a mere 15 feet. The only place I’ve ever seen this bad was Cairo Egypt. The city is surrounded by snow capped moutains and I can barely see them over the dirty smog covered film, it’s gross.

Back in 2008, experts measured the airborne particulates in the city at 444 micrograms/cubic meter while the normal should not go beyond 50. Santiago is also unfortunate to have high ground-level ozone based on WHO studies.

From this link.

Guess I’m going to have to find a gym to run in for the month of May while I’m here.

They have a pretty good running path although surrounded by 6 lane traffic. Better than most cities but still sucks, the pollution is out of control. Hopefully they can pull a Bangkok and fix pollution as quickly as possible.

This year was a great year for running goals! I ran two marathons on my own before getting injured due to changing my desk/chair setup and needing to take a long break. I basically got sciatic and learned to do some better core stretches. I’m rebuilding now and hope to get back up to speed soon.

For 2011 I ran 1,198 miles in a total of 175 hours. Which breaks down to 8 minute 46 second miles.

For 2012 I’m going to be traveling a lot through May so it’s going to be hard to do a lot of running, especially in South America where there are not great trail runs in cities. So I’m going to take it slow and try to rebuild up to about 100 miles a month and I hope to get up to marathon length again by the end of the year. And depending on how things go maybe an ultra at some point if I’m feeling great!

I ran my first marathon today! 26.2 miles! I was planning to run 22 to 23 miles, but felt good around 21 and decided to just go for it. I think I can go a lot faster as my last 6 miles were all under 8 minute miles as I figured out I had to start moving if I wanted to finish in under 4 hours.

Running conditions

1. No sleep – I had a green tea and coffee yesterday so I couldn’t sleep. I gave up at 7am and just got up.

2. Carrying 3 liters of water, pair of socks, gels, salt pills.

I started at 9.35am and finished at 1.29pm. Temp wasn’t bad like 85 to 80 most of race as I picked a path that is 70% on trails surrounded by woods. Some hills.

Totals and cool stats…

Length: 26.2 Miles
Time: 3 Hours 54 Mintes
Average Heart Rate: 146
Calories: 3,155 kCal
VO2: 53ml/kg/min
EPOC Peak: 92.9
Respiration Rate: 37 bpm
Altitude: 1,243 ASC, 1,374 DSC
Max Speed: 8.83 mph
Avg Speed: 6.70 mph
Peak heart rate, 192, but I think that was a fluke reading.

I have no idea what VO2/EPOC and some of that is.

Splits…

Mile 1: 8.52
Mile 2: 8.18
Mile 3: 8.41
Mile 4: 9.12
Mile 5: 9.17
Mile 6: 9.44
Mile 7: 11.59
Mile 8: 9.06
Mile 9: 9.18
Mile 10: 8.51
Mile 11: 9.10
Mile 12: 11.50
Mile 13: 9.38
Mile 14: 9.00
Mile 15: 8.46
Mile 16: 9.07
Mile 17: 10.48
Mile 18: 8.10
Mile 19. 8.30
Mile 20: 8.49
Mile 21: 7.45
Mile 22: 7.35
Mile 23: 7.47
Mile 24: 7.34
Mile 25: 7.42
Mile 26: 7.17
Last .2: 1.34

You can definitely see the water breaks to refill my giant water backpack, or change socks. Plus when I figured out at Mile 21 that I had to book if I wanted to stay under 4 hours.

Fun!