"It's Not About What You Did in the Past!"

We were so great back then weren't we!
Seems like only "yesterday" to us, so recent that we're still somewhat tightly connected to our past accomplishments. (When we were so amazing?)

It's over, it's gone!  No one else gives a damn, they don't even listen when we talk about about what we did "back then". 
It's all about right now.  What are we doing now?

Things do go wrong, our paths suddenly take a different turn, and it's necessary to have a back-up plan.  One thing that we can do is continue our forward momentum if we experience a setback, whether it's a work-environment reversal, or detour, or whether it's something more personal, like your fitness program.
It just happened to me on May 7th, this year, almost a month ago.  I'll tell you what happened to me.

You know I have been a runner for 32 years, and have quite a track record of endurance tests, like 100-mile bicycle rides, marathons, a 105-mile running week, and a 23 mile beach run, entirely in the sand.  Stuff like that; sounds like a lot, but it's not anything that's out of the realm of possibility for long distance runners, bikers, or people who are known for perseverance and strongness of will.  All of this year I have been on a pretty decent running pace, looking to achieve perhaps 1500 miles for the year, a year when I will become 61 years old.

On May 7th, in the evening I was hurrying into the bedroom carrying a big cup of hot tea, trying not to miss the beginning of some TV show that was starting at 9pm.  Somehow, in my haste, I slammed my left foot into the bottom of my dresser, which pulled my little toe back in a severe manner.  The pain was like a lightening bolt, and my whole foot began to swell up.  When I ran out of curse words, I took time to examine the damage, and I noticed that my little toe was much farther away from the fourth toe than it normally is, in fact there was almost enough room for an additional toe between them!  The pain seemed to glow inside my foot, as the foot swelled, and I was unable to see the tendons and veins of my foot any longer.  The toe may have been broken, but there is not much, if anything that doctors can do for broken little toes.  Knowing that, I tried to treat the injury myself.  Ibuprofen, ice, stretching, and rest---I thought that should do it.  What made me the maddest was the effect that the injury would have on my physical training (running, and swimming in particular).  It even hurt to put a sock on it, especially when the toenail snagged the sock material, pulling on the toe.  So what then, just sit on my ass for a month while it healed? 

 I can't do that, I'm too stubborn, so I had to improvise my fitness training.  Like I said, it's necessary to have a back-up plan when things go wrong!

May 8th, a Saturday, the day after I hurt my foot and toe, I did no exercise, it was just too painful.  The next day, Sunday, I tried to put on some running shoes to at least take a walk, but the pain in the left foot was awful, so I re-laced the left sneaker, using only the top 2 eyelets, in an attempt to widen the running sneaker enough to make it comfortable to my injured, wider-than-ever-before foot.  It did make wearing the running shoe more comfortable, and I managed to walk about 30 minutes, with some pain and discomfort, but I did not walk with my usual foot plant.  That means my step was not normal, I was compensation for the pain in the little toe area.  Never the less I was determined to get in some exercise so I kept it up.  The next day it hurt so much I decided not to walk like that, and I skipped the day after too.  Like my wife said to do, I rested it a few days, but I was very unhappy about it.  I thought it was a good time to add some alternate exercises to my routine, so I started doing a few pushups each day. That week I did 329 pushups, and I was pretty sore in the chest, and arm areas, but at least I did something. 

Well, the pushups hurt, but they gave me some encouragement anyway, I could see and feel some neglected muscles again.  How quickly we lose what we do not use!  Trouble was waiting for me the very next week................

I was making only slight recovery from the foot/toe injury, and I only felt like running one day, a meager 3 miles, it had me worried!
I started going to the gym here at our condominium clubhouse, and I took up using one of the exercise bikes that was available.  It was a TruFitness, model PS900.

This is a wonderful exercise machine, you can't wear it out, I know because I tried.  The second week I developed a bad backache from the way I was walking, and from the start of a pushup routine.  Why do I always overdue things, I asked myself?  Because of the backache I could only do 146 pushups that week, but I swam 6 days in a row, which felt OK and it gave me some alternative strength building.

By the third week I was sufficiently recovered to run 3 days, for a total of 13 miles.  I also used the exercise bike relentlessly for 350 minutes, and as far as the pushups, I grunted out 860 of them, over a 6-day period, doing 75, 125, 135, 155, 168, and 202 in that order.

I swam 5 days that week, doing 30 lengths in our olympic size pool, on my best day.  I was feeling much better, but my foot was a little swollen, the toe still hurt, I still needed 800 m. of Ibuprofen daily, flexibiliy was returning to my little toe gradually, but new aches and pains from the pushups were occurring all through my body, from the feet and ankles to the back of my neck.  Even so, the results of the pushups were obvious, and the exercise bike was wearing away some fat too.  Optimistic describes my mood!

Oh yeah, I used my hand grippers almost every day too.

Week four just ended, and it was a good one!

Daily swimming for strength and endurance, 20 miles of running, 264 minutes on the grueling exercise bike, and one thousand fifty pushups (220, 250, 125, 150, 305) I took off two days from the pushups for needed rest to my muscles, but I averaged 210 pushups a day for 5 days.

Today is Sunday, the beginning of week 5, since the injury.  My toe is still a little bigger than normal, and I still need Ibuprofen some, but a lot of flexibilty has returned to the little toe, and I feel like I'm on the mend. 

 I ran 4 miles at 5:30 am today to kick off the week, and the temperature was a sweltering 82 degrees at that early hour!  I was drowned in sweat.  Now I'm heading to the pool and later I'll be in the gym at the exercise bike.  But I'm  resting today from the pushups, no sense hurting myself....

John DeFlumeri Jr. in Clearwater

"Decisions About Money and Controversial Commentary"

copyright 2010 John DeFlumeri Jr