Sunday, February 27, 2011

Faltering Start

I did a 30 mins run yesterday. I still have some pain in my ankle. I am frustrated. I am thinking of finding some laser physion to help speed up the recovery.
Meanwhile I cleared week 4 of twohundredsitups challenge. So I did 35+42+35+35+50 = 197situps.
I will run again tomorrow. I want to see how bad this ankle pain can get. After all, there is no pain when I am running and the damn ankle is not even inflamed. It has healed after 4 months for Christs sake!
Meanwhile, in Tokyo, Japan - Breaking away from Paul Biwott after 33 kilometres, Hailu Mekonnen of Ethiopia won the fifth edition of the Tokyo Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race on Sunday (27), clocking 2:07:35.


A

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Started Running...Then Bust!

I started running last week while on a Trip to Mombasa. Then I allowed Hotel food to screw up my diet and now I am back to 90. In the process, I found a friend and overdid my running, enough to conjure the injury. So now I have cut back on running and want to enjoy the pushups and situps.

I managed to get new beautiful used Saucony shoes. I exchanged them for what I had. This year, running is the word.


Here is my self beaming at the camera after a workout at the Gym.
 Back to dieting and indoor workouts for a few days.
Oh, btw, I got published in The East African. They butchered the hell out of what I wrote but oh well...

Fictional omnibus with no driver at the wheel

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/-/434746/1109386/-/11l5bxbz/-/index.html

A

Sunday, February 13, 2011

88

I have cleared week 3 of the one hundred pushups program. I am also on week 3 day two of the twohundred situps challenge.
So I did 22+30+20+20+28= 120 pushups
21+28+21+21+28= 119 situps
When I was doing the last set of the pushups, I could hear my hands speaking! If I clear week 4 I will be a hero! Tomorrow I will do the exhaustion test.
For my legs I am doing squats and rope-skipping. I travel kesho so I start running on Monday 21st Feb.

Meanwhile, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva erased whatever was left of the Fedor Emelianenko mystique.

Silva forced a doctor stoppage against the revered Russian in the quarter-finals of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix at Strikeforce “Fedor vs. Silva” on Saturday at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. The end came between rounds two and three, Emelianenko’s right eye having been swollen shut by a series of hammerfists from the monstrous Brazilian.

Gee.
A

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Weight Hiatus

I had a good diet run yesterday until at night when I attended a HoneyMooner's dinner at carnivore. Then came the crocodile meat, lamb chops roasted with honey, limondo, chichen wings, fingerlicking turkey, roast potatoes, ostrich meatballs...
At any rate, I tried to watch it and I am still at 89 though I think that dinner blew it.
So today I woke up 10 mins earlier.
I did 15+18+14+14+25 = 86 situps
And 20+25+15+15+28=103 pushups
Then I did 150 squats and skipped and invisible rope and threw 200 kicks.
Jay makes it as eye candy again.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Back to 89

As usual, before dropping, the body tries to hang there so as DMX would say, I aint worried 'bout shit. Today I did day 1 week 2 of 200 situps program which is 14+17+14+14+20=79 situps and day 1 of week 3 of one hundred pushups program which is 14+18+14+14+22=82 pushups. Then I worked on my calves and quads. My shape is almost back. I am even thinking of delaying running so as to concentrate on explosive power and core strength...
Today's eye candy is Jay Cutler, 2010 Mr. Olympia

Monday, February 7, 2011

88

88. Not bad. Lets see if I can hit 87 by friday. Meanwhile, all indications are that my leg is 99.9%. Wooooohooooo!
I did week 1 day 2 of the two hundred situp program that is 9+12+9+9+15 = 54 situps and I did day three of week two of the one hundred pushups program which is 16+17+14+14+21= 82 pushups. Eeeeew. My arms are getting stronger than my abs...not good.

Otherwise, diet is on. Next week I will prolly start running 3X a week. Ndakaini, here I bloody come.
A

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Tussle Continues...

89 but frankly I am not impressed. Gotta press on. I know how this thing works: it tries to squeeze you and test your will and it refuses to budge. Then when you prevail, it drops then plummets. It becomes a walk in the park. So now I am just being tested. Adipose tissue says "you cant do shit, you got nothin on me" And I am saying "I am all over your a$$ buddy."

I decided to start on the 100 pushups and 100 situps programme. I have started on week 2 day 1. So far so good. My ankle is still healing. Imagine that shit.


A little Tussle with sugar...

Having a little tussle with sugar, jam and butter...I have won halfway...I discovered a better way to do squats without getting injured...still at 90. A breakthrough is at hand...Eye candy today is Ronnie Coleman. Again. A portrait of dedication.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Back to 90

Yes. I am sad to report. I got carried away during dinner. But it doesn't mean much anyways (weight does fluctuate within certain limits - life is in an eternal flux). I have increased the volume of my workouts.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Ketogenetic Agent

I geared up the workout and I have started cutting out sugar. 89.2. Here is Coleman's back.

Faciltating Ketogenesis...

I was 89.5 on Sat and Sunday and I woke up at 90 today. Not bad. I think it was that sumptuous lunch. I hope to close the week at 88.5.
Today I kicked rather than do squats.
The ankle is better and I hope by Friday I can declare I can start running next week.
What? Ketogenesis? Well, that is a synthesis that occurs in response to low glucose levels in the blood, and after exhaustion of cellular carbohydrate stores, such as glycogen. The production of ketone bodies is then initiated to make available energy that is stored as fatty acids. Ketone bodies are produced mainly in the mitochondria of liver cells. When I diet like I do, I am facilitating ketogenesis and ketones can be found in my urine upon urinalysis.
Tomorrow, I will start cutting out sugar to facilitate ketogenesis further. Al let u know how I do it.

Cheers

Friday, January 28, 2011

Now I am hungry

I started dieting four days ago but I ger hungry on day 5? Amazing shit. At any rate, I am feeling hunger pangs. Let me eat 30 mins ahead of scheduled time.
A

Thursday, January 27, 2011

One more thing...

Yesterday I met my day's goals. But in the evening, my wife presented me with Biriani and, well, I sorta went overboard. But not too bad. I made a note not to repeat the same mistake again.
I am getting in the mix of things as far as the workout.
Today I did 61situps 100 squats and 46 pushups.
And I learnt one more thing: dress warmly after working out, even if its just for a few minutes. It makes it easier to cool down after showering.
No wonder they call them sweatshirts.

Weight Loss Strategy in Action

I am now back to 90Kgs. That is 4 days of diet. I decided to declare war on my weight when I hit 91Kgs which was on Monday. I lost weight from 92Kgs to 76Kgs in 2008 and now, my critics say that ooooh, that was a long time ago and I cant do it again. Well, its time to show that this runner is also a weight-loss God. There are some essentials to my strategy:

Essentials.

1. Be ready to carry food. Er, and water too.
2. Water must be your friend.
3. Eat less, more.
4. Thou shall not starve yourself under any circumstances.
5. Leave the painful ankle the ef alone.
6. If you cant run, develop core strength and wait for the ankle to heal.
7. No negative caloric deficit, no weight loss. Plain and simple.

Practice
1. Take one glass of water upon waking up (this will fill the stomach and minimize breakfast taken).
2. Work out: 3 sets of situps, pushups and squats (left unattended are: compartment muscles, calves and hamstrings - which is not so bad). This is for increasing MR.
3. Split breakfast into four. (my breakfast is 3 slices of bread and tea). Take each quarter at the following times: 7.30am, 10.30am, 2pm and 4pm. Drink water in between whenever hungry.
4. Take one glass of water before dinner (same reason as above).
5. Eat decreasing amount of dinner but particularly minimize carbs and fat.

Lets see how it goes. So far, so efing good.
A

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

On the way

Yesterday went well. Today too. I will get a stable plan and share it. This is up my alley.
A

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Fuck it. The War is On

My leg is not yet there. So I am not waiting anymore. My ankle can kiss my ass. I am weighing 91Kgs now.
The war is on and I begin weight-loss without running, TO-fuckin-DAY!
Lets go. Damnit.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Almost guys. Almost

I am almost there. Have been using open shoes for about two weeks now and they have helped test and heal the ankle. Maybe in just another week...
Meanwhile, I weigh in at a clean 90Kgs.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Merry XMas Guys

The pain is gone. I want to keep it relaxed for two weeks before I try any kind of physio or stretching or whatever. I don't want to rush it coz I have a very ambitious plan for next year.
Merry XMas and a Happy new Year to y'all.
Cheers

Monday, November 29, 2010

Almost There

I now feel no pain when I wake up or run short distances. There is just one dull pain I feel when I stretch my legs when bending over. Maybe another 7 days and I will be okay. I am excited already!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Morning Pain has stopped

From Saturday, I can get out of bed and walk to the bathroom w/o limping so I am almost there. I have not been feeling pain during the day but each morning when I wake up, I find my leg aching when I step down. Now it is gone. I will give it some four days then I try stretching it.
I havent been very disciplined about my eating so I have piled on some four Kgs.
But thats okay pretty soon I will be back to work.
Meanwhile, IAAF says that " Monte Carlo - David Rudisha (KEN) and Blanka Vlasic (CRO) were named the Male and Female World Athletes of the Year for 2010, IAAF President Lamine Diack announced today.

Rudisha, 21, broke the World record in the 800 metres twice this season, was unbeaten in 12 contests over the distance, claimed the African title and won at the inaugural IAAF / VTB Bank Continental Cup in Split, Croatia.

Vlasic, the two-time World champion in the High Jump, added a second World indoor title to her collection this year, was unbeaten in seven Samsung Diamond League competitions, and also took the IAAF / VTB Bank Continental Cup in her hometown of Split.


"I must say that being Athlete of the Year is a tremendous performance and honour, something we all as athletes want to achieve,” said Rudisha, a former World junior champion who was nominated for the World Athlete of the Year for the first time. At 21 years, 338 days old, Rudisha is the youngest to ever be named Male Athlete of the Year.

In Berlin on 22 August, the young Kenyan clocked 1:41.09 to break the record set by Wilson Kipketer 13 years earlier. Just one week later, Rudisha broke it again, running 1:41.01 in Rieti. "After breaking two World records in one week, I was hoping to win this," Rudisha said."

Me, chillin out with my swthrt.
A

Monday, November 15, 2010

Of Machete and Amaica

I did two things last weekend which I regretted.
First off, my office buddies told me that the movie Machete was so outrageous that it was funny. That it was so ridiculous and over the top in terms of violence that you had to laugh. I quietly asked for a copy.
I was impressed that it had Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg, Jessica Alba  and was directed by Quentin Tarantino and I was told Spielberg had a hand in it. Surely, if it has such a serious cast, it must be something, I thought.

I expected big action and over-the-top violence that is characteristic of grindhouse movies. It started as dumb and gory, which was okay but then they stopped being gory and it became idiotic and inane and built up to nothing. It just lost direction and fizzled out into poor sequences of violence. I lost one hour watching a movie that was going nowhere.
After waking up my wife, who fell asleep as soon as she saw someone using another living human being's intestine to monkey-leap from one building to another, and decided to wash away the bad taste with a fine African luhya meal.
I had seen some advertisement on TV about a restaurant called Amaica which claimed they had African traditional dishes. It is somewhere in Valley Road.
They are expensive and they serve tasteless food and the place is dead. Bereft of life or activity. Lousy music, lousy decor, lousiest food. The waiter that served us was fine though.
"No wonder the place is empty" I remarked, sensing that they are not getting repeat customers.
Dont waste your time or money going there. I wish I knew the proprietor of that place. I got robbed!
OTOH, there is a place in Koinange street called Petma. If you want healthy, delicious African food at good prices, that is the place. They can drive Kosewe out of business if they came closer to Dedan Kimathi street.
End of Rant.
A

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Getting Better

I started stretching my ankle on Sunday and its better. I want to be doing that everyday until it is good before I try exercising. Meanwhile, yesterday in the NY Marathon, Haile Gebrselassie, widely regarded as the greatest distance runner of all time, pulled out of the race after 16 miles on the Queensboro Bridge suffering from a swollen right knee and then told a shocked news conference he was quitting the sport after 18 years at the top.
“I have never thought about retiring before. But for the first time, now, I think this is the day. Let me stop and do other work; let me do another job. Let me give the youngsters a chance.”

Gebrselassie arrived in New York feeling some tendonitis in his right knee and had an MRI scan on Saturday which revealed a build-up of fluid. The double Olympic 10,000m champion, and favourite to win the 41st New York Marathon, ran with the leaders for 16 miles before pulling up short as the race prepared to passed into Manhattan for the first time.

As his compatriot Gebre Gebremariam went on to win on his Marathon debut in 2:08:14, Gebrselassie headed for the medical tent and a personal decision that will rock the athletics world. 
“Of course, I’m a little bit disappointed, disappointed with myself,” he said. “I knew about this problem when I arrived in New York. I thought that it was not serious, but things happen which I can’t change.

“I don’t want to complain anymore after this, which means it’s better to stop here.

“I did really very hard training to win this race. It didn’t work. Each time I have a problem like this it’s hard, and to complain again and again is bad.

“You know how many times I complain? Before I came here I trained so hard. It’s better to stop here.

“I have no complaints. It’s better not to complain anymore.”


Thursday, November 4, 2010

Goals...Focus


So the year is coming to a close and I have decided to make some goals. As a person I have learnt a lot and gown in many ways. They say you get experience when you receive what you don't expect or want so its all good. 
Anyways, I have exceeded my expectations as far as this year is concerned.
In terms of training I did better. I have just been sidelined by a non-running injury. Better financially, physically, emotionally and mentally. Plus, I am married now.


To do B4 end of 2010

1.       Visit S & L and gather more data and contacts for TFP

2.       Apply for PhD – UoN

3.       Apply for funding/scholarship/sponsorhip

4.       Apply for Helb

6.       Start Training with one aerobic session per fortnight.

2011
Start PhD

Implement TFP (this is my "Think biggest" project)

Start running six times per week.
Ressurect /Form training group and go for group runs.

April/May Sotokoto 21K under 100mins 80Kg

June Lewa 80Kgs

September Ndakaini Under 95Mins

September  Mwea 42K Under 3Hrs

October Stanchart 21K under 80Mins 76Kgs

September Open fees policy for B

Jan Start Saving for B

Save for Building

Read 20 Good Books

Connect with people. Be a better communicator. Laugh more. Be very strong and very brave.  Listen more. Care some more. Share some more. Give some more. Think. Reflect. Appreciate life. Be Gentle.
A



 

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

If you thought Lordosis or Sciatica are Bad...

Consider wearing a cloaking device and having someone cut you up just so that you can run again.
My running friend and blogger zerotoboston says in his latest blog post:

"You may not know this, but I’ve been injured for a while. It’s been a trying twenty-two months (so far). As one Twitteronian put it, “Man, that’s the longest groin pull in history.” I took this as a compliment. To those who have endured my interminably personal posts, comments, tweets and updates, I thank you from the bottom of my, well, you know.
Alas, my nether-regional monomania has alienated at least one woman. A long-lost friend resurfaced on Facebook to write, “Why are all your status updates about your groin? I know we haven’t talked since 1988, but I have to tell you point blank, I’ve had enough!”
Such are the vagaries of human perspective. I feel as if I’ve shown remarkable restraint on the subject. I’ll spare you the specific details of my reply. Suffice it to say, groin jokes tend to write themselves.
Obviously, I haven’t yet recovered. I run a bit, but nothing like I used to. Recently, I was sent into a near apoplectic tizzy at the prospect of an honest-to-goodness diagnosis (a sign of how far I’ve lowered my expectations). Apparently, I suffer from something called Athletic Pubalgia. Think of this as a sports hernia equipped with a Romulan Cloaking Device. For some time, I have described pain, and sophisticated medical instruments have revealed no cause.
Only through careful process of elimination and diligent reflection have my medical team (yes, team) come to the conclusion that I have the dreaded, nebulous AP. It seems surgery is the only solution. This doesn’t bother me, but can a man truly embrace a procedure called Pelvic Floor Repair?
This sounds suspiciously like home improvement. “The lateral support in these joists are shot. You need a full pelvic floor repair. Yup.”
Next thing you know, you’re constantly at Lowe’s, spending more money than Lady Gaga spends on translucent acrylic undergarments. Nothing goes as expected. Midway through the repair job, an improbable, ancient sarcophagus is found in the subfloor, necessitating a visit by the Smithsonian Institution’s artifact recovery team. The extraction causes so much damage that the contractor tells you, with no hint of empathy, that the wiring and plumbing for the entire house must now be replaced. You’ve become the manic-depressive speculator in an exceedingly disturbing, highly personal episode of Flip This House.
Yes, it’s fair to say I’m nervous about groin surgery.
But I’ll do nearly anything to solve this problem. Fellow runners understand this implicitly. Assuming my insurance company agrees that the solution to two years of chronic pain is something they might consider covering, I’ll give it a go; even if it means being strapped upside down to a medieval operating rack.
I just want to run again."

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Went For a Walk

I was up at 5:50am. Decided to go back to the basics. If I can't run, I shall Walk, so the good book says right there in Jacob 5:23 (see for yourself). At any rate, I decided to take a 30 mins walk. I underrated my effort so I wore shoes without socks and regretted it 20 mins later when my shoes started bruising me. I decided to do a power walk, that is fast walking and it went quite well. After 17 minutes, I could feel sweat trickling down my back. I tried running for two metres and felt some pain and stopped.
So after the walk, I did squats, crunches, pushups and calf raises then I stretched. There is a nerve in deep in my right ankle that is painful. The initial injury seems to have healed and this one generating the pain seems to have sneaked in from the backdoor but I am better. Tomorrow I shall endeavor to go for a 40-50mins walk. A hard one. No Shit. Hopefully I can run on Thursday.

Meanwhile Moses Kangogo Kibet won the Dublin Marathon yesterday.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Still in Recovery - UFC 121

On Sunday I was up at 5:40. I tested my leg and found it still having some pain. I stretched it, walked to the bathroom and sprang up and down a bit. Still painful. God, damn. I thought. Can I just go ahead anyways and ice my leg afterward? I took a long time thinking about going for a run. The stubborn me was tired of not running. But I knew I would only make it worse so I called it off. I am tired of limping. I am tired of the pain. I want to run again without worrying about when I will be okay. So I shelved the idea of running. I placed my shoes back in the rack, folded my trucks, placed my stopwatch back in the locker and started doing crunches...
Meanwhile, Cain Velasquez weathered an early storm from Brock Lesnar and proved why he has long been regarded as one of the top prospects in the sport, pounding Lesnar in a stunningly brutal and one-sided fight to win the UFC heavyweight championship at the Honda Center in the main event of UFC 121. Cain Velasquez made quick work of former champion Brock Lesnar. (Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images)

Velasquez hurt Lesnar with nearly every punch he threw and knocked him down several times. After the final knockdown, Velasquez pounded him with elbows and punches before referee Herb Dean stopped it at 4:12 of the first.


  Cheers.
A

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

My Hero: Sammy Kitwara

Tomorrow is Heroes Day in Kenya. I want to honour a man whose strength, tenacity, courage and relentlessness I admire. His name is Sammy Kitwara. I think that among the top ten Kenyan men (10K to 42K, he has ran the greatest number of significant races this year and appeared in the top three). He has been second when the winners (Tadese and Komon) demolished world records.

People talk about burnout, overtraining etc. But this guy is testing his limits. And I am sure he will destroy the world record within two years. Mark my words. Below is his 2010 performance:

In IAAF / SINOPEC World Half Marathon Championships 16 October 2010 21K the results were as follows:
1 Wilson KIPROP KEN 14 APR 87 1:00:07
2 Zersenay TADESE ERI 8 FEB 82 1:00:11 +00:04
3 Sammy Kirop KITWARA KEN 1:00:22 +00:15

On 26 Sept 2010 10Km at the ABN AMRO Singelloop in Utrecht, The Netherlands 10K
1. Leonard Komon, KEN     26:44
2. Sammy Kitwara, KEN     27:11

21 March 2010 at the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon. was second in 59:47, Tadese won clocking 58:23 and shattering the half marathon world record.

Bay to Breakers (12k) May 16, 2010     Sammy Kitwara     1st position 34:15

San Juan 10K 1 March 2010 1. Moses Masai   27:19 2. Sammy Kitwara  27:42

7th Jan 2010 Zayed International Half Marathon 1. Tilahun Regassa (Eth)    59:19
 2. Sammy Kitwara (Ken)      59:34

31 Jan 2010 Discovery Kenya Cross Country championship held in Eldoret (12Kms) 1. Joel Kimurer    36:14.0  2. Sammy Kitwara   36:18.6

Those are seven races this year. And he made a ton of money from them (in Sinopec alone, where he was third, he made $30,000, thats about 2.4M KShs). But what I admire is his confidence, his fearlessness, his hard work and who he is: a warrior. He makes eye candy today.


 I went back to the doc. I explained that the pain persisted. She suspected maybe the tendon has calcified at the injury point. The XRays returned nothing. So painkillers for 7 more days.
Cheers.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

On a Break

I have been on a break for a full week now. I realized that I squandered 5 days of recovery last week because I was massaging the ankle with some ointment and inadvertently making it worse because the massage traumatized it. I also didn't have access to ice the whole of last week. I stopped massaging it and now just ice it and avoid stressing it.
It is much better now. Maybe in two days or so, it will be okay. I am ready to miss Stanchart Marathon which takes place in two weeks because I am on this for the long haul. I am disappointed but not particularly stressed.
The ailment set me back and was probably going to return a 1:40 something. This ankle thingy has made it probably worse. But but am wiser and stronger.
Like my friend StyrofoamDeity, an UltraMarathoner told me, There is no failure, there is only the next race.
If I miss this Stanchart thingy, I'll just recover and go back to training for the next race and possibly for a full marathon. I can start taking my LSRs to 30Kms. I can start learning to run 6X a week. I can start gunning for that sub 20mins 5K by Feb 2011. There is so much I need to do and accomplish that this Stanchart Marathon is just a dot. It doesn't mean squat. I want to be running Marathons when I am in my fifties so I wont let this bring me down.
I still need to come close to 1:20. I am too slow, I am too heavy. I am not strong enough. I need to work on those. There is Lewa, Mwea, Ndakaini, Stanchart and a whole host of other races I need to prepare for next year so I have work to do and the next race to prepare for and goals to meet.
Plus, my wife has started going to a gymn nearby. I will be going for a 2 hour run on their treadmill every five weeks or so to check my progress. I want to fly gadddemit!
Meanwhile, a lot has been happening. On saturday, in Nanning, China – After an epic battle over the final two kilometres, Wilson Kiprop of Kenya upset Zersenay Tadese to take the men’s title at the IAAF / SINOPEC World Half Marathon Championships in Nanning, China.

Kiprop’s victory in 1:00:07 was the first for Kenya at these championships since 2004, and more significantly put an end to Tadese’s reign at this event after four consecutive wins.




 

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

1:53 21K LSR Taking a break

I went for a LSR on Sunday and cleared 21K in 1:53.y ankle got worse so I am on a break.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Ankle Goes to Hospital - Rest

I went to Hospital yesterday. Finally. The Doc said the ankle is the most sensitive part of the body - injury-wise and I should take care of mine. We even talked about the story of Achilles. I got some NSAIDs (painkillers), antibiotics and a pain-relieving cream for application on the injured area.
I am now not limping but the pain is there and my ankle is slightly inflamed.
I iced it last night and applied some ointment on it and I rest today. I suspect tomorrow I will go for it. Thats what it means to be a running addict.
Cheers.