Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Taming of the PF Monster

Well it appears that I've beaten back the planter fasciitis that I've been suffering from for about a month. I'm really tickled about healing it so fast since I've known people who have suffered for years from it. That wasn't an option for me since I had to get back to racing shape before the State Games.

I'll start by recounting how I ended up with PF to begin with. I had been steadily improving by doing my walk training every other day and pool running and good stretching on the opposite days. About a month ago I decided to add two extra days of hard race walking workouts to my training plan. This did several bad things: First it violated the golden rule of training; don't increase more than 10 percent each week and never increase distance and speed workouts both in the same week. Also by doing more walk training I was doing less stretching since I didn't do the stretching after a walk like I did after a pool workout. It took about 3 weeks of this to give me a good case of PF.

PF is pain on the bottom of your foot especially around the heel. It's worse in the morning when you first get out of bed and if you try to train on it. It's constant but those are the worse times. Any time you are on your feet or walking it's painful.

Healing it effectively and quickly required a lot of different actions:

Not walking barefoot even in the house, go from bed to well cushioned shoes.
Wearing compression socks (Tight fitting) to bed, this is like wrapping with an ace bandage.
Buying cushioned insoles for all my shoes, work, play and training. The sock liners that come in most athletic shoes are not very cushioned.
Rolling my foot on a tennis ball several times a day for a massage of the injured area.
Stretching everyday, not missing a day, everyday. I found that going to the gym hot whirlpool was good because it keep the muscles warm since I couldn't warm up with training, but a tub at home with hot water works also.
Taking Advil in the morning for the pain and swelling and then Aleve for all day pain relief.
Icing the bottom of my foot with a water bottle that has been in the freezer.

Doing all these things and resting from training for 2 weeks did the trick, I'm back to training but building back up slowly and I'm going back to the every other day walk training schedule with pool work and stretching on the opposite days.

Thanks for reading.

Rambling Panda

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Change Your Life

Have you felt like you have been just going through the motions and not really living? Life just isn't exciting, nothing but same old routine, day after day? Then it's time for a change isn't it?

There is only one way out of the rut and that's to get proactive and take charge of your life. Take your life and shake it up, start doing things that are not part of your day after day routine.

Today is a good day to start. Everyday you put off taking charge is another day of "Oh Hum". If you don't normally exercise then get some sneakers on and go for a walk, better still grab your significant other and take them with you. Are you a shy person, then be naked in the house for a while today. Been a while since you have been to a movie? Then take your lover and see something powerful that stirs your emotions, share a large popcorn.

Start facing your fears. If there are friends and family members you haven't talked to because of something in the past then pick up the phone and call them. Putting long dead differences behind you is cleansing. Have a coworker that you don't talk to because of disagreements in the past, then extend your hand in friendship, get over it and put it behind you.

Go to the beach, go hiking, go exploring a new city, there are lots of adventures that are close to home and inexpensive. Rent a convertiable, go somewhere on a weekend trip. Get out of the house see new places. Have friends over for and grill burgers, play a board game, anything that isn't on the computer.

There are countless ways to change your life. Gather your spouse, family or significant other and have a planning meeting, the subject, "Where would you like to go this weekend". Take charge and shake up your dull life, it will change you forever.

Thanks for reading.

Rambling Panda

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Super Powers

We have been treated to a lot of movies over the last 10 years, based on Comic Book Heroes. We have met Batman, The X Men, The Fantastic Four and a host of others. We all, adults as well as children have day dreamed of having powers and extra ordinary abilities. What if we really did have the ability to do what others only dream of?

We, humans, are an amazing creation. Most of us have no concept of the abilities we already have. We simply can't comprehend how amazing we really are. To start with most people have never tried to see what their minds and bodies are capable of.

A super power is by my definition being able to do something that others find difficult or impossible. Let's start with the power of patience, very often we do something to soon because we just couldn't wait and we settled for less, when if we could have just waited longer we could have had much more.

Will power is indeed a super power. If you can develop it, and you can, you can accomplish amazing things: you can lose weight, stop smoking and other unhealthy habits, you can even keep form embarrassing yourself by keeping your mouth shut when you would really much rather create a scene.

How does one train their since of patience, self control, will power and other powers of our minds? We already know the basics of training our bodies to develop our athletic powers but powers of the mind are more difficult.

To start with you have to want to have more control over your thoughts and actions. You have to want to resist temptations before you can start training your desires. If you want to be more in control then start by controlling your cravings. "I want a snack, but I'm not hungry and it's to late to eat since I'm going to bed soon", ever thought that and then ate a pint of ice cream anyway? Once you give in your at peace and content with your comfort food.

Wish you had the POWER to resist those cravings? Wish you had the patience to wait without getting frustrated and bubbling over with stress? Well you can, you just have to want it and start developing your powers.

Practice saying NO to yourself when you have an unhealthy craving or desire. Just as you have to force yourself off the couch to train your body you have to learn to say NO to your cravings. I will not eat late, I will not light another cigarette, I will wait till I'm hungry to eat.....

Think about the things you wish you had the power to change and then get started, tackle one change at a time and each time you don't give in you have increased your power.

Thanks for reading.

Rambling Panda