msiwik
September 12th, 2005, 12:53 PM
Hello All:
As soon as I can get my wife to upload pictures, I will get a couple on here but the big news is that I completed the Cleveland Clinic's half marathon as planned yesterday. It took me a little more than twice as long as it did pre-surgery (3:08 vs. 1:43 to 1:45 pre-surgery) but I was encouraged. See my other thread for background.
Approach - thanks in large part to the feedback here and the fact that I got mono from coming back too soon, I had no goals yesterday. In fact, I planned to walk it casually taking as long as 4 hours if need be. Instead, I was able to average 15 minutes a mile until the last mile. For those runner types, I did the inverse of run/walk. I walked each mile until I could see the mile marker and then I would run to the marker. That got me to mile 12 at just about 3 hours and then I ran the last mile for a finish in 3 hours and 11 minutes. I think the mono was a blessing in that it tought me to go much slower with my recovery and to be honest, the most I would have been able to do under previous conditions is maybe a 2:30, using an a 11 to 12 minute pace. Doing that would have not materially different than just walking most of the race.
Challenge - It's clear that my decreased ejection fraction will take some time to recover. Pre-op it was 60; now it's 45 to 50 ("low normal"). My plan is to limit running in the following ways:
a) During the week, I will run 3 to 4 times for 3 to 4 miles. On the weekend, I will do an hour long run of 5 to 6 miles. No more than 4 to 5 runs a week and no more long runs until January 2006. In fact, I think I "hit the proverbial" wall in late July when I did that 8 mile run at 11:00 with no walk breaks - 3 weeks after being told I should start with running 3 minutes a time with a 1 minute walk interval.
b) The initial pace for the next 30 days will be 11:00 - a minute better than where I started my Phase II rehab on July 5. The plan is to decrease that pace by 20 to 30 seconds every 30 days.
c) I don't have any more races in mind until the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon next May. By then, I hope to be back in the 8 to 9 min. range.
d) I will have a stress echo done in mid-December 2005 to see where the ejection fraction is and how my heart is improving.
Ok enough for now. I appreciate all the support and encouragement since I joined the site in mid-August.
Mark
As soon as I can get my wife to upload pictures, I will get a couple on here but the big news is that I completed the Cleveland Clinic's half marathon as planned yesterday. It took me a little more than twice as long as it did pre-surgery (3:08 vs. 1:43 to 1:45 pre-surgery) but I was encouraged. See my other thread for background.
Approach - thanks in large part to the feedback here and the fact that I got mono from coming back too soon, I had no goals yesterday. In fact, I planned to walk it casually taking as long as 4 hours if need be. Instead, I was able to average 15 minutes a mile until the last mile. For those runner types, I did the inverse of run/walk. I walked each mile until I could see the mile marker and then I would run to the marker. That got me to mile 12 at just about 3 hours and then I ran the last mile for a finish in 3 hours and 11 minutes. I think the mono was a blessing in that it tought me to go much slower with my recovery and to be honest, the most I would have been able to do under previous conditions is maybe a 2:30, using an a 11 to 12 minute pace. Doing that would have not materially different than just walking most of the race.
Challenge - It's clear that my decreased ejection fraction will take some time to recover. Pre-op it was 60; now it's 45 to 50 ("low normal"). My plan is to limit running in the following ways:
a) During the week, I will run 3 to 4 times for 3 to 4 miles. On the weekend, I will do an hour long run of 5 to 6 miles. No more than 4 to 5 runs a week and no more long runs until January 2006. In fact, I think I "hit the proverbial" wall in late July when I did that 8 mile run at 11:00 with no walk breaks - 3 weeks after being told I should start with running 3 minutes a time with a 1 minute walk interval.
b) The initial pace for the next 30 days will be 11:00 - a minute better than where I started my Phase II rehab on July 5. The plan is to decrease that pace by 20 to 30 seconds every 30 days.
c) I don't have any more races in mind until the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon next May. By then, I hope to be back in the 8 to 9 min. range.
d) I will have a stress echo done in mid-December 2005 to see where the ejection fraction is and how my heart is improving.
Ok enough for now. I appreciate all the support and encouragement since I joined the site in mid-August.
Mark