Yesterday was 45 minutes of incline treadmill.
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2026 getting/staying in shape motivation thread
- Thread starter thedutchtouch
- Start date
Allegheny Tom
Well-Known Member
I need mental motivation.
I already had a bad right ankle due to many injuries dating back to 1976. A couple years ago I had a bad flare up that almost made me an invalid. I could barely stand or walk. Been thru tons of docs, treatments, therapy, etc and about a year ago I finally got back to semi normal for me.
Welp, last month I had one small spot on a gutter screen that had some debris causing some run-over and puddled on my deck. I knew it was gonna freeze and create a hazardous ice sheet. So I got out the ladder and needed to only get up high enough to reach my arm up to the 8' high gutter. I needed to go up one more rung on the ladder to get a better reach and the ladder kick back and out from under me. I came down on my bad ankle from about 6 feet and also rolled back and smacked my head hard on the deck. I knew instantly that my ankle was toast.
Turns out I really did a job on it. When I asked the surgeon if I could lose my foot he didn't exactly say "No". Reading between the lines makes me think that I came close and I am still not out of the woods (so to speak). He stressed many times how serious my injury is, one of the worst he's seen.
Spent a few weeks in the trauma unit with one of those external fixation cages until the swelling went down enough to operate. Left the hospital in a cast and now I'm in a boot...non weight bearing for at least another couple months. Walker and crutches and a knee scooter on the way.
This has been the worst experience of my life but it could have been far worse. No head injury and I'm not paralyzed which could have happened if I'd landed ON the ladder...could have broken my neck.
I now have a fuzed ankle, and in me I have more hardware than a piece of modern archery gear.
My attitude has been surprisingly good but yesterday we had to cancel our yearly trip to Florida. That was a bit of a mood changer when I cancelled the bass charter.
I have a long road ahead of me.
I'll take some needed prayers.
Thanks and praise God that this wasn't worse.
I already had a bad right ankle due to many injuries dating back to 1976. A couple years ago I had a bad flare up that almost made me an invalid. I could barely stand or walk. Been thru tons of docs, treatments, therapy, etc and about a year ago I finally got back to semi normal for me.
Welp, last month I had one small spot on a gutter screen that had some debris causing some run-over and puddled on my deck. I knew it was gonna freeze and create a hazardous ice sheet. So I got out the ladder and needed to only get up high enough to reach my arm up to the 8' high gutter. I needed to go up one more rung on the ladder to get a better reach and the ladder kick back and out from under me. I came down on my bad ankle from about 6 feet and also rolled back and smacked my head hard on the deck. I knew instantly that my ankle was toast.
Turns out I really did a job on it. When I asked the surgeon if I could lose my foot he didn't exactly say "No". Reading between the lines makes me think that I came close and I am still not out of the woods (so to speak). He stressed many times how serious my injury is, one of the worst he's seen.
Spent a few weeks in the trauma unit with one of those external fixation cages until the swelling went down enough to operate. Left the hospital in a cast and now I'm in a boot...non weight bearing for at least another couple months. Walker and crutches and a knee scooter on the way.
This has been the worst experience of my life but it could have been far worse. No head injury and I'm not paralyzed which could have happened if I'd landed ON the ladder...could have broken my neck.
I now have a fuzed ankle, and in me I have more hardware than a piece of modern archery gear.
My attitude has been surprisingly good but yesterday we had to cancel our yearly trip to Florida. That was a bit of a mood changer when I cancelled the bass charter.
I have a long road ahead of me.
I'll take some needed prayers.
Thanks and praise God that this wasn't worse.
Yuck, hopefully it doesn't keep you out of a tree this fall.
After a couple decade long break from structured workouts I started using MTNTough last June. If you like circuit workouts (EMOM, AMRAP, etc) it's a good program. I'm creeping back up a couple pounds after the holidays but I'm restarting a course on Monday and was down 20 lbs in like 8 weeks of their intro body weight programs and then hunting season general activity. Only other change I made was snacking on carrot sticks after dinner instead of junk food. Made enough of a difference to get me calorie negative most days and get the trendlines headed the right direction.
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Prayers for sure. That looks rough.
Wow that is a lot of hardware you got there. I can’t imagine what you are going through but you have a great attitude in counting your blessings, you are so right about how it could have been much worse. Prayers sent and keep us posted on progress.
hokiehunter373
Well-Known Member
You said you sent your watch in. I agree with @GreginPA question of how is it calculating your HR? Did it get changed from how you had it before? % of max HR? % of HRR? Etc. Also, I realized just a week or two ago, Garmins zones are messed up. Their zone 3 range is what your zone 2 should be. See below from their app
“Easy running is done in zone 3”. They also list their zone 3 as “aerobic”. I realized this after listening to a podcast and how garmins rates usually differ from stravas. I basically undertrained for a year straight because of it but my easy runs were certainly easy and I don’t think that hurt. Hope this helps
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Whoa, hold on a second. Are you saying the zone 2 always being discussed is actually zone 3 on Garmin?!???
Also sorry to hear about your injury @Allegheny Tom , wishing you a speedy recovery! It's hard but you'll get through and figure out ways to keep doing what you love, if modified a little. I had a fairly bad wrist injury that's really limited my range of motion when I was 18, which I was very lucky to have youth on my side, but I rarely notice it hampering me anymore. You'll adapt and over come!
hokiehunter373
Well-Known Member
As far as I currently understand it, yes
hokiehunter373
Well-Known Member
@Horn I think there’s too much variance between each individual and devices to reliable pick one. When it comes down to it you need to run at a pace that allows you to hold a conversation to be in zone 2
“If you can breathe through your nose exclusively and still run comfortably for what feels like an indefinite amount, you're likely putting in a zone 2 effort. If breathing through your nose gets rather difficult but is still doable or you switch to mouth breathing occasionally, you're mostly in zone 3.”
“If you can breathe through your nose exclusively and still run comfortably for what feels like an indefinite amount, you're likely putting in a zone 2 effort. If breathing through your nose gets rather difficult but is still doable or you switch to mouth breathing occasionally, you're mostly in zone 3.”
Does everyone "zone" train? I've been run training for about 7 years and don't mess with it. I tried it the 2nd or 3rd year and it was not conducive at all. Some of my "runs" were a half assed jog at best. More of a speed walk and it just wouldn't work for me.
My training plans now are based on speed/time. I have to keep those runs in a window that I set up. All of these times are are based off of a goal time for a specific length of race you are training for. I use a site called lukehumphryrunning.com to calculate these specific training speeds for certain runs. IE: speed workouts, long runs, tempo runs.
I got my training plans (it's a spreadsheet) from a friend who's daughter was a collegiate distance runner. He as well does many events a year. I believe the training plans are Humphrey's. But cannot completely confirm that.
If anyone is interested, I can post a snapshot of what it looks like? I know ever has their methods that work for them. We are all creatures of habit. So I'm not trying to say my method is the best. Just throwing it out there on what has worked for me.
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@-CRASH I can't seem to find a way to stay in zone 2 so I've given up on it. I don't run races or anything, I just wasn't to be in good enough shape to do what I like and play outfield without gassing lol. So I do cardio way harder than any plan I've ever seen but it's what I like to do, so I do haha. That's why I was excited it might be zone 3 on garmin, that I can probably actually do.
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hokiehunter373
Well-Known Member
To be frank, that’s likely because your aerobic base is crap. I have the same problem. And it’s a massive shot to the ego to have to stop running to walk to get back in zone even if you can click off fast miles out of zone. But if you look into the science of it, if you stick to it, you’re literally helping one of the ventricles of your heart grow larger so you can get more oxygenated blood through with less force. It takes time, but you end up building up that base and then your times drop. Those half assed jogs actually make a difference and then switch speed work on top of it you’re onto something. I don’t think everyone zone trains or even needs to. I’m willing to bet your friends college kid already has a huge aerobic base and speed work does the trick. I prefer speed work. I love the runs where I can just let it rip. But I’m not looking to race 5 or 10 Ks. And while I’m competitive I’m not even that concerned with “racing” longer events. I just want to improve my bodies longevity for the next half a century. So I follow the 80/20 rule for the most part. 80% easy. 20% hard. Works for me even though I had to do some mental gymnastics to not worry about my pace on the easy runs at first. But there’s a whole lot of ways to skin a cat and what’s really important is just the fact that we’re all being active
It sounds like your goals are the same as mine. I hit my personal goal of breaking 2 hours in the half marathon. To most here that isn't a problem, I know. But I too just want to stay in better shape so I can go longer into my later years and still hopefully hunt out west if it's in my cards.
I definitely need to look into this more. You have enlightened me about stuff I didn't even know about. I was unaware of the benefits to the heart ventricles. I appreciate the insight. Is there any pubs or items that you recommend where I can read up on it?
Nonetheless, I appreciate your response. I know everyone has their own methods of training. I'm always down to learn new things. Even if they don't work for me.
New PR but I’m paying for it.
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I've noticed that around 160 bmp ( 89% of a 180 max) is my happy place. I have noticed I'm more like 170-175+ on my watch if I check it when I'm having to push myself a little but I settle right back in around 160-165 and feel good. Is it "bad" to do that? Friday my watch said only do that is important to do that workout only occasionally. Today's workout had nearly identical averages and watch says it was great for me?
That is cooking right there! Not sure I'll ever see those times. Lol
Great job!
hokiehunter373
Well-Known Member
I’ll try to look more up later. A lot of what I learn is listening to podcasts during work but something that opened my eyes was realizing that most of the elites spend almost 90% of their time zone 2 training. It’s good for your mitochondria too and probably most importantly doesn’t beat up your body. Speed work is obviously still real important too
Anecdotal and not research but I like this post until I’ve got more time: https://www.reddit.com/r/running/s/m5S9C2D3oa
hokiehunter373
Well-Known Member
I don’t really think it’s bad but just puts you at risk of overtraining/injury if every run is close to all out effort
I appreciate it. You have me looking at my training in a different way now.
Today I had a 10 mile easy run. I decided to instead of keeping at ragged edge of my speed/time window (normally where I'm comfortable "cruise" pace), to keep my pace in the middle to slow side of that window. I started to think that maybe my training plans are based off of what your saying, but I'm not trying to go hard all time. Even though my easy runs are slower than my tempo and speed work runs.
To shorten this up, I kept all 10 miles in the "middle". I averaged 10:30 min miles. It was tough to go that slow, but I ended up getting into a decent rhythm. Noticed I could run with my mouth closed and breathing through my nose. Finished and looked at my Garmin metrics. I basically ran the entire run in zone 1. I couldn't believe it.
So now I ask. Was I too slow?! Lol
Not sure if it matters or not but my VO2 Max is at a 45 currently. Most I have even been is 46. Maybe my aerobic base is better than we thought?