Weekly roundup: Friday potluck

Welcome to another installment of the weekly roundup we all know and love: Friday potluck!
This week we're serving fitness news, funnies, poultry, and adulthood.

Oh... and it's National Margarita Day!
One of my favorite margaritas ever EVER is a grapefruit margarita made as simply as possible: grapefruit juice + tequila + triple sec. Cheers!

Grapefruit margarita

The more you know (about yoga)

I love yoga. I would not, and could not, claim otherwise. However, yoga is an athletic pursuit, just like any other, which means that there are risks to yoga. Muscle strain and... surprisingly... stroke are among the potential hazards.

This does not mean that yogis need to roll up their yoga mats and quit, but it is important that participants have full information, just as it is important for runners to know about the risk of stress fracture, and football players to know about the risk of concussion.

William J. Broad's new book The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards aims to fill in some of those gaps in knowledge - documenting both the risks and the benefits of yoga practice.


Effing PF

Surprise, surprise... Doctors and scientists have no idea what causes plantar fasciitis, but new tests indicate that it is not caused by inflamed tissue. (Does that mean I can stop icing my right foot? Maybe heat would be a better treatment after all?)


Because you know we're all thinking it...

Image source

ABCs of PE

In an attempt to protect physical education classes from budget cuts, and to ensure that every second of the school day is used to prepare children for standardized tests, schools are turning to math and vocabulary instruction during gym class.

Image source

To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this turn of events...

As a teacher, I know that different students have different learning styles, and perhaps physical learning will illuminate subjects that a classroom lecture might not. On the other hand, as a runner, I know that sometimes the mental "down time" of my workout is the time when my brain makes connections and gathers insights that do not flow when I am engaged in active thought.


Wild Turkey

Turkeys are terrorizing one California town...

The turkey takeover started in November. Perhaps it's payback for Thanksgiving?

Florida Governor poses his daughter for a photo with the Thanksgiving turkey
 before dinner (Thanksgiving 1959). No wonder the turkeys are mad. Source.

Adulthood

This week I did adult things like meet with a lawyer to do the paperwork for a will and power of attorney, surf real estate ads for property, apply for jobs in DC, and... load the dishwasher:

Source: themetapicture.com via Beth on Pinterest

Quote of the week:
(Learning to count while working out)

At the gym doing push ups... "1... 2... 3..."
Attractive person walks by... "97... 98...99."
Unknown

Happy Friday, friends!

Is it Pool Running or Aqua Jogging?

Alt. title: Exercises to do while nursing an injured calf

My September entry into the New 2 U Cross Training Challenge is both the lamest and the most creative of my entries to date.

My sole goal: get a good workout without putting any strain on my right foot and calf.

This sounds pretty simple until you realize that nearly every aerobic and strength exercise involves standing, jumping, pushing, or pedaling with your feet. Even core exercises like planks are out of the question.

Google searches for "exercise with calf strain" return almost nothing of use. There are exercises to do once your calf is healing, but no advice at all about what to do to keep from going batsh*t crazy during the week or two during which you need to stay off your leg.

Yes, yes... I know I could just laze around, read, nap, repeat.
But I have never been good at sitting still. Maybe I had undiagnosed ADHD as a child? Either way, I don't intend to change now.

So this month's workouts took some creativity. I developed a strength training routine to use during these dark days of calf-strain-plus-PF:

• bent-knee push ups
• cat/cow pose
• bicycle crunches
• rowing crunches
• Russian twists
• 1980s aerobic-video-style leg lifts
• superman and hollow-man
• alternating donkey kicks and "dirty dogs" (one leg at a time, none of this jumping stuff)

Source: google.co.uk via Joanne on Pinterest

In addition, I did a workout I've never done before: pool running.

Or maybe it's called aqua jogging?
(If it's really "aqua jogging" this is the one and only time you can call me a jogger without ending our friendship.)

Whatever we call it, I've been "running" in the water-aerobics-area of my local pool after I finish lap swimming. I can't say pool running will ever replace real running, but it was a nice alternative while I was hobbling around.


I'm also glad that the Cross Training Challenge got me back in the water with snorkeling in July, lap swimming in August, and now pool running/aqua jogging in September.

That said, I think I need to return to dry land for my October challenge.

So is it called "pool running" or "aqua jogging?"
Have you ever tried aqua jogging or other water aerobics?
Clearly I need a non-aquatic activity for my next cross training challenge...
Any suggestions for another new-to-me exercise to try?

Junk(ie) miles

Three.
Three weeks of being sidelined by plantar fasciitis.

By now I thought I'd be crawling the walls because I haven't been running. I assumed I'd be bitter without my daily dose of endorphins/endocannabinoids. In fact, I worried I'd be a little like a junkie going through the DTs.

But lack-of-running-anxiety has not set in.
The shakes haven't started.
I'm not homicidal.
At least not yet.

So how have I stayed sane?

I filled my morning "running time" with other productive pursuits: prepping my class materials for the first day of school, submitting a journal article I've been working on for months, baking multi-grain pumpkin muffins, tying down the lawn furniture and then consuming frosty rum drinks.

But I still need my daily workout fix, so I've found other activities: swimming, yoga class, and a slightly modified "Ripped in 30" wherein I sub low-impact cardio for all of the jumping and plyometrics. (If I'm going to hurt my foot more, it will be on the track, not for a DVD, thankyouverymuch.)

So far, this plan seems to be working!

Ok. Ok...
I'll admit it.
I ran 4 miles on Sunday.
And I've taken a couple of long walks, which are supposedly no better than running when it comes to healing from PF. But one run in 20 days is a low I haven't seen in years. That counts as "not running."

Yes, I know I sound like a smoker who substitutes a straw for a cigarette and who chews nicotine gum for a fix... I know I sound like a drinker who says "I haven't had a drink in weeks! Except for one with dinner yesterday. But that doesn't count."

We all have our addictions.

And while the placebos are working for now...
I cannot wait for my next fix.

What is the longest you've gone without running?
How do you avoid withdrawal symptoms when you're sidelined from an activity you love?

Can do

This morning was the first Saturday morning in months that did not involve a crack-of-dawn alarm clock. The reason: no morning run on the schedule thanks to a bout of plantar fasciitis.

It's been six days of no running. By all accounts I should be going bonkers.

But here's the thing...
I stumbled across this quote and it has become my recovery mantra:

"When you catch yourself slipping into a pool of negativity, notice how it derives from nothing other than resistance to the current situation."
Donna Quesada, The Buddha in the Classroom: Zen Wisdom to Inspire Teachers

So...
I'm trying not to fight the situation.

• I can't run, but I can catch up on my reading goals for the year.
• I can't run, but I can spend an hour on my stationary bike in the cool sanctuary of my air conditioned living room.
• I can't run, but I can spend a morning preparing class materials for the start of fall semester.
• I can't run, but I can fill the refrigerator with fresh produce and make delicious meals like whole wheat pasta with broccoli rabe and spicy chicken sausage.
• I can't run, but I can sleep in one day for a change.
• I can't run, but I can go to yoga class for the first time since May.

There is only one "can't" but there are a whole lot of "can-dos."

(PS - Dear readers, please remind me of this mantra if I still can't run 3 weeks from now and the effects of good these intentions wear off...)

What can you do this weekend that makes you happy?

PF strikes again

I've been avoiding admitting this out loud, but the poking pain in my right foot refuses to be silenced any longer.

It looks like I am the latest victim of the evil PF monster.

This is new to me.

Years ago I had IT band issues, and figured out how to beat those. Last summer I strained my calf in a jellyfish sting incident, and I rested and iced my way to recovery. I've had more than my fair share of blisters, and I've lost toenails. But plantar fasciitis has never been in my personal injury vocabulary... until now.

At this point it's not debilitating, just annoying. But I'm starting to notice aches in my hip and calf, which are telltale signs that my sore foot is mucking up my stride.

Podiatry Today notes that:

"Treating plantar fasciitis is challenging for any patient but it is much more difficult in the running population due mainly to the runner not wanting to take any time off from running."

Go figure.

But, I'd rather nip this in the bud before it gets worse, so...

... as much as it pains me to type these words: I'm going to cut back on running for the next couple of weeks, ice my instep, and massage the sore spot with a tennis ball.

Meet Tennie, my new training partner

Any other recommendations would be warmly welcomed!

(In the meantime, I guess it's a good thing I've got the New 2 U Cross Training Challenge to keep me distracted.)

Have you ever dealt with plantar fasciitis or similar injury?
What are your recovery secrets?