#nsng

Vinnie Tortorich, renowned fitness expert, author of Fitness Confidential, and creator of the documentary Fat: A Documentary, has built a loyal following around his “No Sugar, No Grains” (NSNG) lifestyle. His message is simple but radical: cut out all sugars and grains, focus on whole foods, and reclaim your health. For Pittsburghers, especially those seeking top-quality meats from local…

Gotta take advantage of the great weather and get out there! Since I’m not feeling any of the sluggishness from the meds I have to take for the next 10 days, I put a trip to Costco to good use and completed a short recovery run.

Also, since it’s the season to vote early and vote often, I put my political affiliations on my hat.

As I’m sure you know, these are all about adding a little more effort and building speed. I was relieved to see that despite getting to a pace of 7’40”, I didn’t get the requisite knee discomfort, though it did threaten to do that. I eased back on the throttle and it stopped complaining. It did, however, had had enough of my bullshit towards the end but by then I was already about to start the cooldown portion.

I have another half marathon planned in the coming days but I’m not sure how it will go. The drugs I have to be on could raise some issues. In the meantime, I really gotta quit my starbies habit.

Haha, just kidding. But I did keep getting distracted and dropped to a sub-ten minute pace. Funny, considering who the first coach was in this guided run. As a result I started feeling it in the knee. To be honest I did feel a little stiff during the warmup phase but I was able to fix this plane mid flight.

10 weeks left in the program but the deadline is in four weeks. I’m considering a trial run just to see if I can get it done or how far I can go. The goal is Madame Zuzu’s in Highland Park - conveniently approximately 26.2 miles from Soldier Field. Hopefully, the weather and this body will cooperate.

I think I solved the issue with the knee stiffness. Most long runs (and some shorter ones, too) would have some degree of discomfort in the knee. This time I kept my pace above 10 minutes and I didn’t have any trouble. My knees were sore AF afterwards though.

The only problem was I had scheduled a massage appointment that day and I was really cutting it close. So even though I was done with my long run, I still had to run home, shower and get my ass out the door and then run some more to my appointment so I ended up logging a little over a half mile above what I already ran. I barely made it on time. I hate being late - especially for stuff like this.

The soreness is gone for the most part, a day later. I applied some heat and massages my calves some more with a machine I have and everything seems okay. Even the knees are fine and I managed to walk 5 miles today.

Had a really great run today. Three sets of speed intervals and I was able to keep pace despite being out of practice. I’m still a little concerned about the stiffness in the knee but it didn’t bother me this time around. Like yesterday, I ended my run at Philz Coffee because gotta coffee.

Gonna go for a four-miler in a couple of days and then a 12.4 mile run later this week. I might just push it a little to make it a half marathon if it’s on the menu 😉.

Shout out to my corporate sponsors and overlords, the omnipresent Weyland-Yutani Corporation - makers of the planetary atmospheric processors for all your off-world terraforming needs.