Not sure what your history is with running, but if you’ve never been checked out, I’d consider seeing an orthopedic specialist before moving into the training intensity that is needed for an Ironman, just as a precaution. There are certain conditions that could lead to you doing permanent damage to your joints by training that hard.
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Second the be careful in training advice with the running. You DO NOT want to cause any foot injuries by working out too hard too soon. Something more easily done as we age and carry excess weight…
Wheels
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Did some mixed gravel and country roads with the boys today. 19 miles, although my Garmin Edge waited 5 miles before it started tracking for some reason. Probably 1300’ of climbing. Our nearby country roads are really pretty safe…I think we only had maybe four or five cars pass us in that 19 miles.
Down now to 205 lbs…so 30 pounds lighter than July. The rides are far easier now…really excited to get sub 200 lbs…
And. Bonus comment. Yuengling Flight low carb beer is terrible. Ultra Amber is way better (the best of the worst?)… You got a low carb option @chipwich? Skinny Flounder? Slim Dogfish? Svelte Clam?
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No, but surprisingly our Big Sand Beaches Lager is only 96 calories and 4.3 ABV for 12 oz,(only sold in 16 oz cans), where as Corona Premier is 90 cal / 4.0 ABV, and Corona Light is 99 cal / 4.0 ABV. No idea on the carbs.
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I gotta get down there to try some of that stuff man.
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Would love to be responsible for destroying your diet. You are shaming me!
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Yeah…that lager sounds pretty darn good. I’m having a celebratory dinner out when I hit 200 pounds. It will kick me out of ketosis for a couple days, but I’ve had my eye on that prize for months now. We have an Italian joint in town that does a killer pepperoni calzone…I’m going to eat the whole thing. 
Then back on the bike the next day… 
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So we’ve established that I’m not a great runner. Just never really liked it…but since it is (sigh) part of a triathlon…then I must. Still very much easing into it to prevent injury. I will admit, it is way more palatable when the temperatures are down around 10-15C…feels much better.
Still experimenting with upping my cadence, shortening my stride, and trying not to lift my foot so high. It definitely feels better…more sustainable, but at the penalty of going slower…which is also fine. I care not at all about speed really…I just want to build endurance. Not expecting much at this point still weighing 205 lbs…I hope to make more gains as I continue to drop weight.
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Running is definitely something I absolutely suck at. I’m not sure if I just never learned how to do it correctly or what.
Also experiment with how your foot touches the ground. Running on your heels is a bit less efficient and bad for your knees in the long run, but it can work, even for some pros. I like running slightly on my forefoot, which takes less toll on your upper leg but will absolutely murder your calves in the beginning.
You are going to be running a lot to be able to make the Iron Man, pays off to have running shoes that fit your style and foot well.
If you get used to that style of running, you can be just as fast. It is definitely more efficient if done well.
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Build those muscles carefully, but even more so be careful of the tendons and cartilage where the muscles attach. Those grow slowly and you are in real danger of damaging those when doing new forms of exercise. The muscle grows way faster than the cartilage, and can easily become so strong it’ll tear the attachment that’s still only meant to take the older, weaker muscle. If you tear 'em, it hurts like hell and takes weeks to heal. Don’t ask me how I know. Eat a lot of fish. Fat fish.
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I’ll second what @sobek is saying about proper form. If you can find a clinic or somewhere to watch your form, it can help. Here’s some videos with pointers that align with what I’ve had coaches work with me on:
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I’ll bite.
Hey folks, sorry about the absence again but IRL and an inspiring case of Covid after losing my Wife last year has added perspective. In the way of health and fitness I hate PT and always have. That being said if you will provide me with fuel and a reliable bike I will ride for however long it takes, cheerfully and contentedly as long as the terrain is interesting.
So the other day after I could get both hands around my thigh for the first time since I was thirteen whilst sitting in ICU I began to seriously think of recovery, and just what was that going to take this time. Coronavirus is just that, a virus. It converts YOU into IT, by mechanisms still not fully understood, and the feeling and it’s results are quite unpleasant. There were people going code blue every now and again, that is what a Trauma unit looks like, I’m sure Chris is well acquainted as I believe you fly an air ambulance?
At any rate watching a woman not much younger than my Wife would have been losing her Husband was a sobering experience. He came in, they tried and she held his hand. Sobering. He was younger than me and by all appearances in far better health, even had good profusion from what I could see. One of Oregon’s new awful daily statistics and I’m sure you all have your own, nobody has a lock on it.
But I decided to quit with the pity party, then and forthwith.
Yes I lost my Wife a year ago. Yes, our primary business and personal attorney played us false, resulting in months of not only delays, but worthless bills paid his way, an unresolved Probate that he was under Probation for and problems I will be digging out from for years yet.
But watching those folks again, after so many years away doing my own respiratory thing in the ‘burbs with my Wife, it made me realize that I am not done, and the suffering not only on MY part but my also freshly-recovered Daughter who just simply picked up her Mother’s pack herself, in addition to being my new number two, she is not done. She got out conveniently right before they locked me away, she got the Presidential cocktail, apparently cured and released, I got the steroid cocktail AFTER having lived with it for a week and a half.
But all that merely goes towards the bulk of the message, take this crap seriously. Please. I promised the people there I would not only help send home what ones we could instead of there or a Nursing Home but that I would evangelize for them how very sad it is to read and hear the news and yet contend with death and dying every day simply because people will it get the word. I damned near died myself, saw others younger do so in front of me, and saw the people charged with the care of us break into tears because of the awful loss and stress. I couldn’t even cry myself anymore because I started in watching it in Italy back in January and as their EMS were kicking stretchers and having hysterics I knew. The word had been given, the guidance from the colleges of the fellows you see. No vent for you, your prognosis and age making you a poor candidate. They were screaming these Italians and it effected me deeply. I work in vents, I have for close to thirty years and I am one of a very few people with in home experience to that level. Like I said the pity party dried up. I might not be able to squeeze any out for the poor woman across the way like a decent member of society but I CAN recognize loss, and that I most likely have a role to play, just like these people still slugging it out in here. So I promised my Covid Doc everything up to telemetry if she wanted, reminded her that I was already titrating myself off of the six liters of Os under MY watch and I was wasting her nice Covid-19 ICU space. Lots of room in here for those that need it Doc, was my words and she bought it.
I have survived Covid-19, or at least I’m pretty sure I have, I don’t even fit quarantine protocols any more. I’m a stick figure of my formerly skinny self, down from 6’3” and about 223 to about 195 or so. I was 208 when I hit the unit but they kept my weight from me as apparently I lost quite a bit. My scales here are in my Hoyer, so I haven’t weighed myself yet. But I’m a pretty good guess, I will be within a couple of pounds of that I know. Just about thirty pounds underweight and NO way we are going to no Baja like that.
So what ya think as far as recovery? I figure a resumption of what “does” pass for exercise in conjunction with careful diet and I should be good. My BP never really crested 130 not even in extremis, my old ticker is a solid unit as well as my lungs, not too bad for a thirty year smoker that quit. I don’t drink either, so all I need is a good case of religion and I’ll have it down I think! But no disrespect, not after that, I intend to recover and to help others as long as I am able to or that there is a need.
It really IS a wonderful life, I often reflect on this now, having been privileged to look beyond the veil this last time. I will ride, and I will eat, and I will continue to give the care and educate and advocate and evangelize as well, for that is my grace. I don’t wanna make it political, it isn’t. Virus just don’t care, it’ll eat you or your Grandmother, or anything it finds appetizing and analogous for it’s own weird kind of life. And always remember, it will merely use you up, like a commodity, you are NOT the final destination, someone else is. I just don’t want my experience to come to waste, and have been for nothing so I promised those folks that saved me I’d tell people. We have become industrially desensitized, until it is our loved one there, and it hurts these people to have to participate in it. They don’t have TIME to stand with signs, they are working, hard every day caring for the sick. So because I am tangential to them and symbiotic as well I agreed.
And I agreed that I WOULD co-operate with my care, and make the very best Ventilator Care Home a thing once more, with my poor Daughter who has learned to do it largely for pass through largesse, with no hope of renumeration save the one that really matters- Passion, and the recognition of your peers. A simple thing our Government has never learned, not up to the Presidency apparently. We do it for attaboys in a hallway for those of you that don’t know, the respect of your fellows is a highly desired outcome if you are a guy like me. I am not a Doctor, or a Nurse, or even a Respiratory Therapist and from where I am coming from it does NOT matter. I am what was once known in the Marines as a Maverick, an enlisted either brevetted or who crawled up out of the slime sans college to Officer status. I am qualified to DO the care on the highest level possible due to my years and training but I require an RN to oversight me in a process known as “delegation of a task of Skilled Nursing”.
But I don’t care, sitting there perched on the edge of my bed like a scarecrow and yet seeing that the words I was saying were effecting this hardcore Covid Doc I knew. When she said Passion in my general hearing I accepted it, graciously on behalf of my Daughter and myself and her Mother no longer here with us. And like I said, jaded but still empathic I find I can continue and not only that, but I wish to. Everybody goes home is a Marine thing they have and I understand still will get themselves wasted in an attempt to get that done. That’s us.
So although I feel a LOT like Slim Pickens’ Major Kong character reciting how blown away their BFF is, we ARE on target and I believe us to have enough fuel to make at least our Primary target area if not maybe a secondary or two. It’s worth an attempt, watching that woman quietly lose her husband like that really put the hook in me good. I have been gifted and blessed and I owe it to others to put the word out about what we can do for folks. What they can do for THEMSELVES and go home in the process, all the ones who will not be fortunate enough to “wean” from the Ventilator. I have been doing nothing less for over twenty five years now, why throw that away because I am feeling sorry for myself?
There are TWO of us now here, out of a former half dozen plus independents as we might be thought of. My Daughter and myself. My former Employer and the lady I learned it from back in the day is NOT certified to my level anymore, nor do I believe she can be, too many violations. We are so very rare, and seeing that we have value to people after all this time was enlightening to say the least. Almost a custom engineered disease to recall me, I find myself fascinated by the possibilities again, and just a few short weeks ago all I largely was was scared. Scared I would get infected, scared I would die, scared my clients and my Daughter would become homeless in the aftermath, lots of reasons to be timid.
It is my intention to help our people return home from this. I do not desire money or fame or recognition, except as I say by my peers, that is the sincerest form of flattery. I recognize a fellow Playa, and in turn it is DAMNED nice to still be recognized as one.
Sorry to highjack, but it IS important to me and I AM in recovery and strength building, so I’m claiming relevancy. I’ll hie my butt off to the regular fora here in a second, I might actually contribute something as I just finally got my TCA, but not only that I got a SECOND one by accident due to a cancelled pre-order! So I can actually fly a 380 although they are all gone now IRL.
TTFN and please take anything from all of that that you might find relevant, I just put it out there to inform as well as tell you what was going on in obedience to what I have been asked to. I will be strength and endurance training again, I plan to resume as soon as I am weaned from the Oxygen. I have a date with Baja, and a big 500 pound 1200cc Scrambler of my association, she is how I will “bulk up” again! And a lot of food, dear God how much lean cow, chicken and cheese I will have to eat!
Salud!
What fitness trackers are you guys wearing? I’ve had the Samsung Galaxy watch for a year or two now and I’ve also started wearing a Fitbit Inspire 2 since it irritated my wife’s wrist. Fitbit is great at everything but step counting … terrible exaggeration.
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I’ve had a Garmin 35 for a few years now, running the Garmin Connect software to track activity. It works well and hasn’t given me any issues, but I’m definitely looking at upgrading soonish, so I’ll be able to track more than just running and cycling.
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I just started using a Garmin Forerunner 935 a couple of months ago. So far, I love it. Prior to that I was just using a FitBit Edge…but the Garmin is quite a bit more advanced (and more $$$). I probably only know how to use 1/10 of the functions at this point. I have a Garmin Edge 830 that sends cycling data to Garmin Connect, and the watch sends heart rate and running data as well as GPS data when I’m off the bike.
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On a related note, Amazon is currently having a sale on several of the Garmin watches.
I have a Garmin Fenix 5X plus. It is pretty sweet. I probably overbought for what I needed it for, but I am pretty hard on watches so I wanted to get something durable. 18 months of banging this thing around in a UPS truck and aside from the bezel being a bit beat up it is in perfect shape. The only downside is that the contacts to charge it get dirty pretty easily and makes it a bit of a task to get the cable to connect.
Wish I could keep one of these. They always seem to give out on me. Had two Garmin’s in the last few years.
Only thing that ever lasted was a Pathfinder watch (waterproof to like 1000’, etc); would have outlasted me if I hadn’t left it sitting on the top of a mountain (next to a deer carcass). Even wore saltwater kayak fishing. Couldn’t hurt the thing.
Guess I tend to lose things; in the dark, at 9,000’…after a 2 day hike…yadda, yadda. Too old to go back for it, but I do have the lat/long’s? 
I hear ya’. After I left behind a couple pairs of expensive sunglasses…I quit with buying really nice ones. Now I buy $20 Sea Strikers and that suits me just fine…