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Virus Attack
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Virus Attack
Do you ever feel there is not enough time for everything you want to do? It’s been a while since I posted here, due to a number of other demands on my time. The main issue was that I had five of my websites hacked, and it’s taken a while to get them cleaned up. In fact, this site was only cleaned up yesterday after a virus attack.
This was the latest site to be attacked – I received a warning on March 17. Fortunately, my computer is protected, using Microsoft Security Essentials and AVG Free, which saves me from viruses when I log in to websites that have been hacked: I just didn’t expect to find one on my own website! If you have a website, you might be interested to read more about my experiences, and the lessons I learned, at two of my other websites – my blog and my business site.
Clean Up Virus
Cleaning up is something not to be taken lightly: I know this is off-topic, but would like to give you some pointers. I am using Sucuri and, after they have cleaned the site, they give these 5 recommendations:
- Change your FTP or SSH password
- Change your administrator password
- Run a virus scan on your computer
- Update your site (re-install WordPress)
- Back up regularly
I have done all this (using VERY strong passwords), so we should both be safe now.
Running
This will be a short post: I am still gradually getting back to running as my lungs slowly heal following my bout with pneumonia last year. Once I could walk again for 30 minutes, I started adding one-minute jogging breaks. I increased these slowly to five minutes with five minutes walking, and now I have been reducing the walking breaks. Right now I’m down to a two-minute break, which seems to give my lungs long enough to recover before I start another slow jog.
My research has shown that my lungs willheal, which is the good news. The bad news is that it will take a while, so I just need to be patient. Unfortunately, patience is not a strong point with runners! I’m still aiming for the Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon in San Antonio in November, even if I have to walk most of it!
Strength
I have been taking the opportunity to build up my strength after being as weak as a kitten when I recovered from my illness. I find now that my legs and the rest of my body are strong and willing to do a lot more than my lungs will allow. You can read more about my exercise program on my fitness website. Check it out now!
Weights for Women
Weights for Women
I just posted on my other blog at 7 Minutes 2 Fitness about weights for women.
My friend and colleague Claire Poulton has just completed an e Book on weights for women who don’t want to bulk up. Along with me, Claire has been using a personal fitness program since last March, and we have both seen major gains in strength. But a number of women are concerned that strength training will cause them to bulk up.
“Cardio” is not Enough
The problem with running is that it only exercises a part of the body. Unless we do strength training as well (and that means weight lifting) we find ourselves getting more and more frequent injuries, until we’re always recovering from one injury and preparing for the next. Somehow, that seems to take the fun out of running.
For Men, Too!
Although Claire’s e Book is written by a woman for women, there is a lot of information that is useful for men, too. For example, she links visceral fat to serious health problems, and explains how weight training will reduce visceral fat. And I didn’t know before that “cardio” exercise has little or no effect on visceral fat.
Claire works out in the gym, but I prefer to work out at home – it’s a choice we both made. If you want to get fit fast, feel better and become stronger, then try the 7 Minute Workout now for less than $10/month. And, if you’re a woman, read Claire’s e Book to see why you won’t bulk up.
You can download your free copy of this excellent eBook from the Member’s Area Resources page. If you’re not already a member, register now.
Three Secrets to Recovering from Injury or Illness
Three Secrets to Recovering from Injury or Illness
Recovering from Injury or Illness is a slow, frustrating process. The best way is to avoid injury or illness in the first place, but that, of course, is a counsel of perfection. As runners, we are always testing our limits, guaranteeing that at some time we will become injured or get sick.
From September 2 until October 10, 2011, Bastrop, Texas suffered from catastrophic 
wildfires. I live about 100 miles from Bastrop, but the smoke reached me and soon I found that I was suffering from upper respiratory problems and had to stop running. One thing led to another, and I ended up with pneumonia, finally being cleared for running again in January, 2012.
When recovering from injury or illness, the temptation is to start back doing too much too soon. Fortunately (or unfortunately) after pneumonia I found my lungs in such terrible shape that even walking was strenuous. After such a long layoff I would get out of breath tying up my shoes.
So what is the best way to get back to running after a layoff?
During my years of running, I have been injured or forced to lay off for other reasons enough times that getting back to running has become a common experience. There are three secrets to recovering from an injury or illness that I have learned – ignore these at your peril. Remember that reinjury takes about three times as long in recovery as the original injury (which helps to explain why I was out for such a long time last year.)
Strength
First build strength. After a layoff, you will have lost muscle tone, not just in your legs, but in your upper body and core muscles. Before you can start any serious running you need to recover some of that strength.
Be careful, though, not to overwork the strength training – 3 times a week is sufficient. You need a program that will work all the major muscle groups but leave plenty of time for recovery between each workout – it’s during the recovery that your strength builds. Be extra careful not to overstress any muscles that are recovering from injury.
If you have been able to continue strength training during your layoff, or even cross-train, you will have reduced the atrophy that would otherwise have occurred. Even so, your return to injury-free running will be more rapid if you focus some of your energy on building strength. In my case, I found that I was able to resume my 7 minute workout before I could even start walking again.
Stretch
Now, more than ever, it is important to stretch: returning to running when recovering from 
an injury or illness requires even more attention to stretching than normal. Stretch carefully and fully after every run. If you fail to do this, the question is not whether you will injure yourself, but when.
There is still some controversy about whether stretching before a run is a good idea. Personally, I find it helps me, especially after a layoff, when muscles and joints are unnaturally stiff. If you have been used to stretching before your runs you should continue to do so: changing your regimen at this time is not a good idea.
You can use my eBook Five Essential Stretches for Runners as a guide. There are many other sources if you want to stretch more than just the minimum. Just remember to stretch easy and don’t strain at it: stretching should be pleasurable, not painful.
Go Easy
When recovering from an injury or illness, don’t rush your return to running. The temptation is there, but the more conservatively you approach your rehabilitation the better chance you have of getting back to full fitness rapidly. Err on the side of caution, however frustrating that may seem.
The secret here is to go by how your body feels, not by what your watch says. I find that I look at my times and think about how dismal my progress is: will I ever get back to running again? Then I look back at where I was a month ago, when I couldn’t even walk, and recognize that I am making progress, even if it does seem slow.
My Program
My program for recovering from illness started with walking for 30 minutes 3-5 times per week. Then I inserted 1 minute jogging breaks between 5 minute walks after a ten minute walking warmup. When I was ready, I increased the jogging intervals by 1 minute. I always take a five minute minimum cooldown walk at the end before stretching.
So far, I’ve reached 3 minutes in my jogging intervals, and feel like I’ve hit a plateau. Plateaus are normal in recovery: they are frustrating at the time, but indicate that your body is actually adjusting to the new regimen and building strength to improve.
Once I get to 5 minutes jogging intervals, I’ll start reducing the walking breaks one minute at a time until I can jog for the full 20 minutes after my 10 minute warmup. My next step will be to jog for 30 minutes. At that point I’ll repeat the whole process, substituting running for jogging and jogging for walking, until I can run for 30 minutes.
That should put me in shape for my first 5K. Then 10K, then my half marathon in November in San Antonio.
Wish me luck!
You can see more about my strength training program at 7 Minute Workout.
Marathon of Health Part 2
I posted this article on my other site at 7 Minutes 2 Fitness and decided it was worth reposting here.
The March issue of Runner’s World has a two-page article about Ed Chicoine and his family, and the Marathon of Health. If you have been following their exploits, you will know that they decided not to complete their circuit by running the last leg from Los Angeles to Vancouver. Hence, they “only” ran 15,000 kilometers!
Ed is a Canadian chiropractor who decide to tun across Canada and the U.S. to raise awareness about obesity and diabetes – twin scourges that he had found in his patients in 29 years of chiropractic work. When he told his family about his goal, they all decided to accompany him. You can read about this incredible achievement in the March Runner’s World and watch a short video about it here:
Family runs across 2 countries from edchicoine on Vimeo.
For more about this family and their epic journey, see my previous post Marathon of Health.
Ed and his family discovered that running is not enough for fitness, and they are now promoting the 7 Minute Workout. To see what that’s all about, go to this link now.
Is Barefoot Running Better for You?
Is Barefoot Running Better for You?
Barefoot running and running with minimalist shoes is the subject of heated controversy in the running world at present. Runners seem to be either strongly for or strongly against barefoot running. What is the real truth about barefoot running?
Born to Run
At the heart of the barefoot running controversy lies the bestseller “Born to Run”. This book, published in March 2011, is described by Amazon as follows:
Isolated by Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall’s incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.
It sounds like a great story, but is barefoot running right for you? Before I go further, let me admit that I have not read the book, but I understand that when interviewed about it the author, Chris MacDougall, stated:
We treat running in the modern world the same way we treat childbirth—it’s going to hurt, and requires special exercises and equipment, and the best you can hope for is to get it over with quickly and with minimal damage.
I have yet to meet a runner who feels that way about running!
Minimalist Shoes
Unfortunately, hype like this surrounds the whole issue of barefoot running, and the shoe manufacturers have been quick to catch on to the possibilities – hence minimalist shoes. Think about it: if you manufactured running shoes and every runner decided to run barefoot, what would happen to your business? If, however, you design a minimalist shoe, you can cash in on the barefoot running craze by convincing runners that these shoes meet their needs and are safer than running barefoot.
It’s interesting to see how the different manufacturers of running shoes have responded to the barefoot running fashion. Probably best known is the Nike Free shoe line, but Nike seems to have backed off that idea with their current shoes. If you look at the Runner’s World Shoe Guide in the March 2012 edition (one year after Born to Run was published) you’ll see only two new minimal shoes with no cushioning: the New Balance Minimus Zero and the Merrell Road Glove. Altra‘s The Instinct/The Intuition comes next with at least some cushioning.
Minimalist Shoes – How Long Do They Last?
Runner’s World has an answer to the question of how long minimalist shoes last.
Answer: about half as long as regular running shoes. This makes sense when you recognize that there is about half the amount of material in them. With most minimalist shoes, there is less foam underfoot and the outsole rubber is injected with air to lighten it. An exception is the Vibram FiveFingers, which has an extremely tough outsole and no cushioning to wear out. In shoes like these, according to Runner’s World, the upper wears out before the soles.
Are Minimalist Shoes Better for You?
So what is the answer? Like any new idea in sport, time will tell whether barefoot running (or running in minimalist shoes) is really better for you than using conventional running shoes. Most likely, the barefoot running concept will lead to lighter, more flexible shoes that will be a compromise between the hard-core minimalist shoes and the regular shoes of today, but, like now, each runner will still choose the shoe that works best for him or her.
Trying Barefoot Running
The best advice I can offer is that if you are going to change over to barefoot running, treat it like any other change in your running regimen. Do it slowly, a little bit at a time, and be prepared to go back to your normal running shoes at the first sign of injury. And please don’t be taken in by the hype and pseudo-science that is written about barefoot running being for everyone – it’s just not true.
Finally, I must make the usual disclaimer that I am not medically qualified to give advice like this, so you need to take it all with a grain of salt and ask your doctor what he thinks about barefoot running!
Getting Back to Running
Getting Back to Running After a Break
My doctor finally called yesterday to give the results of my CT scan following my recent brush with pneumonia. The good new is that, apart from some old scarring and my emphysema from years of smoking, my lungs are now OK. So I’m getting back to running after a long break.
The bad news about getting back to running after an illness or injury is that it’s really tempting to go too fast. We tend to ignore the fact that our bodies take a while to recover. Pushing too hard can put us right back into the situation that stopped us running in the first place.
My Program for Getting Back to Running
Yesterday was mostly cloudy with a temperature around 70-75. Just perfect for going outside: we are really blessed to have this weather in January. So I started getting back to running under ideal conditions.
After the doctor called, I pulled on an old pair of running shoes and went for a 30 minute walk. That’s the first test: if you can walk for thirty minutes without getting too tired you are ready to start getting back to running. I was panting a bit on the hills, but otherwise did fine.
Today was warm again, so I decided it was time to start my rehabilitation program, which is really the same program that I recommend for beginning runners. When you’re getting back after an illness or injury it’s even more important to be conservative with this program. Beginners sometimes take short cuts, which is not a good idea, but for after pneumonia, especially, it’s downright dangerous.
First Steps for Getting back to Running
Today I took the first step by walking for ten minutes to warm up, then jogging for one minute, walking five minutes, jogging one minute and repeating this pattern for a total of about 35 minutes. That included about eight minutes walking at the end. What I actually did was to turn around after the first five minutes walk (at about 16 minutes into the exercise). I had three jogging intervals and a little over five minutes cooldown walk.
I always do a light stretch before exercising to loosen up my leg muscles, stretching Achilles tendon, quads and hamstrings. After the workout I perform the five essential stretches. When getting back to running, I believe it’s even more important than usual to stretch fully and carefully.
This proved to be a moderate-intensity program for me today. The temptation, of course, is to start working harder, but I have learned from previous experience to resist that temptation. My next workout will be the same as today’s.
Once that workout becomes easy, I’ll move to the next step: simply increase the jogging breaks to two minutes while still warming up for ten and aiming for 30-35 minutes overall. When getting back to running, I believe it’s important that, before you move to the next step, you wait until you’re finding that at the third jogging interval you want to keep going. In fact, I’ll actually do a two-minute jog for my last interval to check that I’m really ready.
The First Stage of Getting Back to Running
Throughout the rehabilitation program I follow these rules:
- Stretch lightly first
- Warm up by walking ten minutes
- Jog, walk for 2-3 intervals
- Exercise for a total of 30-40 minutes, including a cool-down walk of at least five minutes
- Perform the five essential stretches at the end.
With that in mind, the steps in the first stage are:
- Walk 30
- Jog 1, Walk 5
- Jog 2, Walk 5
- Increase the jogging by 1 minute each step until
- Jog 5, Walk 5
Now you’re ready to start the second stage.
The Second Stage of Getting Back to Running
Once you’re comfortable with the Jog 5, Walk 5 step you’ll be ready to reduce the walking breaks. Using the same five rules as in the first stage, the steps are:
- Jog 5, Walk 4
- Jog 5, Walk 3
- Reduce the walk breaks by 1 minute each step until you’re jogging for a full 15 minutes.
The Second Phase of Getting Back to Running
Thought you were there? Think again. You’re not running yet – just jogging!
For the second phase I repeat the pattern of the first phase, but substitute running for jogging and jogging for walking. So, for example, the first step is:
- Jog for 10 minutes to warm up, run for 1 minute, jog for 5 minutes and repeat to a total of 30-40 minutes including a five minute cool-down jog at the end. Don’t forget the stretching!
You can figure out the rest.
What about Skipping Steps?
This program for getting back to running may look tedious, but the good news is that you will see measurable improvement fairly rapidly. Congratulate yourself as you move up from one step to the next. With one exception, never skip a step.
The exception is that if your illness or injury has been relatively mild you may wish to start at some point other than the beginning. Recognize that you need to very conservative when starting getting back to running: a re-injury or relapse will take longer to recover from than the original injury or illness. Nonetheless, your body will tell you if it’s just screaming to move ahead, so what do you do then?
The best idea is to start out by following the first step (walk 5, jog 1) but, instead of jogging for one minute, jog until you start to feel tired. One of three things will happen:
You jog for the full period with relatively little effort
In that case, you can move straight into the second phase of getting back to running (running instead of jogging, jogging instead of walking). I seriously recommend that you start at the beginning in the second phase. If it seems too easy, just increase your pace a little until it feels right.
You jog for 5 minutes or less consistently in each interval
If this is the case, you have found your starting point.
You jog longer in the first interval than you are able to sustain
In that case, take the shortest jogging interval you were able to sustain and start getting back to running from there
There is one other possibility, which is that you jog for more than five minutes but cannot make the full 15 minutes. In that case, I recommend that you start with the second stage (jogging with reducing walking breaks) and see what walking time meets your recovery needs.
Strength Training when Getting Back to Running
Do you enjoy weight training? Or any other strength training? I know most runners don’t, and personally I used to go out of my way to avoid it.
Runners suffer from one of the same problems that non runners do: they grow older. We have one advantage here, in that as we age we move up into another, slower, running group. However, like everyone else we also grow weaker.
Neglecting strength training may be the reason we are getting back to running after a break. We may have become ill or injured ourselves due to a weakness that could have been prevented if we had taken proper care to maintain our strength. With my pneumonia I even had to drop my strength training, but I started again as soon as I could and before I was able to get back to running.
Conclusion
Getting back to running after a layoff, whether due to injury or illness, can be viewed as tedious or exciting: it depends on you. I suggest that if you can view it as exciting you will enjoy your running more. Follow a conservative program, such as outlined here, and you will be back to your normal running sooner than you expect, running stronger than ever.
And, whatever else, don’t neglect the strength training. Three times a week is all it takes, for a total of about 20 minutes per week. You can see more of my program at 7 Minutes to Fitness.
Respiratory Problems – What Not to Do
I went for a mile walk today. Actually, it was more like one and one half miles. Since I hate to walk, that was a long way for me, but it was a beautiful day (finally) and it felt good to get outside.
Around October, we had the notorious Texas wildfires. We were fortunate to be spared the worst of the wildfires, but for a few weeks the smoke was so bad that it really affected my lungs every time I went outside the door. I blame that for what happened after.
The smoke probably started an allergy: I was coughing and my eyes were hurting. I was relieved when we took a vacation and got away from the smoke. In October, we left for a long-awaited trip to Peru and the Andes: in particular to Machu Picchu, which had been on my list for years.
Machu Picchu was even more spectacular than I had imagined, and you would think that breathing that clear mountain air would have cleared my lungs. Not so. With the increased altitude and my already compromised lungs, I found it hard to breathe – not so hard that I didn’t enjoy the trip, but hard enough that I didn’t want to do any running.
Machu Picchu is at 7,970 feet, or so they tell me. Not that high, really, unless you’ve been used to living at sea level for a few decades. Cusco, though, is at 11,200 feet, so I was really feeling the altitude there.
Then we went to Puno, at 12,421 feet. It must have been that last one foot that got to me there – one wonders how they measure it that close, especially as it’s a very hilly town.
By now, my lungs were really complaining, but it got worse when our hotel room filled with smoke from a wood burning stove in the lobby below. That night, and the next, I found it hard to sleep for more than an hour or so without waking up coughing. Appeals to the hotel management had no effect.
Back in Texas in November, it turned cold and miserable, but after about ten days I left for Roatan in the tropics. The problem there was that I hit a very wet spell in the rainy season, and ended up spending more time in bed sleeping than anything else. By now I had begun to recognize that I was definitely not well.
When I got back to Texas, I finally visited a doctor for the first time since all this started.
He X-rayed me, gave me some antibiotics and sent me home. After five days the antibiotics ran out, but I was feeling better.
Unfortunately, that didn’t last, and I had another visit to the doctor and more antibiotics. This time, he told me I had pneumonia: at least I knew now why I felt so bad!
Today, feeling somewhat better, I decided to go for a walk for the first time. Every time I hit an uphill slope I found myself puffing and panting like in Puno, but at least I made it! Now I’ll start getting back gradually to running, but I think I’ll wait until the doctor takes another X-ray and clears me before I do too much.
So what is the lesson in all this? Upper respiratory problems should not be ignored. Most minor running pains will go away after a while, but when your lungs are giving trouble it’s best to take care of them earlier rather than later. I knew this: I had pneumonia about the same time last year through ignoring symptoms. My only excuse is that I was traveling and was not sure I’d be able to keep up with the medication: a poor excuse for stupidity!
Have you experienced any lung problems lately? Let me know in a comment about your experience. (I hope you were smarter than I was!)
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas – I hope you like the new site! I still have access to the old one for a while, so let me know if there is anything you remember that is missing and you would like to see here. I copied the most popular older posts, but didn’t get everything: there was just too much!
For the technically inclined, you’ll notice this is a new address halftraining.com instead of halftrainingschedule.com. I have forwarded the old one to this address temporarily. Once everything is checked out and working well, I’ll move it back to the original address.
Please bear with me during this time – there may be hiccups! I would like your help in testing, so please click on everything and let me know if you find anything not working. One change is that the members’ area is now password protected: if you were a member before you may need to give your name and e-mail again. You should then be taken to a page that says you are already subscribed and gives you the password.
In fact, I think the first glitch has already happened – you got the Welcome letter again! Oh well …
Take a look at the members’ area – I have made an effort to make it more useful for you. Let me know if there is anything you would really like to see there.
Oh – I almost forgot your Christmas present! Here it is:
Strength Training for Runners
Runners have their own set of rules: some are valid, but many are suspect. The November 2011 Runner’s World has an article on “Breaking the Rules“. One of the “rules” they dismiss is “Don’t Bulk Up”.
Sarcopenia – the loss of one to two percent of muscle mass per year after age 40 – is a challenge for runners. The Runner’s World article recommends a twice-weekly routine targeting both upper and lower body.
The problem with this approach is twofold. First, a workout routine of this type tends to take quite a long time: most of us find it difficult to add an hour or two of strength training every week to our normal running training. The second problem is that a program like this is not effective in building strength and may actually make matters worse.
To understand why this is true, we need to look at muscle physiology. When we exercise a muscle, we break down tissue; when we rest the muscle, the tissue repairs and we build strength. It’s important to recognize that the strengthening does not occur during exercise, but during the rest after exercise, when the tissue repair.
It takes about 24-48 hours after exercise before the tissues start to repair, which is why you should not do strength training on consecutive days. It takes about 3-5 days for the muscles to recover to the point where they were before the exercise. During the next 5 days or so they will actually build back stronger than before.
Putting all this together means that to build strength you need to allow up to ten days between exercises of any given muscle group. If you do not allow time for the secondary recovery (the anabolic phase) you will not add muscle strength, and if the interval between similar exercises is too short (the catabolic phase) you will break down muscle tissue and never repair it. This is the reason why the 7 minute workout cycles through 5 different muscle groups working out only 3 times per week: exercising every other day allows 10 days before any workout repeats.
The other important factor is the type of workout. For maximum benefit, you need to work each muscle group as hard as possible until failure. Only one such set is required, with typically 10-15 repetitions. That’s how we can keep the exercise time down to 7 minutes, or about 20 minutes per week!
For more information, see my fitness website.
Marathon of Health
The Chicoine family is just amazing!
This family is such an inspiration! Look at where they’re running - 20,000 K through two countries:
They’ll be in San Antonio in mid-December, so I plan to run 5K with them then. Are you ready to join me? 1 mile, 5K, 10K or half marathon if you’re up for it!