For example while running, more pressure is exerted on my lower shins than is normal and as a result they’ve become swollen (and even bruised). They’re in pain constantly, even when walking. My hip flexor muscles are locked into flexion, causing my torso to lean slightly forward. Extremely tight calves and quads also prevent full extension of the legs when running.

The past few months I’ve been doing more running than ever before and I’ve broken several personal records along the way (dropped my 4 mile run time from 41 min to 30 min in 3 months). Since noticing my swollen shins, I’ve eased up slightly on the length of my runs (3 miles instead of 4+) and started icing and stretching.

I seriously need to commit more time (i.e., daily) to fixing the muscle imbalances in my body. For the past 6 months or so, I’ve been using (on and off) Pete Egocsue’s excellent postural therapy program, as outlined in two books, Pain Free and Pain Free at your PC. In the long run, fixing the muscular imbalances is more important than any other physical training since exercising a dysfunctional body will only strengthen the imbalances and prevent me from reaching my full physical potential!

The only thing I can keep up with is the warm-up, pull-ups, and leg exercises. However, after two weeks I’m definitely seeing huge improvement. I do this workout three days a week and mix in 4-mile, 35-40 min cardio sessions in-between.

I’ve never done this much running before (15 – 20 miles a week) and my calves and knees are still adjusting to all the pounding on the treadmill. I’m ignoring the pain, but I need to be careful not to injure myself (I’m crazy enough to push myself to the point of injury; I’ve done it before).

I rarely feel the need for inspiration when it comes to fitness, but the Navy SEALs have given me a benchmark from which I can compare my own fitness. In fact, after reading so much about them the past few weeks I have undergone some profound changes mentally. But I’ll leave that for a separate post. :)

Every day I see so many people, young and old, running throughout the city and I wonder if the health benefits they are experiencing are only temporary — if by sucking down so many unnatural, unhealthy chemicals they’re actually shortening their overall lifespan. I touched on this subject a few months ago in a post titled Dirty Air. I concluded the post by saying that a healthy lifestyle cannot be had while working where the crowd works. I don’t like to believe things are impossible and I feel there must be some type of balance that can be reached — perhaps a combination of indoor aerobic activity (rowing machine), indoor anaerobic activity (weight lifting), and various weekend outdoor activities when I visit Lowell on the weekends.

I also wondered if running at night, or early in the morning, would be more healthy than running during the day. I noticed the air smells much cleaner during the late evening and early morning hours. My own hypothesis is that when the sun goes down and the air begins to cool, all the warmer air (which was mixed with pollution from cars and buildings as well as heated by the sun during the day) rises up into the atmosphere allowing the cooler, cleaner air (cleaned by moisture in the air, currents, etc.) to sink down to the ground. If this is true, then running at night and early in the morning, before people start leaving for work, could be much healthier than running during the day. Are there any night runners (or early morning runners) out there that can confirm any of this?

It’s easy to compare the air quality because yesterday evening I went running around the area near my Cambridge apartment. I haven’t been running in awhile, and it was obvious my lung capacity had decreased a lot because I needed to take deep breaths all the time. Half way through my run I stopped. What was I breathing in? Car exhaust, the trash sitting on the sidewalk, the smell of laundry coming from a vent, the strong perfume of the person I just passed. Ugh! It felt like I was running one step forward and taking my health two steps backwards!

I can’t help but wonder how much of an effect living in the city has on a persons health. I spent the majority of the first 14 years of my life in a rural area with a lot more trees than houses, the following 10 years in a semi-rural area with more houses than trees, and the past 7 months in the city, where there are more dogs than there are trees! I thought of living in a more rural area and commuting to Boston, but would that be any better? I’d probably be getting even more exposure to unhealthy air since I’ll be traveling the very routes where the dirty air starts!

In retrospect, a truly healthy life cannot be lived by working “where the crowd works”, nor can it be lived if your goal is to simply make as much money as possible (as is my goal for the next 5 years… how much of an impact will those 5 years of living in the city have on my health!?). For many, it’s not a matter of choice but a matter of necessity. I’m lucky to still have many of my options wide open.

We are what we consume.

I also decided to start running again and ended todays workout with a 15 minute interval circuit:

15 Minute Interval Circuit

00:00 – 5 mph warm up
02:00 – 9 mph sprint
02:30 – 7 mph run
03:30 – 9 mph sprint
04:00 – 7 mph run
05:00 – 9 mph sprint
05:30 – 7 mph run
06:30 – 8 mph sprint (tired as hell!)
07:00 – 7 mph run
08:00 – 8 mph sprint
08:30 – 7 mph run
09:30 – 9 mph sprint
10:00 – 7 mph run
11:00 – 9 mph sprint
11:30 – 7 mph run
12:00 – 6 mph cool down
13:00 – 5 mph cool down
14:00 – 4 mph cool down
15:00 – end

It’s really amazing how long 15 minutes seems when you’re enduring such physical stress, and as much as I wanted to stop, I kept telling myself to overcome the pain. I’m glad I did, because I felt good afterwards.

There’s a sense of accomplishment I feel after completing a tough workout. Even if I’ve had a very unproductive day, finishing it with a tough workout would make the entire day seem worth it. A tough workout is also an excellent stress releaser — no matter how hard my day was, finishing it with a good workout makes me feel as if I could start the whole day over, and go through it all over again.