8/10/10 – Run 7A – Trying for 1.25 Miles, not so much.
Posted by admin in Training (running, cycling, etc.) on August 10th, 2010
Today, I was going for upping my mileage to
Walk 1/4, run 1/2, walk 1/4, run 3/4, walk 1/4.
The first half mile run was going well. My ankle felt great, my quads a little tight, but not too bad. So, I tried for 3/4 mile, but I only made it to 1/2 mile on the second run due to the small, yet, sharp pain running up my posterior tibial tendon just above my left ankle. Even though I could have kept going, I kept hearing Travis in my ear saying, “There should be no symptoms. Stop running if you have symptoms.” Well, I guess a pain in my tendon counts as a symptom.
I will try again to up the mileage next time. For now, one mile it is!
Oh, I was wearing my stability running shoes and prescription orthotics.
Also, next time I run, it will be 90 degrees outside – geeze!
8/9/10 – New Workout, More Push-Ups!
Yesterday, Melissa totally kicked my butt, again! My quads are feeling much better, but last workout she had me do side lunges. Well, I was so sore over the weekend, that I was unable to do my homework. I only got in one run 🙁
It was also a short time period between seeing Melissa last week and this week due to a trip I’m taking to the ol’ homestead, which gave me fewer opportunities to workout.
Enough with the excuses, already.
Yesterday, Melissa gave me some excellent exercises. Starting with FIFTEEN push-ups! Yes, 15!!! Then we moved onto a curtsey-like lunge, where I lunge back and toward the side holding me up. These work your abductors, and boy can I feel it today! I was worried that when it came time for my left foot to hold me up, it would not be able to. However, the left foot did just fine! I couldn’t really tell a difference between it and the right foot. Hooray!
Next, I did some more squats with a dowel that I bring up from my hips to even with my shoulders out in front as I squat. Not bad. Finally, a little hamstring using the balance exercise ball. I place my ankles on the ball and come into a plank. Then, I roll the ball up to my butt. Once there, I hold and raise one leg with knee bent off the ball. Hold for 30 sec. each side. The left side felt like it would charley horse in the last 10 sec, but the right side felt fine.
Now, rinse and repeat three times.
The last half of the workout was more archers with more weight 🙂 Then, one-arm fly laying on floor with legs at 90 degrees and opposite arm (not doing fly) out to the side palm down to balance. Next, on the balance exercise ball roll down to ball under shoulders in bridge with feet on floor. Using 15lb weights(!) I did the hip/glute exercise from two weeks ago. I love this exercise because it really does a good job of getting at my glutes without hamstring issues. I remain in the bridge on the ball and take my 15lb weights to do the skull crushers and tricep press. This was difficult, but I could do it!!! 15Lbs!!!
Finally, I did some shoulder rehab, while in side plank with abductor leg raises after, still in side plank.
Whew! What a workout. Today, I my hamstrings are a little sore with a small dose of sciatica in the left hamstring. Not too bad. A few slump stretches should help that. I do have a pain in my low back/hip. I am trying to decide if I need to go see Dr. Larry before I leave for home. The problem is that I’m getting on a plane, which will very likely undo anything Dr. Larry does. Hmmm.
Well, kiddos, that’s all for now. Until my next run in a few minutes 🙂
8/8/10 – Run 6A, One Mile! No Stride-Outs.
Posted by admin in Training (running, cycling, etc.) on August 10th, 2010
Finally, one mile feels good! I did the usual:
walk 1/4, run 1/2, walk 1/4, run 1/2, walk 1/4.
The run parts felt really good. No fatigue in my feet! Still in my stability shoes and prescription orthotics.
I decided not to do stride-outs because I think my quads need a little more time to heal and stretch. I am not interested in actually tearing them. So, I figure I’ll get to the stride-outs soon.
All in good time, my pretty. All in good time.
8/5/10 – New Workout, Now with Modified Lunges
Melissa listened when I told her I needed some help on this. She responded with some modified lunges and new stretches. Like I’ve said before, she is awesome!
I am also having right shoulder issues at present (I clench my jaw, and it goes right down my neck into my right shoulder to create knots and inhibit shoulder muscle firing). It turns out she is awesome at shoulder rehab, too! So, my workouts did not get easier, but they are certainly better for me!
I can now do 12 floor push-ups! Woohoo!
I am feeling stronger and stronger.
8/4/10 – Chiropractor and Massage, Finally
What a banner day! I wake up with my nerve in my right arm raging, my quads screaming at me with every movement, and my ankle feeling fine.
So, I arrive at Dr. Larry’s office EARLY, which I never do. As a matter of fact, I think I’m 20 minutes early! Do ya think I’m really looking forward to this visit?
Anyway, when I get to the room, I launch into the shoulder explanation:
Me: “You need to adjust my shoulder b/c my nerve is shooting pain down to my elbow.”
Dr. Larry: “Let me test it first.”
Me: “You really need to adjust my shoulder….”
Dr. Larry: “Just let me test it. Hmmm. Ok. I’ll adjust your shoulder.”
My Shoulder: “CRACK!”
Me: “Ahhh.”
Dr. Larry: “That’s amazing! Have you thought about becoming a chiropractor?”
Ok, so maybe we said slightly different things, but it was something to that extent. I really think that my chiropractor is awesome. His shoulder adjustments are actually a special move that he kind of invented, which as he has said is a combination of two moves to make one super move – “The Macarena”. This is my favorite shoulder adjustment. It always does the trick.
He also did the standard pulling my leg, adjusting my ankle and of course the L5 for the sciatica.
Next, the massage 🙂
Lynda was back from her awesome bike ride across Ohio (correct me if I’m wrong, I think it is Ohio). So cool! She stayed with people she knew all across the state and ate homemade cookies that a family was simply GIVING away to the bike riders. She slogged through thunderstorms and finished with a family wedding. She is awesome!
Then, on her first day back in the office, she has to deal with me – muwahahahaha!
So, she gets to the right shoulder first. Turns out that b/c I have not been wearing my night guard, I have been clenching my jaw, which is not causing issues with my jaw. Instead, the clenching is completely screwing up my right shoulder! It’s all connected, baby.
So, she works some magic on my shoulder muscles (she’s like the muscle whisperer – they release when she tells them to). Then, down to my oh-so-sore quads. I was so not looking forward to this as I knew it was going to hurt.
And it did, but she was able to get the muscles and tendons to relax, which did quicken the recovery time.
My left foot was really crunchy, too. It did decide to relax a bit. She also released my hip flexors.
Overall, a really wonderful and very needed afternoon.
8/3/10 – Run 5A with Stride Outs? NOT!
Posted by admin in Training (running, cycling, etc.) on August 7th, 2010
So, on Tuesday after I completed my workout, I decided to meet up with my friend and do another run:
Walk 1/4, run 1/2, walk 1/4, run 1/2, walk 1/4.
The run went really well! I am still wearing my stability shoes and prescription orthotics. The run felt good – my ankle was happy. All was well….that is, until I decided to do some stride-outs.
We headed down to a park with a long stretch of grass, and I put on my barefoot shoes. I started the sprint and my quads were stretching to the max. As I ran faster and faster, my quads felt as though they were truly tearing. I stopped about 50 feet in and could run no more.
The pain was excruciating. I was afraid I had really torn my muscles, except for the fact that I was still standing, and I could, in fact, walk.
Stretching at this point was out of the question. The pain felt as sharp as a knife – a good knife with a well honed blade.
Needless to say, I limped home and moved as little as possible.
Now I was so ready for my chiropractic appointment and massage.
This process is really trying on one’s determination. Sometimes I feel like I take two steps forward and three steps back. The quads feel like three steps back. Just as I get to the higher distance, I’ve gone and screwed something else up. ARGH!
Anyway, my feet feel awesome! 🙂
8/3/10 – Workout #3 with Lunges = TIGHT QUADS!!!
On Tuesday, I completed the third workout with lunges as well as my physical therapy foot strengthening.
On that day my quads were killing me! It felt like I was tearing the top layer of muscles on the front of my thigh. During the first set of lunges, I thought, “It will go away as I warm up.” However, it did not.
The second set of lunges was truly excruciating, and the third set I cut short because I couldn’t take it.
I stretched my quads as much as I could b/c the pain was quite high.
I was also experiencing some trouble with my right shoulder. The nerve running from the shoulder to the elbow was inflamed. Every time I did the tricep exercise, I had to grit my teeth as my elbow hurt! I knew it wasn’t muscle, though, b/c it hurt when I wasn’t doing the exercise.
Despite all of this my left foot was doing really great! I did all of my foot strengthening exercises with zero pain!!! It was fantastic! 🙂
But, I still could not wait until Wednesday to see my chiropractor and massage therapist!!!
7/31/10 – Workout with Lunges
So, I did my workout with lunges for the second time on Saturday. This will be short as I only want to document that my quads were sore when I did my lunges this day, but nothing that really made me uncomfortable. My quads were tighter than normal, too.
I didn’t think too much of it Saturday….
7/29/10 – Run 4A – 0.75 miles!
Posted by admin in Training (running, cycling, etc.) on August 1st, 2010
So, I finally recovered enough by Thursday to run again. It was also the first run for me where I was going to increase my mileage as follows:
walk 1/4, run 1/4, walk 1/4, run 1/2, walk 1/4 wearing new stability shoes and prescription orthotics.
I made a deal with myself that if I had pain, I would stop no matter what. So, I began.
The first 1/4 mile was cake. The walk was needed and wonderful. The 1/2 mile actually felt quite good. My left ankle did fatigue a little, but nothing painful. So, I ran the entire 1/2 mile.
I am so excited about running actual distance again! I admit that I am not ready to run a solid mile, I don’t think, but I will be able to very soon!!! Woohoo!!!
No stride-outs this time as I had guests in town, and being a tour guide requires walking. So, I figured I’d play it safe and skip them.
Also, I had to skip the weekend run due to guests and too much fun with said guests 😉
Will get back in the routine on Tuesday.
7/28/10 – 13th Personal Training Session!
This week was the 13th (actually 14th week b/c I missed one week in there somewhere) of my personal training. I think it might be time for some photos. I was looking at the before photos of my physique, but I’m wearing black pants, which don’t show anything.
I guess I’ll put all that back on and take a photo to see how I look now in those. Then, I will switch to shorts and a tank top to show the actual muscle definition. I am not finished. So, I am still a work in progress. Really wish I had earlier pics in shorts, though. Oh well.
Anyway, Melissa is now training as her own boss with her new company Real World Strength. Shameless plug:
Melissa Gessel
Real World Strength – melissa.rws@gmail.com
She operates out of Urban Fitness in Capital Hill, but she can work with you to fit the gym that you usually use. Also, you don’t have to be a member of Urban Fitness to go see her. It’s a sweet deal where the owner works with the trainers to allow the trainers’ clients to workout with the trainer for “free”. Wow!!!
Anyway, this week was awesome! I did NINE REGULAR PUSH-UPS off the FLOOR!!! Woohoo!!! I still cannot believe it, and I’ve done the routine again since then 🙂
I’m also back to lunges, which is great because I was getting really tired of all the squats. However, I had to start back at square one on lunges with regular prisoner rear lunges. Back to being super shaky on these, too. Oh well, it will come.
Then, more of the hamstring pulls on the ball.
Last exercise in first set was the archer move off of the cable machine. So fabulous!
Second round:
Start with rolling down to where shoulders and neck rest on the ball and have 12 lb weights on my thighs. I then use my glutes and low back to lower and raise my hips and thighs. This is awesome! It actually sort of circumvents the sciatica!
Then, keeping shoulders and neck on ball and hips in the air, I take the 12 lb weights and do the skull crushers for my triceps for 15 reps. Followed by 15 more reps of tricep presses. Whew!
Last on my side with the Bosuâ„¢ to do the same leg raises that Travis prescribed! Yay! Two birds with one stone!
That’s it, and it is wonderful. My arms are really fascinating in that I actually have solid muscle developing! Some day I may be able to lift heavy things on my own.