April 3rd is the new goal date!

I had my ortho follow-up last Friday morning. For some reason I missed the whole "3 months from bone scan date" rule in my first appointment, so you can understand my surprise when he said I still had so much longer to wait! To be honest, I thought I would be starting my return this week, haha! Nope; still another month and half left! My bone scan was January 3rd, which makes April 3rd the goal date! I stopped running on January 14th, so I really thought the four week mark this week was all I needed. I even jogged a couple times from my car to the gym and honestly didn't have pain. My only pain comes when I physically press on a single spot in my hip flexor crease.

As I thought about it, though, I decided this is actually a good thing. I enjoy running and I love competing and I'm young. I'm 25... I don't have to rush back to fitness ASAP. The more time that I have without running, the more effort I can put into other forms of training so that I'll be more durable when I do start back. If I'm trying to put in good mileage, I limit any kind of strength work I do to only what can be done without overburdening my body. Running takes a good toll on your body, so adding the stress of weight lifting to it can take things over the line if you're not careful. BUT, when I'm not running, I can go as hard and as heavy as I want. If I get super sore, I can take an extra day or two off and not use that muscle group until it recovers. So, I officially have six additional weeks to continue building strength.

I really like my full body, lower body, upper body rotation, so I'll stick to that and just take rest days when I need them. I can tell I'm getting a lot stronger so I'll start increasing weights next week I think.

One last thing, I FINALLY figured out how to record a video on here. Unfortunately it took so long to figure out that I only did three exercises in the actual video, but here it is if you want to see those three. I'm very technically challenged when it comes to this, so please don't make fun of the green square on the screen. :)

Sunday, February 16th
Rest day! My parents were still in town today so we were plenty busy! My soreness is pretty much gone now though, so I'll be ready to hit it hard tomorrow for sure!

Monday, February 17th
Full body strength circuit. Back to my same workout from The Warrior Guide. I did the elliptical for all three cardio segments and I kept my same weights for everything else. All of them are getting easier, but I don't think I'm to the point where I could increase weights yet. My last 10 or so reps are pretty strained still for most of the exercises! Definitely leaves me feeling strong though! 

Tuesday, February 18th
Lower body strength. I did my same high weight, high rep workout where I only do a handful of exercises. I love this one because even though I've only worked three or four muscles, my legs are literally like jello when I leave! Leg extension (2x15 @ 20lb, 4x15 @ 40lb) alternated with paused calf raises (4x15), hamstring curl on swiss ball (2x15) alternated with dumbbell deep squats (2x15).

Wednesday, February 19th
Upper body strength. I went back to my old upper body workout that I do at the house and it was great! Super tight muscles when I finished! And my leg workout yesterday did the trick. I was plenty sore today! :)

Thursday, February 20th
Full body strength circuit. Went to the ATC for this one and had a great, different workout. I did all the same moves I usually do on my full body day, but instead of doing 30 reps, I did 2 sets of 8 so all my weights were way heavier and I had to work to eek out the last few on them. I think it was a good way to mix things up!

Friday, February 21st
Rest day! Cleansing! :)
*Well, I officially have a new "diagnosis". I say that in quotations because the doctor I saw said I need to see a General Surgeon before they can confirm anything. SO, on Monday afternoon, that is who I'll be seeing. Wish I would have known this six weeks ago, haha!

Saturday, February 22nd
Vern Gambetta Leg Circuit + 4 x 30" plank rotation + warmup and HIIT portion of this awesome youtube workout! The Gambetta circuit is great and I used to do it as my leg workout when I was running. The youtube workout is extremely long and I just didn't have time to do everything, so I stopped when they started the strength portion, but I highly recommend it! The only equipment is a set of dumbbells (you don't even need them in the part I did) and it's very well put together. You always know what's next and how to do it before the clock starts!