Caterpillars, sand, and coal!

There is no question God is working on me this year! It's nearly April and I think I've run fewer than ten miles in all of 2014 thus far. Not only that, but over half of this year I have not even been doing any form of cardio! I'm not an exercise addict and I do enjoy taking days off and enjoying not having anything to do, but I am competitive and I love challenging myself. That and I enjoy how it feels to to be tired and out of breath and keep working. Lifting weights has been fun and a good experience, but I am beyond ready to be done "healing" and get back to sweating and huffing and puffing and feeling my legs and my lungs burn! And I'm looking forward to having a schedule to follow for training! :)

Luckily, I'm only supposed to have two more weeks until I'm allowed to get started! The only "IF" remaining is if my knee heals up! The good thing is this week and next week should go by really fast thanks to lots of plans! I researched some physical therapy exercises that are recommended for people with various knee injuries, so I'm planning to go through those once per day, in addition to whatever other work I can do without pain! I would rather do absolutely nothing for the next two weeks and be able to run on the 5th than workout every day and have to wait longer for this knee to get back to normal!!

Sunday, March 23rd
40' in the gym. I was at a friend's gym, so my workout was extremely unorganized since I didn't know where things were and didn't want to waste time! I ended up with with a good mix of abs, legs, and upper body, so it all worked out! I also walked through my pre-run drills again. Hurts my knee though on the high knees and it pops every time I do a butt kick, so I may back off of them this week.
Core session with Jake

Monday, March 24th
15' foam rolling
Core X. This is a new version of Jay Johnson's Core H workout. It was challenging for some segments, but could definitely be done twice instead of once. The rockies are the part I struggle the most with, so I'll need to practice those with my hands on a bench.
40' physical therapy exercises for knees. I basically went through one video after another on youtube, doing all the exercises they suggested. Sometime in the next couple of days I will compile a list of the ones I like the most and will stick to that list (and share it here!).

Tuesday, March 25th
5' foam rolling
15' walk-jog on the treadmill!!! 3:00 @ 3mph, 3 sets of 1:00 @ 4mph, 1:00 @ 5mph, 1:00 @ 6mph, last 3:00 at 3mph. I was cheesing BIG TIME on the jogging portions! It's funny because two days ago I thought there was no way I'd be able to run on April 5th, but I've been religious about some knee strengthening and stretching for about a week now and I'm noticing huge differences. I had no pain going down stairs to my car or rushing from the bedroom to the office, so I knew something good was happening and thought I'd give it a try! :)
15' body weight circuit. Five different exercises; each done for 45" with 15" rest. repeated the circuit for a total of three rounds. Exercises were squats, lunges (yes, I did them!), mountain climbers, flutter kicks, bicycle crunches.

Wednesday, March 26th
20' foam rolling
5' stretching
30' physical therapy exercises

Thursday, March 27th
15' foam rolling
15' walk-jog on the treadmill!!! 3:00 @ 3mph, 4 sets of 1:00 @ 4mph, 1:00 @ 5mph, 1:00 @ 6mph. I will be 100% honest, my knee did hurt doing this. BUT, as I went through my strength work afterwards, the tightness and pain gradually left (it was gone when I left the gym!). If this is truly one of those muscle imbalance injuries that runners get, then I figure I'm going to have to strengthen those muscles somehow. Might as well do it in a way where the pain leaves in the next 15 minutes!
15' body weight circuit. Five different exercises; each done for 45" with 15" rest. repeated the circuit for a total of three rounds. Exercises were assisted pull ups, push ups, bench dips, crunch twists, and wall sit.
Core X again! :)

Friday, March 28th
15' walk-jog in my neighborhood! :) 3 minutes walking, then 12 minutes of 30" jog, 1:30 walk. It was too pretty outside not to go! My knee tightened up from the start and I considered stopping when I got back to my house, but I knew it would go away a little while after stopping so I finished it out! ;)
15' HIIT workout. Same one from Tuesday this week! :) I made one modification by changing the lunges to side lunges. For some reason I have ZERO discomfort doing side lunges but front lunges are like death to my knee! Same thing with squats... no pain at all on those!

Saturday, March 29th
Trip to St. Louis with my Sister-in-Law!! We're going to a one-day conference for the nutrition company we work with and I'm super pumped! I love our company's events! So many energetic, positive people trying to make a difference in the world!