Weekly Rundown- The Highs and the Lows
Hello and welcome! This week started with a race, and ended with some time in the pool. But we’ll get to all that! Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Now let’s just see what went wrong- er, let’s just see what went ON this week. Sunday This was a weird Sunday. Since I was running a race the next day, I didn’t want to do anything too strenuous. I also had been noticing a little soreness in my right shin the past week (foreshadowing!) so I was trying to take it easy. I ran three miles on Saturday and it seemed okay, but didn’t want to run again on Sunday. I ended up doing a 10 minute core class and then a 45 minute power yoga class. As you will see, I’m a creature of habit. All my classes were on Peloton, and I have my favorite instructors: all core classes this week were with Rebecca Kennedy, all other strength was with Matty Maggiacomo, and all yoga classes with Denis Morton. I find my favorites and stick with them! Monday Race day! I ran a July 4th 5K. Thrilling(?) race recap here. Now- as soon as I started my warmup run, my shin hurt. SERIOUSLY? You’re going to flare up NOW??? I did what any sane person would do, and ignored it. I was there to run a race, and that’s what I did. I figured I would sort out the shin later. My shin hurt during my warmup and then a little in the first mile of the race, and then it went away. However, I’m very familiar with this type of shin issue. Here’s a little story: Years ago, I was living in New York and training for the NYC marathon. My shin was hurting, not too bad, but just aching at the start of my runs. Obviously, I ignored it. I was training for a marathon and had no time for injuries. Well… this went on for a while until one day I was doing a long run. The pain in my shin got so bad I literally couldn’t take one more step, and I had to take the subway home. Guess who didn’t run the NYC marathon that year? Me. Now I take shin pain seriously! After the race I iced it a couple times. It was just mildly achy, but I decided to take a few days off to let everything heal up. Tuesday Everything felt good, other than the mild pain on the inside of my shin. i did a 5 minute core class, and a 30 minute yoga flow. Ah, so far resting my shin is going great! Wednesday I decided it would be the Week of Strength! I did a 5 minute core class, a 20 minute upper body strength class, and my favorite 30 minute glutes and legs class with Matty from 3/22/21. The only time I felt my shin was if I did skaters or side lunges- so I skipped those and subbed other moves. Thursday I did a 10 minute core class, and then…a 45 minute pool run. Friday I did two core classes- first, Rebecca’s 10 minute standing core class. This has a lot of balance work, which I always like. I know that you’re using your core when you balance, but this class doesn’t give me those burning abs. But the second class did! This was Rebecca’s 10 minute class from 5/13/22. OUCH. This class is 10 solid minutes with no breaks, and I felt it. Great class. Then, another Matty 30 minutes glues and legs class, from 2/11/21. This is also a great class- four rounds of lunges, squats, deadlifts, and sumo squats. The first round is just bodyweight to focus on perfect form. The next three rounds use weights, and he makes it increasingly harder by adding pulses in the last two rounds. He actually calls this class “Pulse-a-Palooza.” Matty loves his Paloozas! Saturday I knew I was going to have a really hard day at work. If you were just observing my clients, you would think an amateur football team was sending its members in for massages. I like all these clients, but they should be banned from all coming on the same day. Knowing this ahead of time, I saved my workouts for after work. I did a 20 minute upper body strength class. Until recently, I’ve really been slacking on upper body strength, and now I’m paying the price. These classes leave me really sore! I know I just have to do it more and get used to it. I followed this class with a 20 minute yoga flow. All these classes were great, but as the week went on I had this odd “life has no meaning” feeling- I wonder why? Oh, I know why! I’m not running. Funny what an effect that has on my mental health. Sunday On tap is another strength class and a pool run! It’s enough to keep me sane, but I’m really hoping to be running next week. Heal quickly, shin!!! I’m longing for a trail run. Have you ever had shin splints? Or to be more specific, medial tibial stress syndrome. A fancy way of saying a sore muscle on the inside of the shin bone (tibia.) Sigh.