Weekly Rundown- Mmmmm…. Lemonade.
In his article, 7 Life Lessons from a Guy Who Can’t Move Anything But His Face, Jon Morrow says, “We’ve all heard the cliché about turning lemons into lemonade, but to do that, you can’t be pissed off at the lemons, go into denial about the existence of the lemons, or get depressed because you’re tired of making lemonade. You just have to grab a lemon and squeeze the sh*t out of the motherf*cker.” I’ll admit there were a couple times this week where I got really tired of making lemonade, but I’m ending the week on a higher note. I’m linking up with Kim and Deborah for this Weekly Rundown. Here’s how the week went! Monday Well, let’s rewind briefly. My run on Sunday was mysteriously difficult due to the achy knee issue. When I went to bed on Sunday night my neck, low back, and feet were slightly achy as well and I was worried I was getting sick. But I woke up Monday feeling okay. Physically, that is. Mentally I was pretty bummed out, and I’ll admit I rage-quit my PT exercises for a few days. I had been doing them so diligently, but to be confronted with aching knees just as my hip was completely better was discouraging, to say the least. Tuesday This was a planned running day, but I did a pool run instead to give my knees an extra day to rest. I had a little conniption fit on this day, and wrote a blog post about my frustrations. I realized that one reason I love running is that it makes me feel young. When I can’t run, I feel old. I don’t like feeling old. Wednesday I was determined to get out for a trail run- I desperately needed it for my mental health. My knees ached but I pushed through it. Since my knees ease up as I run, I decided to dispense with the run/walk intervals, and just ran for 30 minutes. I needed this run so, so much. It was hot- I got out late- and I haven’t run on the trail, or for 30 minutes straight, in about eight weeks. But it felt amazing. I finished and felt like my old self. Thursday Back to reality! I took Deborah’s advice and finally got on the Peloton bandwagon. I did my first class, 30 minute Strength for Runners with Becs Gentry. If you have no issues, are running well and need a quick workout to keep everything strong, I think this is excellent. There’s a little bit of everything- single leg, squats, lunges, abs, upper back… short, sweet and effective. Unfortunately I do have some issues (have I mentioned that?) so I had to modify the lunges- I was afraid they would fry my knees. But I replaced them with more of the single leg moves, and still got a good workout. Obviously if you’re paying $12.99 for three months of unlimited classes, you’re not going to find things like “Strength for Runner’s with Achy Knees” or “Strength Workout for Your Left Glute Medius.” For now I’ll have to modify the workouts to suit my needs- but I think it’s going to be a good thing. Friday Started off for a run but my knees really hurt. I had to decide if I could hobble through the first mile or so and hope they eased up- and I just couldn’t. I walked back home and got in the pool. Obviously I was disappointed, but the adrenaline I was feeling pushed me to have an awesome pool run- if those words can really go together. I’m going to say something kind of weird here. I don’t think my knee pain is from running. I can’t explain it exactly, but you know how sometimes you just know what’s going on in your own body? One day I was running happily and the next, both my knees were aching terribly. Nothing in any of my PT exercises irritated my knees, and I’ve never had a knee problem before, in my entire life. That includes slow running, fast running, marathon training, 50 mile weeks (in my youth) and many, many times returning to running after an injury. I’ve been googling other reasons for achy knees, and things like lupus come up. So I’ve stopped googling (I don’t think I have lupus.) For now I’m just going to wait, take my turmeric, try not to irritate my knees, and see what happens. What else can I do? Saturday Did another Peloton class, 20 Minute In the Heights Core Strength with Emma Lovewell (is that really her name?) I liked this one as well, although there were lunges in the warmup (grr!) Then I finally went back to some of my PT exercises- the clamshells, glute bridges, side leg lifts… etc. Sunday Very exciting- another pool run. PT exercises planned for later in the day. In other news, I can see that all my best intentions for sleeping more have been thwarted for the next two weeks. I can’t resist staying up late to watch the Olympics! I’m not that into beach volleyball, although I respect the fact that these women are incredible athletes, and of course I’m rooting for team USA. But I’m loving the gymnastics and swimming, as always! Last summer was such a terrible summer (in addition to all the other issues, my sister had a serious illness- she’s better now!) and we kept saying “Just look ahead- next summer all this will be over and we’ll be watching the Olympics.” And here we are! YAY! Tell me your favorite Peloton strength classes! Women’s gymnastics on tonight- who’s watching it?
IT’S STARTING!!!!!!!!!
FINALLY! As I’m clicking “publish” on this post, the Olympic Opening Ceremonies have begun in Tokyo!!! We’ll watch it tonight while we eat a sushi dinner- thank you to Tokyo for hosting, in spite of everything! Before I get into a couple favorites from this week, I appreciate everyone’s comments after my little tantrum about strength training on Wednesday. Catrina mentioned her “VERY simple strength routine,” which is Pamela Reif’s YouTube workouts. I like the “simple” description, and these look extremely effective. Ultimately I went with Deborah’s suggestion, which was to try out the Peloton digital membership. YOU GUYS! Why didn’t anyone tell me how cheap it is??? $12.99 for three months (that offer is good until July 31st.). It was a no-brainer. I subscribed and did my first “strength for runners” workout this morning. Problem solved, at least for now. ON TO THE OLYMPICS!!! I think I speak for almost everyone when I say I’m fascinated by women’s gymnastics. I like the men’s as well, but women’s is the best. Why is that? It’s just incredible what these young women are able to do with their bodies. I just listened to this episode of Half In, Half Out podcast, which was a discussion and predictions for the gymnastics team and individual all-around competitions in Tokyo. This was a deep, deep dive, recorded by gymnastics experts. So deep in fact that I listened to parts of it on double speed to get through it, because I don’t know anything about the gymnasts from other countries. It was fun, though, to remember that there ARE other countries, and although the most likely scenario is USA to win gold and China and Russia to win silver and bronze, there is a chance for Japan to sneak in and grab the bronze, which would be fun for the fans of the host country. Go Japan! There were also some interesting tidbits about what the US team would be like without Simone, and also the fact that the regular team and the alternates, i.e. the replacement team, all traveled together on the same flight and stayed in the same hotel. This was recorded before Kara Eaker tested positive for Covid. I’m no expert, but wouldn’t it have been smarter to keep the regular team and replacement team separated from each other? Oh well, fingers crossed! Just in case you hate gymnastics and are wondering if there’s any running in this running blog post, here’s a great episode I listened to with Matt Chittim on The Strength Running Podcast. Matt hosts the Rambling Runner podcast, and to be honest I’ve never loved him. He’s a little too… well, rambling, for me usually. But he was great on this one. Matt talked about his recent injury, and how it was due to his lack of strength training. He explains how easy it is to skip strength work when everything is going well, and suggests that instead of thinking of strength training as a way to prevent injury, instead look at it as a way to become a better, faster, runner. He also compares the idea that you don’t have to do strength training to thinking that you don’t need to ever use shampoo and your hair will still look good. In other words, we’re all unique but no one is that unique. We all need to do it. On that note, we should all get the Peloton app for $12.99! I’ll write more about my thoughts on it when I’ve done a few more workouts. In the meantime… happy running, and enjoy the Olympics!’ Will you watch the opening ceremonies? Are you excited for gymnastics? I know lots of people have been doing Peloton strength workouts! Anyone have a favorite to recommend?
The Strength Training Conundrum
Seriously. This is getting old. As I mentioned in my last post, both my knees have been very achy lately. A couple readers commented that it could be patellar tendinitis, so I googled it and that does sound possible. The article I read said it could be caused by excessive jumping, and that makes perfect sense because I have been playing a lot of basketball. JUST KIDDING. The last time I played basketball was in middle school PE (obviously.) No, all I’ve been doing is pool running, PT exercises for my hip issue, and a very, very conservative return-to-running program which involves a a mix of walk/run. I don’t know what’s causing the knee pain, but if it is tendinitis I don’t want to make it worse, so this morning I was back to this: I’ve also cut out all PT exercises that could possibly be aggravating my knees- nothing I was doing seemed to hurt, but I’m temporarily banning anything that involves standing and bending- squats, step-ups, dead lifts… which leads to my question of the day. WHEN DID STRENGTH TRAINING GET SO FRICKIN’ COMPLICATED? Does anyone else remember the day where you would go to the gym, do that machine for your quads and the one for your hamstrings, then the adductor and abductors, throw in some sit ups and call it a day? Somewhere along the way that stopped working, because you have to strengthen your glutes, of course, and also machines aren’t good enough and neither are body weight exercises, you have to do free weights, and heavy weights are better, and don’t forget balance and single leg and plyometrics, and then you have to activate the muscles before you run, because just strengthening them isn’t enough, and don’t forget your mobilization exercises and the dynamic warmup. And, even if you’re doing a thousand things, the one thing you aren’t doing will take you down. Like me doing eleven different plank variations, but OOPS! I wasn’t doing side planks, so my glute medius muscles were weak and I got a hip injury. I get it. I get that I can’t just run. I know I have to lift weights and do all the other stuff, and I’m willing to put in the time. I just wish that it would work. If I’m doing strength training to avoid injury, then why am I still injured? Tomorrow I’m headed to the trail for a serious attitude adjustment. I should probably walk, but the truth is, unless one or both of my legs is falling off, I’ll probably ignore everything and just run. Does anyone have a simple strength training plan? Do you have a strength coach? Anyone else struggle with this?
Weekly Rundown- That Was Weird
Hello!!! Happy mid-July (ack!) Somehow after being on vacation, this week was a tough one. It was hard to get back in my normal groove, and one of the cats has decided to welcome us back by meowing loudly in the middle of the night, so I haven’t been sleeping enough. I’m hoping that next week things calm down a bit. Before I get to the Weekly Rundown- Kim let me know that many of her comments were disappearing, and I found them in my trash, along with random comments from other people. I recently started using the Akismet plugin because I was getting so much spam. I guess in addition to the spam it’s dumping other comments here and there into the trash… anyway, I apologize to anyone who left a comment and had it disappear! I’ll be checking the trash regularly to retrieve any legitimate comments. Now on to the fun! I’m linking up with Kim and Deborah for this weekly rundown. Monday Since Sunday was a travel day, Monday was a running day! Hooray! Following my run/walk buildup schedule, I ran five minutes, walked five minutes, ran five minutes, walked five minutes, ran five and walked five. Somehow in all this I passed my street- apparently after being away for a week I forgot where I live- and ended up running a bonus two minutes to get back home. I’ve settled into a routine with my PT exercises- I do some of them before I run to get the muscles activated, then after the run I usually do my side planks, and then at night I do some more. If I don’t get to every single one of them, I do the ones I missed the next day. Tuesday Back in the pool! I had limited time so I did my “pool 5k” workout, where I do a short warm up and then “run” for the same amount of time- approximately- it takes me to run a normal 5k. More PT later in the day. Wednesday Running again, and it was an exciting day because the running now is longer than the walking. Six minutes of running and four minutes of walking, repeated three times. Strangest thing about this run though- when I started, both of my knees were killing me- what in the world???- I never have knee issues! I’ve had shinsplints, plantar fasciitis, hamstring tendinopathy, and all sorts of issues with my hips- but whenever someone asks “Isn’t running bad for your knees?” (eye roll) I can reply that my knees are perfect! So what’s going on? Both my knees were very achy, right below the kneecap. It went away as the run went on, but was pretty painful in the beginning. None of my PT exercises bother my knees, so I’m putting this on the ever-increasing list of Things That Make No Sense. Thursday Thursday has always been a dedicated strength day, so I’ve been doing all my PT exercises on Thursday mornings. Every single one! It was nice not having to do anything in the evening. Friday Another run! This time it was seven minutes of running/three walking, times three. Again my knees were very achy in the beginning. This might be the perfect time to mention that I’m not a fan of the run/walk intervals. I know some people use them all the time, with great success. I just feel like it breaks up my rhythm. For this run my knees were aching again and just as that was subsiding, I had to stop and walk, drat! Then I walked for three minutes and had to start running again… I would rather just run the whole time. Even in long runs when I’m tired, I hate walking (although I’ve definitely done it.) It’s so hard to start running again- easier to just stay running than go back and forth. Well, soon enough I’ll be done with the walking intervals- yay. PT exercises in the evening, of course. Saturday 40 minute pool run. PT at night! Sunday I really miss my Sunday long runs! But even though it wasn’t long, I did get to run today. Eight minutes of running/two walking, times three. Again, my knees were really achy in the beginning. Whatever. I gave myself an extra bonus minute of running at the end (my knees were completely fine by that point) because it was HOT and I just wanted to get home! I realized that with all the PT I’ve been doing for my hip, I haven’t done ANY upper body strength in weeks- I actually forgot that was a thing. So that will be a goal for next week! Do you like run/walk intervals? How do you use them? Anyone have a guess what’s up with my achy knees? – I must be doing something to cause this issue!