Lower & Wider

I wasn’t as tired as I expected to be this morning, but I still wasn’t excited about waking up at 3:15. Honestly, I can’t imagine anyone being excited about that! I’ve had the past two Mondays off work, so it felt a little strange to be doing the work thing today. Monday work days used to be not so bad, but today didn’t start out very well. Three people called in sick. Time inched forward at a snail’s pace. Mondays usually go quite quickly but not today. Despite the shortage of staff and the illusion of time standing still, today actually turned out to be an okay day. It certainly could have been much worse.

1a. squats

43 x 5, 93 x 5, 113 x 3, 133 x 5, 153 x 5, 153 x 8, 160 x 8

Squats were pretty good today. These were all beltless and without knee sleeves. I cannot wear the sleeves in my next competition, so now I need to get used to squatting without them. The knees felt good today. The left knee was hurting a bit for the last half-kilometre of Saturday’s run, nothing too bad yet, but there was a brief moment of similar knee pain yesterday morning. I’ve also been having sporadic pain in my left foot which is possibly connected to the knee pain. Michael would say that this is from running, and maybe he is right. I normally wear orthotics while working and when running, but I haven’t been putting the orthotics in my running shoes since I began running again recently. So, I think the foot pain is either due to the lack of orthotics or the fact that I bruised the side of my foot last week, but it is probably the orthotics. Only a little bit of running left before I will take a running break again…but Michael did lower my weight a bit today in consideration of my race on Sunday. As much as I don’t like to back down, I was not about to complain!

These squats were also slightly lower than they have been since I started doing a lower bar position! I don’t think I was intentionally trying to move the bar even lower, but Michael noticed that the bar was indeed a bit lower. It felt okay though, and it still isn’t crazy low. This is probably as low as it is going to get for me.

Once again I frequently felt like I was squatting very deep and I would consciously make the effort to limit my depth on subsequent reps. I don’t think the extra depth is taking anything away from my squat, at least I don’t think so, but I’m being a little cautious with my right hip. It isn’t that I am worried about my hip giving out or anything, but I just want to keep the hip at a mere nuisance rather than a full-blown pain.

1b. bench press

45 x 8, 65 x 5, 85 x 5, 100 x 3, 100 x 3, 100 x 3, 85 x 8

The squat position was lower, and my bench grip was even wider, about 4″ from the inner edge of the knurling instead of 2″. The first three sets felt okay, although there was a bit of an adjustment to the new bar path. The first two reps at 100 pounds felt heavy, but the third rep of the first set was fast.

2a. asymmetrical Bulgarian split squats (holding a kettle bell up against my shoulder/chest  on the same side as the leg extended back)

16kg x 8 each leg, x 8 each

2b. dumbbell incline press with fat grips (not a fan of the fat grips)

25 pounds x 8

25 pounds x 7, 20 second rest and then I had to do push-ups. I was a little doubtful and had to ask if he meant push-up as in on the floor. I might have even said that Michael was being mean, but I assumed the position. I did two proper push-ups, then Michael said I could drop to my knees for another 8 reps.

2c. half-kneeling Pallof press using a band

x 10ish  each side, x 15 eac

Running in a Winter Wonderland

Snow. Yuck. I am not ready for white stuff on the roads. My van is not ready; the winter tires will go on tomorrow afternoon. Of course, that does not help me today or tomorrow night, now that we had a bit of snowfall this afternoon. Yuck.

Thankfully my meeting tonight was cancelled; however, I still need to take Sam to the dentist in the morning, before the snow tire appointment. Hopefully the roads will be fine.

The sight of falling snow deflated my sense of determination to run at 7:00 in the morning on my days off work. Tomorrow is a day off. Yuck. At this point, there isn’t too much snow on the ground, but it isn’t even the snow itself that causes me to feel unmotivated. It is what the snow represents: cold, winter, ice, slush, cold, dark mornings, grey skies, cold, biting wind, and cold. Somehow motivation is easier to find at 6:00 AM on a summer morning, than at 7:00 AM on a cold, snowy, grey winter morning. Yuck.

But this feeling will not defeat me! Before I go to bed tonight, I will put my orthotics in my runners and lay out my warm running clothes. I will not hit the snooze button. Instead I will get up, get dressed, wake up the kids, and step out the door into whatever weather awaits me. I will walk to the end of the block, cross the street, and begin my 2K run. Less than 20 minutes later I will be back home, energized and ready to do another kind of running around!

The key is to remember this in the morning…

Friday’s Feature

After several minutes of mindless staring at my laptop monitor…

Things that tickle my fancy today:

• ordering pizza online and having it delivered to my door
• a Friday work day that felt like a Saturday work day
• receiving another free book in the mail from Booksneeze
• being able to watch at least the first period of the Canuck game tonight
• a clean kitchen before bed and I didn’t have to leave the sofa
• watching one of my favourite Dr. Who episodes
• bedtime soon!
• cooler weather means I can start making hearty soups again
• I love wearing earplugs when I sleep, even if my subconscious sometimes rebels and wills my hands to pull them out
• I am made for more
• talking to my kids
• trying to decide which soup to make with the ham hock in the fridge: split pea or lentil
• tracking what I eat for more than 45 days and actually enjoying the process
• the picture quality on my free tv while watching the Lord of the Rings in bits and pieces (cause I don’t have time to watch for more than 20 minutes at a time)
• orthotics make my feet happy, and my shins, too

 

Tunnel Vision

My left wrist began to hurt a bit last night and has been continuing to hurt all day today. It feels like a flare up of carpal tunnel. <sigh> I suppose I should not be too frustrated, because I have not had any carpal tunnel pain or problems for quite some time, and I should be thankful that the flare up is not in my right wrist. Life becomes much more difficult when your dominant hand does not function properly. Guess it is time to get back to wearing my braces at night.

There has also been some pain in my inner left ankle today. Why? I don’t really know. It seems to be one of those random things that happen and disappear soon after. I do wonder if this pain is related to not wearing my orthotics. I wear my orthotics when I am at work or when I am wearing my running shoes; however, the orthotics do not fit into my casual shoes and I tend to go barefoot or in slippers at home.

Two Weeks Notice

It was really hard to get out of bed this morning. My earplugs were particularly snug and drowned out sound quite well. My alarm buzzed a couple of times before I finally heard it. Kane was obviously sound asleep, because he did not even stir at the alarm or my efforts to heave my resistant body out of bed.

It was so dark. Hard to believe that only a few weeks ago the sky was light at 6:00 AM. As much as I love, love, love autumn, I do not enjoy the shortened hours of daylight. It makes me want to hibernate in my bed, instead of waking early for a run. I have noticed that my gumption is difficult to find these past few early Sunday mornings, and I am sure that the darkness has a lot to do with it.

But I did get out the door before 6:30 AM. The sky was no longer quite so dark, and the scent of freshly fallen rain greeted me. It was surprisingly warm, much warmer than the previous few weeks at that time. I had to take off my hoodie at the ten minute mark.

This run was an important one. Although I have been wearing my new orthotics all week, this was my first run wearing them. My shins had been feeling pretty good all week long. They were quite sore for a day or two after last week’s run, but I think running only once a week has been beneficial. Plus, the orthotics should be making a difference.

I was a little nervous, worried about how the shins would do and how the orthotics would feel during a long run. Aside from a few very minor twinges early in the run, my shins felt rather good. Even hours later, my shins still feel okay. Now to see how they feel tomorrow.

The run was amazing and yet difficult. I think this was one of my strongest and fastest runs in a very long time. I ran a little bit further than I did last week, yet I finished a minute faster. But parts of my run were tough. My 8K route takes me along a few mildly hilly areas. I hesitate to call them ‘hills’, because they are not truly hills; however, there is most definitely significant elevation changes, which make the effort of running that much more difficult. Those sections have been tough the past few weeks, but today seemed especially hard. My lungs burned and my legs felt as heavy as lead posts. I am surprised to have run as strong and fast as I did.

And finally, today is the two-week mark before the 10K race. Am I ready?

Orthotics Day Two

Day Two with orthotics went well, I think. I wore them for about eight hours, but it still wasn’t a tough day on my feet. Everything went well. My feet seem to be adapting well, although I still have to get through a work day and a run. Tomorrow will be four hours of work. I am thinking twice about going for a run on Thursday.

I would really like to be able to go for more than one run a week, but I need to focus on the goal, which is to run the 10K race on October 9th. New shoes and orthotics will not be an instant cure for shin splints. I know that I will need to “rest” for a time to allow for physical healing. The shoes and orthotics will then (hopefully) help prevent shin splints from recurring. But I have less than three weeks until the 10K race, and I need to keep running, pain or no pain. As much as I want to suck it up and run, I also know that I need to be careful not to overdo it before the race, or I will not be able to finish what I have started.

I must run 8 kilometres on Sunday. I must run 6 kilometres the following Sunday. The Sunday after that will be the 10K race. Then I can recuperate.

Supported

After a long day at work, I was finally able to pick up my new orthotics. I wore them for about four hours tonight. They felt slightly weird but not in a bad way. My feet are a little sore now that I have taken my shoes off, but it was a long day on my feet even before the orthotics. I will wear them for a few hours tomorrow and for work on Wednesday. I am prepared for a gradual “wear in”, if necessary, but I think my feet are just going to be happy to finally have the proper support. If the shins behave, then I will try a short run on Thursday.