I can do it!

I ran on the road today...TWICE!  And I LIKED it.  :D

This morning I ran with my good friend Gail who recently had a baby.  We did 4.05 miles in 54 minutes...pretty slow for me, but I'm trying to see how my legs do after so long off of them, and I want to be careful not to overdo.  I knew I still needed a good workout after that, so at lunchtime I did P90X Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps with Ben, and followed it up with Ab-RipperX.  It was my first time doing that particular workout, but it was fun - LOADS of push-ups!  Then the running bug got to me, and I hit the road again.  I decided to run for thirty minutes, just to see how far I could go in that amount of time.  I gave a good effort without pushing too hard, and ended up doing 3.57 miles.  I thought for 2 seconds about swimming tonight, but decided against it.  I'm pretty tired now...think I'll go to bed.  :D

Today was a HIIT day, so I started on the recumbant bike and did 5.32 miles in 20 minutes.  That is becoming a very familiar number to me.  I finished the evening at the gym, doing an hour of Zumba and an hour of Yoga. 

This morning I ran with Gail and Jenna again.  We ran for 1:06:41, and did 5.35 miles.  We were taking walk breaks after every three minutes of running, plus we had a couple of stretch stops that I didn't count.  I would love to go out and really try out my legs, but I'm also trying to be prudent about easing back onto the road.  It's hard to be patient, but I'm glad I have some people to run with who will keep me from over-doing at first.  I'm really looking forward to the Dallas Half Marathon on the 14th!  It's going to be fun to see how fast I can go!  I read an article that said that for every 5 pounds gained, you increase your running time by approximately 5%.  If the opposite is true, I should be able to run a sub-four marathon just by virtue of my weight loss alone!  Of course, I have to take into account my lack of training for the last three months...but maybe the increase in strength will make a difference, too.  :D

Today was also a lower-body-workout day, but I was running short on time...so I had to resort to squats, lunges, and calve raises.  I used the BFL method, doing 5 sets of 12, 10, 8, 6, and 12 again, followed by a set of a different type to mix it up.  I kept my weights between 8 and 15 lbs., but it felt SO easy.  I was sweating when I finished, but probably more because of the temperature of my room than because of the weight training.  I finished off that workout with P90X ab-ripperX.

Later....

Ben came home from work early to get a run in, and I had a piano lesson cancellation, so I decided to join him for an "easy" run.  We ended up doing 4 more miles together.  He said he didn't want to go over a nine-minute pace, and it felt really easy.  I would have run faster if I was alone, so it's a good thing I wasn't!  I had a little bit of a pull in my left inner-thigh...probably from the squats and lunges.  We'll see how it feels tomorrow.  On the last mile, we nearly were run down by some punk kids in their daddy's jeep, so Ben shot a well-aimed loogy onto their car as they drove past us.  Well, the kid driving wasn't about to look bad in front of his friends, so he peels out and backs up to try to pick a fight with Ben.  It was hilarious!  After that, of course, Ben was all fired up and began to pick up the pace.  We ended up doing our 4 miles in 37:13, and that includes the little "discussion" we stopped to have with the boys.  I thought about going to the pool to swim, but after all that running, I'd better spend some time on my traction machine, just for good measure.  :D

I did 5.33 miles on the recumbant bike this morning for my HIIT.  Due to the slight strain I feel in my inner thigh, I'm planning to take it easy for the rest of the day, so I don't cause any kind of damage a week before my race.  But you never know what the afternoon might bring...

I got up early today to run with the gals.  We did 3 slow miles in 37:46.  My legs felt tight, but not in pain, so it was probably just what I needed to loosen them up.  After that, I came home and did P90X Core Synergistics.  I haven't done that workout since my diagnosis in Decemebr, so it was fun to try it out again - especially since it was SO easy!  I felt pretty good about those things for my workout, and was planning to be done for the day, but...

This evening I decided that if I didn't do my Upper Body Workout, I'd probably end up skipping it, which would throw off my plan for weight training for next week.  With the race next Sunday, I didn't want to mess up my schedule.  So I went to the recreation center to get it in.  Joshua came with me, and we worked out together.  It's fun to be stronger than my 18-year-old son, but he is a good sport about it.  He knows he could kick my can if he wanted to.  :D  Also, Ben wanted me to meet him at the pool so that he could run there.  I wasn't going to swim, because I hate getting the chlorine in my hair, but...

I eneded up deciding I would do about 40 lengths, since I haven't swum at all since December.  I thought it would be like starting over.  But as soon as I got started, I could tell that I am a different person than I was three months ago.  I swam 80 lengths at a faster pace than I used to swim, and it didn't even feel like I was working out!  Getting stronger is fun.

Even though we stayed up until 1:00 AM like the fools we are, I got up at 6:00 so that I could go try out my legs for 10 miles.  I ran with the gals for the first eight miles, which was probably good for me, since the left adductor is still feeling funny.  It feels like it's going to pop at any time, so I guess I need to be really careful this next week to let it rest up.  I'm not good at being careful, as is evident by my previous behavior.  We ran/walked the first eight miles in 1:40:14.  Joshua and Hyrum were with us, but Hyrum only did 5 miles.  At the end, Joshua and I ran the last two miles in 18:30...no land speed record, but I didn't want to pull a muscle.  I promised Ben that I wouldn't do anything else today to workout, so I'm going to try to keep that promise.  Instead, I'm going to eat candy and junk food like there's no tomorrow!  Yeah, that sounds like a good plan.  :D

I wonder if there's a way to kinesiotape the adductor muscle?  Hmmm....