I'm still Sure!

Soooo disappointed about this back thing. I really thought I had done what was needed to properly strengthen my core and back muscles and that I was maintaining that. Left work early on Tuesday and had a truly miserable night. Saw the doc on Wednesday and got muscle relaxants which allowed me to start working through the spasm. Walked a slow mile on Thursday after a lot of gentle stretching but this feeling like an invalid is just crappy.

Back at work today and taking frequent stretch and wiggle breaks. Muscles are really sore now, but haven't spasm'd all day so I'm counting progress. Tom announce he had a cold this morning so I'm thinking we'll be having a quiet weekend.
 
138.6 It was a quiet weekend, but I'm feeling much, much better. Renewed my acquaintance with the back/core exercises, split a bunch of firewood, and this morning walked Shoe Hill Loop - beautiful morning, temp right at freezing, no wind. Saw a smallish herd of antelope (about 12) on the east side of the hill, then on the south, 2 groups of elk, first was about 10 animals running away, another 30 were less spooked and just watched me from a safe distance. Also saw some fresh javelina tracks, but those animals are very shy and it's rare to actually see one. Also saw a couple of blooming groundsels - it is far, far to early in the year for that, but this winter has morphed into a warm dry very early spring that I fear will lead to a very scary fire season summer. 3.3 miles for me today!
 
Goldfish said:
Good that your back's feeling better :)

You get to contract Tom's cold now.
Click to expand...

Nooooooo! I am NOT going to allow that! Actually, given that I have to travel/train next week I fully expect to get sick on Sunday or Monday in order to have a truly nasty experience in the AZ desert. Something really crummy about being sick when it's very warm outside.

Would have been fun to TRX this morning, but I felt it was too soon to put my back to that test, so will wait and maybe consider it for Thursday as training partner says she is up for it. More likely I'll wait longer as I'm still getting at least one twinge daily.

Stairmaster for 30 minutes on level 10 was hard/sweaty/very enjoyable. Followed up with a good round of the old PT back/core exercise routine.
 
I miss splitting fire wood. I used to do it at my parents growing up, where there were actually trees. Between that and shoveling snow in the winter, you don't even need to train.
 
JustinRVA said:
I miss splitting fire wood. I used to do it at my parents growing up, where there were actually trees. Between that and shoveling snow in the winter, you don't even need to train.
Click to expand...

There is something really satisfying about doing physical labor, isn't there? I love seeing the pile of wood grow or watching the huge pile of snow get moved/disappear. We live in a tiny log cabin with equally tiny kitchen so have an external root cellar where we keep our food except for the bare minimum that fits in a cupboard or the fridge. We've never gotten around to putting a 'lid' on the stairs and nearly every snow storm that hits northern Arizona comes with an amazing amount of wind - thus drifting. I know that with every bit of snow, one of my first projects will be to move cubic yards of heavy, drifted snow away from the stairs that lead into the root cellar which is buried in a hillside. And I don't mind a bit! I can see progress with every shovel full and it feels good to do such purely functional work!

137.4 The hypochondriac in me is going to town with an unexplained pain in the metatarsal bone in my right foot going to my big toe. It started yesterday after the stairmaster and never stopped. Tiny bit swollen, still hurting today so I found my bike cleats and rode the spin bike for a workout that didn't involve a lot of foot. Unfortunately the display wasn't working so while I felt like I was working hard (and it felt good!) I have no idea of watts, or any other measure of speed or power. Oh well, sometimes you just go for the fun of it.

Haven't been doing enough miles or anything to trigger a stress fracture... no idea really what it is about.

Good round of back PT exercises too - still having a daily twinge or 2 so not ready to resume real strength training although I was super tempted to do some pull-ups on the way to the shower. Probably could have done that without any problem... maybe tomorrow!
 
I love physical labor. There are few things more gratifying than standing back and taking in a finished product. I work with wood a lot in the spring and summer, and last year I made a fantastic work bench for my shed out of left overs form re-doing the frame for the same shed. The fact that I made it with left overs made it that much more satisfying.
 
I love physical labor.
Click to expand...

Sometimes after a particularly grueling day in a spreadsheet or trying to make software do what it is supposed to do and schedule 28,000 requests for 2000 kids in 2 minutes, I just have to shake my head at the fact that there are so many of us who spend out days in front of a screen and keyboard and that for many, their major activity is pushing the mouse around. Sometimes we humans are too clever for our own health!

137.6 Another day on the spin bike for me (foot still hurts), different bike/another broken display. Wore the HRM for grins, 37 minutes, 349 calories, avg HR of 147, max of 162.

Which reminds me, in the doctor's office last week my pulse (via the little gizmo attached to my finger) was 52 - hard to believe it was that low after having been up and moving/driving/walking for a few hours. Resting HR may be below 50, but I wouldn't have expected it to drop that low during the day.

Good back exercise session and a few pull-ups just to see how they felt (good!).
 
Did a quick circuit on Friday when I only had 20 minutes but needed to do something before spending the day in a meeting. Full day agenda's should be banned from life!

Circuits were 3 pull-ups, 8-12 pushups, cable leg exercise so went:
3 pull-ups, 12 pushups, cable hamstrings 20lbsx15 2 sets each leg
3 pull-ups, 10 pushups, hip flexor leg swings 20lbsx15 2 sets each leg
3 pull-ups, 12 pushups, calf raises 240lbsx15x2
3 pull-ups, 8 pushups, step-ups 70lbsx10 2 sets each leg
few T2B for fun

Nasty weather on Saturday sent us to the gym to play - 15 minutes on elliptical to warm up, then lots of time in the weight room. Was a pleasure to have as much time as wanted! Started with TRX routine and that felt good, no back twinges. Rebounder medicine ball throws, landmine twisters, pull-ups, wood chops with about 27 lbs, more pull-ups, cable leg machines - hamstrings, hip flexors, calves, step-ups, and some bosu squats.

Shoe hill loop on Sunday as a nice afternoon power walk with Tom.

Headed out of town today and traveling all week in the desert so looking to get some low elevation desert runs in the morning, and hopefully some hill sprints on my favorite hill for doing such things on Thursday when I'm in Kingman.
 
Didn't get out of town in time to do the hoped for run at Buckskin State park. Lovely sunset was happening as I drove by. Oh well, hoping for morning, but not feeling great.

We did calipers this weekend and my body fat % was actually lower than Tom's which was stunning given our body types. Being a tall slender man, he always looks lean. While I am above average height for a woman, I don't have that look. All of my body fat is concentrated on my butt and in my thighs. So the very slow body reconfiguration continues with a tiny increase in lean muscle and a tiny decrease in body fat while maintaining my weight, sub 16% fat for me...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Wonderful run in the desert this morning! I'm feeling really good again and have pushed thoughts of that stupid cold that were with me yesterday far, far away again. Plus, in a hotel, I can say I'm all paleo and eat oodles of bacon and scrambled eggs! Hmm, not sure coffee is paleo but that is the other wonder of a hotel!
 
As someone who generally spends her day on a laptop, now and then the convenience of an iPad app is just hard to beat!

The glow of my morning run has been obliterated by spending the day with some truly nice but not very technically oriented trainees... I see a fair amount of work ahead of me this evening, but first I need to take a little walk and buy something to sooth my throat... I'm claiming it isn't sore, it is just dry from talking all day in a super low humidity desert environment.
 
Another good run, today I headed toward the Colorado River instead of out into the desert. Always good to explore, but I didn't like this run nearly so much. River rocks don't make for a great running surface and I didn't feel as if I could just 'go' forever as I can in the desert.


Worked on cadence a little at the end once back on pavement. Did I mentioned Tom signed me up for a 10k race this weekend? Yikes, I foresee a slow run. Happily, we have definitely decided to take the delayed ski vacation next week! Utah has been getting oodles of new powder and the skiing should be fantastic - so excited I'll get to put that gazillions of lunges I did this winter to good use after all!

Another day of training, then drive to Kingman.
 
Did not do the planned hill sprints in Kingman Thursday morning. Was feeling decidedly wimpy Wednesday evening and still had some of that Thursday morning, so rather than tax myself, I did a round of yoga in the hotel room. Fairly short day training and came home without stopping in the office. Bed early! Feeling better today, like I've pushed those cold germs back down again.

138.2 Stairmaster level 10 for 35 minutes followed by back PT exercises.

Not sure if we will drive Sunday or Monday to Utah, but am really looking forward to a great week of skiing!
 
The 10k on Saturday went well... The only actual goal for the day was to finish in under an hour and I managed that, but it was a near thing... 59:50. Fairly dreadful time but who cares? Was a good run and I was really glad not to have done the half marathon which was really tough and over a mile too long.

We packed on Sunday and did a lot of prep including chopping a lot of wood. Drove on Monday, long, long day... Short, short night, but we started skiing on Tuesday. Fresh snow meant the conditions were fantastic, my telemark skills.... Not so much. Still, I'm really glad for all the gazillions of lunges I've done this winter. Actually, I am skiing reasonably well, the twin tip skis are just amazing as far as making a decent turn.

Today was just a perfect day, sunshine, no wind, beautiful day on nearly perfect snow. Plan is to go back again tomorrow and likely again on Friday.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
The last two days of skiing were excellent, we did a little more parallel skiing than telemark because we were up on the super steep stuff, we actually skied a big chunk of the downhill course that was used in the 2002 Olympic Games. Sheesh, can hardly imagine going all out on that course as the skiers in the games do. Crazy!

Anyway, we got in 4 days in all, great conditions, legs are feeling destroyed in a great way. We went to the park this morning to run and couldn't believe how bad we felt.
 
Had to leave for a family dinner, so finishing up now...

Park this morning was good, did some little hill sprints which felt dreadful. Next we hung up the gymnastic rings we got in February, this was our first opportunity to give them a try. Going to be really fun and a great challenge. We did some typical TRX type exercises, but also tried some more gymnastic moves like somersaults forward and backward, dips (not even close for me...), upside down pull-ups, leg lifts, etc. We were just overall tired, so hard to tell how much was fatigue and how much was true challenge.

Driving home tomorrow, not sure if I will go to work on Monday or not, might take one more day and unpack, settle in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top