A couple more workouts down!

I forgot to blog my last workout which I think was Wednesday. I did 20 minutes of intervals on the elliptical then did Stage 1 Workout A4 of the New Rules of Lifting for Women then finished up with the Precor stretch trainer. After that workout I didn't feel any knee pain.

Thursday I took my daughter to parent/child swimming lessons. I try to run around in the water as much as possible, so it's actually a bit of a workout for me, too.

Today, I went and did 20 minute intervals on the Precor AMT 100i, which is some cross between an elliptical and a stair stepper. You can vary your stride length. I'm not sure what to think about that. It was fine on my knee, though. I felt like I was getting resistance training along with the aerobic side of things. After completing that, I went and did Stage 1 Workout B4 of NRoLfW. I felt a bit self conscious because there were some guys who could life me along with my weighted barbell there, but I had on a Podrunner podcast and focused on that instead of my self-consciousness! Before loading up my barbell for the deadlift, I had to unload the barbell that someone had left loaded. Annoying, but not only that, it had a lot of weight on it! It even had 45# weights on. Then I go an put my wimpy total of 35# on the 45# bar. Oh, well. I never claimed to be able to lift a lot! After the first set of deadlifts, I could already feel my lower back muscles rebelling. So, I expect tomorrow and the next day to be pretty sore! The overhead presses will probably make themselves known again, but they did go a bit better. I'm using 15# dumbells for those.

I was able to up the weights on the deadlift, lat pulldown, and swissball crunch today. That's good. Especially since I'm not lifting three times a week like I would like.

If I ever doubted that weightlifting could get my heartrate up, I don't now. I often hit 175bpm with rests being around 135bpm-145bpm. So, I definitely get some cardiovascular conditioning in when doing heavy weights. I think previously, I did see this, but not as much. I don't think I was pushing myself quite as much. This book tries to use large muscle groups, so you are working a lot of muscles as once.

After the weights, I decided to give the treadmill a try again. I'm kind of feeling my knee afterwards, now, so I'm wondering if that was a bad idea. I told myself to just get on and do a mile as fast as I could. This was after over an hour of working out already. So, I hopped on and set the treadmill at 6.5mph. WAY fast for me. It wasn't long before I had to start dropping the speed. I wanted to not have my heart rate go much over 180bpm. I kept dropping it until I found that 5.2mph kept my heart rate right at 180bpm. I didn't think I'd make it to a mile, so I changed my goal to 10 minutes total. I kept looking at the time, swearing it was counting up rather than down. (It starts at 60 minutes when you begin.) When I neared 10 minutes and hadn't died yet, I decided to run without looking at the time and attempt to finish off the mile. The next time I looked down, I was at 0.96 miles, so of course I finished the mile. I did it in 11:15. Not great, but I was pre-worn out and the initial kick did not help things. I'm hoping that didn't do my knee in. I think I'll ice it tonight.

Had another post-lifting scoup of whey protein in some Fage fat-free plain Greek yogurt. I reallllly like that. But then, the Fage yogurt tastes so decadent anyway. The only problem is it is sooo rich feeling, and I really needed water. The yogurt doesn't wet your mouth.

It seems that my gym got its water problems straightened out. The water used to be horrible, but this time, I either was so thirsty I didn't care, or they finally have city water. It tastes good and isn't tinted now! Yippee! One bottle of water wasn't enough for me today, so I risked the yucky water and was pleasantly surprized.

Well, off to finish with a stretch and some ice on the knee. Keep moving!

Still here... waiting

My knee started acting up again after my last workout, so I took another week off. I really need to do something, though. Not working out is driving me crazy. It helps keep me sane with the lack of sunlight this time of year.

I'm thinking next time I go, I might try using the elliptical rather than the treadmill. Maybe the treadmill is aggravating my knee? We had a couple days of warm weather this past week. I wish my knee had felt ok so I could have run outside. Now it's freezing again. After the melt-off, the sidewalks and streets are surely dangerous again with hidden patches of ice.

Right now, I'm fighting off a cold. It's not bad enough that it would keep me from working out, though.

In for some more soreness, I assume

Today I ran 1.5 miles before completing Stage 1 Workout B3 of the New Rules of Lifting for Women. The run went fine. I was starting to feel something in my bad knee, so I stopped at 1.5 miles. I didn't have time to run farther, anyway.

The lifting went fine. Lifting the bar for the deadlifts is giving me sore spots on my hands. I really need to get some lifting gloves. I don't care to get rough callouses on my hands from weight lifting!

I definitely maxed out my weight in the overhead presses. Those last couple reps were marginal and at my physical limit.

Today, I tried out my new cell phone as an mp3 player. It's an LG Rhythm. It worked very nicely. I used an arm band to hold it. The ear phone cord was slightly annoying while running, though. This phone has a microSD slot. I bought an 8GB card for it. Last night, I loaded about 900MB of Podrunner podcasts on it... a drop in the bucket! Nice. Although my other mp3 player is nice and small, the thing I like about using my cell phone is that it has a larger display. It's easier to select the podcast I want.

After my workout, I tried (for the second time) a scoop of protein powder in some Fage fat-free plain yogurt. Not bad at all! I have Optimum Nutrition vanilla ice cream whey powder. I saw some powders at the store that don't have artificial sweeteners. I think I'll try one of those when I finish off this tub. I just don't care as much for the taste of artificial sweeteners. So far, the yogurt is my favorite way of eating this stuff. I tried it in oatmeal and it curdled! Yuck! It makes milk taste funny and smoothies are ok, but take time. Then I have to wash the blender, which is a bit of a pain.

OOOOUCH!!!

I guess my workout on Sunday was better than I had thought. My muscles were soooo sore yesterday and they still are today. It's a good soreness, I guess, but I still look funny when I move around! The main sore muscles are in my legs. I assume this is due to the squats and the step-ups not due to the running.

The good news is I don't feel soreness in my knee. I babied it yesterday with ice then wore the brace all day.

New shoes

Forgot to mention that I visited a running store in a city about 40 minutes away from home. Very nice store called Fitness Sports. The guy who helped me was genuinely helpful and interested in my "newbie" runner discussion. It seems like the shoes I've been wearing are the right ones. I tried on what had to be 10 different shoes. He was the one bringing out all the shoes, I wasn't really requesting them. So, I didn't feel bad about taking up that extra time. (Except that my husband and kids were waiting in the car!) I picked out the Brooks Defyance, which happened to be on sale. They are in a strip mall. Behind the store, there is a hallway that runs between all the stores. There, you can run back and forth to try the shoes out. That helped a lot.

Back on the treadmill

Last night I got back on the treadmill after three weeks rest. My knee is still not 100% better, though. I wasn't feeling it much from day to day, though. Last week, I did feel a sharp pain, so I knew it wasn't over. I was standing up after sitting on the floor and angled it just right. Most of the time, it's been ok, though. I'll be in the water twice per week starting tomorrow, however I will be walking rather than swimming. Hopefully that doesn't aggravate it. (I will be taking my daughter to "swimming" lessons.)

The run last night went well. I did 2 miles at 5.0-5.2 miles per hour. After that, I did Stage 1 workout A3 of the New Rules of Lifting for Women. That went very well. I can definitely see that using the heavy weights and short rests helps get my heart rate up. I was up in the 150's a few times when it was intense. I had to lengthen a couple rests a bit to bring my heart rate back down.

This time I did the step-ups on a weight bench. My footing wasn't as firm due to the padding, but that just increased the intensity a bit. It was a much better height than that little 8 inch box I had used before. This time, using 10lb bells in each hand had me at my limit, while before 25lb bells only maxed out my hand strength!

For the squats, I was able to get a lot lower, but still not quite as low as I wanted. I realized that if I slant my toes out slightly rather than having my feet be parallel, I could squat a lot lower.

For the cable row, this time there was a bench already situated under the cable machine, so I used that. Much nicer than sitting on the floor!

I did the push-ups at 45degrees using the Smith machine. They went pretty well and had me at my limit by the time I reached 12 reps, so I think for now, that is the right setting. When the reps are lowered, I guess I can lower the Smith bar accordingly. Maybe to 30degrees.

The prone jackknives are still kicking my butt, but I got through them ok. The stability ball really kicks that one up several notches!

I iced my knee when I went to bed and I'm wearing a compression brace today. If this soreness comes back like it was and doesn't go away, I'm going to have to go to the doctor. :(

Last night I forgot my water bottle. Very bad. The water at the gym is HORRIBLE! It is very bad. They must not be on city water, even though they are really close to town. I hope they get added some time, because that is just soooo nasty. The toilets and water fountain are stained from the water and the place isn't that old. It leaves a icky, long lasting aftertaste. They do sell bottled water there. I will be tempted to buy one next time I forget my own water.