Healing knee

The knee is healing well, except that I tore the scab a bit trying to do a Turkish Get Up this morning.

This morning I did this:
2H swing - 10x20kg
jump-up chin-up + negative
10s RKC plank
chin-up (regular)
2H swing - 5x20x20kg
alternated with:
push-up - 2x10
goblet squat - 2x5x16kg
then:
1H swing - 20x20kg alternating, 6R6L4R4Lx20kg

Yesterday I ran 3.24 miles. This time I stayed upright. I used my Merrell Pace Gloves and managed to stay upright. I ran to a 170bpm Podrunner podcast. That seems to be a comfortable cadence in these shoes.

May 14, I did this:
Bench Press - 10x45#, 5x75#, 3x85#, 3x95#
Chin up - 1, 1, 1/2 + negative, negative
Goblet Squat - 4x3x16kg

Fine, sidewalk, you can have that skin, but leave me alone!

Yes, the sidewalk got some skin from me today. Ouch.

I had a positive this morning, though. I managed a second chin up. Not back to back with the first, but two in the same hour is good for me. Focussing on them sure helps.

During my run, at about 2 miles in, I tripped over a lip in the sidewalk. I caught myself pretty well (while making a very weird muffled grunt) but still managed to rough up the heels of my palms and skinned up my right knee decently. My right thumb is a tad sore, but I think that's the only internal issue I'll have to worry about.

The mud run is next weekend, so I need to get my knee as healed as possible before then.

Even with the spill, I did a 10:35 pace, so I'm happy with that. Overall, I didn't feel winded.

I did this today:
Foam rolling
TGU LR 12kg
Chin up
TGU LR 12kg
Chin up
Run 2 miles
Fall and make a weird noise
Run 2.41 miles
Walk 0.13 miles
Hold paper towel to stop blood

During the run, I wore my Merrell Pace Gloves with thin socks. I listened to a Podrunner 10:1 podcast, which had 10 minutes each of 165 and 170 bpm with 1 minute slower between. (There is also a 175bpm interval, but I stopped before that.)

Another circuit

Today I put together a circuit for myself. I did 20s off, 1:10 on for 4 rounds:
KB swings (16kg, 16kg, 12kg, 12kg)\
JG pull up
jumprope
KB L/R clean (12kg, 20#, 20#, 20#)
JG push up

I don't know what was up, but I couldn't jump rope for anything.  The Jungle Gym XT (JG) push ups were hard.  Really hard.  By the 3rd and 4th round, I was kind of getting them.  The JG pull ups are great.  I can see them really helping my regular pull ups.
Here is Saturday's FBB workout:

Fine Tune B2
1:22
Foam rolling and warm up.
Swiss Ball Crunch - 10/10#, 10/10#
Complex - High Pull, Front Squat with Push Press, Back Squat 4/8x45#
Deadlift - 3x5/155#, 5/160#
Dumbell Rotational Overhead Press - 2x5/20#, 2x5/25#
Single-Leg Squat - 2x5 to bench (niggle in the knee, so I didn't do the last two sets)
Bent-Over Row - 4x5/75#

Bootay workout

Yes, this workout is definitely gear to work the rear.  I can feel it.

Again, I felt a twinge on the side of my left knee right after the side lunges in the warm-up.

FBB Base Phase A4
58 minutes
Foam rolling (from SnG), warm-up
Bird dog - 2x10
Forward Ball Roll - 2x10
Stepup - 2x10/15#ea hand (not ready to increase on left side)
Three-point Dumbbell Row - 2x10/50# (concentrating on form before increasing)
Partial Co-contraction Lunge - 2x10
Pushup - 2x10
Hip-Thigh Extension - 2x10 with leg straight
Bent-Over Reverse Fly - 2x10/8#

Knees again?

Went well this morning.  My daughter got up early and joined me in push-ups, rows, rev fly, lunges, and hip-thigh extensions!

During the warm up, I felt a pain on the medial side of my left knee.  It felt a bit lower than the issue that I had a couple years ago that landed me in physical therapy.  I worked through it and foam rolled a bit.  It seemed to go away.  I felt something similar but milder on the right leg, too.  Weird!  I just want to keep a record of this in case it comes back later.

FBB Base Phase A3
56 minutes
Foam rolling (from SnG), warm-up
Bird dog - 2x10
Forward Ball Roll - 2x10
Stepup - 2x10/10#ea hand
Three-point Dumbbell Row - 2x10/50#
Partial Co-contraction Lunge - 2x10
Pushup - 2x10
Hip-Thigh Extension - 2x10 with leg straight
Bent-Over Reverse Fly - 2x10/8#

Not my best day ever

I could tell as soon as I got to the gym that this wasn't going to be the best day ever.  My squats were not feeling good.  I struggled to find a position where my knee wouldn't click and my legs were wobbly.  Everything seemed harder than it should.  I did manage to stick with the higher weights from my last workouts and not drop back at all, but I didn't increase.  I guess I should remember that getting out on a Saturday morning is itself an achievement.

In total, I took 56 minutes.  Several times I had to stop to pause.  I kept getting a bit light headed on the squats, so the pauses were necessary.  For some of the sets, I had to break up my counting to thee mini-sets of 5 to get through it.  Sometimes I would pause between mini-sets, sometimes I wouldn't.  I think part of the difficulty with this stage is mental.  It's hard to imagine 15 reps and on top of that, it's hard to imagine holding out for 4 rounds of those 15 rep sets.

Today's workout was Stage 7 Workout 4 of New Rules of Lifting for Women.

Squat - 2x6@55# (didn't go deep enough on some reps)
DB Squat, heals raised - 4x15@15#ea (heals on 2# DBs)
DB Shoulder press - 4x15@20#ea
Step-up - 4x15@12#ea (on padded bench, better with not pushing off)
Underhand lat pulldown - 4x15@87# (hard, hard, very hard, extremely hard!)

Biceps!

I almost turned around today once I got to the gym. I didn't sleep well thanks to this cold, but I got out of bed to workout, anyway. Then, when I got to the gym, I realize this one guy was there who uses up the gym and doesn't re-rack his weights. But, I thought, that's silly to turn around now. I'll make do. Then I realized I didn't even have my Forerunner, which I use to time my rests. But, I had my cell phone, which has a basic stopwatch program, so I used that.

Today's workout was Stage 6 A2. It's short but still kicks me! Well, mostly my arms.

I had to do my negative chin-ups from a bench, so I decided not to use the belt. (Which this guy, by the way, had used and left weighted. If I were to use half the stuff in the gym, I'd have to ask if he's done with it. AND he left about 10 minutes into my workout without racking anything.) Anyway, since I didn't have my watch, I didn't have a good way to verify my hang time. I just counted to 20, but probably slower than actually 20 seconds.

The underhand lat pulldowns were very hard, especially when I increased the weight. During these, I got a good look at my biceps. Wow! The 110# reps were very hard. I couldn't pull down fast at all. In fact, I barely made it all the way to my chin.

I forgot to alternate the last two exercises. I guess I'll live. I did hear some clicking in my left knee and it was a little sore afterward. It's going away pretty fast, though.

Negative Chin-up - 3x20sec+
Underhand Lat Pulldown (down fast, pause 1sec, 4sec release) - 6x2@105# then 4x2@112#
Barbell Split Squat - 2x8@65#
Push-up - 2x8@ lowest power cage hook (I didn't feel like unloading alllll that weight from the Smith Machine.) Not the best form towards the end.

Last 5A workout!

Today was a good lift. I even finished the body weight matrix. I did the first part, then drove home and did the second part! The second time looks a lot faster, but I know I wasn't going as low. I think it's better than nothing. My muscles were shot and couldn't do much more than that.

1 arm db snatch - 1@35# & 3@30# then 2x4@35#
db single leg rdl - 3x4@50#ea
bb bent over row - 3x4@95#
single leg press (subbed due to knee) - 162# pressed (125# on stack)
db incline bench press - 2x4@35#ea then 1x4@30#ea
plank - 3x2min
rev woodchop - 3x4@47# pulled (95# on stack)
bwm - 4:05 wait 8:10 then 3:33

One more workout then on to Stage 6!!

Stage 5B2

This time the 5B workout felt a bit better. Maybe it was because I actually did the intervals? I don't know. I feel it in my hams and glutes and a bit in my calves. That's good. My heart rate still tended to peak about 20bpm lower for this B workout than the A workout.

Not much to say. I subbed the partial squats with single leg presses. That was an exercise my physical therapist used for my rehab and since squats seem to be aggravating my knee, I'll sub with evil leg presses for now. I did 8 reps each leg on them rather than 4. My PT had me doing 25 at a time.

rdl/bent over row - 4@90# - I think I might be able to bump these next time!
single leg press - 2x8@110# then 1x8@136#
wide grip lat pulldown - 3x92# - still can't increase, but did feel improvement
back extension - 2x40# then 1x45#
YTWL - 3x10#ea
swiss ball crunch - 1x30#overhead then 2x35# overhead
rev crunch - 3x on 30deg incline
swiss ball side crunch - 1xbw then 1x20# overhead then 1x25# overhead
prone cobra - 2min then 1:20 because I got spooked by someone coming into the gym (did this in the weight room rather than the open room for a change)
intervals - on upright bike 4 sets of 1min hard 2 min easy

Total: about 1.5 hours!!

Starting Stage 5!

Again, I didn't want to get out of bed. While I was getting ready to head out the door, I was questioning why I wanted to do this, anyway. Not working out is much easier, at least presently. But, then I fought back and reminded myself how great I feel after lifting.

Today's workout took almost 1.5 hours! And that was even doing 3 sets of each exercise. (The book said 3 to 4 for most of them, 3 for the last two.) The timing called for 2 minute breaks between exercises. I didn't think I would be able to rest that long, but I tried. In those breaks, I read New Rules of Lifting (the original book, not for women). I actually waited the full time each time. A few times I even went over!

My lifts:
1 arm db snatch - 2sets @ 25#, 1set at 30# - I had to backtrack so I could get the hang of these again. I ended up at 35# in Stage 3.
db 1-leg Rom. deadlift - 2sets @ 35# ea hand, 1set @ 40#ea hand
barbell bentover row - 3sets @ 90#
db single arm overhead squat - 1set at 15#/30#, 2sets @ 12#/25# - I decreased the weight to improve my squat form and get deeper.
db incline bench press - 4sets @ 30# ea hand - It was hard to get that weight overhead! 30deg on the bench
plank - 3sets of 2 minutes
rev woodchop - 3 sets @ 41# pulled (82# on cable)
body weight matrix - 4:41, wait 9:22, 5:12

This was the first time for the bwm since I started physical therapy. I think I'll ice today just in case! My time definitely went down. My legs are now equivalent to spaghetti.

Yay for me for getting back to the gym after a couple weeks off. I'm going to be sore! I was sore this morning when I got up from the running yesterday.

Darn sidewalk! And a beautiful bike ride...

To start the day, I got up for a "long" run of 4.5 miles. It was one of those days, when things just don't seem to be easy. The good thing was that nature didn't call this time. But, I was going down one sidewalk where there is a slight unevenness. I almost always trip here, but I've never fallen... until today. Luckily I caught myself without doing any real damage. I didn't fall on my legs and I didn't land wrong on my hands. Just a little scratched up skin on my palms, which, as I write this, is already unnoticeable. A couple years ago, I tripped on an uneven sidewalk. When I fell, I caught myself poorly on my wrist and hurt it pretty bad. It took several weeks to heal and if I remember correctly, it was the reason I quit C25K the first time.

A lot of people were out walking their dogs this morning. Maybe that's why it seemed like the bunny density was down a bit. I've started making it a point to greet every one I pass. That was fun today, since I passed so many people.

Since I wasn't "feeling it" and since we were planning on going for a bike ride, I kept it to the 4.5 miles that I had on the plan. My average pace was about 11:30, so I guess I sped up a tad. But, I didn't go as far, so maybe it doesn't count. My knee was feeling a bit funky, but not weird enough to stop. I stretched fairly well when I got home. My hear rate stayed between 170 and 180 bpm, so I'm happy with my exertion level.

It was a beautiful morning. 60-62F, with a light 5-6mph wind. Sunshine! Simply wonderful.

Bunny count - 12

The beautiful morning turned into a beautiful day. After a not-so-nice beginning with my daughter (not her fault) we got on the road and drove to Saylorville Lake. We parked and got out our bikes. We started up the fun, hilly, and twisty trail for a wonderful 10 mile ride. The trail is the Neal Smith Trail. It's a very nice, well-used trail. Highly recommended for a family outing.

The ride was a little warmer, with the record saying 73.5F to 78F. Really nice. A light 1-2 mph with (with some higher puffs) kept us cool, too. Most of the trail was mostly shady. There is a beautiful prairie area, which isn't shaded, but that was fine. Thanks to the flowers, birds, and butterflies, it was a nice nature ride.

While at a park during a break, I practiced a few chin-ups on the play equipment. I still can't get all the way up from a dead hang, but I did several jump-up chin-ups.

Darn biology

I almost talked myself out of running today. I moved my knee and hear the click. "Oh, I shouldn't run when it clicks!" Duh, it clicks whenever I do that. The catch was it didn't hurt. I iced it last night, when it was a little sore, probably from weight lifting yesterday. Also, I wanted to get a long run in this weekend without back-to-back running days.

So, I got out the door around 5:15 or 5:30 (my Garmin won't connect right now so I can tell the truth). I ended up warming up with a really slow run then running eight 30sec/60sec intervals. Well, I ran an extra fast section on accident, but that is ok.

Yet again, I had to stop for a bio-break at about 20 minutes. I didn't get back out since I did the intervals.

Update: 1.73 miles in 20 minutes.

Working on form

Today was 4B2 of NRoLfW

I was feeling a decent amount of knee clicking today.

On the BSS, I went down in weight so that I could go deeper. I felt with the higher weights, I wasn't getting a full squat. Otherwise things went well. I increased weights on a few of the exercises, on others I held constant.

I skipped the intervals due to time. I'll try to get them in tomorrow.

Full body workout

Boy, my whole body feels worked-out today. That's a good thing!

Today, I did 4A2 of NRoLfW. During one of the step-ups, as I was decending, I landed on my non-working foot wrong, twisted my ankle and fell down, losing one of my 25# dumbbells. I was worried that I had done some damage, but after a couple minutes of rest, things improved to the point that I continued with the workout. I have weak ankles, so this isn't new. Falling after coming off of a ~18inch step holding 50# of weights was a bit different of a feeling, though! Rather scary, especially since I was all alone in the gym. There was a funny coincidence, though. VH1 was on the gym TV and a song by Kelly Clarkson was playing. As I was sitting there seeing if my ankle would get better, she's dancing on a bar and ends up falling off in much the same manner that I did!

I definitely got a good workout if you reference my heart rate graph from my Garmin:

Heart rate from today's workout. Resting ankle at about 25min mark.

The only problem I have with a heart rate chart is that I don't get credit for activities that are prone. I'm working really hard during those 2 minute planks, sweating and puffing, but since I'm not standing up, my heart rate doesn't get very high. It does show me getting up to 130bpm, though. I guess that is pretty high for a prone position.

I didn't hear as many clicks from my knee today. Also, the ones I heard weren't as extreme as normal. Before the workout, my knee wasn't as sore as it has been. Improvement? I hope!

Last night I did a yoga session from YogaToday.com. I needed that. The kids were being terrors last night and I was so worn out from dealing with them that I could have gone to bed at 8:30pm. Hubby encouraged me to do the yoga, though. Thanks, hon!

New Rules of Lifting 4A2:
FSPP - 3x50# (got sloppy towards end)
Step-up - 3x25#ea (twisted ankle)
DB 1-pt row - 3x35#ea
Static lunge - 3x35#ea (should probably get lower on these??)
Push-up - 2xsetting 4 on Smith Machine, 1xsetting 5
Plank - 3x2min
Horiz woodchop - 3x37#

On to Stage 4

Of course, NRoLfW Stage 4 has the same workouts as Stage 2. You have the option of 2 or 3 sets of each. Today I did 3 of everything and still got out in under an hour. I didn't do all the 90s waiting periods, though. I was thinking about only doing 2 sets of the plank/woodchop combo, but I did 3. That 3rd 2minute plank was VERY tough. Going into it, I didn't think I could make 2 minutes at a plank at all! So, I'm pretty pleased with myself. I did get some knee clicks on some of the squats and some of the step-ups. I only went to horizontal on the squats.

Overall, I'm happy with my performance. I didn't back off on the weights and even increased some. I ended with a relatively strong feeling.

It was rather busy today in the gym. About half way through, others started showing up. Two women were also using the weight area then a guy showed up, too. That kind of surprised me since it's summer.

Tomorrow is my last PT appointment. Now I'll have to do the exercises on my own. I don't know if I'll be able to keep those stability ball ones up. I don't like them much, but I did improve a lot over the last few weeks. I'm still getting knee clicks, but my muscles are developing.

Monday, I ran 2.18 miles and had no problems with my knee. I'll slowly increase mileage and see what happens.

Better lifting today

Today turned out better than Wednesday. I had more energy and was able to increase some of my weights.

Since two guys were already in the small weightlifting area of the gym, I started off with the intervals. Maybe not the optimal configuration, but it didn't seem to have negative effects.

I did the intervals on the upright stationary bike.

Then I proceeded to Stage 3A4 of New Rules.

1 arm db snatch: 2x30#ea then 1x35# each. (powerful! I had to retry one of them because the weight didn't get all the way up.... that really emphasized how this is primarily a lower body exercise, not an arm exercise!)

db single leg rdl: 3x35# ea (not bad, keeping my balance better... maybe could increase weights if my grip would hold out that long!)

bb bentover row: 1x80#,1x85#,1x4@90#,2@85# (nice strong feeling with this one, a little grunting and fighting an urge to cheat!)

db single arm overhead squat: 3x15#/30# (partial squat due to knee, so increased the weight)

db incline bench press: 3x30#ea (30# over my head is scary, it'll be a while before I trust myself with 35#)

planks: 3x90sec (I made it all the way from 100 to 1 then back up to 10 on the last set... remember to breathe!!)

rev woodchop: 3x41# (will I ever be able to increase these??)

The physical therapist again wore me out. When I got home, I was beat and my knee was sore. I think I'll try to do those same exercises tomorrow.

No Body Weight Matrix for me :(

Today I did Stage 3 Workout A3 for New Rules of Lifting for Women.
It was a good workout today. I was sweating up a storm! I felt strong.

I did these weights today:
1 arm db snatch - 1x25#, 2x30# (with 30# I felt really strong for some reason)
db single leg Romanian deadlift - 3x35#ea (got better with each set)
barbell bentover row - 3x80#
db single arm overhead squat - 3x12# & 25# (partial squat due to knee)
db incline bench press - 1x25#ea, 2x30#ea (limit of left arm, a little scary due to wobble!)
plank - 3x90s (sweat!!)
reverse woodchop - 3x41# lifted (~81# on the cable)

Instead of the body weight matrix of squats, lunges, squat jumps, and lunge jumps, I did an interval session on the stationary bike. My left knee was really clicky when I squatted, so I headed my physical therapists advice and skipped those. He said I should ride my bike a lot, so I chose that for the interval session.

All in all a great workout. Several of the exercises seem to get better with each set. My balance improved over time, too. Weird.

My heart rate actually didn't get much higher while biking. Probably because I was sitting. It doesn't show up for the planks, either, even though I was really working! Those first three big spikes were the 1 arm dumbbell snatches.

Heartrate for Weight Portion

Heartrate for Bike Intervals

Got the bike out!

Since the physical therapist wanted me to ride bike, I got it out tonight. I had a meeting about 2.5 miles away, so I rode there. I was running late, so I kicked it pretty good. Not much of a leisurely ride. I even broke a sweat, which means something because it was a nice, cool night and the ride wasn't very long.

I rode relative fast back, too, because the sun was going down. I had my lights and even my reflective vest, but twilight is the worst time for visibility. I even am wheezing a tad now. It was a tad humid, so that probably contributed. I did get up to around 160bpm a couple times.

While riding I sometimes felt my knee cap tracking problem. Now that I know what to feel for, I can tell sometimes. It doesn't hurt as it's happening, but a dull ache appears over time. I noticed a little behind my knee for a while.

It was a nice ride. There are lots of hills, so it's not that bad sometimes that I have a mountain bike. I have lots of gears to shift into and never am tempted to walk. Down one hill, I hit 23mph. Of course, on my way back, I had to punch it out at 5mph.

Back from physical therapy

I just got back from physical therapy for my ongoing knee problems. I was really impressed with the therapy I received. I have an appointment for Friday.

I'm going to take a few notes here so I don't forget what I'm supposed to do and what I was told. It is very possible that I am remembering incorrectly, or incompletely, this is just what I recall, and my memory can be lacking.

There were a few things going on that we are going to try correcting. Hopefully, this will correct the situation. Although the pain is relatively minimal now, it's been ongoing for 5 months.

Here are the contributing factors he identified:
1) Weakness in a muscle on the medial side of the knee... I want to remember the name of this... he said there are four muscles around the knee and this is the only medial one, it's the one you see large on Lance Armstong, he said. Biking will help strengthen this muscle. Maybe the vastus medialis? That looks right. Here is some info on it being weak. This sounds similar to what the PT was saying. That's right. Now that I read more, he was talking about the quads (hence, four muscles) and I remember hearing the term VMO (Vastus Medialis Oblique) which is the lower part of the Vastus Medialis. This link really confirms what was said, including the patella tracking, and this link sounds a lot like what I've felt.
2) Left leg is shorter - might have helped cause some of the other imbalances?
3) Left leg muscles are tighter and less flexible than right leg, especially calf, this tightness and limited ROM was pretty obvious when he compared with the right side
4) Hip bones out of alignment - apparently there are times of the month for women when the things holding the hips together loosen up and the hips can get out of alignment
5) Patella not tracking straight - it was pretty apparent the "detour" it took in the middle of the range of knee movement (probably very related to #1) - my right patella tracked straight as an arrow

He checked other things like my ACL and PCL and the meniscus, but all of those checked out fine. (I'm glad about that!)

So, he put a warm pack on my back for a few minutes and realigned my hips. That went quickly.

Then he used electromyostimulation or Electric Muscle Stimulation on my knee (I believe that's what it was). He put the electrodes on my knee and made my muscles pulse. He said that this would help get the little bit of fluid from behind the patella that was a result of the inflammation. My knee was clicking some which indicated some irritation from the patella rubbing. He wants me to take some ibuprofen to decrease the inflammation. Also, I should ice frequently to keep the inflammation down while I am working on correcting it.

He taped my knee using "McConnell taping", which is basically pulling the patella medially to try to help it track better. (I'm unsure of how you use that in a correct grammatical way!) I'm not sure this is totally correcting the situation, because I can feel the clicking still. I think my vastus lateralis (outer quad muscle) is just plain strong.

I have a list of stretches and exercises I am supposed to do 3 sets of 25 of each day. I'm not supposed to run for a while and I'm supposed to avoid squatting, especially deep squats, until we get this fixed. Those activities would keep the inflammation going. So, I'll be modifying my weights and not running for a little while.

All in all, I think it was a productive session (almost two hours) and I was impressed with the therapist who saw me. I am satisfied that we're looking in the right direction and that I'll be able to correct the situation!

Wobbly legs

Not a lot of time to blog today. Just returned from Stage 3A2 and my legs are still wobbly!

Not much new right now. I improved my body weight matrix times to 3:40 and 3:30 this time. Although, for the last rep, I short squatted about the last two or three squat jumps. Should I take a 5 second penalty? :)

I'm getting the one arm dumbbell snatch better. Although, it's going to be a huge effort to go from 25# to 30#. Especially for my left arm. My right arm does ok with 25#, but I can tell it is on the limit for the left. I wonder if I should use differing weights or let my left arm catch up?

The dumbbell incline bench press is still good. I don't know how I'll ever be able to go from 25# to 30# each on these. I wish I had a way to go by 2.5# increments.

Plank were TOUGH. yikes. Especially that third set of 90s.

Tomorrow is my PT appointment. I hope they have some input for me. Lately, if I have soreness, it's above my knee cap. I have no clue why it moves around like that.