Week Three

Monday: rest again. Aaahhhhhhh.

Tuesday was fun. I spun for 45 minutes at home, watching a HOUSE episode. I wonder if I'm spinning "right." I'm pretty much just making my legs go around endlessly. I do love my new bike trainer. It's nice and quiet so that it doesn't disturb my TV enjoyment. :-) I also did our "Strength A" training. I only used 3 lb. weights, which felt very easy, but I have a fear of increasing the weights. I don't want to do anything that might aggravate my back, so I'm erring on the side of not doing enough weight training.

For Wednesday's track, led by Coach Joe, we put in about 4 miles. After our warm up and drills, we ran a 1600, did some strengthening drills, then a 1200, more drills, then an 800, more drills, and then a 400. I focused on beating my time each lap, and I did. I even did the last 400 in under two minutes, which (for me) is like lightening speed. :-)

For Thursday's run, I ran for 45 minutes along the Los Gatos Creek Trail. It's a good thing the schedule called for 45 minutes, because that's about all I had in between work and my class. My run felt very tired after last night's track practice.

On Friday, I swam about 1,000 yards at Simpkins. I made the mistake of going during an open community swim, so it was incredibly crowded and not so fun. I also forgot to bring the swim workout with me, so not knowing what to do, I just did laps. Laps really bore me.

On Saturday, I biked 90 minutes, from my house to Davenport and bak, and then ran 2 miles (22 minutes). In the afternoon, I went on an easy 4 mile hike. It was a beautiful day out!

Sunday morning was our coached training. We met at FIT in Los Altos to learn about strength training. It was really a wash for me. It was totally over my head. I really know nothing about weights and weight trraining, and even phrases like "three sets of ten" need a little translation for me. We got to go around to different stations to try different lifting exercise, but I was afraid to do anything new with weights while my back is recovering, so I just observed. I vaguely remember my doctor saying he knows a personal trainer who works with people in rehab. I may try to contact him to get a modified plan on doing the strength training. Anyway, the whole day was not without exercise. I hiked with my brother who came in from out of town for a couple of hours.

Body Check: Got new shoes. The shins are much better, but I still have the tenderness under the right knee. I think I have a little tendinitis in that tendon that connects the knee cap to the shin bone (based on where I feel the pain). The general plan is to ice frequently and load up on Aleve for a week or two. I also bought a little knee support. I also recently started taking MSM and glucosamine, which supposedly help with connective tissue. My understanding is that it has to build up in your system over several weeks or more before you notice a difference.