Or it might just be the repeated sensation of being on the cross trainer!! I thought about updating the blog over the weekend; then the weekend was gone! So, so busy and I didn’t even run last week.
Tuesday night I jumped on the cross trainer for the first time. It is a weird action to get used to. Not only the constant swinging of the arms on the handles, but your feet at set quite far apart, almost directly under your hips. I found that after half an hour not only was my forefoot going to sleep, but the outsides of my calves were feeling it due to the wider stance. All in all it was fun, though I don’t have the instructions for it and can’t really change the display to what I wanted to read so I went for 30 minutes as I needed to go for a 5km and that would be about the time it took me, give or take a few minutes. It certainly got a sweat up, but nice because I had the fan parked so it was blowing right onto my face, and watching the news on TV made time pass more quickly.
Wednesday morning I was up at 5.30am again and on the gym. I kept off the legs exercises for the time being which gave me more time for the upper body. I enjoy using the gym, though the lack of aerobic factor makes me feel like I am not working hard enough. I persevere as I know having a stronger core will help in the long run (no pun intended) and it is having an effect of my ageing triceps (read tuck shop lady arms!). Wednesday night was spent at a mid-week baseball game for CBoy. I spent 15 minutes at it by the time I went home to feed the dogs and change out of my work clothes; it then took me 1 hour 15 minutes to get through peak hour traffic and to the field. It’s a good things MGirl dropped him at the game because I arrived to see the last innings, and watch them win the game!
Thursday morning I was back on the cross trainer for another 30 minutes. Thankfully it was a “rest” week (70% of mileage from the week before) as I was trying to imagine what it might be like over the next months in the unlikely event that I am banished to the cross trainer forever with a chronic pain-in-the-leg leg that won’t cooperate! Another session finished and I’m thinking I might have to crank up the resistance a little to get the HR up a little higher. At least I was sweating and burning some calories. Thursday night was food shopping night while MGirl went to baseball training. CBoy opted out as he’d been at his school swimming carnival all day Thursday, and with the game the night before, he was really tired.
I had another appointment with the physio on Friday. She was talking about more acupuncture, but when I asked if there was something she could do more specific to the tendon area she spent the session doing deep massage on it. Ouch…be careful of what you ask for. The good thing was that I was able to tolerate the pressure on the tendon without tensing muscles up or cringing or distorting my face…and she was happy that I hadn’t kicked her in the head; so I guess that’s called improvement. We also discussed taping my foot, under the arch, to provide more support and preventing the arch of my foot from “dropping” at the bottom of each stride and thereby stretching the already over-worked tendon. If it helps it may be that I do need that consult with the sports podiatrist, but I may not know that for a few weeks yet.
Friday evening with no kids I mowed the lawn so I could free up my weekend. Ever since I’ve had the new lawn installed (about 5 months now) it is growing like wild fire and needs mowing every week. I swear it grows about 8cms a week!! It is really nice to have green lush grass…I just wish I had a boyfriend to take over the blue jobs because I am having enough trouble making time for the other things I have to do. FD#1 was lucky enough to get a walk around 9pm, it was a nice way to end a hot day for both of us!
Saturday morning I was up early, anticipating the scorching weather we continue to have, and I was on the cross trainer again for a 60 minute session. I was programmed to do an 8.75km run, so 60 minutes was more than enough. I jumped into the pool by 9am and couldn’t believe how hot the water was, at least 23C by then! With all the warm days I don’t think anything is cooling down at the moment and the pool almost felt like a tepid bath. The rest of the morning was spent with house work and the ever-dreaded, and much put off, entire house floor mop! It had to be done so I got stuck in and threw a few loads of washing in for good measure. It was nice to stop at about 11.30am and have a coffee and make some lunch. I spent the next couple of hours dreading the fact that I had to leave the house soon and concocting ways of getting out of it.
With no more excuses left, I jumped the scooter just before 1pm to head into the city. I was picking up my “fancy” hydration pack that I’d ordered for the race…the Salomon XT Wing 5…I was kind of excited, despite the searing temperatures. I’ve spent ages researching them on the internet and I hope I’ve picked a good one. It has a 3 litre bladder which I will use for water, and also carries 2 x 600ml screw top sports bottles which I will fill with electrolyte drink. I wanted to be able to carry water and electrolyte as I didn’t want to be forced to drink one or the other; I wanted a choice depending on how I felt, so I think this will do the job really well. I still have to buy an attachment for the front to give me a little more storage space for food, beanie, gloves and coat, etc. I also bought my head lamp, which is mandatory equipment, and I can’t wait to run in the dark and try it out.
I squished it all into the scooter seat and headed off for CBoy’s baseball game to do the scoring. I really felt sorry for all the kids having to play in that heat; and their uniforms aren’t exactly summer-weight. It was a hot struggle of a game and unfortunately they lost. They were assured of 4th place and a spot in the finals, so I think they were relieved that they didn’t miss out even though they lost. Back home again by 6.30pm and I was back in the pool. Twice in one day…that must be a record! It’s funny; we never use our pool as much as I thought we would when we weren’t pool owners and wished we were! I guess it’s easier to sit in the air conditioning.
Sunday morning I felt like a ride…on my bike! I hadn’t been out for ages and as I’ve actually put a 30km cycle into my program once a week, I thought it was time to actually do it. Even though I’ve been on the cross trainer, with no running this week I feel “overly” rested and needed to do some more serious torture. Sunday morning was the morning. I was going to a friend’s house (MGal), another baseball mother, for early morning coffee and cake to mark the end of the season for the team (this is MGirl’s team). This was the perfect destination for a ride as then I could double back to MGirl’s game and head home after that. It was nice to get out on the bike again but by the time I got home at 12.30pm it was over 35C. Back in the pool I went, thankfully. The rest of the afternoon was taken up by a nap.
This morning I was back at the physio for another acupuncture session. It is a weird sensation; you can’t actually feel the needles but your muscles twitch and release and apparently the needles move back and forth as well. We discussed further stretching exercises and the fact that I could run this week, experimentally so and no further than 3km first up. I asked if the first 3km went ok, if I could go around for a 2nd lap and she just raised her eyebrows at me and laughed. I just want to start running again. I have another appointment on Friday, which will give me the chance to get 2 3km runs in before then to give her some feedback on how the leg is. I will have to put a couple of cross trainer sessions in there as well as I am supposed to be running about 35kms this week!
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