Proceeding with Caution

After a rough start to 2019, this week things settled down nicely. I was ready for a do-over! After my back injury, I was a little nervous about my plans to travel south to Mobile to run a half marathon with Holly, Teresa, and Karen. I'm preparing this post in advance, so I'm optimistically telling you to check my Instagram to see how things turned out for us. For the most part, I behaved myself all week, so there's no reason to believe anything would go wrong....

I'll recap the weekend and the race on next week's wrap up. For today, I'm sharing some highlights from my very low-key week. 

Besides my back injury, I started out the week with a head cold. Because why would you have just one thing to make you miserable, right? In glass half full fashion, I felt lucky to get the head cold over with before my trip. I spent most of the week doing my PT exercises and just taking it easy. 

For me, it's not easy taking it easy. I did lots of yoga and stretching, being very cautious not to re-injure my back. On Wednesday, I woke up with no pain! In spite of the frigid cold and wind, I laced up my running shoes and headed out for a 4 mile run. I'm so glad I did. This was the most well-paced run I've had in a while and gave me a nice boost of confidence heading into this weekend's race.

While I had a little anxiety about returning to CrossFit, I went and Sammy Jo was prepared for that. Before my strength session, we talked a bit about my injury. She's got a plan to get that right glute firing again, which is what led to my injury. I did banded side steps--right side only, KB deadlifts, one legged hamstring curls on the fitness ball, and single legged RDLs using a KB. No surprise to either of us, I struggled with those RDLs when doing them on my right side, which is the side of my injury. It's going to be a work in progress.

Sammy Jo also programmed a little fun into my session, with a plan to work on rope climbs. It went so well, that I climbed all the way to the top!

I think I'm asking her how to get down!

Since we didn't do any lifting in my strength session, I was happy to see that bootcamp had squats on the menu. Lots of squats. We did an EMOM with a cumulative total of 50 front squats (I lifted 45#x50), 30 pushups, and 30 atomic situps. After that, there was 50 ball over shoulders, 50 ball slams, 50 ball slam situps, 50 ball hops, and 50 ball chest passes. Lots of balls. Thinking I should take it easy, I initially grabbed the 15# wall ball, but one of my classmates encouraged me to use the 30# ball. Even though ambitous lifting is what got me into trouble in the first place, I went "heavy" and did the workout with the 30# ball. Focused on correct form, I was cautious and of course, the last one done. I felt pretty good, considering all the squatting involved in the workout. When I got home, I ran through my PT exercises as well as that Yin Yoga for SI joint dysfunction class. 

As of Friday, I felt pretty good going into my race. I had no goals except to finish and enjoy the ride. Mobile is a southern coastal town with a French Quarter and historic antebellum homes. The half marathon course travels through a lot of the historic district. Holly has run this race before and her description of the race and the town is what attracted me to this one. Plus, I'll be in some pretty good company. Stay tuned...

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Holly is starting her sabbatical this week as she prepares to move to her new home! I'm lucky I was able to talk her into spending the weekend with me. I'll be sharing hosting duties with a few guest hosts. This week our guest host is Kim, of Kooky Runner. Kim is one of my favorite people. She is as nice in person as she seems on her blog. Please give her the same love that you show Holly and me by linking to her blog and commenting on her post. As always, thanks for supporting the Weekly Wrap!

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