Sunday, May 7, 2023

A Better Week but...

This week overall, I felt much better than I did last week. The heaviness in my legs started to dissipate and by Wednesday morning, I felt like myself again. Was it the change in the weather? Certainly, the sunshine and warmer temperatures made a huge difference in how I was feeling. However, after Wednesday's trail run, my left knee started to act up again. It's that same patellar issue--chondromalacia- that I've had on and off for the past year, ever since I wiped out on the trail and knocked my kneecap out of alignment.  I started doing my exercises but haven't gotten much relief, so on Thursday, I taped it. 

Since I don't remember aggravating it, I'm pretty sure that RA is the culprit. Thankfully, it only hurts when I go down a flight of stairs. Running is still pain-free and I am grateful for that!

Weekly Rundown
Sunday: trail run 8 miles
Monday: CrossFit
Tuesday: Fluid Running
Wednesday: trail run 8.3 miles
Thursday: Strength Training
Friday: run 6 miles
Saturday: yoga with Adriene

Total miles for April: 93.5

Running

On Sunday, I drove to a forest preserve about 30 minutes from my home to meet up with the Trail Sisters for our weekly run. Unlike my 'perfect run' on Friday, my legs felt heavy and tired again. We started out together but separated into 2 groups quickly. I was with the slower group, including my friend Kristin. It worked out well because these ladies pushed me to nicely paced 8 miles. We started out in the sunshine and finished with raindrops. It's as if the weather just can't make up its mind!


Finally! The sun came out on Wednesday and the temperatures moderated. I was so excited to hit the trails. I initially set out with a plan to run 6 but soon pushed the distance to 8. The trails were mostly dry and I had them all to myself. I felt good, too--much stronger than I have since Earth Day. Hopefully, I'm turning a corner!


Friday morning dawned bright and sunshiny with the promise of warmer temperatures. My left knee was acting up again, but I had taped it the day before and hoped for the best.  I was a little more fatigued than on last Friday's perfect run, but for the most part, this run felt good. My knee didn't bother me at all, but I did have some issues with high heart rate. It's always something! 


CrossFit

On Monday morning when I pulled up the WOD, I inwardly groaned because there were overhead squats in the MetCon and there were a lot of them. I wasn't sure I wanted to go but I knew I'd feel better if I did. So I did a quick Yoga with Adriene shoulder opener and off I went. The strength/skill portion was 4 rounds of 1 lap double KB (20#) overhead walk, 12 barbell (85#) hip thrusts, and 15 supinated banded pull-aparts. The MetCon was a chipper: 10-8-6-4-2 overhead squats (35#) and bar hops and 2-4-6-8-10 cal on the bike and abmat situps. The goal was to finish in under 10 minutes. I was thinking how hard that would be but in reality, I finished in 8:36! The overhead squats went pretty well--I didn't struggle nearly as much as I thought I might. In round 4, SJ came over, and told me to squat lower, which I did, and she complimented me on my form! Day made. I was really pleased with these. I worked hard to keep my shoulders and arms even, all the way down. These are so hard and I think I'm finally getting it!


I woke up very achy and stiff on Thursday--when will this inflammation go away? Before I left to go work with SJ, I did a quick Yoga with Adriene video to open up my shoulders, which helped immensely. When I got to the gym, I also did some hangs from the bar and some scap pulls, along with some other mobility movements. SJ had me start off with Bulgarian split squats, 4 sets of 10 (each leg), 20# DB in each hand. I alternated those with a new-to-me tibialis anterior exercise using a tibialis bar. This is a free weight that she added 7.5# to and had me flex and extend my foot 10 times. Believe me when I tell you that I 'felt the burn'. Next up were some lat pulldowns with the resistance band, sets of 10. And of course, my least favorite thing, hollow rocks, 20 seconds. Ouch.


Off the Road

Last night, my sister and I went out for dinner and to a movie--we saw Are You There God, It's Me Margaret. I shared the trailer a couple of months ago and I thought it looked promising. Could a movie capture the essence of this favorite book from my childhood? Yes. Oh yes. It was so good. Lisa and I both loved it. It was cute, it was funny, and it was poignant. There weren't very many people in the theater, so I'm sure it will be streaming soon. Highly recommended!! PS Judy Blume has a cameo, but if you blink, you'll miss it!

How was your week? Did the weather improve where you are? Are you getting in some nice runs? Do you work your tibialis anterior? PS I'll be sharing my Earth Day Race recap on Tuesday!

I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown. 



24 comments :

  1. I was wondering how that movie would be! I loved all those books growing up as well. will probably wait for it to come out streaming as I am not so motivated to go to an actual theater anymore. Sorry your knee is bothering you and hope it feels a lot better this week. Running temps have been nice!

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    1. I am loving the warmer weather but it warmed up so fast that I struggled a bit this morning!

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  2. No, i don't work my tibialis anterior! I'll bet most people don't. I'm wondering if a tibialis bar is something you would find in most gyms? Of course there are all sorts of things in my gym that I'm unaware of, so we might have something like that. I'm glad your runs are feeling good and pain-free! I hope the knee settles down.
    I loved all Judy Blume books growing up, but especially that one- I'm intrigued about this movie! It sounds good and now I want to see it.

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    1. SJ has had me do toe lifts in the past which work the tibialis but not like this bar!

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  3. Judy Blume was my pre-teen favorite author. I'm eager to see the Margaret movie; glad to hear it was a good one! Our weather went from winter to summer this week, and I am hoping the summer temps (or thereabouts) are here for the next several months.

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  4. Glad you're getting back to normal! My RHR had been high all this time, so I continue to fight something (apparently not COVID after 4 negative test so far) -- I'm sure a tiny bit was due to the elevation but more to just not being 100%.

    That's great that your knee doesn't bother you while running. It was even chilly down in NC! So Weird!

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  5. I hope you knee pain goes away completely soon. It's always something with us runners, isn't it?

    Our weather this past week was pretty miserable until Thursday which was perfect timing for our trip to the farm.

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    1. Seriously! I had a pretty good injury free streak for a while but that trail race kind of threw my body for a loop.

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  6. Sorry to hear about your knee - glad you're able to run pain-free. I hope it clears up soon.

    Judy Blume books were some of my favorites when I was growing up. Nice to hear the movie didn't disappoint.

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  7. Here's me googling "tibialis anterior".... What a great idea, especially for runners!
    Interestingly, one of my PT exercises for my achilles involves a band that I have to push away with my foot, which works the achilles and the tibialis. Doing it with weights is a lot more strenuous! Did you feel it on Friday's run at all?

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    1. I thought I would feel something from that movement on Friday's run but I didn't. I guess that means I need to use heavier weights?

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  8. Haha I have no idea what a tibulus anterior is - you're so good at working all the areas of your body you need to! It is still cool when I run at 4 am but I am sure it will be warm for my race in a few weeks during the day. That's my biggest struggle - getting acclimated to the temps!

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  9. i'm so glad you are feeling a little more like yourself. And that you got some nice sister time, too! We were supposed to go to the movies for my birthday (although I was looking at Guardians 3 or Renfield lol), but I want to spend the day outside.

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  10. Happy to hear that you felt better last week. Bummer about the knee issue but it sounds like you are taking all the right steps to keep the pain at bay.

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  11. Oh, great to hear a positive review of that movie, I'll definitely check it out. I loved that book, like seemingly all women of a certain age :)

    I haven't heard of chrondomalacia, but I googled it and it makes sense when you describe how it happened and that RA might trigger it. I hope it calms down.

    Great week Wendy!

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  12. glad you had a better week but I'm sorry you still had some pain. it sucks. maybe it is partially the weather? Here it did improve and now we are back to rain again. Moving somewhere warmer cannot come soon enough and yet I know it's like 10 years still to go with this northern Europe climate BS.

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    1. I don't think the weather has anything to do with my knee, but I do feel you on this rainy spring! We can't control the weather, so we just have to learn to live with it. :p

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