An early morning run and a stressful power outage …

Tuesday – 3 miles

• 3.50 miles, 39’ 57” minutes, 11’ 25” min/mile average pace, 141 BPM average heart rate

Knowing that my day was going to be as rushed as it was yesterday, I made sure that I woke up early enough to get my run in. Let me tell you … I had no desire to get out of bed this morning but I did. I noticed that my knee was a little stiff as I rolled out of bed but I decided to go for my run anyway. I don’t believe that it is actually injured. I have hurt my knee before so I know what an injured knee feels like. I didn’t want to cause anymore soreness in my knee so I didn’t do my normal hill workout. I chose to take it easy on the treadmill this morning. After my five minute walking warm up, I set the belt pace to 4.0 mph and maintained that for 40 minutes. I didn’t adjust the incline on the treadmill and left it at 0% for the duration of my workout. After my run, I shortened my walking cool down to five minutes instead of ten. I made that decision because I was already a little behind schedule. My run felt really good this morning. Hopefully, I will be able to start getting up earlier so that I can run outside more as it closer to the big race.

When I finally got to work, I was completely amped up from my run and ready to get lots of work done today. Unfortunately, that was not in the cards. Apparently, at 7:30 this morning (while I was happily running on the treadmill), the transformer blew and the power went out in the whole building. REALLY! I was so livid and absolutely beyond furious. What really upset me the most was the fact that there was nothing I could do to work around it. I did wait around for a little bit and cleaned my desk but the minimum time to fix the problem was 4 hours. I headed home after my desk was cleaned. My boss had already given us the all clear to leave and I was actually one of the last people left in the office. I guess there is always tomorrow.

After a somewhat lazy at home due to a lack of power at the office, I received a rather exciting email. I am sure that you know how much I love kettlebells by now. So while I was at home today, I emailed Lauren Brooks to see if she would send me her 8 week rotation plan for Volumes 1 and 2 of her Ultimate Body Sculpt and Condition DVD series. She responded to me rather quickly and I am so excited to start her plan. Before I start it, I am going to need a heavier bell so I am going to go get one this weekend. Her program looks very doable and like it will fit well into my current training plan. Of course, I am going to be doing either two-a-days or running and strength training  back to back starting next week.

Another late night run ...

Thursday - 3 miles

• 3.64 miles, 40' 11" minutes, 11' 02" min/mile average pace, 158 BPM average heart rate

I think that my work is starting to affect my sleeping patterns. When I dive into my work or I have a large deadline looming, I end up with a million things still on my mind even after I leave the office. My list of things to do takes over my thoughts and I don't shut it off. No matter how early I intend to go to sleep it doesn't seem to work out the way I want because I can't turn my brain off. One major disadvantage to this is that I usually don't wake up early enough to get my runs in before work. Most days that doesn't really bother me because I can still hit the treadmill after I get home from work. Today I was actually really upset with myself for not waking up early. My sister (the one who doesn't live with me) is moving to Chicago next week and she came over for dinner tonight. I wanted to have as much time as possible with my sister before she leaves. By not waking up early enough for my run, I was afraid that I wouldn't get to have enough time with my sister or I wouldn't get to run until midnight. My sister had a different idea for the evening then I did. After I got home from work, the three of us worked on dinner and played some video games. After we ate dinner, we watched a little bit of television before my sister left for a going away party with some friends. I guess I didn't have to worry about getting everything done tonight after all. I don't have anything against my sister but I must admit that I was more than a little upset with the evening's events.

After I calmed down and my dinner settled in my stomach, I changed into my running clothes and jumped on the treadmill. I really didn’t try to push myself tonight because my knee is still a little sore. I know I shouldn’t run with a knee injury but my knee doesn’t feel injured just tight. It feels like all the muscles around my knee are just really tight and don’t really want to move more than necessary. I still wanted to get in a good tempo run so I didn’t slack off too much. After my five minute walking warm up, I set the belt pace to 4.0 mph and jogged for five minutes to help loosen up my knee some more. Within 15 minutes of starting to run, I had increased the belt pace to 5.0 mph. While I was running, I tried to stay aware of my body and what it was saying to me especially my left knee. During the actual tempo portion of the run, I felt my knee loosen up and without severe pain. I continued at 5.0 mph for 25 minutes and my knee felt really good. I finished my run with the belt pace at 4.0 mph for five minutes and then cooled down with a 10 minute walk. After my run, I tried to really stretch out my knees in hopes that it will avoid anymore soreness tomorrow. I guess I will know if it worked when I wake up tomorrow.

Finding my center and focus …

Wednesday - Strength Training

• Bikram Yoga - 90 minutes (class at local yoga studio)

For the first time since I started kettlebell training, I chose not to do it when I had the opportunity. I woke up this morning with plenty of time to do my kettlebell workout but I didn't do it. As I got out of bed to go turn the alarm off, I felt some soreness in my left knee. I felt this same soreness yesterday morning when I woke up and at the end of my run last night. I decided that the cause of this soreness might be the number of squats and squat thrusts that I am doing during my kettlebell workouts. Since I have never really done these exercises before starting my new kettlebell workout, I may very well be doing them incorrectly. Also, I don't really want to upset the people who live below me so I have been trying to cushion the jumping action of the squat thrusts. I believe that by cushioning the jumping action I am actually causing my knees to take the brunt of the motion, which is probably not a good thing. Because of this, I decided to take the day off from my kettlebell training.

I still went to my Bikram Yoga class! I may have decided against doing my kettlebell workout this morning but I still went to my Bikram class with my favorite instructor. I probably should have stayed at work to finish some things up but I also wanted to attend my yoga class. Such decisions to make. I have been making a lot of progress with many of the poses. Even though I have been practicing yoga on and off (mostly off) for about three and a half years, I am still not very flexible at all. I can honestly say that I have progressed leaps and bounds in my level of flexibility. My hamstrings still have a long way to go. I still have issues coming out of Toe Stand properly but that should come along as my hamstrings loosen up. I am almost ready to begin kicking out on my Standing Forehead to Knee Pose, which also requires strong knees and hamstrings. Even though my knee was sore this morning, that feeling wore off throughout the day and I was able to get the most out of my practice, including achieving the full expression of Fixed Firm Pose. The class was also really hot again today, which could have helped my move through the poses almost effortlessly. It seems that the hotter it is in the class then the looser my muscles are. It felt good to attend this class tonight I didn't feel completely centered focuesed today at work, which probably had something to do with me not doing my kettlebell workout this morning.