Monday, August 12, 2013

Back to the gym

Monday 5: Off
Tuesday 6: Off
Wednesday 7: Rode to the gym to start training again. 20 minute bike session at random and 30 minutes of lifting exercises. Spinning with John was a bit odd, i felt like a pig riding a bicycle. I felt so big and weak, not sure if my quads were weak from the weight lifting or if the quads are no more. What i do know is that i'm about 5 lbs. bigger than i'd like to be and it showed on spinning. I wasn't able to do some of the routine that was routine for me in the past but part of the reason is that i was a bit cautious with not applying too much pressure on the ankle. I feel like i'm definitely out of shape but not too much. What i did see is that not doing some of the toughest standing up sessions on the bike really made a difference on my ankle not being inflamed right now. I will keep at this until i see results and take it from there.

Thursday 8: Off, too sore to do anything. Will rest and heal today.
Friday 9: Had a great workout doing some upper body and some leg lifting also. I tried to do the quad machine that i had always been afraid of and it turned out to be great. I felt an immediate improvement on the way my knee felt. It felt loose and almost inflamed free. Came to the gym a bit low on energy and ended up having a great tough workout.
Saturday 10: Rode my bike to the gym today and took the boot camp and spinning classes. Boot camp was awesome, Brandon the instructor new guy by the way, had us do four simple workouts to warmup. Three sets of those and four more exercises, 3 sets each, and that was all we needed to be trashes before spinning. I was the second to last to finish the routine, what a change. Spinning with John was great because i did not feel any discomfort whatsoever, no pain, no re-injuring my ankle. That was because i did not put pressure at all on the ankle and that meant not getting up on the standing up sprints. At the end of the day i felt i had a great and challenging workout and i did not aggravate my injury at all. I think i will continue doing this for the next month and see where it takes me.
Sunday 11: Off


Having been off from running for so long has definitely made me aware of the importance of taking good care of myself on training and on races equally. Especially because this last injury, ankle, came out of a careless moment at the 'TNF50' and that forced me even to abandon the race. Being off from the trails from December till now, 7 months, has made me put things into perspective. I have learned a lot so far in my two and a half years running ultramarathons. One of the biggest lessons that i have learned up to now is the fact that i don't want to race any other race feeling 75% ok any longer. I don't want to do it any longer, not one more race. I want to feel 100% OK and enjoy every minute of the race without worries. I don't want to think constantly about when my knee is going to give up. I want to some day push myself physically on races and only worry about not blowing myself up by running too fast of stuff like that. For all of this to happen i need to rehab my injuries and work on strengthening my body, all of it, and on my flexibility. I also want to work on my stability and flexibility. I don't know how much longer i will be off from the trails but what i do know is that i want to be 100% the next time i'm behind the start line ready to race. In the mean time i will work out at the gym and do the boot camp and the spinning class that the gym offers.


totals:
Running: 0
Biking: 14 miles
Boot camp: 1
Spinning: 2
Indoor biking: 30 minutes
Lifting: 2, 1 hour sessions

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