Week 3,

Monday: Active day Off, went to see the stranded whale at Stinson Beach. I was there for a few hour.
Tuesday: Active day Off, i had a volunteer interview for the Marin County Parks.
Wednesday: Rode my bike to the gym for boot camp and spinning classes. Super challenging day today. Boot camp was extra challenging today with a warm-up and then TRX. Spinning was great. I still am babying my ankle so no pressure of standing-up on my bike. Apart from that i think i made it challenging for myself. Yoga stretch after the classes went extra long today, that was good.
Thursday: Off
Friday: Off
Saturday: Rode to the gym for boot camp and spinning classes. Boot camp was ok, not as challenging as Wednesday but a good workout. When you get challenged like we did on Wednesday workouts like today's are a stretch. Spinning is great as always. John always gives us a good workouts and lately the 20+ minute yoga session to wrap up a great fitness day has been fantastic. I'm so grateful i can still do these classes now that i'm injured, if i wasn't able to do both running and these classes i think i would go absolutely nuts.
Sunday: Off


Slow, week. A week where my routine was interrupted by my trip to Marin on Monday and Tuesday. I need to get better at multitasking because my life is where is headed. There is going to come a time where i would be juggling multiple responsibilities and i need to get comfortable at it.

totals:

Running: 0
Biking: 
Outdoor biking: 7 miles
Boot camp: 2
Spinning: 2
Gym workouts: 0

Week 2 of semi-normal gym training

Monday: Rode to the gym and had a light weigh workout. These last couple days have been a bit harsh on the soreness and today after getting of the bike for half an hour i was warmed up to do some dead lifts and stuff like that. Thirty minutes of biking and i called it a day. Felt great by the way.
Tuesday: Had a great glut workout. The most intense glut workout i've had in years. After reading Joe Uhan's response to my comment on IRF about my gluts being weak, i took it upon myself to get it done. I will do similar workouts like this to strengthen this up.
Wednesday: Rode to the gym and completed both boot camp and spinning classes. Boot camp was challenging with TRX. New guy named Daniel gave us a good workout. John on spinning was good, i'm still taking it easy on the pressure. Completed the class but i just didn't stand up at all on the sprints or other combination workouts. I still made it challenging to myself by sprinting faster that usual. Great workout.
Thursday:Off
Friday: good workout at the gym, did the but routine that i put together. Was a good challenging one and to wrap it up i did a 30 minute bike workout.
Saturday: Boot camp and spinning this morning at the gym. Boot camp was great because we did mostly agility stuff doing fire feet on squares. The instructor had a long variety of different ones. I have never done this kind of stuff before and i know for a fact that i NEED to do this kind of training NOW for rehab. I feel that this is the perfect timing for doing this kind of training and i feel like it fell out of the sky for me.
Sunday: Off

Was extra careful this week on not putting a lot of weight on my ankles when working out and i think i did a good job. My ankle feels good, no notable extraordinary progress but do know that i need some time. Feel strong about this approach and will continue to follow it for the next weeks.


totals:

Running: 0
Biking: 7 miles
Boot Camp: 2
Spinning: 2
Indore biking: 2, 30 minute workouts.
Lifting: 2 workouts

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

Northwest Road Trip and good news.

Friday July 19:
Have not posted anything in awhile so here is an update of the last couple months. I have been trying to get my injuries taken care of and to be healthy. At some point i have though that staying off my feet would be better off for me to recover. Ad so i did, i stayed off my feet and then in other occasions i have felt that i needed to be more active in my recovery and so i tried to do something about it. At this point i feel a lot better. what worked for me i'm not sure.

I also just got back from an awesome road trip with Karla that extended to 6 states. We started the trip at Boise Idaho then proceeded to the Tetons in Wyoming. After the Tetons we went to Yellowstone and Helena, Reding and Glacier in Montana. After Montana we drove to Seattle Washington and down south towards California. We stopped in Salem Oregon to visit my uncle and then made a quick stop at Ashland to see Roghe Valley Runner's. It was in time for lunch you know! Before we knew it we were back home, sweet foggy, cold summertime in San Francisco. Good to be back is something i will like to say and mean it.

I went out yesterday for a short workout at CCSF track and did a bit of a workout. Not too intense, just enough to feel good and short from being a training workout. I walked up and down the bleachers twice from one end to the other and felt ok. I also ran one mile on a 14 min/mile pace, 15 minutes, and i had minimal to no discomfort at all. That is great news. N ow the hardest part, not getting ahead off myself and start doing too much and re-injure myself. I must be vigilant about that.

Saturday July 20:

After the good news of yesterday i wanted to see if i could do a bit more and not aggravate my ankle. I woke up a bit early and it turned out to be Saturday morning, the possibility to make it for boot camp and spinning was there and so i decided to give it a try.

I started with 30 minute biking session before the classes and i felt ok, not too off the game. Boot camp came along and noticed a new instructor, young asian gentleman who was great. With a very simple workout routine he was able to push us to the limit, i noticed the machine, Veronica, not enjoying it at all. Long story short, we got our buts kicked.
John got in for spinning and immediately felt like he had a different game plan for summer sessions. He seems to be a bit more aggressive than usual. He pushed us super hard, i did not think that i was so out of shape like i felt. Considering i have been doing sporadic workouts here and there. Maybe is because i've been tired and a bit stressed about job interview situation and stuff like that.

Monday April 15: Rode to the gym and ran 3*6 min/mile sprints on treadmill for 2 min each. Had a tough leg workout, great work.

Tuesday April 16: Started off with 3*6 min/mile sprints on the treadmill for 3 min each and had a hard time working out today because i was drained of energy. Regardless i had a decent leg workout with tough workouts like leg presses.

Wednesday 17: Off

Thursday April 18: Off

Friday April 19: Rode to the gym and 15 minute bike warmup at the gym. Full Tony workout for legs. 

Saturday April 20: Rode to the gym and 15 minute bike warmup at the gym. Upper body workout.

Sunday April 21: Rode to the gym and back home. 20 minute warm-up on the bike and a full session of the stretching routine i just put together.

Week totals:

Running: ( 2 sprint sessions on the treadmill )
Biking: (To gym and back  3.7 miles (4)   ( Gym warmup 15 & 20 minutes ( 3 )  )   
Gym session: 4.7 workout sessions
Spinning: 0
Boot camp: 0

Back to boot camp and spinning

Have been back at VM for about 2 weeks now but have not had the patience to write my weekly routine for posting at the end of the week. I will start this week. Great to be back working out, i have definitely missed being active. My first day after boot camp and spin was amazing because i had so much energy throughout the day. It was like my cells were injected with oxygen and were fired up about it. And that is just what happened to my body in my very minimal understanding of the human body.
Have felt that boot camp is just a little too much on the ankle injury so i will sit boot camp for a bit and just do spinning. I will complement the time with gym work. My legs feel very strong and they look strong as well. I cant believe how defined my legs have become from the past year or so. It is amazing.

Emmanuel's torture tools of preference.

Have been keeping myself off my feet as much as i can for the last month or so to reduce the pounding on the knees. I say a month because this last month is when i started to do rehab stuff not too strictly but  several times a month. I started to do some training at the gym but like i said, keeping the impact on the joints to almost zero. I am not yet ready to do any running training and limited gym training more on a structural basis where i do it no matter what but i feel like i'm getting there. Maybe in a month i will be on a better position to do that but in the mean time i don't want to pressure myself onto doing so. What i have been doing more and i hope i will keep tabs on is eating enough and smart. I feel like in the past i did not eat enough to sustain my daily physical activity and it transformed into injury after injury. I eat a lot but i try to eat healthy stuff so i won't get a big belly. I don't want to have a belly to work on loosing once my legs are ready to run. Another thing i have been working on for the last week almost on a daily basis is on getting rid of the knots on my lower legs specially around the shin area. The perennial muscle and around those small muscles. That area is so tight that it hurts like a mudafaca. My torture tool of preference is a softball and an empty wine bottle. Next week i will continue to work on that area and i will start working on the quads and gluts. That is the plan for the next week and the couple days a week i do of gym training.