As I mentioned in my last training update, my training took a definite hit in January. With the cancellation of a trip to Oklahoma City trip to work on family history with a cousin, I had two weeks off from traveling to focus on training and home tasks. I was 50% successful. 😉
My training got a big boost, but the misc tasks I’ve been putting off due to training, travel, and racing got zero attention.
The priority, in addition to training, was to be prepping my camper to sell. You’d think I’d be all over that, since the sooner I sell it, the sooner I’ve got some money back in my savings. But no. As is my habit when I have down time, I actually lie down. I spent the first 5 days napping once or twice a day, sleeping late, staying up late listening to audiobooks and playing games on my phone.
I did follow through on my training, no small thanks to Kathy, who I reeled in with me. She’s as determined as I am to get back to pre-January consistency. As you can see in the screenshots of my Garmin Connect calendar below, we’ve been very successful in the two weeks I’ve been back in Teague.
I think there are only three days out of the February workouts that Kathy hasn’t joined me—usually because I couldn’t get to Waco that day. This week alone, I’ve had doctor and nurse practitioner appointments, two physical therapy appointments, a social media masterclass/webinar, and an appointment today to get my pneumonia and (the first of two) shingles vaccines.
Saturday before last while Kathy and I hiked the Baines Creek Trail at Ft. Parker SP, we brainstormed about how to bring our consistency back up. What had worked? What were our roadblocks? What tools could we use to get us out of the house? Or, at the least, into a “workout room” in our own homes?
Texting each other about our workouts was an obvious one. A simple “I did my strength and conditioning workout today,” is usually enough to get the other out the door, if not that day, then the next. James Clear’s 2 Minute Rule from his book, Atomic Habits, was another. We’ve both been successful using it in the past. Speaking of Atomic Habits, I’ve also restarted tracking my desired habits with push pins on a calendar. (I didn’t even put up the January calendar, which shows how far off the “habit building” road I’ve gotten.)
Some creativity in tool selection is helping me improve my running, running breath, and running duration.
I mentioned in a footnote in my SARL Race 2 report, that I’d started reading Jill Grunenwald’s 2019 best-selling book, Running with a Police Escort. She started off using the C25K® (Couch to 5K) app. In reading her description about how it gradually increases the duration of the running intervals, I realized, “I can use that!” Quick (15-30 min) running workouts, short enough I could do every day. (Note: the actual plans calls for a runner to only do three workouts a week. For me, they’re a useful warm-up.)
Since I’m keeping things on the cheap and couldn’t determine if I could continue using the free version of C25K® indefinitely, I found a free Garmin IQ Connect app, Start to Run 5K and downloaded it onto my Garmin smartwatch. It’s got 30 workouts which I can cycle through multiple times. One cycle for running interval duration, the next for speed gains, another for hill training, then maybe a combination of all three.
Another couch to 5K type training app is ZRX Zombies, Run! I’m still learning this one, but hopeful it’ll add some “fun,” or at least entertainment, to running workouts. The workouts consist of a “mission” with “chases”—that being, the zombies are chasing you. Since it’s so well established, they’re still putting out new content. There’s also a separate set of Venture stories to select from. With a separate subscription fee, you can go on “missions” with X-Men and other Marvel characters through Marvel Move.
Last update affecting training is physical therapy for the hip pain. The therapy adds some valuable work to my strengthening. I’m excited to see the difference it will make.
Oddly enough, I was excited during the evaluation session despite the fact of the DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy) being able to quickly diagnose muscle weaknesses and problem body mechanics. I expected the focus to be on my glutes—gluteus maximus, medius, minimus, and the piriformis. I was very surprised to be told, and shown ( via video recordings of me squatting), my knees dipping inward. This instability, in turn, caused my ankle to tilt inward, over pronating. Last but not least, my right leg is so dominant I’m actually leaning my body to the right so it does most of the work.
My first therapy session is when she took me through the initial strengthening exercises. The weaknesses quickly became obvious to me.
I thought I was a pro at squatting. Right now, I can’t go much deeper than chair depth, but I’m plenty stable doing it. Wonh-wonh-waaaa. Incorrect!
Once she had corrected my form, getting my feet pointed straight rather than partly “sumo style”, cuing me to press out into the resistance band with my knees (oh yeah, I had a resistance band just above my knees that I had to keep stretched), and gripped my waist from behind to shift my weight equally to the left… Nope, I’m not such a pro after all.
The squatting was challenging enough, so much so we had to switch to a “box” squat, where I tapped my butt down onto a workout bench just to keep me stable while I applied the proper form. The single-leg “sit to stand,” followed by a “stand to sit” was only possible if I used momentum to rock myself up partially on my way to stand. On the way to sit, there wasn’t a gentle tap followed by the next stand. No the sit was a partial collapse back onto the chair. Oh, we tried it with the workout bench first. Even using momentum was barely enough to get me up onto my feet. Usually took me two attempts. And the sit was really a controlled fall.
I knew my legs were weak, but seriously? I can’t rise from a chair using only one leg? Really?! I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised considering how hard it was to do “high” steps climbing up rocky paths.
The weakness and imbalances showed me I have a lot of room for strength gains. That’s what makes me excited. I can fix this!
I can’t wait to get two or three weeks under my belt. Week three or four, she’s going to check my running form. Yay!
