The State of My Leg

Hello, Welcome, and Good Evening my Fellow Americans.  Tonight we gather to discuss the State of our Union.  J/K.  I'm here to discuss the state of my currently gimpy leg.

Addressing Congress...

As you may or may not have noticed, there has not been much mention of RUNNING on this here running blog the past few weeks.  In fact, it has indeed been nearly 4 weeks now that I've abstained from running in the hopes that whatever this twinge/strain/inflammation on the back of my leg was would make a hasty retreat.  I'm sorry to report that has not happened :(

Truth be told, I have not really been resting my leg.  I've maintained my normal workouts, save for running.  My weekly workouts have generally looked like this the past month:

Monday:  Strength or HIIT workout (Bodyweight only, at home)
Tuesday: Strength workout (Weight lifting at the gym)
Wednesday:  BodyCombat (Les Mills kickboxing class)
Thursday: 4 mile walk (outside)
Friday: Bicycling + Rowing workout (gym)
Saturday: REST or Hike outdoors
Sunday:  4 mile walk (outside)

Throughout all of this my leg has not been in pain, but it didn't really feel like it was getting much better.  To be clear, this is not a knee injury.  It is an inflammation/pain of the tendons, ligaments or muscles in the fleshy part of the back of my leg behind my knee.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and let me tell you, I have been dying for a run.  So, last Thursday I turned that 4 mile walk up there into a 3 mile run.  Bad news bears.  1 mile in I felt GREAT!  I was RUNNING for heaven's sake.  The wind in my hair, finally breaking into a real sweat, endorphins starting to kick in, and then I felt it.  An ache.  A twinge.  A pinch in my leg behind my knee.  MOTHER F#$*(&^@!!!!

I convinced myself it wasn't that bad and continued to run.  Another mile.  It was definitely there.  Pain.  Mile 3.  Ok time to stop.  And I definitely paid for that drug-induced endorphin-induced relapse right there, because my leg has been sore ever since.  I've been getting some strange numbness up and down that leg now and into my foot/arch as well.  It comes and goes.  Very strange.

I still don't know where this mystery injury came from.  Is it because I'm wearing running shoes that are far past their prime?  Could be.  My shoes are 9 months old.  Way beyond their lifetime at this point.  Is it because I've been doing 2+ mile walks daily in flip flops with my charges at work?  Probably a contributor.  Did I strain something in my new kickboxing class and continue to aggravate it each week?  Also a possibility!

I had planned to run this trail half marathon with my friend November 1st, but now it seems that may not be a possibility.  Even with the very abbreviated training cycles I do, I still need a minimum of 8 weeks to adequately up my mileage for a half.  That means I would have to start training Sept 1st and that just doesn't seem a possibility right now.  I guess as a last ditch effort I could try to abstain COMPLETELY from all physical activity for the rest of August and attempt a run come September 1.  But who are we kidding.  If you got me to sit still for 2 1/2 weeks you should buy a lottery ticket because you're definitely a miracle worker.  I think at the very least, I will cut out as much walking as possible, as that seems to aggravate it the most. 

[PSA:  I'm somewhat making light of this but if I was in extreme pain, if I felt something may be broken, or if my daily activities were being hindered in any way, I'd obviously abstain from physical activity and possibly see a Dr.  I'm not advising anyone take my advice regarding overuse injuries right now!]

Any suggestions, commiserations, pity parties are welcome!  If you are running right now, LUCKY LUCKY you.  I want to be you.

You haunt my dreams

The State of our Union is strong my fellow Americans (mmm, debatable), but the state of my leg is not.  Send good vibes.  And I'll send some your way :)


When was the last time you suffered a running injury?

What was it and how long did it last?

And HOW DID YOU DEAL!?!?

Fitness Friday: 2 Weeks til Race Day, Weekly Workouts and Body Combat Review

It's Friiiiiiiiiiday!  This week flew by, and I suddenly find myself 2 weeks away from the St Luke's Half Marathon.  That's what happens when you sign up for a half marathon 6 weeks out!  HA 

Two weeks left means I only have one more double-digit training run this weekend.  The following week will be a taper week and my last 'long' run will probably be about 1/2 the distance of the race, so around 7 miles. 

Do you embrace the taper before a race?  I just read this article re: tapering mistakes on Runner's World, and it has some good pre-race reminders.  I personally always taper one week before a half-marathon, and I can definitely feel the difference/freshness in my legs and entire body on race day.  Sometimes, I even take a few days off running before shorter races like 5k's too.  After a hard training cycle, you will not lose any fitness in a few days' time, but this break gives your body a chance to reload its glycogen stores and your muscles a chance to rest and rebuild themselves as well.  I really believe it gets you to the finish line faster.

Since I'm currently not in taper, this is what my workouts looked like the past week:

Saturday - 11+ miles outside
Sunday - Rest day (Easter!)
Monday - Strength training (Upper & Lower body - combo of free weights and machines) + core work (variety of crunches/twists)
Tuesday - 3.3 miles outside
Wednesday - 1 hour Body Combat
Thursday - 3.2 miles outside
Friday - Rest day
Saturday - 10 miles (planned)

My friend has been inviting me to take Body Combat with her for weeks and I finally went this week.  It's been awhile since I've taken classes at the gym. I used to take Body Pump religiously.  That was my favorite.  But when my work schedule changed a couple years ago, I couldn't get there for awhile and then just fell off the wagon.  I've been lifting weights on my own but I do miss Pump.  The only other Les Mills class I've taken is Body Attack and I am not really a fan.  It's HIIT which I like but there's too much choreography to learn!  Most of the time I was getting lost with the moves so I didn't feel like I was getting the best workout. 

But I thoroughly enjoyed Body Combat this week!  It was a great way to mix up my cross-training workouts and left me sore (in a good way).  I definitely used muscle groups in that class that I haven't used in awhile/forgot existed!  A bit of history here.  Years ago I used to take a kickboxing class at my old gym that I LOVED.  The instructor was phenomenal and many of us developed a personal relationship with her.  A coworker and I used to attend her classes 2-3 times a week.  After a year or two, she had such a following that she was able to coerce the gym to get us standing bags like this:

which were AWESOME!  Obviously, I'm not a physically violent person but having something to punch and kick after work was pretty cathartic! Hahaha

Ok, getting back to Body Combat.  If you've never taken it, Les Mills describes it as "the high energy, martial arts-inspired, non-contact workout".  If you did Tae-Bo back in the day, it's like that!  This is a non-contact class, meaning there are no punching bags, so you are punching/kicking 'air', however it is definitely a high intensity class that moves quickly.  If I did not have a history with kickboxing, I probably would not have been able to pick up the moves so fast on my first class.  Luckily, I remembered most of the punch and kick moves and was able to get into the combos pretty quickly.  There are low and high intensity variations for most combos so you can adjust the workout to suit your current fitness level or needs.   My shoulders, biceps, triceps and back are sore today so I guess I've not been working them as much as I should be!  Upper body strength is an area often neglected by runners (myself included) but the more of it you have, the more power you will have for your runs.  True story.

A few tips I would offer for those new to Body Combat.  First, if you've never taken a kick boxing type class, go slow the first class.  It is high intensity and you don't want to overdo it or pull something your first time out.  Secondly, and this one is for myself as well, wear proper shoes.  I wore an old pair of running shoes (I never wear my current pair of running shoes for anything other than running), which was not the smartest choice.  The cushioning in them was long gone, and since I'm a neutral/supinating runner, there is very little support.  Because of all the pivoting and jumping, I could definitely feel some discomfort in my feet and I was wishing I had a more supportive cross training shoe. 

I'm looking forward to working more classes back into rotation after my race and Body Combat will  be one of them.

Hope you had a great week of workouts and enjoy the weekend!  Catch you on the flip side :)


Do you like taking group exercise classes or do you prefer solo workouts?

Ever take any Les Mills classes (Body Pump, Body Combat, Body Attack, etc)?

Any spring races coming up?

Boot Camp, Part Deux

I realized I haven't done a workout post in ages so I thought I'd update you all as to what I've been doing for exercise lately, other than chasing babies around all day.  As you may recall, at the end of last year, I joined a boot camp style workout studio for a month on a Groupon, and not only did I not die, but I loved it!  (Check out this post, and this one.)  The only problem was the monthly membership fee was not sustainable for me - same thing goes for CrossFit.  So I recently bought another Groupon for a month of boot camp at a different studio in the city, and have been attending Believer's Fitness Boot Camp in Mt Washington for the past month.  No surprise here, but I am of course LOVING it.  Here are my thoughts on the past month.

STUDIO:  The space is bigger than the last place I went but set up very similarly.  It's a big open warehouse type building.  The floor is artificial turf, and all the equipment we may need is lined up around the exterior so there is plenty of wide open space for all the running drills we do.

WORKOUTS:  Are 1 hour sessions and are different every single day - love this!  Much like my last boot camp experience, you never know what you're walking into on any given day and that excites me to no end! Hahaha, I can't wait to get to class to see what kind of torture we're in for :) 

There is a basic formula though.  Each class starts with a warm up that lasts about 10 mins.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the warm up board one day but they go something like this:

Run 2x (length of studio) at 25%
Skip 1x
Heel walk up/Toe walk back
Cradle walk 1x

Run 2x at 50%
Mountain climbers 25x
Arm circles 10x each arm
Jump squats 25x

Run 2x at 50%
Grapevine 1x
Side shuffle 1x
Lunge forward up/backward down

Run 4x at 75%

Then, we get into the meat of the night's workout.  All workouts are based around High Intensity Interval Training.  We would usually do 45 seconds work/15 seconds rest.  Sometimes the ratio would be 1 min work/15 sec rest.  Most of the time, the coach would set up stations around the gym with different exercises we would be doing, but sometimes we would just run back and forth across the room, stopping at either end to do the exercises.  The interval sessions usually lasted 25-30 mins and were intense! 

Exercises for each station included things like:  Plank variations; Squats, lunges and leg work with weighted medicine balls; High knees ladder running; Jumping over obstacles; Suspension cable leg and arm work; Free weight arm/leg work; Ab work on the ball; and much more.  This past Monday we spent the entire night sprinting and lunging back and forth across the room, stopping for a minute on each end to do either core work at one end, or arm and leg work with the weighted medicine ball at the other.

The night usually ended with some core work, followed by some stretching.

 

 

VERDICT:  Boot camp is my jam, for real.  Its basically the part I loved most from CrossFit and utilizes many of the same elements of CrossFit, except for the heavy lifting (which was my least fave part anyway!).  I love super high intensity workouts and I love that every day is different.  I literally feel like a kid walking into a candy store every night! 

 

I'm not sure if I would financially be able to swing a membership here either, plus my Nanny Family is moving next month, so the studio location will be much further out of the way, however, I'd like to see if there is some way I can continue boot camp sessions at some point on the regular. 

 

I've talked about the benefits of HIIT on here before and really do believe they enhance your performance - in terms of speed, strength and endurance - more effectively than doing solid state cardio or lifting.  I suppose I'm just going to have to continue buying up every Groupon in sight for every studio in the city of Baltimore!

 

As far as running, I've only been doing it 1-2 times a week in between these sessions (low mileage/3-5miles) and just realized last week I have a race on Sunday!  Eeeeeek....cue panic.  I'm running the Baltimore Women's Classic 5K this weekend which is always a good time (It's one of the largest female-only 5ks in the nation).  This is the race for which I coached a training group last summer.  I was going to coach again this year but just didn't have as much free time in the evenings.

 

I PR'ed my 5K time at last year's race, however I was doing speed work all summer with the training group at the track, and that obviously isn't the case this year!  So as far as time goes, I'm going to run until I feel like I'm about to die...and then just keep going until I see the finish line.  Isn't that what the 5K distance is all about?!  I'll let you know how it works out :)

 

Pinterest

I'm highly considering a pair for the race...

 

 

That's all I got for now.  Happy Thursday to you all!

Have you ever done boot camp style workouts?

Do you incorporate HIIT into your training?

Is your 5K racing strategy similar to mine, ie. RUN TIL YOU DIE?!

Workouts Lately...and an avocado shortage?!

source

 

Since I don't have a Spring half marathon on the books, you may be wondering, 'What has our little Jilly been up to?'.  Or more likely, you have not, but I'm going to tell you anyway!

 

I'm still running, but I'm also doing lots of other kinds of workouts lately too.  Mother Nature has been throwing lots of tricks at runners this year (helloooo polar vortex), that have made it hard to get outside.  I do enjoy snow running now and then because it's so peaceful and serene when the snow starts falling, but lately there is just SO much packed snow and ice on the ground, it's been difficult and too dangerous to do much running outside.  I mean, lesson learned from these guys:

  

So, here's what I've been up to this week:

Sunday - Rest.  Traveling back from PA.

Monday - 20 min interval workout on the bike.  40 min upper/lower body weight lifting (machines and free weights)

Tuesday - Xtend Barre (1 hour class)

Wednesday - Got all the way to the gym, started undressing in the locker room and realized I DIDN'T PACK TIGHTS!  Since I believe my gym frowns upon working out in your underwear, I had to pack up and take my workout home.  I ended up doing this workout from Pinterest 3 times through (took about 30 mins) ... in my underwear.  You're welcome for that image.  #thisisprobablywhyi'msingle

source



 

Thursday - 5K run outside.  In which I risked my life because 1 out of every 2 houses had not yet shoveled their sidewalk from winter storm #Pax, which let me remind you, was an ENTIRE week ago.  This run was more like an obstacle course.

 

Friday - 30 min interval workout on the Arc Trainer.  Followed by 10 mins of abs and stretching.

 

There you have it.  The most random workout mix up ever. What can I say, I like variety.  I get bored doing the same thing over and over (unless its running, because I'm kind of transported to another world sometimes when I'm running). 

 

In fact, last week I did a workout on the most awkward piece of cardio equipment at my gym - the StairMaster:

source

 

 

You would think since I have been working out in gyms since I was about 15 (so going on 20 years now) I would have worked out on this machine millions of times by now.  You'd be wrong, and now I know why!  I did a 30 min workout on this thing and feared for my life every second.  I kept having the feeling that I was going to fall off the back.  I have very tiny elf-like feet (size 6.5) and they didn't even fit all the way on these stairs. I can't imagine how people with larger feet feel.  Do only your toes fit on the step?! Although I felt like I got a really good workout, I don't think this is a machine I will ever be going back to.  I think I will just climb the steps to my 3rd floor apartment for 30 mins next time.

 

And for the last piece of randomness here, I heard that the drought in California may cause an avocado shortage?!! Say it isn't so.  I am currently sitting here eating one now as I type this and praying for rain for you West Coasters (sorry runners). 

 

I hope you all had a wonderful week of workouts :)

 

 

 

What have you been up to this week? 

 

Has your running suffered this winter, or do you just take it to the treadmill?

 

Have you ever done the StairMaster at the gym!?

 

What will we do without avocados?!

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



Bootcamp Wrap-up

My month-long membership at EA All Day Fitness is coming to an end; in fact, tomorrow will be my last workout!  The past four weeks have literally flown by.  I would venture to say that these workouts have probably been the most intense I've had to date and I'd say they were on par with the workouts I did last year during my month-long CrossFit trial in terms of intensity.   This experience has definitely proven to be one of my best Groupon purchases to date! 

via

It's not often that I feel really challenged or pushed to my max during a workout; I guess mostly because I work out solo.  I guess I go too easy on myself!  The only class I take regularly at the gym is Body Pump and while it's a great strength training class and I occasionally up my weights, it's pretty much the same succession of moves every week and the level of high intensity bursts of activity is just not there.  When I run, I mostly run for distance, meaning I rarely (if ever) do speed training.  Now of course some runs are harder than others, depending on the day, terrain, etc, and I do push my pace on occasion but again, I'm not sprinting and I'm not carrying around any weights with me so there's no resistance training there.  When I swim, I swim for time.  I'll usually tack on some sprints at the end of the workout but I'm not sprinting the entire time.  On the other hand, I've definitely maxed out several times during the past month at some of these boot camp workouts, but in a good way.  I think the combination of the instructor's enthusiasm and support throughout, plus the team atmosphere in the studio, allowed me to give just a little bit more than I probably would on my own. 

via

In addition to being challenged, I've also learned some new moves and picked up a lot of ideas that I can incorporate into my own workouts going forward.  To give you an idea, here is the basic framework for each hour long workout session:

- Most sessions would start off with a 10 minute dynamic warm up that consisted of 60 seconds each of 8-10 different exercises including:  plank, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, running in place, high knees, inchworm to cobra, among others.  The warm up would also sometimes include an 800 meter run.

- After the warm up we'd get into the circuit for the evening.  Sometimes we would do the whole circuit for 45 mins, sometimes there would be 2 or 3 different circuits that we would rotate between for the duration of class. 

- The circuits were pretty much anything our trainer could come up with!  One class we had to go through this obstacle course for 45 mins straight:  Several box jumps in a row, 15 burpees, jumping over low hurdles with a band around our feet all the way across the studio, plank-walking under a series of high hurdles back across the studio and then long jumps all the way back across again - over and over again!  That one nearly killed me.  I could run 5 miles in 45 mins and not feel even remotely as wiped as I did in 20 mins of doing that crazy man course!

- If the weather was decent, sometimes he'd take the workout outdoors for the day.  One night we did a partner workout.  We had to run 400m across the parking lot, then each do 10 burpees over each other while our partner held a plank.  Then we had to run 600m back across the parking lot and do 20 partner push ups (clap hands with your partner in between).  After those, we ran down to a tire flipping station where we had to flip monster 80lb tires about 20 times before moving onto the final station which was holding 45lbs in each hand and walking 100m each!  Phew.  My partner was pretty awesome though so we kept each other motivated.  And even though I was freezing when we stepped outside, about 2.5 mins later I was sweating like crazy. 

- Some other moves we did throughout our workouts this month:  one legged burpees (try them!), using 30lb sandbags to run stairs, suspension cables for arm workouts (pull-ups, curls), squat thrusts, wall sits with weighted medicine balls (kill me). 

It would be impossible to recap everything I've done over the month, but I hope this gives you a good idea what the workouts were all about and what I've been up to for the past month.  The workouts were varied, intense, and fun, and I enjoyed every minute of it!  Almost...

True story.

 

I would consider myself to have a fairly high fitness level at this point, and the studio instructor actually said the same to me one night, however, he mentioned that at this point it's more about getting stronger and faster for me.  He works with people of all fitness levels, from those just starting out to athletes trying to improve their performance, and these boot camp workouts can be scaled for people at every level.  I want to condition myself and my body not just to benefit my running, but because I want to reach a bit higher and see what else my body can do.  I want to see how lean and strong I really can become. 

I'd really love if I could continue on with this studio, even if it's just a couple of days a week between running and other workouts, however I think just like CrossFit the cost is going to be much too prohibitive!  If I purchase a few basic items I could probably do some of the workouts at home.  If I had all the time and money in the world, I'd really love to spend it conditioning my body, however that will probably never be the case for me, or most people.  Between work, family obligations and life in general, most people can't devote hours to working out.  But I think if you do an hour or even a half hour of super high intensity workouts like this a few days a week, you can see pretty incredible results.  Just like this guy:

via

 

 

Your turn!

 

What's the last workout you really enjoyed?

 

What do you do for cross-training?

 

Have you ever done boot camp style workouts?

 



Adventures in Boot Camp

Adventures in boot camp continue.  Every day I walk into class having no idea what form of torture we will be subject to...and I'm loooooving it!  I love being challenged, and waking up sore the next morning from working muscles that have longed for their day in the sun.  I feel like the work I'm doing now is only going to benefit me once I start training again for a spring race.  I think doing all of these strength drills will help with any muscle imbalances I develop at times when the bulk of my training is just running. 

The trainer of this studio is awesome as well.  He runs around the room, checking in with everyone  to make sure we're performing the moves correctly and feeling ok, and cheers everyone on by name.  He is so full of energy and I love the encouragement.  It's such a team atmosphere in there.  Oh, and he is also RIPPED. 

So to give you another taste of what we do there, here's a play by play of tonight's workout.

Warm Up:  800 meter run (outdoors)

Workout:  45 mins of a 4 part circuit that consisted of Rowing, Medicine Ball Slams, Box Jumps, and Wall Walks.  The time for each interval depended on when the person on your team finished their wall walks and then bumped everyone along to the next drill.  (See below for video demos.)

Tonight's workout reminded me very much of CrossFit.  The only thing that I think differentiated this from a typical CrossFit WOD was that there were no heavy weights involved and the workout length was a bit longer than a typical WOD. 

Here are some videos, in order, of what our 45 mins consisted of.  And lucky you, you're in for a treat because the last video is of ME!  That's right.  My trainer took a video of yours truly doing the Wall Walks and sent it over so I could take a look at my form.  And if I appear exhausted, your assessment is correct because this was at the very end of the night.  Jilly's little arms are about beat.  Enjoy!

Rowing
Be Careful!!



Medicine Ball Slams
OUCH!



Box Jumps
INSANITY



Wall Walks
Helloooooooo Jilly

 

 

 

How about you?

 

What workouts have you been excited about lately?