Spring into Action Week 4

This week was an unfortunate one for me... I had such great plans, but got sidelined by a recurring injury in my knee.  I had to take it easy and avoid doing too much strenuous work in order to heal my poor knee.  By the end of the week though, it was feeling much better and I had done lots of stretching and strengthening exercise instead, so hopefully next week will be a bit more impressive :P

Sunday March 25: rest day

Monday: Planned to go for a run outside, until it turned out to be -2 degrees.  Took the run inside to the treadmill instead.  I don't know what was going on with me, but my body was just EXHAUSTED.  I only squeezed out 3.4km, which is really strange since I could easily run 5+km outside just last week.  I was huffing and puffing and sweating like crazy only a few minutes in.  Wtf :(  To make up for it, I did 20 minutes of upper body work as well (squat-press, lunge with bicep curls, tricep extensions and dips, and push ups)

Tuesday: Woke up this morning with a wicked charlie horse :( Also my knee had started acting up again for the first time since like, January.  Not cool knee, not cool.  I did about a half hour of yoga at home to try to stretch out my calf and be nice to my knee.  Also did about 15 minutes of upper body stuff (push ups, tricep dips, ab work)

Wednesday: Attempted run #2, took it outside this time.  Again, I had planned a long run (6km+ minimum), but was again only able to squeeze out about 3.7km.  Wtf :( My calf was still in some pain, but problems were now starting in my foot as well (I've had problems with plantar fasciitis before, ironically in the same leg that also has knee problems and got the calf pull this week.  Sweet.)

Thursday: Another gentle stretching day to relieve my poor calf/knee/foot, did a 40 minute yoga practice in the living room.  My knee was feeling a bit better by the evening :) yay!

Friday: A one-hour strength training class at the gym, including circuits of lower body, upper body, and abdominal work.

Saturday: I had planned to get in a yoga class, but after already teaching two classes and working a WW meeting in the morning, I was just far too exhausted to make that happen.  But, I did get in some activity in my two classes by demonstrating stuff and moving through vinyasa flows with the students.  My hips were feeling it by the end of the second class, so I must have been doing something!

During the week I also picked up a book called ChiRunning.  And it is seriously blowing my mind.  I'll update next week on whether it's actually helped my running or not :)