Week in Review – All the Cross-Training

For the last few months, I have been concentrating on running and only on running. Here is a little backstory. In August I ran a marathon in Washington state with two friends. The marathon was beautiful and the course a gentle downhill, but I aggravated an already injured hip during the race.

This would not have been terrible if I could have taken some time off to recover, but I had the Marine Corps Marathon on my schedule the last weekend in October. I decided to compromise. Sort of. I didn’t run the week that hubby and I visited Italy, then resumed “running” on the elliptical machine.

In between marathons, I focused only on running, mostly on the road, but supplemented with workouts on the elliptical, foregoing all other forms of exercise. I didn’t want to take the chance that cross-training was making my injury worse.

Now that the Marine Corps Marathon is over (big sigh of relief), I can resume the cross-training I love. I feel like a kid in a candy store! Typically, I would rest after a marathon, but because I really didn’t exert too much effort during the race due to the injury, I felt like I was ready to resume workouts right away.

I started out on Monday with a swimming workout. I have a routine which takes about 45 minutes to complete that consists of some 200-meter repeats, some laps with training flippers (for my legs), and some 150-meter repeats. Swimming makes me feel so good. All loose and stretched out. Very low stress.

On Tuesday I did a short run on the bike path behind my house (don’t judge!) My hip was a little bit stiff, but not sore, and I only ran for three miles, slowly. It felt great to get back out there.

 

Do I look like a crow?

 

At the suggestion of Wendy from the blog Taking the Long Way Home, I discovered Five Parks Yoga. I love these free online yoga videos! There are so many options, with a wide variety of classes of different lengths and intensity levels to choose from. I did a recovery class on Tuesday, then played around with crow pose.

On Wednesday I took my first Body Pump class in a while. I had to back off my weights a little bit, but it felt good to do some strength training. And, um…I ran again, too. Just a short run.

Thursday brought another pool workout similar to Monday’s and, yes, another run.

I took Body Pump class again on Friday with my favorite instructor Leslie. She is so enthusiastic, she makes you want to push yourself a little bit because she is right there with you having fun.  A brief run preceded the Friday Body Pump class (do you notice a pattern here?)  Saturday I did a slightly longer run with Bill.

In an attempt to strengthen my upper body and core, I started to do either push-ups or a plank every day. When I first began to do Body Pump a year ago, I could not do even one push-up from my toes. I am currently up to 14 from my toes, followed by 14 from my knees. Still not stellar, but progress is being made. I began holding a plank for one minute and worked my way up to four minutes.

Add in the mile I walk with Benji (my dog) every day, and that wraps up my workout week.

So. My hip. I have exercises from my physical therapist that I do faithfully twice a day, but I still have some pain, especially when I sit. The longer I sit, the more pain I experience. For a long car ride, I bring along a lacrosse ball, which, when properly placed, alleviates the pain. But I think to permanently dispel the pain, my course of action is pretty obvious.

Sit less. Run more. That’s what you were expecting, right?

I am linking up with Clean Eats Fast Feets for her Week in Review, Nicole and Annmarie for Wild Workout Wednesday, Coach Debbie Runs for Coaches’ Corner, Fairytales and Fitness for Friday 5, and Holly from HoHo Runs and Wendy from Taking the Long Way Home for Weekly Wrap.