Knee Injury Update

I went to the Runner’s Clinic at UVa this morning so they could have a look at my knee.  After some X-rays etc. my self-diagnosis was confirmed… Runners Knee.  I have a prescription for some Super-Aleve, new shoes with prescribed inserts, and my first ever physical therapy starting next Friday.  I’m excited because the doctor was really encouraging and thought that I should definitely be able to run again.  He also said that running the 10 miler this March 29th is probably possible!

I was really afraid my running days were over, but now I’m hopeful that I have many years left!

My stress, diet, and lack of exercise makes it likely that tomorrow’s weigh in will be ugly.  But I will persevere.

Unhappy about my Knee

I got ready and went out to run today, but my knee was hurting so bad from the get go that I stopped.  Looks like I’ll be hanging up my running shoes for at least a couple weeks.  I’m going to attempt to find a good rehab program for what I’m 80% sure is runners knee.  If anyone has or knows of such a program please send me information or a link.

I didn’t weigh in again yesterday because our WW at work meeting was cancelled.  One of our members passed away unexpectedly. 

Tomorrow will be a lifting day, and I think I may try to dig out a bike to get some kind of cardio… although isn’t it a bit cold for biking?

The Last Couple Days

I ran for a half hour on Wednesday morning — it was pretty painful.  I’ve been trying to run through December, until I get a rowing machine, so I’ll be able to keep some cardio activity.  Yesterday for the first time I thought that I’m going to have to hang it up early.  I’m hard headed so I’ll probably try running again soon, but yesterday did not go well.

Lifting this morning did go pretty well.  I’m including my table below, but I’m getting ready to increase weight for squats, curls, upright rows, and Dead lift.

Lift	Weight	Set 1 Reps	Set 2 Reps
Squats	76	12	12
Bench Press	125	11	11
Dead Lift	76	12	12
Curl	66	12	12
Leg Extensions	65	11	11
Dumbbell Bent Over Row	35	10	10
NW Calf Raise	n/a	35	35
Upright Row	66	12	12

Today’s running tip:

Listen to your body and stop running before a nagging pain becomes a larger injury.  (do as I say not as I do)

No Sleep = No Run

Josie and Wyatt tag teamed last night and it seemed they alternated waking Jacki and I up every 40 minutes or so.  I didn’t get up to run… if I had any vacation days left I wouldn’t have gotten up for work either.

Here’s hoping tonight goes better.  I’m fantasizing about a full nights sleep and then running AND lifting tomorrow.  We’ll see.

Sleep and Lifting

I had a pretty good night’s sleep again last night.  Josie woke up 1:30ish but didn’t carry on long before going back to sleep.  I probably got in about 6.5 hours last night.  Not 8 hours, but not too bad.

My lifting looks pretty much like Saturday’s lifting:

Lift	Weight	Set 1 Reps	Set 2 Reps
Squats	76	11	12
Bench Press	125	11	11
Dead Lift	76	11	11
Curl	66	11	11
Leg Extensions	65	10	10
Dumbbell Bent Over Row	35	10	10
NW Calf Raise	n/a	32	32
Upright Row	66	11	11

The only real difference being I went up a rep here and there and increased Leg Extensions to 65 pounds.

Today’s Tip is for Weight Loss:

If you have a bad meal, or a bad day don’t let it sabotage your efforts.  Start back on your program the next meal or the next day.  It is easier to recover from a short lapse than a long period of making bad food choices.  You’ll also feel a lot better about yourself and reduce the chances of being in a negative eating cycle (eating a lot of junk because you feel guilty about eating a lot of junk).

Good Day for Exercise – Bad Day for Food

I ran about 4 miles this morning, the longest run I’ve had in several weeks.  On the one hand it makes me feel maudlin because over the past couple years I’ve been in shape enough to run ten miles at any time.  This morning’s 4 miles required some effort.  On the other hand, it is a mile farther than I’ve run recently and it went pretty well.  My knee is still bothering me but I think that will be the case until I give running a longer hiatus.  A couple weeks to a month off next year… after I get my rowing machine in January!

While I got enough exercise in I ate entirely too much:  Fried bologna sandwiches for lunch (don’t knock it till you’ve tried it) and Butter Chicken with Paranthas for dinner – good and not unhealthy, except when you have 2nds.

The most exciting thing about my weekend, and something that I’ve missed a lot is the return of my old friend, sleep.  Sleep has forsaken me of late usually chased off by the screams of my infant… but she has slept from 8:30ish to 5:00ish on Friday and Saturday.  Then I was able to go to sleep again after that.  I was able to take a nap this afternoon.  All told I probably got like 17 hours of sleep on Friday and Saturday.  It is hard to explain to anyone that doesn’t have children what a difference sleep makes in your life!

Doing Okay but…

I’m proud of myself because I lifted this morning – getting in my 3 scheduled lifting sessions for the week (first time in I don’t know when).  This is great.  It does however, make for a boring blog entry.  Everything about weights is always “went well”, or “didn’t go so well”.  I think this is mainly because I’m a bit embarassed by the amount of weight I’m lifting… thinking that when I get to a higher weight maybe I’ll publish more about it.  Well I’m going to turn over a new leaf and hopefully have a more interesting blog entry:

On lifting days I do 8 lifts – two sets of each lift and I split the 8 into 2 supersets because it lets me get my lifting in in about a half hour.

Today:

Lift	Weight	Set 1 Reps	Set 2 Reps
Squats	76	10	11
Bench Press	125	11	10
Dead Lift	76	11	11
Curl	66	10	11
Leg Extensions	60	12	12
Dumbell Bent Over Row	35	10	10
NW Calf Raise	n/a	30	30
Upright Row	66	11	11

I do crunches / situps / other ab-work between supersets.  I’m really wanting to raise my Bench Press weight but my reps aren’t there yet.  I’m probably going to be upping my Squats, Dead Lift, Curls, and Upright Row in the next week.  I’m definitely raising my Leg extensions on Monday.

Anyway – time for bed.  Hope someone finds this interesting/useful.

Decent Run

I was awakened this morning by Josie a bit before 3.  She was able to go back to sleep pretty quickly… I wasn’t as lucky.  At 5 I finally gave up on sleep and went for a 30 minute run.  It actually went quite well even though its only 20 degrees out this morning.  I checked my mileage on the Google Pedometer and I didn’t quite hit 3 miles for 30 minutes.  I am going to blame my cold, and my lack of sleep, (and my nagging knee injury) for this, but I do worry I’m just getting slow.

Since I mentioned running in the cold and I’m trying to include tips from time to time, here is today’s tip:

When running in the cold it important to wear a hat because most of your body heat is lost through the top of your head.  I’ve been wearing a nice Thinsulate stocking cap and it really helps quite a bit.

I know probably a really basic tip.  But maybe it will help someone?  Anyway, Happy Friday to all!

Fate Smiles Upon Me!

I resigned myself to going to my at work WW meeting today – knowing that I’d have a disappointing gain.  I was going to go even though I really wanted to skip.  Then it was cancelled!  Turns out our leader is also feeling under the weather.  Now I have a week to make up for my poor performance last week… Lucky for me!

I did get up this morning and lift although I felt worse this morning than I have for the last few.  I’m hoping this means that my cold is going to be better tomorrow.  Yesterday’s medicine was beer.  Tonight’s cough medicine is rum.  I expect it to work better.  Some may scoff, but alcohol is one of the main ingredients in NyQuil… I’d rather enjoy my medicine!

Heres hoping that my cold will disappear over the next couple days.

To Skip, or Not to Skip That is the Question

I’m strongly considering skipping my WW meeting tomorrow.  My cold, holiday cookies and my treatment of my cold with time tested medication (beer) have virtually guaranteed that my weight will be up.  I’m not talking .2 pounds either.

I probably will attend – if just to get the reimbursement from my company…

In totally random news, I’ve been kicking around the idea of adding occasional tips (because people really need my advice) with my posts.  When I see the searches that led people to my page I often feel a little bad, like I’m really not helping out at all.  We’ll see.