Day 15

Short update today! I can't believe I've been exercising for two full weeks now.

It was a really nice out this morning so I took a speed walk around the neighborhood. Ended up doing 2.6 miles in 40 minutes. I'm feeling pretty good considering this is cold and flu season. I hope everyone can keep their yucky germs to themselves!

Elliptical Workout - Day 14

Goal: 30 minutes (fast or slow...) on the elliptical machine

Yay! Yippee! Wahoo! I got an elliptical machine at home!

One of my friends here in Elk Grove had an OrbiTrek collecting dust in her garage so I asked Paul if he could pick it up for me this morning. Now the Orbitrek is kinda like the Ford Pinto of Elliptical machines. But I am THRILLED to have it for FREE in my home! Having never used a $4,000 elliptical at the gym, this model that runs about $200 is just fine for me at this time.

We dusted it off and set it up in my bedroom (right in front of the TV). I got to jump on it just now and whew! What a workout for the old quads! It felt good but I felt like my legs got really tired long before I was huffing and puffing enough to cough any crap out of my lungs. I think I have a new plan to walk for a couple miles every other day around the block and do the elliptical workout on the days that I don't walk outside. No more running! Not anytime soon anyway. My right knee is still in a moderate amount of pain when I try and run. Stupid knees!

A Long Walk

My knees are still hurting so I decided not to push it today, after taking a whole day off exercising yesterday! My hamstrings are also killing me. I tried stretching them out and going for a walk. I walked 2.6 miles in 40 minutes. Woot Woot! But then I had to soak in a hot hot bath just so I didn't look like a 90 year old shuffling around out in public as we went out to dinner tonight. I celebrated my walk with a nice warm Pizookie for dessert. Yum Yum!

A friend of mine offered to loan me her eliptical machine. I'm going to take her up on that, because this pounding the pavement thing doesn't seem to be doing my body good. I really miss the days I ran from the street hockey court across the street to the soccer field for another game. Ah.. to be 20 again!

Day 11 - So Many Words

There are so many words that describe how I feel at this moment.

awful
miserable
bad
terrible

...just to name a few.

So I decided to push on, and go for the run today. Two steps folks. That's all I could muster as my knees screamed with pain. Ok, no running. I'll just walk briskly. As with my little experiment last week we all know I get the route done in just the same amount of time anyway. 2 miles and 32 minutes today. The pain is not so bad while walking. But I'm hurting right now. If I could amputate just above the knee right now... oh how sweet that would be.

Now if this was muscle hurt I wouldn't be complaining too much. Muscle hurt goes away. I'm very familiar with muscle hurt. You can't be an intramural hockey/soccer/water polo all star without having experienced muscle hurt. But this is like tendon or bone hurt. I'm really not sure which. It's very acute and sharp and only really when I run, or bend in funny yoga positions. I might still do the walk tomorrow, or I might take a day off. I did not have this kind of pain last week so I hope it's just a fluke. For now I'm going to go swallow a whole bunch of motrin. Sadly, it's the most potent thing in my medicine cabinet.

Back on the Horse - Day 10

After 4 days off, I got back in the saddle today. I was on vacation in San Diego and although we did do some walking, even a few miles, it wasn't much of a workout but it was exercise!

Of course today I have the twins with me, so it was a little bit different. I put them on their bikes and we set off on my 2 mile course. They were really dragging, and I thought they were slowing me down, but we ended up making it back home in 33 minutes. We took a small shortcut (skipped going through the park, so as not to make them jealous of all the kids playing)

As for me, I felt pretty good, but my knees were killing me. Like if you have one bum knee, you can always kinda limp, but when you have two bum knees, it's hard to limp on one, and then the other. It hurt pretty bad, but I just kept going hoping that maybe they were stiff from not running all weekend. Then I thought maybe they were sore from actually running last week.

I have figured out that I can jog longer if I don't go full bore the whole time. So I jogged quite a bit on our route today. Probably at least 8 minutes worth. I had the stop watch with me, but I was a little distracted crossing all the streets with the kids on their bikes, and then their complaining because they were tired. I probably looked like a crazy jogging hitch hiker because I told Tom there were going to be signals. Thumbs up if its safe to cross the road. And then we had a signal for "stay put, do not cross." So I'd jog out into the middle of the road with my thumbs up and kind jog in place until they were safely across together. It worked out well. I made these hand signals for them because I knew I would be too out of breath to actually speak to them. They listened really well!

I'm a little frustrated that I don't feel like I can run any longer than when I first started running last week. I'll keep at it, but I'm telling ya now, if I don't have results in six months, I'M QUITTING!

Day 5 - A Run In the Park

Today didn't go exactly as planned. The twins don't have school on Thursdays and I didn't have anyone to watch them this morning, so I decided I would run laps around the park while they played. Well that went over like a lead balloon. They wanted to run with me! Only they didn't want to run, they wanted to walk because they got tired. But they weren't walking fast enough for me because I wasn't completely out of breath. We finally worked out a happy medium where I ran small laps that lasted 1 minute around the play structure. And then I'd walk a lap. Then run. This went on for about 25 minutes. So I'm not sure how far I ran. I probably ran for a total of 8 minutes, which is kinda pace with what's been happening on real work out days anyway. It was just mayhem for a while at the park until we got into our groove. We'll have to work on that for next week because I have the twins home with me all week for Thanksgiving break!

I'm not sure I'll be able to get any exercise in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I am flying to San Diego early Friday morning and spending the weekend with some girlfriends. I hate to stop running so soon, but I know I'll be back at at on Monday. Even if it's raining! (I hope the weatherman is wrong!)

Day 4

Last night I was talking to Paul about my running/walking routine and I said, "ya know, I think if I just speed walked the whole two miles I'd probably make it in the same amount of time."

Well, wouldn't ya know it, I was right. (I'm always right, aren't I?) So what does this tell me? I'm not quite sure. Is walking fast (out of breath to the point I cannot carry on a conversation to save my life, but not hacking up a lung) just as good as the run/walk combo? I think I still cleared out my lungs just as much as when I'm running, but I wasn't running. If you have any insight on the subject, do tell. For now, I think I'll continue with the run/walk combo next time. It's definitely harder to do, though both exercise sets are difficult for me.

Let's see what can I complain about this afternoon? I feel like I have a fever but I don't. I'm beyond tired, like all I want to do is curl up in bed but I have treatments to do. Oh and two kids to take care of. And my right leg is aching, like it used to do when I was a kid and I had circulation problems. Motrin usually clears that up, but I'm not due for my next dose until 2:45PM and it's only 1PM. Yup, I think that just about sums it up. Oh, and I feel like I moving in slow motion. Like I have lead weights attached to my arms and legs. I'm telling ya folks, exercise is not all that it's cracked up to be. But I push on...