October 5, 2010, 7 A. M.

Last week I spied a fellow at the gym with great running form and he runs fast! I asked him if I could talk to him before he left. I found out that he runs at a 9 or 10 m.p.h on the treadmill. He runs for fitness for about an hour. His name is Vinnie. He is 43 and has been running for 20 years.

I asked Vinnie his advice on how I could better prepare for a Turkey Trot 5K after coming back from an injury. I'm finding it difficult to prepare for that along with strength training, homeschooling, cooking, washing laundry, and working part time. :) He suggested that I run after or before my sessions with Ildi at the minimum.

I decided that I will add some cross training as well to increase my endurance. So today I did 30 minutes on the elliptical. I haven't been on the elliptical for a while so I stayed at level one and two throughout the half hour.

October 4, 2010, Monday with my trainer, Ildi

One hour with Ildi McShae:

1. Pull Ups on Modified Pull Up Machine for lateral back muscles, holding bar wide. 15 lbs. X 2 reps
2. Pulls Ups on Modified Pull Up Machine for medial back muscles, holding bar close and inside. 15 lbs. X 1 rep
3. Seated Row: Lean forward and pull bar to stomach with chest stuck out, 40 lbs. X 3 reps
4. Lateral row, pull down bars 50 lbs. (super-set with Dual Axis Row/Rear Deltoid machine) X3 reps
5. Dual Axis Row/Rear Deltoid machine, 30 lbs. (Super-set with above)
6. Biceps macine, the heavier and harder machine, no weights, 15 X 3 reps
Seated decline biceps curls with 7 lbs. weights, 3 reps
7. Biceps curls on cable, 15 lbs. X 3 reps. Keep arms and elbows up.
8. Calf standup machine, 50 lbs.
9. Seated calf, level 4, 20 X 3 reps
10. Hyperextension on Roman chair, abs workout with 10 lb. weight, 20 X 3 reps
11. Abd cruch machine, lying down, no extra weight, 20 lbs. x 3 reps
Solo: Treadmill, 3 minutes running alternated with 1-2 minutes walking x 35 minutes, 4.8 miles per hour, no incline.

Stretching for ten minutes.

Progress

I've made a lot of progress at the gym and that improves so many areas of my life. I'm more disciplined with keeping a schedule. My mood is more even. We are getting more school work done. My stamina has increased greatly.
On the nights I work 12 hour overnight shifts I have far more energy than I've had in the past when I reach home.
Ildi took some measurements of my body and measured my body fat, which was 29%. She will retake the measurements in one month. She would like me to get down to 23%. Ildi says that will take some time and first I will lose inches and gain some inches in certain areas. Once that occurs body fat starts to decrease. I'm not stressing over it at all.
Today I went for a swim for the first time in about three weeks. I am not a great swimmer and I feel more secure using a pool noodle. Regardless of my swimming skills I was able to swim for one half hour without feeling winded. I may as well have been sitting on the couch relaxing. That's just how great I felt.
I have a problem with one of my great toes. I hyper extended it a couple of weeks ago and it's a little sore. I picked up my orthotics this past Monday. They definitely give me more support. I started running at the gym on a treadmill about two weeks ago. I'm easing into it. My longest run has been fifteen minutes without walking. I may be able to go a lot farther if I do some walk/run intervals. I will give that a try if I can ever make it to the gym early enough.
Increasing my protein to 25 grams/meal has had a positive consequence. I no longer crave sweets. Yay! I limit them to the weekend.
I'm no longer able to drink fat free lactose free milk and that's sad. Unfortunately, it gives me chest pain about 20 minutes after I drink it. I purchased a plant protein powder drink with hemp, rice, peas, and Omega vitamins that I'm going to try soon. My kind sister gave me her barely used blender. I hope I like it. As long as it tastes different from soy I should be fine.
I'm looking forward to a Turkey Trot. I'm excited that my friend Tina plans to run with Jimmy and I. Bruce is even interested in running but I'm not sure he will follow through with that. :)

Transitions

I completed Physical Therapy last week. I am very thankful for my physical therapist, Nita. I learned so much! I went on a couple of test runs that went well. Both runs were half a mile each. I had pain after the first run about four hours later. After the second run I had pain about 12 hours later. Truthfully though, I had no business up at 12 AM. I am not increasing the length of my runs nor am I going to run more than once or twice a week. I saw a podiatrist and I'm waiting for orthotics. I have been told quite a few times by varied health professionals over the years that I have flat feet and no arch. The podiatrist showed me the bones in my foot on an x-ray and indeed there is no arch. I don't think it is wise for me to run seriously until I have orthotics so I wait for them. I would like to run until I'm 70 or 80, Lord willing so I can wait for my orthotics.

In other news, I joined a gym. The gym has a relationship with my employer in which I pay $20/month for three months. My employer will reimburse me every three month the sum of $45. It's a great deal. I had my first one hour session today. It was awesome. My personal trainer, Ildi, guided me on upper arm, chest, and abdominal exercises. My favorite exercise was hanging at a 45 degree angle with my head toward the floor and then doing a crunch with my arms crossed in front of my chest.

I have to have my food ready to go after the gym. I had a banana right after the workout but had lunch too late. I felt as if I would chew my arm off and started to feel very ill.

Ildi wants me to have a minimum of 25 grams of protein three times a day. That is going to be challenging as I don't eat eggs or cheese. I was able to consume 79 grams today though. Ildi suggested that I have carbs in the daytime and not at dinnertime. Hmmmm?

I Won a Prize

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts last week. It's called, "No Excuses to a Healthier You" with Jonathan Roche. I have been participating in a 12 week fitness challenge in which you log in the number of workouts you have done for the week. I was delighted to hear my name announced. I won a free six month subscription to Roche's forum. I love Jonathan Roche's heart for busy moms. He is very encouraging. Roche used to be overweight. Now he is now fit and has run 15 Boston marathons. One can call in his show weekly and get advice and tips on becoming more fit and healthy. Roche is affiliated with The Fly Lady. His shows are broadcast live on blogtalkradio and the archives are available on iTunes.

I'm delighted with my prize. Now I will have access to running plans for free and be able to get even more advice from Roche without having to call his show.

I'm looking forward to my doctor's appointment this week. I'm hoping that there is a good prognosis for my knee injury. I want to run again someday.

Until such time, I will continue to swim. On June 28th I will take a second swimming class. My goal is to improve my breathing technique and learn to float.

Test Run-Fail

My last test run was a fail. It felt great to be running again until I woke up the next day. Ha.

I caved in and made an appointment to see a doctor at Cleveland Clinic. The sports medicine/orthopod I saw thinks I have torn my meniscus. The doctor seems very knowledgeable and he is affiliated with the FAU football team.

I am scheduled for an MRI on Monday. If the MRI shows anything I may or may not have something invasive done. Otherwise, I will start PT. "I just want to run again" I explained to the doctor. I definitely need to recover from the injury. I have difficulty carrying anything over 8-10 pounds. If I work two or more shifts at my job in a row the pain in my knee increases.

In other news, I am now a swimmer. Praise God for that. I'm also now a milk drinker. GASP. My calves were starting to hurt very badly. In the past the pain has disappeared if I have 1,200 mg of calcium pills per day. For some reason this was no longer helping me. I purchased some calcium fortified fat free lactose free milk. One eight oz. serving provides 50% of the intake of calcium recommended per day. It takes me quite a while but I am slowly able to gulp down 8 oz. I pretend it is medicine. Fortunately, I am not able to completely taste the full taste of the milk. Thankfully, my calves have ceased hurting so much. I like that I can add 16 more grams of protein to my diet for a mere total of 160 calories.

Test Run?

I'm continuning to learn to swim. I'm able to swim from the 3 feet side of the pool to the four feet area. It's not pretty but I'm swimming. I spend most of my time kicking in the pool.

I do have pain in my thigh after my 12 hour shifts. After I swim the pain is eradicated.

I'm thinking about going for a test run tomorrow morning.

Stay tuned.