Monday, July 16, 2007

New Members

What a fantastic weekend. It was decided late Thursday that our trial run would be moved to Friday afternoon and therefore would shift our Sunday run to Saturday. Two great things happened when this took place. One – coffee time Saturday morning while watching HGTV. Two – Total off day on Sunday with hubby filled with movies and wonderful rain.

With this being a last minute decision to run trail on Friday I started pounding food and water in as soon as I arrived to work on Friday. Calories are the key to energy and I wanted plenty of it. Nothing worse than running on empty. At 3:20pm I start out with one of the girls and we begin with the hills. This course has been run so much that I would guess that we might even could run this with our eyes closed. Right away we are making good ground. We are moving faster than I would guess that we have in past runs and feeling pretty good. It was just going to be one of those times where we felt strong from start to finish. One section did get me and I slowed to get me breathing under control. With nothing but cloud cover and the slightest rain towards the end we ended our 10.5 miles and celebrated with an ice cold Mountain Dew.

On Saturday, after enjoying my coffee time, I did some cleaning and then prepared for our next run which went from 6 miles to 4 miles. I had a nagging pain in the side of my knee that I was a bit concerned about. I know the cause of this is the super tight hamstrings I have but hopefully my Yoga will take care of this. Happy to report that on Sunday and even today I have no pain in my knee. I will continue to ice and stretch like crazy!!

Note: www.gaiam.com (this is the company that I purchased my yoga cd from. I selected the one geared towards running and cycling)

Sunday my husband and I took the plunge and joined a new gym. This was not an easy move for us. We have made so many friends that we cherish at the Y but I do feel that I am ready to take my training to a new level. The flexible operating hours, group classes, and ample amount of equipment and space will allow me to do this. Some times change is needed and I am excited about the new possibilities.

So with that said today will be our first day in the new place. I can hardly wait!! Even better is the fact that it has renewed a fire in my husband. His gym bag was packed last night…. I just love it!!

Happy running,
Robin

9 comments:

Scott McMurtrey said...

Glad you had a nice strong trail run on Friday and that the knee pain doesn't look too serious.

It seems everyone is getting rain but us.

Have fun at the new gym!

Wes said...

Robin, drop me a line and let me know if that DVD you bought "required experience" or not! I'm interested in doing some yoga-esque type stuff too. Nice weekend!! Way to listen to your body (about the knee) :-)

Marcy said...

You're so cute!! Stuff like joining a new gym scares the crap outta me, especially when it comes to leaving familiar things. It's nice that you just take things with stride.

I'm with Wes, give us the 411 on the DVD!

Mendy said...

So glad to hear your knee feels better. Smart of you not to run through the pain, either. Of course, you know that.

Glad to hear about your new workout "home". I've heard good things about some of the classes. Hope you enjoy it!

I'm also interested in hearing about the dvd!

David said...

Hmmm, so you run a bazillion miles a week, up and down hills, over ruts and roots, and somehow you get a twinge in your knee? No idea how that would happen... ;-)

Sounds like an awesome weekend after the reshuffle of your activities. Thanks to you and Scott for the encouragement, too!

There is growing concern about two things that many athletes do: iceing an injury immediately, and over stretching. Not suggesting you are doing either of these, but since others may be looking toward your experience, it may be worth them doing some research on the newest medical info being released. Charmichael Training Systems recently had an article about avoiding immediate icing of an injury, since the body is trying to get fluids to the area to help it. It did indicate that icing is beneficial later on, and on an ongoing basis, however, which is what I understand you do also. As far as stretching, I hope your example of educated stretching (with books, classes, dvd's) is realized and practiced, versus simply pulling muscles into pain and holding, as newer athletes may do. Great info and example of how to do it right!

Randy - Maniac #788 said...

Good luck with the new gym....sounds like the change will do you good.

Great trail run too.

It's good to hear that the yoga helped with the knee....take care of it..

Unknown said...

Sounds like a great weekend to me. Good luck with the new gym. It's amazing how a change of scenery can motivate you.

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

Get the Tiger Tail Rolling Muscle Massager Robin if you don't ROLL ur legs already, so much better then stretching & icing, I am NOT ruling out stretching but this Self Roller is amazing and keeps my legs fresh...just rolls away the lactic acid build up--lol...TRY IT if you don't already roll ur legs!

I was icing and stretching but I don't as much since I been rolling...twice a day for 3-5mins!

GEESH that almost turned into a post--lol

Good luck with ur New Gym!!

Jason The Running Man said...

Great job on the run!