6/17 Weekend Update

Good morning!

It occurred to me this week that some of the pain that I’ve been feeling, just to the right side of my knee, could be caused by one of the stretches that I’ve been doing as opposed to the running itself. When I do this one hip flexor stretch that was prescribed by Dr. Duffy at Greenapple Sports & Wellness I can feel a twist in the knee right where the ache is throughout the rest of my recent existence when I’m not doing the stretch. That, I’m guessing, is an indicator that I might not be doing it correctly. I have an appointment Wednesday, so, hopefully I can address that then.

It is the knee pain that has kept me scratching my head the most. I was hoping to go for a long run today, but, after tweaking it a bit on the 2.5 mile hike in Lake Norman State Park that my wife, kids, and I did yesterday (as part of our day-early father’s day celebration), I opted to just take today off and only do my core strengthening exercises this morning. I was completely suited up with running shorts and everything before I finally called it off. Its probably for the better, though. I’m confident that, with a real day off today (yesterday was supposed to be one, but, the 2.5 mile hike on the “moderate” trail yesterday took care of that), my legs will feel fresh and ready to go for a long run tomorrow. I’ll be shooting for 4.4. We’ll see!

That being said, today wasn’t a total waste. As part of my core strengthening exercises I completed my seventh day in a row of completing at least 50 crunches. This allowed me to mark off a goal on my Tribesports challenge list. So, I feel a small sense of gratification from that. By the way, Tribesports is a site that I stumbled across about a week ago that combines social networking with setting and reaching fitness goals. It’s easy to sign up for, free, and seems to serve as at least a small bit of motivation for me to keep on keeping on (hence the 50 crunches a day for a week challenge I just noted). Check out my Tribesports page here and link up if you’re interested. There are tons of different challenges focused in a variety of different fitness genres and sports.

My weight and blood sugar levels nudged slightly in the wrong direction this past week. I think the main culprit was a drop-off in the overall amount of cardio that I did the last week. I only ran two times and I did more of the somewhat less intense home strength training workouts than I did the more intense strength workouts that I get in at the Y (only workout out at the Y once this week). All that being said, I’m not disheartened because I finally witness my weight and blood sugar take a more positive turn at the end of the week. Both yesterday and today my morning weigh-in registered under 229.

My focus points going into this new week will be:

1. leaning toward less sugary fruit in my evening fruit bowl snacks
2. upping the intensity of my strength training workouts
3. running 3-4 times this week instead of just twice

In addition, I need to continue to proactively look for ways to stay active throughout these lazy summer days and to look for ways to have my whole family involved. Some possibilities that I’ve thought of so far and just need to act on include: geocaching (Thanks Bob!), backyard family soccer, daily family walks, short family runs led by my son and my daughter, roller skating (for my daughter), more mini-putt (for my son), and more playground time for both of the kids.

We’ll see!