Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Time to work off those tamales and holiday sweets!

I have to say, I'm hurtin' right now. A month and a half of nearly no exercise took it's toll on me yesterday and today! I went for a run yesterday, finishing my usual 2.8 miles. No, wait. I couldn't finish it because my left knee started bugging me. I felt the pain on my lateral knee about 3/4 of the way through. I stopped and walked for a bit and stretched it out a little, but to no avail. I had to finish the loop walking, which is just torture to me. My lungs had a lot more left, but my leg couldn't take it anymore. I think it might be my IT band, which I injured 2 years ago. At least I think it was my IT band. I never saw any sort of doctor and self-diagnosed. I did have that pain walking downhill and down the stairs, though. I don't know what to do! I don't want to quit running, but my body is really against me here! Is there any way I can continue running and eventually accomplish my goal of running a marathon? I saw an orthopedist who did nothing for me, so what's next? A podiatrist? There has to be some way!

Anyways, after my run and a good stretch, of course, I went home and did a whole bunch of side leg lifts, sit-ups, crunches, tricep dips, and a few push ups. My arms are so weak now--I use to be able to do triangle push-ups! All that and I was walking around with sore hips/but today.

Not bad, but then I went to my cardio kickboxing class on the Air Force base. I could barely move after class! The instructor is intense! When we all are getting sloppy with our punches and kicks, she's jumping around and dancing around to the music. She has endless energy! But I need a class like that, because I'm horrible at pushing myself until I can't go anymore. There's this sequence that she does and when she starts it, everyone in class acknowledges it with a groan. On each side, we do side knee lifts while bringing arms down toward the opposite side. Doesn't sound too hard, right? But she has us do 16 facing one corner of the room, rotate, do 16 more facing the next corner and then continue for the rest of the corners. Oh we're not done there! We then go 8 per corner, then 4 per corner, 4 per corner two more times, and then she has us hold it until she makes us stop and switch legs. Then we do that all over again for the other leg. My poor hips and butt! Here's a video of the move I just described. Just ignore the cheesy music and it's the move shown at 2:56.


It's a pretty good video of basic cardio kickboxing moves, but she's so slow compared to my crazy instructor! After the cardio part of the workout, we do arm strengthening and abs. Endless, I tell you! So yeah, I could barely move after all that! I did manage to squeeze in a few pull-ups and dips, though. I'm up to lifting about 80 lbs of my weight. Hopefully one of these days, they'll be unassisted!

I'm skipping out on the running until my knee feels better. I'll be skipping out on the Wednesday night runs for a month, though, because I just signed up for my final cake decorating class! You ready to see more cake decorating action? It just might be all you see of my baking because I don't want junk food hanging out in my house! But then, I can't really go that long without baking. ;)

6 comments:

loqi said...

OMG I cannnot seem to get myself motivated to exercise... I sense that I will be posting about that soon. But I am happy to hear that you're getting back into your routine, that's awesome! :)

Sara said...

I love cardio kickboxing. And I'm with you, girl! I've got things I can't get into now! All the good I've done for myself with crossfit is pretty much gone. Now that the holiday's are over though (and the chaos of gtting mark home) I should be able to fall into a routine again.

jlc said...

You are so right. Once you stop for a week it's like you never did exercise before!

Casey (@ Chaos and Cardboard) said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sara said...

I'm glad you brought up the gloves thing. Crossfit guys will tell us that it's cheating. Whatev. I'm a girl. Nuff said. I actually do use gloves, but when doing that many pull ups, it is unavoidable and necessary for grip to develop callouses. Luckily, mine just feel rough but are barely noticeable. When doing things like knees to elbows, the grip is very important and gloves or no gloves, you'll rip the skin a few times before they develop. I have come to accept them as part of the workout and don't mind. Battle scars and all that.

I've had to buy three different gloves before I found the ones I like. At the old CFC gym, they had circular grips made from foam that were super awesome. They looked ridiculous though!

Rae said...

Tania, what is this nice song on your blog? I thought at first maybe it was Jewel, but now I'm not sure...