Vacation Fitness

So I went on a trip this weekend with my family, I knew full well that my normal eating habits were going to be almost non existent and that I wouldn't have access to a gym. So I decided to make the healthiest choices that I could, of course allowing for some things that I wouldn't normally consume... I mean come on I AM on vacation. I also took the time to go for a nice long run on Saturday morning. And I decided to leave it at that. I knew full well that this weekend wouldn't derail all my efforts and that I would get right back to my routine come Monday. So my message to you folks, try to find some time to fit in a little fitness on your vacations, but don't allow it to consume your time off either. Sometimes you'll find that you actually needed a couple days off to recoup and come back even stronger.

Making Choices

I had to make a choice today. Usually on Sundays I take a trip out to my boxing gym and allow Nate to give me a good butt kicking. Since I started up with my running more consistently I had planned on taking a run on a rail trail and then making my way to the boxing gym afterward... sort of a double butt kicking, great way to start the week. I made my way to the rail trail, had my new sneakers on ready to get chased by zombies through my headphones, and realized that I had left my boxing gloves and wraps at home on the counter. I figured, well, I'm already out here I'll see how the running goes and if I finish in time I'll just make a detour to my house, grab the gloves and continue on my way. Let me first start off by informing you that I was in a town about 25 minutes from my house, the boxing gym is 35 minutes from my house and only about 15 from where I was. Lie to myself number one. But I ran, I did about 5 miles and felt really good about it. I got in my car totally talking myself up to making this roundabout ridiculous trek. Unfortunately it was 10:45 by then, the class is at noon... it's not going to happen. Oh well, this week running won over boxing, next week we'll see. My message to you folks, be realistic in your plans and goals when it comes to fitness. BUT, try to make a choice to be active everyday, whether it's as active as you would prefer or not, fitness is a choice and you'll feel better for making it.

Even a Professional Can Get Injured

So last week I finally got back into my running streak. I ran 6 days. Not long, 2-4 miles and then one long run which came out to about 5 miles total. It was great, I was feeling great....until that last long run. Went running in my old sneakers, I knew I needed some new sneakers but I've been putting it off due to the whole not wanting to spend money thing. I figured I'm fine, it's really not that far and I've been doing really well with my strength training program as well. About three miles in I was still feeling pretty good, I was making decent time (I'm not very fast to begin with), my tunes were shuffling in a pleasing order, and my Zombies app was making things more interesting. About 3.5 miles my hip started to ache a little, no big deal... I'll be fine. Then, as I was coming up the mountain, my knee and ankle started to ache too. Well, I'm almost home, so I pushed through, not that I had a choice, no one was home to come get me if I needed them to. I finished the run did a mediocre stretch and hit the showers, didn't think anything of it. The next day my hip is still aching and my knee feels out of whack... so I decided to stretch everything out trying to see where that ache was coming from. It's been a week since that last run, I've run once since then. I don't think I injured anything, probably just stressed things but I learned my lesson. I will never again run in old sneakers, nor will I increase my mileage so quickly again. I found some help at the NEHRSA conference that I attended this past week in figuring out where some imbalances may lay (my tibialis anterior) and am making the strides to fix the problem. My message to all you folks.... don't push through pain, read and learn about your activity of choice, and pay attention to what your body is telling you. Now, when I say don't push through pain, I'm talking about a deep ache or a white hot flash of pain. Burning in your muscles while performing an exercise is normal and it means that you're working them but there is a huge difference when there's something wrong. Hopefully you'll just have to take my word for it rather than experience it for yourself. But if you do experience it, take the time to heal and rehabilitate, don't just keep on keeping on through the pain you'll only make it worse.