Monday, January 14, 2008

This Week's Workout Plan

The focus this week was again to be Endurnace, where every other day I was hoping to get in some longer workouts that would keep my body accustomed to working hard for longer periods than usual. As you know, the OSCR ski race is next weekend, where I'll be trying to ski at a quick pace for 2-3 hours. So this week was supposed to be the last week of endurnace conditioning, and then next week would be a taper week, to cut back the workout length and intensity about 50% to let my energy build up for the race.

However, I got a monkey wrench thrown into the plan on Monday in Boot Camp class. We were doing an interval set where you shuffled around the bench (ala football player shuffle) for 8 counts, then did 4 jumping jacks, then change directions. Some how on one of the shuffles I took a weird step and felt a slight tug in my knee. I didn't think too much about it, except reminded myself to stay focused and not get out of control with those movements. I finished the workout, and then went on to bike for a while. But when I got home I was feeling some weird sensations in my knee. So I iced it for a while and went to bed.

Yesterday morning my knee was a little stiff and just odd feeling, but I wasn't able to give it any TLC because I ended up having to snowshoe for about 4 hours for work thorugh deep, rough terrain. It was definitely a good workout. My knee didn't bother me, but again it was a bit funny feeling last night and again this morning.

As I write, I have it propped up and am icing it (I filled my sandwich baggie full of snow!) It doesn't really hurt, it just feels a little weird when I walk around. Drats. It's often hard to tell-- am I actually injured, or is it just sore?

The more I work out and train and get to know my body, the more I'm able to tell the difference between injury and discomfort. I know that this one, whether I like it or not, is an injury. Not bad, thankfully. But perhaps one that could get worse if I ignore it and keep going with my workouts as planned. It's tough to give up on my plan for the week, though-- I was looking forward to a bike and run this afternoon. And I was looking forward to burning lots of calories. But I'd also like to keep doing it for a long time, and I know that if I injure myself worse, I'll have to take more time off.

So, I'll be modifying my workout plan for the week. Today I'll grudgingly take a rest day, keep icing, and do some light stretching. Tomorrow, depending how it feels, I'll probably swim, since that's really easy on the knees. Power Pump weight lifting on Friday? I doubt it, just to be safe. But hopefully by the weekend I'll be up for a ski. I really think that I just lightly strained or sprained something in my knee, and that with a few days of care it will heal up nicely. But what a bugger.

1 comment:

Robyn said...

At least your knee injury (ugh.) has a little dignity to it. My latest knee escapade defintely does not:

Last night, I used fins in the pool for the first time (amusing to say the least), got a horrible foot cramp in the deep end, and banged the heck out of my knee as I was pulling myself out of the pool to walk the cramp out. The only thing that kept me from swearing like a sailor was the elementary school swim team in the lane next to me....who can definitely outswim me and actually asked if I was o.k. (super sweet)