Finding detours

[Day 20A]

The thing about life is that it doesn't always go your way, but I have an honest belief that everything happens for a reason. I have to take it down a notch with the running to give my IT band some time to decompress and recover, so in the meantime I'm going to do all the other things that I can do and just be grateful that I have more time to dedicate to the rest of the things I don't typically have as much time to do. Today, I pulled out a variation of an old dryland workout (one of my first) from my age group days. The first time I had done it I was maybe 10 or 11 and we did four exercises (push ups, sit ups, dips, lunges). I typically sub in squats for lunges but since I was going to the gym today and had my pull cords handy, I decided to add in a fifth exercise. This was how it played out!

Today's AM Workout: Dryland circuit and rowing
Summary:

• Dryland circuit: 
• 10 rounds, :30 max reps of each exercise, :15 rest between exercises, 1:00 rest between rounds, 5:00 rest after round 5
• Exercises: push ups, sit ups, fly pull (cords), bodyweight squats, bench dips
• Round 1: 14/14/20/21/18
• Round 2: 15/13/19/21/20
• Round 3: 13/13/20/21/19
• Round 4: 14/14/20/20/19
• Round 5: 11/13/19/21/18
• 5 min rest
• Round 6: 14/13/21/21/19
• Round 7: 13/13/19/20/19
• Round 8: 12/14/19/20/17
• Round 9: 10/14/19/20/17
• Round 10: 11/14/20/21/19
• Totals: 127 push ups, 135 sit ups, 196 fly pulls, 206 squats, 185 dips 
• (This takes 48 minutes to do.)
• My biceps felt a little neglected in all of that, so I did a few rounds of single arm DB curls because some people tell me that muscular balance is important or something.
• 12/side @ 15 lbs/side, 8 @ 20 lbs, 7-5 @ 15 lbs, 12 @ 15 lbs
• My left wrist was giving me some amount of trouble, more joints I have to give time to get stronger.
• Rowing: 20 minutes steady state (Concept2, resistance set at 7)
• 4098 m, 20:43 total time, 2:31.5 average/500 m, 23 average s/m
• Do any of my rower friends know what stroke rate is supposed to be when you're rowing? I have no idea if I'm doing this right. 
• Total time: ~75 mins

Hit Rate: 18/19 (94.7%) - Note that I didn't dock myself a day for skipping the trainer ride last night. I did that mostly because I just ended up rearranging the rest of my week. It's going to be an 8-session week still if things go according to plan so I don't think it'll be a big deal. 

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how that went. The push up numbers aren't great and I definitely died a bit there towards the end, but it's something to work on. (Remember the 100 push ups for time thing a little while back that I added an entire minute on compared to like last year? Yeah, strength needs work.) It was nice to be back on an urg, I hadn't rowed in a while so it was nice to do switch it up and do something different today.

The plan is to hit the trainer in the afternoon today and see how my knee handles that. I did wear my knee sleeve all morning and the squats didn't bother it at all. It's been a tad bit achy while walking but nothing major that affects my biomechanics so I really don't mind. I've also taken a look at my schedule for the next few weeks and made some tweaks to try and ease up on the run mileage and intensity so I can try to keep these IT band flair ups at bay. Just have to be more patient and work back into it slowly. 

I also made a few adjustments to the rest of the week because an opportunity came up to shadow on the floors at Children's tomorrow, which means I have to be back from my morning workout in time for pre-rounds which means I can't swim in the morning tomorrow. (I don't have a ton of confidence in my ability to bike out to the pool at this point anyways, so it wasn't a huge loss to change that part of the schedule.) As of now, I think the plan for tomorrow will be to just get a one hour session in alternating 20 mins rowing, 20 mins easy treadmill running (only if the leg continues to feel good today), and another 20 mins rowing. Just some nice easy non-specific cardio while my body sorts itself out. 

Alright, time to get down to business with catching up on schoolwork!

Much love,

Jess