In Workout Week posts I will tell you everything about my last week’s workouts.
I’m going to start this week’s post with the end of last week. After posting my last Workout Week, I got a letter from my BodyPump and running coach Maris (who has been mentioned on my blog for at least 694873875 times because she is awesome). As I’ve stated before, I trust her 100%. She gave a ton of recommendations about what I need to do to recover from my ankle injury. To sum up:
- 2–3 week break from running
- Maybe skip the 10K race on Sunday
- A visit to a physiotherapist to get some anti-inflammatory medication
- Less walking (or anything that puts pressure on my ankle)
- More swimming, cycling and strength training
- More foam rolling
I don’t want to be overdramatic but I had tears in my eyes when I read all of that. No running for 3 weeks?! 😥 My world came crushing down. I love running. Forbidding running is like putting a heroin-addict into rehab. In my mind, I do understand that all of this is necessary in the long perspective. But in my heart, it hurts like hell. Maris said something very wise that I’ll remember forever:
Truth! I can take 2 weeks off now or half a year off later, it’s all up to me. I’m going to try my best to stay positive. Now is time to work on cycling and swimming to keep my fitness level and by doing that, also get ready for my triathlon in July. Find a positive in every negative!
This is not going to make me weaker. This is the time to show myself how strong I can be. I will never give up on my goals and dreams. I am running that half-marathon. I am competing in that triathlon. I will do it all…
…if I act smart now.
Monday is usually a running day. Instead, I went cycling for 30 minutes in the gym (saw my running group stretching from a window 🙂 ) and from there went straight to BodyPump. Increased some upper body weights and replaced all lunges with squats to save my ankle as much as possible. In shoulder track Florian wondered about his weights and asked us if we wanted to see him die or scream. I answered: “Both.” 😀 He put on 8,5+8,5 kg. Out of solidarity I added some weights as well: my bar was 4,5+4,5 kg. Awesome workout! Walking home, my ankle was a little tired and uncomfortable but I wouldn’t say in pain. Later I also foam rolled at home for about 20 minutes to relax all muscles.
Tuesday was all dedicated to cycling. I spent 1,5 hours and 41,7 km on an indoor bicycle. Indoor cycling has one huge plus: I can take my study materials with me and read them while working out. Perfect! After that, I had a small break and then went to foam rolling for an hour. This is painful every time. Overall it was a good day: my ankle hurt only once when I didn’t think about it and sat on my leg in a misfortunate manner. Other than that: pain-free!
Wednesday: cycling (30 minutes) + BodyPump. I had a great day. My legs were a little sore from Monday (2 squat tracks!) and there was a spot on the back of my thigh that felt weird. Nothing painful but still: I have to be careful. I didn’t tie up my ankle and it didn’t hurt at all. YAY! But when I was walking home, my left ankle did feel tired and had some pain but not in the injured spots, it was on the outside part. Nothing major though. I was pretty optimistic about recovering fast and not feeling as sorry for myself. Finished the day off with foam rolling. By the way, my foam roller is breaking and doesn’t really work anymore. Bummer! 😦
On Thursday I was up bright and early and jumped in the pool just around 8 AM. I did my longest swimming session ever: 1,5 hours and 3,1K. I started with 1500 m of front crawl, then switched to 1500 m of breaststroke and finished everything off with 100 m of really slow backstroke. I was so tired I almost wanted to fall asleep in the sauna. All I kept thinking in the pool when I was getting tired is how much respect I have for the people who do Ironman (3,86K swim, 180,25K bike, 42,2K run) or Half-Ironman (1,9+90+21,1K) triathlons. Respect. I ended my day with some foam rolling (taking it seriously this week!).
Friday was cycling day again. I was so not in the mood but after cycling for about an hour, it wasn’t that bad. All in total: 1,5 hours, 42,2K. I realised I just cycled through a full running marathon. 🙂 And ofcourse: some foam rolling before bedtime.
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I will write more about Saturday and Sunday in my race summary coming up next week. To conclude: I raced the 10K, it didn’t hurt my injured ankle and I accomplished all possible goals. A total success!
In total:
- 1 hour 30 minutes of running
- 4 hours of indoor cycling
- 2 hours of strength training
- 1 hour 30 minutes of swimming
- 3 hours 40 minutes of foam rolling
This week was all about recovery. I stayed off me feet as much as possible, didn’t even get close to 10 000 steps a day from Monday to Friday, foam rolled every single day, cooled my injured ankle, skipped running for 9 days straight, wore compression stockings a lot, tied my ankle up with elastic support. Everything was about getting better to run again.
And I ran! 🙂
Narva Energy Run 21,1K: in less than 5 weeks.
