16

IDK what it is with me and December, but once again I had a mega migraine/sinus infection and so haven't been exercising enough.  I finally went to the doctor about my sinuses, and while I was there she looked at my ankle.  She said it was my achilles tendon, which was my first theory, and that I should rest and put ice on it, and she showed me a stretch.  And said wait another couple of weeks to start running again.  So, I will just be doing stadiums and the elliptical until next year.  Blah.  I hope that when I go back to running I can still do it - this has been my longest break from it so far!

The doctor did give me an antibiotic for the sinuses, so I'm feeling a lot better!  (She actually didn't look at all convinced that it was bacterial, so maybe it's just the placebo affect, but I'm cool with that.)  So, today I headed off to Harvard.

They have some giant silver bubble structure inflated on the field in the stadium, which was weird.  And there was this chick there who was sprinting up the steps and bouncing down them.  Crazy!  She was with this guy who was dragging himself up a few of the rows, but mostly just watching.  And there was a couple who was walking the steps, but pretty fast = way faster than me.

I did manage to get to 16, which is 496 giant steps!  At the end of 16 my legs were like spaghetti, and the left eye was a tiny bit spotty.  There are 37 sections in total, I was thinking of setting my next goal as the half way point, but 18.5 might be pushing it.  On the other hand, I've just been sitting on the couch for the last couple weeks, so maybe if I exercised during the week a little....

15!

It is easier to do running and stadiums in the same weekend (easier than to run twice, that is), they're different muscle groups.  Anyhow, today I went to yoga and climbing at Brooklyn Boulders.  After I was trying to decide if I should go to Harvard Stadium; I was a little tired, but there's a Nor'Easter coming, and there's no way I'm dedicated enough to "run" steps in that weather.  So, I decided to haul my butt over there.

It was freezing out!  Happily I remembered I had seen my running gloves, the ones with the special fabric for wiping the snot off my nose, in the trunk of my car.  Which was a good thing because my nose was running and, I'm not gonna lie, I used the special snot fabric.  I went back to section 1 this time, with the goal of getting in 15.  Around section 4 I was nervous that I wasn't going to get to even section 8.  But I kept with it.  At section 7 I was thinking I might be done at 8, which I could live with since I had done yoga and climbing, but I pushed it a little further.

Then I was watching someone else, and I started to think about their technique, and mine.  I was doing the steps as if I was going up steps, but they aren't normal steps, they're like 2 feet high and 2 feet deep, which requires not normal walking.  So, I modified what I was doing to be a little more like in yoga, when you go from down dog, lift your knee up, and only after your knee is up swing your foot forward to lunge. It's a lot more core and gluts, instead of just thigh.  Turns out that makes a HUGE difference!  With that modification I was able to get up the first 20 or so steps of each row without too much difficulty, leaving the last 11 steps of each row for me to drag my sorry body up in declining form.  Way better.  And, I bet way better overall exercise.  At 13 I was thinking I could stop at 1/3 of the way up the next row, and just have it be the same as last time.  But then of course I couldn't do that, I was like, "I can finish this row!"  And once I had finished, I figured it was just 62 steps to my goal, and I wasn't seeing spots or anything, so I might as well do it.  And I did!

Goal for next time = 16 (double the first time.)

Back on the treadmill again

Whatever the foot/ankle deal is, it's feeling better-ish. It's rainy and totally nasty out, so I decided to hit the gym today.  I did 30 minutes on the treadmill, started slowly at 5 miles per hour, then at 5 minutes it was feeling ok so I bumped it up to a 10 min 30 sec mile, and just kept it there for the rest of the time.  My left ankle and right knee protested a little about returning to running, but they seem fine now.  The run itself was quite dull.  Really the thing that's most distracting is trying (unsuccessfully) to find something good to watch on TV.

I did get my climbing shoes back from being resoled!  I got new ones about 3 months ago, and haven't been wearing my comfy-old-smellies.  Going climbing tomorrow, really excited to have them back!