Blog Post

So enter the Cool Impossible strength program. I ended my season in 10/31/13 with persistent aches and pains that would flare even on shorter runs.  Over my 3 week break, my knee settled down, but my R achilles and heel flared a little. I was nervous that starting back up again would make things worse, that my knee would flare, that the heel pain and tight Achilles would get worse and that I wouldn't even be able to get off the ground with running again. OHHHH the humanity! ha! Enter the Cool Impossible strength program. I started the upper body while on break and the lower body 3 weeks ago. Aches and pains are subsiding week by week….as my running is increasing! I love it! I go exercise by exercise in the book. I decided to start with one easier one and then the harder ones, finishing with the easiest ones...by then I’m tired and the easy ones aren’t so easy!

My favorite exercises?  The toughest ones for me of course!  The ones I am having to really work at and be patient to gain mastery… scorpions--I’m almost there...I can do 10!  Lunges with fit ball using slant board...adding the slant board has made  these particularly challenging...And my new favorite...Pistol squats.  I can only do about 5-10 flat footed without poles. Not really sure what to do with my hands without poles, so I just pray...hands together... that I don’t bust my ass!

And, ohhhhh the 20 minute test. Coaches instructions…”make your effort comfortably hard”. He reminded me not to expect too much or place too much on this test as it is following a rest period, we haven’t really started training again. I knew this would be difficult for me. I wanted to go as far as I possibly could in 20 minutes.  And I wanted it to be farther than my last 20 min test.  My ego whispered, “Lori, the last time you did that test you went as hard as you could.. If you don’t again, you surely won’t come close to your last test”. So of course,  I probably went out to hard...who me? Never!  by 10 minutes I was considering quitting. There was nothing “comfortably anything” about what I was doing. I was not moving as fast as I wanted, and not only that, I was slowing. I could feel it, and I got mad. For the next 5 minutes I just pushed that fine line of blowing up and quitting, thinking of good excuses to give coach for not completing the test. The next 5 minutes I tried to relax and back off to “almost comfortably hard”...or at least, “not desperate to quit hard” effort...or maybe just “not fighting as hard, hard” (ahem- yes I’m crazy, I know)...I mean really, who thinks like this?!  I survived the 20 minutes. Not real pleased with anything that occurred physically or mentally in that 20 minutes, and still wondering what I learned. Right now I’m still a little huffed and disappointed...  hmmm….ego?  ego check?  anybody (LORI) listening?