Tuesday: bak to the grinder

I'll admit I was a little disappointed in my knees not performing very well Sunday and having to walk the last quarter mile or so of my weekly long run. When I sat down and looked at the amount of running I did do over the weekend though it does show I have made great improvement and I think I may just have pushed it a little too far. The fact is five weeks ago a two mile run would make me so sore for a week I could hardly move and now the same run is just past a warm up. But on Sunday my knees were really swelled and in the past that would of been a very good reason to just give up. I took the day off yesterday to recover a bit and the swelling did go down a good bit but I was not looking forward to class tonight. It's not like it creates a lot of pain for me but the swelling gives a general sense of weakness like if it turns even a bit off to the side or something it will crumble.

Anyhow so I did show up and hung in there for the first round of jumping jacks which hurt then squats and not to forget the lunges. The knees were not doing well and I was getting disappointed. Then we headed outside for a warm up run and sprints. At this point they still felt very tender but they started feeling better. About three quarters of the way through my knees were not bothering my anymore and they still aren't a few hours after the class. Once we hit the grinder again the focus was on push ups, pull ups and ab workouts so not more problems with knees. The short story is I am glad I went and hung in there. I learned that some of these injuries do not have to take me out of being fit or accomplishing some of the things I'd like to accomplish but I just need to make sure I build to my goal instead of doing it all right now.

I was talking to a friend over the weekend and we were discussing his friend who eats properly and takes a lot of time choosing and preparing the right foods. He was relaying his friends perspective in that when he began doing his routine he'd leave a day during the week where he could eat anything he wanted. And in the beginning he really did take advantage of that eating badly that day. However somewhere along the way his routine became the norm and even on the "eat anything" days where he may splurge a little but he'd pretty much maintain the same routine. I thought that was a pretty cool story and one that I miss the moral of the story a lot of the time. There's many times I focus on the tough part of getting started and beginning the process of getting to where I want to be. But once I get the willingness to do that and keep putting one foot in front of the other each day then what was so hard at one time becomes the norm. I've found that to be true with each new adventure I've allowed myself to walk into. I'd come to the door with nothing and in a year or so down the road be functional in whatever environment I had chosen. So I really need to to stop allowing the beginning to stop the progress. I need to get on this proper diet thing. I'm doing a lot better than I have but I still have a good ways to go.