After running the Salt Lake City Half Marathon last weekend, I decided to take it easy this week. I had some left knee pain after the race, and my left hip flexor was hurting too. The hip flexor pain started before the half, and I think it caused the knee pain after the half.
I took last Sunday off completely, and on Monday I did a workout on the elliptical. My gym recently underwent renovations, and they added lateral elliptical machines to the workout equipment line. These machines are made by Octane Fitness and they are my new favorite cardio equipment. Here’s a shot of the leg motion on these machines:
It felt good to do something active, even though it wasn’t running. By Wednesday my knee wasn’t hurting any more, so I did an easy 3 mile treadmill run to feel it out. I then followed that with an easy gym climbing session. After Troy mentioned having some hip flexor pain too, I realized that our hip flexor pains were probably the result of climbing at the new, and much steeper, climbing gym. I use my legs when I climb, and when I’m climbing something steep, I use them more to stay close to the wall. After the treadmill jog and climbing, my hip flexor seemed a little achy, but I had no knee pain.
On Thursday I decided to do a short trail run. I ran on a 3.7 mile section of trail near my work that I had never run before. The flowers were out, the weather was great, and I loved being on the trail again!
On Friday my left knee pain was back, so I decided I needed to back off on trail running and hills for a while. I took a rest day on Friday, and on Saturday I hit the gym again.
I did another workout on the elliptical, and I did some weight lifting. I stopped weight training about a month before the half marathon, so it felt great to be back at it. I did pectoral fly, rear deltoid, hamstring curls, leg extensions, assisted pull ups, assisted dips, low back lifts, clams, leg lifts (adduction and abduction), and leg circles. My arms were pretty worked, but I’m glad to be back to lifting again. Part of the reason I stopped was that I was sore after lifting, and I felt it affected my running. Since I’m not prepping for a big race soon, my goal is to weight train a few days a week. This gym day was also a day to try out my new trainer shoes, my days of training in retired running shoes are over, I love these shoes!
Another workout I’ve been putting off because of the race is my TRX training. Troy and I bought this system a while ago, but I’ve been afraid of diving into it because I didn’t want to get injured before the half. Now that the half is done, I’m adding this suspension training to my routine. I did the core workout today, and for being so short, it’s quite a workout! What I love about TRX is that it uses your body weight, the straps provide a little instability which means you have to engage several muscles to maintain balance, you can vary the level of difficulty, and there are so many workouts you can do!
Those pikes are tough!
After my TRX workout, I tested the waters with a short and easy four mile jog at the gym track. I chose to go to the indoor track because I didn’t want to risk more knee pain. My hip flexor is slightly sore, but the knee feels fine. I’m trying to decide if I should rest my legs more or keep running on flatter surfaces, I guess I’ll wait and see.
The other thing I’ve been doing this week is eating. Right now I’m obsessed with this Asian Kale Salad that a friend introduced me to from CookieandKate. It’s amazing!! The dressing is great, and I love the variety of veggies in this salad. Below is a pic of a mason jar with the dressing in it. One of my favorite mason jar uses is for mixing up salad dressings, yum! Besides this salad, I’ve enjoyed some avocado sprinkled with black lava sea salt and gnocchi with shrimp, asparagus, and pesto.
I also had a great first week of my refined sugar fast! I noticed that I mostly crave sweets when I’m bored or wanting to procrastinate on something, but I was able to resist those cravings all week. Today I had brunch with some girlfriends I hadn’t seen in a while, so I indulged/cheated a bit with some lovely brunch cocktails, a couple small bars, and a fruity crepe. While I plan to go back to my refined sugar fast tomorrow, it felt good to be able to indulge a bit with friends.
Week In Review:
3 runs, 10.7 miles
1 weight lifting session
1 TRX session
2 elliptical sessions
Irene Jean 
Wow, even in “recovery” you had a great week of fun workouts–I say fun for the elliptical thing because that thing is whack. I would certainly fall off, or something. And nice job on your sweets vacation 😉 I say vacation because it would be far too sad to give up all refined sugars for life. I wouldn’t make it through races, if nothing else.
The elliptical us definitely a little weird, but super fun once I got used to it! And it’s definitely going to be a sweets vacation, I love enjoying sweets, just trying to break the cravings so I can enjoy them in moderation 🙂
I’m sorry you’ve had some pain, but good job listening to your body and backing off! I’ve used an elliptical like that once. It was so awkward at first, but by the end of my workout I really enjoyed the motion! Pretty new shoes too!
Thanks! I’m hoping this hip flexor pain goes away soon, it seems like it’s getting better, I’m just not sure if I should stick with short easy runs or just do elliptical workouts for now. I hope to be running on the trails soon!
Oh WOW, beautiful trail run!!! TRX is so great, right?! I loved your workouts last week, too!! It’s good you listened to your body and incorporated some fun other stuff!! Happy Monday!
Happy Monday to you! I LOVE the TRX! My gym even has a TRX class I’m thinking about checking out for more workout ideas. 🙂
Oh, you should!! The TRX classes are wonderful!! Have fun!! Have a beautiful day!! 🙂
Nice work! I hope your hip flexor feels better. Those TRX things look a little scary to me!
Yes, listen to your body! I think it’s good that you’re doing some non-road-running activities while you recover. Keep it up! Ps, I want the food!