It has been a good week. Am I all the way back? No, but I have reason to be excited and I have some reason to be concerned.
The good news is that I stayed smart and was careful with my workouts. I am becoming a big fan of water running for a solid zero impact workout. Water running does not involve putting your feet on the bottom of the pool. In fact, I've tried that and it will wear the skin off your feet.
To do it right, you need some type of float with enough buoyancy to keep your head and neck out of the water. I use water dumb bells that are similar to the ones pictured at right (most like the blue ones). Holding the dumb bells with relatively straight arms at my sides, I move my legs in a running motion. I am about 5'8" tall and require a minimum of 4.5 feet of water to run like this. And that is a little shallow, five feet is better.
I like dumbbells because I can do arm workouts as I run to increase my fitness. However, there are many different flotation devices that can work for water running.
Water running has been touted as a good cross training workout for runners. One key is that it is an impact free workout. When your pounding pavement all week, no impact really makes a difference. Also, water running increases your running efficiency. While running in the water, your legs want to find the most efficient way to move. This actually helps in running efficiency and I have found that the more I run in the water the more obvious the efficiency increases. As strange as it sounds, the hardest thing to do when you start water running is keeping your legs low. For some reason, my knees wanted to come up artificially high at first. But, it doesn't take long to get the hang of it. Start at 10 minutes and work your way up to 30 minutes or more.
Below are my workouts from this past week:
Monday - 30 minute water run, 15 minute swim, 1.75 mile run on treadmill
Tuesday - 35 minute water run, 15 minute swim, 2.5 mile run on indoor track
Wednesday - 3.75 mile outdoor run (this was all my knee wanted)
Thursday - off
Friday - 10 miles on indoor track (this was 240 left turns), felt pretty good thank GOD!
Saturday - off (saw a basketball game and went to the International Sportsman's Exhibit)
Sunday - off ( church, hit some baseballs, shot the .357 mag and .40 cal)
I sure am thankful for an 18 mile week. Kind of unbelievable looking back two weeks. My knee is still a concern, but hopefully things are looking up. This week I will continue to take it easy. If all goes well, I will be reporting miles in the low 20's next week.
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