Monday June 29th to Sunday July 5th

This was the training week I was hoping would put an end to my knee troubles. It started out encouraging but began to fall apart half way into my Saturday run when I had to stop my tempo early. I did manage to set a push-up and pull-up record though so that is something to hold on to. The knee is being real stubborn so Derrick has loaned me his aqua belt for a little water running. Stay tuned to next week to see how that turned out.

Despite the discouraging run on Saturday I was happy with my other workouts and that my speed has not abandoned me completely. I do feel however that I should back off a bit now that I have confidence that it is still there.

I like to reaffirm my running goals on a daily basis to keep my mind focused on the future and not bogged down in the disappointment of my current knee problems. I repeat mantras such as, "I will run a sub 20 minute 5km in 2009....I am a fast runner who runs hard and finishes strong". Keeping my mind full of positive thoughts keeps me moving forward mentally if not physically at this point in my training.

-Monday was weights x 3 circuits plus rehab for knee.
I decided to go for a push-ups record so as per usual counted backwards from my goal # of reps. This time I was going for 30 so counted down to 1 then dropped to knees to do 10 more. Arms were toast for the rest of the workout though it was nice to have a new baseline. Dropping down to knees to get in 5 or 10 extra has been key to getting my reps up over the past year.

-Tuesday was running 25 min. with diagonals on the soccer field.
I ran for a total of 15 min. corner to corner with a recovery run over the top or the field then corner to corner etc. etc. This was a fun workout and easy on the legs. "Easy on the legs/knee" seems to be the theme of my workouts these days.
Skipped core due to lack of babysitting for the day. Almost talked my daughter into doing the class with me but she backed out at the last minute.

-Wednesday was my day off. I may have done leg rehabs and pull-ups but if I don't write it down I forget quickly. Thank goodness for running journals( I use Training Peaks with my coach).

-Thursday was the run I had been looking forward to all week. 31 minutes with 4 repeats of 3 min. with 3 min. recovery.
I did my warm-up, recovery's and cool down on the grass edge of the track and ran the interval repeats on the track. I had my Garmin with me but really wanted to run how I felt. I was hugely surprised after the workout when I noted my pace and realized I ran 4:42, 4:45, 4:26 and 4:00. I almost made it around the track twice on my last 3 minutes. I swear I was NOT STRAINING.

-Friday was weights and rehab for knee

-Saturday was a 45 minute run with a 15min. tempo thrown in to mix up the speed.
My Coach thought that if I could make it 45 minutes without my knee complaining then the worst was behind me. Unfortunately my knee was unhappy from the get go and put an end to my little running party 10 min into my tempo(25 min. into the run) and I walked/jogged(mostly walked) home.
Plus 3 x leg rehabs and pull-ups with 5-4-3 reps(must admit that I was not lowering myself much during the set of 5 but was a nice way to mix it up a bit)

-Sunday was another day off