Tiny Freak Goes Ninja

Training
101

well ya know what? YOU SHOULD EXPECT THAT MUCH.

how long ago did you post the video with 135lbs and your knees clonking together?

woman- you’re strong, you’re determined, and you’re still fucking scared of the weights. im not sure why. its ok that you are, but you can’t keep fucking up like this, or you’ll get hurt again at worst and remain a fuckup at best.

the online help isn’t helping. there is a very limited amount of shit any of us can do for you through randomly posted videos and txt on a screen. you go to ART, PT, and MD’s when you’re injured… find some real, handson help for a solution to this. were i there, or you here, i’d be beating your shit into the ground until we got it fixed.

yeah, sure, it’s just a hobby… but i see you driven to be good at everything you choose to do and what you’ve been doin with this is not working.

now don’t be a girl and get all hurt and offended, or i’ll karate kick you.

102

Kimba: I’m glad you’re feeling better! Sorry about the knee ache. That’s super frustrating. Why don’t you go back to the 3rd week schedule for your second run this week. There’s no harm in doing that. Then, if the knee doesn’t hurt, bump back up to the 4th week schedule for your 3rd run and see how that goes.

103

I don’t know how it got to be Wednesday already. I’ve been a day late/dollar short all week and I’m still racing around to catch up with myself.

So, the news on my knee ache while running is that, as I suspected, my nemesis the IT Band is acting up again. I have had IT band woes on and off for the last five years, ever since the hubby and I raced our tandem up the Mt. Washington Auto Road (a big-ass climb for them’s that know it).

Yesterday I ran for 3 min/walk for 90 sec., ran for 5 min./walk for 2.5 minutes, and at that point in the workout my knee started to niggle, then when I repeated the sequence, the niggle turned into an ache. Not painful enough to stop me from running through it, but not comfortable. Same exact thing that happened to me on Saturday’s run. FUCK!

So, I made an emergency call to my ART girl and she checked me out. My quad, which I injured in the Sad Treadmill Incident, is still weak and not working properly. Putting strain on my IT band. In addition, my feet are still weak as well as stiff. I can’t pronate at all, leading me to run on the outside of my foot which further tweaks the IT Band.

Fuck it all, if its not one thing its another.

Honestly, I did think for a moment about giving up on the running. But I’m not like that, I enjoy the running so we are trying a different strategy. Tomorrow I’ll try 1 min run/1 min walk. But the run will be a stride…a jog into a +35% fast effort for a bit, then back to jog, before doing the recovery walk. The idea is that by speeding up, I’ll actually strain the IT band less than steady-state pounding. Plus, I’ll get some exercise doing it.

In addition, I’ve got exercises for glutes, hips and feet, plus some foam rolling, plus stretching post-run.

Lesson: I can’t ever stop my rehab exercises. Ever. Even if I’m not hurting at the moment. Cause my shit will catch up with me sooner or later.

kmc, glute activation FTW! I’ve been slacking and now I’m paying the price.

Joe and BC, I haven’t focused on squats for a long time, and that shows too.

Alexus, funny accent! That amuses me.

Betty, it means that you can’t slack on planks cause you need them. Sad but true.

Bear, I love the sensitivity of your bullshit detector. That cattle prod hurts so good. I can’t hide from you that I’ve been ignoring my squat problems for lo these many months in favor of working on deads, bench and MP. I’m not out of ideas to help my woeful knee cave as much as I’ve chosen not to do the rehab (wall squats, banded squats, glute work) that I know I need to do in order to get anywhere with this.

Truthfully, squats aren’t fun right now. And I’m already committed to knee rehab for the running thing. So I am squarely facing the fact that I’m putting this one aside for now cause I’m tapped out with things upon which I’m placing a higher priority.

Nadia, that was a good suggestion and I wish I HAD done that before yesterday’s run. Let me try the stride idea and see where that gets me. I can always dial back and restart C25K if strides don’t work.

Work is killing me this week. I’ll check in when next I can steal some moments.

104

Always, always, always love your positive attitude and dead-on perspective.

Will keep me coming back here to check in.

Hang in there. I know you will conquer your training demons.

105

I’m with Snap - your views on life and training are so centered and calm, frustrating as they may be.

I forget which wonderful PWer said it (probably Brute, lol!) but “life is short, why do something you’re not enjoying!” And I really can’t agree more.

Hang in there with the work stuff! I feel your pain…ugh! Stay focused :slight_smile:

106

Interval training and rehab, plus your crazy attention to detail will keep you in the game for a long, long time. Keep it up, greyhound.

107

I have a stretch for the ITB band. Lie on your side as per the diagram. However, instead of keeping the lower leg straight, bend it and hook the foot over the knee of the upper leg. Use pressure from the lower foot to push the upper knee downwards towards the ground. (You could also use a partner to manually push the upper leg towards the ground, but I never train with a partner so I use this DIY method).

108

Srry to hear about all the roadblocks. Sometimes you just take baby steps. And you are right about prioritizing, and thinking about what’s bringing you joy. You try to address the physical problems, sometimes you just have to let things heal, then come back to it. You’ll work it out. Finding the joy of it is the main thing.

109

Hi Kimba-

Long time lurker, first time poster (that phrase overused yet?). I’ve been following your logs for some time now, and when I found myself screaming at my monitor this morning, I felt it was time to come out of hiding. This may not be anything new, so feel free to disregard the completely unsolicited advice…

Regarding the knee cave/knee pain—they’re likely stemming from the same problem, lady! Your external rotators/hip abductors are weak (allegedly!)—that’s why your knees collapse when you squat. This creates poor tracking of the knee cap causing irritation-hence your knee pain. The running exacerbates the pain because every step you take, that knee cap is rubbing creating inflammation. I saw that you did the squats with the band around your knees, but the band wasn’t tight enough—you weren’t actually activating the external rotators to strengthen them. My advice is to add in the boring crab/monster walks, the side-lying leg lifts, clamshells, and the banded squats with a tight band…yes they’re boring…yes they’re jazzerciserific…but that, along with your foam rolling, should really help the knee pain AND the knee cave.

(steps off soap box) I’ll be seeing myself out now. :slight_smile:

110

Snapper, thanks. Some days my training demons look REALLY BIG AND SCARY.

Maschy, enjoying training is important to me. Not wussing out is too. Squats, I will get you my prettys, just you wait!

Spider, thanks rabbit. I intend to be bugging PW for a long-assed time to come.

Cal, thanks for the stretch. I just tried it and it hurts so bad/so good.

PP, finding the joy is central to everything, but it is invaluable in the gym. Who wants to be yet another sourpuss who reluctantly shows up to run halfheartedly on the treadmill whilst reading a magazine? Shoot me first.

cholulalula, thanks so very much for a stellar entrance into this log. I do have a tighter band, which I thought was too short. Turns out I just tried it, and its perfect. Do you mean the monster walks with an x-band walking side-to-side, or back and forth or both? I saw both kinds on youtube when I googled “monster walks” just now. Clamshells are way harder than I thought they were.

So, yeah. Agreed. Time for hip rehab, and if I can kill two problems with one set of artillery, AWESOME!

Last nights training was very late, very rushed and I was very tired.

Did military presses, am repeating the last wave of 5/3/1 and got a rep PR +1 on the money set (53.5# 1 x 7 reps). The rest of the training was less than stellar, but I managed some low weight BBB and some cable hip adductions/abductions.

I am giving my IT band today off and will try the interval training on Saturday.

Time to eat delicious Indian food!

111

[quote]kimbakimba wrote:

Lesson: I can’t ever stop my rehab exercises. Ever. Even if I’m not hurting at the moment. Cause my shit will catch up with me sooner or later.

Work is killing me this week. I’ll check in when next I can steal some moments.[/quote]

Could you please come give a seminar on this subject to patients in my practice? I feel like a broken record when I’m asking about rehab exercises and giving my talk on this subject. Maybe hearing from someone else would be more effective.

Me too! Thankfully I made it to my day off! Yay, and tomorrow is Friday.

Keep your chin up tiny freak ninja!

112

You just need a massage and some pie.

113

[quote]JoeGood wrote:
You just need a massage and some pie.[/quote]

this!

114

Kimba-

The terms Monster walk and clam walk are kind of used interchangeably, as far as my experience goes. I consider monster walks the ones walking forward and back while stepping with your legs in kind of an arc-with the band above the knees(bad description!). Crab walks are the side to side…They work the same thing, so I thinks it’s safe to switch em up or do what you like. Yes, clamshells are tough! I equate them to bowling…a task that looks easy, and pisses the hell out of you when it’s not. At least bowling alleys are considerate enough to offer pitchers of beer to drink away the pain of a bruised ego.

Thank you for the inspiration/motivation. You have been in my head on more than one occasion when I start to wimp out on something-helping me to push through the wall. (a little creepy, no?!) :0 Enjoy the intervals Saturday!

115

Kimba, what cholulalula describes is exactly what is going on with my knee except it’s my ankle pronation causing it. So get to work on that rehab/prehab stuff like the rest of us!

116

pie??

117

Veggie, I’ll come and give the seminar AFTER I’ve put into practice what I preach. There is no reason in the world that every night in front of the TV I can’t (1) foam roll (2) clam (3) monster walk (4) squat with bands (5) leg lift plus do my foot exercises and stretch a bit. The reason? My husband is religious after doing his stretching rehab exercises every single day for the past few years. I just have to get my ass off the couch and join him.

Joe, I like the way you think. Bring enough pie for Edgy and Betty too.

cholulalula, gotcha. I’ve been monster walking with both a tight band above the knees and also with a long band held in an X shape. Both seem to work the same areas. And, I don’t think its creepy getting inspired by the efforts of others. I do the same thing, and I’m not scared to post in the logs of those people that they’ve helped me!

George, rehab/prehab is boring, hard and never-ending. But I guess completing it separates the posers from the folks really and truly busting their humps to improve themselves.

118

I’m all about sharing, pie for all.

119

Kimba: I’m adjusting to a life of rehab too. It’s okay. I really love running and DLing, and I’m willing to pretty much do whatever I have to do to keep being able to do those things. My motivation is high. And I’m hoping it will stay high even when I’m feeling better–that’s the real test I know.

120

I’m feeling like things are looking up in the training department.

Friday night training:

Cable hip ad/abductions
7.5 2 x 12 reps, 3 exercises each leg

Finally the dude MPing the bar in the squat rack gets finished (I mean, not to disparage, but I MP the bar in the squat rack. I weigh 111 lbs, dude weighed 170 or so, WTF?)

Sumo Deadlift
from floor:
95# 1 x 5 <–deficits are still hard for me
115# 1 x 5
135# 1 x 5
155# 1 x 2 <–these looked really nice
belt on:
175# 1 x 1 <–hips flew up first. :frowning:

Sumo Rack Pulls (2 risers)
185# 1 x 2 <–these looked nice
195# 1 x 2 <–felt heavy and slow

I’ve noticed that the first rep always sucks worse than subsequent reps in terms of back rounding. So I am tweaking my setup to slowly get down to the bar and pull it just when I get low enough to get a good grip instead of diving down too low and starting the first rep too low down.

My energy levels were still a bit low from my recent bout with a cold virus, so I did something easy to end.

Dips
7.5 lb. DB between feet 3 x 10

supersetted with

Low Cable Row (2 handed)
70# 3 x 10

Decline sits (max. decline)
10 lb DB held overhead 1 x 10

Today (Saturday) was my first time running since my hurty IT Band got me bounced from the C25K program. I stretched out my hips a bit before starting, warmed up with a 10 minute walk and then did:

1 min walk/1 min. strides (jog, then sprint, then jog) x 10.

Honestly, sprinting is really fun and a great cardio workout which I hadn’t been getting just plodding along. I was concentrating on landing mid-foot and not heel striking, and I think I did a pretty good job of it. That is easier taking small, quick steps during a sprint which is probably why my chiro has me striding. I was definitely feeling it in my glutes and hammies, but NOT in my knee so that was a success.

On the 10 min. walk home, my IT band started to just make itself felt a very little bit. I had a knee strap with me, so I put that on and it seemed to help. I’m not keen on relying upon a strap, since that doesn’t actually fix the cause of the problem, but it could be useful if that’s the only way I can run for longer times pain-free. I’ve stretched now, and everything feels OK. So, for now I’m calling this a good run. YAY!