Knee Injury . . .

I'm sure you read my post last Sunday when I had to stop my long walk at 10km because of pain in my knee. Well it hasn't gotten any better. After limping around for the first part of the week and trying to do personal training on Wed I decided (ok my trainer insisted..lol) that I at least go and see a physiotherapist, so I did on Thursday.  The verdict is he's pretty sure that I have damaged the miniscus.  Not sure how or why but it's injured and he recommends staying off of it for 2 weeks. :-( I need to follow up with my family Dr and have some x-rays or scan done to determine if it's just irritated and pinched or if it's actually tore. Crossing my fingers the 2 weeks rest will be all it needs.  I can continue with upper body and core strength training but only with minimal weight bearing on the injured leg. He recommended using a crutch, well you can imagine how well that went over for me!!! I am trying to walk on it less and let it heal, I am honestly. I maybe stubborn but I know that if I don't let it heal I will be out of training for longer.  I am frustrated and worried that I won't be able to do the half marathon the end of May but I'm not going to give up hope just yet.  This was my facebook post yesterday cause it pretty much sums up how I was feeling  "I knew the road I chose was gonna have a few potholes that might slow me down occassionally but apparently it's under construction and I have to stop and wait for the on coming traffic to get through before I can proceed!!"  

Thank you to friends and family for the words of encouragement you always seem to lift my spirits and that means a lot!! :-) I know it will all work out but it's alittle disheartening when I get into a groove and feel as good as I can with the arthritis and then something non-arthritis stops me in my tracks! :-S   But thankfully I don't stay bummed out for too long and my relentless and persistant personality kick into high gear. (see sometimes being relentless and persistant is a good thing...lol)  So today a took a day to just regroup and get a plan in place and tomorrow I will be back at the gym doing what I can without hurting the knee further. :-)

Have a great weekend!

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Behind on blogging but still workin out and walkin!

It's been awhile since I've been able to get online and do some blogging. It's been a bit of a crazy couple of weeks but I've still been busy with walks and gym workouts. Melissa and I did do our Sunday walk and our last one before Easter Weekend was 17km. It took us about 3hours and 20min and both of us were a bit sore after that one. I ended up taking Mon and Tues after that as rest days just to make sure my body was recovered. We left for vacation just before Easter and so my workouts have consisted of walks along the West coast on Vancouver Island (I could definitely make a habit of walking in places like this, so refreshing and peaceful). Gym workouts have been in hotels and the 8 floors of stairs was a great workout for the legs. Oh and I'm not sure how many stairs I've climbed to the waterslides..lol A few more days and then it will be back to regular gym workouts and walks. Just alittle over a month to the half marathon in Calgary.... Kind of excited and kind of nervous!! I have high expectations for myself for the half marathon. I want to be back at the weight I was when I did Athens (and holy man being on vacation isn't helping that I'm sure..lol) and I want to finish the half in 3.5hours. I've done it before so I hope I can do it again !!!! I am super excited that my teamy Tracy is gonna walk it with me... our trial walk to the full in October!!!!

Okotoks Western Wheel Newspaper Article

Newspaper Article

Slow Week with a Bad Hip ...

So remember my last post where I mentioned I wasn’t sure I would be able to walk the next day after my Friday the 16th workout??? Well I was right !!! I spent all of last weekend on ice and advil (by Sunday it was something a bit stronger than that..lol) Melissa and I did do a short walk Sunday morning but it was a pretty slow one. It wasn’t too bad walking but bending over and sitting were pretty painful. And wouldn’t you know it I ended up with a dam pebble in my shoe on the walk and so on the side of the road Melissa had to take my shoe off, shake out the pebble, put my shoe back on and tie it up. Thanks Melissa!! Monday I ended up in the foothills for a procedure to blast the blood clot that was in my central line preventing them from getting my blood collection done. So finally on Tues I was able to get in and see my chiropractor. What a relief, my hip was out of place and pushing on a nerve. So by Tues night I was back at the gym, my first time since the previous Fri. I did take it pretty slow and only did 3km. Wednesday I was back personal training, still with a bit of caution but feeling pretty good. Not only was I recovering from my hip being out of place but holy man the boxing work out we did last Friday left my upper back and arms alittle sore. :-S But Friday’s workout was good and I was able to do 2 hours at the gym with another 3km and 2000m of rowing. Today I felt pretty good and was at the gym for 2 hours. I did 5.5km and another 2000m of rowing and some core work. So tomorrow back out for our long walk and hoping to do 13km.

Feeling some Success

It's been exactly a month since Motion Fitness in Okotoks donated my gym membership and I started doing personal training.  I did the whole fitness evaluation at the begining and today (a month later) they did it again. It's been a successful month!! :-) I was down a total of 9lbs for the month and my body fat mass went down 10%. My BMI has gone down! :-)  I need the reminders like this that all the hard work I am doing is paying off. I needed to hit my 10lb goal (which I did since I'd lost a bit before I started at the gym. But my aggressive goal of 10lbs a month feels like it could be attainable if I keep up at the gym, my training walks and personal training. Of course it's a happy balance to keep my gibbled body in check..lol!! (which after today's personal training is debatable whether I will be able to walk tomorrow or not! :-S  But I'm super happy with my results after a month and now I am walking 15k on my Sunday walks!!! I only have 72lbs to reach my goal weight for the marathon in October and 25lbs to reach my goal weight for the half marathon in May. :-) Wish me luck!!!

In a groove ...

I finally feel like I'm getting into a good routine with my walking schedule and my personal training at the gym with Kristine.  Yesterday I walked 14.8km and then a more leisurely 2km in the afternoon with the kids to and from the park.  Our morning walk was great Melissa and I were joined by Andrea (one of  my kids' teachers from last year and we christianed her with a 13km walk...lol I really wanted to do 15km and Melissa and Andrea were done at 13 so I continued on to do almost another 2 to make it to 15(well 14.80..lol). Doing 15km outside this Sunday was so much easier than doing 10km on the treadmill like we did last Sunday!! Horaay for nice weather and walking outside.  So I logged a total of 25km this week with walking and rowing!! Great Week!!
Another big accomplishment is I hit the 10lb mark for weight loss. I felt like I've been working and working and only seeing a half pound here and half pound there, but it's all added up to 10lb now.  I am so excited about that, it is great motivation to keep up the hard work because it is paying off. Only 70 more to go! :-)
It has been so awesome to have Melissa as a workout partner, she definietly makes it easier when I have company! :-)
Today is my rest day, well my rest day from the gym and walking, but it's catch up day for groceries and housework..lol

Our team is still looking for businesses and corporations that would like to donate to the Arth-Kickers in support of the Arthritis Society. $1000 donation will get your company logo on our training jerseys and $500 (business or personal) will get your name listed as a "major donator" on our shirts! We are over a quarter of the way there but still need to raise close to $27,000.  Thank you to those that have already donated it is greatly appreciated!! :-)

Have a great week everyone I look forward to logging a few more Km's this week ... gonna try for 30km!! :-)

Cheers