Friday, November 26, 2010

As promised–video review and update…

“Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favour.”
Brian Tracy
First a review of the aerobic step I received from CSN Stores. I was very excited when I came home on Tuesday and saw this big package on my doorstep. Not only did they send me my order quickly, they didn’t charge me any shipping fees. Smile

When I spoke of buying the step, a few of you gave me ideas of how you use yours. I loved that…thanks! Therefore, I shall now show my favourite way to use the step and stay in shape for running.

The jumps…

Of course, there are tons of other ways to use this super solid step. Thanks again to CSN for this great opportunity. BTW, the gravelly Lauren Bacall voice is a side-effect of taking so many asthma inhalers…the corticosteroid powder is messing with my vocal cords. Oh and the little dog you see, that's Flocon (Snowflake in English) he's my mom's and I'm keeping him for six months while she's keeping herself warm in Florida this winter.

UPDATE: The piriformis seems to be under control. Iron Mike was right on when he said it seemed to be early onset. If I’m careful, and follow everyone’s advice, I should be okay. My PT was on vacation this week, so I didn’t see him, but I may not need to right away after all. Marcia suggested I do sidesteps with a stretchy rope; Mom Running from Cancer suggests I stretch and use the foam roller; and both Anne and ajh suggested I roll with the tennis ball. I’ve been good about stretching and rolling, the tennis ball really makes a huge difference and the pain is much much diminished. Yay!
 
As for the prednisone, I’m still on it and must take it for another 8 days. However, by next week, things should be back to “normal”. No use dwelling on it too much, at least I know I’ll feel better soon.

One of the things I decided to do is try and work on my speed a little bit. I don’t like to suffer and realized that I may have been holding back, especially on my shorter tempo runs. No need to warn me about overdoing it, I'm doing this with care and caution. So on Tuesday, I had a 4K tempo run to complete and figured I’d try and push it a little more, without looking at my watch, and see if it made a difference. Indeed, I ran at a pace of 9:31m/mile, the fastest I’ve ever run. I was pretty excited. I then repeated the exact same pace on Thursday for another 4K. There is not much that beats that feeling of pride. Although I will not be blogging much, know that if you are interested, I am on Daily Mile and I always enter my runs.

Another cool thing is that my 16 year-old niece has signed up to do the Hypothermic Half with us. So, I'll be doing a few of my long runs with her. I'm really excited and love to tease her about crossing over to the "other side" ;)

Finally, I may have another short post coming up next weekend as I will be a volunteer elf for the Santa Shuffle over here on Mount Royal. Lots of family and friends will be running and it’ll be fun to Pay it Forward this time around. I’m pretty excited about volunteering.

That's it for today, I'm off to complete my workout for today, after a warmup on the bike trainer. Happy belated Thanksgiving to my friends from the U.S.A. and happy running to all.

Cheers!

19 comments:

Marlene said...

Thanks for posting today - bloggy land is QUIET with the US holiday.

Great video! I don't have sound on at work but I enjoyed the demonstration nonetheless. :)

Glad to see that you seem to have nipped the piriformis issue in the bud. Continued health to you!

Have fun volunteering!!

Lily on the Road said...

Oh boy, nothing hurts more than an angry piriformis...glad you were able to nip this before it got any worse.

Have fun at the Santa Shuffle, it is always so much fun to see everyone running with their Santa attire on! Enjoy!! Have a great weekend.

Lisa said...

Have a great time volunteering at the Santa Shuffle. :-)

Kelly said...

Great demo on the step! Have a good time at the Santa Shuffle... hope it's not tooo cold! Do you get to wear an elf costume? :)

Teamarcia said...

So glad the piriformis is calming down! Have a great weekend!

misszippy said...

Nice hardcore workout there! Glad you got your step and glad the pirformis is calming down.

ajh said...

Glad to hear the piriformis is improved! A big yeah! I am still doing well and so happy! I hope it continues!

Char said...

I want to see a picture of you as a volunteer elf. I hope you get to dress up and wear those curly-toed slippers and a bell on your cap.

LMC said...

Glad to hear the piriformis has improved and that you have a running partner for the half! Have a great weekend!

Anne said...

Glad to hear the tennis ball massage is helping. I bet you have a terrific time volunteering. I always do.

Beth said...

Lots of good news! Your piriformis is better and you ran faster than ever before. Nice! Another use for your step is to use is at a bench while lifting free weights. Enjoy your new toy!

Jill said...

That was a great video :). I definitely need more quad work. Good news on the piriformis...mine has nagged me on and off for almost 2 years now, seemes to hate upping the mileage.

ThE MidLiFe CrUiSeR said...

How much you wanna bet you buy a Bosu next? Those are great for working on those explosive movements too. As a former step teacher, just want to say make sure you land softly (like a cat on springs) on the balls of your feet to lessen the impact. You're gonna have so much fun on that step!!!

MomRunningFromCancer said...

Your home gym is certainly getting all sorts of equipment.

Great job on the speed work. Sometimes we do have to push ourselves - just a little extra nudge can certainly make a difference. Way to go.

And that is great news that your neice is also going to run the race with you. It is always fun to have another runner to share the fun with. :-)

Meg said...

The name of that half marathon just cracks me up and scares me at the same time. I have a cold weather phobia right now.
So happy your hip is doing well. I had this issue a few years ago and I still do the same exact stretches for it every single day. Stretching really helps!

Black Knight said...

Glad the piriformis is calming down.
Great news that your niece is going to run a race with you.
I hope you have spent a wonderful week end.

Iron Mike said...

Very cool that your pain in the ass is diminishing. I like that video, too, but yes I was distracted by the puppy.

Blogging or not, I'll be sure to check back in a week and look for that prednisone counter to get back into positive numbers! Also looking forward to long-term results of speedwork. Hope you are feeling well.

Matty B. said...

Anne, it's good to know that prednisone is going okay and should be good going forward. How does it make you feel when you're on it? Have you researched other approaches?

Though I'm experiencing thyroid problems, I really don't want to be on medication. I'm starting back up with my Synthroid; I stopped it because it was making me feel bad but my doctor is telling me that I need to go back on it.

Hope you're doing well!

Adam said...

Eeeesh, take care of that pain in the butt. I know that those can be REALLY crippling if not taken care of.

LOVED the video :)