Wednesday, February 3, 2010

A sicky with weak hips.

I felt like I had found a sort of groove for about 2 weeks. I was staying true to my resolution to move, whether it was running, walking or biking. I'd bike in the gym during my lunch break, then come home and try to lift some weights or walk or run. After my last run my shins killed me for about two days. When I mentioned it to the girls at work I was grilled about my running: what speed, how far, what surface was I running on, what incline (since I tread). I'd only done 2 miles at 6 mph and had thought (at the time) that everything felt great. One of the mother hens told me I needed to do some exercises to strengthen my legs and I needed to slow down until I get back into the swing of things. If I start out too fast too soon I could do some damage. So she told me that I needed to start by going 4.5 mph and only do a mile or so. "Are you kidding me? That's not even running." But I listened to her and that night I ran about a mile and a half and felt like I could have run all night. It was awesome. Unfortunately, that was the last time I ran. Family came into town and I got sick and everything physical is on the back burner for now. Boo.

In addition to my weak legs, my hips are really weak. WTF. How did this happen? I'm a young, relatively healthy chica that did several sports in high school and whatnot. Yes, I know that high school was like 10 years ago, but still. I guess now that I've put it that way it isn't difficult to understand why almost 10 years of sedentary behavior might've zapped my strength.

So I work in a clinic that specializes in joint replacements and a coworker and I started doing the hip circuit that some of the patients do and I was unpleasantly surprised to find out that I could barely eke out a few reps of each of the exercises. It certainly gave me new respect for the patients who range from their 40's to their 60's or 70's. We had plans to do the exercises at lunch on certain days but that has gone to crap since we've had lunch meetings and other stuff going on and since I haven't been at work since Monday. Like I said, my other exercising ceased last week when family came into town. We had a wonderful time but the snow outside (we got about 4 inches, which is crazy for The Boro) put a damper on the activities we had planned: hiking and walking on some trails near the house. I'm going to jump back into things full force as soon as I'm feeling better...which I hope is very soon. I don't think I have EVER missed more than one day of work at a time for being sick and now I'm at two and counting. If I don't feel up to going to work tomorrow I'm going to bite the bullet and go to a walk in clinic. If you know me well, you know that I have a stubborn, almost childlike distaste for doctors. I'd rather extinguish a cigarette on my face than go to the doctor. I just hate it.

This afternoon I sent an inquiry to a local gym about their spinning classes. I've always wanted to try it and a friend of mine mentioned she's started doing it again and she's really enjoying it. I'm hoping I am able to try a few classes for free. The gym is pretty close to the house and the group class/spinning schedule offers many different classes that I'd be able to attend either before or after work. I'm kind of excited about it. :) Happy Hump Day.
"If you think you can, or think you can't, you're right."

~Henry Ford