Week 4 - Wallowing in Cross Training

My fourth week of "training" did not go so well. 

I started my Monday with my physio appointment to find out that I have done something to the ligaments in my sacral-illial joint.  I may have done this by slipping on ice while running, or by bending down to pick up something.  Lame.  The good news (if there's good news) is that this wasn't caused by having different leg lengths.  Mr. Physio measured.  He also gave me some exercises to try and booked a second appointment for Wednesday.  Oh ya, and the sucky part:  No running until there's no pain.

Tuesday, I spent the day feeling fairly sorry for myself and didn't do anything.

Wednesday, I worked myself up to an hour of yoga and had my second appointment with Mr. Physio.  He gave me some exercises to do and used ultrasound on my upper butt until it stung.

Thursday, I finally made it to the gym for an hour split between the bike and the elliptical, trying to think positively.

Friday, back at the gym for 70 minutes of bike and eliptical and lots of stretching.

Saturday, I just couldn't force myself to do the equivalent of a long run on the elliptical.  I did 30 minutes of core and cleaned the house like a madwoman.  I have to put this energy somewhere!

I had planned to go back to the gym on Sunday, but it was a beautiful day and I just had to be outside.  The BF and I went for a hike in the snow instead.  We were out for about 90 minutes and it was hard work trudging through the snow.  I hope I didn't break any rules by hiking - I certainly wasn't running.

Over the past week I've gone from wanting to give up on this marathon altogether to convincing myself to keep training to switching to a half marathon, to looking for marathons a couple of weeks later, and back and around again and again.

Right now, I've convinced myself that the marathon is still possible.  I missed an entire 10 days of training in July while on a road trip with the BF and didn't do a lick of cross training, so I'm already better off now as I am doing a lot more now than I was then.  Anything is better than nothing!

My plan for this week is lots of stretching and core, some cross country skiing to get outside to balance out the gym time on the elliptical and bike.  I'm hoping to do the equivalent amount of time cross training as I would be running on my training plan.  I also have a physio appointment booked for Friday and since I'm already noticing a difference in the pain I've been feeling, I'm hoping to get the go ahead to start running then.  (Fingers crossed, please).  Oh yeah, and I'm going to get caught up on bloggy world too!