I stretched out my physical therapy as long as I could because I love the weekly tune-ups. I had my last session this week and got one final treatment before the GW Parkway Classic. My physical therapist is about to go out on maternity leave, which means I’ll have to get by on my own for a while.
I hope she doesn’t stay out too long, in case I need her help to get through my fall half marathon training.
Graduating From Physical Therapy
Even after months of physical therapy, my glutes are still weak. I think the 15-30 minutes a week I spend doing physical therapy exercises are no match for the 8-10 hours a day I spend sitting at work. My physical therapist told me the exercises listed above are the most effective for targeting glutes and getting them to fire appropriately.
She also wants me to keep doing a few of my basic exercises (at least the lateral step-downs, prone alternating leg lifts, mule kicks and bird dogs) and stretches once or twice a week. Finally, she suggested I do a dynamic warm-up with a few rounds of an “around the world” lunge matrix (front-side-rear lunges) and leg swings before my runs. This five minute dynamic lunge matrix warm-up would cover it.
Weekly Run Down
My focus of the week was to not do too much ahead of the GWPC. Ironically, I ended up running more than usual, thinking that I needed to get used to our suddenly warm and humid weather. I did choose flat routes to spare my legs, but couldn’t stay away from Brandon’s Orange Theory Class on Friday.
Monday: Strength Workout
Tuesday: 5 Miles
Now that the Cherry Blossoms have come and gone, I had the Tidal Basin to myself. It’s still gorgeous, people!
Wednesday: Cyclebar
For some reason my legs were flying! I usually end up in the top 1/3 of the class, but have never made the top 3!
Thursday: 4.75 Miles
According to Wikipedia, the perimeter of the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial is 0.83 miles, which means if you run a lap on the sidewalks, it will be about 1 mile. I made it a bit longer by running around the WW II Memorial at the far end, which made one lap about 1.3 miles.
A nicer view than the track!
Friday: Orange Theory Fitness
I made an exception to my “take it easy” plan to get to Orange Theory, since I will miss it next week due to a business trip. The rowing block had short distances (200M or 300M) alternating with squat jacks or pulse squats. The most challenging move of the floor block was push-ups with one hand on a medicine ball. We did sets of 10 (5 on each side) and each round I could barely eke out the last reps.
The treadmill block started out easy, but ended with “7 minutes for distance.” I managed to hold 7.5 mph for 4 of those minutes, but as my HR climbed into the red zone (supposedly 94% of max) I dialed it back for a minute and then pushed harder again for the last two minutes. It was like the tempo runs that I never do.
Saturday: REST DAY
It was really hard mentally, but I made myself take a rest day ahead of the GWPC. Instead of a long run or bike ride, I spent an hour wandering aimlessly through shopping at the Garden Center of at Home Depot, and did my annual two hours of gardening, potting a few herbs and filling our patio planters.
Mrs. Frog oversees the potted herbs.
Sunday: GW Parkway Classic 10 Miler — recap to follow!
Thanks to Deborah and Kim for hosting the Weekly Run Down link up for recapping our workouts and staying accountable and motivated. 
Do you take rest days before a race?
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We should all do those exercises–they keep our hips happy!
Congrats on your speedy race!
We all should, but how many of us do when we’re not injured?! Therein lies the problem. 😉
I hate physical therapy and dreaded every session. ha ha glad that you found yours so helpful. Hope you had a great race day today can’t wait to hear all about it
That’s crazy! I loved my PT – coincidentally, she’s in our multisport group. 😉
That is a super helpful list of exercises…I’m glad you had such great luck with your PT! Hopefully no need to ‘miss” her while she’s on maternity leave 🙂
If I keep up with the exercises — and foam rolling — I’d probably be OK. Why is that so hard?
It’s great when you find a PT that’s really helpful – hopefully you will not miss her! Looking forward to hearing more about your race!
She was amazing, And so nice!
1-handed push-ups…on a med ball????? Glad you can do them, because I’m pretty sure I’d be rolling all over the place LOL I need to do some work on my glute strength, and making them fire when called on to do so…but I hate lunges because I had such a tough time balancing. I guess that’s a sign that the lunges are really where I should focus my work, huh. Ugh. 😉 Thanks for linking with us!!
One hand on the floor, one hand on the ball. It’s still hard. 😉
My treadmill video showed that my feet cross the center line – which makes me feel like I’m off-balance. Lunges and all the other stuff should help.
COngrats on graduation. We have a number of the same exercises. Interesting though, my PT called them Russian Dead Lifts.
This weather, so weird
Would love to run laps of the Lincoln & WW2 memorials
Come down to DC – I’ll take you around. 😉
I want to. I need to come down at a different time of year as Cherry Blossoms was too crowded and early March was a little too chilly. Maybe fall?
Graduating from PT always feel like such a great accomplishment, but it definitely worried me. Like you, I really liked the weekly tune up and also getting the workout routine from the therapist. It’s scary to do it solo!
Congrats on a great week of workouts and another race this weekend!
Thanks. It was a great week weatherwise- except for the pollen!
I love how you measured Thursday’s run! A real life math problem! This would be a great problem for my middle school students to figure out.
Oh, yes! You can get the exact measurement from the Wikipedia page. It would be great for them to figure out which “lane” of the sidewalk you should use to make it one mile. 🙂
Those are a LOT of exercises you do for PT! Your hips and glutes must be so strong. I will have to give some of them a try. Nice run around the Lincoln Memorial. It must be so much fun to be able to run around DC on a regular basis. I will look for your race recap!
The exercises do make a whole workout, especially when I alternate with upper body. But they don’t require a lot of sets.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who spends 8-10 hours sitting at work! I really envy my husband who spends a lot more time on his feet. Thanks so much for sharing those glute exercises – I desperately need them. Can’t wait to read your race recap!
Congrats on your graduation. Hopefully you can keep everything in check. Running around DC looks so gorgeous. You are so lucky!
How funny – you had one-handed pushups and I had one-handed burpees. Although, I was probably less amused by it LOL!
I love that you can just run laps around the Reflecting Pool. How beautiful and inspiring. There’s just something about city running that I love.
I need to look up your exercises and maybe take them over. I have PT now (been twice) but it’s so random. I want a plan, a program, something ! I feel like I’m wandering aimlessly through life right now like you were doing in the Garden Center! ha!
I do usually take rest days before a race, but not always! it just depends!
I took two rest days before my marathon, but I also ended up running a 5K as a shakeout run the day before my race. It was really more of a fun party, so I don’t think it messed with my marathon at all. I have failed with my PT glute exercises 🙁 Fallen off the wagon. I will be back at it next week. I really need it!!