How Chipper Nettie got her groove back

Latin Dance Class!!

I should start from the beginning. Wednesday is my normal workout with Andrea day, sometimes is varies depending on my schedule but this week it was Monday and Wednesday. Livia is working out with me now and I just LOVE having her there!!! Andrea had a circuit set up for us that concentrated on legs, especially quads. I have been running a lot of hills for months now and my hamstrings are getting very strong, so I thought it would be a good idea to concentrate on my quads. I thought Wednesday would be a good day for it so that my legs will hopefully be recovered before our long run on Sunday.
As always it is a tough workout and I left feeling very quivery! LOL
Wednesday evening the plan was to meet at Michele's house run to the Community Center, take Jane's Latin Dance class, swim and then run back to her house.

The Dance class was AWESOME!!! It was so fun!! Jane is such a fun person and it really shows in this class. It doesn't hurt that she has great natural rythmn. It was a big class probably 20 people and Jane told me afterwards there were a few regulars who weren't there. I really like the fact that it is a great workout but it is low impact which is great for runners since it doesn't hurt your knees or feet. There is a lot of hip shaking going on and that helps loosen the hip flexors which is especially great for me since I always have pain in that area after a run, plus the hip shaking is just plain fun!!! Michele and I laughed a lot and I just felt like a new person when the class was over.

After the dance class we went downstairs changed, got some paddle boards and did laps in the pool, after that we got in the "Arthritis Pool" and hung out and relaxed for a little while. It was getting late and we still had to run back to Michele's house so we had to force ourselves out of the warm water.

As I was putting my running clothes back on I told Michele next time we needed to remember to bring a fresh pair of socks and sports bra. It was pretty warm Wednesday night and my sports bra was soaking wet so you can imagine how gross it was putting it back on!! LOL same goes with the socks.
It had cooled off a little bit while we at the Community Center and the wind was really strong, but otherwise it was a nice run back to Michele's. We took it easy and just tried to enjoy the run... and we did. It was almost 9:00 by the time I got home.. and let me tell you I slept great Wednesday night!

When I woke up Thursday morning my legs were VERY sore!! It was a challenge sitting on the toilet, and my left knee was kind of tender. I e-mailed Brenda to tell her about the Dance class and told her about all of the other activities. She wrote me back that "Coach Brenda" said no speedwork for Annette. She said I should just run a couple of easy miles. I thought that sounded great, especially since at the time I didn't know if I would even be able to run at all! LOL
It was HOT here in Arkansas yesterday and again VERY windy!
Brenda leads the warm-up for the entire Clinic and then we all split into our individual groups. We had a small group last night, Kelly couldn't run because of her knee and I guess others are travelling while the kids are on Spring Break.
We were doing a 1.5 mile warm up, Brenda tried to find out a course that didn't have any hills, so we just did laps around the tennis courts... after about the third one I said to her I think this is uphill... it was just a small incline but it's kind of funny that it is hard to find a flat area to run around here.
My legs felt really heavy during the warm up but better than I had expected. I was still thinking that I was just going to jog around the track while the others did their speed work, but after we did our strides I decided to at least try.... and before you know it I had done the whole thing. It really helped having Michele to run with. Her LT pace is actually a little faster than mine and we ran her paces but that's ok it was good.
The Workout plan was
1.5 mile warm up
4 strides
1x200 at LT pace
3x400 at LT pace
2x200 at LT pace
2 strides
.5 mile cool down
We did a full lap recovery between the 400's and a .5 lap recovery jog between the 200's.
The wind was just killer and definately added a lot of resistance!!! Michele and I did a good job of hitting all of our pace's. We did interval pace on Tuesday so the LT pace felt kind of good.
I was just thrilled that I was able to do the whole workout and I felt a little bit like my old self.
We ended up with 5 miles which was perfect.

Today is a much needed rest day!!