Phew.

I lack the energy to even come up with a catchy title for this post. :)  Today was a tough Thursday.  Not tough in a bad way, but tough in a grind-my-body-till-it-cracks type of way.  First of all, I started out my day feeling a little beat up from yesterday's run.  I think it was the combination of the steep downhill for the first 5 or 6 miles, the uber cold temperatures and our (faster than normal) pace.  My calves, hamstrings and quads feel tight and sore, but even my joints are feeling it.

As much as I hate to admit it, I also think I've grown a case of the infamous "runner's knee".  My knee has bothered me on and off for the past month or two, and I've been trying to ignore it.  My last couple of long runs, though, it's become more difficult to ignore.  I was actually feeling more pain and discomfort on previous runs, but yesterday's run was a little different.  When we first started our run, and downhill decent, I felt a twinge, but it dissipated after the first mile or so and then my knee didn't bother me much at all for the rest of the run.  When we stopped running, however, my knee started making a clicking/popping noise with every step I took.  It's still doing this today.  It almost feels like there's something catching inside my knee cap whenever I bend and extend my leg.  I'm not thrilled about it because I know that a break from running may be on the near horizon for me.  Next weekend is our half marathon, then after that, if my knee is still doing the same thing, I think I will take a break from running completely for a couple of weeks and see if that helps.  There are so many other ways for me to get in enough cardio, that it would be stupid of me to risk further injury.

In the meantime, I still made it to the gym this morning for my usual workouts.  I started in the weight room, today doing back and chest muscles.  After that, I went to spinning class for an hour, then ended my workouts for the day with the Muscle Fusion X class.  Today's intervals included (but were not limited to) skaters, jump kicks using the step, bench and press, squats, burpees, bicep curls, jumping jacks with jump-ups and floor squats, dead rows, running laps, "football feet" with push-ups  - today's magic number for reps was 32 - and repeat each set - three times.

Yeah, we did these...I think she called them Heisman steps??  So many different moves, it's hard to keep track.

After doing the strength/cardio intervals for 50 minutes, we spent 10-15 minutes on core work.  Needless to say, I'm walking around the house like an old, decrepit lady tonight.  It feels good. :)