Bursitis of the Knee

Yes I finally got off my butt and went to the physio. My left knee is a bit swollen and has some fluid build up from a case of Bursitis (Wherever the bones, tendons and ligaments move against each other, particularly near joints, small fluid-filled sacs called bursae cushion the points of contact) As my knee cap isn't running properly along putting extra pressure comes swelling.

So both knees are strapped, my right knee isn't as bad as the left but has some swelling and is tender. I am to rest my knee for the next month, strapping every two days and treatment once a week with myself doing strength exercises everyday. So no aerobic or pump classes for me, just gentle walking, swimming and stretches. I can still do upper body weights which will be good to focus on. Sat last night with the peas on the knee.... gosh has been over 15yrs since I have had to do that. But I am glad I haven't done any major damage, just need to be careful from now on and no more running!!

Last Fitness Test for Bootcamp

Today was the last fitness test for BC. We did our usual warm up which was a good run around the Bondi Pavillion with stretches. Straight into our fitness test... scores are:-

60 Second Tests
Push Ups
20 full leg/25 knee

Sit Ups
50

2km Run... did about 1km in 5mins... in the pissing down rain, was soaked... which was nice and I didn't mind that it was my damn stupid KNEE playing up..... arrghhhh so frustrating, I really wanted to get my time under 10mins for the run.

Knee has been playing up since the second month started, I have been resting it but really need to get it worked on properly now that I have stopped Bootcamp (well Friday is last day). I have physio appt tomorrow night so will suss out then what needs to be done.

Fitness Study

Another goal I have signed up to achieve is Certificate III with FIA - Fitness/Gym Instructor. I commence the Strand 2 of the Certificate on 17th & 18th June and then have 16 weeks to complete the assessment. Once I have passed that I do the First Aid Certificate and hopefully by October 2006 I will be a fully qualified Fitness Instructor, complete with registration and insurance.

Last Week Bootcamp - Month 2

Firstly I would just like to mention that the second month has been much harder than the first. I think there are two reasons why:

1. Sunshine no gorgeous sunrises on the beach until way after 6:30am
2. Old knee injuries played up big time last week, missing my first session of bootcamp

I am looking forward to the last week of bootcamp. The session this morning was a great exercise working both strength and cardio down at Clovelly Beach. Lots of running, sit ups, lunges, push ups, tricep dips and the plank. It defnitely was a good warm up for the fitness test on Wednesday. I am hoping to knock some more time off my 2km run... under 10mins would be ideal and a fantastic goal for me to achieve.

:0)

Another Year Older Today!

Well it is official I am now in my 30's after turning the ripe young age of 32 today. Let's just say that I am feeling older and wiser but defnitely not going to let it dampen my good mood (even if I have woken up with a sore throat/cold thing). A few drinkies tonight should sort that out.

Only managed to get to Bootcamp once this week, Monday I got up at 5am and my knees were still so sore from Friday's running from Bondi to Tamarama, up and down stairs. My knees are still tender and I think my patella is out of place (damn strong leg muscles)! Wednesday's training was good strength work, the warm up was good for me as it hurts to run, I don't know how I am going to go with the fitness test next week for the 2km run. I will hopefully get some rest on the weekend and see how Monday goes.
Friday it is at Queens Park which involves lots of running/sprints and plus I am out tonight having a few drinks, think I need to rest up tomorrow. I have booked in for some pampering tomorrow on my day off work... an hour floatation tank and then reflexology, bliss bliss bliss. To reward myself for all the hard work I have been doing :)

Weight Training

Started training today with Lorna at Bondi Platinum. 8am start and was great to get back into proper free weights in the gym. Started off with squats and I was warmed up with the bar (20kilos) and then managed to get an extra 10kgs on each side of the bar, not bad considering I haven't done that kind of weight for about 8 years. Lorna has done alot of hypertrophy work where as my muscles have been in the atrophy phase. Deadlifts after squats which was hard but I managed to get 5kgs on each side, pretty good 30kg for deadlifts (i think in pump I do 10kilos) and the legs and back were feeling it gooood! We then did leg extensions, I have been so lazy with this exercise so I managed to do 42.5kgs for the first 15reps and then 35kgs for the next 10-15. I had forgotten that pain and the pain threshold - the lactic acid I could feel it in my legs ahhhhhh. Then we did some chin ups, after me explaining to Lorna that I have never lifted my body weight - but she spotted me and I managed to do 3 sets of 5 oh my god it was goood, she assisted by pushing my feet up which was great and I could really feel it. We still had some time spare so we decided to do some rowing and lat pull downs... just to totally torture ourselves. Really looking forward to continuing with the weight training and Lorna is great to push me and ensure that I get those last reps in.

Week Five, Day Two

Training on the soft sand this morning at Bondi Beach. We started off with small running exercises that turned into sprints, lunges and squat jumps, after Kurt put us through that we were off with Jayne who gave us the "rope drill" running down the beach in our team pulling the rope along, with the last person running to the front and keeping the rope from hanging on the ground. Defnitely works the legs and I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. We received a penalty due to the rope touching the ground... We then were with Andrew for more sprints, one person chooses a number between 1-10 and that is how many cones/witches hats we had to sprint around. The goal is to beat the person who chose the number... if we do they have to do pushups/situps/squat jumps... I won a few of the sprint races (am sure Rachel let me win one of them)! Not bad considering Debs and I are the oldest in our group (most of them are 20!)
So all is good for 2nd Month and looking forward to the next three weeks.

Orbit Bar, Birthday Lunch & Mardi Gras meets Bootcamp

So I had a few social engagements on this weekend. Obviously when I agreed to attend them all I was under the impression that Friday was my last day at Bootcamp and I could maybe have a little relax and a drink or two. 5am this morning (Monday) the alarm jolting me from my sleep and I realised that all the cocktails, wines and bourbons I had on the weekend were going to hurt more now than the hangover I woke with yesterday morning.

This morning it was great not to be a "new" recruit at Bootcamp. As the groups came together I recognised the look of fear on the new peoples faces, that priceless look of "what have I got myself in for?"! And a few of us were worried they might be faster or stronger than us.... time would tell. The rest of us who had returned went off and trained as one group whilst the newies did the fitness test. So we ran from Bronte to Tamarama and our instructor Jayne made sure we ran up ALL the staircases that were on the way(including the ones OFF the path for those of you who know the area), plus the finale staircase at Tamarama beach (it is a killer, bigger than the one at Coogee on Friday) so the legs were shaking a bit at the end of today's session!! Of course in between our running we had breaks where we did squats, lunges, push ups and sit ups.

So back on track this week, have a busy gym schedule ahead of me and I am hoping to get my first publish in my new motivation 06 blog. Have a great week.

Bootcamp Feb Results

Bravo Team Feb 06 Results

Day One
60second Tests

Push-Ups (full leg/knee) 9/25
Situps (wrist to knee) 34
Bridge (3mins maximum) 0.55seconds
2km Run 12.21mins

Day Eleven
60second Tests

Push-Ups (full leg/knee) 11/31
Situps (wrist to knee) 40
Bridge (3mins maximum) 1min50seconds
2km Run 10.40mins

Guess who has signed up for March Bootcamp!! Yeap I need to do more, it is addictive and I feel like I am only warming up!

Final Week Bootcamp

Cannot believe it is my last week at Bootcamp, just when I am starting to make progress!! We had our fitness test today and I wanted to knock a few minutes off my time for the 2km run, which I did, yay for me. My first time (3 weeks ago) was 12mins20seconds (I know slowly goes the snail) and today did it in 10mins40seconds. Most people know running isn't my thing so I am very happy with that result.

We also did the push up/sit ups test. Today I did 11 full leg pushups and 33 knee push ups in 60seconds.. I think from memory my first test I did 9 full leg and 26 knee pushups.. so an improvement there. Sit ups I managed to only do 39 in 60seconds... not happy with that result but I can improve on that.. I cannot remember the first test result for the situps...we will find out on Friday. (Note: situps are full BFA ones, full sit up with wrists to the knee) try them!!

So looking forward to Friday, not sure what challenges they have in store for us being the last day, we are at Coogee, will feedback on that later on Friday.