Early July and Knee Pain

I may be great and checking workouts off the calendar, but I've definitely started slacking in my blog posts! When that happens, y'all are supposed to get on my case!

I'm sad to report that I've picked up my first injury of Operation Sweaty Summer, and it just so happens to be my right knee. But I'm not using it as an excuse! Let's catch up on Days 31-34.

Day 31

This was supposed to be another fit test. But since I'd just done a fit test the day before (and the fit tests aren't different month to month), I opted for a routine instead.

Felt pretty slow with this one. I don't know why, it's not a new routine. These numbers are all lower than what I expected. Felt like I didn't start month 2 on the best foot. But I started! And there's no turning back. I push through, paid special attention to my form, and tried to hold the negatives a little longer. By negatives, I mean the part of the move where the muscle is in tension.

I can't pinpoint the day I hurt my knee, but I was feeling it twinge here.

Day 32 - Bringing Sexy Back

Here was a new routine. I thought I'd have the most trouble with the "star single toe touch abs" bit, but that turned out my best numbers! I woke up late, and was putting this off all day. Didn't hit the garage until late afternoon/early evening.

I tend to perform better in the morning (and on an empty stomach), who knew? Anyone know why that is? A friend of mine told me we're better in the mornings because our bodies don't know what we're doing to it yet. Ha!

Day 33

By today, I was really feeling the knee pain. This was marked as an active rest day. And while I didn't do anything to get my heart pumping, I did about 30 minutes of knee stretches, trying to keep the pressure off my right knee. I did these stretches just before bed. Once I was done, I wrapped my knee and slept with it propped up on pillows.

Day 34

Today was the 5K. I ended up not registering for the official one, but managed to drag Madi with me to the trail to do our own 5K. Knee felt fine the entire 3.1 miles. But it still hurts to do lunges, squats, and modified push ups.

Any advice on things I can do to get rid of this nagging pain? I've been trying to be more conscious of how I rest my knee when I'm sitting, but I don't think that's helping. Could it just be that the joint is overworked? I have been doing lots of lower body work and fatigue isn't a big stretch.

I'm going to try and focus on upper body and light walking the rest of the week in the hopes that gives my knee some more rest time.