Week Decompress Workout

Friday is here and I could not be more excited for the weekend. I felt like I have been nonstop all week and am finally getting to de-compress from it all! 

IT-Band update

I went and saw a doctor Tuesday about my knee and after waiting 35 minutes past my appointment time in the waiting room (thank goodness for USweekly and People), I was told what I pretty much knew....a weak IT band. She has me going to meet with a physical therapist Tuesday, but told me that why my IT band was so sore was that it was having to do more work than it should due to weak muscles elsewhere. I see lots of squats and quad workouts in my future! 

Good news is that she did think I'll be able to do my half in 2 weeks but I need to take it easy and really work on my IT band until then. She also suggested I use a knee band/brace during the run for compression on the IT band. 

Workout

I've been able to squeeze in a few little runs this week (like 2 miles and that was pushing it for time) and had planned on going running today but it was a lot warmer out than I expected and all I wanted was AC! I did 20 minutes on the elliptical to warm out, following with some leg exercises of:

Squats on the smith machine 

leg extensions

leg curls

side leg raises with resistance bands

and....

FOAM ROLLING!!!

Peanut Butter Fingers (seriously, check out her blog, she's my inspiration!) posted a workout the other day that I wanted a try and it was a great way to finish my workout! Even though it says Biceps, you also work other areas as well. 

Setting my alarm for in the am only means one thing....race day! I'm doing a Run For Autism 5k that my old work place (Virginia Institute of Autism) puts on every year! I did it 2 years ago (a week before I got the job offer) but had to miss it last year due to having another race the same day. I'm looking forward to seeing familiar faces and running for a great cause :)