As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I was battling my feet. With collapsed arches, and not necessarily being light as a feather, I occassionally experience pretty severe foot pain. The good new is it is usually temporary and goes away. This time it lasted much longer than normal and I didn't want to rush it. All the training may have caught up with me a little, so the feet said take a break. So on the surface, without having the ability to jog or do much on my feet, it could have been a tough, depressing couple of weeks. However, as I look back, I really made a lot of progress.
Rather than skip workouts, I found myself heading to the gym to weight train and riding the bike. I am doing a circuit workout across 10 different weight lifting exercises.that focus on all aspects of my body (arms, legs, shoulders, chest, back and stomach). I am doing high reps, three sets of each and working back and forth between two exercises at a time. The results in just two weeks have been very good. My strength is picking back up and I am toning in ways my cardio workouts won't accomplish. There is no question that lifting will help me accomplish my overall fitness goals and I very much plan to continue it.
I think in some ways having my feet go out was a blessing. It forced me to find other things to do and showed that a well rounded fitness program cross training different parts of my body can have a positive impact on my mentally and physically. Although I am very excited to be able to resume my running again tomorrow, I will undoubtedly continue to mix my workout up. Whether it be running, lifting, hiking, or riding the bike, it all really seems to work. Variety will keep things interesting and I clearly learned that this week.
I expect great results over the next couple weeks having my feet back and having the ability to do all of my exercises. Wish me luck.