What a pain in the ass.

No. Really.

So I kicked up the cardio a couple of weeks ago. I noticed that I felt allover more stiff the rest of the day for the first few days, then I seemed to acclimate to it. Little bit of heating pad lovin' or whirlpool time after the gym and it would be gone. Mostly. (Side note: ThermaCare patches 1) DO NOT get hot enough and 2) do NOT stick! Don't think just because it's on your butt that your underwear are holding it on. You'll discover, at some point during your 12-hour work day that it has snuck off like a thief in the night, down and out of your pant leg.  I am sure that was amusing to whomever caught a glimpse of the paramedic with the ThermaCare patch sticking out of her pant leg, then to her boot for a few futile steps, finally coming to rest on the floor of some nursing home where, perhaps, it can be recycled - I know my partner and I got a kick out of it when I told her it had just up and disappeared).

But, I digress.

I kick it old school when I lift. Dumbbells. Chest presses. Skull crushers (dontcha love that name? I do them just so I can write Skull Crushers in my workout book. Badass!) Weighted squats and lunges 3 days per week. Decided that said squats and lunges seemed to be getting too easy, so I upped the workout one set and upped the weight by 10lbs. Still not bad. I can knock out 125 weighted squats and 50 weighted lunges while holding 40lbs of dumbbells on my shoulders, and still get an hour of cardio in, take a shower and arrive at work looking mostly human, and on time to boot.

Still doing ok.

However, the other day, after finishing up and walking from the upstairs cardio area, I felt like I was being stabbed in my hip and glute each time I bore weight on my right leg with my knee bent. Going up and down steps was particularly torturous. It went from my glute all the way down to my mid thigh, and the first time I felt it, I was so surprised and weakened by it that I almost fell over. That would have been embarrassing, as I was at the top of a flight of steps at peak time in the gym. I spent the next 4 days going up and down steps like a toddler, keeping the right leg straight and only descending steps on the left leg. It made for interesting times at work, having to actually think before I stepped into and out of my waist-high-entrance ambulance. I had the stabbing pain to remind me if I didn't do it exactly right.

Lots of heating pad, lots of stretching, lots of hot baths, lots of rest, LOTS of ibuprofen. Couple brownies. Little bit better.

What was it? The repetitive motion of my preferred cardio machine? The increased weight? The fact that I switched things up and did stationary bike so I could hang out with my sweetie for the last 20 minutes of my workout? Or was it the fact that I completely disregarded what I'd learned in my month of physical therapy?

Durrrr. I was skipping the warm-up/dynamic stretch part at the beginning, and since I've added it back in, it's made all the difference in the world. I'm still a little stiff, but I can walk up and down steps like a grown up now and after taking Monday off, I'm back into my routine.

I was in such a hurry to start my trip to where I was going that I forgot to warm up the ol' beater and I popped a belt. That'll learn me. Sucks to get old.