10 10 10 EDI; 4 mi

After waking up early to run 4 of my 15 @ 9:08 miles, all of which I ran at 9:04, I went back to sleep. That felt good! Then Nancy, Will, Warren, and I went to breakfast before Will and I went to work out. Partner exercises, with a partner! I was supposed to do 7 minutes of work (which I'll probably do on Monday now), but Will said I didn't have to and we did 10 10 10 EDI: 10 seconds of work with a manual hold, 10 times up and down, repeat. 2 sets.

• Lunge: He kept telling me to go up faster but keep the violent stop and both the top and the bottom. Hmmm. And as I would get tired, I had a tendency to let my pelvis come forward, which is bad.
• Will did a 20-second lunge with a 25-lb plate, set the plate down, then did a lunge, Russian lunge, double bounce, Russian lunge, double bounce, repeat, for 10 seconds. 3 sets, same leg. Repeat on other leg.
• Glute ham: We tried to go all the way up--me giving slight assistance with my arms and him pushing me, and I just could not push my self all the way up. I tried 3 times before he said to do them just to arm's length. I've got to get all the way up!
• Will did preacher curl with light bar and 25-lb plates on each side, 20 seconds; right hand altitude drop (holding under the bar with the weight removed, he pulled his hand down to his side then back up as quickly as possible to catch the bar), 10 seconds; left hand altitude drop, 10 seconds; preacher curl; repeat drops, curl, drops (3 total sets).
• Push up: I started on my feet and pushed up most of the first 30. For the second set, I could barely push up half way, and for the last 10 (when I was hardly moving at all), he told me to put my knees down. I did, but was still working just as hard.
• Curl: We used a light bar (5 or so pounds), and I've actually learned to work hard with that little weight (he reminded me of their towel curls again; ew). First set--he said I was getting stronger. Woohoo! I loved that encouragement, especially since I'm usually doing this on my own and can never tell whether I'm improving.

As we were getting ready to leave, I mentioned that my knees had hurt the last time I did 1-leg squats. So he asked if I wanted to do them here, I said yes, and he said OK, 5 minutes of work. Uh-oh! But I knew having him there to tell me what I was doing wrong would be very helpful.

1. It's important to visualize lengthening your muscles. So if you visualize lengthening your quads and hamstrings, you shouldn't feel any pull in your knee because your other muscles are working correctly.
   
2. It's important to squeeze your glutes. All your muscles should be engaged the entire time. I have major trouble remembering this on the glute ham raise, too; on that one, it's critical to squeeze your glutes so that your hamstrings can work correctly and your lower back doesn't try to compensate.
   
3. Don't lean forward or sideways when/if you start getting tired. I had a tendency to do this as well, but I only did it on the right leg out (leaned toward my back [left] knee). When he straightened me out, I stayed there, and I really focused on staying straight on the next leg. I could tell a huge difference when I engaged my glutes--I wasn't as apt to lean forward and my knee didn't really hurt at all except for once when he was trying to make sure my right (front) leg was straight.

Some day I'll get it all right. I suggested he move to Arizona, settle there, and then I can follow him so he can train me 3 days a week. Training in that heat could only help me, right? :-)

I intended to finish my remaining 11 miles at the Y during the afternoon, but my foot has been killing me since Saturday morning. The blister that was there is getting increasingly worse and the front half of the top of my right foot is currently swollen. I'm hoping it's nothing and that it goes away soon; it's making walking very painful, to say nothing of running! Oh, well. 7 minutes of work on Monday, and I'll do it.

I watched a little hockey at night. It was a good game, even though the IceMen lost.

Will (#16) warming up

Warren (#10, light blue) and Will (#16, dark blue) both played great; I love these boys!

I was so proud of Warren and Will's composure throughout the game and at the end when a few fights broke out. True ambassadors for Christ, those two. Bill likes to say they're trying to bring Christ into a godless environment.

Warren and Will are in the back talking about how they weren't up for fighting

Will out-skating the competition. And his line-mates. At least he was on a better line than he had been on.