Monday accomplished.

Today is a holiday for many but not for me.  My morning workout:

Warmup Hip Stretch
30 min on the Elliptical - Interval workout
Alternate 2 min 1 resistance 4 slope; 2 min 7 resistance 8 slope
5 min cooldown
2 sets of 10 on each leg Strengthening Hip Abduction
1 set 10 Bridges
Cooldown Leg Stretches with Strap
5 min stretch

This all takes about 50 minutes right now.  I'm assuming it isn't going to get much shorter.  In fact, it will probably get longer as my endurance goes up on the elliptical machine and the physical therapist adds more at home exercises to my list of things to do.  During this workout I really pushed it during the high slope/resistance minutes and attempted to let my body recover a little during the lower slope/resistance minutes.  Over all I maintained the 100+ strides per minute during the 30 minutes that I decided to aim for.  Holding onto the machine for support was actually needed more when I was going slower.  I'd love to keep up the intensity the whole time, but my heart doesn't quite seem ready for that yet.

I'm still sad to not be doing the Couch to 5K program anymore, but I'm proud of myself for being an adult and getting back into PT to get this problem taken care of.  There's nothing showy about PT or working out for weight loss.  I guess there will be something showy (skinny me) when I succeed, but in the meantime I'm feeling like I'm trudging a bit.  I want to come up with a new goal, but I'm not sure what to focus on.  The number of workouts per week?  The strides per minute?  Pounds lost?  None of these are exciting me.

For now, I still have a 5K to complete without dying on February 11th.  I'm going to keep that as my goal and try not to be so hard on myself for not running it.  Even walking 3+ miles with my leg issues is an accomplishment to be proud of.  Time to quiet my inner overachiever and revel in my success.  Plus it buys me time to come up with my next goal.