I hate to admit this, but I actually pulled a lower abdomen muscle on Monday when sneezing. Yes; sneezing. This getting old is growing old.

What does that mean for me? It means that I had to take a break from exercising this week. All my weightlifting is with free weights which require a lot of core strength, and the abdomen is the base of that core and I couldn’t risk continuing to injure it so close to an ACFT. So, I did something I am not so good at; I took some extra time off from exercising to let it heal.

I’m happy to say that as of this morning (Saturday), the pain is all but gone. That means on Monday, I can start back up with my StrongLifts 5×5 and my running.

I know the de-load is going to psychologically be a bummer, and I also know that my run time will be atrocious. But, I will be happy to be back out there and making progress again. I like how I feel AFTER my workouts, although truth be told, I actually enjoy weightlifting. Running? Not so much. I’d rather be riding my mountain bikes, but the Army doesn’t care about that; they want me to run, so I will run.