"The run that never was"

Due to a few complexities at work I ended up getting off and hour early yesterday. This fact put me into the scenario of "hmm, I was expecting to not have enough time to go to the gym before school so I was going to run at the lake but now I do have enough time which shall I choose.
If you read my post from yesterday I was apprehensive about running. My achilles are not fully healed and my knee.. well IT Band issues like the hang around. So I made the choice of the gym. I figured it may be a blessing in disguise. Yes I could run but one push off too hard and I could be back to square one with my achilles.
In my mind I figured since I had extra time I could push a little harder at the gym than normal. So I made the goal of 1 hour straight on the stair climber, level 14. Then follow that up with 10 min. on the bike. Both of these I did. I managed 4 min. total running time on the climber. This was a first when staying on for an hour. Normally do 40 min. with 2 min. run time. I was pretty wobbly when I got off. My legs were still fatigued from the work out that morning. I am finding that I enjoy exercising my legs when fatigued. I mean it's not fun but it's good for progress. I feel bad while doing it but a good bad.
So this morning I was exhausted from getting about 4 hours sleep last night. Got home late from school. Then could not sleep. When 5am rolled around I just committed to going because number one i was already up. Number two it was Friday. Figured I could suck it up for another day then hopefully sleep well and long tonight.
Today's morning workout included 25 fairly easy minutes on the bike then what turned out to be a really good core workout. I just sort of flow while at the gym. Picking and choosing intuitively what I think my body needs. Today was no different. I did incline bench sit ups,pull downs,side leg raises,standing side bends holding 65 pound weights. Also eek'd in a few machine exercises for the lats. All and all I felt good. Tired but good.
So tonight I will do 50 hard minutes at the gym. I don't have any more time than that before I need to be home. I plan on doing a solid 30 min. on the climber on level 15 then as fast as I can go on the bike for 20 minutes. My legs are a bit sore today from the pile of this weeks work outs but no injuries. I did have a smallish tweak deep inside my lower back from doing heavy squats but it has since gone away.
I look forward to seeing how my mix of cardio and strength training will translate to running. How fit will I be?
Hopefully tomorrow while at the gym I can take some pics and video of a few things that are part of my routine. I am hoping Derek can come down next Saturday for a nice hike and a marathon session at the gym. Will be good to both see him again in person but also to have a good friend to do my routine with.
Happy Friday Everyone,
Jess