After four solid weeks of training, things are starting to come together and flow very well. The only road bumps I have been struggling with, is the RUN. The track workouts are hard but I complete them to the fullest and feel great afterward. It has been the long steady runs that are really tearing me down. No matter if it is a 1 or 2.5 hour run, they all seem to set me back a bit. How am I going to keep this up?
I used to run track in high school, back in the 90’s, but only short sprints. I also played competitive tennis in high school as well. Both sports with a lot of running involved, I would run several miles a day, but pieced together with all small sprints. But nothing with any real distance behind it. Since I have been married, coming up on ten years, and decided to stick with cycling as my sport of choose. Running has not even been apart of my life in any way shape or form. I would always joke that the only thing that would get me running are the cops. And since I am a model citizen, I have never had to pick the pace up.
The next thing I have going for me is EXTREMLY flat feet and a curved lower spine. Both make my but tics and hamstrings very tight. I have to stretch several times a day to maintain my flexibility in those reigns. I really work on my core and lower back strength, but anyone will tell you that it is the last workout you want to do on a regular basis. These two things bring a lot of pain to my joints when pounding out the miles, all the way from the ankles, knees to the hips. So this involves me taking many preventive measures, from KT tape, custom insoles to buying several pairs of Super Feet.
So, tired of running and suffering by myself, I asked someone to join me. Kelly at work is the Sugar Cycles tri team captain and a ex marine (or once a marine always a marine, I don’t know). Kelly and I made plans to run in the morning before the park got to humid and crowded. I guess we have to wake up a lot earlier then 8am on Sunday to beat both of those. We planned to run an easy 1 hour at heart rate 1 to 2. Right off the bat my joints started killing me, I pushed through it on the first mile and it started to get a little better. My cardio the entire run was great, cycling has really built my lungs up.
When we completed 1 loop which is 3 miles I was ready to quite. But my plan back fired on me inviting someone, Kelly made me keep going. The entire time she would talk to me, coaching me on my stride. She told me things that helped her to focus on getting the workout done, songs to sing to yourself to help your pacing. Kelly runs with a Garmin 310XT forerunner, which helped out in a large way. It gave me goals and the info I needed to keep the pace where I need to be. I have already order one for myself and can’t wait to start tracking my data. Kelly was a huge help that Sunday and while I wanted to kill her during the run, after I got home and showered. I was the happiest I had been with any of my runs to date.
I really need to find what drives me on the run. Setting attainable goals, singing that song (in my head of course), tracking data and improving on it. This is nothing new to me, I think I have been wrapped up in cycling for so long and I have shut every thing else out. That I am really starting from square one with swimming and running. I have the fitness, now it is just dialing in that technique on both of them. And with friends like Kelly it should start getting a lot closer to happening.
