RA Coaching Forum

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Wingz' Journal (Read 593 times)


Future running partner.

    It's good to see you back! I am glad to see you are persistent. I think the key to running injury free, longer is to keep a log of your injuries so you can see how it coincides with your training log, your races and in your case the martial arts training. It helps to narrow down the causes of the injury, so you can prevent the same ones from happening again. This doesn't guarantee you won't get injured again, but you'll be less likely to get injured as quickly. I think this is part of what's interesting about our sport. It's not just no how to train, it's also learning how to train yourself as an individual in a way that you can increase volume/intensity while circumventing risk of injury.
    Wingz


    Professional Noob

      Tom - you're absolutely right that part of the challenge of this sport is the individualization needed in order to get the most out of our training. Big grin I've done 70 days now of streaking at least 1 mile/day, and I will say that it is still agreeing with me. Smile I was having continued problems with my neuroma, and about 4/7 I remembered/ had an idea and switched over to forefoot striking and BAM - the neuroma pain DURING RUNNING went away almost completely. Amazing! (It was the act of rolling over the ball of the foot that was driving me nuts.) I had a little bit more trouble with it, and a week later I switched over to barefoot running on my treadmill. No more neuroma pain while running. Big grin It's not 100% better during other times, but at least I can run! I've gotten other minor aches & pains with the switch, and I'm keeping log of them in the comments on my runs, but I've seen nothing that concerns me so far. I can't even come close to saying that I'd recommend forefoot or barefoot running to others. I tried it out of desperation, and it worked like magic... but my body and my training schedule are what I am dealing with. It's kind of funny - I was planning on doing a trail run this morning (I'm up at night) after a local park opened. I was really looking forward to it! Unfortunately, I've gotten in the habit of running every day on my treadmill - and I ran tonight without thinking / remembering that I needed to save my running for the trail run! Shocked D'oh! I don't think my body wants to do doubles at this point, so I"m saving the trail run for tonight instead, pre-sunset instead of post-sunrise. Heh. I guess this means I definitely have made running a habit!!! I love streaking! Big grin I did a trail run last week, on a 2 mile trail. I've not run 2 miles consecutively for quite a while, and I was a bit concerned, but I didn't need to be. Smile Anyway, about 20 minutes into it (a 30 minute run) something kicked me in the tail and MADE me run fast. I don't know what it was, but all of a sudden I couldn't abide my normal pace and I felt like I NEEDED to run fast... so I did! Shocked Big grin It felt good, wild, and free. Big grin My interpretation is that running short distances every day is really improving my CV system, kind of working behind the scenes. The same pace I've been running on the TM is starting to feel a bit easier - I'm just holding back because I'm worried about injuring my feet/ankles with the new barefoot running. If I am indeed FINALLY seeing some CV improvement, that'd be so cool! I don't have any races scheduled this year - my focus is on training only - so any race I do will be a surprise to us all... but if I'm able to continue to train consistently, I'm going to be VERY curious how fast I'm getting... Big grin

      Roads were made for journeys...


      Future running partner.

        "WE"RE GOING STREAKING THROUGH THE QUAD! WOOHOOO!" Did you see the Barefoot runner's forum?
        Wingz


        Professional Noob

          Yeah, thanks. Smile Also good to read through is www.barefootrunning.org. Lots of good articles there. Big grin Barefooting it's still working. I've had only minor troubles so far. I think it helps that I'm not trying to swap over a large volume of miles to barefoot. Gee, never thought my low mileage would be an advantage!!! Tongue

          Roads were made for journeys...

          Wingz


          Professional Noob

            Just checking in here.  Over the last few weeks, I've been noticing that it's been easier to run the pace that I had been doing... so, of course I started running longer.  And faster.  And then putting a tiny bit of incline on my treadmill.  Quite predictably, I started having some aches that were getting worse.  The inside of my feet were hurting more and more and not letting up - in a difficult-to-describe place and manner.  I've slowed things back down over the last few days and things are settling down again. 

             

            Reminds me of what we tell beginner runners - the cardio-vascular system adapts more quickly than the skeletal.  The small muscles, tendons, etc in my feet and ankles weren't ready for as much as I started asking of them.  Yes, I've been doing almost exclusively barefoot running these last two months.  But they didn't like me increasing speed, distance AND incline at the same time.  Gee, I wonder why! 

             

            Today, I had my first workout with a boxing trainer.  It was really cool, and I think he has a LOT to offer.  Now I have to figure out how to balance his training with the other stuff I'm doing.  I don't want to give up tkd or streaking.

             

            A normal part of a workout with Coach Andre includes a run as part of the warm-up.  2 or 3 miles.  Which is great... except that that represents a long run to me!  I think if I hold off on my regular, daily run and instead expect to run as part of a boxing workout that I can coordinate.  But what do I do when he starts wanting me to do intervals?  This is something I'm just going to have to figure out and coordinate with him.  When the time comes, I guess I'll worry about it then.  Perhaps I can do a mile of easy running as a cool-down after the workout if we're doing running intervals early on...  that would work.

             

            Ufff.... I'm sore already and it's only been an hour since I stopped.  This is going to be good conditioning...

             

            If I survive!

             

            Roads were made for journeys...

            Wingz


            Professional Noob

              Another check-in...

               

              After several months of my feet continuing to hurt from barefooting it too much, I decided to get me a pair of Newton Racers.  The change was almost immediate:  my feet hurt less and my achilles tendons complained.  ROFL!  So, for a good while, I just chose my foot covering (none or Newtons) based on what was hurting that particular day.  That worked well.  My barefoot pains have disappeared, and the Achilles discomfort has been an occasional thing now instead of almost constant.  I'm throwing in the occasional barefoot run now, but am doing most of my running with the Newtons and my body seems to like it.  Smile

               

              Streaking-wise, I've passed the half year mark, but don't feel like I'm in significantly better shape than I was 6 months ago.  I am, however, still running, so that's a plus.  Most recently, I've been running 1 - 2.5 miles per day, every day.  This week I decided that I was never going to get my runs longer if I didn't give myself a kick in the tail, so I decided to add a mini-challenge...

               

              Now, I'm in the first week of trying to make each day's run exactly 0.1 miles longer than the day before.  I started on a 2.0 mile day.  I've gotten through 2.3 so far, and have been already dealing with a bunch of MENTAL resistance, but physically I'm doing fine so far.  My grandest idea for this is to have it continue until I reach 5 mile runs, and then re-evaluate.  I don't know how it's going to actually work out, but that's how I HOPE for it too.  Still streaking, still enjoying the running every day thing.  And hoping that this new challenge will get me to run longer so that I can get faster!

               

              Boxing's been doing great - I LOVE it!!!  Still with the same trainer.  Still stumbling over my feet and feeling like an idiot on a regular basis, but I can also tell that I'm getting better.  And that's all that really matters.  Maybe in a year or so I'll feel ready to try my hands at a real match.  Or maybe not.  We'll see.  Either way, patience is the key to this game, and while that's not exactly my strong suit, Coach has a lot of patience and I'm working on learning from him.  Wink

               

              Oh!  And there's a 5K race next month that I can run in!  I've not raced at all in 2009, and I miss it!  That'd be a nice reward if I can hold myself together long enough for it!

              Roads were made for journeys...

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