Future running partner.
Professional Noob
Roads were made for journeys...
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!
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.
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.
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!