19 Weeks to Martian

next week things start to get interesting. Up till then, it's all a matter of building base and maybe doing some strides. things get more intense 4.5 months out... meaning speedwork.

I'm looking forward to it.

this last week was not so great- the holidays took a big chunk out of my schedule, and I couldn't get together the emotional fire to run after work. And I seemed to come down with something after thanksgiving- so 25 miles all together, rather than the 50 I was shooting for.

Oh well. Life goes on.

Breathing

My run earlier today was hijacked.

I wanted to work on strides- essentially, 20 seconds of faster running ramping up to my 5K or mile race pace, with a complete rest inbetween. Five miles easy prior to and three miles easy afterward.

But my body decided to work on breathing instead, and rather than fighting it I tried to learn what I could.

My normal pattern is two steps breath in, two steps breath out. It makes it easier to count strides this way, if I'm doing cadence work. It typically give me all the oxygen I need. And it's simple.

But it's better, I think, to double it- four steps in and four out... makes it a little harder to shoot for 180 steps per minute. It makes me slow down, which is good. It takes concentration, which I need to develop. And lung capacity, which is also kind of good.

But if I can make it work, this training cycle has a lot of potential!

Foam rolling, without the roll

The foam roller, by itself, can be sweet healthy trigger point pain.

My calfs seem to be one part knot to three parts muscle.

I start off with the foam roller. On goes my leg. next goes a nice, big, dense pillow. Then a 30# dumbbell. Finally, my opposite leg.

Then I wait. sometimes the muscle goes into a cramp by itself, sometimes I have to contract it. But when it decides to spasm, I work on stretching it out, and lo and behold the knot feels smaller than it did when I started.

I don't know whether I'm right in what I'm feeling, or if I'm deluding myself, but at the very least it's teaching me to deal with pain, which is always a useful skill.

What I think I might need is a skilled massage therapist who's also part sadist. That might be the way to go...

21 Weeks to Martian

50 miles next week. Long run of 12.5 miles. Begin adding strides into the training.

I want to read all of Daniels' Running Formula, as well as make up a plan for peak of 70 mpw.

I want to continue to practice form, as well as rig up a camera/computer thing to use at the gym with a treadmill. Hopefully I'll be able to make that work.

Things to add in: cross training. stretching. foam roller. cold showers. :)

Good Form Running

So on Monday I was crusing through Run Michigan's calendar wondering what was going on, and found something called Good Form Running class on tuesday. It sounded interesting, so on a whim I signed up and went to it (free is good, too).

It was pretty interesting. I'm not certain I'll be able to incorporate it easilly into my form (form, like any habit, is awfully difficult to change) but I'm pretty sure that it'd be helpful if I were able.

I'll let you know how it goes!
btw, if you want to check it out, it's goodformrunning.com