Hello again everybody and Happy Monday. This morning I spent an hour at the Y working on strength training, including my calves.
I do foot and ankle exercises for running because I find it incredibly useful. If you're into running, you most definitely need to strength train at least once a week. My philosophy is light workouts with lots of low weight reps. I never train to the point where I can't manage to run the next day.
My long term goal is to arrive at the marathon starting line in Cincy as fresh and fit as possible. I'm trying not to succumb to the temptation of high weekly mileage. I find that running 5-10 miles per week and then running a race every weekend is about right for my level of fitness. This keeps me on a maintenance schedule so that once or twice a year I can strive for a peak performance at a marathon or an ultra. I use races, like the triathlon coming up this weekend, as my high intensity training.
I am also learning to listen to my body. There's no better way to find out what's appropriate for you. My weekday exercises are time-outs from stress, both physical and mental. Weekend races will take care of that. But while training, I dial my body to "comfortable" and forget about pain and shortness of breath. And finally, the best training is specific to the muscles you use in the specific event. Your calves, for example, are involved in all three events of the triathlon: swimming, biking, and running. So it pays to take good care of them.
At last Saturday's 5K in Durham, I waited at the finish line until the last runners had finished the race. These ladies finished in just over an hour.
Talk about perseverance. When I think of their effort I realize that every finisher warrants applause, especially those farthest back. Not a single one of us in that race did less than our best. We were all winners.
As for this weekend's race, I'm feeling relatively strong all things considered. I still have a lot of fitness that I need to improve but, overall, for not having raced all last year I'm actually pretty happy with how today's workout went. It was a blast. I gotta say a shout out to the local YMCA that does an excellent job of cleaning the equipment and keeping everybody safe. Looking forward to racing this weekend and seeing what's next for me. I have a lot of work that I need to keep doing. Thanks to everyone who follows along on this journey.