Freezing up a storm
The first day back from vacation and the sun finally came out…I may have to take another one soon!
I spent the last week of my vacation nursing some kind of shoulder/neck issue, and wouldn’t you know it, today it is all gone…grrr. Despite being slightly injured, I did manage to take in a few classes with other instructors, but was called out by one of the participants for only using 2lb weights! What is up with that?
Just because I couldn’t turn my head, my vacation didn’t need to be a complete wash, I did the Grouse Grind, I lunched with girlfriends, went to no fun Lilith Fair (I did manage to have some fun), you can’t tell now but I did weed my garden and I shopped.
Today, I am back at‘er with a vengeance… I was in the Studio this morning and will be kicking some serious ass tonight at the Lake, muhaha. I have also been busy in the kitchen this afternoon, I made freezer jam! I am far from Suzy Homemaker, I don’t sew or iron, but I do love to cook (not a fabulous baker, but I do make mean shortbread cookies). Not trying to toot my own horn, but I did receive the Home Economics Academic Award in grade 11 and in grade 12! I know that freezer jam does not require any cooking, it does however require a fair amount of dishes and utensils and a lot of stirring! Three minutes (times 2, I made 2 batches) is a long time to stir, June Cleaver must have had pipes of steel! Freezer jam also requires a lot of freaking sugar! No wonder my daughter will only eat my jam. Thank goodness I don’t have to put a nutrition facts table on the side of the jars, yikes. I choose to look for the positives, the strawberries were frozen fresh and the jam was made with a whole lotta love!
Can you lose your gazelle like running stride as quickly as you lose your golf swing?
Before mortgage, marriage and baby I loved to golf. I didn’t do it well, but man did I ever want to do it well. But during a trip to Arizona and hacking up some of the most pristine courses there, a friend suggested that I take a few lessons (he actually gently suggested but English was his second language so the gentle part got lost in translation). Slightly embarrassed but encouraged because he saw some potential, my search for an instructor would start as soon as I returned home.
Not wanting to run into anyone that I knew (I don’t know why I was so secretive about it at first) I found a nice golf course that I had never golfed at, and decided that this would be the perfect place to perfect my craft. I booked my first lesson that week with one of the resident pro’s, Tom. Uncle Tom as I liked to call him (not to his face of course) was what you would imagine a golf pro to be, early 50’s, handsome, tanned (although I am sure that it ended below his socks, above his knees and his shirt sleeve line) and smooooooth, I would refer to him now as a silver fox. I met with Uncle Tom several times a week for a few months, we worked mostly with my 7 iron and would only let me bring out my driver now and again, but I was really hitting the ball, and hitting it straight. Uncle Tom encouraged me to practice as much as I could which I did, it’s always fun doing something that you do well, that was until I decided that it would be a good stress relief to blow off some steam and hit a bucket of balls. It didn’t take long, before I finished the bucket my swing was gone, and I sucked all over again. I lost interest with golf soon after that, and then life with responsibility took over and my dream of being on the tour died a short painful death.
I do try to get out once in a while now and on occasions I see glimmers of that fantastic swing, I even took a couple of lessons at a driving range near my home with a few ladies not so long ago, but I couldn’t take the instructor seriously because he wore skater shoes (I know that I shouldn’t get that caught up on the outfit, maybe he taught skateboarding too) and he broke the timing of our swing down into the word mar-garita.
So what does all this have to do with running? My question is, can you lose your gazelle like running stride as quickly as you lose your LPGA (or PGA) golf swing?
Lately I have been feeling super strong, my running has felt fantastic, the tweak that I had behind my knee that in March has resolved itself, even my feet have been relatively pain free. I have run 4 out of the last 6 days, not huge distances, all road, 3 out of the 4 days the same route, and for the last 2 days my runs have literally gone down the tubes, my body is hurting and feel like a slug. Today I ran the same route as yesterday and ran it a minute slower, and my time from yesterday was slower than normal. I have gone through my mental checklist
- Runners are in decent shape
- I am fueled as well as hydrated
- I am well rested; I have not stayed awake solving the world’s problems for over a week.
- I am not over training in other areas, in fact my workout schedule has been fairly light (for me) for the past week.
I was away for the long weekend, and although I did live a little larger than normal it should not interfered with my running. The only thing that I have changed in my diet over the last few days is adding almond butter to my morning toast.
Are these aches and pains psychosomatic because of my race coming up on Sunday, am I teetering on the edge of an injury, or have I just had one of those days two days in a row? The drama.
I was complaining about my crappy run earlier today in cyberspace and was reminded by a fellow runner that “any run…is a good run! From someone who can’t run at the moment.” So for now I am going with my last scenario…I am going to break the cycle and think positively, I am going to take a break from running for the next few days and rest my legs, I have a massage scheduled for later this week, but in the meantime I am going to put my feet up and have a nap this afternoon, maybe finish my non-fitness/health book and definitely not panic.
Pool Running Can Be a Great Recovery Workout
Tom Henderson
The Detroit News
Nina Bovio, a highly competitive runner from Brighton with 72 marathons under her belt, has been fighting a nagging quadriceps injury for nearly two years.
She’s been advised to substitute some of her runs on roads for running in a pool, where pounding is at a minimum.
Running laps in a pool can be mind-numbing, but it is invaluable as a way to keep in shape while healing from an injury, says Laurel Park of Ann Arbor, who used a pool three years ago to recover from a hamstring injury.
The time passed most quickly for her, she says, if she did an interval workout, such as 10 minutes of easy running followed by 2 minutes hard, 1 minute slow, 2 minutes hard, etc.
“The most I could handle in one outing was about 45 minutes,” she says. “Those workouts were certainly equal in intensity to any land workouts.”
Ann Boyd uses pool running even when healthy, as a means of cross-training when aiming toward a marathon.
“When I’d train for a marathon, I would train for six weeks and get injured, and always a different injury, too. So, I started doing a second run in the pool. And I always run in the pool after a marathon to ease back into running.”
Veterans of pool running suggest buying a waterproof Walkman-type device to help pass the time, as well as a flotation device specific to pool running, available at running stores, to keep you aligned at the proper angle.
Kathy Rounds, a world-class 800-meter runner and certified strength and conditioning coach in Ann Arbor, says that pool running isn’t just for the injured, that it has benefits and can be used as a regular cross-training tool.
“Because the atmospheric pressure increases as the water gets deeper, water running has some interesting training adaptations,” she says.
Because the blood in your feet at the bottom of the pool in deep water is at about three atmospheric pressures, and the blood in your chest is at about 0.75 atmospheric pressures, she says, more blood gathers in the chest area. This requires the heart to work harder to pump it.
In addition to reducing the pounding on injured joints, muscles or tissue, Rounds says the pressure of the water against your legs as you run through it helps flush wastes from the muscles.
“It’s a free massage,” she says.
But after running in the pool exclusively, she warns, it takes a couple of weeks to get used to the pounding when you go back outside.
Water Fitness Tips
- Do an interval workout, 10 minutes of easy running followed by 2 minutes hard, 1 minute slow, 2 minutes hard.
- Run in the pool after a marathon to ease back into running.
- A waterproof Walkman-type device helps pass the time in the pool.
- Use a flotation device, available at running stores, to keep you aligned at the proper angle for pool running.
Duck!
Well D, you aren’t the only one to leave a chunk of your scalp on that branch at the Woodlot! No stitches required, but Gisele is now officially a trail runner! I would also like to congratulate Anna who officially became a trail runner as well this morning when she took an unexpected dip in the creek. Welcome to the club ladies.
Wishing everyone running the BMO 1/2 and full marathon tomorrow a fantastic race.