August began this week and suddenly back to school ads are everywhere, along with fall TV show teasers, and the beginning of football season.
Yikes! I am so not ready for that yet... My kiddos don't go back to school until after Labor Day (which is a few days later than normal this year - Sept. 7th), so we still have a lot of summer left. Also, Fall doesn't officially begin until September 23rd!
With that said, I want to sit back, relax and soak up the lazy, slower days of summer a little longer.
Sip on a glass sangria, have more champagne by the pool and maybe even fit in an additional summer get away...
This evening I had a really good workout! I was still pretty tired from returning from our road trip back from Lake Tahoe. Needless to say, getting up at 5 am had zero appeal for me this morning. So, after dinner I went on a very productive power walk, followed by a good session of PT exercises and core work...
Still sporting the knee brace for long walks!
My therapist had advised me to go for walks starting at about ten minutes in length and gauge how I feel. The super active time in Tahoe and the great PT sessions before I left had me feeling pretty confident. I was able to go for about 1 1/2 miles tonight which felt awesome. I can't believe that I am writing how wonderful I feel to WALK 1.5 miles, when normally I would never think to run that short of distance. But from where I have come from in the last weeks (only started walking fully on July 8th) I am feeling great about my progress.
Afterwards, I completed two sets of planks at one minute each - and I think I can extend to 1.5 minutes tomorrow. Also, I did one side plank (that is still a struggle for me), 3 sets of bridges, leg lifts as well as just lying on the floor bending my knee. I can hear the creaks, pops and cracks (normal) in my knee, and it will be so interesting to see how it feels when I start running on the treadmill.
One improvement that I wanted to share is I am able to perform a quad stretch! It is tough for me and I still have a ways to go, but I wasn't able to do this AT ALL a few weeks ago! Progress!
After 240 days of zero running, everything feels like amazing progress. Did I really just write that? 240 days of zero running...
Photos in natural light are so much prettier! :)
I wanted to share with you a little bit about what I learned from Jason Karp's running clinic when I attended the Idea World Fitness Convention (and Blogfest!) in July! It was such a dynamic presentation, that I'll have to break up the information into a couple of posts. But here are some key points to think about during your training:
TRAINING CONCEPTS:
1. To run fast, you have to spend a lot of time running slow.
2. Train smarter
3. Easy runs must be EASY
4. Time is more important than miles
5. Fatigue is more important than the number of reps
6. Runners should always train to their strengths
7. The aim of training is to introduce training stimuli in such a manner that higher and higher levels of adaptation are achieved.
8. If runners want to improve their performance, their training load must increase.
9. It is harder to improve fitness than to maintain fitness (This is so scary for me! I haven't been able to run since December. How will the return to running feel and how long to safely gain my fitness back... this is where my coach will be invaluable. I started working with Mark Hadley from Maximum Performance Running in December. We put the training on hiatus until after the surgery and recovery time. I am really looking forward to having a coach again!)
10. Runners lose fitness faster than it's gained (So true!)
11. A long term, systematic approach to training will yield the best and most consistent results.
12. Weight training should never be performed at the expense of run training if the goal is to be a better runner.
13. Heart rate is a great objective measure of training intensity.
14. The more you weigh from the waist down, the more oxygen it takes to move those muscles (Thin legs = faster runner).
Key tips from Dr. Karp! He also had great advice on how to avoid injury, long run and mileage advice. More to come :)
Have a wonderful day!
Have you ever worked with a running coach?
I have heard many runners talk about October and November Marathons. Anyone running a September or December marathon? Which one?
Do you prefer a Fall or Spring Marathon?
I would say Fall marathons are the best for me. I love summer training (no humidity here) and love that it stays light well into the 8 PM hour. Perfect if you HAVE to run in the evening for some reason.
Happiness Is Running Life!
xo,
Natalie
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