Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Rebuilding

It appears that the muscle tightness and pains are starting to subside. I did a 16 mile run on Sunday and that went well. Oh ya, Ken told me to start putting the distances up in km so people get more of a picture of how far I am running. 16 mile = 25.75km

How far is that? If you live in Ottawa then start at the police station at March and Campeau, run to the Centrum and then turn right towards Kanata Lakes, head along Terry Fox which cuts through the woods past the Beaver Pond, then cruise through the Kanata Research Park; ok that is about 6 miles, your first 10km is done. Now, turn left onto Carling and start the long run along Carling to Richmond where you will take a left onto Richmond and continue the run down Richmond, past MEC until you hit Busthuka; opps missing about .6 of a mile so run down Richmond a little more to the old Canadian Tire and then return.

There, that is 16 miles or 25.75km. Nothing too it. Oh, be advised you may limp a little after this and feel a little sea-sick. I have read the sea-sickness (ie. feeling the need to lose your lunch) is due to wearing a running waist belt with my water and gels. I have read a running style backpack might be better if I need to carry all my water on long runs. So I will be trying that in the next few runs to see how it works.

Ok onto this weeks post topic: Rebuilding. As the first sentence of this post pointed out my body has crossed a hurdle and has rebuilt itself a little. My stretching, ART (Active Release Therapy) and The Stick; have all appeared to help with the muscle tightness and soreness. I recovered ultra-fast from this past Sunday's run and felt awesome tonight for my 7 mile run.

Due to scheduling constraints I did tonight's run pushing my son in the jogging stroller. It turned out excellent (he loves running with Daddy) and I had good incentive to keep my speed down (when I fell good I really just want to let it rip).

He fell asleep about half way through the run and then just snoozed all the way. I on the other hand got my training run in and it felt awesome to do a recovery run after a long weekend run during which I did not feel like I had weights attached to me dragging me down.

This is my recovery week and I have a series of short runs for the next two weeks. A 6 mile (9.65km), 6 mile (9.65km), 2 mile (3.2km), and a 5 mile (8 km). These short runs are to let my body recovery for my next big obstacle, hitting the 20 mile (32km) barrier that has eluded me during training.

Here's looking forward to busting the 20 mile in two weeks.

3 comments:

Ken said...

Are you sure it was the ART and the stick and not the pizza and beer :)

Another suggestion: cycling! 4 miles on the bike equals 1 mile running and my book says mixing cycling into your training will improve times in races over 2 hours. Better muscle balance in the legs and less wear and tear on the joints.

Scott Parsons said...

I knew you could do this.

You're doing great man!

MT said...

On second thought this might have been the pizza and beer. I think I will have to restock the fridge with Old Engine Oil, the choice of champions. Beer Advocate Review

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