Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Niggly vs Injury

Niggly

- A minor soreness
- Proceed with Caution
- Usually accompanies a training increase
- Gets better rapidly
- Ends up stronger than before
- Within a week it's over and never thought about again
- Feels good in a bad way

Injury
- Too painful to run without limping
- Stop
- Usually happens when you feel fit and invincible
- Can take fer-freaking-ever to heal
- Lost fitness, starting over
- Eventually you might see a good side to it all
- Feels bad in a bad way

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Some weekly notes

- Sunday I wasn't going to run, feeling tired from an increase in training and thinking the rest would be better. For some reason though I felt very antsy late in the afternoon and I just had to get out for a bit. So I ran up a nearby road and enjoyed the late afternoon sun. In fact it was spectacular, with the entire sky all the way around turning pink. Turning around, I was facing into the sunset and it was stunning. I was coming down a long gradual hill when it was at its peak, with so many layers of deep red and orange. I'm glad that I didn't miss that sunset, it was probably the best I've ever seen.

- Bosu and treadmill are still good. For some reason my stride rate on the treadmill is about 10 higher than it typically is outside, which is helpful. I have three uphill workouts done, with three more to go before racing...

- Just signed up for the 29k at Seaton Trail on April 16. I've never run this race, but a few years ago when Derrick ran I did a training run on the trails and it looked fun. Can't wait.

- I've been getting a ton of hits on my blog for an old post that has a picture called "stars". Apparently people are landing there looking for movie star photos. If you want a lot of hits, you should name your photos accordingly, like celebrity gossip, Justin Bieber, etc.

- After a ton of rain on Saturday followed by cold temps, we have a gigantic skating pond. The dogs are finally playing hockey again.



Neeka returning the puck after a breakaway
Go Team!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Gym Rat

Since my first race back, I've been very inspired to ramp up my training. I got myself a gym membership again so I can use the treadmill (a) for uphill workouts, and (b) to warm up for (c) strength/plyo stuff mostly using the Bosu (which we don't have at home). I'm lukewarm at best about the treadmill, but it's been nice to add to the mix right now, and in general I love the gym, it is so much fun. The Bosu is the most fun, but I had a sobering moment when I rolled my ankle off of it, which kind of hurt but mostly scared the heck out of me. I'm doing this to get stronger, not to bust something.

So anyway, in this way I've kind of started sneaking in quite a few morning/lunch runs on top of hitting the trails at home after work. Not coincidentally I feel happier than in a long, long, long time. Though I like my job and am not complaining, it is a fact that what I do isn't work in the force X distance sense, except if you count a tiny bit from the wrist down (typing + mousing). Pretty much everyone who works here does something physical every day - walking, running or gym at lunch, etc. which is needed to balance out sitting so much I'm thinking.

Oh, if anyone has any links to good Bosu exercises, I'd love to collect some more ideas.

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Some interesting-to-me things:

Fascinating story by Brock Picken of FitForTwoTv on how he gained 40 pounds in 4 days to win a contest.

Raccoon Nation documentary on the The Nature of Things with David Suzuki. Fascinating. Cute.

Really great overview of snowshoe running and racing.

My dog can walk on water.