So I have been reading Jon Acklands book and have also been reading quite a bit about half marathon training on the Internet (no, I don't have anything better to do). There are soooooo many training programs out there that it actually gets a bit confusing. However, there is one thing everyone seems to agree on: If you do too much too early you either get injured or you peak before the event. Both scenarios I would like to avoid. According to these so called experts I'm doing too much right now and need to slow down and built up slowly. However, that is completely against ALL my instincts which are screaming and shouting at me to run as often and as far as I possibly can (sort of in a 'your life depends on it' style).
I just feel like I'm sooooooo far away from being able to run a half marathon that if I don't train as much as possible I will never make it. Besides I feel like I have to make up for all these years without any exercise at all. So what to do? Listen to my instincts or the experts?
Well, considering that my instincts have been wrong in the past pretty much 99% of the time, especially when it comes to working out and having a healthy life-style I think I should be listening to the experts. Can't help but feel like it wouldn't be very smart to listen to the same instincts that have been telling me for the last 10 years that it's OK to be lazy and eat chocolate all the time :) Besides, if I do what the experts say and it doesn't work out in the end at least I have someone I can blame ;-)
OK so now that I've got that figured out, what do the experts actually say? According to what I've read so far it's about starting slowly then building up towards the event with regular recovery weeks in between. Furthermore, technique is extremely important. The better your running technique the easier it gets to run long distances and the lower the risk of injuries (that's what they say anyway).
So I have decided to reduce the distance of 2 out of my 3 weekly runs and only do 4km instead of 5 and work on my technique. From there I will then start to increase the distance following some training plan (haven't picked one yet).
This weeks goal: Drop and relax my shoulders! I always get really tense shoulders when I'm running, especially towards the end. Actually tense shoulders are not just a problem when I'm running. The comment I hear the most when I working out at the gym is "Lisa (yes, they do actually now my name by now) drop/relax your shoulders". And I noticed, even when I sitting at my desk in front of the computer, like now, I tend to pull up my shoulders. And then I wonder why I'm having back and neck pain (stupid me).
I read on some website that a good trick to relax your shoulders when running is to open your hands. Most runners have their hands in fists - like I do. And the harder it gets the tighter my fists get and when my fists are right my shoulders get tense and my back starts hurting so it gets even harder and I squeeze my fists even tighter (I think that's what they call a vicious circle). So yesterday I ran with open hands and fingers stretched and I feel like it's working. I think it looks a little bit weird though. Like I'm some sort of super athlete who is trying to be as faired as possible. I think people who see me might thing 'oh, girl that's hopeless' (-: but hell, if it works I risk looking a little stupid.
And it seems to work, cause I had a really good run yesterday. 4km in 30 minutes of which I ran 21. And all of that without music! I usually hate running without my ipod but couldn't find my headphones and after searching for them for 20 minutes I decided to go without. This morning on the way to work I remembered where they are - in the backpack I took hiking on Saturday. Guess this whole active lifestyle takes some getting used to, in the past I only had stuff in a backpack when I was travelling so that's about the one place I didn't search yesterday (-:
No comments:
Post a Comment