Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Return to Training

Last week I tried to ease back into training, but was slowed down a little by a tight hamstring. I decided to not push it and opted for some cycling instead for a good workout. But by Sunday I was ready to try a long run again, so I went out for 11 with no expectations. The run turned out okay, but I definitely felt fatigued much earlier than I thought I would. It was pain free, however, so I think I'll be back to ramping up my mileage.

One of the big reasons I feel I have made such advances in my speed this year is due to continual training. Even though I have taken brief periods to recover from races and illnesses I have been able to keep up with speedwork and long runs pretty consistently. I hope to keep this style of training up over the winter (especially through the holiday season) so that I will be ready to race well next season. This may be easier said than done as it is always tougher to get out when the weather sucks and there is so much good food to eat, but I think if I stay flexible I'll be able to keep focused even if I'm not training everyday. I'd like to try to fit in a winter 5k or 10k as well to keep the motivation for speedwork.

With such a successful race to end this year's season I'm feeling good about what is yet to come. I also have a new toy to play with thanks to Boulder Running Company. I went by there today to pick up my age group award and it was a Timex Ironman watch! I will post a review once I've had a chance to use it a few times, but the biggest advantage I can see for it so far is that it can store splits for multiple workouts in a day. Even my Polar HR monitor can't do that!

1 comment:

Mom said...

What a great prize!! It is a fitting reward for all the hard work you have put in with your running. Good for you!