Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Stretching

I can't seem to get enough. I can stretch before or after a workout; most of the time I do both. I stretch at random time throughout the day but it does nothing to keep me from feeling like I need more. I've already stretched 3 times today certain parts still feel a little tight. I made it to class today in record time. Just over ten minutes is all it took to ride to campus. I hit the treadmill right away because I bad a little time before my first class began and I had already done my warm-up. Six miles was on my training schedule today. Jog at a comfortable pace for 15 minutes, then do two miles at a faster than normal pace, and ending with a comfortable jog. I set the treadmill at 5.6 mph and ran for 15 minutes. That was the easy part, no problem. Then I set it to 7 and ran faster. Less than a mile into it I started feeling lightheaded but kept going. At 2.8 miles I started feeling a little off balance so I got off, filled my water bottle up and got back to it. I continued the 7 mph pace for another .6 miles, then I slowed down to 6 mph. I only got to 1.3 miles before I had to stop completely. I felt weak, dizzy and a little bit nauseous. I think I probably just hadn't had enough to eat this morning. Coupled with the extra-hard ride in today, the double-time pacework just ate up my remaining calories. I really have to start paying more attention to my calories so this doesn't happen again. I can't be hitting a wall at 4 miles on race day.
I feel pretty crappy about cutting my workout short by 2 miles today but I'm not about to start beating myself up about it. I had a long hard weekend full of a lot of work and I even added 1.5 miles to my long run on Sunday. I did walk that last 1.5 miles but it was so nice outside I had to stop and enjoy it. It was over 80 on Sunday and not cloudy as the weatherman predicted. Great! I logged 20 miles on my bike just getting around town. I even found a buddy to run the 5 miles with me on Saturday. It reminded me how great it is to have company on a run. It was over before we knew it. I have been running by myself this whole time and it is really hard not to ignore the fact that if I want to stop, take a break, or cut my run short, there is nobody to stop me but myself. Now that I know I've got a friend who is at just about the same running level as I am, there will be many more outdoor runs together. Yaaay!
Monday's rest day came right in time. It really helped yesterday's hill repeats to go very smoothly. No pain or fatigue and I made decent time.
I wanted to change up my hills course and run a neighborhood across town but without a car that would mean I would have to leave my bike somewhere and worry about my gear while I was running. Temps were supposed to drop down to 40 so going without a change of clothes would not have been smart. I ended up doing the same hill as the last 2 Tuesdays but expanding the loop and running it backwards. I was surprised how well it changed the scenery. I felt like I was in a different neighborhood.
Maybe I'll do Shorewood Hills next week.

1 comment:

  1. I do some basic yoga stretches mainly after workout, sometimes before and I feel refreshed and satisfied. Maybe you already do some yoga so my apologies if this information is not helpful.

    ReplyDelete