Reigning It In and Re-Assessing

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com.

Now that I'm "back to normal", I can barely contain my excitement at the prospect of getting back to speed work and leg work in the gym.  I know I'm going to have to ease into both of these things but, I have a game plan.  I was at the gym this morning and it took a lot of restraint for me to not walk up to the squat rack, load up the bar with plates and get to work.  I decided on an easier, gentler approach.  This morning, I stuck with body weight exercises, mainly lunges and squats.  I did go and do hamstring curls on a machine but with much lighter weight than normal.  I don't want to kill my legs just yet.  When I got injured, I had just finished phase two of my weight training plan and was taking a week off to give my body some time to recuperate before moving on to phase three, which is pretty intense.  I was wondering if I should even bother with phase three and maybe just go back and repeat phases one and two.  Then I got hurt.  As much as I really enjoyed that training plan, I've been thinking that perhaps it was time for me to do something different.  Since I'm starting from scratch, now is the time.  Good thing as I've just volunteered to be part of a test group for auto-regulation training.  I like the sounds of it and I'm curious to see where it takes me.

As much as I want to get back out with my running group, I am going to have to wait a few days to do that.  Why?  Well tonight's run is a tempo run and while I don't think I'll have a problem with that, it's an incredibly hilly route, and that is my bigger concern.  I don't want to start hammering away on hills just yet.  The stress of running fast in addition to the stress of running hills might be a bit more than my body can handle right now.  So tonight's effort will have some speed but it will be a flat route.  I'll meet up with my group again on Thursday for some mile repeats.  Those should be fun.

I'm also going to have to re-jig my training program.  Because I've missed so much training, I'm going to have to figure out the safest place for me to start without going back to square one.  Time to bust out the calculator and start adding!  Last week my total mileage for the week was 32.5km.  I should be closer to 50km right now.  But I'm not going to freak out.   I will get what I need to get done, I'm just going to have to be creative and mindful.  Creativity isn't an issue but the mindfulness is.  I usually just go full boar into things without thinking much.  When I'm training I don't always take the time to step back and assess. I'm going to take this little setback as a sign that perhaps I should be slowing down to re-assess things from time to time.

Lastly, the most important thing I need to do is take care of my body.  I know that by living a healthy lifestyle and being active, I am already doing that to a certain extent.  However, recovery also plays an important part.  You can only push yourself for so long before things start to fall apart, especially as you get older. I certainly don't bounce back like I used to, in fact not much bounces anymore, it just sags..but that's a whole other post.  Just like a car, your body needs regular maintenance, even more so as you age.  Things like regular stretching, hot yoga, a massage or something as simple as an epsom salts bath are all wonderful ways to de-stress,  recover and maintain a healthy balance.   I think that my little calf fiasco probably could have been prevented had I actually had a good solid deep tissue massage after my half marathon at the end of May.  I neglected my legs and paid the price for it.  I won't make that mistake again.

Questions of the Day:

How do you take care of your body?   What is your "down time" like?