Description

An admitted shoe geek waxes philosophical about running, triathlon, and life in general.
Comments welcome!


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Resting...

I couldn't sleep tonight, so I decided to get up and do... something. Beats laying in bed staring at a dark ceiling.

This is a "rest" week for me. If you look at the bar graph to the left, you'll see a three week build-up of training volume. And my left shin is starting to feel the miles. I haven't had shin splints since high school. In the late 70's. It's not bad, not stopping me from running, and I know I'll hit that 1000 mile mark well before the end of the year (I think I only have 35 miles to go). But it's time to see, and act upon, the trend and give my body some time to adapt to the stresses I've placed on it. And I've been waking up before my alarm.

We don't get stronger while we run. We get stronger when we don't run BECAUSE we ran. The adaptations require rest to occur.

So while I could go out and click off 6-7 mile days and my system could probably handle it, I've decided that this week will be recovery. Slower, shorter, more riding and less running. And it's been cold -- 20 degrees this morning when I left for work. Today's ride was "mighty chilly", which prescribed 4 layers up top, three on bottom, and two pair of gloves. Should have worn a hat under the helmet.

This also coincides with some extra effort on the race promotion front -- getting into the early stages of another event. This one will be a poker run, with four checkpoints at approximately equal distance from the start/finish. You run to all of the checkpoints and pick up a playing card, then go back to the start/finish to get your fifth card. Best hand wins. No set course -- you take what you think the best route is (without blazing new trails or running through some one's soccer or baseball game).

Fun stuff.

No comments: