Stretching

Thanks for all of the helpful comments on the last post. I'm going to be a lot more careful about my cross training workouts from now on. And maybe try some active rest like a slow bike ride for 20 minutes on my normal monday & friday rest days.

Tomorrow I'm going to be in Atlanta swimming with Stu, which is going to be awesome. We work for the same company, and I didn't know until I was training for the Greenville Sprint tri earlier this year that he is a former swim, baseball, and basketball coach. So I can't freaking wait to get into the pool with him. I haven't had a swim in months, and even then I think I was doing it wrong. So it will be nice to take my new pumped lungs into the pool. Then wednesday morning I'm running with Kaolee which will be fantastic. Early morning should be cool and we're running through a park so it should be a lot of fun.

So as bad as last thursday's 5 miler was (it got cut to 3?), Saturday's 12 miler was incredible by comparrison. The key I think was stretching. I did some more research on shin splints and how they can affect the ankles. Most shin splint problems can be fixed with stretching, massage, and more stretching, turns out. So I ordered The Stick and tried some yoga sat morning.

I had never tried yoga before. I love it! Wifey thinks I should add that to the Reasons I'm Gay list, but I don't see why. I'm a fast guy. I drive fast, talk fast (for a southerner), work fast and type about 100 words per minute. So the last time I tried something slow (Tai Chi) I felt like frankenstein walking around is slow motion and hated it. But yoga is a different story. Get a pose and hold it while breathing is a very centering thing. I just tried some videos that TiVo found, and Netflix had to watch on demand. but it felt sooooo good and relaxing.

Then I did a long stretching session at the gym. The good football games (or bad if you're a Georgia fan) were on during my run time so I went to the treadmill to watch. I knew I would have to split the run up into segments to let the machine reset, but this got really cool. I did the first segment as a 2 mile warmup basically in 22 minutes.

Then I stretched on the treadmill, including a few moves from the yoga.

The next block was 5 miles. I walked the first .2 miles to get the blood flowing right again and check the legs. No serious shin splints or ankle problems yet, and the yoga really had my right IT band feeling good. So I bumped the speed up to between 6.1 and 6.3, and did not have to slow down to walk again until the 5 miles was up. What? that's never happened before. I did the run in 47:48, which is faster than my Ache Around the Lake time. HOLY SHIT! That just happend, and I can't believe it. I said I would walk at 2 miles, then nah, maybe i can make it to 5k distance without stopping. Well, then maybe i guess i can make it 4 miles. Hey this feels pretty good so maybe i'll be able to make it to 5. Then I did make it to 5. Wow. I was shocked. That's a 9:33 pace! Wow. I've never gone that distance that fast before. Calorie count was 777, which I found disturbingly cool.

Then I stretched.

The second 5 mile block was a little slower. I did have to slow down to a walk three times during the five miles, but it was still pretty cool. I did it in 53 minutes and change, burned 740 calories. So overall that last block went pretty good.

Then I stretched.

So the total stats are 12 miles in 123 minutes. Funny how these numbers keep lining up. About 1600 calories. pace is just over 10 min/mile. The shin splints didn't bother me a bit. The ankles felt ok, and the IT band didn't act up at all. No hip pain, it was a pretty smooth run when it's all put together like that. And now i'm hooked on stretching. I didn't realize how inflexible I had become.

Hey, Wes is on the hero list now. I was tracking him all the way through IMFL on saturday. Contrats, bud. Way to go!

Congrats as well to everyone else who raced over the weekend. I'm still on the fence over the 5k next weekend, if i can pony up for the entry fees and still cover the bills. sheesh. But somebody tell me how the Beach 2 Battleship race went. I really want to run the half ironman distance there next year, but I want some feedback on the course.