I MISS RUNNING!<\/p>\n
If I didn’t have this darn hip issue I’d be lounging on my couch with a glass of wine, recuperating from a 16-mile run. Instead, I’m lounging on my couch with a glass of wine, recuperating from… an hour of cleaning my kitchen. (Oh — and making homemade arugula and goat cheese whole wheat ravioli<\/a>).<\/p>\n Fortunately today’s slothfulness is an anomaly; I’ve been very diligent in not only doing my physical therapy exercises (I hope to get a gold star from my PT on Tuesday), I’ve also been going to the pool for deep water running and also put in a good hour on the elliptical machine on Thursday. While those have been good, hard workouts, they just aren’t the same. However, I know if I push things then I’ll really screw myself up.<\/p>\n Must. Learn. Patience.<\/p>\n As an added torture, I spend an inordinate amount of time reading running blogs and articles on various running sites. I figure if I can’t run myself then I’ll “run” vicariously through others. I’ll be waiting with bated breath to see if See Zanne Run<\/a> qualifies for Boston in the Columbus Marathon tomorrow; I’m cheering on Tall Girl Running<\/a> as she wraps up her marathon recovery and is eyeing her next challenge: getting a new 10K PR; I’m sending “heal quick” vibes to See Diva Run<\/a> as she recuperates from her tumble during the Spirit of Survival half marathon; and I’m feeling both happy and envious of Frayed Laces<\/a>, who was given the go-ahead to run by her doctor after having to take off almost two weeks due to Achilles tendonitis.<\/p>\n In addition to the mental benefits of running, I also love the fact you don’t have to follow a specific schedule. You can just lace up and go whenever you want. With pool running I can only go on certain days\/times, plus I have to pay to get in. I can use the elliptical machine at my gym, but that requires a 7-mile drive. Plus, neither exercise is as mentally rewarding as running (I quickly get bored after a few minutes). I just have to keep reminding myself they help me stay strong.<\/p>\n Fortunately I took a couple of hydrofit classes to learn a few techniques for keeping the water running interesting (now that I know the moves I’m no longer taking the classes as they cost a bit more). I’ll start with a “slow jog” to get warmed up, as well as do a few jumping Jacks (start with your body in a T. As you move your arms down to your side your legs go out to the side. You can get an even better workout by using water arm weights). I’ll then ease into my normal running “pace,” winding through the other people in the pool. I’ll then try for a few “sprints”: pumping my legs and arms as hard as I can, going as fast as I can. It’s particularly challenging when you change direction as you’ve created a current behind you (I typically have to run in place for a few seconds before I can move forward).<\/p>\n But the most challenging move is one I learned in the hydrofit class. You lift your arms above you — the higher they are the greater the difficulty — while flutter kicking. If you don’t flutter kick hard enough you start to sink! You can also do it without the flotation belt for an added challenge (I can do about 45 seconds with the belt, 15 without). I do several of those in an hour session, and boy do they wear you out! To mix things up I’ll also swim the breast stroke several laps, and perhaps do some running in the shallow end of the pool.<\/p>\n I’m sure even when I can start running I’ll have to ease back in to things. That most likely means my speed & hill work will be put on hold for this round of training. But hopefully with continued strength training I’ll be raring to kick it up a notch come January for an early summer BQ. (I’ve even ordered “Advanced Marathoning<\/a>” by Pete Pfitzinger; I may decide the Gallowalking program won’t be the one to get me to Boston).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I MISS RUNNING! If I didn’t have this darn hip issue I’d be lounging on my couch with a glass of wine, recuperating from a 16-mile run. Instead, I’m lounging on my couch with a glass of wine, recuperating from… an hour of cleaning my kitchen. (Oh — and making homemade arugula and goat cheese […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beantown","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}