Slowly Does It

My new coach has certainly made a difference already - she has made me run a lot slower!

I did try to dabble into Maffetone training a couple of years ago (before Turin especially) and wasn't particularly convinced. She now has me run my recovery runs at an even lower heart rate, but while I was doing ALL my running at MAF effort, she has the training interspersed with some speed workouts throughout. So, even when I found it hard to get into any sort of rhythm for the first 1 or 2 miles yesterday, I can live in the knowledge that there are days to look forward to that will be very different.

For the time being I'm still very much in recovery mode and only running every second day, and that at an effort that feels more like crawling.

The other thing my coach added was supplementary exercises. Squats, dynamic stretching, balancing exercises, and, as she pointed out, they are on the program even on non-running days. I was already familiar with every single one of the exercises she prescribed - I just never had the conviction to keep all that stuff going.

Foam rolling is on the program as well. For the first couple of days I found some very sore spots along my quads but as I gradually eased into them they have gotten remarkably better already.

All that extra stuff takes some time - but she holds it in such high regard that she told me to cut a run short if I'm caught for time but always be sure to do those exercises! That is one thing I certainly would not have come up with by myself.

I went to a beach yoga class on Thursday morning. For 50 minutes it was all lovely and bliss and then the midges came out for the last 10 minutes! I was THAT close to running away but managed to keep somewhat calm. I had at least 2 dozen very itchy bites on my legs, though. If that happens again, beach yoga is off the program for good.

6 Jul

4 miles, 39:28, 9:52 pace, HR 130

8 Jul

6 miles, 58:47, 9:48 pace, HR 132