Today is cardio day, and in the spirit of muscle confusion, I decided to abandon my DVD workouts, leave home, throw caution to the wind, and head out for a run. I haven't run since June 18, when my run was truncated by a minor left calf injury, which I've allowed to heal ever since. During that healing period, I've been scaling back a bit on my cardio workouts, substituting One on One workouts for Insanity, and engaging in more yoga sessions to stretch out my leg muscles. At some point, I felt that my left calf had healed, but I was experiencing some minor soreness in my right achilles tendon. I certainly felt some frustration, as one part of my body improved, only to leave another part a bit tender.
But that's all in the past now. It was such a beautiful morning today, and I felt so good, and I had recently purchased a new pair of running shoes (Nike Free Run Plus) that I leapt out of bed, laced up the shoes, and headed out for a run. I was very cautious at first, testing out how the various parts of my body were responding to the run, and I was particularly attentive to how I was landing on each foot and raising each foot off the ground, trying to implement what I've learned from reading The Pose Method of Running. Good news: no pain. I tried to relax on the downhill portions, and increase my speed and gait during the uphill portions, with the resultant increase in heart rate. Everything felt good, I got my heart rate up to 159 (pretty high for an old guy), burned a bunch of calories, and imparted some good stress to my body.
Now, I'm encouraged that I can resume running (not that I did so much before, but I think I'll run more while the weather stays nice), knowing that I can do so without pain. My legs didn't suffer too much, as I was still able to easily ride my bicycle to the office. The ride home might be a different story, but right now, I feel relaxed and good.
This might be a nice insert into the muscle confusion category. Running is something that my body isn't really used to, so the departure from the normal type of cardio workout might help to stimulate a bit of change. At any rate, engaging in a different type of workout has given me some mental benefit, as it's nice to break from routine every now and then.
1 comment:
In my fifth round now, but introduced running during my fourth round. Substituted the Yoga and Kenpo days for running although I still try to work in both Kenpo and Yoga once at least every other week by doing a dbl if necessary. I usually go between 4-5 miles. However, at 46, I notice that the day after the run, my hip is extremely sore, which makes doing Legs and Back or anything Cardio/Plyo very difficult - and I use the Kenpo DVD to stretch before each run and some post-run stretching. So, it is pretty frustrating. Your post referenced the Pose running method. I have not heard of it before, but perhaps that will help. Always willing to learn more - keep up the great work.
Tim
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