Sun Run 2010 – Week 13, session 1
I begin today’s post observing that I forgot to sign up for the Sun Run in January to get the $5 off on the early bird registration. Oops! I’ve set a Google Calendar alert to register for late March now since the late fee only kicks in on April 1. I doubt any corporate sponsors out there will want to take a 60th percentile runner, but no harm in asking the world out there…
After last week’s training, each time I got onto the treadmill I felt my calves were a bit tender. I thought the three days of rest over the weekend would do me some good, but when I got on the treadmill again today, I still felt a bit of tenderness, but it wasn’t as bad as last Friday.
Today I am following the week 8 schedule on the Learn To Run 10k program. Today’s session was 40 minutes of total running, 10 minute run, 1 minute walk, repeated 4 times. It didn’t go too badly since I tried to keep the steps at 180 per minute – my cardiovascular processing has gotten quite a bit better over the past month and exchanging extra cardiovascular load for less impact on the feet is worth it. I didn’t feel as much energy today as I did in last weeks’ session, but I still made it through comfortably – the 20 to 30 minute mark was the worst of it, but the last 10 minute leg went quite well.
There was still the tingling on the bottom of the feet (or rather the right foot) but it wasn’t as bad as previous times.
I am concerned that my calves do feel relatively tender even when rested for three days – makes me wonder whether I should try an ultra-low load week to let the muscles heal. I remember when doing my end of December/beginning of January runs when my schedule was interrupted for various reasons that my legs felt surprisingly good when getting back on the treadmill, at the cost of feeling winded while running.
The rest of the week is relatively light, with 21 minutes of load and 30 minutes of load on the Wednesday and Friday sessions. Next week is when there will be a training session that gets very close to 10km.
The other comment deals with weight management – although weight reduction was not a primary goal for running, it is a secondary objective to at least keep steady, if not reduce weight. After exercise, I try not to eat anything for at least an hour after, and whenever I feel thirsty, I just drink water, until such a time I am no longer thirsty. A very easy way of gaining unnecessary calories through sugar (carb) intake is by drinking sweetened drinks after exercising. Little stuff like this can shed mass – I think I have lost about 4 pounds since beginning this whole procedure. Ideally if I lost another 10 that would be great since it would translate into a much faster run time. I guess the trick is not to gain it back after the race is over.
Tags: sun run, sun run 2010