Wow. It's been nearly a whole year since I wrote about running last.
Despite my good intentions and trying to start training many weeks ago, I have only achieved a mediocre level of fitness to date. There are 7 weeks left until the Vancouver Marathon. 6 weeks of training time left. I have run well with such a short build up before but every year I age and that I don't train regularly for at least 8 months of the year such a feat becomes more difficult. Nevertheless, I plan to run significantly faster than I did last year at Vancouver, a time which I was somewhat disappointed with.
The plan? No big plan, run for at least an hour a day, with maybe one day a week at only 30mins, 75sec hill reps at least once per week, and an extended long run on the weekend.
Last year I was actually in quite good shape for Vancouver however I did not put in the requisite long runs on the asphalt, so after 34km my quads were destroyed and couldn't get my legs moving, it was not an energetic issue but a muscle massacre issue. The remedy will be to pick up some road trainers (I only have trail shoes and road racing flats) and hammer out my long runs on the asphalt/hard pack dirt roads.
The key: Not getting sick and not getting injured. The sick part is going to be a hard one as my time commitments will be in the level of extreme. I've recently been elected Chief of my community, will carry on part time with my job and running each day. On the positive side I still have a lot of sockeye in my freezer, also deer and moose meat, canned berries and various medicines, I just need to get a reasonable amount of sleep. Not getting injured. This is a tough one because I will be ramping up the volume in a short period of time. This is not an area I am unfamiliar with, and my IT bands are already starting to get a little tight. The remedy is consistently doing strength work; yoga and workouts. The strength work is preventative however having strong hip flexors goes a very long way in a marathon. In Victoria Marathon a few years ago my hip flexors were very strong and it made a huge difference in the late stages of the race and surprising myself with a 2:26. That's it.
Today:
Set:
- single leg raise: 3 x 10
- plank: 90 sec
- lateral single leg raise: 3 x 10
- push up: 15
- glute single leg raise: 3 x 10
- crunch: 25
X 3
- Ryan Day
- Secwécwpemc-ken ri7(I am Shuswap), Chief, Economist, Distance Runner, and Secwepemc Health Researcher/Co-ordinator/Policy guy. I've run a 30:24-10k, 1:06:23-half, and 2:19:55-full marathon but am most proud of the World Peace Prayer Day '06 relay run to Anchorage from Vancouver I participated in. This blog is primarily about running but I will post photos of the many places I like go on the tmícw of my maternal ancestors, Secwépemcul'ecw.
