| Wednesday, May 2, 2007 |
| Second Run Pushing It |
In terms of recovery from my first run I had very few aches and pains and those I did have I think are due in part to a pitiful attempt at stretching which is now of much noted priority after runs from now on. Felt energised for the rest of the day. Very helpful :-)
Today's run was a little bit more difficult. I felt as though I was working a lot harder this time and I have come up with two possible reasons for this. The first is that when I was heading out (at 10am) I had only had my first mouthful of water for that day 5 mins previous. The relevance? I think I might have been a little bit dehydrated which increases my blood viscosity which in turn means the heart has to pump harder to push blood through the venous and arterial network. Oh this might be a good time to mention I'm a nursing student and currently in my second of a three year degree. Hence the physiological explanation. The second possible reason for the extra effort I felt I was needing is that in general I felt as though I was moving a little bit faster in the runs by focusing on keeping my chin up and chest out to give me good posture. I'm trying to build good habits from the start with this as I have flat feet (an article on this) and I don't want to have bad form to begin with, get shin splints and end up having to take a hiatus or worse have to stop completely. Having noted these two reasons I think it might be a combination of the two that caused the extra exertion. I just thought they might be relevant for me to take notice of in future training days.
On another health related note I have started exploring nutrition in relation to running. I'm not going to being going stir crazy with it but I have found a nifty little site called www.calorie-count.com that has a nice calculator and database of foods. So for now I am just going to plan days to a limit of 1500 calories and if I go over by adding stuff I won't beat myself up just as long as I am eating that which I have planned. The reason for this is the site also gives an analysis that makes it possible to see if you are eating the right percentages of different things to be meeting your energy and health needs. Will keep everyone updated on how this works for me. In the past I have been aware that if I spend too much time thinking about the food I'm eating, about to eat, or planning to eat I get very weary of it and just splurge just so I don't have to think about what I am eating. So to counteract this I plan on getting up early each morning, entering my plan for the day online, making the meals I can and then forgetting about it. At the end of the day I will pop back and see if I stuck to it and add anything else I ate. With a hopeful time allotment of about 1.5 hours thinking about food in total. Another reason this is important to me is that I am focusing on health here and being healthy does not involve obssessing about food 24/7. Being able to live life with little concern for weight is where I want to get so developing habits that come naturally is what is most important to me. Okay so enough about plugging for calorie-count. Off to study. |
| posted by Sam @ 4:10 PM |
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| 3 Comments: |
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Welcome to blogging. I began running in February and blogging in March. I look forward to reading about your progress and hope that I can help you and encourage you along the way. I began running using a similiar training program.
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I admire your goal setting and determination as you embark on your journey. One major piece of advice I can give you as someone who has run 25,000+ miles and more than 100 races in my lifetime - Stay consistent, and expect that there will be great days and down days. It's learning how to get through them that will make you a stronger runner, so if you have a great run one day and a terrible one the next, it's normal.
If you get a chance, please visit my running web site, Faithful Soles. I have a categorized and searchable Running Blog Database on there and would appreciate it if you would link your blog to it. If you want to read a really great inspirational story about an event I witnessed at the 2000 Boston Marathon, please read The Greatest Marathoner. I also have my own blog, but most of my information is on the main web site. Thanks and continued good luck in your training.
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Ahhhh, yes. Stretching is very very important. Here I have been running for a year now and still struggle with stretching afterwards (sometimes).
Nice blog!
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Welcome to blogging. I began running in February and blogging in March. I look forward to reading about your progress and hope that I can help you and encourage you along the way. I began running using a similiar training program.