Just a very quick late run update, more to hold me accountable. So thank you very much for being here.
I’m still perfecting that juggling act between work, family, rowing and running, so sometimes things don’t go to plan.
But yesterday chose the 35 min long run from the second week of the NRC starter plan, having done both of the core 20min runs in one go on the last run.
Lovely Coach Bennett talked me through this hot half-hour, but as a recent again-graduate of C25k (ZR), it feels so good to be back to joggling for half an hour continuously and longer. It does feel like I’m back.
I’m much more conscious nowadays of what my feet are doing and where I strike the ground. Forefoot toe or pinky side, how I roll. I even play a bit with different gates, lifting my knees and working my glutes at times, exploring and allowing the foot further back. It’s a nuanced play with my lower limbs, but hands and arms are also thrown into the mix in the last few minutes, where I often pick up the pace by moving my arms a bit more energetically, a la a James Dunne drill.
So although hot, it felt good. And the speed run is next!
I switched these as I had a rowing session that almost solely pushed my muscles to the brink. The rowing workout the night before was 20x1 min with 1 min rest in between, at 20SPM (so slow strokes) but putting up the damper (resistance) setting every single interval. So the 60-sec breaks meant you never got your aerobic system to overload and rather stay at a low level, but the increasing resistance meant that this is equivalent to a leg-oriented weights session.
So for the run, I opted for the long slow one rather than the speed one to give my muscles a bit more rest.
Happy running and working out, everyone!