Hi,
Thursday was a day off. Largely because I didn’t have time to put in a decent run but also because I didn’t feel like running.
In addition I also had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to cut my running to three days a week so as not to over train and allow room for plateau busting as and when needed – as I mentioned on the day I ran for an hour.
Anyway, it doesn’t really matter, I had a legitimate break, I only mention it because it’s spinning round in my head for some reason.
Yesterday (Friday) I put in a 50 minute cross country run. I had intended to go out for only 40 minutes but I had to stop twice to get stones out of my shoes, and having stopped, I felt compelled to run for longer. I don’t like unplanned stops, I feel like a quitter if I have to stop. Probably a bad mindset, but hey.
I’m starting to feel a little twinge in my left knee joint, it’s nothing serious but it’s causing me to think about my running technique and improve it. In general my old bones (40 years old) are taking a bit of a pounding, I’m certainly feeling the stresses of running more than I ever did before.
As for today (Saturday)…. I weighed in this morning and had a bit of a shock. I’ll write about that later and post the weekly picture..
I had an opportunity to go out running so I took it. I hadn’t intended to run but after spending nearly the whole winter with a cold and therefore being unable to run, I’m finding it difficult to pass up the opportunities as they arise.
It was raining today and as I’ve mentioned before when I wrote ‘Even More Running Even More Fat Burning‘ I don’t like having wet feet, but I still wanted to run cross country. I decided to go a different route and stick to the main tracks rather than go onto the grass. Good decision. My feet stayed dry.
There’s a long steep hill on my run and every time I go running I dread having to ascend it. Normally I just plod up it a little step at a time but just to shake things up and add interest I decided I was going to storm the hill. My reward was to be a ‘planned’ stop of two minutes duration. I hit the hill with a determined stride and forced my way up it as quickly as I could without keeling over. When I got to the top I was out of breath and out of energy and I relished my two minute break.
I was only going to run for 30 minutes but something in the back of my mind pushed me on for another ten minutes. Perhaps it’s because I’d stopped (even though it was planned) or perhaps it’s because I remember reading an SAS fitness book which said that fat burning only really starts to kick in around the 40 minute mark. Well, whatever the reason the extra ten minutes earned me a blister on my right foot.
Tomorrow I’ll need to guard against the urge to go running. Sunday is an ideal opportunity to get some exercise in, but my knees and my feet are telling me to take a break. Maybe it would be a good time to start on the body weight exercises?
I’ll be back later today with a weight update. Or maybe I’ll leave it until tomorrow??
Be healthy,
Fit Dad.