This was the beginning of week four of the Couch-to-5k training. I'm back at McMillin trailhead. My knees and ankles are thanking me already! Once again I had some tightness in the shins… but mostly during the walking segments. Also, this didn't begin to effect me until the last 3/4 of a mile or so. It was about the time I was done with my last running interval. The running intervals were noticeably longer today.
I was down at the trail at around 9 AM… and it had already started to heat up. It was still cool in the shade… but by the time you’ve gone around ¾ of a mile there’s not much shade around. At roughly one-mile, you’re on a straight stretch that’s flat and shade free.
I was really feeling this session in my quads. I think I’ve adjusted my gait enough that my legs are beginning to compensate so that I’m no longer dropping my weight straight down. My stride appears to be getting much smoother now. My gait is getting to the point where I'm just trying to maintain speed and control. I'll likely get faster as I acclimate to the training. I have to remind myself that I've only been doing this for a few weeks. Right now I'm at a light jog and it seems to be working well.
Along with the extended running intervals was an increase in the cardio & respiratory load. I think that the hills from the Celebration trail worked me fairly hard here. My legs wanted to give out before my lungs did. The rise I hit on the very last running interval was a bit tough. Everything feels great though. I’m looking forward to getting through this & then adding some additional cardio training.
One thing that I noticed about this session; I was considerably more "wiped out" physically than I usually am after these runs. This even on the hilly terrain over at Celebration. I suppose the increase in the length of the running intervals had a lot to do with it. However, I don't believe that this explains it completely. It feels like I worked the legs much harder today than I usually do. It might take some time to analyze the effect on the quads. I almost feel as if I did squats today. I'll be drinking a lot of water tonight and tomorrow.
I’ll recommend Pod Runner once again for anyone wanting to get started on this program. Even if you’re like me… and don’t give a rip about the muzak. As I’ve said, I don’t even pay attention to the beats-per-minute. I can’t my legs are too darned short to match stride with that. I just go for time & start \ stop when I get the cadence tones. The tunes are good filler material for the most part however.
No comments:
Post a Comment