On Thursday, May 31st, we had our first buddy run. Erin, Marc, Nick and I met seven participants at Campbell Park for a little run on the Los Gatos Creek Trail. It was nice out and we had a great time getting to know one another…so much so that we missed the turnaround time because we were talking too much and ended up running a little longer and farther than planned: 47 minutes and about 3.6 miles total. Oops.
On Tuesday, June 5th, we met at the Los Gatos High School track and did some circuit training, followed by our first core workout. We warmed up a little, then ran around the track for three minutes. Then Coach Kris blew the whistle and we did a non-running exercise. Then we’d start running again. It was a good workout and an interesting way to break up the running. I don’t remember all of the exercises, but they started out easy, like walking on your toes or your heels, and ended up with harder stuff like doing ten pushups. Since I have no upper body strength, that was hard! After about eight intervals (2.75 miles), we cooled down and did some core training. Since I have no core strength, either, that was also really hard! I actually strained a muscle doing one exercise where you get on your hands and knees, then extend one arm out straight and extend the opposite leg out straight and try to hold that position for 30 seconds. We also did some planks. This involves propping yourself up on your elbows or extended straight arm(s) and trying to keep your body perfectly straight. After doing all of this, my feet were the least of my problems!
After the track session, we had our injury prevention clinic. Coach Kris is a massage therapist at Sports Medicine Institute and her director gave a talk about how to, um, prevent injuries. The basics were to avoid over-training, build up your entire body (which is why we do core training) and listen to your body. Certain kinds of pain are more significant than others, such as joint pain and muscle pain near joints. He also showed us how to use a foam roller to loosen up certain parts of your muscles and fascia to prevent injuries after running and between workouts. After our gear clinic, I talked to one of the people at Running Revolution about foam rollers and he said that if I could do a century without needing one, I probably wouldn’t need one for running. But after trying one, and discovering a tight spot on my left thigh were IT band issues usually appear, I might get one and start using it. IT band issues are one of the most common injuries, and you can’t really stretch that region very well, so prevention is key.
Yesterday, Marc and I met four participants at Campbell Park for another buddy run. This time I actually remembered to set my GPS to beep at certain intervals, so we would know to run for four minutes, then walk for one minute, for a total of 40 minutes. Jennifer, Janine and I did about 3.2 miles. Marc took two participants who wanted to run the whole time, so they probably got a bit more distance than we did, but that’s okay. Everyone finished and only Janine had any issues (her calves started cramping a little when we stopped).
So, what have I learned thus far? I need to do more core work outside of training. Since this stuff only takes about 10 minutes, I should be able to do that every day. But like Nick said at the first buddy run, if you aim to do it five days a week, you’ll probably do it three days a week, which is good enough to make progress. I think I’ll also join a gym today and see if I can get some cross-training in during the off days.