April 29, 2012

Patience Pays Off

I went for a short test run today and it was fantastic! I don't know if it's because I haven't run in four days (when I have been running every two or three days) or because I decided to go for a road run instead my usual trail run but running today felt FAST and EASY! If only every run could feel like that!

I decided my right foot was in good enough shape to test it out. I'm really glad I waited. I'm fairly certain that had I run on it on the days that it was feeling sore, I probably would have done additional damage. Listening to your body can be hard. Patience can be hard, too. In this case, patience definitely paid off.

April 28, 2012

Listening to Your Body

Sometimes, it's hard for me to have patience. Sometimes, I want to run but some part of my body is telling me not to run. It can be hard to listen to that body part when your brain says you should go for a run and your heart says it really wants to go for a run. This week, that body part telling me NOT to run is my foot, which I'm thinking, in this case, supercedes my brain and my heart.

In an effort to get my whole body stronger, and most especially my core stronger, I started going to TRX classes. TRX is suspension training that uses your body weight and your core in every exercise. I find that it has done wonders for my core and back strength (which was pretty limited due to my past back injuries). It took 4 months but I have finally just increased to 3 1-hour classes per week.

I've also been trying to increase how many times I run in a week from 2 to 3 times per week.

Probably unwisely, I'm also trying to increase the distance that I run for. Not a lot. Just a couple hundred metres more once per week.

I'm starting to think that the added TRX and the added running time and distance was a little too much for me and my right foot is telling me so. It doesn't hurt a lot but it is definitely uncomfortable with some steps more than others. So, although I REALLY wanted to run two days ago, I didn't and took a rest day instead.

Why would I write about NOT running? Because I know that sometimes it's hard to be patient and to listen to that body part that says maybe you shouldn't run. I also know how important it is to listen to said body part to avoid a worse injury. I thought I'd share this in case others are experiencing (or have experienced) a similar situation.

Hopefully my foot feels all better tomorrow and I'll go for a short test run. If it doesn't, I'll probably ride my bike and keep letting it heal. :)