Over recent weeks I have been pondering my training in general (along with pondering my bad luck at being ill just now - more of that in the footnote, below), I have been looking at blogs, websites, training plans and such in an effort to identify any glaringly obvious things I should do but don't do in order to get better / faster at that running stuff. I have been looking at bare foot and Pose running from an injury point of view, various training loads and patterns for speed, thinking about Yoga / Pilate's to improve form... then the bad pun hit me... 'weight' a minute!
Going back to the not too distant past (and goodness knows this blog goes back a bit) I found the obvious in one of my own posts "Real training has begun again" from New Year this year... my old friend (foe) weight. I had gotten a fair way ahead of myself with all these fabulous running articles, at 14st 4lb (my weight measured Monday morning) I am simply not going to do myself many favours with huge mileage loads, sprint intervals, stride retraining, etc. Hard fact is I need to lose over a stone (14lbs+ or 6.35kg+) in a sensible and active way to really find benefits of extra speed and endurance, with (a) a reduced injury risk and (b) a natural pace improvement basically from not carrying extra mass.
I was halfway to this 'goal' for the marathon that I completed, but over-'recovery', coupled with job stress and then illness saw that reversed to start of the year figures! So I know how it feels to run lighter, I just need to move a little more of that mass and really feel the benefit. Only then will I really, truly revisit all the fabulous articles and perhaps (who knows) even seek professional supervision to go faster still for my 40th year.
There is a training target of PB / PR at the Cardiff Half this autumn (four months away), so I have no excuses not to go get it... be 'Andy on the move'.
As a footnote to the optimistic post I prepped the other day - I am still suffering with a lung infection, acute bronchitis / query pneumonia, and am now on a new set off antibiotics awaiting a chest x-ray. It is really getting me down as I have constant cough and I am having difficulty sleeping, quite apart from the mental stress of not being able to exercise just now. Fingers-crossed that the drugs work and that the x-ray is not bad news.
As a footnote to the optimistic post I prepped the other day - I am still suffering with a lung infection, acute bronchitis / query pneumonia, and am now on a new set off antibiotics awaiting a chest x-ray. It is really getting me down as I have constant cough and I am having difficulty sleeping, quite apart from the mental stress of not being able to exercise just now. Fingers-crossed that the drugs work and that the x-ray is not bad news.
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