My goal this summer was to see how far I could go through the training program. I remembered that it was intense, but I forgot that I was using a body that was better equipped almost a decade ago. Everything is starting to hurt more than just soreness, and my joints are screaming at me to stop the madness. I know that I do not have much cartilege in my left knee, but that is not the knee that hurts...of course.
In my younger days I would have seen the body aches as a hurdle over which I should climb, but I've seen too much. I don't want to get the news from my doctor in a few years that knee replacements are in my future (although I was told that at my last scope) It is probably an inevitable reality, but one that I can delay if I start listening to my body a little more.
So, what is my body saying? My body says that I most definitely need to exercise 4-5 times a week. I feel better, I am nicer to the people around me and I don't feel guilty about my biggest vice...ice cream! My body says that I have to stop pounding on my knees. As much as I love to run, hard runs or extremely long runs are probably not the best idea for me. I will stick with weighttraining programs, yoga, aerobics, walking, hiking, biking, swimming and the occasional jog. Plus, I keep threatening to learn how to rollerblade and ice skate. My kids will love that!
So, what I ended up doing this week for my workouts was tapping into the variety of options. I took two hard hikes with the kids (one of whom was riding in a backpack on my back)and a good quick run pushing the double-stroller. I can no longer justify dragging them to the track so that they can watch me inflict pain and suffering on myself. I am fairly certain that that is grounds for child abuse on some level.
Instead, I will incorporate a lot of my workouts into family activities, and when I get a chance, I will go for longer and more intense workouts.
The attempt this summer has taught me to better schedule my time for my own workouts, making them a priority instead of an afterthought. I am in better shape than when I started, and it is the beginning of what I hope to be a regular regimen. I am not in shape to compete against other players for a spot on a college soccer team, but I have used all of my eligibility anyway. I am in shape, however, to carry 15 bags of groceries up three flights of stairs, chase an eight and six-year-old with a wiggling two-year-old in my arms, hike for two hours with over fifty pounds on my back, play tag with three kids and my husband (even if I cannot get away from him), and push five kids in a double-stroller up several steep hills.
There is not much left of the workout to push through for those who are excited about the last week. It will prepare those who attempt it for what they are needing to do, and it did that for me!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Motherhood Trumps Training
Cross-training was forced upon me for last week's workouts, but I should be able to get back on track with the intervals this week. I suppose that there is a reason that 30-somethings who parent small children don't regularly take part in heavy training.
My son was involved with a daily camp last week that included a half-hour commute one way and then five hours of activity. I had the girls with me every day and I had to be creative about how I could get any workout in while my son was busy with his camp.
I was excited that there was a track on campus, but was quickly disappointed when I learned that it was closed to public use. So instead, I loaded my two-year-old into the hiking backpack and pushed my six-year-old in the stroller for a downtown jaunt. It probably totalled a two-mile, hilly walk that got my heart rate going, and my muscles were definitely sore the next day.
The other two workouts that I managed last week included running the two girls in our double stroller on a path that was generally uphill for the first mile and the weight of the stroller increased my heartrate significantly from previous runs. The girls got out to play at a park, and I found a bench there to do push-ups and dips. The last workout included pushing the double-stroller with two and sometimes three children, up and down a rocky and steep grade for over an hour.
They weren't the intense interval runs that I had hoped to complete last week, but my family is priority number one, and the needs of my kids came first last week. We are not having to leave town at all the next few days, and I'll be able to get back on track...literally.
My son was involved with a daily camp last week that included a half-hour commute one way and then five hours of activity. I had the girls with me every day and I had to be creative about how I could get any workout in while my son was busy with his camp.
I was excited that there was a track on campus, but was quickly disappointed when I learned that it was closed to public use. So instead, I loaded my two-year-old into the hiking backpack and pushed my six-year-old in the stroller for a downtown jaunt. It probably totalled a two-mile, hilly walk that got my heart rate going, and my muscles were definitely sore the next day.
The other two workouts that I managed last week included running the two girls in our double stroller on a path that was generally uphill for the first mile and the weight of the stroller increased my heartrate significantly from previous runs. The girls got out to play at a park, and I found a bench there to do push-ups and dips. The last workout included pushing the double-stroller with two and sometimes three children, up and down a rocky and steep grade for over an hour.
They weren't the intense interval runs that I had hoped to complete last week, but my family is priority number one, and the needs of my kids came first last week. We are not having to leave town at all the next few days, and I'll be able to get back on track...literally.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Know Your Limits
The second of the interval days was almost more painful than the first. This time it was my body that was hurting, instead of my ego. I managed to get the first two 400's in under the 82 seconds, and after the second one, I was fairly certain that I was done for the day.
I was doubled over in agony while my children sat in the shade of the building near the track. Kiana, my two-year old, asked, "Mom, what are you doing?"
I managed to get in, "I'm dying," between breaths.
Haley, my almost-six-year-old, aptly responded, "You know, you don't have to do this mom."
She was right, but I was too out of breath to finish the conversation with her, so instead I just nodded in agreement. I did one more 400 at my hardest pace and then jogged out the last two laps.
There is no reason that I should be doing this to myself, except that I just want to see what this old body can still do.
It has been an exercise in acceptance. As of right now, I am definitely improving with each time out to the track, but I highly doubt that I will come very close to what I could do as a college athlete. I've had to let go of the frustration that I often feel when I attempt to do something that used to come so easily for me. That is not where I am right now, and it is not what I can do.
There is a reason that the most competitive an average person can become happens around the college years. That is not to say that every athlete has the window close when they reach 22, but for most people, the limits start to close in. It is an exceptional athelete who can break swimming records at the age of 40, or play professional baseball well into the 50's. I'm not exceptional, and I am not breaking any records that matter.
I did, however, manage to get in 5 400's today for the first time this summer. I was able to get in two of them faster than 82 seconds and I ran the fifth one only one second slower than the one before. That is a good day for me. It is not what I could have done twelve years ago, but I am not who I was twelve years ago.
Some days will be better than others, and on those bad days I hope that I can just chalk it up as a bad day and start to get ready for the next one. My best is not good enough to compete with trained college athletes, but my goal has been to find my personal limit, and that is the best I can do.
I was doubled over in agony while my children sat in the shade of the building near the track. Kiana, my two-year old, asked, "Mom, what are you doing?"
I managed to get in, "I'm dying," between breaths.
Haley, my almost-six-year-old, aptly responded, "You know, you don't have to do this mom."
She was right, but I was too out of breath to finish the conversation with her, so instead I just nodded in agreement. I did one more 400 at my hardest pace and then jogged out the last two laps.
There is no reason that I should be doing this to myself, except that I just want to see what this old body can still do.
It has been an exercise in acceptance. As of right now, I am definitely improving with each time out to the track, but I highly doubt that I will come very close to what I could do as a college athlete. I've had to let go of the frustration that I often feel when I attempt to do something that used to come so easily for me. That is not where I am right now, and it is not what I can do.
There is a reason that the most competitive an average person can become happens around the college years. That is not to say that every athlete has the window close when they reach 22, but for most people, the limits start to close in. It is an exceptional athelete who can break swimming records at the age of 40, or play professional baseball well into the 50's. I'm not exceptional, and I am not breaking any records that matter.
I did, however, manage to get in 5 400's today for the first time this summer. I was able to get in two of them faster than 82 seconds and I ran the fifth one only one second slower than the one before. That is a good day for me. It is not what I could have done twelve years ago, but I am not who I was twelve years ago.
Some days will be better than others, and on those bad days I hope that I can just chalk it up as a bad day and start to get ready for the next one. My best is not good enough to compete with trained college athletes, but my goal has been to find my personal limit, and that is the best I can do.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Humility Comes with Age
The last of the long runs happened over the weekend, and there is much satisfaction in the completion of phase one of the conditioning program. It was only when I stepped out on the track for the first of the interval training sessions that I felt as old as I expected I would while doing these workouts.
I probably waited a little later in the morning than I had hoped because I refused to do the 400 meter runs with an audience of hundreds of high school football players. It was mid-day, with the heat that goes with it, when I headed out to run at least 4 times around the track with a timed expectation for each lap, and I was quickly reminded that I am no longer capable of training at the level I once did.
Humility happened with the very first lap. I came in at 93 seconds, and I was frustrated that I have forgotten how to pace faster. I got the second lap down to 85, but then every lap after that was slower than that. I had hoped to get the first two laps in under 82, and that will be my goal tomorrow when I give it another shot. I had hoped to do 5 laps, and that too will be a change to my effort.
I don't think as well when my heart rate is raised as high as it is on these timed 400's, and I have a much greater appreciation for how much better a younger body can accomplish these feats. I'm humbled by the challenge of these workouts, and I'm grateful to be humbled by this next phase of the workout.
I probably waited a little later in the morning than I had hoped because I refused to do the 400 meter runs with an audience of hundreds of high school football players. It was mid-day, with the heat that goes with it, when I headed out to run at least 4 times around the track with a timed expectation for each lap, and I was quickly reminded that I am no longer capable of training at the level I once did.
Humility happened with the very first lap. I came in at 93 seconds, and I was frustrated that I have forgotten how to pace faster. I got the second lap down to 85, but then every lap after that was slower than that. I had hoped to get the first two laps in under 82, and that will be my goal tomorrow when I give it another shot. I had hoped to do 5 laps, and that too will be a change to my effort.
I don't think as well when my heart rate is raised as high as it is on these timed 400's, and I have a much greater appreciation for how much better a younger body can accomplish these feats. I'm humbled by the challenge of these workouts, and I'm grateful to be humbled by this next phase of the workout.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Go Where the Path Leads
I've always enjoyed learning about an area or town by taking a good, long run. It is so much easier to get a sense of a place when you run or walk through it rather than quickly drive by. Castle Rock, Colorado is not a new place to me, but it is like new every summer that we return here. Starting the endurance portion of the workouts has been a bit of an adventure, but now that I have only two long runs left, the path is getting worn a bit.
When you run someplace new you don't yet know exactly where you are going, and you cannot dread what you have left. Now that I have a path carved out that lasts the 45 minutes I need to complete it, I find myself thinking about those hills I have yet to climb, that wind-blown area and that intersection that slows me down.
The path today seemed a little harder and I enjoyed it less than I have the last two weeks. That means it is time for me to shake it up. I need a new path with different scenery and an entirely new perspective. So tomorrow I will run a new path, one that leads to the feeling of satisfaction, but that I can enjoy along the way too.
I have been really happy with the way the runs have gone so far. I shaved thirty seconds off the 7-lap test at the end of last week, and I am grateful for the building endurance because I've needed it on a couple of the hikes we've taken where my youngest has had to be carried in the backpack. I want to look forward to these last two runs because I know that the workouts are going to start to intensify and I won't be able to simply enjoy the scenery.
When you run someplace new you don't yet know exactly where you are going, and you cannot dread what you have left. Now that I have a path carved out that lasts the 45 minutes I need to complete it, I find myself thinking about those hills I have yet to climb, that wind-blown area and that intersection that slows me down.
The path today seemed a little harder and I enjoyed it less than I have the last two weeks. That means it is time for me to shake it up. I need a new path with different scenery and an entirely new perspective. So tomorrow I will run a new path, one that leads to the feeling of satisfaction, but that I can enjoy along the way too.
I have been really happy with the way the runs have gone so far. I shaved thirty seconds off the 7-lap test at the end of last week, and I am grateful for the building endurance because I've needed it on a couple of the hikes we've taken where my youngest has had to be carried in the backpack. I want to look forward to these last two runs because I know that the workouts are going to start to intensify and I won't be able to simply enjoy the scenery.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
