Don't You Forget About Me.

One day, I was happy running easy with my weekly run crew and would add a few more easy runs throughout the week. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, As I started on an easy run one Wednesday evening, I made a left turn and said, "Fuck it, I'm doing some hill repeats."

Over the last few years, I learned that my body and mind would tell me when I am ready to get back to training. Can you relate to this? After your goal race, not only are your legs tired, but your mind is also too. That first week post race with NO workouts on the calendar hit different right?

You might have feelings of guilt, choosing to not run, or choosing to run less. Routine you've built over the last several months, the time you now have back, the fitness you've built up, you don't want to lose it, you don't want those hard workouts you've adapted to feel hard again, or struggle to hit paces you are all too familiar with.

Really, it is okay. It is okay to lose a bit of that running fitness, it is okay to let go of that routine. Preparing for a race, or a series of races is a big commitment, and often there is compromise. Less weekends with late nights, sleep ins, or tv. Between work, family, and life commitments, adding in race specific training plan means somethings got to give, and now its time to take it back.

We put our heart into training, and when it is done, we need to put our hearts back with other areas of life that we have neglected, and with some of that free time, go ahead and find other ways to move!

Less running, more strength training, more cross training, other activities. Learn to miss running. This is what the first 6 weeks of the year looked like for me. Running less, and more time in the gym. Focusing on strength and mobility, running when I wanted to, and enjoying more time with Priyanka and Ruby. That night, where I decided to do hill repeats instead of a 30-35 min easy run, it was rough, especially the first few repeats. The next week, the repeats got a little easier, the week after the same, you get the idea.

12 Month weekly milage chart from my Strava, Guess when my offseason started?

Your fitness will come back, maybe even better than ever!  We trusted the process to get us in race shape, it is no different when we take some time away. 

Distance makes the heart grow fonder after all.

Workout of the week: Hill Repeats.

Yes, hills suck, but they like every Instagram fitness influencer, Coach, book, app tell you, it is a great way to build fitness, and quick. It is my favourite "rust buster" workout. I'll lean on this type of workout at the start of a season and come back to regularly with variations in length, or repeats.

Let's keep it easy - After a good warmup, find a hill you can run up for 20-30 seconds, do this at a hard effort, and ease into it, do not go all out immediately, but look to finish the last 1 or 2 reps as strong as you can. Walk down the hill for your recovery. Repeat 6-8 times and flush those legs out with a cool-down run.

See ya next time.

Jay P