Well, hello there...
Fancy meeting you here. Been a little bit since I have been here but have continued working towards getting back into marathon shape and have made some modifications to my training based on what I have been learning in class.
First step in this process was to go visit one of my professors in the field of physical conditioning, the wonderful Dixie Stanforth. She and her husband, Phil, have been teaching the Physiological Basics of Human Conditioning at UT for 25+ years. They are great and filled with tons of technical knowledge that can help make decent athletes good, and good ones great.
I don't know what category on that spectrum I fall, but I know they will be able to increase my training regimen and make me better.
She gave me some ideas for how to increase my stamina and endurance. The main idea was to increase my intensity at least once a week by doing an interval run on a hill. I actually did this today and, let me tell you, it was tough. I attempted to sprint up a hill 10 times with the walk back down being my recovery time. At 5, I was incredibly winded and starting to feel the twinges in my calves and hip flexors. I decided to do one more and call it a day.
I do feel as if i can gain on this and am happy that I have a baseline for improvement. These interval runs will become my Friday morning staple. Six is my bottom, the only way to go is up from there.
What I am trying to gain with these interval runs is an increased stroke volume, meaning, I am trying to increase the amount of blood per stroke that my heart pushes out to provide oxygen to my muscles so that they may maintain their ability to work at a high level.
In order to find a limit for this production level, I also went to have my overall fitness tested and now know where I need to improve certain aspects of my fitness. I will go over all of these results tomorrow with you, but now it's time to get back to school.
Total miles for the week(so far): 5 with 2 runs planned tomorrow and Sunday.
Week goal: 12
Miles left: 7
I still haven't figured what full races I plan on doing this year, but am going to do a half sometime this spring semester. Am hoping that the run the Big D half again because that one was quick and easy. That is on my goal sheet for next week.
Have a wonderful and safe Friday out there.
