WEIGHING IN on the WEIGHT ROOM and other topics...

I left the weight room a few hours ago and can't help but feel:

• on a RUSH to be back at it consistently
• satisfied to have put up some heavier loads than last session (still not squatting my body weight, but doing high rep)
• amazed (still) at Abby's video of herself doing 9 (yes 9!) consecutive pull-ups
• and also curious...to see if I'll be able to hit my easy pace time zone tomorrow...or if I'll be too sore with DOMS.  Here is an interesting link to an article on DOMS that I read recently.

I believe that to reach my full potential, I need to be using the weight room or doing some other type of forms/plyometrics similar in design.

I may have mentioned this before on here, but I was very fortunate to go to a larger high school that had a no-nonsense weight lifting class offered for PE. This is a skill I enjoy and hope to keep using well into my white-hair years-- to keep from being the hunch-back of Small Town. For now, I hope it gives me the power I need to build more speed.

How much can it help? I am not really sure what the answer to that question is.

If I were a man, I am not sure I would be in the weight room at all. I might do as Pfitz suggests, and just offer my legs up to hill work. (Don't worry- I still do plenty of those- just not as repeats for strength training.) After all, men have to worry about such things as testosterone and I am pretty sure I don't have much of that!  (Last I checked anyway).

So, since building massive amounts of muscle is out of the picture, I am free to use the barbells and dumbbells and other machines to develop balanced muscles in both legs, hips, abdomen, arms, etc...
I must confess this is of concern to me, since I tore a hip running hills in late '09 4 months after Levi was born. Part of me thinks that my body might have been (and could still be) off-balance from carrying a baby on one hip (my left) most of the day.

Will I be able to hit those paces tomorrow? Maybe. . .. For the first few weeks I was back at the weights, I cannot tell you how fatigued I felt during running- even on my easy days. It wasn't until after the next couple of runs got fresh blood through my legs, (and all those upper-body muscles I forgot I had) that I felt relieved. Just in time to do the next weight workout.

I may be a little sore at first tomorrow- or more likely on Saturday for my (short) long run.  Regardless, I have been in it now for 4 weeks and I will stick with it until my taper. (Then I am not really sure what to do! I am guessing to ease up) The fatigue seems to be going away in the upper-body, and the legs feel like what (I imagine) normal marathon training stress should feel like. This gives me hope for a big dividend in store!

For my running readers: How do you like the weight room?  How do you work strength training into your running schedule?

My pattern is to lift after a hard work out, like a tempo or intervals and/or when I know that I don't have that type of run the following day.
I do a variety including lunges, squats, calf raisers, bench press, lat pulls, bent row, upright row, arm curls, cleans, shoulder press. The other days I try to do some basic stuff, like ab work, push-ups, chair dips, no-weight squats & lunges.

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I didn't mean to make this entire post about the weight room. Oops! Blah!! Hope I didn't lose you!!

In other news, my husband has recently declared he will be doing a 5k "soon" and is running on the TM downstairs!!

This is very exciting, as he used to run a pretty decent mile, but at present weighs 210 and would like to drop about 10 pounds. He doesn't think he can get much below that number "without feeling the effects of starvation" as he put it.  Haha.

So the training is on! His and her schedules: me in the morning, he after the kids go to bed.

I must also mention that he thinks the TM must have some sort of "break-away" feature on it to keep a 215 lb guy from running fast. Well...I should say he can run fast, but the belt slips.  It has never given me any problems, ??? though the screen is a bit tough to read. Maybe I need to go test it out to make sure he didn't break it =D.

This gets me to thinking about the Biggest Loser show. (And here is where you find out how sheltered a life I live- I saw my first full episode (ever) of BL online this week.) I am now caught up and will watch the whole season. You just can't help but root for each and every one of those people to succeed!

Analyze My Stride? *With Video*

Things have been pretty ho-hum around here this week. I finally broke down and visited my doctor. It's amazing how antibiotics and sudafed (prescription in our state) decrease appetite and provide all sorts of energy reserves! Getting a full nights rest helps too...Which is why I ended up on the treadmill today.

As I headed to the TM, I was thinking of what a valuable resource videos can be for training advice (thanks Janae!) .  And so I decided today would be THE PERFECT day for me to get some help from my readers...all 5 of them...by taking some footage and posting it here for expert analysis.

Here it is! Maybe you can give me some feedback on what to correct so this knee/hip/arm thing can get taken care of. =D


Well, hopefully someone was able to review that and trouble-shoot for me. Special thanks to Nathan, the 5 year-old cameraman in training.
So. On a more serious note...

One of my more paranoid concerns in running is the potential to develop a stress fracture. Here's a couple of questions to you: Are you scared of potential injury? and What do you do to prevent injury? I know I am not doing enough, but here's what I am doing:

• Stretching (very minimal- maybe 5-10 minutes a day after running)
• Rolling with my redneck foam roller (I try to do this daily, but more like 4-5 days a week)
• Eating high calcium foods (like lowfat cottage cheese, drinking milk as a recovery drink, leafy greens)
• Taking calcium supplements in addition to a regular multi-vitamin
• If I run longer than 16 miles I am pretty good about ice baths afterwards, as long as I have the time :/ .

1,500 points to the first person to correctly identify the brand of arm warmer I am wearing here. :)

Here's a hint: one is missing and might be in the sock drawer. (Please don't laugh at my bicep!... Or my fashion sense.)

Special best wishes to all racers this weekend, including Little Fruit Fly and NattyBumpo. And a BIG thank you to P at Adventures of an Average Athlete for the sweet necklace I won yesterday!!

And, if you are in the least bit curious, I am still undecided about what I will do for Boston training. The clock is ticking and I don't have much time for reading- so I am starting to lean towards PFitz- just because his book says you can start his plan and then start reading his book =D Great work ethic, huh?