1st day “back”

I’m back to following a plan. I still don’t know what the main goal will be for this winter/early spring (i.e. which race we’re going to exactly target), but it feels so good to be at least working hard toward something.

Yesterday was the start of my strength plan and my first tempo run. Both felt great. I did the tempo work on the treadmill since the wind was gusting to 60 mph. I hate the treadmill. My hamstring hates it too. I did 3×1 mile at 6:00 pace with 1 minute rest, the first without incline, the next 2 at 2% grade. Felt easy. I would have done more, but I could tell I was running a little differently because of my hamstring on the last one. Hate that. It’s an old injury that left me with some scar tissue — and it always comes back when I’m going up tempo on a treadmill. UGH.

Then Nate and I went through my strength routine. Wow! I think this is going to make a HUGE difference for me. Honestly. Even though I look like I’m strong, I’m really not. The plan called for 12-25 reps of each, 2 sets of 9 different exercises. It kicked my butt, and I only did about 12 reps of each. During the last few, I exclaimed, “Seriously… I’m going to be doing this 3x a week for the next year?!?” Guess I’ve never done much strength training before, so the thought of doing this, often, for a year, is a little daunting. Is this the way non-runners feel when they’re starting a long training program? Excited about what it’ll do, but intimidated by the time it’ll take? Wondering how you’ll ever stick to it all?

He replied back, “Yeah — think of how much stronger you’re going to be!”. How true!! Again, I think this is going to make a really big difference in my running (and ability to stay injury-free).