What a week. Lots to get done and go through, class assignments are picking up which makes it feel like I don’t have as much time to devote to running and tracking my progress. This week I worked on my form. I am no where near perfect but I am doing better than I was last week: no more hip and knee pain, lessened pain for my back and shoulder. I cannot definitively say what helped, but some of the stuff I tried was:

• Stretching
• Less running – down to two days a week
• Continuing with HIIT and free weights
• Actively recovering on rest days

The stretching is something I have been doing my best at implementing, but it is also the first thing to fall off the list when I’m busy. By taking my running down to two days a week I am able to allow my muscles, tendons, and joints to have a proper amount of rest. We’ve discussed my use of HIIT, I have a very low cardio capacity and I have found that HIIT exercises help me in that regard. Something new I have been doing is using active recovery for my rest days. Active recovery is when you use your rest days to give you body and muscles a rest while completing low impact exercises: a short and easy hike, a leisurely walk or bike ride with the dog, etc.

Due to the change in form my running speed has gone down this week. it is at about 8 min/km. However, I am able to run longer distances at one time without pain when using proper form. Next week I am not going to hold myself to a set number of days. If I feel good I will run more, and if I don’t feel good I will run what I can. I am learning to listen to my body through this running journey.

Next week I will be:

• Sharing stats
• Updating you on my use of applications to track my running
• Trying out a trail run using AllTrails
• Finding a good running podcast

Until next week,

Happy Running!