More training notes

Hail my running brothers and sisters! I'm about a week and a half back into my strength training, and I'm pretty pissed. Apparently while I was training for my marathon, someone replaced my arms with spaghetti. And though I want to blame anyone else for this predicament, I'm afraid that I can only blame me. The sacrifice for all my speed and distance work was a marked decline in my overall strength. Sure I can run a sub-7 mile, but ask me to open a jar of pickles and we may have a problem. On Monday, I decided to see how many pull-ups I could do, and I quickly learned that I couldn't even cheat my way through 2! Ugh. It is truly sad that as I type this, my arms are so sore that I have to keep them bent at 45 degree angles lest I wish to deal with the stabbing pain of my tight forearm muscles. Still I'm looking forward to getting back to the Y tomorrow.

And for those of you asking where's the running stuff, never let it be said that I did not provide. I was thinking about my running style and form. For awhile I was trying the Pose method/Chirunning. While I did like this running form, it did not feel totally comfortable. Taking bits and pieces of it, I've decided that I'm more of a running economist. I prefer my running to be efficient and economical, the least amount of motion to obtain the most amount of gain. Keep your arms in tight, not a lot of swing outward; short, quick strides; mid-foot striking; and some forward lean but generally a tall, straight back. That being said, I'm still working on pace control. My biggest issue is still going out too fast and burning myself up early. Usually I can limp to a finish, but I would much rather do negative splits (who wouldn't, right?). So for now, I'm doing more speed work, more fartleks (let the jokes begin), and hill sprints. I hate hill sprints, but it should toughen my legs up for the abuse that I'm putting them through next year.

For those of you have asked what I have planned next, I've got a general idea of my plans for the rest of the year and next. I'm doing the Clarksville 1/2 marathon on 11/7/09 and a 5k in December. I may pick up a couple more short races before the holidays, but those are the only 2 that I'm definitely doing. The plan for next year is the Knoxville 1/2 marathon in March as a lead into the Country Music Marathon in April. Then the Peachtree 10k in July and then I'm planning on doing the Nashville Ultramarathon in October. I haven't decided on whether I'm doing 50k and 60k yet, so we'll see. I'm hoping that I can get in another marathon before October, but doing one in the summer may be pretty dumb. Other than that, I'll probably pick up smaller 5k's and 10k's along the way. If you hear of one close by, let me know and I'll try to come out with you! Good luck and godspeed.