The Step-Master

This past weekend was my most difficult, and by that I mean physically trying, run yet. 12 miles brought me close to my braking point, but I made it through with the support of my teammates. This past Sunday also marked the first time that I have ever taken an ice bath...

My mom and little brother were in the San Jose area for the waterpolo Junior Olympics, where my brother's team was competing. I spent Saturday there with them, ran Sunday morning, and intended to go back and spend the rest of Sunday with my family. Well, after running 12 miles I didn't feel like I'd be able to make it up the stairs to my front door! When I finally got home I ran a very cold bath and asked Adam to run to the corner store and pick up a bag of ice. Yup, that's right, I took and ICE BATH. Can you ever imagine an instance when an ICE BATH would feel good? No? Well, start training for a marathon and you'll see the appeal. So, I sat in the tub of cold water and ice for a few minutes, and my muscles began to ease. After 5 minutes I got up to take a regular shower and readjust my body temperature to normal. I was relatively mobile and normal the remainder of the day! It was amazing.

Now ice baths will be a regular occurrence after my longer runs. But, it'll be at least 2 weeks before another long run. After running 12 miles the pace of our training changes. We go from gradually increasing our mileage every week to a sort of step-system. For instance, this past week I ran 12 miles, next week I will run 6, the week after 14, and the week after that 7. This step-system is meant to help us build our endurance (on the longer runs) and our strength (on the shorter runs). I think it'll be a bit of a mental shock to have such drastic jumps in mileage from week to week, but oh well. I'm not going to start second guessing the system.

So, 6 miles this week, 14 miles next week.