...using deodorant hurts.
I mean, it really hurts. As in, your armpits go, "Oh my god, why are you beating me with a stick?!"
Well. I guess we can say that the 55 minutes of strenth training was effective. I haven't felt this sore since I played "let's see how many times Mommy can jump up and down" with baby Karalyn.
She won. That's how pathetic my jumping skills are.
Anyway, my lofty and high-minded goal of heading to the Y for another run workout today had to be sidelined. It's hard to run when you can't move your arms. Or your quads, for that matter.
I suppose it's to be expected. I have been doing little weight-lifting routines the past couple weeks, but I haven't really gone all-out, as my trainer Isaiah in Maine taught me to do. He was very specific about which exercises, which weights, and how many sets and reps (2 sets at 12 reps each) that I needed to do to gain strength.
He was also very specific in telling me that I should never do the same thing two days in a row...and that a day of rest is required to let your body heal and get stronger after an all-out effort.
That's what today has become: rest and repair.
Anyway, thankfully I'm a bit of a Cybex nut in that I remember exactly which machines he taught me to use, in which order, and at which settings, even though he taught me this stuff over a year ago.
But why weightlifting? If I'm running, wouldn't it stand to reason that I wouldn't want to bulk up?
You would think that would be the case, but this is when the beauty of being a women actually gives us an advantage.
Women don't bulk up.
Don't believe it when people say, "Oh, if you lift weights, you'll bulk up like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Barry Bonds." (OK, admittedly, at least one of those guys used steroids...) Women simply do not bulk up that way. We don't have the testosterone that is required, for one. For a more thorough examination as to why women don't bulk up, read this.
So it turns out that lifting weights is an important part of being a runner. I had no idea; Isaiah had told me that weight lifting would help my muscles stay lean, strong and healthy, and that would help me be a good runner, but it wasn't until I visited an orthopedic surgeon in York, Maine that I got a real wakeup call.
I went to see him in the late fall of 2007. I was experiencing knee pain--not when I ran, but when I sat at my 2nd job at William Arthur, putting decorative touches like bows and ribbons on special-ordered greeting cards and announcements. I tended to sit with my ankles crossed, which made my knees kind of splay out...and my left knee would hurt so badly that I couldn't even walk for a few minutes. Oddly, though, running helped it feel better.
The doctor put me through a full range-of-motion test, and after a thorough examination, declared that there was nothing wrong with my knee. But he cautioned me before I left.
"You need to start lifting weights," he said. "Strength training is essential, especially for runners. And," he added, "if you don't do it, I guarantee you, 100%, you will be back to see me with some real knee problems in the future."
Wow. Who knew.
So yesterday, thinking that it was high time I got my strength training going for real, I went to the Y with Karalyn. She's allowed to be in child care for 90 minutes, so rather than walk first, then fit in the strength training, I flipped them. I did the strength training first, although I did do a 5-minute warmup walk first as Isaiah had trained me.
It took about 55 minutes. I can't even begin to tell you all the weights I used, but I exercised pretty much every part of my body except my stomach. I hate crunches, much as I know I should be doing them, especially as a strong core is essential to running.
The strength training is good for more than just proper running form or for a strong, lean physique. It also helps you keep good posture. Think that's not a biggie? Think again. Twice in my life I've had to have Physical Therapy to lengthen the muscles in my chest and shorten them in my back, due to hunching my shoulders forward...granted, it was while breastfeeding, but it's common to end up in that position while on a computer as well. Doing PT exercises and hearing your chest go "crunch" when you straighten up are not fun things!
Anyway, as I noted yesterday, I also spent some time walking and sprinting. Sprints are good for speed training, and they also act like metabolic boosters by ramping up calorie-burning. You burn a lot of calories when you walk, you burn more when you run, but you really torch them when you add high-speed bursts to walking or running.
Not that the goal of an athlete is necessarily calorie-burning; it's training, first and foremost. But sometimes training includes reducing a gut that you let build up (guilty!) due to holidays, stress, or injury. That's when the calorie-burning becomes somewhat more important.
So today I am feeling it. It hurts to be in almost any position. But it's not hideously painful, it's more like a dull ache than a sharp OUCH...except when I used that deodorant this morning.
THAT hurt.
Guess those pullups and dips I did, along with the rowing and delts and all the other stuff really made a difference, huh?
Dean Karnazes says in his book, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of An All-Night Runner, "Pain is the body's way of ridding itself of weakness."
The book also says, "If it comes easy, if it doens't require extraordinary effort, you're not pushing hard enough. It's supposed to hurt like hell." "
OK, Karno. Gotcha.
Apparently, I'm doing something right.
Have fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment