Tuesday, September 15, 2020

2.5-Hour LSD (25.8 K)

Sept.15, 2020

25.8 K: 2:30:23

The temperature dropped to 20 degrees Celsius or thereabout. It almost felt a bit chilly before warming up, though once I settled into a steady pace, it just felt perfect for a long slow midnight run.

I listened to the audio of two fitness videos by Jeff Caveliere. Jeff is a former New York Mets physical therapist. He is the producer of the Athlene-X fitness program. He offers countless free videos on You Tube around the theme of fitness and functional strength. I personally feel the variations of exercises he introduces are a bit too many, and not good for someone like me who loves simplicity. But nonetheless I enjoy watching his videos because of the clarity by which he explains the scientific aspects of exercise. He is very learned in his field of expertise, and his reasoning is very convincing, though at time I feel intimidated by the technicality of his fitness vocabulary, which I presume he chooses to use extensively in order to project a high degree of authority to his advanced audience which I'm not a member of.

Anyway, back to talking about my run tonight, it was awesome. Up until 20 K I felt like I was flying, though I wasn't running fast; I was jogging. But breathing was easy and the legs felt light, mainly because I had my home-made sports drink in my backpack, and hydrated myself at regular intervals, which helped to recharge my body's batteries. 


With 3.5 K remaining, though, I felt I had run out of gas, so I stopped by a convenience store. I wondered if I should by a sweet sports drink or frozen blueberries. I went for the latter because they are healthier. 


A mouthful of frozen blueberries gave me the energy to cover the remaining 3.5 K. Thanks to the aqua shoes with little cushioning my running form was kept right throughout the training tonight. With little cushioning to absorb the impact of landing you must run to buffer it entirely with your leg joints and their supporting muscles and tendons. This is a big incentive for my body to choose the bio-mechanically most reasonably running form. (So I hope.)

I'm glad the long absence of training while my right feet was in pain didn't set me back so much in terms of my ability to run a long distance. 

3 comments:

  1. if I may ask, what arm/ upper body workouts do you do? I've noticed that I focus too much on my lower body there's an imbalance in strength. It seems unfair that my legs and abdomen are strong. You could say the only parts I use are my wrist and occasionally my arm 'cause I'm a high schooler (and an artist haha.)

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    Replies
    1. What's up, Minty. Good to hear from you. Well, arm & upper body workouts...Good question. As a citizen runner, I don't want to be too bulky. All the extra weight in the upper body is simply a handicap for running a long distance fast. But yet as an aging man, I don't want to look too bony and thin. So I do train my upper body, and some of the things I do are the following:
      1) Lying pull-ups
      When you run, you swing your arms backward. Lying pull-ups allow you develop the muscles recruited in this movement.
      2) Hand-stand
      This is my main shoulder workout. It allows you to hold your arms high while running. Look how east-African female marathoners keep their arms nice and high during the race.
      Miscellaneous: For some other training I do to train my arm/upper body, please check out this you tube video I shared recently:
      https://youtu.be/aoeRvOhUHfw
      Note the fourth exercise from the beginning is called back cross extension. You lie on your stomach and raise one arm while raising one leg in the diagonal position, switch, and then raise all arms and legs, and repeat. This is one of many exercises that Sydney Olympics Women's Marathon gold medalist Naoko Takahasi did to be No. 1 in the Games. I highly recommend you to do it.

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    2. o thank you! I started doing headstands this week! I never expected them to be easy, they always looked intimidating. I'll tackle the rest of the exercises next week.

      I'll be sure to check out other marathoner's exercises once I'm free from my studies. Thanks for the advice again!

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