First week down

If you try to push an upgrade before your body is ready, you're asking for trouble. Any upgrades need to be proposed by the mind, but ratified by the body.

~ Danny Drayer in Chi Running. Quote courtesy of the Phedippidations podcast.

After taking much of the summer off, I have a training schedule and I am back to running again. I have put a solo half marathon on the calendar next weekend, and may run a marathon in December.

Typically in training, you want to slowly ramp up the mileage so your body has time to adapt. Conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't increase your weekly mileage by more than 10% week to week. But since I didn't do much the last couple of months, I am now cramming for finals. Here are the run totals for the last six weeks:

0
6
3
6
7
18.25

This is pretty much a recipe for injury. I ran 8 miles this evening, and my legs are kind of tight. Tomorrow morning will be the real test. Hopefully my body will respond well to the quick ramp up.

Late night cramming was the order of the day when I was in school. I managed to make it work, but it is definitely not the best way for lasting results. I needed the shock to the system to get me moving again. Now it is time for slow and steady progress.