Evaluating your training

It snows in Maryland. Alot more than I thought it would.

We've had 4 or 5 snows this month which has made running outside difficult. I don't care how cold it is, but when it comes to snow and ice on the trails that's where I draw the line. I have not the experience nor the bravery to try running in it. I'd rather not take the chance of falling and injuring myself, taking myself out of the game completely. Last week I did the treadmill thing on the gym, which wasn't bad for 2-3 mile interval runs but the thought of a steady state long distance run on it makes me very flustered! Plus driving to the gym for a run seems silly when I can just slip out my door.

It snowed on Monday and it's been pretty cold since. My husband and I walked on the trail a couple nights ago and there were only a few ice patches. I figured with how sunny it's been they would have melted by now. So today I went out in the 17 degree weather for my interval run. Well it ended up being alot icier than I thought. This was a day when I probably should have gone to the gym to run. But hell I was already dressed up and on the trail, might as well do what I could with it. I sprinted where I could but ended up walking alot more than I wanted to. I probably could have gotten more out of my session at the gym. Oh well, lesson learned for next time.

The last couple weeks have been a focus on HIIT strength training. It's been fun and all, but I am really missing my heavy lifting. This type of training is strenuous and testing my limits in a different way - I am building endurance and cardio strength. However I feel like I'm losing upper body strength. So next week I'm going back to lifting but with a few changes... instead of going body builder style and splitting upper body into 2 days, I'm doing this

Monday - legs/core
Wednesday - upper body
Friday - HIIT strength

This should allow me to train my whole body heavy yet at the same time get some plyo and power work done.


Oh, I also have good news (sort of?) I was at the doctor last week and at the end of my visit I asked her to refer me to a knee doctor. It feels clicky and weak at times and it pulls on my hamstring and calf. She grabbed my knee, moved it around a whole bunch, then said she didn't feel anything wrong with it. She thinks it's probably my patella and I need to strengthen the muscles around the area. This was my theory as well. Obviously I do strength train my legs heavily which has helped alot... I'm just concerned with the possibility of it getting worse when I increase my mileage and start running races again. I guess I'll keep my eye on it but it's a bit of a relief to hear the doc say nothing appears to be wrong.