Transitions

I saw this poor crow on Summit one morning. I wonder how
he ended up sitting so perfectly. 

It seems fitting, somehow, talking about transitions on February 29th.

The last two months have been a transition period for me.

First, it has literally been the transition period of my training. I have been using the training log from "Training for the New Alpinism." While not specifically running-oriented, there are a number of aspects I like about it. First, it breaks everything down into sections (Transition, Base, Specific, and Peak).  There is an annual training plan involved, but it is flexible enough that I feel that I can adapt it to whatever situation comes up in my training.

The transition period has been one of general strength and general fitness. I have gotten noticeably stronger, and trimmer, since starting the transition period. I don't think that I have lost weight, but I certainly have lost the (admittedly limited) fat around my waist. I have not upped my running volume as much as I had originally planned, only reaching 30 or so miles per week, but I have increased it by about 50% over the coasting training I had been doing up until January. And this is with a hiatus at the beginning of February when I pulled my groin (apparently).

The second transition has been into Parkour again. For the month of January, we went once a week, for an hour or so. Into February, we entered a new class level, and started going twice a week, and occasionally for longer periods of time. Now, with the class schedule changing a little, it looks like we might push that up again to three times per week, depending on how we feel. Again, I fully believe that Parkour makes me a better, or at least more injury-proof, trail runner. It increases my strength and agility, and at the same time gives me more options to get around any obstacles that may come up.

I may have to do some obstacle races this year.

Moving on into base training, it's time to focus more on time on my feet, and getting 1-2 specific workouts in each week. I think Fartlek runs and LT runs are again going to be my staples. And I will certainly be throwing some hill workouts into the mix.

More to come, certainly. I hope to have more pictures, and maybe a video or two, in the coming months.

An Update

Last Ice Beard of the season (probably)

I have been quite awful about keeping up with this blog lately. Not surprisingly, this has coincided with a bit of a reduction in my running, due to several factors.

The primary motivating factor happened several weeks ago now. I recently started in on Parkour training again, in addition to my running and climbing (climbing has fallen off lately, but that's ok). After a few weeks of this, I got a sudden, sharp pain in my groin that would not go away. Knowing my family history, I assumed it was a hernia and stopped running.

Sure enough, I went to the doctor, and he found a (small) hernia. He said it was tiny, and didn't necessarily need any surgery, or even a reduction in my current workout routine. Nonetheless, running was pretty uncomfortable for a week or so, and I dropped off considerably for a while.

I made an appointment with a surgeon, to see what the benefits and drawbacks of getting surgery immediately (read: in the off-season) might be. Lo and behold, at the appointment, the surgeon found no sign of a hernia at all! I was feeling better, and so tried to get back into running a full schedule again.

Pike Island Skiing. Snow's gone now. 

I have also now upped my Parkour workouts from once a week to twice a week. While these are not running-specific workouts, I think over all they considerably help me in my trail running. They certainly boost my overall power, with the jumping and vaulting involved. I also think the increase my resistance to injury. There are so many different forces coming from so many different angles that my legs adapt to more situations. Hopefully this will translate into running.

Even if it doesn't, I enjoy Parkour too much to quit.

Did I mention I also do two strength workouts a week?

With all of that, my running workouts have suffered a bit, both in distance and in intensity. But now my body seems to be adjusting to the increased workload, and I'm hoping that in the next few weeks I can begin to up my running time again. At the very least, I need to start getting in a longish run on Saturday morning, and a fartlek or similar sometime during the week.

As is this snow.