Earlier this week the sunny autumn weather inspired me to run again after a 30 year hiatus. The fitness I have maintained in the meantime provided me with some cardio base. Nevertheless, the first day, Monday, I half ran, half walked up the hill that begins my route. While I ran, I set my sights on some distant point to push myself, and resisted the urge to resume walking until I reached it.
On Tuesday, one of my daughters went out for a run she's been doing off and on for awhile. After her foray, she announced that she had run all the way for the first time. High five. That was enough to motivate me to try the same when I ran again on Wednesday. I paced myself, took smaller steps, and managed to run all the uphill section. Not wanting shin splints, both Monday and Wednesday I walked the steep declines, then picked up the pace on the flats.
Today, Friday, the glorious days of variegated green, yellow and gold against blue sky have yielded to a low pressure ridge of grey, which started to unfold itself last night and has now firmly settled in. I almost caved to the urge to keep low myself. Luckily, my energetic son, who runs regularly, was around to accompany me in my weakness. I was worried that he would find my pace slow, but he was ok with it. Although, one km before the corner we would turn to go downhill, he ran ahead and did 50+ push ups until I caught up.
Going downhill, I ran a bit more this time, thinking of shins, then my son suddenly turned around and started running backwards. So then did I. In my previous blog on walking, I mention the value of walking backwards and upping the ante with running backwards. Running backward downhill confers no less benefit. It takes the stress off the knee and iliotibial band, and both strengthens and stretches the calves and hamstrings, which are engaged eccentrically ie to slow the load of your body as your heel falls to the ground. Once we were off the hill we also did a few stretches-for the gastrocnemius and soleus (calf) muscles, the quads and hamstrings. Thus mitigating the prospect of future discomfort we applied our senses to the splendour of our surroundings, the view of Burrard Inlet, the shore line as we approached it, the playing fields by the beach, then the myriad wood chip strewn paths which we randomly took through the woods. At his point, our run took on the spirit of a small adventure until we emerged back to the street and made our way home.
On Tuesday, one of my daughters went out for a run she's been doing off and on for awhile. After her foray, she announced that she had run all the way for the first time. High five. That was enough to motivate me to try the same when I ran again on Wednesday. I paced myself, took smaller steps, and managed to run all the uphill section. Not wanting shin splints, both Monday and Wednesday I walked the steep declines, then picked up the pace on the flats.
Today, Friday, the glorious days of variegated green, yellow and gold against blue sky have yielded to a low pressure ridge of grey, which started to unfold itself last night and has now firmly settled in. I almost caved to the urge to keep low myself. Luckily, my energetic son, who runs regularly, was around to accompany me in my weakness. I was worried that he would find my pace slow, but he was ok with it. Although, one km before the corner we would turn to go downhill, he ran ahead and did 50+ push ups until I caught up.
Going downhill, I ran a bit more this time, thinking of shins, then my son suddenly turned around and started running backwards. So then did I. In my previous blog on walking, I mention the value of walking backwards and upping the ante with running backwards. Running backward downhill confers no less benefit. It takes the stress off the knee and iliotibial band, and both strengthens and stretches the calves and hamstrings, which are engaged eccentrically ie to slow the load of your body as your heel falls to the ground. Once we were off the hill we also did a few stretches-for the gastrocnemius and soleus (calf) muscles, the quads and hamstrings. Thus mitigating the prospect of future discomfort we applied our senses to the splendour of our surroundings, the view of Burrard Inlet, the shore line as we approached it, the playing fields by the beach, then the myriad wood chip strewn paths which we randomly took through the woods. At his point, our run took on the spirit of a small adventure until we emerged back to the street and made our way home.
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