No Pain – No Gain

Since skiing season ended a few months back and I now have my weekends back to my running routine, I’ve been feeling really good.  My running condition is the best it’s been for over a year now.  I consistently keep up with my Monday/Wednesday/Friday runs and on the weekend we have been increasing our distances and are now at 2 hours again.  I think that 2 hours is a nice distance to be at with no particular goals in mind.

My body has felt fine through all the runs and even my first 2 hour run felt great and I recovered well.  But last Sunday, we did our 2 hour run on soft bark mulch through one of our urban forests. It’s only been a few years since our last marathon and I remember the feeling well and that was it.  After 2 hours, I felt like I’d just run a full marathon.  Later that day, I even found it hard to stay on my feet and man did I sleep well that night.  The next day, I still felt a little bit sore, so I decided to put off my usual run until the following morning.  But now I’m back in action and feeling better than ever and running better than ever.

So is it true – No Pain – No Gain?  I asked a running coach friend of mine and he said – “It’s normal to have aches and pains as your body adjusts to new running distances and new running surfaces” (My body wasn’t used to running on bark mulch) “and normally these pains will go away as your body becomes stronger.  But if the pain is severe and doesn’t go away, then it’s time to visit your doctor”.

So it’s a good thing to add variety to your runs.  Try a different route that includes different terrain or grades that your body isn’t used to.  I’ve been very pleased with our results.  Our local town has a half-marathon in September and I’m in.  Last year I went out and supported my friends who ran in it.  It’ll feel good to be on the other side this year.

One more item on sports nutrition. www.poweringmuscles.com is an interesting website that has an online tool to calculate the nutritional supplements that you need for a given workout.  You can put in the details of a workout and specific sport and it will do the calculation and let you know what your body needs before, during and after your exercise. Though there is an unlying focus to the website with advertisements for Accelerade.

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