6.11.2012 Running

The Workout: 30 mintes of running at medium intensity.

It's hard not to go all out when training all the time.  I think most of us feel like we need to push ourselves each and every workout to make gains, and it seems to make sense.  However, the saying in the design world "less is more" has some significance in the world of endurance training too.  The body adapts well to incremental increases in stress.  If you're trying to consistently change the way the body reacts to the stress of endurance running, swimming and biking then you need to make those changes over time and give the body time to adjust.  It's a good idea to work in high intensity training into your routine, but less than 1/4 of it should be all out balls to the wall intense.  All that will end up doing is causing injury, set you back in training, and make you feel (for a short while) that you really kicked ass that workout.

Which brings me to my run today.  I pushed Liam in the jogging stroller and was set to run 30 minutes at medium intensity.  It's tough to hold back and go slow, so I began to start thinking about things... like our vacation to Colorado that starts this Saturday.  I'm really excited about running up there, not super excited about the effects of altitude.  I'm curious how it will change the run and I look forward to the challenge, but I know it will probably end up being frustrating.  So today I thought, "how about if I just breathe through my nose for certain portions of this run and to see what it will feel like to be oxygen deprived."  I started doing that at 5 minutes and did it in 5 minute sets.  So 5-10 is nose breathing and alternating from there on out.  It was tough and I think my averages during those times reflect it.