Spring Into Fit

 

I love this time of year. After a cold winter a warming spring is just the break I need. It hasn’t really been a cold winter since I left Illinois. We had a few record breaking weeks in the middle part of February but basically it was manageable. When I talk about running the weather is always the main component because so much depends on where to run and what to wear. The low 40’s are a great temperature for running and if you can catch a non-rainy day, all the better. I need to get them in before the warmth really ramps up. I think I mentioned in my last post that I’m back to running alone. It seems strange to think of group training as too much pressure, but I didn’t want to start a third session and quit if my foot started acting up. So I set my own schedule, which is probably less aggressive and doesn’t have the really long runs.

There isn’t much point in doing really long runs. I’m not training for a marathon so I’m not killing myself on the consistent over ten miles. I do miss the company though. Now though, if I’m having a particularly painful day with my foot I just won’t run. It seems simple but when I’m committed to a group I grit my teeth and push through the pain. No more of that, at least for now. I go two days per week. Once in the morning, at the gym and once on the weekend. That usually means Saturday morning but if it rains I’ll do Sunday.

This is the first time in my life that I’ve dedicated the first 30 minutes of a workout to cardio. I’m talking strictly about daily A.M. workouts at the gym. The idea is to keep my weight even and build strong legs, so I use the stair climber or the stationary bike. I don’t like to lift heavy weights anymore; my legs used to be sore for days afterward. So I stopped doing it and decided to focus on cardio only. I do a little jump rope as well, anything to make jogging a little less exhausting. Weak muscles cause injury and I’m trying to avoid it as much as possible. I’m also putting more attention into stretching which can feel like its own little workout.

I don’t believe I’d ever give up weights for jogging though. I won’t say never, but I have changed the type of exercise that works best for me over the last 20 years. In college I went heavy on all the typical stuff, bench press, shoulder press, lat pulldowns. Cardio was an afterthought. Today it’s the opposite. The transition happened slowly but after a few straining injuries the heavy and the big don’t appeal as much. A lot of the shift is driven by excess fat and the need to keep it under control. Once you realize that it gets exponentially more difficult to lose pounds it forces a rethink about exercise.

I’m all for sports too. I know a lot of guys in basketball and soccer leagues that stay fit going up and down the court for an hour. I guess I’m a more solitary type. I haven’t been in a sport’s leagues, softball being the last one, since a decade. It’s OK though. I don’t feel like I’m missing it either. I guess that’s just another transition for me, like the weather in the spring.