Lead Legs

Okay I’ve been training consistently for two and half months now. I’m showing improvement on all fronts except my running. For six weeks now every run session has felt like I was running with lead in my legs. At first it was my whole body, it was like “So you’re running again – just like that, no whole body conference to discuss this madness – you just up and decided to start running? I’m upset about this decision especially since I was not consulted first, so I’m not going to participate in this madness with you.”

Then my body warmed up to the idea a little, but my legs just couldn’t hack it. Seriously it has been very frustrating. I started thinking about what I did back in the fall of 2006 while I was training for the Polar Bear Tri. Although I had bike issues with that race, the run was a breakthrough run, and then I survived the tough run course of the Alpine Tri later in March. What was I doing back then that seemed to be working for me? Well I had upped my running days to three days a week, and because it was winter I was doing my bike training indoors on the trainer with “Suffer-O-Rama.” How I hate that spinerval, and you already know how much I enjoy running so adding an extra day of fun (sarcastic tone here) is just a peachy idea.

But you know what? Here are two thoughts (that are basically the same thought) that keep popping into my head. First a quote out of a Bicycling magazine article, “ Do what you hate. You hate hills; ride hills.” The gist of the article was how to get better on the bike. Then the second thought, which is on a card that I carry around - a suggestion from the Beck Diet Solution – "Do it Anyway! Even if I don’t feel like using a diet skill, (or running extra) I have to do it anyway. If I do only what I feel like doing, I won’t be able to lose weight and keep it off (or get better at running)."

So I’ve started spinning to “Suffer-O-Rama”, I’ve only done 1 full session and 1 partial session so far, but this morning there was a noticeable difference in my running – most of the lead was gone. With this revelation, I just rearranged my schedule so that I can fit a third day of running in along with more “Suffer-O-Rama.” We shall see.

Oh and by the way... I've lost 5lbs.