This past week has been really good in terms of runs. I ran 4-5 days of the week followed by strength training sessions afterwards. It helps to have found some videos on hip strengthening exercises and warm ups that cater to the types of injuries I was getting before. Last marathon I was struggling with a nagging pain in my right hip. I realize that was due to tightness on the left hip favoring the right side on the run. I also have tightness in my inner thighs which I have taken some time to stretch out after runs which seems to be working because so far I have not dealt with any nagging issues. I just need to make sure I stay on top of recovery as much as possible.

This past weekend I went on a run with my brother-in-law, who is also doing the marathon with me, at Bonelli park. It was a faster pace than I usually run slow runs, and the hills made my heart rate skyrocket, but I considered it my tempo run of the week. It was nice to run out in fresh air and catch the sun with a little bit more speed than usual. We ended up running about 5 miles and did some hill sprints at the end. I really want to incorporate that in my training this time around to build my turn over and gain some leg strength. I plan to run Bonelli park at least once a week so that way I can start getting used to longer runs with multiple terrains and different grades of elevation.

Things to work on include, tightness on my hips, leg strength overall, and cutting weight as methodically as I can without hurting my recovery. there is a give and take to that last one but that just means I have to pay attention to my body as much as possible and make sure to take it easy when I can.

Zone training is the best! Checking my heart rate and making sure I’m not pushing myself to hard is allowing me to recover faster and build some aerobic capacity. I already noticed a slight difference on my paces and my ability to maintain high energy output in workouts where the idea is to get into zone 5.

Overall, this training is starting off strong and hopefully it continues on and I keep getting stronger and faster and pushing paces I didn’t think I could before. One other thing, I feel like running gives me a sense of structure and makes me more productive because I have the tendency to get things done the days I do run because I feel like I need to structure my days around that. Anyways thanks for sticking with me I will update ya’ll next week! God bless!