Saturday, August 16, 2008

Week 33 - the rest

I started the 2 runs a day this week, as mentioned in my previous post. So in total I ran 22km this week, which is not too shabby I guess, it's just that I've run faster and I'm not feeling particularly strong. The morning runs are great, and it's quite nice to just do a short run in the morning. It wakes you up for the day! I haven't been running them particularly fast. Wednesday was 7:19 and Friday 7:15, but that should improve as the running time goes up. As for next week, my running partner has suggested that we increase the running time by 5 seconds a day. I'm a bit skeptical but I'll give it a go.

Yesterday while running I was thinking that there must be an optimal resting time for me. That is clearly demonstrated by a 10km run we did a few weeks ago. I'd wanted to do an easy run, so I set the rest interval at 2mins and the running time to 45 seconds. But the result was a very satisfying 79mins for 10km. OK it's not fast, but it just demonstrated to me that if I rest enough I could complete a run faster.

So that set me thinking... wouldn't it be cool if someone interested in this kind of thing (people with chronic illnesses) could help me work out an optimal program? I spoke to my club manager about a training program, but I really don't think he understood what my problem is, and he didn't seem to be interested in taking the time to find out. So what I am seriously thinking of doing is offering myself as a study subject to the biokinetics department at the University of Pretoria. Perhaps there would be a student who would be interested in working with me, and perhaps my cardiologist, to get the most out of me? Because, if I'm honest with myself, even though I'm listening to my body, I'm also kindof clutching in the dark at this thing. It would be great to have someone really interested in researching exercise options for someone like me.


Anyone have any comments? Suggestions?

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