I started out at the Rec Center at 9:00 to do the yoga class there. I need the stretching and everything else it offers (especially breathing and relaxation.) I then took my dog to the canal road and ran easy for almost 30 minutes. I felt a little tight in my hamstrings, but felt no pain, so I thought that was good. I finished up later with 20 minutes on the stairmaster. I did the stairmaster because everything else I had done today wasn't too aerobic, so I needed an exercise that really got me working hard, which the stairmaster is good at.
I've been rereading Chi Running, one of my favorite running books. In it the author (Danny Dreyer) says that running does not hurt your body, it's the way you run that does the damage and causes pain. He thinks stress and tension cause most running injuries, and if we could just learn to relax and run like little children, running would become much easier, you'd be able to run faster and without injuries and it would just be much more enjoyable. So my main goal now is to run relaxed with no tension. Hopefully it will become easier to do the more I practice it, my natural way is to run with lots of tension, which is obviously not good. |