Baby, it's cold outside!

1-24-13

As tempting as it was to see, physiologically, what my body could do to keep itself warm while exerting myself with exercise, I opted to complete the past 2 running sessions inside on a treadmill.  I can honestly say that treadmill running is not as much fun as running outside.  I don't think I push myself as much as I could if I ran outside, and staring out a window onto a parking lot gets boring real fast.  Since the first workout felt easy to me, I've started to mess around with the walk/run intervals, challenging myself to run for a longer time than what I was supposed to do.

Similar to the first day, I paired my running with weight training.  I had the opportunity to utilize the gym at my school, so I was able to load up on the weights and challenge myself.  While the workouts have been great, the DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness) has not been fun.  It's bad enough that I wake up to both of hips, knees, ankles, and all my toes cracking as a descend down the stairs, but add tightness/soreness at the origins and insertions of most of my muscles and I look like I need to be in a nursing home.  I swear, my joints have aged more than rest of me.

To deal with this soreness, I've been following a strict regimen of icing my knee, static stretching, Advil, water, and foam rolling.  For those of you who have not heard of foam rolling, it is quite possibly the best and worst thing in the world all rolled (ha! get it...rolled..roller...he he) into one.  The premise is to sandwich your muscle between your bone (immovable object) and a dense foam roll (immovable object).  As you slide your body on top of the foam roll, your muscle is essentially "flattened out" like a pancake, helping to realign your muscle fibers and decrease the presence and size of "knots" in your muscle.  It takes awhile to get used to this torture, but it can be a great post-exercise/sore muscle tool to help alleviate the pain.

I have been invited to join a local "Hashing" group this weekend.  The running event is 5 miles long, and ends at a local bar for some much-needed post-run beer.  I have never heard of this before, so I am excited to see what it's all about.  I will posting my experience this weekend, along with some pictures (apparently dressing up in costume is customary...).

Here's a little country to keep you (and me!) motivated:

"That's the only way I know
Don't stop till everything's gone
Straight ahead never turn round
Don't back up, don't back down
Full throttle wide open
You get tired, you don't show it
Dig a little deeper when you think you can't dig no more
That's the only way I know" - Jason Aldean