week 5 - 6: running against a busy schedule

week 5: 2 runs, 6 + 6
week 6: 2 runs, 7 + 7


The major challenge of these 2 weeks is time. Work plus all the activities I'm doing. and on top of that, my best friend came visit me during the weekend. I know that there are ways to have everything working at the same time, but at times it seems rather hard. I cut down my sleep hours, which is never a good idea, and keep doing everything I want. This can last for sometime, but the toll I'm taking makes it not worth it. 

Giants week 4: dealing with knee pains

Last week I breezed thru with 5+3+3, this week I ran a 6 and now my right knee hurts. 


This time not just uncomfortable, but it literally feels painful. Maybe I wasn’t doing something right. Maybe I need to hit the gym, I think my leg muscles are not strong enough. This is the most upset I’ve felt so far in my training. I knew it could happen but I thought I’ve done enough to prevent it. Anyways I’m seeing my PT Dave today.
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it was encouraging to see Dave because he always makes me feel that the pain I’m having can go away with proper exercise and care. 

He explained to me how muscles help cushion the knees and I totally got enrolled. I will need to strengthen my calves, quads and glutes. It seems that my calves are the weakest of the 3 right now. 

He also talked about the balance of the whole body’s muscular system. Because I’m sitting most of the time during the day, some muscles get too weak so other muscles compensate. This is not good because then the whole system is not working together properly, which causes muscles to get over stressed and become tired easily. 

What I need to do is balance out my workout so every muscle plays a part in my running, including upper body (core is extremely important, as it can carry some weight off lower body keep a good posture)

  

Giants: Week 3: pain free marathon

I ran 8 miles on Sunday, with my new Brooks running shoes. It was quite painful after the 7^th mile. My knees felt very tired but I kept pushing through it. I then took 2 days off from running. I thought about doing some swimming or working out on my leg muscles but ended up doing just some research about knee health. It seems that the wear on knees from running is unavoidable. Dang, this is gonna be my first race, but certainly not the last one. So I went to see a physical therapist, David Severson in Milpitas. My coworker strongly recommended him to me and the visit turned out great! I learned some useful exercises and got a lot of assurance and now, I’m committed to run the race PAIN FREE!