Fitness Goals

 

I've been meaning to make a blog post about my goals for 2011, but due to being sick, I hadn't had a chance to write anything up until now. Receiving my 2010 Year-End Report from Daily Mile this morning in my inbox was definitely motivation not only to get this blog written today, but for the coming weeks and months of 2011.

 

According to my Daily Mile report, I ran/walked/biked 189 miles in 2010. That's over 3 miles a week when you do the math. Obviously, I want to do a lot better than that in 2011, and I know that I can and will do so. I think my back injury pulled me down a lot last year, but that injury isn't going to run my life in 2011. It may have been a rocky start with being sick in the first days of the new year, but that is not a roadblock that cannot be overcome. That said, I am giving myself a goal of walking at least 400 miles in 2011. Something I see as easily doable if I walk about 8 miles each week. Considering that on a good week, I like to walk 8 to 12 miles, I'm confident that I will accomplish my goal.

 

Other fitness-related goals for 2011 include increasing my mileage so that I can do my first 10k race. This is proving to be a bit more of a challenge than I originally thought, with my sciatica taking over when I attempt to do more than 3.1 miles in a single walking session. However, I am not going to give up on achieving this goal. It may take me a lot longer to hit 6 miles, but I can and will do it. This is my first distance goal for the year which I hope will lead to later training to do a 1/2 marathon within a year.

 

Last year, I participated in eight local races (registered for 9, as I ended up not being able to run or walk the Corporate 5k). As far as 2011 goes, since I plan on moving out of Florida in a few months, I am not planning too far ahead with races at this time, but my tentative schedule is:

 

**Lady Track Shack 5k on February 5th

**Run Around the Pines 5k on February 19th

**Winter Park Road Race on March 26th

 

The February races are pretty much a lock, as I'm definitely doing the Lady Track Shack 5k. I had an awesome time doing that race last year, as it was my first actual race that got me hooked. It's a great ladies-only race that I recommend to all Central Florida ladies, runner or walker.

Bump in the road

It seems that I have hit a bump in the road in regards to my 10k training. In the last couple of days, I've begun to experience sciatica pain in my lower back and a bit in my upper legs. The more I thought about this soreness, the more I realized that my leg problems with the "jelly leg" from Sunday's 4 mile walk was most likely a part of this same problem. In fact, this may go back to Thanksgiving Day.

On Thanksgiving, I took part in a Turkey Trot 5k here in Orlando. For the first time, my mom decided to sign up, so it became a bit of a family affair. Thousands of area runners and walkers joined in on the trot fun. By the end of the race, I was feeling good, a bit tired, but good. I felt so good later that day in fact, that I walked another 2 miles in the evening with my father. It was quite a slower paced walk, but I went out and did the extra mileage. My body isn't really used to doing anything further workout wise post-race. I tend to take it easy and not do anymore workouts on those days. I suppose adding those extra couple of miles may have been too much for my body to take.

The next day, my quads were extremely sore. I hadn't recalled being that sore since I was doing my weight loss workouts, or maybe since I began running in 2009. Either way, it had been awhile since I had experienced that level of soreness. I didn't workout that day, but I did go back out for a 3 mile walk on Saturday. My legs were still a bit sore, but they seemed to be a lot better. Then came Sunday, the Hal Higdon training calls for a 45-90 minute walk for this particular time of training. Heading out the door, I felt good so I had it in my mind that I was going to push to do 4 miles if I continued to do well. The first 3 miles went well, my body is used to doing that kind of mileage, so it's a piece of cake. Trouble didn't occur until I hit the last 500 or so meters of my 4 miles. At that point, my left leg became weakened and felt like "jelly." I made it home okay, after pushing myself to get there and then I felt alright. My leg seemed to calm and the weakening went away.

Monday's walk went alright, didn't feel as energized as usual, but that has happened some mornings, so I didn't think much of it. Tuesday's 2 mile walk did have a problem though. My left leg again experienced some weakness during the workout. It didn't have the "jelly" sensation that I had on Sunday, but it did feel pretty weak. Wednesday is a rest day for me, I tend to keep this day as a definite non-workout day, so I didn't workout at all. Today, I would have normally gone out for my usual 2 miles or more, but due to my sciatica/back soreness, I opted to take an additional rest day so as not to push my back too much.

Today, I have iced my back some and also used the heating pad when I can. The soreness is still here, it fades a bit but has yet to go away completely. At this point, I'm conflicted on whether or not to go out for tomorrow's power walk. On one side of the coin, exercise is good for my back injury, just not overdoing it. If I do go out, it would definitely not be at the intensity that I normally do my walks in, I'd have to not worry about my pacing. On the other hand, I'm wondering if another rest day is in order. I could take tomorrow off and then resume my workouts on Saturday, allowing my soreness one more day to relax and rest. I'll most likely see how I feel in the morning, play it by ear. If I feel okay and stretch well, I should be okay to walk at a slower pace. Either way, I'm listening to my body and my gut feeling on it.