Building Plan: Week 9 Complete

Another solid week of workouts. I had some extra muscle soreness during the week, so I had to take 2 rest days, but aside from that, I did really well with my workouts. I also did much better with nutrition and logging my meals. I am really pleased with my continued progress.

Swimming

I still have not been able to find time yet to get more swims into my schedule. As my body gets used to my actual planned training schedule demands and my cat gets healthier, I will be able to schedule more time to swim. I was able to get in one swim in this week, although it was short and intended to both push myself after already being exhausted from my run, as well as act as a shake-out to aid in recovery. And it served its purpose perfectly! As I am writing this, I feel amazing. And that was just after a tiny 4 x 100 yd swim. Although, that swim felt like a nightmare though. I was struggling to rotate my arms and kick my legs. I had wanted to get in at least 800-1200 yds, but I had to stop because I felt like I was going to pass out.

Cycling

I got in no cycling this week. It fell on the 2 days I needed to take as rest days. This is fine, however, as my reason for cycling right now is to just cycle and lightly work on cadence.

Running

I got in all three runs! I am so pumped about this. I am also psyched that I did fairly well. I was a bit disappointed that my cadence was so much lower than I really wanted it to be, but that is why my plan is designed to extend an extra week or so if needed. I am expecting my cadence to get closer to my range during Week 10. One thing I am noticing though is that the increased speed and duration are starting to see some strain on my knees. However, it only occurs when I drag my leg back in my kick-back for my stride. This shows a breakdown in my form and thankfully is easy to immediately correct. Once my cadence training is over, I will be starting to adjust the treadmill to incline of 0.5, and then to 1 to more closely mimic the resistance of self-propelling myself forward when running outside on a flat course or track. This might actually be a good article to explain in more detail later.

Strength

I got in 2 out of 3 sessions in this week. I had to skip my 3rd because I had used that as a rest day. My first session of the week was highly focused on legs. And man did that wreck me. I literally could not do a single thing on Tuesday, as my legs were shot. Not going to lie, it was a glorious feeling. I am so excited my legs are slowly getting stronger and I love pushing myself to the max. My second session was mostly hip and back stretches mixed with core strength. I also did a fitness test for my program. It was supposed to take 5 minutes, and it took me 15 and I was having trouble breathing. These fit tests are brutal. I was supposed to end with another leg focus routine, but I was too exhausted from my Friday run. I am going to repeat this program, as it is working really well. I am hoping one more 4 week session of this body weight program and I will be able to start moving to weighted routines.

Nutrition

I logged my meals every day! I didn't really meet my goals much, but I didn't really care about this. I am a stress eater and with the constant trips to the vet hospital every day, I am not going to remove my outlet right now. Once my cat is well, I will be working on changing my stress outlet to something more productive and beneficial.

Sleep

I am adding this section because it's so important. However, my sleep is awful. I have pretty much been passing out from mental exhaustion and my sleep quality is horrible. I don't expect this to change until my cat is better.

Final Thoughts

I going to be shooting for 3/3 for both strength and running for Week 10. Also going to be making sure to keep up with my food logging. Hope everyone is doing well with their goals!

Building Plan: Week 7 Complete

What a week! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, are enjoying Hanukkah, or just enjoying some time off from work. I had one of my most successful workout weeks in a while, and I am hoping to keep this momentum. I had great running sessions, although my strength sessions were lacking again. I also did much better with cross training.

Strength Training

I only got in 1 of 3 full sessions. I did my usual daily stretches, but that doesn't make up for the 2 days missed. I will be making a bigger effort to make sure I am getting these strength days, as I feel this week was successful because of strength from last week.

Running

I hit all 3 runs this week! I continued my cadence week 5/6 plan. I'll make a post later showing the training progression plan. However, I will note now, and when I post, that this plan was specifically to help correct a running form issue I developed over the last few years due to my injuries and is not a plan I'll be building on. I will be building on my mileage, but this program was focused on my stride and foot strike.

Sunday I was able to get outside and run at a local track. It was an extremely tough run though because I have not run outside in a long time, so my SPM was much lower than I wanted. I was excited to learn the only open-to-public track in my county is the one somewhat near me. I'll be going here a lot more, as there is no substitute for outside running. Don't get me wrong, I have been making incredible strides with the treadmill, and it has been really good to get me going, but I need to wind, extreme temperature changes, and soon, hills.

Cycling

I was got in a cadence ride on my trainer. These rides are still destroying me. I am not too concerned though, as I have no been focusing on cycling or my cycling cadence much. However, I am not going to just hop on the bike to ride and burn calories, so I chose cadence. I am still hoping that once I get my running and strength consistent, I'll be able to bump up to at least 2 cadence sessions a week.

Swimming

I only did a short swim after one of my runs. It was 10 minutes and I was focused on form, especially arm rotation. I did this for two reasons. The first is that I usually recover exponentially quicker when i swim after my runs. Secondly, I wanted to push my shoulders, as they were already tired from my run. I think I did pretty well, and my goal is to always get in a swim after at least one of my runs, if not more.

Final Thoughts

Overall this is one of the best weeks I have had in a while. I plan on continuing this momentum. I'll definitely be adding another week of my Cadence Week 5/6 to my schedule. Although I don't have any running races or triathlons planned for 2017 yet, my dad wants to do the City to Shore ride again, but with the Century distance (100 miles or 160 km). So I'll be training for that.

Running Cadence - The Basics

During my recent physical therapy in recovery from some foot and knee issues, I was able to get a full running analysis done. I had this done because my form has dramatically changed from my sprinting days in high school and college, and then again from my mid-distance running after college. It turns out that although I was not over-striding, I was landing solidly on my heel and not rolling my foot through to the toe. Therefore, I was having extremely heavy impact on my knees, with no real support from the surrounding muscles. I had some other issues too, but those were not related my running form. So, my PT prescribed that I do cadence training. Now, I haven't done cadence or stride training since high school. I therefore had to ask my PT for an initial training plan and also needed to do some research to refresh myself on cadence training. Since I had to do that, I figured I would share the basics.

What is Running Cadence?

Simply put, running cadence is the number of time your feet hit the ground in a given period of time, usually over 60 seconds.

You might also hear the term "turnover" used as well. However, it should be made clear that turnover is defined as how quickly your leg goes from the foot strike position back to the kick position, and then back to the foot strike position.

Determine Your Running Cadence

If you don't have a device that can determine your cadence, either film yourself or have someone else count how many times your feet hit the ground over 60 seconds. Personally, I use my Garmin HRM-Run to get my cadence. I have tested about 15 times now with the HRM vs. manually counting and they are the same each time.

As a note, some devices count only single foot strike, especially when using a foot pod. My Garmin counts both feet, which I highly recommend and is more accurate. I won't go into detail, but depending on muscle balance and many other things, there could be a large difference between the 2 legs or feet, which could cause a mess of other issues.

What Should Your Cadence Be?

Most elite runners are tracked as running with a cadence around 180 SPM, steps per minute, or higher. Some of the fastest runners set themselves apart by being able to keep the same stride length for their final kick, but dramatically increase their cadence.

However, from generally reported and tracked stats across most websites, the typical running is around 160-170 SPM.

I recommend being closer to 180 SPM due to the benefits, which I'll explain in the next section. But to be honest, it's more important to be consistent. Whatever your cadence is, you should have that cadence consistent for your run, not just have it as the average. For example, if your average cadence is 170, but you fluctuate between 160 and 180 on a relatively flat course or treadmill, you are opening yourself up to injury and probably have some sort of running form issue.

I will argue that your cadence should be the same regardless if you are on a flat, going uphill, or going downhill. Your stride length will be different for sure, and your pace will vary, but your cadence should be fairly unchanged. Also, your cadence should be the same regardless of the distance you are running.

Benefits of Improved Cadence

When it comes to running, and most sports in general, how well you do usually is a matter of how efficient you are at what you do. Cadence falls into this concept of efficiency. A consistent and improved cadence usually translates to a faster run times, less impact on joints, and more consistent paces. This makes your training more effective and you less injury-prone.

Final Thoughts

Cadence isn't the end-all-be-all. You need to make sure you have proper form when you make ground contact, that your turnover and kick-back are following correct form, that you aren't over-extending or over-striding, and that you aren't pushing yourself passed your heart rate limits or lung capacity. Just remember though that how your foot strikes, forefoot, mid, or heel, doesn't matter! As long as you are consistent and that particular form is not negatively affecting your body, you are good to go. As a personal example, I am trying to get back to forefoot and mid-foot striking; this is due to my bad knees though and needing my muscles to handle the brunt of my impact, not my joints. Happy running!