September Katy’s Kintetic Korner:
September was a big racing month for everyone on the SHW team! Congrats to everyone’s accomplishments! What a super team to be a part of as I have enjoyed watching everyone’s gains this month!! My korner this month is dedicated to learning
some serious lessons! This month I spent much time making errors and analyzing them…..probably too much. :)As the group’s lab rat, I found this month I was somewhat of my own experiment as well.
1. Rest. Yes, we all know it is important to do, but sometimes I have a habit of not listening to my body. Interestingly enough, the common sense of it would be that when you rest you do in fact allow your body to perform better and in turn get faster. I found that after running a marathon, I needed to rest….more than one day (So the 1hr45min bike ride, high intensity cross training, and then racing 6 days later on very tight legs…not smart). Not to mention, I do have an epstein barr issue that I sometimes activate it when I refuse to listen…which is now! So when I decided to beat myself up about my cow harbor race, I was quickly reminded about this thing called rest……from the unbelievable people at Champion Performance ( Kenneth Nuss Jr. And jimmy) that helped me get back on my way (Thank you!!). According to competitor.com, it recommends that an athlete rest 7-10 days after a marathon. In addition, it explains how severely compromised your immune system is after a marathon. Which now is all making sense to me and dealing with that error.
http://running.competitor.com/…/the-importance-of-recovery-…
2. Hydration. After playing back the marathon over and over, and speaking to my family members and some professionals. I found that hydration is more than just the sips I took on the way. Where I thought I could just make sure I replaced the electrolytes and have my sips, I should be fine right? It doesn’t matter that it was hot and humid, right?….Well, as a trainer, yes, I know everybody is different, but again….didn’t apply it to myself. I learned that everyone reacts to these conditions differently. People who sweat more tend to lose more weight in sweat during training. For each pound lost during a session, it equals 16oz of fluid that should have been taken in. This to me was so interesting in that I never looked into this prior to the event and did not ever identify the amount needed for my body in any conditions. Also, I was told that putting ice on my head would stop the sweating process and add to my hydration issues (which I did do). I am glad I learned these lessons….although I wish it hadn’t been the hard way as Hope Runs Half will always be etched in my mind as well as how I felt during the second half of that marathon….. so in fact the percentage of speed decreasing and hydration are related! Lesson learned!
I had one hills run for this month. I felt strong as I finally rested and improved my time from 52:20 last month to 52:03. Marathon time: 4:04. As far as 10k improvement….Cow Harbor 2014 time: 59:12, 9:33/mi, 2015 time: 51:29, 8:17/mi (very unhappy race for me) , and Ocean to Sound time (6th leg, 5.7mi): 7:21/mi (finally felt somewhat normal again)!
I am looking fwd to learning more in the fall months and applying them properly