Preparing For My Next Race: A 3K!

 My next race is a 3K.

Now if you're a die-hard running enthusiasts, you're laughing at me right now. You're preparing for a 3K?  Really?

Even if you're a casual runner you're probably still laughing at me right now.  And if you're like so many people and you don't like to run at all, you're probably pretty impressed.  You're probably also wondering how far a 3K is.  

Well, don't get too impressed. A 3K is just under two miles or about 1.86 miles. Now, why am I preparing for this race? Well, I haven't run a race in a year now and a year is a really long time to be out of the running game. At least that's what I think so I need to get both my mind and my body ready to race again. 

Before we go any farther, I should be clear that I really only race against myself. I'm not fast enough to ever place. Maybe when I'm 70 and the field has thinned out a bit.

Back to what I am doing to prepare myself for this race.  Well, running is obvious but here are a few others:

• Strength Training:  I'm keeping this really simple.  Typically, my strength training involves doing lunges and squats during our daily walks around the neighborhood.  To work on my arms I'll do push ups against the stairs or tricep dips on the back of the couch.  I'll also use our weight machine downstairs to work my hamstrings (boy, do they need it) or quads.
• Foam Roll:  This has been so helpful for my back!  In the past, I've mostly focused on my legs, specifically my shins and calves, but I'm finding the more I work my lower back, the better my feet and calves feel.  I'm also working on loosening up my hips to help my Achilles which was tight during my last run.  
• Working on my Form:  I wrote a blog post about that HERE.  While I run I'm really concentrating on keeping my shoulders down, my arms low and my foot strike and less on how fast I am running or how fatigued I feel.  

Is this all helping?  I ran 2 miles recently, the longest I've run in about a year, and I felt great the next day.  Even my feet feel fine.  

I can genuinely say that I am excited for my first race of the year on October 28!

When is your race?  Tell me in the comments below!  I want to hear about it.  

I've Come to the Realization

That I don't know how to run. 

If you know me at all in real life or you've been following along for awhile now, then you know I suffer from a nasty case of plantar fasciitis. So severe, in fact, that I almost had surgery to correct it.  I've since realized my problem isn't my feet but my back. 

This realization has led me to do some extensive foam rolling on said back AND work on my form bringing me back to the title of this post. 

I am a heel striker.  No wonder my feet and back hurt all the time!

I run like the guy on the left.  Tsk, tsk.  

I honestly had no idea you are supposed to run on the front part of your feet!  They don't teach you that in gym class. Or if they did, I wasn't paying attention. 

So, like any other social media savvy person would do, I jumped on YouTube and started searching for videos to help me improve my form.

Below is the video I found that is the most helpful.  Strange as it may sound to some, I'm actually excited for my next run so I can try his techniques.  I'm really enjoying getting back to basics.