I have been so busy training for the 2020 Walt Disney World Dopey Challenge and all the other things that make life happen, I haven’t had time to write. I’ve competed one entire month of training and week 4 is all about BAD HABITS. One of mine is obviously not keeping up with my Blog. So here’s hoping that bad habit is about to be broken!
How long do they say it takes to form a new habit or break a bad habit? I think I read somewhere it’s around 21 days. Well, I’m a slow learner so I’m right on track with this new “training” habit. (4 weeks in). Here are some of the bad running habits I had and sometimes still have and how I am correcting them.
1. Swinging my hands across my body.
When you run all your movement should be forward or back, any other motion uses extra energy. Swinging your arms across your body, forces your upper body to work harder. It also causes you cross your legs over each other.
MY FIX: Keep you elbows moving front to back and your hands will follow. Relax your arms and keep your elbows at a 90 degree angle. When your arms are a little lower, it’s harder for them to cross.
2. Looking at my feet.
I do this ALL the time. Mainly because I have fallen a couple of times, so I want to keep an eyes on what my feet are running over. Try this…. Look down at your feet and try to breathe, now look in front and do the same. When you look down you’re cutting off valuable oxygen.
MY FIX: You don’t have to look directly down at your feet. Try looking a few feet in front of you. Focus on an upcoming tree or other landmark. Or like me, keep your eyes focus on the road or sidewalk a few feet ahead of me.
3. Squeezing my Fists
The pressure you put on your hands moves into your forearms and shoulders. Making your whole upper body tense. I have a tendency to raise my shoulders and tense up when I run.
MY FIX: When you feel yourself tightening up, let your arms fall down to your sides, relax your shoulders and shake out your hands.
4. Skipping your Rest days
To get stronger and faster, your body doesn’t just need a good workout….. it needs to rest. Rest helps repair muscle tissue, which in turn will make your stronger over time.
MY FIX: I make a point to schedule rest days in my training plan and on my easy days TRULY go easy on those days.
5. Keeping the same Pace on hotter days
If you are following the runDisney plan by Jeff Galloway. He says to slow down in the heat, by a minute per mile when it’s 70 degrees and 2 miles per minute when it’s 80 degrees. Putting overdue stress on your body when the temperature raises is simply just not healthy.
MY Fix: If I know the temperature is going to be hot hot hot after work, I try to get out of bed early enough to put in the miles before heading to work in the morning. If that doesn’t work, I switch up my training runs to a day that might not be as hot during the week.
6. Not stretching
Some people ignore stretching before running. But you shouldn’t skip stretching after a run to loosen up your muscles to help prevent injury. Also as we age, are muscles are not as resilient as they were when we were younger.
MY Fix: I don’t have a fix for this as this bad habit still haunts me. I know my running will improve and I’ll feel better if I stretch, but this one is so hard for me to break.
7. Fit cross training into your schedule
Hardest habit EVER! I sometimes barely have enough time to get all my training runs in and to add cross training to the list. This by far is my number one worst habit.
MY Fix: Find a workout buddy. Someone that will help hold you accountable to your cross training and make it fun!
Here is a link to Dopey Training Week 4 on YouTube and all my bad habits. Hope you enjoy.
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