The weather is going through a transition this week. From super hot to rainy and recently muggy. I’ve also noticed the leaves are falling. Here in Ohio, it’s nothing like what folks are dealing with in the Carolinas. We may get some rain in a few days, but it may just feel like the season changing as well. The forecast has it going back into the 80’s again later in the week.
Exercise Transitions
Transitions of the seasons call for a transition from biking to hip strengthening to running for me as well.
It seems weird to me to think that I haven’t ridden my bike for an entire week. Bike riding has been such a big part of my summer. Last weekend I was a course marshal at NEOcycle in Cleveland. They closed the shore way expressway so that hundreds of bike riders could decorate their bikes with lights and ride along to see some of the best sites of Cleveland at night.
This week I’ve been concentrating on cross training and strengthening for the Akron marathon.
After going to get some physical therapy for my Achilles tendonitis (cupping, dry needling and the massage boot), I’ve been faithfully doing the exercises the doc gave me to strengthen my hips. The thing I love about it is that she worked on my tight calf, but also gave me physical therapy information so that I can resolve the core problem.
My problem is weak hips in the side to side direction. I’d been doing squats, dead lifts and lunges, but those work the forward motion. Now I’m focusing more on doing sideways walks. I’ve heard them called duck walks or monster walks and I demonstrate in this video.
Using the Theraband and doing this type of walking sideways helps to strengthen the hips. I find that I am strong in the forward plane. So much of the biking and running is a forward motion that uses the quads. But on the other hand, when I’m not working out, so much of my day as a marketing consultant involves sitting at a desk, in a meeting or driving to an appointment. I find that sitting and forward motion are my two levels of activity. No wonder the side-to-side strength is compromised. I’ve only been doing these for a week and feel better.
Today Jill and I did a training run which will be my last long run before the Akron half marathon in two weeks. She and I did a lot of run-walk-runs (90 secs run with 30 sec walk break.) I also made sure to walk up the hills in an effort not to stretch my Achilles. I was hoping that it would really help to have my muscles recover with a break ever minute and a half, so ultimately I run 3/4 of the time, walk 1/4 of the time and end up not cramped or injured.
We are lucky enough to have some beautiful trails to use for our training run.
There is a lot of wildlife too. In fact, I saw a tiny snake at about mile 8.5 and jumped “a mile”, re-injuring my Achilles that I’m trying to baby. Even thought was a tiny little snake, but I am terrified of snakes so when jumped all my muscles tightened up. Not good.
The rest of today will be dedicated to R-I-C-E (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation.)
I did manage to spend 10 whole minutes in an ice bath when I got home and I think it helped. Being in a very cold tub definitely distracted me and at least had my mind focused on how incredibly cold I was feeling!!
Transitions in Food
When the change in the weather comes, my eating habits change too. Last night I made vegetable soup for dinner and added some already cooked brown rice at the last minute. Delicious! Next I’ll be making some pumpkins spice smoothies and pumpkin spice butternut squash soup in the Vita-mix.
How do you deal with the onset of fall? Does the change in weather change your exercise habits? What you eat? Leave a comment in the section below.