Last year I got in the habit of running 5ks by the Hoboken waterfront. I love running during the mild winters of the New York area. In April of the same year, for some reason, I stopped. I probably deluded myself that I could strengthen my heart in other ways. I was perhaps overtraining, what with the long walks taken to reach Hoboken and return. I was still doing Yoga, yet my fitness index as measured by the paid version of Strava, was nevertheless plummeting.
Then, in December, I got a health scare. I was diagnosed with SVT (supraventricular tachycardia) which for reasons that I will not go into right now, was worsening. My heart rate during sleep had been slowly increasing, which was unacceptable. Having received a clearance to exercise, I looked for a heartrate-driven program to get me back into running. I tried one from Runkeeper. Unfortunately, at the stage I was, having years of training as if wiped out, I couldn't ...keep up with it. So I gave the couch-to-5k from Adidas a try. I liked that it was stretched over 16 weeks. I had the Adidas app installed on my phone ever since I participated in the 5k organized by the brand in New York. I reloaded the app and merrily joined the program. I wanted the change-of-pace notifications in my headphones, so I paid for the $35 cost of the app.
The program entails four runs per week, evenly spaced, except for the last two, during the weekend. It starts with a short cardio evaluation run, which customizes the recommended speeds - sweet! I loved the use of interval training and the variety of paces (walking included) and running styles. It made me aware of my running speed. Turns out I was way too fast for my goals, especially in the beginning of the runs. 9 km per minute was the slow pace assigned in my case, which I found excruciatingly slow. I usually jog at 8 km per minute. Yet, I felt it was doable and necessary. I also learned how to estimate my effort by the way I was breathing. If I could still run without breathing through my mouth, I would not be speeding up too much.
Halfway through the program, encouraged by my progress, I introduced whole-body strength training days during the days I was not running. As easy as the runs were, I still felt that I was "dragging ass". My legs were not nearly as strong as they could be. The strength training helped, after only one week! I felt a notable difference in my running.
Then at the end of week 15, I felt it was all too much. I was wiped out, sleepy, depressed - I was overtraining again. I realized the mistake I was making was not leaving my recovery days untouched. The strength training was 25-minute sessions, yet they were very strenuous. My heart rate was not going up too much, yet by the end I was all sweaty and exhausted. I realized that I could benefit from making the runs my warmup for the strength routine. It was a game-changer.
With all this exercising, Yoga fell by the wayside, and I realized how much I missed it when I remembered I wasn't stretching enough. I am currently slowly reintroducing sun salutations in the morning and Yin Yoga (my favorite) at the end of the day.
Strava is goading me back into my usual routine. My fitness index fell five points during my recovery from overtraining. Who cares? I will be getting them back in no time. Only two more runs and the program will be finished. What is next, you ask? Improving my 5k time. There is an Adidas program for that too...
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