Spring Training

It feels like Spring is finally making its way to MN (just don't look at current weather forecasts that are predicting snow for Sunday night into Monday!).

With the change of the season, people are coming out of hibernation. Maintaining an exercise program through the winter can be challenging, especially if the sport includes running or biking outdoors! As a runner, there were icy roads, piles of snow, and dark mornings and evenings I had to deal with during the winter. Even now with more daylight, there are puddles, mud and the occasional pothole to watch out for. This will soon give way to glorious sunrises with singing birds (that is as close to a "tweet" as I get), the smell of someone's wonderful breakfast through their open window (I'm not the only one who smells eggs and bacon on my long runs, am I?), and the feeling of pain by over stressing your body.

What? Pain? Over stressing the body? How can that happen if I ran all winter?

Perhaps you have a race on your calendar you need to start training for. Did you get in lots of speed workouts or intervals on those icy roads this winter? Oh, you worked out inside on a treadmill. As you probably know, running (or biking) inside is completely different than running outside. The change to outdoor training (and the exhilarating feeling of fresh air!) can push many people into adding too much (mileage, speed, races, etc.) too soon.

Be smart about building your training schedule so you don't hurt yourself. Remember to take the time to recover and rest when needed. For those training for long endurance events, include quality recovery time into your schedule so you can continue to build your training through the big event. One of the ways I work to stay healthy during my marathon training is to increase the frequency of massages I receive. I incorporate weekly massage sessions when my mileage ramps up so that I can stay loose and keep on my training schedule. Not only does weekly massage help me recover from the previous weeks runs, it alerts me (and my therapist) of other areas I need to focus on stretching that are becoming tight.

After the big event, I celebrate with a more relaxing massage to help increase circulation and let my body recover. I reduce the frequency of massages I receive to every month or so.

So get out there and enjoy the beautiful Spring weather...just don't overdo it too fast!

- Bonnie
Align Body - Relieve Pain - Improve Wellness - Enhance Performance