Today was a day I had slotted for doing a hill workout. I want to have some hills in my normal routine to help build strength.
One of the things I was reading about in the Galloway plan is the idea that the ankle is a lever. In the past, when ascending hills, I've toyed around with using the calf muscles more, and relieving some of the load from the quads and hamstrings. The problem I came across was that the calf muscles would tire out somewhat quickly. So I decided that if I'm going to do these hill workouts, I might use them as an opportunity to strengthen the calves - time, for the most part, would be a secondary concern.
Thats what I did today. I tried to concentrate on generating a much larger percentage of my forward momentum by pushing off with my calves as opposed to the quads and hamstrings. It definately did slow my time down - but I figure that if I can train myself to use my calf muscles more, I might be a little more explosive with each step, which should theoretically (in my mind) improve speed. Since it was my first time really trying to isolate another muscle group more, there were certainly times that I slid back into old habits - but at least it was a start.
Total Distance: 3.4 Miles
Total Time: 30:05
Avg HR: 156
A bit slower than my previous run on this loop (which clocked in at 28:41) - but it was close to the post Holyoke 10K time around the loop (29:41), with a noticable drop in HR (156 vs 161).
No comments:
Post a Comment