Congratulations!

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” -Benjamin Franklin

Great job on completing your first few weeks of running! I am sure you are feeling a few stiff muscles, that haven’t been used recently! You should feel less of that as your body becomes adjusted to running. Warming up and cooling down will also help reduce muscle stiffness and accelerate the recovery process. You will notice on your training plan that I recommend a minimum of 5 minutes of warm up and cool down at every session.

The warm-up is aimed at reducing muscle stiffness in order to decrease the chance of injury. 5 to 10 minutes of walking will increase body temperature, oxygen utilization and blood flow to your muscles. Once you are done with your warm up, begin your run at a comfortable pace. Note- Do not count the warm up as part of your workout time or distance.
When you are done with your run, try to resist the urge of stopping without a cool down. A proper cool down will help dissipate waste produces (such as lactic acid) from your body which should help reduce muscle soreness. Cooling down will also reduce the likelihood of getting “dizzy” or fainting by allowing blood to return from the extremities.

A good cool down should consist of the following:
• 5 to 10 minutes walking – to decrease body temperature and remove waste products from the working muscles
• 5 to 10 minutes static stretching exercises- decrease body temperature, remove waste products from the working muscles and to increase range of movement.
Static stretches are important to the cool down as they help muscles to relax and increase their range of movement. Static stretching consists of stretching a muscle (or group of muscles) to the point where you feel tension, but not pain, in the muscle and then maintaining or holding that position for 10 to 15 seconds. It is important to stretch in a slow controlled manner as sudden, jerky, or bouncing movements may lead to injury.
Now you can see why we begin and end each workout with our walk. Be sure to include a warm up and cool down walk when you are doing your own workouts as well.


See you on Monday at 6:30pm

To Your Health,
Coach Misty