Iron Pol

No, this post isn't about some training run that just meandered around the city.  It's a post that is going to wander through a lot of different topics.  Remember in school how they teach that a story or message should have single topic?  Yeah, me neither.

This weekend's training took an interesting turn.  I was at a youth retreat where we did a lot of winter activities.  Some of the training that breaks my "nothing dangerous during marathon training" rule included nightime snow football.  Despite that fact it was co-ed, the youth wanted it to be tackle, so there were some good knocks handed out.

We also played broom-ball for about 90 minutes.  For those in warmer climes, broom-ball is basically hockey without pads.  Or rules.  I spent much of the game trying to avoid the kids that were trying to check me every possible way, including gang tackles.

I also spent 90 minutes doing actual training.  One of the youth wanted to ski from camp to a local pizza spot then back.  Her reason?  Just to say she'd done it.  So, for the first time in about 25 years, I strapped on cross country skis.  We covered about 4.5 miles and it was a pretty good workout.

In other news, because I don't have enough blogs running around, I've started blogging for the Green Bay Marathon.  You car read the introductory post here.  I guess that means I should officially sign up for the race.  When I do, it looks like I'll be running it without one co-worker or another for the first time in three years.

Of course, to be fair, last year the co-worker who did the marathon was completely on his own as I was doing the double-marathon thing.

Let's see, youth retreat activities, cross country skiing, GB Marathon blogging.  That's only three topics.

So, let's add in that I'm waiting for my training to be busted up, yet again, by the arrival of the plague.  Both kids and now my wife have been knocked down by some horrible illness in the past 10 days.  My daughter says I'm the winner because I'm the only one that didn't get sick.

She's too young to add the proper word to the end of that sentence.

Yet.

After two sick kids wiped out several days of training, I hit the track for a mid-week sort of long run this morning.  After pounding out a quick (slow) 10K, I decided to do a bit of strength training in the form of plyometrics.

Now, I'm well aware of the benefits of plyometrics.  And I want those benefits.  But does it have to be so painful?  Really, I did four laps, totalling just under a half-mile.  Each lap consisted of two sets of 20 steps of plyometrics.  The first four sets were deep knee lunges.  The second four sets were bounding.

Now, I can barely walk.  Honestly.  What is that all about?

The worst part was the final sets of the deep knee lunges.  It became a lesson in pushing myself past the "WHY-O-WHY am I doing this?  Certainly a 10K run is enough!"

Of course, that's what I find myself saying every time I work on strength training.  I really have to stop reading the articles that tout the benefits of strength training and call out those who try to logic their way out of doing it.

Then I could go about my training, happily ignoring strength training.

But Noooooo.  I love to read.  Even old Triathlete Magazine articles.  So, I do the plyometrics and wonder why.

I so better see benefits when I run the marathon in May.