Today was the advent of a whole new level to my training.

I had my first track practice today… And I am HOOKED.

The day started off with a run around the track for a warm up. 1 mile. Distance usually feels the hardest for my body because, a.) I normally get bored to death, b.) all this muscle is hard to move around for long periods of time, c.) I start getting in my head at how that shit is burning the hell out of my body. But I did it. And glad that I did.

The next thing that happened were drills, drills, and more drills. I learned that my entire life, I have been running absolutely WRONG. I normally run like just about 75-80% of people, with a heel strike. Instead, the human body is actually designed to be running and striding with a front or ball of the foot strike. Think about when you are barefoot and you’re running. You will naturally do a forward strike as heel striking is far to painful and the body isn’t designed to do that anyways. Heel striking happens in walking gait, but not in stride. I knew of this theory, but REALLY learned about it today. And since this afternoon, I have been reading study after study, and watching medical/exercise physiology videos online that talk about this stuff in greater depth. Additionally, I studied the advanced runners and the lightbulb just went ON for me. When I applied it to my run, I was gliding in air, had more stamina, and got faster. Even better, I recovered faster!

The next thing that I need to really perfect is my arm drive. I need to keep my arms from swining too far behind me, keeping it tighter to the hip and bringing my arms up higher in front of me. I also need to drive faster in my sprint because I’ve now learned that the sprint happens from the upperbody, and from there, the legs will follow. EUREKA!

Finally, I need to strengthen my hip flexors so that my knees can really come up higher and faster in my sprints.

As I was bounding around the track, I felt SO alive. The challenge of my body going full speed. The absolute power and endurance it takes to finish at my best is so addicting. I was sweating up a storm and I was working at my absolute fullest capacity. I mean honestly, I’m not sure I can ever go back to a cardio machine again because the work I put in today trumped anything I could ever do, and I work out pretty damn hard with the cardio. I’ll likely just hit 20-30 mins tops of SS on the stepmill or elliptical 2x/week or so. The rest of my time will be on the track.

After the workout, I chilled out, went to the gym, did some light legs (focusing on hip flexor strength work, and some functional stuff) and practiced posing for a half hour.

With the advent of my track workouts comes an overhaul in my program and diet as well. I’m DEFINITELY eating more, as all this running is getting me super lean really quickly. But I’m really going to try to maintain as much muscle as possible, so meal timing is important (pre and post workout). Carbs are still in the picture (mostly veggies, some starchy through oatmeal, rice, sweet potatoes, or whole wheat pasta earlier in the day). And I’m very high in protein and good fats. I eat a lot of nuts, olive oil, and animal protein (fish/chicken/beef). But I’m eating super clean though, so I’m still able to see some changes coming about. A lady at the gym today was like, “OH WOW she’s got a great six pack.” Ha, I’m not even in peak condition yet!

I’m still lifting pretty heavy, most of my reps stay btw 8-12, I do mostly circuits, high intensity work, functional movements etc. 

All I can say is that this time around I feel SO spot on and so ready. I’m not sure how this season will culminate, but I do know that when I hit the stage I will hit it with a package that is the absolute best I can get it at this time. I feel so in tune with my body, & my eating; my level of knowledge of the body has grown tremendously in the last year because I’ve been constantly studying things even deeper and researching more advanced levels of kinesiology/anatomy/nutrition/exercise science. I just love my life right now, and I feel like I’m on the brink of something amazing. I don’t know what that thing will be, but it’s something beyond my wildest dreams. 

Universe my arms are wide open.

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