June 12, 2009

Getting Liz Back on Track...

Last fall, my daughter, Liz, suffered a sports injury that put her on enforced couch potato status. She's been bored, she's been very bored and she's itching to move. Happily, the last MRI showed that she's ready for action -- if she goes slowly.

My friend, Carol, found an interesting book called The Beginning Runners Handbook: The Proven 13-Week Walk-Run Program at our local library and thought it might be just the thing to get Liz back on her feet. The basic premise is that you build up strength and endurance by alternating running and walking -- extending the running and decreasing the walking segments as the weeks go by.

I've told a number of people that Liz and I are going to spend the summer "learning to run" and to my surprise I had a bunch of women say that they wanted to join us. After a while, it occurred to me that some of you might want to join us as well. So, once a week for the next 13 weeks, I'll tell you what we're doing and if you're in the mood for something new, I hope you'll come along. You know, this would be a great activity for an Adventure Club! Everything is more fun when you do it with friends.

A few words about The Beginning Runner's Handbook. The 13-week program doesn't appear until page 151 because the authors (Ian MacNeill and the Sport Medicine Council of British Columbia) thought it was important to start with topics like moderation, choosing good shoes, training mind & body, pregnancy, cross-training, technique, diet, injuries and stretching. It is probably wise to do some reading of your own before you launch into this new exercise program. Please make sure you're healthy and ready for action and then join us!


Photo credit: Abbie Mulvihill

2 comments:

Gaelyn said...

Glad to hear Liz is on the road to recovery. Good luck with the running. Personally, I'd rather walk.

Michaelle said...

Your "walks" could leave a runner in the dust any day!