4 mile walk and stuff.

This morning I had intended to go for a run, but I woke up a couple of times in the night with knee pain in the knee that has been bothering me on my last few long runs.  So, I decided to "chill" and just go walking.  I went to the park and walked just over 4 miles, then came home and did 30 minutes on the elliptical.

I received one of the two Jeff Galloway books I ordered yesterday.  It's called "Running: A Year Round Plan!" I'm already more than half-way through and have already found it very interesting and quite helpful.  Basically it outlines a 52 week program, for three different levels of runners, that you can start at any time during the year and base it around your goal races or whatever.  The tidbit I'll share with you today from my reading so far is that Galloway is a big proponent of getting as much time on your feet during the day as possible, even during training.  He would have you do 2 (short) runs during the week, usually a set of hill repeats then another run practicing cadence drills or accelerated glides, then the third run of the week is a weekend long, slow run.  All of the runs incorporate walking, minimizing chances for injury or burnout.  Those speed-work words may sound fancy and indicative of intense training for hard-core athletes, but really the feeling I get from Jeff Galloway's writing is that he has developed this method so that anyone at any fitness level can accomplish their running goals.  All of the tips, schedules, paces and ratios for run/walking are laid out for varied levels of runners, from the fast 6 minute milers, all the way up to 18+ minute milers - really, that's anyone.

So, his reason for having you get as much "feet time" in during the day is to burn fat, which helps you stay lean and also teaches your body to burn fat as fuel.  It is much better to burn fat as fuel during the long, slow runs than glycogen, because if you're burning glycogen first, you'll hit the wall that much sooner.  Today I am wearing one of my kids pedometers to gauge how many steps I take on an average day.  I may find I'm spending too much time sitting in front of the computer! ;)  By the way, does anyone even read this blog (besides Becca) or find it helpful at all?