Week 3 Schedule

Remember when you were a kid and were waiting patiently for a package to arrive in the mail? Maybe not so patiently. Maybe you ran out to the mailbox everyday, hoping that the package containing this special item would be in that day's delivery. Well, that's how I've been since I ordered the Flex Kit from Wharton Health. I've been to the mailbox every day for a week now, hoping that it'd be in there when I opened the little mailbox door. But no, nothing for days on end. Until today. My Flex Kit has arrived! I'm about to embark on a journey to greater flexibility and elimination of all running pain forever. Perhaps I should tone down my expectations some. In any case, I will have no excuse now for not working on the stretching aspect of the timelapserunner's training.

Small Honduran Milk Snake
(Courtesy rhiannonstone @ Flickr)

The snake-looking thing in the lead pic is the 8-foot rope to be used during active isolated stretching exercises. It is not a longer version of the Honduran milk snake shown on the right, though it might look that scary on the floor in low light.

Every runner knows that the harder worked muscles during running begin to tighten up with use. Thus the need for some form of stretching to maintain flexibility. As these muscles get shorter and shorter, what was once a normal range of motion now becomes an excessive range, ramping up the possibility of injury.

With me, it's been the hamstrings. No, I don't typically have any knee problems, or shin splints, or ankle issues. I have shortened hamstrings that have been the cause of some pain and running inconvenience almost since the beginning of this whole campaign back in April 2011. Yes, I know: I should stretch. And this is what I intend to do. I just want to do it in the most sound and safe fashion that I can.

Bring in the active isolated stretching. I've got the book, the DVD and the rope. Now it's up to me. But I'm thinking: wouldn't it be great to have the flexibility of that model on the cover of that book? I don't have it for you yet, but I will snap a pic of where MY leg goes to when I first do that exercise. It will be sad to look at, I'm sure. But, hey ... you've got to start somewhere.

The Whartons know that if the users of their method do not persist long enough to make a habit of the exercise and to see some positive results, they will be disappointed, and perhaps disillusioned. Naturally they ask that readers give it (at least) 21 days - the time necessary to form a habit. I will.

OK. The training program schedule for next week, Week 3. It's nothing new. Looks just like Week 1. That's OK. This is a marathon not a sprint (pun intended). There will be a likely disruption to the timelapserunner's schedule this week, which I'll speak about later - not sure what the final workout list will end up looking like. Stick with me. We'll get there.