Wednesday, July 28, 2010

New Season Coming

It is that time again.  Time to prepare for the upcoming season.  I take the summer off from being a referee and do the things I don't get to do during soccer season.
As the Spring season comes to an end, I usually switch my fitness activities from a running emphasis to a cycling one.  I do this week long, 500 mile charity bike ride in the middle of the summer, so I have to prepare for it.  Now that the bike ride is over, I'm switching back to running, slowly but surely, in preparation for the new Fall season.
I'm the kind of person that needs a goal to get motivated, so I put in for a couple of early season tournaments.  If I don't commit myself, I can put off training harder, so I have to commit.
My first run in a month or so was...well...ugly.  I have the cardio fitness.  My legs, however, want to pedal a bicycle, not run.  My regimen consists of 2 or 3 walk/run workouts.  I'll run about a mile or so, and then I'll walk until my legs don't hurt.  I'll resume running until my legs tighten up again.  I continue this through my usual 5k route.  Eventually, I get back to being able to run the entire route again.  Once I've done that, I might do some longer runs and some speed work.  I like to be able to run 5 miles below a 9:00/mile pace.   I find that gives me the fitness required to do games as high as U-20.
I will be working with my older son and, at some point, my younger son as well.  He's been a grade 9 for a couple of years and will be taking his grade 8 class in late August.  I have my own tournament crew!
I'm looking forward to the Fall season.