TrainingTruths: What's Beautiful: Reach

Stretching has become a priority after spending most of last week nursing a strained lower abdominal muscle. I'm pretty sure that my lack of attention to pre and post run stretching is what led to this injury and I can count my blessings that it stayed minor. So last week I went on a mission to turn stretching into a habit.

I'm still working on the What's Beautiful campaign with Under Armour and FitFluential and came across the REACH challenge. This challenge reminded me that it feels just as good to stretch as it does to run. The challenge was to upload a video of your favorite stretch and cool down routine. Since I was in rest mode I'd been using a favorite app, Yoga For Runners, and stretching everyday using the pre-run sequence.

On Friday I was feeling better, so I decided to lace up my running shoes and jump on the treadmill (I didn't want to be away from home if my muscle acted up). I started with my Yoga for Runners pre-run stretching sequence and then ran 3 easy miles. Even though I felt like I could pick up the pace, I forced myself to leave the speed set to 5 and just ease back into it.

On Saturday morning I attended another TI SurfSet Fitness class in Manchester, but this time I took mr C with me. I'd been looking forward to this since my first session a couple of weeks ago. It was another sweat-fest and my first time tossing a tire, booyah! Later in the evening I completed another stretch session knowing that it would help preclude muscle soreness.

I was back in the running shoes on Sunday and up early to meet some friends for a nice trail run before the heat set in for the day. This was a new running location and we fell in love with the trail, the views, and the wildlife. About a 1.5 miles into the run I thought we were being ambushed by some wild animal when I was startled by Gary & Michelle's shouts... it was just a snake slithering across the path!

What is your training priority?