Late August, and the heat wave has abated. The mornings are cooler, but as it warms up the cicadas begin singing in the trees. The past two days I've gone for short runs with some sprinting - I find I like sprinting as a change of pace from a long run. This morning my legs feel the effects - tightness in the hamstrings and glutes. I did some hamstring strengthening exercises, and I'm avoiding sitting - as that will exacerbate the tightness.
Movement is the cure. Not big, aggressive movement or stretching, but gentle movement, and it doesn't take much to find the edges of sensation in the muscles. I thought a bike ride would be nice, using the muscles in a very different way than running. Rather than taking my all purpose bike out on the parkway trail, I decided to take my road bike and ride up Sligo Creek Parkway. It was after rush hour, so I thought traffic would be light. It was a good ride. The road is in pretty good shape - just a few rough pavement sections on the way back. Going west (upstream) is steadily up hill, giving nice resistance to pedal into. Coming back is easier and faster. I doubled up one stretch of almost a mile, for a total of 6.8 miles. I'll be doing this more on the nice fall days coming up.
I find that getting outside for some activity in the morning improves my experience for the rest of the day.
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