From Atop Telegraph Hill....

So I continue to relearn the same lesson every time I do a trail run.  I have learned to love running downhill; however, I continue to hate the recovery process. 

So as I mentioned a couple of posts back, now that I am comfortable in trail shoes, I have lost my apprehension running down hill, especially in loose dirt or gravel.  That came in real handy last Sunday on the Zoom Castle Rock Half-Marathon.  That said, it has now taken me till Thursday to finally not have legs that have any resemblance to wet spaghetti. 

As usual, I do my research and came up with some great posts with some wonderful recommendations.  One is from Running Times Magazine dealing with mastering your descents.  The second one is found at Livestrong.com and highlights the perfect exercises to strengthen your quads, you can find it here.  The final post comes from UltRunr.com, specifically techniques to fix down hill quad problems, you can find it here.

I have also considered one of the running clinics that Footfeathers puts together.  There is actually one this weekend; however, I have prior commitments.  I would love to do one of these and I hope he continues to fly out from Colorado to host them.

But really it comes down to running more hills.  I have gotten into a bad habit of running flats and it really showed this past weekend.  So that is why I am posting from atop Telegraph Hill.  I work very close the the Filbert Street and Greenwich Street steps that lead up to Telegraph Hill.  So going forward, I will be making them a part of my exercise regimen to improve my quad strength.  Today, it was a bit of a slow go since I'm still in that recovery mode, but I am expecting things improving going forward.

Also Beth and I ordered the Asylum workout program in hopes that it will improve my core strength and therefore not have me overuse other muscles.  At my age, it is all about efficiency and smarts, so this should improve my agility.

So there you have it, expect more posts from the top of Telegraph Hill.  Now all I have to worry about climbing down the stairs.