My "New Running" resolutions

Now when it seems that knee is finally ok again, I need to make everything possible to keep it that way.

Although I do not know for 100% why my knee keeps getting messed up, I think that it has something to do with my running and eating habits. I mean, that else can it be?

Here go my new running me guidelines:

#1: Eat better. I have a VERY sweet tooth and it is not a problem for me to eat chocolate for lunch or breakfast. I eat always the same food, therefore I guess I am not getting enough of all necessary nutrients. Then I am trying to save money on food, which is not a good thing. Since breakfast is free here (hm, free. We pay almost 600 Euros a month for a room, therefore I guess that it is not completely free, although they claim it is. And our breakfast choices are limited to bagettes, butter, jam, milk, sugar, honey, coffee and tea. What do we expect when it is free, right?), I was trying to save money by eating baggetes for breakfast and then store them and eat them for lunch as well. It is just simple carbs with no nutritional value. Now I need to stop! No more bagettes for lunch. No more chocolate, madeleines, and other sweet stuff for lunch, dinner and so on. Cut on peanut butter. Eat only wholewheat pasta because I eat lots of pasta. Eat more chicken (I almost do not eat any meat, only fish and chicken and should eat more of it). And drink more water.

#2: Take rest days and take it easy on my easy days and try to cross train. I almost have not taken any rest days prior my injury because I felt I needed to do more because of all the time I have "wasted" being injured. Should be wiser about that. Since my bike is gone and we do not have pool, I do not know what I can do as cross training but I will try to figure out something.

#3: Strength training. At least 2 times a week, preferably 3 times. My plan is work out on Tuesdays and Thursdays after running practice and then maybe something easy on Friday. I should do more core strengthening. I will try to do abs 4-5 times a week.

#4: Stretching. I am usually very good about stretching when I am injured but when things clear out I tend to start slacking. Stretch each day at least for few minutes.

#5: More "quality" running. What I mean is tempo runs, intervals, strides. Not only it will help me to keep my leg muscles more balanced (or something similar, you get the idea what I mean) but it will help me to run faster. We do intervals at our running practices but it might not be enough.

#6: Stop being cheap and change shoes more frequently. I have had the same shoes since September (I have rotated shoes until mid-November but since then I have been running in one pair only). I know it is a long long time. I have another pair in my closet but I was trying to "save" them for later. I am going to start using them at the beginning of April.

I cannot think of anything else for now but already these few things should help me a lot. At least I hope. In retrospective I see that I have not been doing right choices and now it is time to change that.