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| Back on the kinetic chain gang with Team 6 |
Day 342
Strength training with Erik, Joan, Hyacinth and Rebecca. Evening track workout with Kent AC: 1m warm up, 5x1000m, 1m warm down. Wet, dark, cold
'Oh, that this too solid flesh would melt...'
Sorry, Hamlet, to misuse your fine soliloquy to these baser ends, but I've been reading about sarcopenia (literally, melting flesh) and talking to Erik and the line just popped into my head.
For the past year, I have been acting on the shocking evidence that cardio, in essence, makes you flabby. That's why I have become such a a faithful student of Erik the Wise. When the mileage goes up, as it's timetabled to do for the next three weeks or so, before marathon da, I will wax hungrier and the belly and back fat will be maintained. Thats because my body, ever efficiently, would like to hang onto fat, thanks very much, because it needs the oestrogen fat imparts as menopause gathers pace. This is all fine and natural, but for a woman who is looking for lean, both to improve her running efficiency and the way she fills her clothes, it is not helpful.
As women age, they round. A layer of fat insulates their hips and midsection and, at the same time, the underused muscles on their arms and thighs deteriorate and, yes, melt away. Cue bingo wings and what my daughter calls the alcoholic-middle-aged-woman outline: the skinny shanks and fleshy torso combo. Stand in a queue in Iceland, Aldi, or the 99p shop to spot it.
Strength training, pressing weights, using body weight for exercises like plank, side plank and blah-di-blah will help stop the melting. And less steady state running will be required, but after the marathon, if that's ok.
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