Strength Training: Kicking my Butt, Literally

I'm sixty years old, and from a health perspective, that means one thing. I need to focus on strength training.  First, I need to recover from nine months of Ironman training and one of the hardest races of my life.  For the last week, I've been doing some pushups and squats.  Yesterday, I started a new routine.  My strength training set consists of 10 push ups, 20 squats, 10 lunges and a one minute plank.  I did three sets yesterday and it literally kicked my butt.  My glutes were sore yesterday, and were still sore today.  Yesterday, I was a little concerned that I might have overdone it, having strained my glute in the past. Today, my soreness of the good soreness.  I felt sore in my glutes and quads and upper body, all telling me that yesterday's workout was doing what it was intended to do, make me stronger!  So, the only thing I did today was swim.  Tomorrow, I'll do the routine again and see how I do.

The balance for me when it comes to strength training has always been to avoid overdoing it.  In fact, that's the balance I've always had with every type of training that I've ever done.  So, I need to pay attention to the signs.  And, take things slowly.  There's no rush.  I can build up slowly.  Strength training is arguably the most important form of exercise that one can do as they get older.  I've tried in the past, but have usually gotten injured, and thus have never persisted.  Sixty is a real number.  I must develop and maintain a strength routine for the rest of my life.  It starts now.

I started the year recovering from running and walking 100 miles over the course of 42 hours.  It took me a solid month to fully recover from that experience.  The Ironman World Championship definitely kicked my butt.  I'm still recovering.  For the past three days I've slept between 9 and 11 hours every night.  I never do that.  My body is talking to me.  I'm recovering. Sleep is critical to a healthy recovery.  I've been eating incredibly clean for the past 8 days.  I'm on the right track.  It's time to get back on the bike, and I can feel some runs in my near term future.  It isn't surprising that it's taken me three weeks to recover, and once again, I need to still be cautious for the next week.  But, I'll continue to strength work.  It'll be good to kick my butt!