A little 5K kicked my a$$ this morning… a lesson on conditioning and training

I ran a 5k this morning. It was early, it was cold and I hadn’t ran in over a month. So how’d I do? I did okay. I ran about 9/min miles and I was really tired when I finished. I’ve run faster miles and I’ve also ran much further so why did I have old men and little kids passing me us? This morning’s run reminded me of a few things. Particularly the need for conditioning and the need for training for different situations.

With regard to conditioning, sometimes it is hard to remember how much a fight or sparring can take out of you. After all, has anyone seen Steven Segal sweat? Especially when taking an art that focuses on technique, it is not too difficult to forget to keep conditioning as well. I’ve recently added both aerobic and strength training to supplement my martial arts. While I have a lot of confidence in my techniques, I also need to be confident that, first, I can out run an adversary, and failing that, I can outlast. In any situation, I’ll have enough other things to worry about outside of my strength and stamina.

With regard to different situations, most of the running I’ve done recently has been in warmer weather, where the air isn’t as dry and my muscles aren’t fighting the cold. Some people like running the cooler weather, but I’m from India, my body is used to hot weather and is where it performs best. I do think the weather contributed to my performance today, but it shouldn’t be an excuse, because I should have trained for and need to train for different conditions. Same thing with training. Training should never solely consist of sparring with just one partner where you’re squared of one against the other. It should include all situation. Two /three on one, fighting with or without a weapon, standing up and on the ground, and most importantly, fighting and running. Your training shouldn’t just bring you the ability to prove you’re a man by fighting, but the ability to prove you’re a man by running away, and not fighting.