Road To Recovery Series: Running Outdoors For Greater Aerobic Gains

From the treadmill to the great outdoors, nothing feels more liberating than hitting the park for some fresh air and and a good run around the oval. Finally, I decided to take the baby in the pram, and the Mrs. down to the park for a jog around the field. The physio recommended 10 minutes, believe me it felt like a marathon. My heart rate was pretty high and I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my knee, but I pushed on. Last week I was running on the treadmill and it was funny to see the variance from going through your paces in a controlled environment using gym equipment and how difficult it seems to transfer your aerobic training gains to an outdoor environment.

When conducting fitness tests, personal trainers usually have to test and retest a client in the same or similar conditions a few times over so as to produce a thorough analysis of the clients abilities in that environment. This shows that pre season soccer training is best conducted in an environment that closely matches the environment in which soccer players will most likely play, ie. a soccer field. So my outdoor running foray gave me a good window into what I need to do to get back into peak aerobic condition. Get back out into the wild outdoors and slug it out with the changing seasons.