Gnarly

I actually stuck to the plan this week, and it made for a good one. Here's the rundown:

The slow runs have been awesome. They recharge me and give me the opportunity to work on my form and footfall. Although it might seem counter productive to go out for a slow, low mile run, it's totally worth it. Try it, and enjoy it.




"Speedwork", also known as torture. I set out to run this one as planned, 1mi slow, repeats (800m fast, 400m slow x3) 1mi slow. It ended up that on the second repeat, I died. you can see the peaks and valleys here in the graph. The high points are me starting to speed up, note that they quickly trail off. Speed isn't a strong suit, but it will be a subject of focus once a week.




Another slow run. As you can see, I had no idea where I was going. I just went out one morning for a jog and went wherever. It was fun. I am settled in pretty well on my easy runs to a 10:30-10:50 pace. Much better than the 11:30 suggested by Runners World. I'm happy.





OK, here's the big one. To start out, I had some worries about my feet on a six mile run. The farthest I have gone so far is 4 miles, and that wasn't a consistent run. My feet have been swollen and sore. So I decided I would run in my Nike running shoes. I began to regret that immediately. First of all, that sharp drop in the beginning of the run is me retying my shoe. Stupid. Before I even hit the mile mark, my back and knees were hurting. I couldn't find a good form. I tried really hard to run exactly like I do with the Vibrams on, but they just aren't built for it, but I did avoid going to a heel strike. A little after I hit the 3 mile mark, I stopped the time and  loosened my shoes up as far as they could go. That helped a lot. The tight shoe and the all of its motion control factors were negated when I loosened it up, and I ended up just having to deal with the giant sole on them. It doesn't seem like much, but when you've been running in Vibrams, it's really noticeable. I got through it, but I am never running in those things again.

As for the run. It went great. The first 3 miles were into a 15+ mph headwind. That was miserable. But, I maintained a steady pace the whole time. The second half of my run took me off the trail and back on to the pavement. My 4th mile felt like it ended really fast, I must have been distracted, it was my slowest lap time. The run didn't get worse after the first half, it stayed about the same. I think with a good pace, I'll be alright with increasing the mileage over the months.

It was a good week, we got in some hiking too, I'll have some pictures up. Anybody who might find themselves int he Downeast area of Maine should head straight to Acadia National Park. It is awesome. Anyways, I am excited to get back to the grind this week. I'll be back in a week to post my findings. Keep running. Out.