NickW
Guest
Today I set out without a distance in my for my run. My goal was to work on form and without caring about speed or distance. I set out and I have a love hate relationship with the first 1/4 mile and last 1/4 mile of every run. It's the stretch that has trees on both sides of sidewalk and if there's any wind then there is a ton of branches, pinecones, pine needles, etc. all over which you cannot avoid. Somehow there's even gravel in this stretch, not sure where it comes from as there are no gravel roads anywhere remotely close.
Anyhow this first little bit really makes me focus on form and sets me up for a pretty good run the rest of the way usually. I get down the hill which is about a mile long and feel pretty good so I decide to keep going on a route that I haven't run in months. I forgot about a stretch maybe 200 yards long of the most horrible blacktop. Its very similar to a chip seal only slightly more tar, for coloring sake I think.
I get through this by bending my knees a little more and really concentrating on relaxing and lifting feet. This was the best I have ever handled this stretch so I am pretty pleased with myself. By now I've noticed that one of my toes on my right foot curles toward the ground more than the other toes, so I'm working on try to lift the toes upon landing to help keep it from blistering, and so far it's working. At a mile and a half I'm starting to get nervous about distance to I decide to turn around and head back.
At arout two miles the road goes up pretty sharply and so I really have to work to push the stroller up the hill without pushing off with my feet. I get past the steep section and now it's a pretty slow and gradual hill the rest of the way up and am able to increase my speed some while keeping good form.
When I get to the last 1/4 mile I decide to kick it up a few notches to finish real strong. I notice to my right a car that has started to pull out at an intersection and then just stop, in the middle of the intersection, jaw in his lap, staring at me as I fly by. He was so fixated on looking at me, he didn't notice that he was about to get t-boned from both sides. Luckily the oncoming traffic just stopped and honked at him, which finally got him moving.
I finished up my run and was pleasantly surprised to see that I had run 3.05 miles at an 11:57 pace. Now I haven't hooked my Garmin up to my computer yet to see my actual moving pace, so this pace is counting my stops for stop lights, stopping to fix the stroller once, stopping to put my sons socks back on him, twice, plus stopping for traffic at uncontrolled intersections.
I felt really good today, minus a hole that I wore in that one toe during the last half mile. I think my toe got tired and it got really hard to keep that toe up upon landing. I will have to work on that in the future. Anyway, I was just really happy to be able to run with no other problems other than the toe and wanted to share. Sorry for the length of this.
Anyhow this first little bit really makes me focus on form and sets me up for a pretty good run the rest of the way usually. I get down the hill which is about a mile long and feel pretty good so I decide to keep going on a route that I haven't run in months. I forgot about a stretch maybe 200 yards long of the most horrible blacktop. Its very similar to a chip seal only slightly more tar, for coloring sake I think.
I get through this by bending my knees a little more and really concentrating on relaxing and lifting feet. This was the best I have ever handled this stretch so I am pretty pleased with myself. By now I've noticed that one of my toes on my right foot curles toward the ground more than the other toes, so I'm working on try to lift the toes upon landing to help keep it from blistering, and so far it's working. At a mile and a half I'm starting to get nervous about distance to I decide to turn around and head back.
At arout two miles the road goes up pretty sharply and so I really have to work to push the stroller up the hill without pushing off with my feet. I get past the steep section and now it's a pretty slow and gradual hill the rest of the way up and am able to increase my speed some while keeping good form.
When I get to the last 1/4 mile I decide to kick it up a few notches to finish real strong. I notice to my right a car that has started to pull out at an intersection and then just stop, in the middle of the intersection, jaw in his lap, staring at me as I fly by. He was so fixated on looking at me, he didn't notice that he was about to get t-boned from both sides. Luckily the oncoming traffic just stopped and honked at him, which finally got him moving.
I finished up my run and was pleasantly surprised to see that I had run 3.05 miles at an 11:57 pace. Now I haven't hooked my Garmin up to my computer yet to see my actual moving pace, so this pace is counting my stops for stop lights, stopping to fix the stroller once, stopping to put my sons socks back on him, twice, plus stopping for traffic at uncontrolled intersections.
I felt really good today, minus a hole that I wore in that one toe during the last half mile. I think my toe got tired and it got really hard to keep that toe up upon landing. I will have to work on that in the future. Anyway, I was just really happy to be able to run with no other problems other than the toe and wanted to share. Sorry for the length of this.