Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Running Tall and Running Tangents

I didn't feel very good today, so I ran near my house rather than with the group run in Emmaus.  It was an easy five miler, which I often seem to dread.  I like a challenging run.  The weather was close to perfect though, I will say that.

I started off nice and easy and was really cruising around.  It was certainly a good pace through the first two miles.  Because I was bored, I decided to focus on form.  I think my form really tends to get sloppy in easy runs.  It should be smooth all the time.  The book I recently read by Arthur Lydiard talked about "running tall."  That just what I focused on doing.  It seemed to make my back a little sore, but I was definitely smooth and faster with little effort.  I need to keep working on this.  I definitely need to start doing more form drills to keep sharp too.

A friend ran a half marathon over the weekend and her watch said she ran .23 miles farther than the half marathon distance.  Since I was bored during this run, I focused on running tangents where I could.  That would be good practice for races and could eliminate the problems that she had.  It gave me something to do as well.

Again, the hills were easy.  I barely noticed them.  I kept my effort the same, but naturally my pace increased.  I went from clicking off 9 minute miles early on to a speedy 4th mile under 8:30.  The last mile was a little challenging as I just didn't feel like I had a lot of energy.  I got through it though.  Sometimes, that's all you can do.

Tomorrow, is a 4 mile progression run with the last 10 minutes at moderate pace.  That should be a more interesting workout.  I might up to even run the last 10 minutes uphill.  To do that, I'd likely have to go to Lehigh and run up South Mountain.  That's definitely a possibility.  I'm also cat sitting tomorrow, so the run will have to come in the afternoon.

5 miles - 44: 21 (8:52 pace)

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