I'm starting to get to that point where running more or faster isn't giving me much improvement. I need to start trying new things and concentrating more on the little things. I've done some core work and weight lifting this week. It's nothing great, but it's more than I've been doing (which is nothing additional). I've also added some form drills to the routine.
This morning, I met up with Kelley to run at the D&L at Cementon. The plan was to go out 3 miles and if we felt good, run some more when we came back. I wanted to do some heat training, so I wore a long sleeve shirt. That kind of failed though, as it was quite chilly out.
We took off and it was actually a nice morning. The miles flew by quickly with our conversation. It seemed like I didn't look at my watch often and they clicked away in no time. Before I knew it, we were already at the turn around.
We turned around right at the house with the barking dogs. They weren't out though. I was glad for that. They aren't a problem, but they are annoying.
We headed back. My legs weren't terrible, but they didn't exactly feel great either. They seemed a little sluggish. I haven't put many miles on them this week, but I have put them through different workouts.
We were still chatting away, but for some reason, it seemed much slower coming back. I looked at my watch way too frequently. It was a little more breezy in this direction. Eventually, we finished up with 6 miles. Neither of us wanted to continue on.
Since this was a nice and easy run, I felt like I needed something later on. I decided to head to Lafayette again to do some form drills. We used to do these all the time during high school track. I never imagined that such a short workout would do much good. I always read about elites doing them though, so I figured I might as well start up again. If your form doesn't break down, you can run faster.
I started with a mile warmup around the track. They legs weren't great, but the softness of the track helped them come around. Some older guy was running slowly around the track. I basically lapped him in this mile.
I had to warmup and cooldown to prevent injury. I also wanted to make this some kind of workout. I didn't want to run steps again, with the 50 miler not too far away. This first mile was an 8:17.
I ran strides, high knees and kick butts. Last time, I ran 6 of each of these for a length of 40 yards. Since I wasn't adding in steps, I decided to do 8 of these this time. I concentrated on form and tried to keep my face relaxed too. I know in high school, my coach always used to say that I ran too stiff.
After completing these, I went back on the track for the easy cooldown. There was a young girl running and I jumped on right ahead of her. I thought maybe it was the same girl as the other night, but I guess not. I passed her in the 3rd lap, so I basically lapped her.
I felt like I was smooth and cruising and not going hard. I was shocked after the first lap, when my pace was right around 6:30. That is usually a hard effort for me. Certainly the softness of the track helped. I wasn't pushing myself though and I was still going this pace. I guess the form drills really helped me. I was in amazement at what I was doing. If this keeps up, then I'm definitely sold on form drills.
This was another productive day with some different stuff. I know long term I probably won't be committed to a lot of the little things, but I figure that I can keep them up for 2 months at least. Anything that can help me improve would be greatly appreciated.
Tomorrow is the second race of the Third Thirsty Thursday 5k series in Reading. I'm pretty sure I'm going since it is only 10 bucks and quite the competitive race. I'd love to set a new PR. I'm not sure though, since it was only a month ago that I ran the PR. I do like this course. It is a few days before my 50 miler, but I'm not too worried about that. It's a short and quick race that I can easily recover from.
AM 6 miles - 50:56 (8:29 pace)
PM 2 miles - 14:48 (7:24 pace)
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