Apr 8

FIT:

Guess what, I signed up for another race! This weekend! I originally wasn't going to do it because it was only 16 days before the half, and I didn't want to put myself in a situation where I may take risks and push too hard. I decided to scrap that, though. I figure it'll be a good speed workout, and I'd probably push myself similarly hard in a workout at around this time, anyways. On my own, it would've been on the treadmill, rather than asphalt, most likely. But eh, I've wanted to see Furman University's campus for a long time anyways.

So... I think I may still be recovering from Saturday's 15-mi hike. I've been sore in the lower legs in the past few days. I like feeling sore, but I don't like it when my knees feel pounded, which they are. Too much cumulative mileage over the past month? Sad. I'm not sure if it's a hip strength/imbalance issue. In absolute terms, my hips are stronger than they were a few months ago. However, maybe the ratio of flexor:extensor:adductor:abductor strength is off, or quad:hamstring. Hard for me to tell. My adductors may be the strongest of the four, based on my stretch band exercises.

Anyway, that's all to say that this was going to be more of a maintenance week anyway. I did 5.0 on Monday, strength on Tuesday (with a 3:30 plank and 50 pushups - season records), rest on Wednesday, and 4.0 today. I can rest again tomorrow and hopefully be fresh for Saturday morning. Both of my runs this week were moderate to slowly paced, so hopefully, they'll be fully recharged later.

Someone seemed to have taken the failsafe magnet that turns off the treadmill when you fly off the back end, so the treadmill didn't work. I didn't want to run that boring 1.25-mi out-andback, especially because the grass would be wet since it had just t-stormed. It was too late to go downtown, because it would be sunset during my run. I started driving to the boring out-and-back, then I remembered that I had wanted to test out a nearby park with lots of sports fields. I wasn't sure how big it was, and other times, the weather just seemed too hot, and I didn't want to be disappointed. It was cooler after the rain today, though. Postrain cloudyness is exciting.

It turned out to be awesome. There's a good loop I can make that's about 0.8 miles, and it would seem like repeating it 5x would get boring. However, maybe the fact that it's a loop and always turning gives you new things to look at and new scenes all the time. First, there's a stretch by the P-lot and baseball fields. Then, you do a tiny bit on a gravel road. Then, you enter a woodsy trail where you have to stay on your toes just a little bit to not trip over roots and rocks. This part's downhill, but nothing uncomfortably steep. Then, you go by a massive telephone tower, then by the football field. Then, you cut through some grass, then a bit of asphalt road, then on the grass on the other side of the baseball fields and back to the starting point. Nice, huh? Each loop goes by so quickly mentally because it's one thing after another. It was great, and I look forward to that nearby, interesting, almost all-grassy course in the future. No more HS XC course, thankfully, no more boring out and back, and no need to drive all the way downtown for base running. I'll still go downtown for LR's, but thie park is nice, and it'll be traffic-free and open forever :)

Splits> 6:23, 6:13, 6:11, 6:07, 5:58... sadly not mile splits, haha... 0.8 mi splits. Man... people who can do mile splits like that... incredible. Anyway... I wore 1224's... and ooh, the other day, I matched mileages to shoes for each run. The vast majority last year were untracked, because I didn't think of that as much before, and they were in one of three shoes anyways. But now, it matters, and I was kind of surprised.

Just some observations... the ? is split between Trance 7's, 4's, and old 3's. 4's probably had the most, but even if all were for 4's, we're still in the yellow zone. And the 2X Boston PT said that my old 3's looked kind of compressed and ready for retirement, and that suggests that the 3's had their fair share, although my guess is that I did far more in the 4's. I didn't realize I had done so much in the 1224's or in the Progrid. The Progrid is not the best for me, as I realized in my gait analysis (http://fit360.blogspot.com/2010/01/gait-analysis-barefoot-vs-shoed.html), so I guess I've only been avoiding them since then. I mean, 75ish isn't much, but I guess I never really thought of it. So I think I'm goingo to try to completely retire my old 3's and 4's. I'll go mostly with the 1224's and new 3's. For short runs, I'll go in the 8's. Like at Saturday's race, I'll go in the Trances. They're less cushioned and maybe less supportive, but they're light, so they're best saved for races of short distance. Barefoot only had a mile, and spikes had 3.1. Interesting to look at. FYI, the cited life of a shoe is 300-500 miles. I don't know whether that includes walking. Probably, although I've never counted that. I don't walk much in these shoes, since I don't like having non-running foot impressions in them for form's sake, and I like to go out in sandals almost always.