Woohoo! Back from my run and I managed an hour comfortably! Still feeling strong and I reckon I could push longer, but decided to play safe and not overexert. Based on the sores I'm feeling, two days recovery at most! That said, I'm not too happy with my speed though, and seems like my cardio needs a lot more work.
I had been eagerly awaiting this run all week, as I wanted to put the new heart rate monitor to use. Despite my initial plan of running at 75% MHR, I ended up maintaining the run at roughly 85% instead, simply because the 75% MHR pace felt too slow. Even the 85% pace felt a little slow and it felt like I could maintain a slightly faster pace. I couldn't help but wonder if the HRM was a little inaccurate.
That said, I decided to stick with it, since exceeding the 85% MHR would switch the energy systems, while I still wanted to remain near my lactate thresholds. Made me wonder if my cardio was so bad that even a slow pace would get my heart rate up to 85%. Or maybe my running technique was not sufficiently energy efficient. Well, I also had a stuffy nose so that might be a contributing factor.
Regardless, the post-run feeling was good. It was so relaxing that I couldn't believe it. When I started out, I thought the one hour would kill me, or at least make my legs so sore that I couldn't feel them. Yet nothing of that sort! As I ran, I kept thinking about the first two things Caballo spoke about - running easy and running light. That was my focus all the way, keeping it easy and my footfalls light. It works great!
The only discomfort that's been eating me is the right ITB. At one point I had a sharp pain and had to stop for a quick stretch to loosen it up. But so far the pain goes away the next day, so it doesn't seem overly worrying.
For this run, I strapped on my KSOs with the toe socks, and I'm feeling more comfortable with the new gait of blade first then rolling inwards. After reading 'Born to Run', besides trying to remember to running easy and light, I'm also constantly feeling for how my body is reacting, whether my posture is right, and so on. It made the run go by a lot faster than I anticipated, and the one hour wasn't the drudgery I expected but actually turned out to be fun!
Onward and upward next week!
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