If you read last week’s diary, you know two things; 1) @laizey_bones got new running shoes and 2) my running shoes are trashed after over a year of use. And if you know me at all you have to have guessed what happened this week… That’s right! I got new running shoes.I also picked up a pair of the Flyknit LunarEpics. I have loved my original LunarEpic Highs and know that they really work for me. Everyone I asked reinforced this choice.
Monday’s run was the last one in my old shoes. It was fine. A pretty standard run for me at this stage. I was getting frustrated with the fact that it is still really hard for me to keep running and not stop and that my average pace is not going down.
New LunarEpics! Happy with this choice.
On Wednesday I wasn’t feeling the greatest but tried going for a run anyway. It was only a success because I made it out – I did not run the 4k I had planned, I ended up walking a lot, my lungs hurt and I just overall felt kinda bad. And still frustrated! I decided to do some research and learned that I might be over-striding and pushing myself to run too fast. The second thing is something I sort of figured but ignored because I like to push myself. The over-striding thing was new news and made a lot of sense to me.
Thursday I had a new goal – run 2k straight, no stopping. I would not care about the pace or the time or anything but running straight through. I also focused on shorter strides. Shorter, much, much slower strides. For most of the run I felt like I was barely moving at all! I watched the time on Nike+ Run Club and saw it tick past 2k. I kept going. In total, I managed 3k without stopping! This is a HUGE improvement and feels amazing. My average pace was actually down significantly because I didn’t walk at all. I even felt like I could keep going! This was the best run I have had so far and I couldn’t wait to try for 4 and 5k straight.
Friday was just as good, I ran 3.5k with absolutely no issues. So I set a big goal for Sunday – run 5k. I didn’t worry about time or pace or anything but putting one foot in front of the other and finishing. It was a beautiful morning and the run felt great. I made it with no issues once again. Of course now, sitting on my couch I am thinking that I could have totally run for longer. Probably best not to push myself that hard!
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I think the thing that has made this running challenge so successful is the sheer amount of walking I do, and have done, for the past several years. I am used to walking up to 10k in a day and often walk that straight. My legs are used to that impact and speeding it up a little has only been a (relatively) minor adjustment.
Next week’s goals: Faster 5k next Sunday. PB on a 1k during the week.
Hype Less 