Distance: 2.33 miles
Time: 16:37 minutes
Pace: 7:13/mi
Comments: A recovery run done a bit faster than I planned so I cut it short.
I've been very tired since my long run and I didn't feel any real need to push myself today. Add to that the fact I have new shoes, I didn't stretch properly and I was playing around with a new stride the whole way... well, I think slacking off was called for.
Last night I was reading the chapter in the The Competitive Runner's Handbook that discusses the difference between a ball-heel versus heel-ball footstrike. The latter being the most common for the average runner but the former being the form for most racers.
I vaguely remember this from when I raced in high school but it went hand-in-hand with the emphasis on form - drive off the back foot, drive up with the knees and drive down with the arms.
So, I spent a lot of this run playing around with these different forms looking for how they could be integrated into my regular running stride.
The danger in this is, by changing the mechanics of your stride dramatically, you risk injury. So, cutting the run short seemed the wise option. As it was, the little changes gave me a heck of a lot more acceleration than I expected. Thus the relatively quick pace for the "recovery" run.
Conditions
Hour: noon
Surface: concrete/asphalt
Weather: sunny
Temperature: 75 degrees
Humidity: 25 percent
Wind: 4 mph
Location: Chandler, Arizona
Shoes: Brooks
Con Musica
Injury update: Not much new. The side of the quads were tight today but that's going to just take time. I also had an ache in my lower calf/upper achilles tendon on the right side after the run. This is probably the stress of the new footstrike.
The bloody toe seems to have been caused when my middle toe on the right foot would roll to the right allowing the toenail to slice the index toe. It's trimmed now and, hopefully, that is the end of that.