Anatomy of a good run

Hi friends, welcome back!

Today was a great running day. I’m sure you already read my last few posts and therefore you know that I’ve been riding the struggle bus for a few days. Honestly, the struggles have been building for a couple of weeks now. Because of that, I decided to take a few days off to get some rest and to let my body heal from all the miles I’ve been putting in it.

I’m so happy that I did, because it resulted in a great run. That got me thinking, what does the anatomy of a good run look like? To be honest, I don’t know. But today it was a combination of rest, cool sunny weather, and not having a plan that helped me find my stride.

My prescribed run for the day was 20 miles. However, after taking off 3 days to let lingering knee and hip discomfort heal I set out for my run not knowing if I was going to run 2 miles or 12.

I ran 15 miles. 15 wonderful, comfortable, fast miles at an 8:23 pace. In fact I felt so good that I almost kept going, but didn’t have any water or nutrition with me so I thought it best to stop. The cool 60 degree temperature accompanied by a nice breeze and a ton of sunlight shining down on me made it easy to push through hills, traffic stops, and the VU campus as pictured above. In fact unlike my last few runs which involved all my mental strength just to push through, the only thoughts in my head related to the run revolved around lengthening my route with each turn because it felt so good.

That said, I’m grateful for an off day on Monday and am looking forward to getting up early Tuesday morning for an easy 5 miles.

My gear:

I wore shorts and a long sleeve technical tee today with my New Balance Beacons on again. Things were more comfortable today, but I’m still finding that the way I land in the shoes is causing me to build callouses. The gear I lacked today was the water bottle I mentioned in my post last week about doing a 2 a day to reach 10 miles, and nutrition. On my long runs, 2 hours or longer,I like to carry a Honey Stinger Waffle with me that I eat about half way through for some extra energy. I find them to be quite delicious and far less chewy than gummies and less disgusting than gels.

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll catch you after the next run.

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Comments

Two a day for 10 miles.

April 7th, 2021 Hi friends, welcome back! Running 10 miles on a Wednesday has become a typical part of my week, but today was the first time in this training block that I split the load and did a double. I’m never going to be awarded the title of early riser or morning runner. I enjoy laying in bed far too much to get out early to see the sunrise on my runs. But today, Gaelyn needed a running buddy while her’s was out of town. With only a little bit of whining I headed out the door at 5:00 AM for the first 5 miles of the day. The morning run was pretty good. I started out around 10:50 pace with Gaelyn which was the perfect way to warm the body up before settling in around 8:50 pace for the rest of an easy run. The temperatures were cool and I felt pretty good. Good enough to at least try to focus on my form and correct the kinks that have always been present in my running life. With that said, I definitely noted some fatigue in my knees and felt soreness that’s been building over the l...

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Hi friends, welcome back! It’s been a couple of days since my last entry so I have two runs to talk about today. I did a 5 miler on Tuesday with a 3 mile tempo run in the middle and an 8 mile steady state run today. Let’s get it it them. On Tuesday I had a prescribed 5 mile run for my training so I set out for the first mile at an 8:20ish pace which is a pretty comfortable pace for me for a “shorter” distance. At this point in my training anything under 10 is a shorter distance. The weather was perfect and I was feeling really good so I decided to push the pace and kicked the next 3 miles down to 7:40, 7:20, 7:20. Low to mid 7 minute pace is tough for me and is on the borderline of anaerobic, which is good. This type of running is often referred to as threshold running. When you are running near your aerobic threshold it can help you increase your VO2 max, and increasing your VO2 max helps you get faster. Finally I finished the last mile back around an 8:20 pace and cooled d...

Not quite in grass running shape.

April 6th, 2021 Hi friends, welcome back. I set out today with the goal of getting in a total of five miles. I reached that goal, but not how I expected to. When I got up this morning my plan was to hit the roads after work and do a 3 mile tempo run at a 7:40 pace sandwiched between warmup and cool down miles. As the day went on I really felt the desire to get off the roads so I changed the destination and headed out to Sunset Hill Farm County Park instead. I started my run out with an 8:20 mile which quickly taught me that I am not yet in the kind of shape needed for running on grass quickly. The idea of kicking it down to 7:40 for a 3 mile tempo felt unreachable, especially after I hit a hole and rolled my ankle. I’m okay, no injuries, just a little bit of stumble and I was soon back in stride. After that, I changed my plan and finished the next 4 miles of hilly uneven terrain as a Fartlek instead of a tempo run. I alternated through periods of speed an...

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