Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The Quartet & Running tech-less

I am happy to report that I made it through my running session this morning doing the 4:1 intervals and I did not die. There was a moment during mile 2 when I'm fairly certain time stopped and my interval timer was glaring at me...just daring me to pause it... But I didn't and I survived the whole ordeal relatively well...

I'm trying to increase the duration of the mid-week runs (but still focusing on time, not distance) so I ran for 35 minutes today...

Pace per mile break down...Pretty even splits throughout...
I rarely run with music nowadays, but I was in a Country music mood this morning so this was my theme song quartet...
Post-run selfie...
(I'm holding the phone with both hands because I literally could not keep my right arm up long enough to hold the phone and take this picture...."Houston we have a problem"..fortunately the shoulder pain got better throughout the day)

Post-run recovery...
(this yoga pose has made a HUGE difference in how my legs feel post-run)

Because my focus is on constant improvement and getting stronger as a runner I utilize objective data a lot. That basically means that I rely heavily on my interval timer and Runtastic App...
Recently there have been a few runners that have posted their plans to do a "tech-free" run leading up to their big race (whether that be the NYC Marathon (@adamrunsnyc) or some other big event). And a lot of my 5K friends don't focus on devices during their races at all. One of my friends said "Well I know how many water stations there are and how close the last one is to the finish so I just count them down during the run". It's an interesting approach and to a large extent allows you to take in the scenery a bit more. Along this same theme Runners World posted an article about doing a "tech time out" during your run...
According to the author you might surprise yourself with a PR if you lose the devices and run "tech-less". I'm not 100% confident that will work for me because I think time moves a lot faster in my head than it does in real life...so I may think I'm doing better (running faster) than I actually am. Or (even worse) I may expect to do better than I actually can at the moment (the endless expectation vs reality debate). I guess essentially the overall point is to encourage you to just enjoy the run, rely on how your body feels to guide you and your mental focus to push you...

On an unrelated note...
Getting ready in the morning is always an interesting venture. Most mornings I drop Kai to school and as she accelerates into her teenage years she keeps me both busy and entertained. This morning, as she was expertly designing the "hairstyle of the day" in the mirror, I stood beside her pouting because (again) I was reminded that she is taller than me. Normally she gets overly excited at my recognition of these objective signs that she is indeed growing up, but this morning the conversation played out a little differently...
Kai: (looking at me through the mirror) "I'm much more than 1/2 an inch taller than you now"
Me: "Sigh...yes I know"
Kai: (with as much compassion as she could muster despite the glee she was feeling) "That's because you don't drink your milk Mommy"
LOL I nearly died laughing. It's great to know the pearls of wisdom bestowed on her at age 4 still resonate to this day...so much so that she felt the need to remind me of them ;)

What's your favorite running theme song or music genre?

Running tech-less...yay or nay?

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