Sunday, February 1, 2015

The Year of the Full: Chapter 2...Renewed Focus...

I was up bright and early this morning getting ready for my long run and decided to sport my new Nike running top (seen below) and Brooks sports bra (covered up)...

When I got to the beach to meet up with my running group I realized that a sleeveless top was probably not the best idea. It wasn't as cold as it was last week, but it was sooooo windy! However, despite the chill in the air, the scenery was as beautiful as it always is...


By the time most of the group came the sun had already lit up the sky and we were starting to warm up...

My running group, the famous Memorial Milers...

This morning's long run was a nice and steady recovery run. Initially I thought about doing the 1mile:1minute intervals that I did last week, but my knee felt tight this morning. Plus, this is going to be one of my last runs with the group as their training season comes to a close, so I decided to stick to the 4:1 interval group and complete 6.2 miles (most of the group members were doing 11 miles & some ran up to 15 miles).

I forgot my Garmin at home (it was like running without my best friend...I don't want to talk about it), but thankfully I still had the Runtastic app on my phone.
Overall summary...

Pace per mile breakdown...

I'm glad I decided to just do a 10K today because I started to have some left hip pain. My knee didn't feel too bad, but my hip was really hurting me. The hip pain led to lower back pain and by the time I got back to the car I needed to take a moment to stretch and try to undo some of the tightness I felt in my back...
(the pain subsided relatively quickly after a few minutes of stretching)

On the cool down walk back to my car I decided to take a video of my walking gait using the slo-mo feature on my phone camera. I've done a running gait analysis once (before I got my first pair of Brooks) but I get very dizzy on the treadmill so I haven't done one since. My walking gait is just as bad as my running gait (in terms of form etc)..
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On the video you can see that I land on the outside of my heels and feet...which explains some of the pain I feel on the lateral aspect of my knees. When I run I tend to feel the pressure on the inside of my feet, so I probably land differently when I run.

I have a renewed focus to work on my form and gait because it's important to me to stay injury free. I want to safely and successfully complete all my running goals for this year...and be able to do even more running things next year. So, in keeping with that goal, I signed up for a Chi Running class this month...
(I dream about the day I can run pain-free without my knee brace)

I spent the rest of the day icing my knee & hip and relaxing. I went to the movies (Project Almanac) and dinner with the family and then came home to do more icing. And I'm going to try and do some yoga and stretching before I go to sleep.

On a completely different topic...I saw this on Facebook...
[I love this quote, but when I read it I thought "But you just said there is no such thing as failure". I mean it's right there at the beginning of the statement. So when life moves us in another direction that should be called "recalculating route"...the GPS voice had it right all along ;)]

I also saw this on Facebook. A guide for all the men out there...
You're welcome :)


How was your long run this weekend? 

Have you ever done a running gait analysis on the road/track/other non-moving surface? (I can't do the treadmill again, I get so dizzy on it).

Chi Running? Have you ever done a class? Did you find it helpful?

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