JRags - Week 4 - Let the onslaught of morning runs begin.

Sunday afternoon update. The Log:

Monday:
AM - first run to BI!! many more of these to come. tried out forefoot planting but wasnt feeling it.
PM - lakes after an absurdly clusterfucked commute back home. ran forefoot most of the way. felt nice and less jarring each step. 2 strides.

Tuesday:
AM - home to work. forefoot striking.
PM - 2 up, 1000 800 600 400 with steph in 78-80. equal rest. 2 down. least taxing of all the workouts ive done with her.

Wednesday:
AM - davis to work. calves starting to hurt from the different footstrike.
PM - home from park street. why did i go to park street in the first place? would have been shorter from work. ran into ryan lane! good to see he's in boston for the summer.

Thursday:
AM - home to mail services, picked up new ghosts, back home, then to work. averaged 6:30 on the way there?
PM - lakes with steph. pitch fucking black. felt good, especially with the new ghosts. more new shoes should be coming in about 2 weeks?

Friday:
AM - davis to work. 3 or 4 hill strides, and a flat stride. felt good. finally a lot of sleep, maybe 8 and a half hours.
PM - lakes to bike path with nick. felt pretty good once we got going. fairly fast for the second to last mile. 4 strides and solid pedestal.

Saturday:
PM - 4 around the prospect hill park in bentley. hilly as fuck.

Sunday:
AM - great long run. couldnt fall asleep until 4, but woke up at 9, oatmeal and lots of water.
first run around horn pond. started easy, but picked up to high 6s pretty soon. started up-tempoing on and off from the pond back. started cruising with brunk when we turned onto route 3. averaged 6:13 for 4.5 miles from rt 3 back to the left turn by the alewife parking structure. felt awesome. mile+ cool down, recovery drink, and stretching and core back in baronian with nick. did the hip strength workout i wrote the other day. some of myrle to all of pedestal. very good workout. starting to get better at it.


Very solid week of training this week. Commuted to work on foot everyday. FINALLY got a second pair of shoes, terrible planning on my part running ~12 runs a week in the same pair of shoes. one more pair of trainers and road flats should be arriving this week.
I suppose i'll highlight forefoot planting this week. from the first time i ever went running I've always been a somewhat heavy heel striker. up until junior year of high school, i heel planted as low as the 400m. after reading a few articles, how-to's, and running clips, i decided to give it a try this week. at first, it was very uncomfortable landing on my toes every step. by the second run i did forefoot planting, the new stride was beginning to feel more and more natural to me. after maybe day 3 of fore/midfoot planting, my calves were really aching on the outside top ridge of both gastrocnemii (thick upper calf muscle). its been about 5 days since i switched, and i now run naturally with a more midfoot plant directly under my center instead of hitting my heel out front, collapsing on it, braking, then pushing off forward. I think this has already cured some of the problems ive had with my core falling out of alignment. if you try to heel strike very hard, you will notice that your core is forced to go to shit (figuratively and literally i suppose). meanwhile, its very difficult to midfoot plant without your hips up and under you. the benefit of proper posture along with a lack of "braking" in my stride will hopefully lead to, you know, running faster or something.
yeah. thats been my week.

i think next week i'll talk about the core strength and stability nick and i have been working on lately. its a fairly intensive blend of every aspect of what we should view as our "core." its a hip/ass/lower abdominal circuit, an abdominal circuit, and a back circuit. i might combine the ab and back circuit into one if they arent too long. anyway, that is to come next week. if any of the on campus guys want to learn it and start doing it with me this week, let me know, i'll be doing at least some part of it every day after 6:00ish runs.

most importantly, 83 Ossipee has internets!!!!!!