It has been a while since my last post. In the mean time, it has been a busy couple of weeks. Work has been crazy and I've been getting over a nasty cough. I was getting a little discouraged that I wasn't getting to run much and I seemed to be getting slower. Maybe that is why I haven't written, I have been a little embarrassed at my lack of progress.
I've had a couple good runs this week and have taken stock of where I'm at and actually find myself in pretty good shape. I've busted the 300 mile mark for total training miles, made a new fastest pace for the 9.2 mile course at 8.2 min/mile, and made a new fastest overall pace of 7.2 min/mile for the three mile course. I think I owe the recent increase in speed to Juls. Juls and I have puzzled over my continued soreness after runs. Sometimes I could barely walk a few hours after a hard run. Juls pointed out my general lack of flexibility and my lack of enthusiasm for stretching after a run. All true. I found that I was particularly stiff on the back of my legs; calves and hamstrings. Since then I have been paying extra attention to stretching and flexibility in general. I guess it is paying off. Another one Juls came up with another one that seems to have made a difference. Chocolate milk. Juls read someplace that a big glass after a run aids in recovery. Sure enough. I have tried it after a couple long runs and find my recovery is reduced...or at least that it seems that way.
With increasing flexibility comes some changes in stride. I'm finding that my stride is longer. The cadence of breath doesn't seem to have changed much. In order to maintain the rhythm of the run, my legs are having to move faster relative to my body. I'm finding myself self using my upper body and abdominal muscles to make this happen by twisting at the hips. I'm tending to hold my arms rigid relative to my chest and swing the whole upper body works in the yaw directions out of phase with my hips and leg. This is a departure from my former form. Previously I tended not to twist my spine and only arched my back to aid in breathing. My arms swung at the shoulders and didn't seem to add much energy to the stride. Hopefully I'm getting stronger and I can massage my form to take advantage of the strength
The sound barrier of the moment is the eight min per mile pace for the nine mile course and the seven min mile pace for the short runs. The time versus distance plot of all my runs shows a trend toward a 4 hr marathon. A plot of pace versus calendar days shows a trend toward a 6.7 min per mile pace by early April, which is where we can find the North Pole Marathon.
Long story short. The running is going well. The big hurdle at the moment is funding. I'm gonna need to find some big sponsorship in the near future if I'm gonna have a chance at making the race.
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