My run last night was a perfect example of my love/hate relationship with running. My shins and calves were sore for the first mile, but everything loosened up after that and felt pretty good. But by mile 3 (with 2 to go), I didn't know how I was going to finish. I was running with lead feet and legs of stone. Oh my goodness the pain! How am I ever going to do 13.1 miles when I feel this awful during a 5 mile training run? It just doesn't seem possible........
For this run I think I finally found my ideal run/walk interval of 7-1/2 minutes to 2-1/2 minutes. With this interval, I don't have to do a bunch of math in my head, however rudimentary it may be. I can see that within a ten minute timeframe I am running 75% of the time and walking 25% of the time. Doesn't take a genuis to figure that out, but that's what I like about it.
So a quick recap of the last (and only other) time I ran 5 miles: Total time = 1:16:42 / Avg pace = 15'20".........
Last night I did the exact same route and distance 4 minutes faster! My time last night was 1:12:26 at an average pace of 14'28"!!!
I'm sure it seems odd for ANYONE to be excited about a 14 minute mile average on any run. But this is pretty quick for me. You also have to take into account that I'm walking 25% of this "run" at or above a 20 minute mile. The other 75% of running is usually between 12 and 13-1/2 minute miles. The walking clearly drags my average down, so don't think I'm out there running at almost 15 minute miles all the time, because I'm not. I don't know why I just explained all that, I'm only in competition with myself. And last night, I won!
All that being said, I am hurtin' for certain today. I haven't been sleeping well for the past few nights and I'm concerned that it has something to do with overtraining (something I read on the internet so it must be true.....HA)! My legs are super sore and I'm starting to have trouble with my left knee again. Soreness in my legs I can handle, but knee issues are a different story. Up until about two weeks ago when I started to increase my mileage, my knee was giving me ZERO problems. Now I can "feel" it everyday and it's starting to worry me.
Is 13.1 miles even possible for me?
MIND OVER MATTER
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ReplyDeleteNice progress...distance wise you're more than a third of the there!
ReplyDeleteEarly on in my training I learned to distinguish between pain and discomfort. Discomfort is something you can power through and that gets better as you strengthen your body through training. Pain is usually an indicator that something is wrong and tends to get worse until you correct the problem.
As I began in increase my distance beyond the 5K threshold I started feeling pain in my left leg similar to a shin splint but it wasn't in the right place to be a shin splint. I went to my local running store and described my problem. They had me run around the store barefoot and had me to the same with a few pairs of running shoes until we found a pair that felt right. I always knew I had flat feet but up until that point I didn't know what over-pronation was...turns out I do indeed over-pronate when I run and a pair of shoes that provide support where my feet needed it most solved the problem.
Mind over matter becomes a bit of a balancing act at times...with practice you learn to interpret what your body is trying to tell you.
You're right, there is a very big differene between pain and discomfort. Unfortunately I have already done the running store video treadmill thing and gotten special shoes for my overpronation.
ReplyDeleteThe pain I'm having is almost in my calves, but on the inside of my leg. It's sort of between my calves and shins if that makes any sense. I think it's discomfort because it goes away after 1 mile and only comes back about an hour after my run, but it usually gone by the next morning.