Last night was a long run.
Route: from the house to Sierra Madre Blvd x Baldwin. Tag the stop sign = 3.51 miles and 340 elevation gain. Then turn around and run back.
41:21 up (11:46 mm)
37:13 back (10:36 mm)
Avg 1:18:34 = 11:11 mm run
On the way down, the last mile, I did fartleks. Starting from First x Colorado, I mentally broke up each block into quarters.
First quarter=light jog
Second=jog at 60 %
Third=sprint
Fourth=walk
One of the things I worked on during this run (and always do on long runs) was form. Breathe from the diaphram. Lean forward, but not from the waist. Get the feel of my foot "brushing" the pavement. Land on the ball of the foot-which really can only be acheived if I lean forward). Boy there was alot going through my head.
Doing fartleks on a long run may have been a mistake. Or maybe just doing a longer run after nothing more than a few miles after the Pas Half (over a month ago) was the mistake. But I wanted to get back to doing some distance and I didn't feel bad on the run. So I woke up this morning and it felt like my left outside heal was bruised when I put weight on it. But when I sat down and put pressure on it, it was fine. First thought-Oh No! Not the dreaded Plantar Faciatis! So tonight will be alot of stretching before and after bootcamp.
Note: I need to make these blogs more detailed. I know I've done this route and have blogged about it. But I can't find it so I can't compare times. So if some of these get to be just a bit dry and clinical, that's why.
Next benchmark for this run will be sub-40 up and sub-35 back. Knocking off 3:34 on a 7 mile run may be tough. But that will be a goal. Achievable or not on the next run? Don't know. I'm still a long way from a sustained 10mm pace for 13 miles. But I have just under 5 months to knock minutes from my times. And this 11:11 mm pace is better than the 12mm pace I was at before. Positive thinking...positive thinking...positive thinking...

