I’d been watching the video of my interview with the running shoe doc, playing it over and over and concluding that I really hadn’t listened to his advice about breaking the minimalist shoes...or my feet...in slowly. More importantly, I hadn’t changed my foot strike at all and that was surely where my heal pain had come from. I went to Google and began searching for the Tarahumara runners and found everything I needed about foot strike, barefoot running and running in minimalist shoes. I could see what they were doing...striking primarily on the outside of the forefront of the foot. Since I was again ready to do some light running, I’d decided it was time to make a conscious effort to make that change.
I laced on my old running shoes figuring I should work on one thing at a time...the first being the foot strike and only after I’d perfected it would I try out the shoes again. I started slowly down the trail, purposefully landing on the front of my foot as I’d observed in the videos. I felt like I did playing the outfield in baseball...up on my toes. My first impression was that I was running faster than usual and when I reached a checkpoint...I was.
I probably should have run about 10 minutes and called it a day, but once I’ve started anything there is little chance I’m going to stop soon...or sensibly. I ran for 30 minutes and towards the end of the run, I could feel the stress I was placing on my calves by running so differently. This was good and bad. Good...because it told me I was running correctly. Placing the front of the foot down first increased the stress on the calf muscles and was to be expected. Bad...because I knew I was going to be sore tomorrow...and the next day.
This was a work in progress and would take continued concentration as it was an unnatural way for me to run. I headed home knowing I needed some time on the trainer...and something to watch to deal with the boredom. I chose a disc with the episodes of the Andy Griffith show from the first season. It’s my favorite sitcom of all time, but only while Don Knotts in the show. I watched three episodes and managed a 75 minute ride to go with the run.
I had another decent dinner eating vegetable soup into which I put about 6 ounces of chicken breast. To that, I added a great smoothie with two bananas, an orange, a cup of blueberries, yogurt and apple cider. I suppose my discipline is being aided by the simple fact that Holly hasn’t yet made any Christmas cookies. I do have two holiday parties to attend this weekend so I think I’ll keep doing doubles until then.
Run duration: 31 minutes. Bike duration: 76 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140 running, 130 for the bike.
Calories burned: 535 for the run, 1125 for the bike.
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