5 Mile Long Run

Thank goodness for a little rain to cool things down!

I arrived at the clubhouse a few minutes before 7 a.m. In my head I was going on and on about whether or not I should even be attempting to do 5 miles. Two days off seemed to have alleviated the worst of my aches and pains, so maybe I was ready to go again.

Finally, a little after 7 a.m. we were off. The temperature was right around 75 degrees with a nice cool breeze.

There were all of 5 people in our walk/run group. 3 of them wanted to do the run 1/walk 1 pace. I stayed with the pace leader doing the run 1/walk 2. There was a lady behind us walking who had fractured her big toe while pumping gas earlier that week - the gas nozzle fell on her foot. Ouch!

Shortly after getting started, we came across a group on the side of the trail. One of the ladies had been sick during the week, but still wanted to try for the run. Unfortunately, she became lightheaded pretty quickly, and had to turn around and go home.

We kept moving on, and eventually caught up with the 1/1 pace group at the first water fountain. We left ahead of them as well. :D Before we came to the turn around spot, we had to cross the path of a race that was taking place. As we were crossing, the top 10 runners in the race were passing by. Then, it was on to the bridge.

The bridge was a freaky thing. Once you got a little bit out on to it, it started to bounce and sway. Finally we made it across, and hit the second water fountain and took a minute to stretch.

2.5 miles to go and I wasn't feeling too bad at all.

We got going back at the same time as the 1/1 group. In fact, the whole way back, except for the last .75 mile or so, we pretty much were keeping up with them. One time I felt like my left hamstring was getting tight, so we stopped on the side of the trail and I stretched it a bit.

Then we got to where the bench was (about .75 mile from the finish) and I sat and stretched for about 20 seconds or so. We both ran the last 3/10's of a mile to the finish.

Yay! I did 5 miles! The longest I've ever ran in my life. The best part was that I didn't feel totally exhausted at the end. I ate a poptart on my way home, and finished off my G2 drink plus more water.

When I got home, I did take a cold bath for awhile (didn't have ice) but then had to shower and head to church. According to sparkpeople, I used up 773 calories. The 5 mile run took us a total of 1 hour 27 minutes and 55 seconds - or approximately a 17:30 mile.

Next week we do the 5 miles again -- so now I know that I can do it!

Trying Out A New Running Technique: Chi Running

A lady at the gym where I work at (and workout with) and I were talking about running a few weeks ago. She was telling me about how she'd had some bad injuries from running too much, and had been told to stop. Well, she wasn't too enthused about that idea, so she started to look for ways to make it possible for her to keep running.

What she found was a book called ChiRunning. It proposes a technique where you used your "Chi" and core muscles to propel you forward, rather than the normal heel strike & push off from the toes. The concept sounded quite interesting to me, especially since the book claims that if you run using this technique, you will be injury free.

However, I wasn't so enthused about the whole concept of "Chi." I'm not exactly into all that middle eastern religion philosophy. She told me she wasn't either, but was able to get past it and find the good stuff.

So, with my interest piqued, I borrowed it from the library. It came in this past Friday, and I finished reading it today. However I had read enough of it by this morning to try it somewhat with my morning run.

I will have to say that I think it has a lot of potential. In fact, I probably am going to end up buying the book so that I can mark it up.

Today's workout:

Type: Endurance run
Place: Treadmill
Time: 50 minutes
Pace: 14 mpm
Distance: 3.55 miles
Plan: Warmup: 5 minutes 3.0 mph (.25 mile)
Workout: 5 minutes 3.7 mph; 5 minutes 4.2 mph (3.25 miles)
Cooldown: 3 minutes 3.5 mph; 2 minutes 3.0 mph (.30 miles)
Strength Training: Focused on legs (squats, lunges, split squats, etc.)

Thoughts:

I don't think it was a good idea to do leg work after an endurance run. :) I was actually trying to keep my pace at 15 mpm, but despite my best intentions, there were a few times where I let myself go at the faster pace for a *smidgen* longer than planned, which then of course made me have to shorten the slower pace.

Chi thoughts: One concept from the book which I really liked, and could have used in my workout today was the idea of not making result oriented goals. For example, in today's workout my goal was just to keep going for a full 50 minutes and not worry about achieving a certain distance. I have a really really hard time with that. I like seeing how far I've gone. But if I'm going to be able to keep good form (so as to not injure myself!) then I really need to be able to let go of the need for a certain distance, and just focus on the correct form and pacing.