40 mins/55:19 (5½ miles)

Today's run was both longer in time and distance than scheduled, but it was a lovely day and I am drunk on the success of the short stride approach to my running. This is the longest I have run this year (indeed, longer than the next long PFit run will be) and I still feel like there's something left. My legs are much less tired than they were after my four miler on Saturday, and my ankles are less sore than they were even after yesterday's prototype short stride outing.

The run today was in the local nature park on the long trail there. I was shown the route by my ultra marathoning friend CK (who is doing a 35 mile race on Saturday as a stepping stone to a 50 mile race later in the year) and another running buddy CH (who is training for a marathon in June). They are both faster runners than I am, but I managed to keep up long enough for me to at least be led back to trails that I recognised, and being able to go up hills more quickly (as I mentioned yesterday) was a great aid in keeping pace. I was told later on that the Speedy Twins were not running any slower than they would usually, so I obviously was running significantly faster than before.

I am really quite foolishly thrilled by the success of this modified gait. Apologies for going on about it, but it is just hugely exciting for me. It makes such a difference!

Another more personal running innovation this last week has been Bodyglide. I had some problems with chafing last training season, and there had been some uncomfortable moments this year already, but a couple of strategic swipes of this before a run has stopped any discomfort before it starts. Marvellous.

Update First of all, my original post had the scheduled time as 45 mins. This was me misremembering the schedule rather, so my over-long run was even more over-long than I had thought. Secondly, I had a nice bit of validation for my experience from another Portland Fit member who said "... you can only transfer energy from your body to the ground when you are in contact with the ground.  In other words, when you are in the air, you are slowing down."

Posted by Dunx at April 13, 2004 11:41 AM