Left the office today a little early for my run. It was supposed to be raining by 3 p.m. and then drop into the 40s or 50s from the mid-60s. Instead, it was still sunny at 2. But I didn't want to push my luck, so I bugged out for a run in what turned out to be 70-plus degrees. The sun was actually hot -- in early April!
Focused on form not speed. I am trying to finally, finally embrace certain ideas from Chirunning including running for the joy rather than the accomplishment. Began with an easy 10 minutes like Danny Dreyer suggest and worked on body sensing to see if I could feel tension anywhere. My right ankle where I had all the symptoms of a stress fracture but no fracture last summer was talking at me just a bit. So I focused on relaxing my lower legs and voila, sensation gone. Everything else felt fine.
I still need to work on my downhill form. I have a tendency to pull up off my tilt and let my core go, which puts way too much strain on my back. I am still working to find the balance among length, stride and speed in the downhill. But it'll come.
The run was great but breezy. That's not a complaint. The weather for the last few weeks has been nothing short of amazing.
Along with my efforts to focus my running on the process and not the product, I've been working on dropping a few pounds (like 20) and learning to eat healthy. I tend to get really rigid about my nutrition, drop the weight and then within a year put most of it back on. (Usually, I'm only working to take off 10 but a low back issue packed on the second 10 at Christmas.) So I'm down 8 or 9 lbs in six weeks. It's slow but steady.
The best part about the weight loss is that I'm not being rigid. If I want something sweet, I eat it. If I want something salty, I eat it. I just attention to how much I eat of any one thing and make sure I get a salad every other day at a minimum plus fruit, too. These are two food groups I really neglect. But no more. Bonus: I feel better all overall -- and especially when I'm running. Who'da thought?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment