11 miles. 80 minutes. Easy. A bit heavy legged today.
49 miles on the week. 18 on October. Miles are a bit behind because I have been mostly (other than three runs on Tuesday) getting singles in.
Again, I wax long after this.
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The other day, I was wondering about my stride. I was sort of watching how my left foot moved in relation to my right. It seemed like my left sort of floated into position, where as my right snapped more smartly, and was actually running with more power. I chalked it up to my lawn mower foot thing and that might be true.
I was thinking more about my stride today. I felt a bit of soreness in my glutes, assumedly from the strides I did yesterday. As of late, this is where I seem to get muscular soreness when I run hard. No big deal, right?
Maybe. It dawned on me that this is not where I would get sore several years ago. In fact, I recall periods of time where my calves got sore, and other periods where my hammies got sore. I started wondering if the differences in soreness were because of difference in my running stride - particularly my mechanics.
Has my stride changed? I think it has although I don't have a way to do video analysis from four years ago and today to prove it. I suspect my stride has changed for a bunch of reasons.
First, three years ago, after doing the Ascent (06) I was really pissed that I walked what seemed to be nearly a third of the Pikes course. I had run a 2:37, and I figured if I had not walked so damn much of the thing, I could have broken 2:30. My answer? Run more mountains. And I did. I think my focus on mountain running has made my stride shorter, with less knee lift or back kick.
Now, I also think that if I had complimented this work with regular bouts of speed, I could have gotten the best of both worlds. I think I took to the hills a little too much for me. There were gains with this - I got better at general efficiency with hills - as measured by my ability to run them from bottom to top without stopping. But on whole, because of the near exclusivity in my focus, I got slower (more on this in a moment).
Second, I think I have also altered my stride because of my sports hernia. While this issue has healed to some degree, I believe I have also found an effective way to run around the issue by not lifting as much. In other words, I am most likely to feel issues in my abdominal area when I run fast (sprints, 400s) where my stride opens up and the knees lift higher. So, I don't lift as high. I feel the continuing effects of this issue whenever I attempt to bring my knees to my chest, even when dealing with putting things like my socks ... so if it is effecting that, I bet it is effecting my stride.
All this said ... a choosing to focus on hills to the point where I eschewed faster work, the sports hernia ... I have wondered how the hell can I have slowed by 3 minutes in the 10K and 90 seconds in 5K when I am training this much. I recognize some of that can be age, but I am coming to a point where I am getting a picture in my head of this outcome being the product of choices (mountain running), circumstances (sports hernia), consequences (shorter stride length, altered stride mechanics). So even though I am training hard (in terms of more miles than I have done before and in terms of time dedicated), I need to unravel the outcomes of these things.
The new insight is that my mechanics of my stride may have altered to a point that while I may be running alot, I am not running efficiently. Which means I may be burning a load of calories ... just not going anywhere quickly (or as quickly as I could be).
How do I alter that? Well, if I learned myself into this new stride mechanic, I think I can unlearn it with running the flats more.
Which all leads to the question ... "But you said you are stronger on hills now. Why would you want to change your stride to be more efficient for roads again?" The straight answer on this is that while I am more able to run from the bottom of a mountain like Pikes to the top without stopping, I do it more slowly. See, I remain generally convinced that the fastest way for me to get from the bottom to the top is to run the whole thing. But I have evidence that proves otherwise for me. In fact, when I walked the most, I ascended the fastest. It was also when I least mountain trained and most road trained. Maybe the fastest way up Pikes for me is with a strong set of running while I can, combo'd with walking where appropriate. I have also wondered if walking on certain segments brings the HR and metabolic system back into a steady state that then allows the body to "go back for more." I have no scientific evidence for that, but it is something I wonder ... sort of like an interval workout.
This is a WIP, a work in progress as they say. I am still contemplating if these insights are true or just over-analysis psychosis on my part. In any case, I feel a need to get back some of the fitness, mechanics, speed, results I had when I could run a 5K in under 17 and a 10K under 35. I realize I might never see those results again, but I do feel it defines a path for me now that is part of an overall strategy that is best for mountain distance (marathon) running.
Of course, I can hear that part of my wee brain that says ... "Dude, shut the hell up and just run. Run yer arse off for cryin' out loud and the rest will come." Then I look at my shadow while running and think, "DAMN that is a crappy stride!"
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US Trials standards for the marathon have changed ... it is now harder by 3 minutes with 2:19 as the minimum standard, and course like St. George's that some folks used to get in won't be allowed (based on a drop % rule)
days and b.) watching your vapor lock on the top to stop bubbling. (I confess, this might be more important in other brews). However if you do gather the starting s.g and the ending s.g, you can do a calculation to determine the percent alcohol of your beer. Which is kind of nice to know but again ... well, whatever.
that I don't really know - those that fork around and through the 
hurl. And I was not happy.