Some days are harder than others and they just don’t come together as easily as other days. To start with, I woke up with a really tight and sore right hip flexor. The day before, it was too cold outside to stretch on the patio so I came into the house. Then, I got busy doing other things and I forgot to stretch after a 6 mile run. Turns out, that was a big mistake and my body told me so the next morning.
Damage control
Although today’s run was a short three mile conversational pace run, I warmed up thoroughly. I focused a lot of foam rolling on my hip flexor, gluteus medius and quadricep on my right side. Following a complete foam rolling session, I did my normal dynamic stretches and warm up routine before heading out the door.
I did not have any hip pain while I was running. However, I was not impressed with my choice of shoes today. I decided to pull out my Brooks Ravena 10 shoes and put my Blue Currex RunPro insoles into them. Toward the end of my run I noticed that I was feeling hot spots on the balls of my feet where I used to get blisters often. I haven’t had a blister in a very long time after finding shoes and socks that work for me, so I believe it must have been the shoe causing the pain. I have no reason to believe it was the insoles because they are the ones I use daily in my other shoes.
Following the run, these shoes went straight back into the back of the closet. I have too many other pairs that feel good on my feet to mess with any that aren’t exactly right. Thankfully, I did not develop any actual blisters.
Training addition
As my plan progresses, so do my workouts. Today was the first day of weekly strides added to the end of my mid-week shorter run. It makes sense to add it on my short run day for the sake of time. I started with 8 strides of 20 seconds with 1 minute rest in between. I programmed the session as a separate workout into my Coros watch and it kept me on track perfectly.
I’ve often heard other runners complain about strides or say they continuously forget to do them. I personally had a lot of fun running these. I felt like a kid again running down the middle of the street in the cul-de-sac. All I needed were my neighborhood friends riding their bikes alongside me racing me to the end and it could have been a scene straight out of my childhood.
As I got more comfortable and familiar with how the strides made me feel I began to pick up my pace. My fastest stride was nearly 2 ½ minutes per mile faster than my first one but it felt good. I’m looking forward to next week and doing it again but in more comfortable shoes.
A word about paces
You may have noticed that I never state what my actual pace is. I purposely don’t talk about specific paces because that is not the ultimate point. Pace is relative and personal to the individual. My pace is my pace and it is going to be faster than some and slower than others but it only matters to me. Just as your pace only matters to you. So when I say that I ran fast, I ran fast compared to my own average pace. If I say I ran slow, I ran slower than what I consider a fast or harder effort for myself.
Workout
- 3 miles at conversational pace
- 8 strides at 20 second intervals with 1 minute rest between