In this year 2011, after many years of being kicked around the running/track scene, I learned something new about myself as a runner. But upon further reflection, I decided that it was less that I discovered something new about myself, and more that I have evolved both physically and mentally as a runner.
As of this year, I, of "how can anyone be so slow over 400m???" fame (see below), actually enjoy running fast. To be clear, by "fast" I mean, 6-7 minute miles, not sprinting or racing fast, and by "enjoy" I literally mean, I enjoy the physical process of doing, rather than "its sucky while I'm doing it, but I feel so good afterwards".
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| How to tell if you're not a sprinter: What, what??? Me run 66.93, yeah, when pigs fly... I ran 76.93 that day, and someone took it upon themselves to manually correct the fully automatic timing system results... because, well who could possibly, possibly be so slow? Note: the subtraction of 10 seconds still makes me last. Sad :( |
It probably all started with the whole barefoot running dealio... which naturally forces one to land on ones forefoot, thus transforming my running style from a "cockroach mashing" midfoot strike to a spritely toe-strike. For the first time, I started hearing people say "wow your form is so amazing!" instead of "wow, its... so loud every time your feet land!" Anyways, there is something about my new stride that makes running faster feel like the way running was meant to be.
Suddenly, picking up the pace has gone from stressful and taxing, to satisfying and delightful. I so love the sound of even breathing, the pumping of arms, the picking up of knees and a smooth, quick, kick-back. It feels like freedom and joy... something sublime that I don't really remember being there in the endless hours of my past training. Part of the reason why its taken me so long to increase my running mileage is because I've been loathe to add volume if it meant decreasing speed. The logs from January to August of this year can be found here:
Some quick notes:
- I was super lazy about running in December, which accounts for some of the slow runs in January
- Footware are mostly vibrams, G = green bikilas, R = red sprints, S = normal shoe (lightweight trainer from 2004), N = Newtons!
- "Washington Park" indicates Peter's place in Denver, at altitude --> slow, and "Bailey Canyon" is a significant, steep hill climb --> even slower!
The comments are not always useful, but hey, this is a direct upload from my own personal log. I won't be updating this google docs in the future, as I greatly prefer the additional functionality of my Excel file... mostly its just out there to cover the January - August time frame so I don't have to write specific posts about that :).
