Fishy Feet.

I hope I'm back to running 4 times a week at this point.  I'm feeling better and I don't have a race coming up, which tends to distract me. I think impending races make my training runs feel like 'all or nothing'. I'm finding I'm enjoying them less these past few weeks, and I'm not sure why. It could be because I'm using the MiCoach. Although I think it's a GREAT tool, (especially because I've found some new ways to manipulate the graphs which give me different ways to look at the information) I can't help but think that it dampens my mood a bit. I think I beat myself up too much psychologically as I'm listening to it tell me that I'm not maintaining the expected pace. Then I second guess myself because the pace intervals are so large within each of the zones that I really don't know how to gauge my exertion at any particular point in time. I'll have to see if I can fiddle with the settings some more. 

Meanwhile, Runmeter has just had an upgrade to 8.1.1 which now includes updated FB support. It looks really cool. I'm not yet ready, though, to upgrade to an iphone.

I'm also not ready to purchase a treadmill for myself, for a few reasons.

I was looking forward to my run this morning  and was happy to see that it was 48 degrees and it had stopped raining. Everything was still wet outside, but that didn't bother me. I dressed in only one long sleeve, high collared 1/4 shirt and my long pants. By the time I got down to the end of my driveway, I realized it was misting. A lot. Almost a drizzle. My sunglasses were already wet. I surprised myself by not turning around to get my rain jacket. It's just water. One of the things I like most about becoming a runner is that I recently realize that I'm tougher than any previous notions I had about myself.

But, being tough does not mean that all my runs are optimal. Today, my feet felt floppy. Like two fish flopping around on my sister's dock in Minnesota. No pain, no discomfort - just a lack of form. It felt like I was landing flat foot, from toes to heel, instead on my mid foot. I needed to land with a little more bent knee to provide a spring effect, and try to extend my leg out in back more. I knew that. I tried to do that. But it wasn't working. I was also aware that when I concentrate on my legs, my arms stop moving. Wtf is up with that?

I had to walk 4-5 times, I think, but I kept them to about 10 seconds a piece. It seems I was having a hard time with my heart rate going above 175 today. Usually, 180 is my upper limit. But a 10 second walk is all I needed to come back down to 170.

All in all, a good run. 85% according to MiCoach. The Magellan Switch UP remains a faithful servant. The best GPS watch ever.

Magellan Data