I tried something new today. Actually I tried a few new things on my run today. First, today was the first time since returning from my injury that I ran two days in a row. I’ve been cautious, perhaps overly so, about running too often and injuring myself again. So today after going to my local running store and cashing in my gift certificate that I won in the race a few weeks ago for a fuel belt, I came home and decided to go for a “recovery run.” The second new thing that I did today was to run on a full stomach. I typically don’t eat solid food within two hours of a run, but today on our way home we ate lunch at Whole Foods. I avoided any catastrophic GI issues, but the mild discomfort in my gut reminded me that solid food, especially Indian Pakoras and Biryani, are probably not a good idea right before a run. The third new thing of the day was I tried out my new heart rate monitor that Justin gave me. I haven’t calculated my training zones, and have no intention of using that training method for October’s marathon, but I wanted to see how it felt to run in it. I was curious about whether having that strap right across my chest would be too uncomfortable. I got mixed results. The fit was fine. I didn’t mind running with it, but heart rate signal was intermittent at best. I got a good signal on one hill (HR=162), but on the next hill the HR was supposedly 87. I tried repositioning it over sweaty skin and licking the electrode pads for better conduction, but it never seems to pick up an accurate signal again. Before my next run, I’ll swap out the battery. The fourth and probably biggest new thing that I tried on my run today was I changed my stride considerably.
A little background here. Justin bought a new pair of Newtons and was explaining the concept behind the shoe to me. It reminded me of how my coach trained me back when I was a sprinter in school. A few days later I was surfing on Kellie’s Blog when I came across this video about Newtons:
So today when I went out for my recovery run, I tried to incorporate some changes into my stride. I leaned forward at what I guestimated was about 15 degrees, and I took shorter strides, landing mainly on my forefoot/midfoot. I eliminated the heel strike and over-striding, and by shortening my stride I was able to increase my cadence without any real increase in effort. Remember, this was my recovery run. I never felt like I was really pushing it at any time. That being said, I noticed that when I got to one of my usual landmarks, I was there much sooner than usual. I completed my run a full minute and 20 seconds faster than I have EVER done before, and I didn’t even feel like I pushed it today.
So, if you’re keeping score: running two days in a row - Good. Running with stomach full of Indian food - Bad. Running with heart rate monitor - OK. Running on forefoot - Very Good.
What readers are saying: