A Passion for Running

Yesterday’s 90 minute run home was a good one. Most of these runs I’ve been getting done in a slow 10+ per minute mile pace. There are two main reasons for that:

1. My fitness level at the beginning of the Andrew Training Program, was not good. When I began, I had a heckuva time running slow enough to keep my heart rate in the zone it needed to be for long slow/recovery runs.
2. The amount of snow we’ve had and/or the terrible footing I’ve had to run in. Maintaining any kind of pace has been extremely difficult.

The footing on yesterday’s run was mostly pretty good (I’d say 75% good). It gave me a chance to relax a bit and work on one aspect of my form I’ve neglected lately - that being that I tend to “sit” a bit when I run. This is hard to explain but, in the movie Without Limits, there is a scene where Bill Bowerman is trying to teach Steve Prefontaine not to “sit”. In the movie, Steve doesn’t understand what Bill is trying to get him to do so the coach pushes his butt forward and says, “Like at the point of maximum penetration”. Sorry for the graphic image but …it’s effective!

With the better footing, focus on form and a slightly higher heart rate, I had a very comfortable run:

Distance: 9.12
Time: 1:28:20 (a couple minutes faster than previous best efforts)
Pace: 9:41 miles/minute
Average Heart Rate: 153 (a bit higher than previous efforts - still very comfortable, however)

This makes me happy because it puts my long run pace very near to where it was in previous marathon training efforts.