Training Log: 12.1

Sunday 1/13: Long Run
8 miles in 1:06:10 or 8:16/mi

This ended up being a bit quicker than planned. In anticipation of my 18 week training plan starting next week, I decided to do the week 1 long run of 8 miles. Working from my calibration run last week, I was shooting for a long run pace of about 8:35/mi, which is based on a PMP of 8:05/mi. But 20 seconds per mile isn't too far off, and it lends some confidence that I could actually sustain my PMP come race time. I'd be more than happy to put 26.2 miles together at 8:16/mi (that's a 3:37 marathon, folks!). But let's not get ahead of ourselves...

Learned a little something today too. I felt a twinge about mile 4 in the familiar knee/tendonitis spot. I started paying more attention to my heel strike and actively making sure I didn't land flat-footed on that left side, in particular. This involved lifting my legs more and curling my toe a bit to ensure that I was hitting on the heel and rolling off the sole. Of course, this lets the shoe absorb more shock rather than my knee. Voila, almost instant change in the pain. Running on the canted surface where my left foot strikes the ground much lower makes it very difficult to strike heel first...I tend to strike quite a bit forward, almost the ball of my foot.

Of course, I had already aggravated the tendon somewhat by then, so I suspect it will be a bit sore for the next few days. I'll take an NSAID today to compensate. And from now on I have a new training goal, teach myself how to run correctly again. I will have to do some digging, but I think part of the problem may be that I lost a lot of weight and no longer have a 60lb cantilever effect!