the runs

One of my goals for this term is to run every morning before school starts. While it's pretty early on, I do feel that there have been a lot of noticeable changes right off the bat - my stamina is definitely improving and my energy and focus is considerably increased. I'm getting these dull pains in the muscles on both sides of my thighs just above the medial and lateral condyles (hey we're just reviewing skeletal - give me a few week and I'll actually be able to tell you which muscles they are) that I'm beginning to associate with these runs. They're painful but kind of nice, a sort of dull pain you don't mind poking at like the pain from a loose tooth.

While I still have a long ways to go, I really do feel that I'm already beginning to make strides (pun!) much in the way when you first start working out you make drastic improvements until you plateau. I'm still on the uphill and enjoying it. I had began the week running at a laborious pace, a skill that sorely needed working on. I used to tire myself out way too quickly, so all summer work in vascular intervention taught me to pace myself. I applied this to my run and was able to achieve the 20 minute mark with minimal cramping.

I'm running this course that takes me along Rabbit Hill Rd. south towards Janet's condos, brings me along South Terwillegar Drive and then loops back around towards Terwillegar Blvd and Terwillegar Commons before returning home. As I mentioned, it's about a 20 minute run if you do it briskly. I'm going to wait for about a month of running to go by prior to timing these runs and seeing if I can improve the speed - I just want to ensure my body is ready for race mode before I start pushing it.

Regardless, I've begun to really work on key challenges I had as a x-country runner years ago in junior high. Back then I had the difficulty of keeping a solid frame while running, something I constantly have to think about. When the body moves too much, it throws off the stride, so I've been working on maintaining a dynamic yet slightly stiff upper body that complements my strides but isn't so fluid as to be totally out of control. The second thing I've always had difficulty with is balancing stride length vs. leg rate. Admittedly, this has always been plagued by the backbone of my running stamina, so by running every day I hope to increase the latter to strengthen the former. I've been slowly pushing my stride lengths to be longer while keeping the leg rate the same. I pushed myself the most today to increase my stride length to just the distance before it starts to be uncomfortably lunging in nature, and my body's resented it. Most difficult run thus far.

I've got to say that I really feel like I'm making solid progress with the goals I have set out to achieve this year. Unfortunately, this is almost entirely incongruent with how I feel about my academics right now - they have dropped us far behind academic enemy lines and expect us to wade in swamps of new terminology and forests of knowledge with only the clothes on our backs and our ye olde armament of introductory anatomy and physiology. Gah!