Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Getting the feel

Distance 10km [total: minimalist 60.5km: Barefoot 344km]

After a long weekend and not much training as I was in Melbourne visiting my brother who is over on a short holiday I managed to get out for a beach run on the Sunday.

Sunday was ANZAC Day and there were plenty of people walking along the beach.
The weather was perfect, sunny, light breeze, and low tide.
I always begin now by warming up doing some change of support, pony, and hop in place along with some light runs.
I now have a Polar heart rate monitor to help me see what area my heart rate is operating in while I am on my run.

I am finding it a lot easier getting into the right rhythm when I set off. I can feel my hamstrings doing the work now rather than the quads.
Looking at the footprints I leave behind I can see the weight is now on the forefoot with a lighter impression for the heel, this is a good sign.
I ran 8km today then soaked the lower legs in the sea, which is now starting to get colder. Will I be doing this in mid winter I wonder.

On Monday I did some training drills on the rugby oval. Three laps for a warm up then drills interspersed with sprints.
The pulse monitor showed that initially my heart rate goes up to 170bpm before settling back to a more regular 120bpm once I'm warmed up.
During the sprints I can push it up to 140bpm but that is still short of the maximum.
The coordination is much improved with the hop in place, I do 50 hops on each leg.
They are great exercises for getting the 'feel' of the hamstring working.
During the sprint I concentrate on getting the foot off the ground as quickly as I can feel it land, it is a great feeling when you get the timing right.
It feels light and effortless, not lung bursting like I experienced in the past.

Neil

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