Speeding up

Distance 50.5km [total: minimalist 285.6km: Barefoot 3129.5km] Week 27

Monday, 2-Jul. 9km

A mostly uninspiring grey day outside and a dysfunctional air conditioner at work making the place chilly didn't make me feel much like going out for a run later on. Only the late afternoon sun that came out for the last hour boosted my spirits and got me out onto the beach path. A good run, felt strong and springy on the outbound run then took it at a slower pace on the way back.

Thursday, 5-Jul. 11km

Another great run, like most of them are these days. Gee, I remember the days when I would run with the big heavy shoes and orthotics and how exhausted I would feel when I got back along with all the aches and pains along the way. Now, in comparison it just feels like I'm floating over the ground, the kilometres speed by. This was mainly a road run with the last 2 km run along the beach high tide line. Even in near dark and in soggy sand with lots of stones and crushed up shells I can run 10m for the 2km jetty to jetty. I'm looking forward to a few of the free races later in the year. I'll step up to the 13km run in the Christmas day run to see what time I can do.
One little psychological thing I'm practicing is the following, each time I come to a small hill that I'm running up I should be happy and joyful to have the opportunity to challenge the hill rather than slog up it. There are not many hills out to the west of the city so when I come across any I should be thankful.

Saturday, 7-Jul. 22km

A cold sunny winters day, it got down to 3C overnight, one reason why I start my runs later in the morning during this time of year. During summer I'll set off for my runs at 8am but in the winter 10am is the time I prefer. It raises the temperature by a couple of degrees. It was 12C when I set off. I kept my heart rate in the aerobic zone all the way, reigning it in if it went up to 136 and bringing it back to around 132. I did contemplate adding a few more kilometres to the run but I was getting tired by 19km so just ran the last 3km back up the beach. I'm sure by spring time I can get up to 25-30km. Feet were fine after the run, I should pamper them a bit more seeing as they do so much work.

Sunday, 8-Jul. 8.2km

The lake loop was a good short run after the long run yesterday. Weather was dry but a more cloudy than yesterday, still enough sun to warm up the darker surfaces. The concrete was pretty cold today and it took around 3km for my feet to start to warm up. I did my fast section up the concrete and was amazed that I managed to knock more time off the distance, beating last weeks time. For the 1.28km I recorded a time of 5:47.5m, a 10s improvement over last weeks time. That is 7:17m for the mile (4:31m/km) in bare feet, not to bad seeing as I'm twice the age I was when I could run it in under 6m.

Neil