Athelstone 10km

Distance 27.5km [total: minimalist 269.6km: Barefoot 2514.8km] Week 14

 

Wednesday, 4-Apr. 9.8km.

A great confidence boosting run along the beach footpath. Kept up a good pace all the way. The sun had set by the time I got back to the car but there was still plenty of light to see by, in a couple of months I'll be running back in the dark. It had been a warm day around 30C but it was cooler by the time I started my run.

Friday, 6-Apr. 10km.

Easter Friday and I had breakfast early to be ready to set off for the Easter Bun Fun Run at Athelstone, a run I did last year in pouring rain. This year in contrast the weather is warm from the hot 35C day we had yesterday but a change is due through later in the day.
I got to the start of the race in plenty of time and had a wander around, listening to the conversations of the groups of runners. I tried to stay relaxed at the start of the run but I always find it difficult. A few people asked me questions about running in bare feet, I guess various articles in publications has made people curious. I tried to be as helpful as possible. The first few km are downhill and quite quick, once off the road bitumen its onto some nice smooth concrete of the river path. Once the course crosses the river the run is then more undulating with some steep up and down parts. My throat was pretty dry and my heart rate was above 145. The trees that line the river path drop small hard seed cases that stick under the feet if you stand on them and can be painful. It seemed to take ages before the path crossed back over the river on the 10km run. At 8km I was tiring and my form would have been pretty rotten, my feet were tender and my pace had slowed. It was now mainly an uphill run to the end. I did liven up in the last 500m running along the road which had flattened out, my time was slower than last year though. I forgot to set my stopwatch going until about a minute into the race so I'll add that on to the end race time. My stopwatch recorded 54m 51s so that would be 55m 51s. The actual measured distance on Google Earth is in fact 11km or greater. Shortly after I got back the cool change arrived in the form of a strong westerly breeze, it began to cloud over and looked like the rain would be here shortly.

Sunday, 8-Apr. 7.7km.

My now usual Sunday loop of the lake at West Lakes started a bit slow. I think the run on Friday took a bit out of my legs, I didn't feel like I had the speed today. I kept the heart rate at around 135 but boosted it up to 145 in the last kilometre by running along the wide flat concrete footpath along Sportsmans Drive. I got up a decent speed, it would be good if I could keep it up for an entire 10km distance rather than just a short 1km.
I am still slowly reading my way through Matt Fitzgeralds book Run, he mentions the books on formalised running techniques such as Pose and Chi running but doesn't seem to think they can change your natural running form. I though know my running form has changed from what it was as I don't get the same problems I did 20 years ago. I would like to attain the graceful running form that apparently comes from practicing over years but I'm not sure if it is too late for me.

Neil