In the meantime, I had a speed session today, same as last week (8 x .25mi w/1mi recoveries) which was by design, since last week’s paces were all over the place and I wanted a basis for comparison.  Plus, it takes me a week or two to get used to faster running and this workout is a “no big deal” way to do that.

My splits, while not perfectly consistent, were eons better than last time:
1:37,1:35,1:39,1:35,1:37,1:38,1:38,1:38 (avg pace 6:28)

Three things helped:

1. The temperature was a lovely 60 degrees.  Interesting factoid: when it’s warm (last week was 75) my heart rate caps out low though the effort feels much harder.  Weird that, since you’d think the HR would be higher.

2. I did strides beforehand.  I know I should do this before every quality session, it gets your HR up and your body prepared for running faster. I will from now on, it really made a difference.

3. Confidence.  Last week, for all the crappy pacing and even though it was only 400s, that last fast one gave me an inkling that speed is indeed returning.  I needed that like nectar to a hummingbird.

Next two weeks I’ll do 6 x 800 w/ 90sec rec’s. and then my Half cycle begins!  Nice to be priming the pump before the heavy-duty work starts.  Though I must say, I’m pretty much doing what I’d do in a regular cycle anyway but it seems so casual and fun now, almost vacation-like.  Maybe it’s the weather.

Pill Popping
I’m not a huge pill-popper by nature, though I’ve been taking glucosamine and MSM since the IT band crap last summer.  This week I cut my glucosamine by half, so one pill instead of two.  So far, I’m not noticing anything different.  As for my MSM capsule, I’ll continue to take that daily but am open to seeing what’s what without these things.

I don’t think I mentioned that I started taking an Iron supplement a couple months ago.  I had my ferritin levels checked back in August which came out normal, but my mileage hadn’t reached the level it’s at now.  Also, I was still living with Nick at the time and ate red meat quite often.  I love red meat, so don’t think I’ve gone all veggie on you, but I’ve probably had it 3 times in the last 6 months.  I do eat a lot of fresh spinach but surprisingly, if you eat a whole bag of the stuff, it’s still only 30% of your daily requirement.  So anyway, I take an 18mg capsule daily.

Calcium is my other supplement – Viactiv chews, twice daily.  I wrote a whole blog piece two years ago on the different types of calcium and how this type (calcium carbonate) used to stop me up.  But now I eat so much more fiber and drink more liquids, I’m a great pooper.

Core Work Continued
I was doing those Runners World exercises for a couple weeks which are great, but I’ve started switching it up with one of my favorite exercise DVDs: Mari Winsor’s 20-minute Slimming Pilates.  It’s basically a fast-paced core workout that I love because she doesn’t chatter on, it goes boom boom boom, from one exercise to the next.

Group Thoughts
Today was a slow day on my running path, I only waved to about 7 people I knew.  Seriously.  I love my park because there are probably 35-40 regulars with whom I wave and exchange a couple words.  When we see each other in races or on the street, it’s a fun shot of recognition.

I was thinking about the whole “running with others” thing and while I enjoyed the outing, I’ll always be a lone runner at heart.  I’ll try to make the hill workout this Thursday because I like the idea of sharing a hard workout, but I guess I wanted to explain that while I’m out there on my own day-to-day, I’m surrounded by camaraderie every time I run.  So we’ll see how much running club action I get.  Maybe I need to work on my bar-hopping skills instead.

As a lifelong sloucher, the pushups & chinups I’ve been doing this past year have helped quite a bit, but I still tend to fold at the middle when running.  It varies by degree and might not even occur when I’m fresh, but it’s there in most of my race photos.  I’ve read enough articles and books on running form to know that slouching isn’t just ugly, it inhibits your breathing and distributes weight where it shouldn’t be, which in turn affects your speed and endurance.  Major bad stuff.

To fight it, sometimes while running I make a point to pull my shoulders back and straighten my spine but that tends to tire me out since I lack the basic strength to hold it there. So when I mentioned in the last post how I wished my back was as straight as the Up With People guy (or anyone I’m ever photographed running next to, for that matter) Ewen made a smart comment that it’s not my back so much as a bent core.   Uh…wow, lightbulb moment.

I’ll be honest, I never do core work because my abs look good and I figured core work was all about doing sit-ups.  Instead, I’ve always blamed my bad form on my upper back and shoulders.  But the more I look at all the Boston race photos, I realize I had it wrong, it’s not the top of my body at fault, it’s a weak middle letting the upper body fall forward.

This is a very cool discovery because it’s fixable and the payoff in running improvement could potentially be big.  As for my plan of action, Jim led me to a great article with some simple core exercises for runners from Greg McMillan that takes only 15 minutes 3 times a week.  Totally my speed.

I figure by Fall, I should be in excellent fighting shape with yet another solid training cycle under my belt and a more upright form to go with it.  Sure, I will still despise bad race photos and am guaranteed to have many more in the future, but for now, the bad ones are worth their weight in gold.