Morning run

We had Miss S's sister staying (I see a tongue twister forming in my mind) last night. What that means on a practical level is that not only is the spare room full, where I normally breakfast... go figure, but also that somebody is up before me in the morning. Sophie's sister needed to leave at 07:00

I set my alarm for 06:30 figuring that as Sophie and I both needed to be out by 08:00 I could go for a run and the shower would be free when I got back. Who says it's difficult to plan training around a job eh?

It was pitch black as I set off in the drizzle, not quite sure where I was going to run to today. I knew I wanted to be gone for about 35 minutes. After 5 minutes I stopped and stretched by the park. As it was shut (what you don’t want us charging round the park in the dark??) I decided to head up to the pub on the corner of the park and do a lap on the road around the back. This route is roughly equivalent to 2 laps around the park.

Within a few minutes (leaping out of the way of an unlit cyclist on the pavement excepted… really) I was in a little world of my own. This consists of an acute awareness of what my body is doing, that cycles into vague day-dreaming and back into awareness. I used to find that I stayed mostly in the dreamy/vague stage once I’d got there, but it is too easy to forget to think about form and niggles.

Interestingly I was reading the other day that the perfect state of mind for endurance events is a balance between the ability to ignore suffering (and continue) and the total body awareness of form and injury potential from surface and surroundings.

I need feedback on how my feet are making contact with the floor. Whether I have traction or not? Is one foot form better than the other (Yes the right foot flows better)? Ignoring, or even worse not receiving in the first place, this feedback leads to problems. I need this onformation, it helps me to plan my next step. I found myself injured last year running on very wobbly high Saucony Triumph  running shoes, but am working better with their Hattori minimal shoe. I have changed my “foot strike” from a heel strike that ended up as a flat footed step flopping from the ankle to a forefoot strike that is more of a gentle step that quickly drops the heel then rolls through the foot to spring off the toes.

So far so good