I took a quick vid of my running this morning out of curiosity to see what my stride looked like. I had NO IDEA that I was such a heel-striker. I thought I was leaning forward and striking on the midfoot, which is what I am pretty sure I want to do. I couldn't even really see the heelstrike until I looked frame-by-frame, so if you haven't video'd your running, you should try it sometime. I'm thinking of trying barefoot running, at least in part. I've seen barefooters reccomend pool shoes for an inexpensive foot-protector for near-barefooting, so I may pick up some of those today to experiment with.
The boyz seem to get along so well. It fascinates me to watch how they communicate (or, occasionally, don't). And I love their crazy post-eating wrestling matches. I'm feeding them a food currently which has two different kinds of kibble - one lighter, softer, and more 'meatlike' (according to the human marketing geniuses anyway...), and one crunchier and darker. It seems that Nash prefers the darker bits, and Toad the softer ones. Last night, after Nash walked away from his left-behind bits for a drink, Toad finished them up before he got back. He was chagrined when I 'refunded' Nash from the uneaten hard kibble in his bowl. Toad lives in a Toad-centric universe :)
I promise this isn't going to turn into a dog-blog!
largely because of FB. And I wanted to write a bit about my new
interest in running. I've always been the 'short of breath' type
(except when it comes to arguing:), but now that I have a dog who
needs to be leashed, and thanks to the nudge of a friend or two, I've
decided to get more serious about running.
And here's the amazing part: I'm loving it. I really really really
suck at it, and I'm loving it. Why? Because I'm getting better, I
suppose. And because it's fun (except of course when it's not:)
So after mucking around doing run-walks (or, really, walk-runs) up to
1-2 miles, I felt full of myself and started this beginner "3 Weeks to
a 30-Minute Running Habit" program (twice! - I repeated the first
week):
http://running.about.com/c/ec/10.htm
Which is actually going OK. It's a run-walk thing. I'm up to Day 15
(2/3 through), and today's effort was four reps (20 minutes) of run 4
mins, walk 1 min. A week or two ago I would not have been able to even
slowly jog four mins. Pitiful, eh? Or, in glass-half-full mode, we can
say 'lots of room for improvement!'. This 20 mins today took me about
1.5 miles, which is pitifully slow pace, but it actually felt pretty
comfortable - which is funny, because yesterday's 3-minute runs felt
CRAPPY. Different weather, hills, mood, etc.
For motivation (and fun-I-hope, and a t-shirt, and and yes, to help
people) I signed up for a charity run next Saturday - it's a one-mile
'fun run' before a 5K. I also signed up for a T-giving morning
one-miler. I want to think about a 5K in the next 8-10 weeks. AFTER I
signed up for the run, and started feeling like I was never going to
be able to run more than 1 min without my lungs dissolving, I read
that it takes a good 8-12 weeks to develop good 'wind' (breathing). So
this one-miler is going to be at a slooow pace (especially as the
entire second half-mile is - I kid you not - UPHILL). But that's cool.
As long as I don't get trampled by the 5K runners behind me - who
start a half-hour after - I'll be feeling OK :-)
Funny story: Sunday (yesterday) I decided to leave the dogs home and
run the 1-mile course. I thought I'd add a little speed, and check it
out. Bad idea on the 'adding speed' part, but lesson learned. Good
idea to leave the dogs home, because there was a marathon just winding
down as I got there. I talked to one of the finishing runners (her
first marathon - 5 hours-and-mumble) who was looking for her car, and
she was appropriately perky with her 'yes, you can!' pep talk to me.
I'm very sensitive to being patronized, but I did appreciate it,
actually. But as I was finishing up my mile-and-a-half, I
inadvertently ran through the marathon's finish - and they were REALLY
cleaning up and moving out, tho I did see one straggler after that -
and some woman said "Congratulations!" to me. Hahaha - she probably
was impressed with how fresh I seemed :) Though I didn't, because it
was an off run.
Today I was back out on the nice flat dirt road I favor, with the
dogs, and another runner passed me (twice). We waved from inside our
ipods (audiobook for me, and I wonder how many runners listen to
books? Is that weird?), and I totally felt part of some bigger group.
Then he left me eating dust :)
