Blog Post

I got home from my first real training run, and say what? My left forearm was burning as though I had just done 10 000 wall climbs (slight exaggeration). But seriously... Why does it burn? I was running the slowest I had ever ran in my life to try and stay in HRZ 2, so what was the deal here?

My guess is that maybe my fingers weren't as loose as they should have been. I was probably holding them wide open, and using those tendons in my forearms to do so.  Interesting...
This odd occurence is something I'll have to pay attention to tomorrow.

As for the running, it was surprisingly comfortable. I unfortunately do not have a heart rate monitor, I just judge my exertion by how I feel, and my speed (or lack of). For 37 minutes I averaged a 10 minute mile, which was about smack in the middle of my SP Zone 1. Over the course of that 37 minutes I ran 5 km, roughly 3.2 miles. My legs got kind of tired after about 2 miles, and my speed went from 9:30 mile to a 10:05 mile over the course of the next few miles.

While that speed isn't overbearingly slow, I found it interesting. I found it interesting at how sweaty I was (I'm not used to the 24 C weather), and how relatively refreshed I felt.
Just a few weeks ago, before getting Eric's book, I would just head out and hit as many hills as I could as fast as I could. Which usually translated into at least 4 large hills, and most of the in between stuff rolling hills, over the course of about 3-4 km. Those runs would take me about 18-20 minutes. After doing a few of those runs I ran a 5k race - here's the shocker - in 22:50. And I wasn't even all that tired after it! So this new-to-me slow approach to running is odd, but it defintely has its advantages.

You see, what lead my to seek out knowledge on ultra distance running was that my knees were getting sore after only 3km of running after about 2 weeks of my all out hill-ridden runs. I was running too fast, and too difficult of terrain for my legs to handle safely. My shoes certainly did not, and continue to not, help out with my knees. They're shoes I bought several years ago before I ran a lot, and they have tons of arch support, a big ol' heal, and a massive drop of around 15mm. I knew that there were people who ran massive distances with little to no knee pain, so I started looking. I found Eric's book, and its been a great help. On Saturday I ran about 7km at a slow pace, and my knees felt relatively good. They were a bit sore, but I think that had more to do with a bad landing out of a front flip that put ALOT of strain on my knees earlier on that day. After a day of rest, and another 5km, no knee pain. This is wonderful! There is definitely something to be said for slow running.