Knees up!

This week was fairly good. The shins started to feel a little tender on Wednesday, but recovered before my run on Thursday morning. Even my upper legs were starting to feel "worked out", which is great. I love that feeling! I wandered why, though? In my mind, I have not really been doing that much running. So I took a look at my last post to see if I was running the correct mileage. I'm a little embarrassed. I was running for 46 minutes and not 41. So the week went like this:

Sunday: 10.3km in 56 minutes, trail
Monday: off
Tuesday: 9.05km in 46, road and track
Wednesday: 8.83 in 46, grass
Thursday: 8.63 in 46, paved trail and road
Friday: off
Saturday: 5.3km in 28, trail (damn garmin didn't work)

total 42.08 km in 3:42:14, (5:16/km)

The plan for this week is to do the same weekly mileage. I think I will do the same as last week, since things mistakenly worked out, but do the 5k on Wednesday instead of Saturday. I also mix in 3 or 4 strides somewhere in the middle of the run on Tuesday and Thursday.

I've had this nagging soreness in my right hamstring. I think that it has something to do with the short strides (to increase my cadence, spend less time in the air, less pounding, lighter step, less chance of shin splints). I found that my right foot sometimes hits the ground before I expect it to, when I am bringing my foot forward. So I started raising my knee up higher. However, this increases my chance of overstriding again. It's all about balance, right? Bringing the knees up just feels better. So I have to keep 2 thoughts in my head, "knees up but short stride". When I do this and count my stride rate, it is around 43 to 45 steps for one foot within 30 seconds. (172 to 180)

I am on vacation this week. The most often asked question people ask me is "so where are you going?". I always respond with Home. I am so glad to be home! I got a canoe and it has been a blast with the kids. We drove to a spot, that a neighbor told us about, and canoed along the river. Check out this old oak tree: