Go slow to go fast.

My ankle wasn't stiff anymore yesterday or this morning, and it felt fine running on it again, thankfully. 

 8 Miles - 1:10:40 - 8:50/mile - HR: 141 - Elevation: 630ft

I ran 4 miles out on the dry creek trail, downhill with a tailwind and was wondering why my HR was so low.

Then when I turned around and realized how stiff the headwind was on the uphill back toward home it all made perfect sense.

It felt great to get out and run for over an hour again. 

***later

My ankle was pretty stiff after my run for the rest of the day, which was annoying.  I will let it rest more this week. 

No running today - lifted and swam laps at the gym.  It feels good to mix up the workout and get different muscles going.

Barefoot and Minimalist footwear running study just published by Harvard

A study was just barely published in “NATURE, a scientific journal”.  There’s a corresponding website detailing the study that is well done in my opinion.  It is based on the findings of their research and pretty clearly states what things there are not enough evidence or research for.

Check it out!…

http://barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/index.html

3.35 Miles - 7:42/mile - HR: 155 avg - Ascent/descent: 381 ft (there's no such thing as a flat run by my house)

 My body felt good today but I decided not to do too many miles for the sake of not overdoing it on my recovering ankle.  I think with taking it easy the rest of this week and just running lower miles, I should be fine running longer again next week.  

Running is a constant learning process.  You keep expanding your abilities, running into new road blocks, having to figure out how to get around them and keep pressing forward.  I thoroughly enjoy the process.  Sometimes its discouraging when I can't run as far as I would like to.  But it reminds me to not be too attached to any one outcome, and I learn to appreciate just having a healthy body in general.

Running has so many parallels to life.  I feel like running keeps me conscious to life in general, because the lessons I learn remind me to live each day to the fullest and enjoy the journey every step of the way.  I guess that's part of why it feels so good to me to run. The combination of physical, mental, and spiritual betterment is just a great feeling way to live each day.

Today's workout was kind of weird, but great.

I ran 1/2 mile warm up to get to the gym from the Tire store where I dropped my car to get new tires.  My ankle felt a bit weird.  I thought I would just lift weights and swim at the gym.

 Here's where you can tell I'm kind of hooked on running.

I was in my running shorts and a tank top and FiveFingers, fully intending to go lift weights.  I stashed my bag in the locker, and headed out to lift some weights.  Before I knew it my feet had taken me up the stairs and I was running around the track.  And I was going fast and feeling really good.  Just passing the same people running about every other lap.  My whole body felt fantastic, it was so easy, and smooth.  

I was just counting my laps.  Didn't have a watch on or heart rate strap.  But I looked at the clock when I started.  After 2 miles it was about 13 minutes, and I felt like I was just getting warmed up.  After 3 miles I decided to stop because even though my ankle felt completely fine, I really do want to take it easy on it to let it heal completely.  

 I did 3 miles in under 20 minutes, I checked my heart rate and it was in the low 160's when I stopped.  MAN that felt good.  It's kind of cool to know that I can run a little faster pace and not be maxing my heart rate out.

Then I went and lifted for a while.  Then I ran back to the tire store, but when I ran outside my ankle was hurting.  I wonder if the 26 degrees outside is part of the problem on my sore ankle tendons?  It didn't hurt at all to run inside, but before and after when running outside it was bothering me a little.   Weird.