[S]he Conquers Who Endures

Long run. So I have so many things going on with my pace. I don't know what my marathon race pace will be, I'm wanting it to be faster than 8:12 to BQ, but I have to work on my gait to correct this knee pain. I received the results of my video gait analysis Friday and found out that pain in my left knee is caused by a weak glute med on my right. Basically I'm spring loaded on my right and crashing down on my left. In trying to use my glutes more in my running I noticed during this long run, I have to run faster to feel that activation, but I am trying to run my long runs slow! Ugh, I ultimately decided during my run that I need to focus on correcting my gait and not worry about my pace until I have that down. There's no sense ignoring this knee pain just to hit my slower pace for a long run. 

I started out kinda sore from deep tissue massage the day before, but after 5 or so miles I finally felt like I was hitting a good form. I was also told to focus on running more like roadrunner (min bounce, push forward) and less like tigger - my vertical displacement is 3" while running. I tried this throughout my run and got frustrated but finally felt it the last mile!! It felt so good and was even easier to run faster. It was a great run to work on form although my time was too fast, oh well at least I didn't feel like I was at threshold. 8:16 average pace.

Oh, and it feels great to finally hit 40 miles a week again!! I can't believe this is the mileage I peaked at my first year of running marathons. I feel sore, but even with an injury I feel like I have a lot more to give. I still haven't run a marathon after hitting higher mileage, and to think that from now till January will all be at higher mileage...love this!