I was up late last night working with India (and will be again tonight) so I didn't get up early to run. I was considering just resting today and tomorrow in preparation for the Hobble Creek half, but at 5:00pm I had some time so I decided to go for a short run.
I decided to warm up over to the start of the neighborhood 5K route at the park, run the 5K course at "cruising speed", and then cool down back home. By "cruising speed" I mean running efficiently with good form and foot turnover, but not pushing the pace into the discomfort zone. The mile splits were 6:53 (down), 7:28 (flat), 7:37 (up). The overall average pace for the 4.1 miles, including warm up and cool down, was 7:42/mi. Afterward I did a little stretching and ran the cold water on my legs in the shower for a bit.
Last year and the year before I focused on trying to increase my
cruising stride rate to around 180 steps/min. Out of curiosity I counted my stride rate during
the downhill mile (6:53) and the uphill mile (7:37) and it was the same, around 192 steps/min. I like to lock into an effort and rhythm and keep moving steadily to the beat in my head. Today the beat was one of my old favorites - "One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. Hey! I'm dancing!" (from Hello Dolly).
I feel pretty good about the run, especially since I had forgotten that 5:00pm was the hottest part of the day and it was 95 degrees. Despite the heat, I felt comfortable waltzing along and my legs actually felt better after the run than they did before.
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