A.M. 8 by myself on pavement in 55:38, then 3 more with Benjamin in 23:16. Contemplated the form. Tried to figure out why it feels/looks weird. Perceived problem - some odd overstriding. I reach out in front with the foot, then start pulling it back, which is good, but it still lands too far out in front. Tried to understand why I do this. Then tried a trick on a whim - more aggressive hamstring action at the end of the stance. That in theory should help relax the quad, and also bring the knee up a little higher, and get rid of my patented backwards leg reach that kicks the competitors that are following too closely. I liked the feel of it. Did not have an HRM with me to document the energy expenses, but it did seem that I was able to run a faster pace with less effort. The question is why I do not do that hamstring action naturally. I hope that it is just because I learned it wrong early on and never bothered to relearn because I had a workaround that kind of worked. A contributing factor could have been a knee injury at the age of 12, right around those formative years, that made it painful to bend the knee, and then the pattern of working around it became ingrained to the point that when challenged to run better by increased speed/distance I would simply invent a better workaround than address the root of the problem. P.M. 2 with Jenny in 17:20. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:44. Took Joseph with me to vote. We ran there and back. On the way back I got disoriented in the dark and we went the wrong way for a while. So we ended up running some unintentional distance. Joseph thought it was fun, though, but started to get a bit tired towards the end. The whole run took us 11:29. Will call that 1.1.
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