A.M. Ran the warm-up with Benjamin and Jeremy, then did the tempo. 5 miles, 2.5 up the canyon, 2.5 back down. No significant wind that I noticed, it was not bothering me going in either direction. Some snow on the ground, but not enough to cause serious problems with speed. Maybe occasional loss of a second per quarter or so. Splits by half-mile: 2:54, 2:55, 3:01, 2:56, 3:01 (180 turn), 2:52, 2:47, 2:43, 2:47, 2:39. Half-way split 14:47, second half 13:47. Total time 28:35 which is an improvement over last week by 12 seconds. Yesterday after PT with Sergio I got a better understanding of what muscles are contracting and when, and how to tell what is contracting. Then I practiced standing on one leg with the other hip and knee flexed and the hand on the piriformis of the leg that is on the ground to check how hard it is contracting with the goal of making it contract less. I figured out what it should feel like when it contracts less and tried it in running. The feeling was rather interesting. When I first started I felt like I had to slack quite a bit to avoid the piriformis contracting feeling, and thought I would hit the quarter in 92, but I decided to take whatever that effort produced without complaining. It ended up being 87, and then it did not get slower until the hill got steeper or I hit some snow, or maybe some headwind sneaked up, but whenever I slowed down I was always able to recover. On the way back at first I thought I would not be able to go very fast, but then I was going 5:30 before I knew it. I felt still that I was slacking some, but I could not push harder without getting the tight piriformis feeling, so I did not. In the last quarter I tried to speed up without the tight feeling, and something was out of sync, it felt like some muscles were contracting out of sync, but I still did manage a 79 quarter. Ran some more with Benjamin, including a pickup for 0.6 or so. Benjamin ended up doing 8 miles total. 2 more with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12.3. P.M. 2 with Joseph, 1 of it with Jacob. Jenny and Julia ran 1. Neighbor kids came as usual.
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