On a night out, after several cocktails, I half agreed to join a colleague in doing the Sheffield Half Marathon, quite a challenge considering my longest single distance at the time was less than a mile.
I'd done a bit of jogging in the past, but it was short, painful, awkward and entirely unpleasant. My running history started properly this year, 2nd January, with a run from my house to the local pub and back. The distance is 1.8 miles, half is downhill, half is up. I would do this in around 22 minutes and take up to 5 breaks to catch my breath, mostly on the way back up the hill. I would do this a couple of times a week and notice little to no improvement.
My first attempt to go longer was with a 3 mile run around Rother Valley that ended up being 3.02 miles and involved far more walking than I should have allowed. Even with the walking I ended the session with a strange feeling in my knee, spongey and twingey at the same time. This was the 3rd of February.
The discomfort I experienced led me to rest and read up a bit about better running technique and search online for videos that could demonstrate the methods. I found the following video very interesting, not too sciencey and not too basic. It made me realise what I was doing wrong and pointed me in the direction of what I should be doing when I run.
The advice about posture and foot fall was very interesting and was something I could implement on my very next run which just happened to be a 3 mile route that I'd never tried before. So on the 6th of February, with the advice at the forefront of my mind, I set out to see how far I could get, always thinking about how my foot was contacting the ground and making sure my head was up and shoulders back.
Somehow I had managed to complete my new 3 mile route (3.13 to be precise) in a single stint, in 34 minutes, at an average pace of 5.44 miles per hour. I could barely believe that I'd done it at all, let alone at a relatively consistent pace (fastest - 5.78mph, slowest 5.08).
I can only assume that my breakthrough was a result of paying more attention to what I'm doing on a run, rather than hammering away trying to rely purely on strength to go the extra distance. When I ended the run I was out of breath and sweating, but oddly it wasn't as severe as it had been on shorter run. My guess is I was more efficient and burned less energy by taking it steady, rather than the 'stop-start' running I was doing before.
I've since done the route a second time with virtually identical statistics. I plan to do it a third time, again concentrating on form and a steady pace. I've just bought a pair of Karrimor Excel running shoes so it'll be interesting to see how I do!
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