Week 9 Day 4

As usually, it is a 9 mile run today. So I had to get up early. Yesterday it was raining, luckily today it is not raining.

In order to take care of myself not to get injured, I slowed down my pace. As usually, mile 3 is always a hard mile, then my body was fully opened up, so it was easier. I tried not to run too fast to get my knees warning signal back. It was a good run and I didn't feel knees pain at all.

Because of this knee issue, I suspected I probably over strided or running with a poor form. It could be the sudden mileage increase and run too fast. I read an article saying if you don't take the expert advice, that is, slow down and build mileage gradually, it is not whether you will get injured. You will get injured. Only the question is when you will get injured.

Anyhow, I did some research on the perfect running form. There is a great analysis on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTMgIViinuQ

Looking at the video, Moses Mosop seems to apply his leg muscles strength efficiently when the foot touched the ground. It is some kind of leaping from the ground. As I remember, My legs are usually more lazy lifting from the ground.

The other point I notice is that his feet were never pointing up to the sky. They were always down towards to the ground and when touching the ground, the foot was parallel to the ground forming a middle-foot strike.

Today I concentrated on this technique and tried to apply it. However, I don't think I quite get there yet. Having said that, I certainly felt the power from the ground especially running up hill feeling so much lighter and easier. I will keep practising. Here is today's pace:

mi	Pace(mi)Elevation (ft) 
1	8:26	-104 
2	8:44	-37 
3	8:10	43 
4	7:47	-45 
5	8:02	32 
6	7:47	-30 
7	8:05	44 
8	7:41	-11 
9	7:53	18 
10	7:43	43