Just Run

After a day of meetings, work, and teaching; then eating and grocery shopping (the most important errand for runners, amirite?) I faced a fork (ha!) in the road: to run or not to run?

I was super hungry, and decided to call it a rest day and run tomorrow (probably the most overused excuse).

So I sat and read up on running speed, so I could feel like a part of me was still..."running."

But let's go back for a second, to when I started running, nearly 3 years ago, when all I cared about was finishing my mile. Keep your goals reasonable, they say. And with running, nothing could be further from the truth. Once my feet hit the track, I was not stopping, but I sure was turtling along. I was not going for time.  After the final loop, I was amazed I did it, that I almost forgot to stop my watch. Beep! 

09:45.

But even more amazing -- I felt like I could run more.

Soon that task became easier, so I upped it to 2. You can see where this is going.

Eventually, I settled into a routine of running. Two miles in - boom. Done. Three, four miles if I had the time - I was also heavily cross training and dancing then. Unlike the high school PE days, I now enjoyed running. Several months later, I began to wonder...how fast could I run a mile? Another question in the back of my mind was also...how far? 

Essentially, speed boils down to a simple equation: stride length and cadence. But it's hard to increase both at the same time (and also highly risk injury!) Overstriding is a common issue, which happens when you try to reach your foot out but it lands in front of your center of mass, and causes a chain reaction of foot/knee/hip problems, plus it's just poor form. I'm no expert here, but I can say from my own experience that I'm more natural at cadence (metronome musician training side effect!)  I find that my stride falls on the rather short side; that even during sprints and when I'm really pushing, I can make 1.2 or 1.3 metres.  My cadence around 171-174 can feel like a nice jog, but maintaining 180 feels much more difficult.

And what if you're a runner who can make 180 steps per minute, but still are running 8-9-10 minute miles? Food for thought...and the art of training. Seems easy to put one foot in front of the other...or is it?