On Course For Race For Life
Well another New Year and another Race For Life coming up in the Spring. And YES I am going to enter again. I am not sure if I will be able to raise the same as the amazing £400 like last year, but every penny counts and helps towards treatment for those that need it.
I decided it was time to buy some new running shoes as I had had my others for a year and they have been well used. They are still ok but were getting a little uncomfortable for running. We went off to the sports shop and after trying on about 20 pairs of running shoes, I finally settled on the Nike Zoom Air+ 10/2’s. A very comfortable and light shoe which gives loads of support and allows the feet to breathe and not sweat. Not to mention a very cool colour of mustard yellow and silver!!
David noticed that this particular style of shoe supports the new Nilke+ sports kit. How cool is that?? It consists of a device going into the innersole of the shoe and another that connects to the bottom of your ipod nano. It records how far you run, which pace you average over a mile, and also the time you took to complete your run. It also records your pace throughout the whole of your run and tells you when you have reached a personal best. Then when you get home, you hook it up to your computer and it sends the information automatically to the Nike+ web site where you can track how you are progressing. You can set yourself goals and it records everything for you. It shows you graphs and compares your best runs. Nothing motivates you more than having Paula Radcliffe congratulating you on beating your previous personal best. That put a smile on my face for sure.
I have run 14.5 miles this week, and aim to do 40 miles over the period of a month. I have 3 more weeks in which to reach my target. I have been doing short runs to the gym, and then doing a work out with weights, and then running home again. It’s a bit slower running home, but I have worked out and it’s uphill most of the way home. The wind this week has been head on and very strong which has almost stopped me in my tracks at times. I battled on and still managed to beat my personal best today. My fasted mile has now been recorded at 8 minutes and 23 seconds. That’s 20 seconds off my previous. I was very pleased as you can imagine. My aim is to do the Race For Life in 25 minutes or under this year. I aim to do a 4 mile run this Sunday in about 33 minutes. We will see!! If the wind has died down it will be doable. On Wednesday I did a 3.43 mile run in 31 minutes without stopping and walking, which had previously taken me 45 minutes as I was still suffering with a chesty virus.
I have been reading a very interesting book about Chi-running. It is very informative and explains how to improve your running by changing your posture and relaxing into the run. If you relax your hips, arms and shoulders and focus on your posture, keeping the spine straight and leaning forward, the results are amazing. You don’t feel tired and your legs don’t ache at all. I have been trying to apply this to each run I do. I must admit that I am not always successful, but it is getting better and I am achieving better results. The more you can relax your hips, the longer your stride becomes and it makes you go faster too. I also find that my breathing fits in better with my stride and I am not puffing and panting and feeling like I can’t go on. I am beginning to believe that focusing on your body posture and relaxation are the main keys to a good performance and a satisfying run. The book also says that you are less likely to get injuries or shin splints. I haven’t finished reading it all yet, but I am finding that the advice is certainly beneficial to me. Both the book and the Nike+ have motivated me to do better and to keep going on to achieve times and distances that I never thought that I was truly capable of.