Nine-Miler Sights & Let's Talk Foot Strikes

I used my Nike+ today but it drained my iPhone battery and died right around 8.5 miles! Bummer! (My phone was at about 60% juice when I started just for reference)

Run/Workout: 9 miles (5 min cool-down)
Location: Astoria Riverwalk
Run Time (if applicable): 1:26 minutes, 9:55 split average
Run Start: 12:30 pm
Temperature: 48 degrees
Weather: Sunny with some wind

Notes:

Hurray! I completed another 9-miler! It feels really great to be able to say that! In my sights right now is the Rock n Roll Half Marathon May 20th. So I'm really hoping I will be well-trained by that point and glad to have two 9-milers under my belt. Next Friday will be 10 miles if all goes according to plan. Here's how the run went:

The best invention ever!

I wore a compression sock on my left (weaker) leg, the one I have been having some troubles with. My lower leg just burned for the first 3 miles or so when I went ahead and folded the sock down half way for relief. It helped some.

Along the way, I past these big guys. How many people can say they have California Sea Lions on their run route? By the way, they STINK!!!

"Ahhhh, sunbathing..."

The first 6 miles were pretty uncomfortable. My cardiovascular system is doing great, but my left lower leg wasn't today. I can't really describe specifically what I've been experiencing, but there was no shooting pain today thanks to the compression socks. It was mostly just discomfort/burning/dull pain.

I walked a couple of times to give it a break, and stopped to stretch a few times. I'm not the kind of person who likes to walk much on runs, even long runs which is totally justifiable. Today I did so and my time was still in a good range so I am going to be more optimistic toward walk breaks.

Thank you Jeff Galloway, for giving me permission to take walk breaks!

Then for whatever reason, the discomfort let up and I had a great last 3 miles.
And on another fun note, the Astoria Trolley is running again and rang their bell for me as they past :)

Form Matters:

Today I realized that I have a natural tendency to stare right down near my feet. I have to really make myself keep my chin up and look up ahead but I discovered that when I kept my head up, my legs felt better instantly. My leg felt better on strikes that hit my forefoot rather that midfoot or heel strikes and keeping my head up helped keep my strikes near forefoot. From what I know about good form, keeping your head up is very important and I'm going to keep working on it since it definitely does not come naturally to me.

I believe a whole book was written about this particular subject, a little title called Born To Run by Christopher McDoughall. Apparently it is all the rage in the running community. I need to read it! To Amazon.com I go...

Good Running Form:

Example of Foot Strike Differences:

Here's a good article from Runner's World that I found too!
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-267-268-8210-0,00.html