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Willamette Bike Path "Grind" with CA

February 21, 2016 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 50s, NICE

Comments:
CA came home around 6 and we ran together. I told her I thought it'd be a good use of time to not do a mega-long run, but do a "road grind" instead: like 7s-8 pace (instead of her usual 9s). She has this phobia against it, but her stride has been SO good, I thought she'd be fine.

I had her run two miles easy on the warm-up. The air quality wasn't great (nice weather = stagnant air), so she said her HR was elevated.

We did the same route as yesterday: our place to the river, but this time ran NW all the way to Owosso Bridge, then back the other side.

I was feeling energetic, so we got going pretty quick in short order. By mile two we'd dropped a 7-teens mile...but then CA stopped and basically had a mini-panic attack. Ugh. She was freaking out because:

- she puts pressure on herself to do these runs
- she was feeling soreness in her RIGHT foot and calf
- she didn't have her sciatic pain but it "felt tight" in her left hamstring.

But we were going like 7-low...when two weeks ago she did FOUR MILES at 6:01 pace (including the first two at 5:50 pace). PSYCH-OUT!

I just stopped her and said, "stop caring!". I didn't care, I just wanted to ease into it! She'd made a big deal out of this, and I just wanted to ease into a quicker tempo.

So we just jogged, and, without stressing, she eased right back into 8-flat or sub 8. She had some calf tightness, so we backed off a couple times, but then got back to 8-flat again!

This was exactly what she needed, anyway - basically a long tempo fartlek. In the end, she was just fine: calf was OK (tight from actually using it with the new balanced stride!), NO "dead-butt", and good effort!

As for ME? Next to NO left foot pain! I was working my own stride pretty well, working to keep the pelvis left (and trunk R), and have a pure foot push-off and stable trunk. Felt GOOD!

7.3 miles in exactly 60:00! Awesome! Getting close to breaking free!