Photo: al.herrmann on Flickr

Today I tweeted “Run or nap?” I was not disappointed with the advice given me.

So I ran.

I’ve written before about my love of running, but since moving to Oliver I’ve been sort of on-again-off-again with the training. I ran a bit early on when I moved here last April, but then it got hot and I stopped… and then I ran a little more in the fall and then I got sick, and then I went to Mexico (I know, excuses excuses) and then it got cold.

I’m not used to cold.

So then February rolled around and a friend of mine encouraged me to set a goal – a mighty lofty one at that – to run the SeaWheeze Lululemon Half Marathon on August 11th. And I figured, why not? On any given day I can pull off about 10km… what’s another 11?! Piece of cake! Uh… well, something like that.

Okay I’m finding it a little daunting and I’m doubting my ability to do this just a touch, but I like a good challenge and I’ve already paid the bucks to register.

So there.

In other running-related news, Big Mack gave me a pair of Vibram Five Finger Bikila shoes for Valentine’s day. I’ve been eyeing these up for some time so I’m super excited to take them out for a spin. The weather here hasn’t been great for the last couple days. My running routes have quite a bit of mud and gravel left over from the latest snowfall so I’m waiting for the right opportunity to break them in. In the meantime, though, I decided to get started on fixing my running stance to make running in minimalist shoes bearable.

I’m a heel striker.

There, I said it. If I keep running the way I have been in these Bikilas I’m going to hurt myself I’m sure… especially if I’m heading into distances that will prepare me for a half marathon. So today I decided to try out more of a mid-foot strike while running… just to see what it feels like. Wow. I may be a touch sore tomorrow.

I ran about 8 km and, while I slipped back into my natural form a few times, I did make a concerted effort to land each stride sort of flat, more on the ball than the heel. Here are my observations about the mid-foot strike versus the heel strike:

• I had to shorten my stride because I couldn’t reach out as far to the front with each step
• The shorter stride had me more upright and leaning forward less
• The result of being more vertical was that there was more of an extension of the hip flexor with each stride
• There was also more of a push backward with the back leg rather than down, which worked the top of the glutes more like a rear leg lift would
• I could no longer rely on my hamstrings and my glutes to do the hard work
• The work shifted to the quads and the calf muscles
• There was less work in the contraction of the hip flexors since they didn’t have to bring the leg up as high since I was already more upright

All in all, I found the experience interesting. It took me almost an hour to do 8km – normally I’d do this in about 50 minutes these days but the shorter stride and focus on my form really caused me to lose speed. I’m not sure how I’m going to feel tomorrow… my quads were tight after this run and that is a rare occurrence for me. My calves don’t feel it yet but it’s only been 4 hours.

So for now I’m working on two goals: 1) being consistent with my running to bring my base mileage to an appropriate level for half marathon training, which will begin in May, and 2) changing up my stance to a mid-foot strike and logging some miles on my Bikilas.

I’m also looking for some interim races to try between now and August 11th, so if you have any good suggestions let me know! And oh yeah… do you like my shoes?!