Formless

I've been taking a break. I worked hard during marathon training, and then maybe harder to overcome my IT band issues, and now I'm a little burned out. I'm still training for the Mass Ave Mile in a few weeks, but my weekly mileage barely climbed into the 20s a couple of weeks ago, and then dropped back to 15+ last week. I guess this is sort of in my plan; I'm doing two speed workouts a week, so I'm not pushing the mileage so that I don't injure my old lady self.

This weekend we're traveling to Vermont for Sean's first marathon! I'm very excited for him. He's worked so hard this year, doing massive cross training before his actual running training started, to shore up his old man joints, and now he's running 40-50 mile weeks. I was initially going to run the half when he runs the marathon, but my PT convinced me not to do it unless I could take it really casually and use it as a training run. I don't think I can line up for a race and take it easy, so I'm feeling really good about just being a spectator. 

Okay, that's not exactly true - I feel like a total slacker piece of shit, but I am glad that I'm forcing myself to be a spectator anyway. It'll build character.

Yesterday's speed workout was 10x100m around 5:25 pace. That was huge for me. I've always thought of myself as slow, and running at a 5-something pace, even for 100m, feels like lightening. I ran most of the intervals barefoot on the football field. Righteous! If you don't usually run barefoot, I highly recommend it. Running barefoot encourages me to pay attention to my form, and it forces me not to heel strike. The best part is that it feels great. Being connected to the ground is much better than wearing shoes, and I hate putting my shoes on for my cool down. They feel like giant foot casts. I don't think I'm going to become a real barefoot runner, but I really enjoy doing it on grass. Wait that sounds wrong.

I found some hilarious pictures of myself from the last 5k that I did. I have this uncanny ability to look like I'm dying (in the face) while hardly picking my feet up off the ground such that it appears I'm actually walking. I also run like I'm on a runway (work it girl!) and it's really obvious that my knees weren't put on right. If there is a God, he was passed out drunk when he made me. Check it out.

Death Mask:
Ghost Stride:
Dip the hip!
Knee goes in:

So I might have the worst running form ever, but who cares. I'm still running. Right now, in fact.